Wordsworth in the Back Garden

I didn't notice the earthquake that apparently shook most of England (and some of Wales) in the wee small hours of the morning. But I did notice this morning that several of the daffodils in our back garden had fallen over. I don't think the two incidents are related. I brought the fallen soldiers inside, where they lend a springlike air to the mantel.

I never thought about it (and I'm not particularly "in tune" with the natural world) but I strongly associate flowers with particular places. These flowers seem so English to me; I can't look at them without thinking of Wordsworth wandering lonely as a cloud. I had a similar thing with the lilacs around my neighbourhood in Lawrence when I lived there. These flowers are so different from the ones I associate with spring and summer in Texas, the bluebonnets, wisteria, Queen Anne's lace, mimosa blossoms, azaleas, etc.

P.S. Ack! I've just made myself massively homesick by visiting the Texas Highways website in search of images of wildflowers. I am definitely going to have to have barbecue this weekend...

More Style Views

I have now had extensive conversations with Matthew re Tilda Swinton, whom we have decided we like very much. She's so willowy. Also, as Matthew points out, she sort of looks like David Bowie (a can't-miss move in his book). We give her weird Oscars dress two thumbs up!

(These images are from the BBC's article on Oscar dresses. Nice overview, but I wish people would stop trying to make me look at Cameron Diaz. Enough already!)

My New Style Crush

I didn't see the Oscars. For some reason, we have stayed up to watch the Super Bowl the past two years, but neither of us even considered staying up for the Oscars. However, thanks to the wonder of the internet, I know who won what and, more importantly, have seen lots of pretty dresses (and some not so pretty ones).

I am totally entranced by Diablo Cody's dress! For one thing, the press here hasn't had very large pictures of her, so I had to do some actual research to see the whole thing and even then, I haven't quite got my head around it. I found lots of other pictures of her throughout the award season and, I gotta say, I love this woman's wardrobe! It seems to consist of black, cardigans, funky jewelry, touches of red and leopard print and, almost exclusively, flats! She wore flats to the Oscars! I can so get behind that! I am not completely sold on the tattoo, but I like that she shows it off. Maybe everyone in the States is in love with her and she's been named the official new Style Icon of the nation and is getting her own TV show, but in the UK press all I've read is how she's very clever and talented. Which is good, but these clothes demand some attention too.

I've read that she has lots more films in development, so with any luck, we'll all have many opportunities to enjoy her red carpet style. In future, when people complain about the entertainment industry, I will point to this...

Cross One Item off the List - Forever

Well, I finished the "test dress" from my to-do list. Because I'm not the best seamstress, I have implemented a policy of using cheap fabric to try out a new pattern to see if I can figure out the directions and/or if it looks okay on. Turns out, I can make this one. However, after seeing how it looks on, I no longer want to. Puffy sleeves - yuck!

I've got the sewing bug now, so I'm going to try to make a pattern from a dress I do like and which seems very easy. The operative word there is "seems" - I'm sure this could easily break my head. Fingers crossed, though, that it will really easy and super-cute and I'll create an entire new spring/summer wardrobe in a matter of hours. Uh, yeah.

And, no, there will never be a picture of the test dress.

Could it please be springtime now?

I know a fair number of my posts contain some sort of complaint about the weather, but I gotta say it is seriously getting me down! We have had a lot of fair, sunny days lately, so it could definitely be worse. There are beautiful daffodils in the back garden, which I can see from the kitchen window and thus enjoy without having to go outside. And we've cranked the heat up so that our flat is generally warm as an oven. But I still pretty much feel like hibernating for about 6 weeks. Short of actually sleeping until spring, I've coped by drinking lots of tea (I switch to decaf in the evening or my kidneys would fall out), curling up on the sofa under my beloved brown blanket (with Matthew whenever possible), eating something hot and/or spicy and watching TV. Lots of TV.

(An aside: We're having an ongoing debate at the moment about DVDs that Matthew got for his birthday, The Office: An American Workplace, and The Flight of the Conchords. They are both really funny sitcoms and we whizzed through the first DVD of each very quickly. Neither of us wants them to be over, but he is putting off watching any more as long as possible, while I think we could watch maybe 2 episodes a night and still draw out the fun. So far, he counters my suggestion whenever it comes up by distracting me with other shows, usually Skins (trashy teenage soap to which I am strangely, guiltily and utterly age-inappropriately attracted) or Scrubs.)

Anyway, I can't seem to get much done these days, apart from the aforementioned tea-drinking and sofa-sitting, but if I did have any energy or get-up-and-go, I wish I were doing things like this:

- cute dolls, stuffed things and embroidery like Wee Wonderfuls.

- pretty much everything Angry Chicken does. I hope I'm as cool as her when I grow up.

- making a really cool, intensely detailed dollhouse. Possibly not for children, just for me.

- doing vintage pattern embroidery on everything I own. I've never done much embroidery but I love love love the way it looks. Instead, I usually try to coerce my sister (who has given me beautiful cross-stitched presents in the past) into making something for me. See how I just tried to flatter her into doing more right there? I don't know why I think she will have time (with a full time job and a baby) when I don't (with no job and two very self-sufficient cats), but maybe she'll make the time.

- all the other projects of my own that I've been putting off (re-doing the chair, painting the shelves that Matthew is (slowly) hanging in the bedroom, finishing a "test" dress I started with a new pattern, making the summer dress I planned for last summer, reading all the books I got for Christmas, etc, etc)!

I am SO looking forward to spring - I imagine I will have boundless energy and will do EVERYTHING on my list and more.

It could happen.

Mid-February Food Fest

Darn that groundhog! Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter and apparently that applies to England too, 'cause although the sun is shining, it is COLD around here these days. This is seriously discouraging me from leaving the house and seriously encouraging me to cook and bake like crazy. In fact, the only time I really want to leave the house is to get ingredients for my next food item. Fortunately, there is a grocery store across the street from our flat that seems that have everything I could possibly want. I have honestly never not been able to find something there, except a full-size canister of Cheese and Onion Pringles. For some reason, they only have the fun size. And they don't have fresh meat - but they do carry free-range eggs and three different types of olive by weight. Anyway, I'm cooking because a) it cheers me up to make nice things for Matthew (and me) to eat, and b) the oven makes the kitchen all toasty and warm!

Lately I've made:
banana bread
spinach lasagna
brownies
burritos in a bowl (a name I made up for rice, black beans, taco-spiced chicken, guacamole, salsa and cheese - essentially nachos over rice instead of tortilla chips)
a couple of full English breakfasts (sausages, scrambled eggs, toast, grilled tomatoes)
jambalaya
more brownies

We've had jambalaya several times in the last couple of weeks because I still have celery left over from the first batch and we don't eat it in or with anything else. I tried to get Matthew to eat it with hummus or peanut butter, but he wouldn't go for it. Even though we still have plenty left, I think we're reaching the end of the current jambalaya cycle. Matthew has requested more Mexican food, so that will probably be the next thing we get into. For some reason, nachos seem like warm weather food to me, so we'll probably have quesadillas and more of my "burritos in a bowl". Then I'm sure it will be back to curry and possibly soups or stews. I'm also debating whether to make a chocolate pound cake or another "birthday" style cake this week. I've decided we're just going to have to keep chocolate in the house constantly until it warms up. I just hope spring gets here before I weigh 300 pounds...

Valentine's Day

Love is all around, etc. and we’re celebrating in our own way. We aren’t having a traditional date night with dinner and dressing up, as Matthew is working tonight. Last night we exchanged cards, had a lovely dinner of lasagna, champagne and chocolate truffles while watching not one, but two episodes of Torchwood, the Dr Who spin-off series. This afternoon we went to a matinee of Cloverfield, which is not a traditionally romantic movie, but we did clutch at each other several times in terror. Matthew gave me a sweet little bouquet of roses. Tonight I am sending him to work with a dinner of leftover lasagna and heart-shaped brownies, while I’ll stay home and watch TV.

Here are pictures of the cards we exchanged. Obviously, we went in different directions for expressing our feelings:

I made the brownies from another Hershey's recipe. Super easy and quick, and I think they turned out to be quite cute. I ate the off-cuts, so I already know they're very tasty.

The Great Chair Project

Last year around the time we bought our flat, I became obsessed with furniture and spent untold hours poring over magazines, catalogues, decorating books and the internet. (To be honest, I haven’t completely stopped, just cut back.) I have a little notebook full of sketches, clippings and “inspiration” pictures to show for it. At one point, I developed a short-lived (and as yet unfulfilled) thing for cuckoo clocks. Another sub-obsession involved the hunt for a chair that I was convinced we needed for our new living room. I ended up with a Barcelona chair, which now resides in the bedroom as there is no room for it in the living room. Apparently my homemade floorplan wasn’t as precise as I thought…

Anyway, during my research, I ran across Jimmie Martin and became very interested in this chair:

More precisely, I became interested in copying it. We have a large Jamie Reid "God Save the Queen" print (in red, green, black and yellow) over our fireplace and solid red and black sofas. I thought with Union Jack throw cushions in different colourways and that chair, we could get a sort of mod/punk/Cool Britannia vibe going. However, space (and lack of a chair) did not allow.

Well, now I have a chair. I spotted two of them sitting outside a house up the street from ours, surrounded by bags of rubbish. This made me think they were being thrown out, but instead of being out by the road, they were right up against the house (where frat boys would keep a yard couch). After about a week of scoping it out, I got Matthew to come with me and we got/stole/acquired/liberated one of the chairs. I set it in our conservatory next to the radiator to dry out and sprayed it with Febreeze. I also checked out a book on re-upholstering from the library. That’s about as far as I’ve got so far.

My plan is to remove the existing upholstery and save it to make patterns for new pieces, sand the frame and paint it glossy black, then re-upholster with black canvas and new silver tacks. The back will be appliquéd with black and white stripes to form the Union Jack. Then it will go in Matthew’s studio, where he can sit in it while surveying his record collection.

Aside: The more I thought about it, the more I wanted a chair to re-do for myself (probably a la Squint but a bit calmer). Unfortunately (or not, depending on whether you are an easily excitable prospective re-upholsterer or the person who lives with her) by the time I went back for the other chair with our friend Colleen, it was gone, along with all the rubbish and recycling that had piled up around it. We found some other chairs in another yard and a sofa that looked to be in pretty good condition but didn’t drag anything home. Such is the nature of scavenging…

So, any bets on how long it will take me to finish this project?

Fire!

As you may or may not be aware, there was a huge fire Saturday night in Camden, north London. It was apparently pretty massive but did not result in, as a headline I saw yesterday suggested, “extensive damage in the capital.” I mean, there is extensive damage, but it was pretty much confined to the Camden Canal Market area and one pub.

We were in Camden Saturday night for a birthday party and noticed that several streets were blocked off and there seemed to be a huge plume of smoke hanging in the sky, but we just joked that maybe the TV studio where Matthew works was on fire. When we got home, we checked the internet and found that the fire was directly across the canal from their building and the place was evacuated for almost 12 hours!

There are currently proposals afoot to redevelop part of the Camden Markets (the Stables), which have provoked quite a lot of discussion about what people want Camden to be like. It is a huge shopping and tourist destination – 300,000 people go there every weekend – so developers are keen to take advantage of that, clean it up, put in more and better shops (read: high street chains), and generally make loads of money. The other side of the argument that while Camden could use a little cleaning up (or a lot), that’s part of its charm and redevelopment would only contribute to the homogenization of London. I’m against it because 1) the stalls in the Stables specialize in vintage/second hand clothes and every couple of months I like to spend a day digging through the racks looking for treasure, and 2) I think it’s nice that there are still some places that aren’t exactly like every other place. My friend Florian pointed out what a coincidence it would be if an area being considered for redevelopment should be hit by a fire that wiped out the existing businesses; I found this idea intriguing (ooh, conspiracy theory!) but it turns out that an entirely different part of the market was damaged, leaving the Stables unscathed. However, the Hawley Arms pub was severely damaged (and may have even been where the fire started in the first place). This is Amy Winehouse’s favorite pub, so I don’t know what she’ll do when she gets out of rehab…

Sunday evening we were back in that neck of the woods for the Nitty Gritty, a monthly club hosted by a friend of my friend Virginia. The music was great and there was a good mix of people (different ages and styles) all dancing and having a fantastic time. It turns out I can totally dance to soul music. Well, I have the right rhythm, if not the moves, but that's a start. Ideally, I'd like to just do the twist (as my "signature" move), but I'm not good enough at it yet. Must practice in front of the mirror more! Anyway, we really liked the Nitty Gritty and have determined to go back every month. The pub was cool, too, and I'm considering dragging Matthew back for the folk music they have every second Thursday.

We also got a flier for another event next weekend. Matthew will be working, but I might go if I can get a cool enough outfit together. I might have to make a dress - or fall back on my 60's go-to piece, the houndstooth pencil skirt. It looks very mod with a black jumper, black tight, and my new going-out shoes, which are Hushpuppy pumps that I got as hand-me-downs from my grandma. Some might consider giving this much thought to clothes as focussing on the superficial (some people like Matthew, for instance), but the patterned tights on the flier make me think this is one of those nights where dressing up is half the fun.

Happy Chinese New Year!

I’ve been seeing lots of stuff on the web and around town (the big celebration in London is this Sunday):

V&A Chinese Horoscope

HP craft ideas

All of this is making me very excited about my ideas for a Chinese Christmas – not the “white elephant” gift exchange, but the theme I’ve chosen for Xmas ’08. So far, I’ve got red and gold baubles, paper dragons and some little red velvet lanterns. I’m hoping to head to Chinatown next week to pick up more decorations, possibly a garland of some kind. There are loads of educations sites with classroom craft ideas, so I'm also going to see if I can adapt some for Christmas ornaments and decorations.

Salmon Croquettes

We used to have salmon croquettes fairly often when I was a kid. I think the original recipe came from my Grandmother Mark. This version is from Real Simple. I have a distinct impression of making it in my apartment in Denton, so it probably appeared between 2000 and 2002.

2 cans salmon
1 egg
¼ C mayonnaise
tarragon
capers to taste
cracker crumbs

Mix salmon, egg, mayo, tarragon and capers. Form into cakes, coat with cracker crumbs, and fry until golden brown.

These are great with wild rice and asparagus, or as you can see I have had tonight, brown rice and broccoli. Essentially, something starchy and something green.

Speaking of Real Simple: there are many things about that magazine that irritate me, but the biggest annoyance has to be the title. I get that it is supposed to be “Real” life made “Simple,” but it’s also supposed to imply that it’s real(ly) simple. The grammatical contortion is giving me hives!

So, the other day I saw Louis Theroux in John Lewis. I was there looking for picture frames, but that's a story for another post. He was pretty scruffy (or at least noticeably unshaven) but really quite attractive. He wasn’t nearly as tall as I’d expected, though. He is easily over 6’ tall, but not conspicuously taller than your average shopper. I've just looked at IMDB, which reports that he is 6'2", but it also says that Dara O'Briain is 6'4". I’ve seen him in person (twice) and he is genuinely enormous! Can two inches make that much difference? Or is it context? I saw one in a department store, where one expects to see normal, everyday people doing everyday things, and I saw the other on stage being almost supernaturally funny.

I did notice that Louis was buying a bathroom scale, perhaps to see how much weigh he lost through his recently televised liposuction. Or maybe his old one broke. I don’t know and, although I did lurk around pretending to look at wallpaper books so as to get a better look at him, I didn't ask.

Matthew's birthday

26th January was Matthew’s birthday and, as is our custom, we indulged in prolonged celebrations:

- Thursday: In a low key start to the weekend, we had fish and chips from Michael’s High Class Fish Bar (which is so much more fun to call by its full name than just saying “the chippy”) and watched the Dr Who Christmas special, which we’d missed due to being in Texas over Christmas. We both agreed with conventional wisdom that special guest star Kylie Minogue is indeed very, very tiny, but noted that her teeth are actually quite large. It creates a weird spatial tension on her head.

- Friday: fish ‘n chips and Dr Who might have been enough for some people, but not for party animals like us. We had a party on Friday night with a proper birthday cake (made from Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake recipe) with candles and everything. It looked something like this lovely cake by Amy Sedaris, except made of cake instead of plaster of paris.

I decided not to embarrass anyone by actually putting a candle for every year (and the cost of that many tiny candles would have been prohibitive anyway), but used some very cute ones spelling out “Happy Birthday” from Gill Wing. I was disappointed that they melted really quickly, considering that they came from a fancy gift shop, and dripped before I’d even got them all lit. Fortunately, Matthew didn’t wait for the end of the Birthday Song to blow them out, so wax drip damage was minimal. It did not deter the greedy pigs, I mean, our dear friends from digging in with abandon.

Since the party was on 25th January, otherwise known as Burns Night, I made Scottish-themed nibbles. I baked pearl potatoes in the oven, then stuffed them with haggis (regular and "vegetarian," which actually just looked like all other veggie fake foods - lentils, shredded carrot and some onion), and served chunks of brown bread with smoked salmon and mackerel . At the last minute I freaked out that there wouldn't be enough food, so Matthew was dispatched to the shop across the street for pita, hummus, taramasalata , olives, etc. The foods aren't indigenous to Scotland, but I'm sure they would not feel out of place at a party in Scotland. My friend Adrienne brought chips and more dips, so there was enough - though apparently just barely, since there were almost no leftovers for us to snack on during the tidy-up.

- Saturday: Matthew’s mate Steve came to visit from Plymouth and we all dressed up and went dancing at Set the Tone, a ska/reggae/60’s soul night. We looked so good and had such a good time that we’ve decided to another ska night in a couple of weeks; we’re considering making it our new “thing.” I had several outfits planned out by the time we got home. The only real problem is that I cannot dance to ska music. Matthew explained that the emphasis in ska music is on the 2 and 4 beats, while I am dancing on the 1 and 3. So it's not that I don't have rhythm; I've just got the wrong one.

Lavender Sachets

I finally caught up with my former co-workers Jo, Adrienne and Tammy and gave them their Christmas presents. I quit my job just before Christmas and then spent 19 Dec – 8 Jan in Texas visiting family, so between training my replacements (my job being so difficult and busy that it took two people to replace me), comforting all the co-workers who were devastated at the prospect of not seeing me every day, packing, facing an early deadline for purchasing all family gifts AND hosting a Pre-Christmas Dinner and Gift Exchange for my UK family, I wasn’t able to concentrate enough to make their gifts. I fell back on the tried-and-true lavender sachet, in cute little sets of three. I also made a set for a (very late) birthday present for my friend Virginia. They seemed to go over very well, though in hindsight I probably should have presented them after dinner as they are very fragrant and so our entire dinner smelled vaguely lavender-y. Which was weird for pizza…

The Garden

It's cold and a little bit miserable in London at the moment. I realise it's pretty feeble to complain about it being a little chilly when much of the country is snowed in, but I have come to expect London to have better (or at least warmer) weather than the rest of the country. I feel it's our compensation for being targeted by terrorists and the fact that every public space is insanely overcrowded. If I had a car, I would probably add the congestion charge to that list of moans.

Anyway, despite the fact that it's cold and grey, I took these photos in our back garden yesterday. Practically cheerful and springlike, huh?

I was charmed to learn that:

"Aircraft carrier Charmland is a former Soviet aircraft carrier produced in 1970, it was parked in Tianjing since it retired in 1994 as a tourist attraction."

My only experience with naval vessels is a visit to the Battleship Texas as a child (very big, quite boat-y, someone spilled Pepsi on my shoe), but to me the Battleship Charmland sounds like it could be the flag ship of the Royal Sanrio Navy. Under the command of Admiral Badtz Maru, perhaps.

Joining the Blogpool

So, my New Year resolution was "to use the power of the internet to keep in closer touch with my family and friends." Initially, this was just a fancy way to say that I would e-mail my mom more often, but it quickly grew and expanded and got almost totally out of hand (as so many of my plans do) and now means using the power of the internet to let the whole world know what I'm up to, via a blog. Sadly, this will likely often be something along the lines of: Still not working. Did a bit of embroidery. Made jambalaya for dinner! See picture (either of said embroidery, jambalaya or me not working).

So let's see how that works out, shall we?

My first task was of course to name the blog. This turned out to be a bit harder than I'd imagined. My three choices were taken by people who, really, I have to consider timewasters. Well, two of them haven't posted anything since 2005, so that's no good. My third choice was City Mouse/Country Mouse, intended to reflect the fact that while I now live in a big city (London), I grew up in and continue to have close ties to the country (Texas). However, this title is used by a person who puts out different types of food to see if mice will eat them. Which is kind of brilliant, yet also sort of insane.

And so, it's Charmland. It puts me in mind of Santaland, Candyland, Tomorrowland and other themed fantasy locations that you believe could really exist when you're a kid. And, while you might not want to live in those places, I think we can all agree they would probably be nice to visit.