Pale Blue Dot

I was reading about Voyager 1 today - a wonderful NASA experiment- and during my research, I learned that Carl Sagan asked the team in charge if they could turn Voyager's camera back to face earth for a photograph, the result of which is the photo above. You can just make out Earth as a tiny pale blue dot about half way down the right hand brown line. Humbling, isn't it?

Incidentally, Voyager 1 is carrying a brilliant phonograph record with all sorts of music, photos and greetings, together with instructions on how to use it and binary versions of our science. It reminded me of Contact, the Jodie Foster movie dedicated to Carl. Knowing what I now know, I can see why they dedicated it to him. It's called the Golden Record. The picture above is the instructions for how to use it.

Burda, the best magazine in the world!

Seriously, it has wonderful German engineering. In any one issue, it has approximately 50+ sewing patterns of dresses, skirts, trousers, blouses, coats, cardigans. It even has the odd pattern for boys. The sewing patterns are all contained in a veritable road map on thin newsprint paper. The deal is that you have to trace your desired pattern on to pattern paper (I use baking paper, wonderful and dirt cheap) and that way you can use all the patterns that the magazine provides you with. I hope this magazine never goes out of production. I intend to be still making things from it in years to come! Wunderbar! (It's a German magazine translated, sometimes slightly comically, into English.)

New friends and more theatre

In September, it seems ages ago now, my evenings were pretty much filled with helping out with the costumes for the Count of Monte Cristo, a rock opera based on the Alexander Dumas novel. It was great fun, assisting the lovely Ailsa Rendell. Doing mostly alterations of exisiting costumes, it was nice to be able to actually make the leading lady's dress from scratch, such a pretty style. I'll put some pictures up. I might make something similar for myself. The cast were lovely, such good fun. I had my first experience of a "quick change" too which was super nerve-wracking but such an adrenaline rush! The leading man transformed from a dirty prisoner into the Count in approximately 4 seconds which was quite a change!

Tuna Ice Lollies

Jason woke up one morning, leaned over to me and asked, "Have we got any string?" No explanation, nothing. So I pointed him in the right direction. Before long, he tied these little discs on the clothes drier at the radiator. They went down a treat. Tuna water, diluted in water and then frozen into tuna ice lollies. Just the ticket for hot cats in the summer.

Are you supposed to be in/up there? Part II

Benki in the fridge....

On the way to the studio one day...

I saw this dead rat, which was disgusting enough and then I saw a seagull acting suspiciously.....

Happy Birthday Jason!

Bacon sandwiches in bed for the birthday boy and presents. He had a good day, lucky boy.

Okay, so I have been REAALLLLY remiss with my blogging

It's Birthday Month already. Quite unbelievable. It seems I have been offline since June! The reality is that I have been coming home late and too tired for photo editing. Basically, I have a lot of catching up to do. This summer has been the most demanding (and exciting) in a long while: working at the studio with Sylvia, the Wardrobe Department at SYT, meeting new friends, hanging out with Jason and the cats, making movies with Lorenzo, watching the Wickerman burn burn burn, transforming furniture, my home from home - Islay, taking a college course, and much much more....I'll start at the beginning, where else?

Baby you can drive my car

I am currently taking both Michelle and Jason out for driving lessons. I quite forgot how difficult it is to learn where biting point is, how hard it is NOT to stall. Aww, bless them both. They are both doing extremely well. Michelle is getting some starting lessons with me and the Kia before she embarks on How To Drive in Just One Week lessons which culminates in a test on the Friday afternoon. Crikey be, good luck Michelle! I have complete faith in her ability. The time in the car with me is about getting the conscious knowledge turned into subconscious knowledge.

Benki & Miho are now 7 months old

Benki

Miho

Still little squeakers, they go about saying Me-a, me-a, me-a, rather than a full blown Miaow. This is how I get woken up in the morning - Benki sitting on my chest looking down at me demanding his breakfast, "Me-a, me-a!"

He is still very cuddly and Miho is getting better at coming for a cuddle. She is obsessed with hunting for feet under the duvet, at the most inappropriate time. There is little worse than having your feet swiped at 4 in the morning. Or worse, waking up to hear Jason shout, Ow, MIHO, before chasing her off the bed.

UPDATE: I wrote this in the summer, it's now October and they are 11 months old. Yes, they still me-a and yes, Benki still gets us up for breakfast. But he's gotten smarter at it. He waits until the alarm clock goes off and then jumps on us, knowing that we have to get up. Canny. He's like our snooze button. Miho has stopped foot-hunting and is much better behaved through the night. That may have been because Jason made them sleep in the kitchen the last time she went on a foot-hunt! Miho is also becoming much more receptive about being lifted for a cuddle.

Bluebells and other blue flowers

They have inspired me for the competition I am entering in August. Details to follow.

Jason does muffins

Sometimes there are bake sales at the school that Jason happens to working at and for this particular bake sale he decided to go down the savoury muffin route - they were delicious. Proper delish. Spinach and cheese. Cheddar. Wonderful, highly recommend them. They went down well at the bake sale too.

May ran away

I know I said the same thing in April but my goodness, May flew past. Most of the time spent at the studio; making dresses, doing alterations, watching the Private Life of Plants and now, hot off the press, Civilisation. The latter is really interesting. I am enjoying it immensely. I'll blog about it separately.

Up at the Studio

I'll take some photos of the studio at the weekend once we have our blinds up on the window, but suffice to say that we ell you vee it. I've been up nearly every day since we got back from Turkey. We noticed the other day that the sign writer had been in. So exciting!

Cycling in the Park

Nice sunny day on this Sunday 11th April, the hottest of the year so far. We took a trip into the park to try out the bike and let Jason have a runaround in preparation for his refereeing course in the summer.

It was good being on the bike when it was flat but any kind of hill was tough and hopefully that will improve but meanwhile I am REALLY unfit on the bike. I took some video footage (with intermittent success!) and a wee photo of a bold squirrel. I don't like the "Bambifying" of squirrels; they're not meant to be friendly with humans.

Cat trees

This is the new cat tree that Jason's mum and Billy got their cats the other day. Okay, it's big, but it really suits them. It only arrived that morning and already Clyde had been snoozing on the top den and as you can see, Bonnie was enjoying being up high too. Jason and I have decided that when our little munchkins outgrow their barrel, we'll get them some sort of cat furniture like this. Maybe in a year or so. Right now, the munchkins still love their scratching hidey-hole.

Me, J, Lorenzo and The Ugly Duckling

Jason and I decided to take Lorenzo out for the day to Hamleys for a wander and a "wishlist", to Waterstone's to buy a Lego magazine, KFC for some inevitable chips and chocolate milkshake and then onto SYT for The Ugly Duckling, a wonderful little Easter show that involved interaction from the kids but told the timeless classic while it did so. Special praise is due to the cast, as some of them played multiple parts with quite major costume changes. It was a really special wee show, quite intimate, and Lorenzo loved it. He was front and centre. We met De, Rog and baby Gabe afterwards and then we set off up the road. A lovely day out was had by all.

The Kitties love flowers

Miho is always trying to eat flowers and plants, she nibbles at them all. I have to shoo her away from them all the time. But the day that they came back from the vets, I let them both have a nibble at the roses and daffs. Anything other than nibbling at their stitches......

This is the Captain of Your Ship

Sylvia was wearing a lovely red, white and blue combo at Granny would be Proud last Sunday and when she found this sailor's cap, she was suddenly the Captain of the Ship!

Jason does sushi

I have tried and tried and I WANT to like sushi, but I just can't. It tastes like the sea. And it's spongey and chewy. Och, it's just not rhubarb crumble and custard and anything that doesn't taste like rhubarb and custard just doesn't cut it. I couldn't ever eat the fish version anyway so I don't even like the woosy cucumber and rice in seaweed versions. I think I've now officially given up trying to like it. Boo. I want to like it too. It's one of those sexy foods like a seafood platter (something else I can't contemplate).

Gabriel Elgin

Baby Gabriel. He's adorable. Jason and I got to hold him today but these photos were taken the other night at feeding time and bathtime. It takes both mum and dad to bathe him so it was good to be able to take some pictures while they worked.

Beautiful dress

This is just my favourite dress in the whole world. The girls who were selling this at Granny always have beautiful stuff and I had my eye on this dress in February. I missed March's and my fingers were crossed that they still had it in April. Yas, they did! I went and tried it on but there was something missing with it. I think it was the colour choice, I can't wear that soft pinky-cream colour. I just LOVE the style though, so I think I'm going to make it in cold colours, turquoise or burgundy. I don't know yet, maybe pewter. Hmmm, the possibilities. I got Sylvia to take a hundred pictures of me in it and we even measured the more complex parts of it. It's at times like these that I can't wait to get into the new studio!!!!

Civilisation

Keeping with the theme of watching documentaries while I sew, I decided to treat myself to this little gem. It hasn't arrived yet, but I'll post a review when it does. I'm hoping it does for history what David Attenborough did for nature...

Fascinator or Headband?

Having short hair for the first time, I thought it might be nice to wear some hair jewellery and found this lovely little website on ebay that did hearbands with feathers and beads. For about a fiver and they are handmade. So I ordered this little brown one and the first thing Jason said was, "Oh, you're wearing facinators now, are you?" I was quite shocked, having an inner hatred for those silly little fake hats that everyone wears to a wedding now. So, readers, I'm conducting a poll - fascinator or headband. I'll be gutted if the majority goes for fascinator......

On a secondary note, I should explain what's going on in these photos. Benki is also known as Velcro Cat. He jumps onto your lower half and crawls up you until he reaches your shoulders. He does it with anyone, stranger, friend, it matters not to him. So while I was taking my photos tonight in the bedroom he did his usual. Miho always sits half in awe, half puzzled at her big brother.

JamesandHilarydoRoute66

James and Hilary jetted into Chicago last Saturday to pick up their winnebago and hit the road, Jack. Route 66 to be precise. They're travelling from Chicago to the West Coast and then up Big Sur to San Fransisco. Then they fly home. 3 weeks in all. They were very excited. They came for dinner last Friday, the night before they set off and they were all giddy. I can't wait to see them when they get home.

Kia Picanto

So here is a library picture of my new wee motor! It's the best. A Kia Picanto, officially the cheapest new car on the market but I couldn't care less. I love it to bits. It's wonderful switching on a car and knowing that everything about it WORKS. It's the bees knees.

King of the Jungle, Cluedo and a bucket of forfeit juice

Up at Michelle & Gregor's for some drinkie-drinks. Some Cluedo, King of the Jungle and Charades. Lovely stuff. Very rowdy and a 2am finish which turned into a 4am bed because it all happened the night the clocks went forward!