Bad Weather = Homemade Cuteness

Obviously, I complain a lot about the weather, but no one can deny that the weather over Easter weekend has been genuinely awful. There has been rain, snow, hail, high winds and bright sunshine - sometimes all at once! This was the view from our conservatory door yesterday. The little white streaks are chunks of ice falling from the sky, aka hail. Please forgive the glare from the window glass, but there was no way I was going to open the door just to get a better picture.

Anyway, being stuck inside, I got to work. Our friends in Edinburgh (one of whom is 3 years old) are coming to visit this weekend, so I started thinking about what might be fun for the visit. For the older ones, I am offering good food and charming conversation, as per my usual. But the little one is getting a dress-up box! So far it contains three scarves, some Bonne Belle Lip Smacker lip gloss, and these two dresses, which I whipped up yesterday.

The black and white animal print is made from the dress I made for myself for my company's Christmas costume party last year. After a lengthy search for reasonably priced animal print fabric, I bought a muu muu from a stall at the market. It's made from a very slinky polyester, which is difficult to work with but very forgiving. I don't know how tall Bo is at the moment, so I made it very long and will cut it off once she specifies her preferred length. It is lined with a black t-shirt, so the whole thing should be soft and stretchy.

This dress has a detachable black satin sash (currently detached) and a cat mask. How cool is that!?!

This, which I am calling a woodland fairy dress, is made from the trimmings from our conservatory curtains and lined with the trimmings from some other curtains. Thus, the only parts not from Ikea are the bodice material and the two buttons (iridescent rosette button and natural brown button in back), all of which came from my grandma. It has a coordinating scarf that I got from my Secret Santa two years ago, so 100% free materials. Unfortunately, I just got some measurements for the intended wearer last night and this one might be a bit tight. Fortunately, though, I have loads more of the materials and so can make any necessary adjustments.

I made up these patterns from what I remembered from making my Christmas dress, so I figure I can invent any alterations, too.

Texas Independence Day

March 2^nd was Texas Independence Day, a holiday that most people outside Texas are convinced I made up as an excuse to throw a party. I get the same reaction with Dia de los Muertos, no matter how many links to Kathy Cano Murillo’s website I send. But I can’t help it if people don’t want to have parties. I try to celebrate Texas Independence Day in some way every year. Two years ago I had a big party with homemade chili (beef and vegetarian), barbecued chicken, sausage, brisket and veggie burgers, and chips with salsa, guacamole and queso (made with Velveeta, of course). Last year, we gorged on nachos. This year, Matthew worked a night shift on the day, so I didn’t plan anything. At the last minute I got a tiny little roast and cooked it with Rudy’s BBQ Rub, then put it and some sausages in the oven on low heat to simmer with barbecue sauce. I made myself a little combination sandwich (my favorite barbecue menu item) and cut some pickle spears. It looked pretty good, if I do say so myself.


Unfortunately, it just wasn't quite right. The beef was okay, but it wasn't slow-cooked brisket that falls apart under a fork - it was roast beef with sauce on it. The sausage was all right, but it wasn't tangy enough. The pickles were a little too sweet; they're quite good on their own but really nothing like Del-Dixi's.

Overall, it was a bit of a drag, like a Charlie Brown Independence Day. Next year, I'm definitely going to have to throw a big party again. It's what Sam Houston would have wanted...

Home Improvements

I haven't spent every moment of the past two weeks not at work immobile on the sofa. Last weekend I hung new photos/pictures, including some I brought back from Texas at Christmas, on the wall above our sofa. This is what it looked like before:

And now it looks like this:

Can you spot the picture of the lemur that I adopted for Matthew for his birthday? I'll give you a hint: she's furry and black and white, not posing with her sister - that's my grandmother!

Tonight I finally filled the shelves that Matthew hung for me in the bedroom. This project has literally taken months to complete. We are both extremely un-handy, so it's practically a miracle that it was finished at all. But Matthew figured it out, hung the brackets, painted the shelves and put them up - over a period of about 8 weeks. I'm not allowed to put anything very heavy on them, but I think that's reasonable.

And to show that I'm not totally useless, this is a picture of my bedside table, which I got unfinished at Ikea for £6.99 and stained. The stain was way more orange than I'd anticipated and was very streaky, but I put on a couple of coats and when I still wasn't very happy with the results, put a shawl over the top to disguise any weird spots. Clever, huh?

Oops!

It's been almost two weeks since I last posted. I don't have a very good excuse. It's mainly that I've been working and that has put me in a really foul mood. I know most people have to work almost every day - and I've been there, believe me - but it is so annoying!

My commute has been pretty challenging lately. I think we had two days last week of certifiable "transport chaos", which is what the papers call it when there are major problems on public transport. It took me almost two hours to get to work on Monday. Fortunately I have a well-stocked iPod and used the time to listen to almost two entire episodes of This American Life. The only problem is that their stories are either really funny, causing me to snigger or even laugh out loud, or quite emotional, in which case I get all teary-eyed. Either of these circumstances can be kind of embarassing on the Tube. But I heart Ira Glass. I miss NPR so much. It's right up there on the list of things I miss, with my family and Target and driving and 24-hour grocery stores and people who pronounce oREGano correctly. (English people pronounce the name of this herb oreGANo, which for some time I was convinced was a put-on but this seems increasingly unlikely, since the entire country would have had to get together before I arrived and decide on the joke. My annoyance is exacerbated by the fact that they pronounce the "h" in "herb" too, making any discussion of food flavourings completely maddening.)

Anyway, the point is I have been spending long hours working in a job that is alternately very boring and very stressful and, as a result, all I want to do when I finally do get home is eat dinner, watch television, and sleep. Ergo, no posts.

Another reason I haven't posted is that we haven't had a very happy week. One of Matthew's co-workers suddenly fell ill and died last week. He was younger than Matthew, and had three young children. Everyone was quite shaken. And, my uncle died yesterday. He had been ill with cancer for several years, but knowing that didn't make it any less shocking and distressing. I might write more about it later - it's prompted me to think a lot about family, mortality, love, the meaning of life, etc - but it will have to wait.

On the Tube

I ride the Tube almost every day. It's generally hot, crowded, loud and smells not so fresh, but I like it. It's very easy to navigate, you can get almost anywhere in town, and it feels wonderfully London-y to me.

These are pictures of our Tube station, Caledonian Road. It is small and, to be honest, not terribly way out, despite what the sign says. I like the tilework, though.

I saw this guy Friday night on my way home from having dinner with our friends Sean and Michelle. I love that he had rings on every finger (though just on the one hand) but was otherwise totally unremarkably dressed. Just jeans and a shirt. And a handful of crazy devil rings.

This is from the Art on the Underground series of posters, at Kings Cross. I see it every day and it almost always makes me want to pump my fist in the air.

It took me about an hour to get home last night instead of the usual 35 minutes or so. I got on the Circle line at Bayswater, but we only went 2 stops before stopping at Edgware Road. We sat there for a while, until there was an announcement that this particular train wasn't leaving for at least 5 more minutes (an eternity to a commuter) but there was another eastbound train arriving 2 platforms over. Everyone left the train, went up a flight of stairs, over the tracks, and down another flight of stairs just in time to see that train pulling away from the station. I was still on the stairs going down when the train started moving. Several people ahead of me just stopped on the steps, trying to decide what to do, but the people behind me kept coming. I had just been reading the day before about the Bethnal Green tragedy during WWII, when people seeking shelter in the Tube during an air raid were crushed when someone fell and there was a crush on the stairs. I freaked out a tiny bit and sort of squeaked, "Go!" to the man right in front of me, but there wasn't a stampede. We just all went back to our original train. When I changed trains at Kings Cross, I saw this sign. As far as I know, under a train is not a good place for a person to be, so that put my annoying commute in perspective...

I was looking for a job and then I found a job...

...and Heaven knows I'm miserable now.

I am working again, though just for the month of March, as office manager (really just a receptionist plus some facilities duties) at a very swanky interior design firm. It's in Notting Hill, which I really like, but the hours are 9 to 6:30 and I only get half an hour for lunch, which I don't like. However, it is not very hard work and I get to listen to the radio, which I do like. Oh, and I 'm getting paid rather a lot, which I really like. As Matthew would say, it's swings and roundabouts.