Last night when I should have been packing and tiding and generally getting myself sorted for the weekend on the boat, I found myself reading instead.

I picked up a new book on the way home, from borders, and I read it on the bus, and then whilst eating dinner, and then I lay on my bed in my favourite book reading position {on one half of the duvet, with the other half wrapped over me} and I read. I didn’t do anything I ought to have been doing. It was amazing.

The only downside, I now have no-idea what I packed for sailing in.

You must read this book.

Tomorrow i shall be heading south for a few days. 

Cornwall. 

Sailing. 

I can't wait. 

The dog days are over.

Last night was Augusts’ work night out.

We went to the dogs.

You know, like the grey hounds.

I bet on some races, using the tried and tested method of picking the funny names. I bet £6 and won £3.40-something back. That’s over half of my spends that I got back. Not bad I don’t think.

Here’s what happened, in brief;

{or view the whole lot here}

I spent the weekend catching up over many vodkas with old quik friends {then nursing a hangover the next morning} trying to figure out a way to fit a lovely new, and spacious kitchen in to the boys miniscule current kitchen, seeing the parents, dog sitting, dog walking through the fields by my parents house, accidentally missing half of the x-factor {agh! But we did get to see the xtra factor! Phew!} and a birthday party and eating toad in the hole for the first time ever.

That’s right people. I am 28 and I had never had toad in the hole before. I always imagined it would be something I’d not like. And when I get it in my head I won’t like something, I usually don’t {olives, coffee and Worcester sauce are perfect examples of this……ugh.}

But you know what, the boy made it and it was lovely; if I remember correctly there was a little rosemary and some red onion in the Yorkshire pudding, he put crème fraises in the mash and we had some posh looking sausages.

I won’t however be trying olives in the near future, so don’t get any ideas.

Sunday Suppers

Oh My Gosh.

I have just found this website - Sunday Suppers.

You have to take a peek. It's two women in New York who run a cookery class. Not only do they take the most gorgeous photo's of the classes, but the food looks absolutely delicious and their decorations for the meals are just perfect.

I think i shall have to be pointing the boy this way.

Tagliatelle for dinner saturday perhaps. Ummmm. {And it would be the perfect accompanyment to the new series of X Factor I think.}

Taking a little walk.

{Home is this way}

{The one that got away}

{Screen on the wall}

I have been walking home recently. It's been sunny. It's a little exercise. And an excuse to take some photo's.

And on my walks I can't stop listening to Florence + The Machine.

Practically dancing home to it.

And i am loving Hurricane Drunk.

Just listen to the lyrics. So beautiful. The perfect break-up song. {Lets hope i won't be needing it soon.}

{There is also a little Jamie T and some Courteeners and a little Hockey making the walks a little more fun.}

I would like to implore you all to vote for my wonderful friend Sam in this Grazia pole of Leeds fashionistas.

She looks stunning do you not think?

Hanging out in the VQ in her Prada’s, Stella and Chloe…..

{yes, they are all pretty much alien brands to me. Surprisingly my wage doesn’t quite stretch to them…..}

This weekend I;

• Drank cherry beer at North Bar and cultivated plans to sample their tasting menu. It will probably need a little working up to, and a good meal beforehand. £25 for 15 of their speciality beers. I can hear the hangover calling now.
  
• Had a wonderful evening chilling out with the boy, gossiping, listening to music and falling asleep to movies in bed.
  
• Ate freshly baked bread and home cooked ham sandwiches. Yummy. {Yes, i do have a yellow cooker, landladies choice, not ours. Trust me.}
  
• marvelled at these burger cupcakes. They make me want to get my bake on!
  
• Spent some time doing some arts and crafts with my new Moo business cards {cutting off the discount codes. Sorry Moo, but I will be placing those cards around town and promoting you that way.}
  
• Hung out with Count Duckula, She-ra, Marty McFly, a smurf, an officer, a few Freddie Murcury’s, and Tina Turner in Harrogate. Honest.
  
• Witnessed the most intense game of giant jenga you might ever find. And played some questionable games of giant twister.Ate a wonderful Sunday lunch, cooked to perfection by the ex-housemate. I stirred the cheese sauce! And washed the pots. So, I was useful.
  
• Discovered ‘Pass the bomb’. Genius. Unless you are hungover. In which case it is intense.
  
• Educated the boy on Uncle Buck. But I won’t see him till Saturday night now, which sucks.

{yes, we have a yellow cooker, it's the crazy land-ladies choice not ours. Trust me}

Just a few...

...things from my room.

This certainly isn't where i thought i would be right now.

I thought by 28 I would be living somewhere different.

On my own. Or in my own place at least.

Not in a shared house with 3 other girls.

But I guess sometimes it’s about making the best of it.

At least I can have my little haven. Filled with the things I like.

Seed to Plate

As you might have seen in my last post, my dad has taken to growing veg in his garden. The joys of retirement I guess.

What started as a few herbs for his cooking 3 years ago, migrated into lots of things planted last year but only one measly runner bean plant growing, to this years crop of everlasting lettuce {seriously, the more I take, the bigger they grow, I swear one of the lettuces thinks it’s a conifer the way it’s growing} hundreds of runner beans, broad beans, peas and potatoes.

I just stumbled across this site on ill seen, ill said, and i'm definately going to introduced him to it help him plan which veg he should be planting when;

http://seedtoplate.co.uk/

How cool is this. I love how the site is designed. And I love the way you can plot out your garden for optimum growing of veg. Now if only I had a house with a garden, or a yard, or even some sort of window box…….

From The Garden

Foods from my dad's garden.

Yummy.

See some more pictures here.

If i had a kitchen all of my own, rather than the shared mess that i am putting up with at the moment, you know it would be the biggest mish-mash of styles.

Gorgeous Kath Kidston prints, pastel colours, cake stands, villeroy&bosch angles , and then there would be pieces like these from Joseph Joseph;

Check out the website for some amazingly designed kitchen utensils.

Just a few...

....of my flickr favourites.

Think i am feeling the summer and it's colours!

See them and their photographers here.

Click on the image to go through to the image.

TTV

Inspired by the wonderful Jo Bradford’s original TTV prints, I have been trying my hand at faking them. I love Jo's portayal of the conish coast. I can't wait to have a place of my own, so i can buy some of her prints for my walls.

Original here.

Original here.

I got the frame from on of my Flickr contacts Kat - here.

And i found a tutorial from Flickr too. but i forgot to save it.

Maybe one day i'll have a real life Duaflex? until then this makes everything look really quite nice.

A Journey.

{image from Orba Square}

I have this dream of running away. Just getting in my car and driving away. 

Maybe across America. Hiring a car, maybe a pick-up truck, and getting in it and just going where ever I fancy. No routes, no plans. Some good music. A camera and a note book.

I am sure it stems from my parents driving us across California and Nevada and Arizona when I was a kid. We had a few hotels booked and then a Best Western catalogue my brother and I would pick our next hotel.

I think I have some vision it’ll be the America of Kerouac’s novels. Of ‘On the Road’ and ‘Dharma Bums’. And of this Robert Frank photo book.

I know it won’t.

Deep in my heart I know this.

But I think I need to see it for myself.

P.s. So, apparently the boy would like to do the road trip almost as much as I, only I worry he might plan it too well. How would i be late with planning like this;

" http://bit.ly/19WNhF

so it's 4,432 miles, each leg would be a good day's drive, so ten days on the road, plus two days in each location would be thirty two days, so a whole calender month. Shall we set off tomorrow?

Also, at 30 miles a gallon, it'd be about 150 gallons of petrol, which in UK prices is about 675 quid.

something to look forward to I reckon....

also, there are 9 places in america called eureka! that's another trip in itself!!!! Even further cos they're all over the shop...."