Electric Dounts

A few weeks ago Ben and I made our way to Portobello Market on a miserable rainy Saturday on the hunt for Electric Donuts. It's no secret that Ben loves donuts. Loves them, so it's surprising it took us so long to get to Notting Hill for Electric. The tiny shop is inside the Electric Cinema & only opens a few days a week. The flavours change regularly and on the day we went we tried Pistachio, Old Fashioned Buttermilk, Birthday Cake & Lemon Poppyseed. The best of the lot was by far the Old Fashioned Buttermilk and on our next visit we didn't bother with any other flavours. My personal favourite donut is still the Custard from St John's Bakery but the Old Fashioned was delicious and you can get two for the price of one custard donut which is a bonus! 

Behind the bustle of the market stalls

Standing in the rain eating donuts. Classy. 

Old Fashioned, Lemon Poppyseed, Birthday Cake, Pistachio

Devouring the Birthday Cake (featuring the hand warmers I crocheted recently. Still glove weather over here!)

Old Fashioned delicious-ness

Over the long weekend I plan to bite the head off a Lindt chocolate bunny, eat a Hot Cross Bun (even though you can get them all year round here) & freeze at The Kernel on Saturday after visiting Ropewalk on Maltby Street & Borough Market. Also: Drink coffee (always).

Have a lovely weekend everyone! 
Xx

To keep you warm during the cold days ahead

There is no denying that my toes have been fairly cold this winter and we can't have a real fire in our little apartment so I stitched this one to keep our empty fireplace happy. My toes, however, are still cold. 

Percy the Friendly Fireplace Softie

A snowy Monday walk on Hampstead Heath (quickly followed by coffee in a warm cafe)

 Primrose Hill on Sunday (along with the rest of London)

The snow is beginning to melt and I have lots of itty bits of sewing at the end of crochet projects to get done tomorrow.

Xx

I would like to live in a tiny gingerbread house.

How good are these? From Make:Craft via Cake Time.

I've been absent from everything for a while now but there are holidays & new adventures coming up so I am hoping to be back to things soon. In other news - I have finally managed to crochet things that people will actually use (more soon)... strange!

Have a lovely hectic week-before-christmas everyone. 

Xx

Crochet confessions & neighbourhood cats

I have a confession to make: I have had this yarn sitting on our coffee table for a while now. Eventually I intend to turn it into a beanie (or perhaps a beanie & something else...) for a little person that is on the way soon. Remember when I got these? That was a while ago and I still haven't used them. Terrible! I now have 2 weeks in which to make & post said items to Japan. I'm going to be honest - it doesn't look too much like that's going to happen at the moment. Here's hoping the little one decides to be fashionably late! 

The colours are a bit nicer than they look in this picture... this makes them look like something found in a curtain from the 1970's.

So now for some procrastinating from starting the above crochet...

Neko! 

Despite the foxes there are lots of cats in the neighbourhood. I miss Harley the ladder climbing cat who I got to hang out with while living with my lovely Perth friends. (I miss them too, obviously!) It's nice to see the local cats lazing around on top of cars and walls. Porter the pub cat is all grown up & counts himself amongst the 'outside' cats now too. 

One of the many friendly neighbourhood cats.  It's amazing how many people here have pets (especially dogs) considering almost everyone lives in apartments/tiny terrace houses.

Other crafty projects I have not yet started/completed:

1. Making 'non sew' curtains for the living room. The ones we have now are pretty gross.
2. Friendly Fireplace Softie
3. Dyeing permanent marker stained dress & embroidering collar
4. Finishing this blanket. Yep, that's right - It's still just a bunch of squares! This one doesn't count anyway because the squares are currently on the other side of the world. 

I really am terrible at actually getting stuff done. Even stuff that I want to do and enjoy doing. Go figure. I need some motivation. Please help me (come over for a crafternoon perhaps? It's a long journey if you're back home but I will make some noms...that's totally worth 24hours in transit, yeah?)

Is it like riding a bicycle?

There has been a lot going on work-wise lately & I must have been running around and complaining a lot because today I arrived home to a lovely card and a crafty present!

I didn't bring a crochet hook with me to London and it's been a while. 

Hello again crochet & welcome back. 

Now to begin the hunt for good yarn.

NB: I know, Ben is making cakes & buying presents while I complain and stress out. Don't worry, I will crochet a nice something for him... I have to now that it's in writing, yes? (I don't get around to actually finishing many yarn-related things I set out to make, hence the 50 odd crochet squares sitting in a box back home waiting for me to stitch them into a blanket.) 

Tokyo Mart!

February 1st - Only 12 days until the end of Dinosaurs, which means that there isn't long until my intended departure date! It may have been raining and cold(ish) today but we had a lovely time anyway. Our day involved a trip to Tokyo Mart and lunch at a cafe in Lane Cove that we've been meaning to try for a while now. Zucchini Fries. Need I say more? 

My goal for this rainy afternoon is to finally get off my butt & get some crochet done, I'm not entirely sure it's going to happen but I have good intentions. 

Please excuse the first 2 dodgy phone pictures!

Seriously though, ZUCCHINI!

This coffee was good, although I still miss the soy latte I used to get in Perth.

Best caramels ever.

Indoor picnics & crochet, crochet, crochet!

This past weekend we decided to go an a picnic. Due to the sore throats in the house we weren't able to actually go anywhere so we decided to have an indoor picnic. Despite the lack of ducks and the much loved post-picnic nap it was quite nice! Perhaps next time we'll venture outside - I might even take my bicycle along.

Strawberry plants - they will be noms 

In addition to indoor picnics/television series marathons and bemoaning the untidy nature of our apartment we made our weekly visit to the community garden. This really is a community garden, everyone smiles and says hello and wants to chat about what you're planting. It's a nice peaceful atmosphere and non gardening activities include lots of mosaic making so perhaps I'll get up the nerve to join in one day. At the moment though, it's all about the seedlings and compost! 

On a more crafty note, I am lucky enough to be working on an installation for the city of Perth's Art In Bloom festival which is happening in September. Captain Plaknit and myself will be crocheting up a storm in the coming weeks! Will keep you updated, the structure we are working with is a large (VERY large) greenwall in the Northbridge Piazza. I'm sure the installation day will be quite funny!

Also, am going to start working on a piece for the Beaufort Street Festival which I'm quite excited about. 

Before all of this crafting happens I'm going to have to face the mountain of stuff that is currently keeping my craft area warm. I am not looking forward to it - although it'll be nice to actually be able to see my sewing machine again!

Between work and uni (I haven't forgotten) and crochet installations it looks to be a busy time ahead...