Noodolled up

This shopping extravaganza was actually brought to my attention through Instagram. Being rather an Insta-noob I was pleasantly surprised by a nice message from a friend suggesting I might go along to Noodoll Pound Town. Said friend is actually in Sweden so I felt it was only right for me to go along so that she might experience the sale vicariously. Totally selfless right?

I'm actually not too familiar with Noodoll, although I did recognise some of the characters, especially Ricepapa who is the dapper moustacheoed hamster. They are cute! They are colourful! Right up my street.

The sale took place at their teeny tiny creative studio which I totally managed to walk past, despite the obvious signage.

Right-ho then..

Cute mini shop by the lift:

So maybe I did go a *little* crazy with my purchases, but most of them will be Christmas gifts (promise).

Below is the loot: Cuddly Ricepapa, some notebooks, zippy cases and wide masking tape.

I also got a couple of posters for P's room:

I actually bought enough stuff to qualify for a free tote - bonus!

Phew, quite impressed with myself for starting Christmas shopping early. Although when there are cute bargain on offer it's really not that hard.

Princess Sparkle Horn, Princess Tassel Toes & Gary

Once in a while you stumble across something so special that you just can't help yourself. That was the case with Gary. 

I mean, just look at him. How could I resist:

Although I was still something of a crochet rookie, I simply *had* to have a go at making him. Mainly under the pretence that my son would love a unicorn toy. In reality poor Gary has mainly taken a lot of abuse from my spirited toddler, but he does get the odd cuddle so I like to think that this kind of makes up for it.

As I was happily showing off introducing Gary to a friend of mine a while ago, she asked very nicely if I might consider making a couple of additional unicorns for her daughters - well of course!

It took a little longer than planned, but behold Princess Sparkle Horn and Princess Tassel Toes:

The lady-corns were handed over last weekend and I think it's safe to say that they were well received with lots of squeals and thank yous.

Last I heard, they were happily tucked up in bed with their new owners. Just don't tell Gary, he might be jealous..

The Twits

Last Friday we had the pleasure of attending a fantastically disgusting dinner at The Vaults near Waterloo, hosted by the gruesome twosome Mr and Mrs Twit. 

If you an unfamiliar with the Roald Dahl characters, I would recommend reading up on them. They really are quite vile, so as soon as I heard about this experiential dinner/theatre mash-up AND that Bompas & Parr were to be involved, I was sold. The Bompas & Parr 'History of Food' is still one of my favourite experiential things that we have done in London.

So we arrived at The Vaults, and it's fair to say that expectations were pretty high.

On check-in we were handed a small plastic bag with a (fake) worm inside. This was to be redeemed in the bar for a cocktail of your choice - although, as it turned out NOT the prosecco cocktail complete with tube of 'Hugtite Glue' in cherry or peach flavour to be squeezed into the bubbly. Either way we were happy with our Aperol based drink (apparently used by Mrs Twit to clean her glass eye - yum).

Next we were shown into the 'ghastly garden' and invited to forage for our canapes amongst compost, in bird feeders, inside potting sheds and plucked off nails hammered into large branches.

We were also offered such delights as 'burnt' sausages (covered in poppy seeds) and chicken's hearts in bloody Mary sauce by the vintage circus styled monkey servants. 

I did give it all a go, but slightly regretted the chicken heart as soon as it passed my lips. Tasted a bit like how it smells in the meat section of supermarkets.. *gag* Oh well, it's all part of the experience. 

Having amused our bouches for long enough we were shown through to the dining room to begin the feasting in earnest. It started earlier than expected for M, who was forced to down a glass of wine by Mr Twit and then fed coleslaw sprinkled with dried mealworms and crickets by Mrs Twit. He did say that the unexpected alcohol kick did help him to get in the mood for the whole event though..

The main course emerged dramatically in a cloud of smoke aboard an impressive trolley, and the monkey staff busily set about serving up the piece de resistance: bird pie complete with foot sticking out of the top. Actually very tasty! Especially when paired with the bubbling green slime (parsley sauce) from a mini cauldron on the table.

From then on the scene turned more sinister as the servants confided in us that they were not real monkeys, but humans kidnapped and made to perform to satisfy the terrible and bloody-thirsty whims of the Twits. And worse still, we were next! Oh no!!

So through various deceptive tactics involving presents, pheromones and giant puppets the Twits ultimately saw their demise at the beak of the enormous and slightly malevolent-looking Roly Poly Bird.

Once the dinner and performance were over, we were escorted to another bar where we could once again enjoy some cocktails. My one tasted of bubble gum and came complete with tiny helium balloons - just how I like it!

Some could argue that the whole thing was a bit pricey, but considering that you do get both an experiential show and an interesting dinner I thought it was well worth it. Read more about the event here.

Only problem is that now I'll be very disappointed when future cocktails arrive without a mini balloon garnish.

 

So it's been a while..

Two years and a toddler later I feel, for various reasons, that it's time to put on my blogging hat again. Rest assured that I have not been idle on the creative front these last couple of years. In fact I am proud of the fact that I can now add crochet to my list of craft skills, mainly thanks to this book. I can make amigurumis!!

So how better to kick off than a round up of my creative output since September 2014?

First the knits:



This toasty hat wasn't actually for my own little dragon, but I managed to convince him to model it for the purpose of checking fit (not at all for fun. At all.)



Mittens for all the NCT kittens! I believe I used a pattern from this book and just played with the colour variations.

I couldn't resist this hat for my own little one - although the dorsal shark fin was a little floppy..



One of my fave Rebecca Danger patterns of all time! This one was for me and my little monster.

Emotional, but without the sap. This was a recent Birthday present for my other half.

Then the crochets:



Foxy! My first proper crochet project. Unfortunately in all the excitement I forgot which pattern this is. Will update if I find it in my pile of pattern print-outs.



Monkichi and Pochacco from Hello Kitty Crochet. Words cannot quite describe how much I love this book.



Getting a bit more adventurous and created this beastie for a friend's little one.



Frog feet for a new baby.



Some crochet Hello Kittys created in time for a visit to the Cutter & Squidge Hello Kitty afternoon tea pop-up.



Frenchie bunny for a friend's baby shower.

Deery-Lou and Keroppi for M's nephew and niece.



Norman the narhahl for a friend.



Oh and one of my faves; Batman! And yes, you can remove his super-pants incase you were wondering..

So there you go. That's a quick recap of (most) stuff I've been up to creatively. Hoping that more posts will follow soon..

Tiny knitting

Since learning that I was expecting a little one of my own, I may have gone a *little* to excess on the knitting front. So far booties and tops have been the order of the day, although I do hope to add some random cuddly toys to the mix too.

Now these actually are winging their way to P in the US for her new little boy:

This was really just an excuse to use some pretty butterfly buttons which had been hanging around:

Ok, so this came out a little large.. Still, should fit by the time he's, um, 3 or so.

Hardly the most practical with all those buttons, but hopefully the sheer cuteness will prevail, at least for a couple of wears.

Oh and this fabulous baby blanket and even more fabulous octopus is from the very talented G:

Octavia (the octopus) will hopefully be joined by a couple of buddies soon. Currently I'm particularly keen on a three-toed sloth and narwhal. 

Also in the pipeline is the endless quilt which has been going for just a little bit too long. Only downside is the at the %(^&*$&^%* sewing machine has just chosen to give up, despite all coaxing. At some point I will just have to accept that it won't fix itself and make an effort to sort..

Time to Unwind

Brighton! It's been such as long time since I was there. It holds some particularly fond memories for me, so really I don't need much of a reason to visit - especially as I've now discovered that it's only about 45 minutes train journey from Clapham Junction! Only 45 minutes to a mini seaside holiday..

And the only thing better than a mini seaside holiday? A mini seaside holiday with YARN!

Unwind Brighton featured masses of the stuff, along with informative talks and lessons on all manner of knitterly topics. They also sold very pretty bags:

Being something of an Iceland-o-phile, I chose a talk by the inspiring Ragga on Icelandic knitting. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but even with technical challenges (screen was not Mac friendly) Ragga proved a true professional and wowed us all with her knitting passion as well as dropping in some unusual snippets to keep us entertained. For example: did you know that she's also Iceland's premier sex educator and has a book coming out on the subject? The woman has many talents..

After a quick visit to the 'marketplace' I'm pleased to say that I managed to keep to my pre-planned list of requirements, rather than going crazy on random pretty yarn (this may have happened in the past).

The only stall I allowed myself to go a little greedy on was buttons. Yes, I love buttons. Especially when they are as cute as these:

Here's the rest of the haul which will in turn become a couple of baby cardigans and baby scarf/hat set. Note the magazine which was a freebie bonus - always worth hanging around until the very end ;)

Also worth a big mention is Helen's winning shawl design Pebble Beach, modelled here by yours truly (thanks for the pic Helen!):

In addition to the honour and a small prize, Pebble Beach was also featured in the Unwind programme:

A worthy winner indeed! Read more on Curious Handmade or nab the pattern on Ravelry from today!

Ah Brighton, we may be seeing each other again very soon..

By the pricking of my thumbs..

So how do you like to spend your Saturday night? How about in a foreboding council block in the East End, surrounded by witches, power-hungry usurpers and borscht? No? Ok, you might want to stop reading now.

We were lucky enough to nab some tickets to RIFT’s epic production of ‘Macbeth’, set within the monolith that is Balfron Tower. We are also lucky enough to have friends who are willing to join us on such daft adventures, so at 8pm sharp our motley crew of 9 assembled on a patch of astro-turf in the shadow of the Tower. 

We happily signed our lives away, exchanged some pounds sterling to ‘Bordurian Rand’ (in order to purchase beverages within the building) and waited in anticipated for our guide Uri to check that our visas were in order.

After some banter with Uri, he lead us down to the entrance into the bowels of the building. I think we were all feeling a little nervous at that point – this is the building they used when filming ’28 Days Later’ after all! As our eyes adjusted to the darkness of the underground carpark, witches seemed to materialise out of the gloom and stalk a couple of the more unfortunate members of our party. Assembling around a burning oil drum, Macbeth and Banquo soon joined us and the action began in earnest.

Some six hours later we emerged from the same building shiny-eyed and drunk on adrenaline. So what happened in between?!

It’s tempting to say: 'well go and see for yourself' but I guess that would be a bit mean seeing as the tickets are now broadly sold out. And anyway, I wouldn’t want to give too much away. Although I will say that we were mainly based in ‘our flat’ with action going on around us, in a couple of ‘bar’ areas and a few other flats around the building.

I think it may suffice to give you a couple of glimpses into scenes from the evening:

• Flattening myself into a dowdy armchair in our tiny living room while two men fight with knives approximately half a metre away (ok, don’t panic, they were realistic-looking plastic knives!).
• Being singled out and pulled into bed with a pleading Lady Macbeth. Having to be prised away from her convulsive sobbing by one of the guides.
• Feasting on borscht, rosti, cabbage and chocolate trifle at the banquet scene, before having a large pot with a severed head placed on our table to be incorporated into the action.
• M falling off an armchair and almost kicking Lady Macbeth in the face as she burst in through a door unexpectedly.

Ok so the last point wasn’t exactly planned, but was none-the-less most entertaining.

The acting was amazing - on the verge of making you feel a little bit like you were actually experiencing some real council estate drama at some points. The fact that the setting and costumes had a 70s theme definitely definitely enhanced this - and strangely didn't seem to clash with the Shakespearean English script.

We could have stayed over in 'our flat' if we would have wanted to (bunks and blankets provided), but we decided to head for the comforts of home at around 2am and forego the breakfast that would otherwise have been served the next morning.

The only problem is, what could we possibly do next to top this?