Take Me To The Hospital

Get Well Sooooonnn (I am trying)

Hello. I am writing this from my Magical Sofa of Recovery. This weeks post has been slightly delayed as on Monday I had to go into hostipal (hospital) to have an operation.

Don't worry or anything, it wasn't anything life threatening, it was just a simple key-hole procedure to remove my gall bladder. My gall bladder was naughty and didn't work properly. That's not what I wanted, that's not who I was. So it had to go. (If you can guess the film reference, I officially love you). Yes, readers, that is the way I roll. If you don't work for me, you get culled. Because, after all, don't I deserve love? And jewelry?

I call this Early Morning Canula (brought to you by my iPhone)

Kidding. Kind of. Anyway, even though it was a straight forward, fairly common procedure, it was the first time I have ever had to go into hospital, and certainly the first time I have ever had to deal with the scary scary crazy world of general anaesthetic.

However, despite my extreme nerves, the op all went well, and I am now on the road to recovery. A bit sore, but I have lots of pain meds that I like as they make me all sleepy.

(A la Homer Simpson) Bed goes up, bed goes down; bed goes up, bed goes down

I should be back to normal-ish in about 10 days, and aim to use the time that I am not sleeping doing lots of knitting/crafty things from the aforementioned Magical Sofa, so hopefully I should have lots to show you for my period of convalescence!

Until then however, please enjoy the following chooons from my hospital playlist:

I sang this constantly all weekend:

And of course, no playlist is complete without a bit of Dave Grohl (le sigh):

P.S. Big thank you to all the staff at the Annie Zunz ward at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital. They do an awesome job :o)

New Beginnings

Cutie Booties.

I don't know why, but September, and the beginning of autumn has always felt a lot more like the beginning of the year to me than January. Maybe they are feelings that have hung over from the days when it meant the beginning of the academic year. The last days of summer always feel like the end of something bigger than just a season, and often lead me down the path of taking stock of what I have accomplished in the last 12 months (job/life in London town; growing my awesome hair) and what I want to achieve in the near future (to master fair-isle knitting; go to Australia; find the perfect pair of boots).

Who knows, but this weekend, the weather turned a distinctly crisper, milder corner and I took that as a sign to pack away all my summer clothes for another year and dig out all my warm jumpers, coats, scarves, hats and gloves. Autumn is here, and I'm ready.

For the stylish bambino on the nursery block.

I guess it's fitting that this weekend when I have been preparing for the new season/year ahead that I also finished knitting booties for a brand new person setting out on their first ever year in this life. These are for a beautiful baby girl, daughter of a friend at work, and I have very much enjoyed making them.

Unlike socks, (which can drive me up the WALL, and often lead to me lamenting the fact that people are born with not one, but two feet), booties are a lot quicker to make, and so I don't get that familiar dread on finishing the first sock ('You mean, I have to do that AGAIN?!'). It's still enough of a novelty to get me to persevere.

Pretty cute detailing on the cuff. Frilly.

The pattern for for these was also varied enough to add interest over the course of knitting the booties, with lacework on the cuff, and front, and ribbing down the leg.

So, anyone who knows me and is planning on spawning either now, or in the far distant future: take a good look. All your kids will be getting these.

If you're going to start your first year, it really should be in style, no?

Knitty Gritty:

Pattern: Baby's Bootikin from Knitting Vintage Socks, Nancy Bush

Yarn: One skein each of 2 colours of fingering-weight yarn

Needles: Set of 4 1.75mm dpns

Family Affair

Boscanova Cafe

Earlier this summer, I got out of the city and went to stay with my family for a couple of weeks in Bournemouth. I had a lovely time hanging out with them and catching up. Now that I live away from home I don't get a chance to do that for such a length of time anymore and I miss it.

On my last day, we went for a family lunch at Boscanova Cafe. If you're ever in the area, check it out. It does really good brunch. Trust. Get the pancakes.

The house chili.. and I haven't just ruined that shot by tucking in... not in the slightest..

What I like about Boscanova, is that it's one of the few (oh so few) really good independant eateries in Bournemouth. Everything is made fresh, with mostly, feel-good, healthy ingredients. This time I got the special, which was the house chili. It was delicious.

Bro-fo, coke float.

Although, if you're anything like my brother, you'll choose a coke float. Some things, by their very nature are not made with feel-good, healthy ingredients.

But if they were, I don't think they'd taste quite as awesome, no? And why say no to a little bit of awesomeness in your life?

Cappuccino-a-go-go - I love how the chocolate flecks reflect the speckled wood. Er. Well done me.

I, being the caffeine, Starbucks-obsessed girl that I am, had to have a cappuccino. Which came in a decent sized mug. That is also, quite a little bit of awesome.

---

Er, irrelevant, but:

P.S. Download Calvin Harris' new album. Do it now. You'll never regret it. Er, also irrelevant but, I just want to give him a nice big cuddle.

Lemon Drizzle, Bizzle Schizzle

Lemon Drizzle

Right, so my camera is working again. Seems it's like me. It won't get out of bed unless it's shown a bit of attention!

So I'm back. I'm back on a regular basis. And I'm glad, I've missed this weekly-ish process of capturing little gorgeous moments in my life and taking time to reflect on them. They are hard to see sometimes, but they are there.

But first I have a bit of catching up to do on what I've been up to this summer.

In June it was my Mum's birthday, or bizzle schizzle, as I am known to call these things. I was keen to make this a special birthday, as I had missed her 50th last year as I was having the year of my life, in the best city in the world.

Bizzle Schizzle

To celebrate the occasion, and make it one of the best birthdays ever, I invited Mum, and my sister to visit me in London. They stayed for a few days. We hit up Wahaca, with all its yummy Mexican delights and copious glasses of mojitos. We went to see Oliver! in the West End, with the always awesome Rowan Atkinson, totally owning the role of Fagin: we were all on such a high when we left the theatre. And then, for an extra special amazing treat, my sister and I treated Mum to afternoon tea at Claridges. Mum, as an avid lover of both tea and afternoons (she can't get out the house before noon) was in her element.

But of course, all of that paled in comparison to the super amazing Lemon Drizzle Cake that I made her.

I didn't want to make a chocolatey or heavy cake as we were in the midst of a super HOTT heatwave, so I wanted something fairly light and summery. In the end, I followed Jamie Oliver's recipe, and it worked a treat. As well as lemon juice and peel in the cake mixture and in the drizzly sticky yummy icing, the recipe called for a lemon sugar syrup glaze to be made and poured into the cake once it had come out of the oven. I used a cocktail stick to prick holes all over the cake so that the glaze could seep right down deep.

Once cooled and iced, the cake was moist, lemony, sweet and summery. Perfect Lemon Drizzle Bizzle Schizzle for the Moomin Mama. Big love xxx

And in Any Other Business:

1) Am I the latest one to the Alphabeat party or what? I have just discovered This is Alphabeat. What a slice of perfect pop

2) I am all over Around The World. Promise. I am just waiting for some photos to be developed before I can crack on!

Enforced Hiatus Kinda

A photo from the archives... *sniff* ...RIP camera

I know. I KNOW!

My last entry was May. MAY!

I feel I owe an explanation. I swear, I was never meant to be away this long!

Basically not long after the Brighton trip in my last entry, I did, what can only be described as one of The World's Most Stupid Things, and accidentally spilt water on my camera. My camera: my pride and joy. 

Since then, it hasn't really been the same. It is temperamental: works sometimes, and other times not. The latter being normally when I really really need it to. Sad mother-humping times. 

I have been hoping that the situation would be rectified by now, but it really still isn't. I am still being let down by my camera. And without pictures, I feel my blog is hugely hugely lacking, hence no updates.

On the bright side, I'm saving for a new camera, and in the meantime intend to update when I have managed to get anything out of my existing broken one.

Thank you for all the comments on the last post, especially those people who have found me through Dapper Kid. I am the next person to take part in his Around the World project and am super excited about it. Don't worry, even if I have to beg, borrow or steal a camera to document that, there will be an entry on here about it!

So apologies if updates are going to be sporadic for the foreseeable future, but I hope to get everything back on track as soon as is financially, and camera-ly possible.

Peace and love homies xx