The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey is one of the books that I found here in the flat back in November. I went through a phase hen I was a teenager of buying up as many of the Penguin Crime Classics that I could get my hands on. I read a few of them at the time, but then managed to shockingly forget that they existed until last year.The Franchise Affair is one that I did read before, but even still I remembered it being good enough to easily read again - and I'm glad I did.Written in 1948 the book is about two women who are accused of kidnapping a ... read more
Embroidery goodies
I've spent most of this weekend up north with my Mum as her guest at the Embroiders' Guild East Midland Region's Regional Day in Lincoln.The format of the day was that there were various demonstrators showing a variety of embroidery and textile based crafts, along with stalls selling goodies (always important), exhibitions of work and a lecture in the afternoon.I've not had much experience of the EG before, so it was nice to see what they all get up to. I do get the impression that they are much more geared towards people who are professionals within the embroidery and ... read more
Exciting news!
Some very exciting chez C news to share with you tonight. Mr C and I exchanged on the house we're buying today! As a result I am ludicrously happy!Admittedly there is still a chance of things going wrong between now and completion, but I at least now feel so much more confident that come the end of July we should be in our first family home. And we feel that, finally, we can now let ourselves get excited. It also means that we're allowing ourselves to start planning ahead and start thinking about the things that we want to do as soon as we move in, and to start looking at how to buy as ... read more
Completed anniversary socks
It's taken me nearly as long to blog about these socks as it took to knit the second one!In the end it was only slightly over a month to complete the whole pair after starting them whilst on holiday in Cornwall. They were significantly easier to make after the practice on the first pair, although there are still a couple of techniques that I need to master. It was certainly nice to be able to sit in some strange hotel room earlier this week and know that these handmade beauties were keeping my feet warm. The only problem is that Mr C's now after a pair of socks, and seeing as his ... read more
Attingham
Normal service is almost resumed chez C.Yesterday we were at a wedding over in Shrewsbury and seeing as we had to check out of our accommodation by 10.30 and yet weren't due to see friends in Birmingham until 3pm we decided to once again make the most of our National Trust membership and went along to nearby Attingham. I'm so glad we did as it was a wonderful way to spend a few hours. Not only was I delighted to see the carpet of bluebells in the wood, but the rest of the grounds were also lovely and tranquil to walk around. We were also lucky enough to ... read more
Work monopoly
It's nearly a year since I started writing this blog and up until this last week I think I'd been doing rather well in terms of making a effort to post every few days. Then this last week happened.After a busy weekend, a marathon 13 hour day in the office on Monday, an overnight trip with work on Tuesday / Wednesday and a further 20 hours over Thursday and today there just hasn't seemed to be much time for anything else - including eating and sleeping on some days!Sadly it may have to continue for a bit longer. Luckily there is a long weekend to break things up and I promise I will ... read more
A knitted village
Whilst catching up on world events I found this video showing the Kent village that locals decided to knit as a way of raising funds for the village. Certainly a very cute, if time consuming, idea. ... read more
Kirstie’s bathroom
After last week's episode of Kirstie's Handmade Home I tuned in again this week to see if the programme was going to live up to my expectations this time. I'm pleased to say that I loved some parts, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want Kirstie to be in charge of designing my bathroom!The focus of this episode was bathrooms and it seems that Kirstie wanted to make her three (yes, three!) bathrooms as opulent as possible. She went along to visit Anouska Hempel and was given the rare opportunity to take cameras into her bathrooms. The main ... read more
A crafty business woman?
I have a day job working in an office in London. There are things about my day job that I love. And things about it that I hate. At times I think that I'll end up doing the same thing for years. At other times I feel ready to pack it all in at a moment's notice. At a time like this I know that I should be incredibly grateful for having a job. After a manic few days in the office, and the prospect of an incredibly difficult few weeks to come at work I find myself sat at home wondering what to do.There are so many things in life that I love - many of which I write about here - but sadly ... read more
Out of the Blue – Charlotte Bingham
Out of the Blue by Charlotte Bingham is just a bit weird to be totally honest with you.One morning Florence Fontaine finds a strange man asleep in her guest cottage. He's wearing some rather outdated clothes and seems to have no idea who he is or where he is. Circumstances mean that Florence ends up taking him under her wing as her, and her family and friends, try to work out exactly who he is.The book seems to flit between this bizarre set up and Florence's daughter Amadea's life in Swindon. Amadea becomes involved in helping to identify the young man, ... read more