This Blog Had Moved!

Hello all,

After a couple of good years on Blogspot I have defected to Wordpress. It's functionality is better for my needs these days (and I think it looks cleaner and nicer!!). I have moved all these posts too, so it's all in one place and I don't have to flick between two blogs to find anything I had previously posted!

You can now find my blog at:

http://www.insearchofmyfigure.wordpress.com/

Please come and join me there. You can follow my ramblings, my progress in growing tomatoes and all the things I sew. Hopefully!

And you have a link to my blog on yours (there are at least 3 people that I know of) do please update your link to my new blog.

Thanks!

MF

A short list

Things that bug me about the gym at the moment:

1. All the new people crowding out the gym. Where were you before Christmas, eh? And were will you be in a few weeks?? Why clutter the place up now?

2. Why does it always seem hard? Surely if I've been doing some walk / run sessions for nearly four weeks I should be doing more running in that ratio by now without it feeling impossible?

3. The spinning class. I'm not doing it (I'm not stupid, that looks HARD), but the music is too loud and thus the instructor has to shout really loudly to make himself heard. Which makes it hard for me to hear the music through my headphones and thus harder to run.

4. The lift not working when I get home. Ok so being on the second floor it's lazy of me to take the lift, but I'm working out pretty hard and have a twenty minute walk home, give me a break!

And especially for this week:

5. Having to cook my own dinner when I get in from the gym as Flaneur is away all week.

Grump.

Christmas 2010

Just some images of Christmas 2010 to share. My camera skills are still not brilliant with this camera, but I'm getting there and hope to improve greatly in 2011 (if I can ever find a course to help me!)

This was a Christmas where I made all my gifts (except for those for my brothers and a few things for Flâneur).

My mum got a doorstop (as requested):

Dad got an apron in brown and white linen, with his initials appliqued on the front and very long straps (so he can tie it round his middle at the front), but I forgot to take a picture of it. Oops!

For my sister I made a case for her portable DVD player. Going to great lengths of deception to get the dimensions from her (I asked what sort she had so I could recommend it to a friend, heh heh heh...):

I got the fabric in Purl Soho in New York when we were there in April and thought it would be better than the boring black case she had for it. More cheerful!

I have three nieces who are 1, 4 and 7 who enjoy helping out in the kitchen, especially with baking, so (after consultation with mum and their mum) they got little matching aprons, made out of fabric I bought yonks ago to make them something with! At last it came in handy... They're double sided (because I find that easier than hemming), and each had their initials embroidered on them so they know whose is whose:

I also made a wee gift for Flâneur's mum, who happens to quite like Tablet...

Hmmm... sugary. And so much of it!! But I was reliably informed that it went down rather well.

Other gifts that I made that I managed not to photograph included a book cover and i-pad case for Flâneur himself. Although seeing as they reside in our flat I will take pictures of them at some point. Particularly the i-pad case which I was particularly pleased with. It might warrant a whole post all to itself.... ;o)

As well as presents I also made a Christmas garland of little birdies, based on a pattern I had found in Scandinavian Needlecraft by Clare Youngs. Rather than the white felt she makes it with, I decided to go with what I had, a rich burgundy and dark grey:

Each birdie is embroidered, and it was a great way to spend my snow days from work in December!!

Flâneur also did some making this Christmas, mostly of the food variety, including some yummy scrummy gingerbread men. We don't have a traditional cutter for gingerbread men, however we do have cutters for German stop / go men (you know, from pedestrian traffic lights!), which he brought me back from trip to Germany a few years ago. They made very cute and a bit different gingerbread men...

(Not sure he's going to be so happy with that second picture...)

We had a lovely time at Christmas itself, eating too much, drinking too much and generally enjoying the time off. There was still a little snow near my parents' which made for a lovely walk on Boxing Day...

And so that is it for another year and 2011 is already upon us. I hope anyone who still reads this had a lovely Christmas and is looking forward to a fabulous New Year.