Friendship bracelets

Josh's birthday do

Josh, Katie, baker, jay and I went for lunch in spoons for josh's 30th. Maybe not so adventurous but opeions are a bit limited when your time is constrained by a flight!

It was really good to see everyone and catch up on the news.

Heart granny squares

Circus!

Today we took Jenni to her first ever circus. I've seen Uncle Sam's American circus before- When we first moved to Bedfordshire I used to go to see all the travelling circuses and fun fairs and shows because there is an exciting new one every week- and almost all of them have "first day discounts".

I really like this circus- although I do doubt it's americanness- the quality of the performances is awesome and it's £7 per person for 2 hours of death defying entertainment. 

Actually the greatest entertainment today was Jenni- she did an awful lot of gasping, screaming and hiding in her coat. Especially during the "wall of death" when they added the 3rd motocross rider and during the trapeze sets. It was a really fun way to spend the afternoon. I guess we're always going to be big kids...

No sew teepee instructions from "The handmade home"

http://www.thehandmadehome.net/2013/02/a-no-sew-teepee/

I cannot explain how badly I need this, and if it wouldn't cause my boyfriend to kill me, I could probably have already constructed this genius object in my front room.
I will be patient and wait until we have some outside space. and then I will build my anti sunburn outdoor reading hiding place (After a trip to south all for suitable materials, of course).

Our final product measures about seven and a half feet tall by 6 feet wide. We wanted something large enough to hold all three kiddos, without taking over our entire house. This little hut can stand on it’s own all winter, and when we’re finito, we’ll simply fold it up and stash it away. (See: under our bed.)

We purchased six 1 x 2 x 8’s at our local store. On each piece of wood, we measured 1 foot down and in the center, drilled a hole using a RYOBI cordless drill. This is for the jute that will hold it all together.

I wish I had a photo of us putting it together, but it really wasn’t that complicated. You’ll definitely need an extra set of arms, but we just gradually positioned the poles, and as we added each one, strung them all through with jute until they felt right for a teepee shape. When we were finished, we wrapped it around until it was secure.

Because this tee pee is currently residing on the tile of our veranda, we used some hot glue to stabilize the bottoms on the floor. When we’re finished, we’ll just pop it up.

It’s not perfect, so let go of the notion and don’t let it drive you crazy if you decide to tackle this one. It’s fun and that’s all that matters.

The second best part to this whole insane little creation? The total cost for us with this teepee, was a whopping seven dollars. Why? Because we only paid for the wood. I decided to use this project as a fabric buster… Apparently I’m a little bit of a fabric hoarder in denial. I measure fabric for products like I do spaghetti and I’m all, what? It’s not three yards in a foot? Then I have enough fabric to cover a small village (or build a few teepees) and it sits in my cabinets for three years. Alas. Sigh. Digression.

Consider this a little project to get your purge on. I even purchased two large drop cloths from the hardware store (which we will now be returning) but you could slice one up, and supplement with patterned fabrics in between.

I actually knocked this out in a day, and once you get into the groove of it, there’s a learning curve. I recommend it as a weekend project if you want to take your time. (If you’re anything like me, once you’ve started you don’t want your kids dive bombing all your fabric or singeing off their hair in the glue gun, so you just want to finish.)

I wanted something fun and frilly since you can see it from all corners of the house, but a second alternative would be to take a simple drop cloth, drape it over and pinch it in place with a giant clip. I’ve seen those floating around the interwebs as well.

So I eyeballed it and starting at the top, cut my fabric into strips. I simply mimicked the rope action above, because the top part was a bit jumbled and complicated. I layered a few pieces, and secured them with glue. Tada! The top of my teepee. (Tipi. Tepee.)

Once I was about half a foot down, I began a system of ‘weaving’ the fabric through the poles. Since I was choosing from my fabric stash, I would eyeball to make sure I had enough, and cut to length. The pattern went over, under, over, under. When one section was under, I made sure the next section tucked around the pole, so that it was hidden. I just made sure to hot glue as I went, and hide the wood.

A few more hints:

• It doesn’t really matter how you do it, as long as you establish consistency. I found myself touching it up as I went. You can go back and tuck and glue and fold, until it looks right.

• Because this style is really made up of pieces of fabric, it will have a ‘ribbony look’. Read: gaps. I went back on the inside, and tacked the pieces together with hot glue. The kids said they like the ‘ribbon’, because they can peep through and see who’s coming. Eventually the hot glue will come loose, but it’s low maintenance and easy to repair.

• Put your glue gun on low, so a. you won’t singe the skin off your finger and curse the day you were born b. when you’re pressing said glued pieces together, it doesn’t take that long to dry.

• When you’re dealing with fatter pieces of fabric (see how I alternated my layers?) the angles with joining them from pole to pole will be a little more noticeable than with a skinny piece. Make sure they (the fat pieces of fabric) stretch all the way across from top to bottom, before securing with glue. There were a few sections I pulled down and had a redo. Thus the glue gun. Glue guns make everything okay.

• Make sure you save your biggest pieces of fabric for the bottom… the gaps get larger (and the pieces get longer) as you go.

Happy valentines day

New guitar hero!

It turns out that our utilities company gives out argos points each year- we've been with them for 5 years and didn't realise-so when we called up last time to check something the guy on the phone was like "You do realise you have £50 worth or argo points here, right?"

We thought it was high time we spent them so we bought the new guitar hero (As we were so addicted to the old version at uni and it's such a good social get together ice breaker, it seemed a shame not to have it any more just because we had a new console).

The new version is very different to the old one in 5 significant ways:

1) It's much much more complicated to play- as it has 6 buttons and you use them all even on easy mode. It's do-able but much easier if you've ever played a string instrument. There is a tutorial at the start. For the love of god, do the tutorial!

2) The music is ever scrolling- different channels and themes at different times of the day. far more song choice and new music added all the time, however, to "free play" and pick songs you have to earn "coins" to pay for them. You get coins for playing songs so it works out OK it's just a bit of a drag.

3) It has the real music videos on, so it is designed to leave running in the background- It's like it was made for house parties! (Although, the big downside is that you have far less control over the songs- with the old version, you put the "metallica" version on, you know what you're getting. With this I seem to have to play an awful lot of songs I don't like and I don't know- Hopefully it'll learn the preferences and adapt the play lists accordingly.

4) It has real festival footage- you can either play the 24/7 rolling music "live" or on a "TV channel" with the videos. Live is pretty weird. I'd like to know where it was filmed!

5) So far the music is pretty "up to date" and gets updated with new tracks added daily. I would like to see some NIN, smashing pumpkins and APC though as they were on the Xbox 360 versions but have been omitted from this one. Bring back the 90s! We miss them!

At £75 I think it's OK. It's more challenging, it's a level up, it's constantly updated so we won't have to have 10 different versions anymore but I think it's going to take some time to match the sheer volume of retro, trashy and nostalgic songs it had before. It feels a bit like they wanted to divorce the old concept and make this into something far removed from the south park ridicule. What they've actually done is made this so difficult that I might as well be playing rock smith and learning actual bar and arpeggiated chords rather than playing them on guitar hero.

There is no way I could play this game drunk!

Or whilst eating pizza!

I am enjoying it, I'm learning about the kinds of music those young people listen to. I will have to up my game to get back to snacking whilst playing. I preferred the level of control and choice the older version had, but maybe they'll get there with this one.

The higgins.

Ray really enjoyed her trip to the higgins..  apparently it's the weirdest museum she's ever been to.

I like their dresses, teapots and very stylised collection of  georgian furniture.
But I get lost every time.

We did try on the dressing up hats though!  So it was a good adventure.

Fancy gel nails

If you're looking for me, I will be in bed. With a book.

I'm addicted to black butler!  (Kuroshitshuji)
These are the last of the published books in the series and I've pre ordered  book 22 for delivery in May.
I can't wait that long!
I need to know what happens!

In case you are addicted too:
The books are cheapest on wordery.

The first season, circus tv series and the murder mystery takes you up to book 12.
(Season 2 has nothing to do with the books and neither will the film whuch should be out this year)

Shefford & Biggleswade

Traff and I decided to reinstate the tradition of the "sunday adventure". We jump in the car and follow signs to a local town or village we've never visited before- So it's a nice way to explore the local area and see whats about.

Most places have free parking on  a Sunday too, so scoping out new places is cheap. No excuse not to!

We started off in Lidlington, but there really wasn't anything there and it's a bit small to mooch around so we carried on along the main road until we reached Shefford. It's a very quaint kind of town that keeps some pretty odd opening hours. Everything is shut until at least lunch time on a Sunday. Which is a bit of a pain if you get there at 10am. We had a walk about and saw their cool historical buildings.

We found this place we want to try in Shefford- super cheap lunch menu too! This is my plan for when I have my week off work:

http://bangkoklounge.com/shefford/

Next we headed off to Biggleswade, Which is like a slightly less exciting version of bedford. Traff wanted to go and get some lunch from one of the independent greasy spoon type cafes, but he managed to hit me in the face with the door. we were laughing too hard to settle down to eat anything.

In the end he took me on a romantic date to sainsburys for pavlova and chips. Who says romance is dead?

Yes, thanks for that...

We got home from our adventures and this was the view from the front door to the hall. Our door is by the bike. Behind the box.

O_o

Genius.

The Cavendish

Today I was working "away from the office" on the bridging the gap project.

Sarah and I had a meeting with the team at the cavendish lab- I've been here quite a few times for physics things and Sahar and I have had a previous meeting here and never noticed this quote above the door.

Apparently it's a reference to phenomena. I think it's a strange quote and would like to know who's it is. (I'm going to guess it's a JJ Thompson or Rutherford type deal but who knows... Perhaps when I am curious enough I will consult the internet. For now I'm just waiting to see if it turns up anywhere else).

Sarah also invited me to a British Science Association dinner at the Science Museum as a guest of both ARM and as her guest too! She has a meeting before hand with Imran Khan. I will be starstruck if I do get to go! Just being invited is a massive deal- even if I am someone else's +1(I can live with that!).  I'm pleased and excited even if the actual invitation never materialises! The event is next month so I guess I'll know soon enough either way.

I imagine everyone feels a bit like this sometimes: When I actually realise what I am doing and who I am working with and what my job is I sometimes have a bit of a freak out in my head and I worry that someone will turn up and be like "Oh, no, you didn't pass any of your university qualifications, we just gave you the certificates by mistake- there's no way you're clever enough to be doing this stuff!" and then they will laugh so hard that they won't be able to stand up anymore and make a massive scene. 

I suppose a more grown up way to describe this would be that I sometimes look at my colleagues and the amazing people I get to work with and I think "They are so much more qualified than I am" or "They have so much more experience than I do.." and I wonder how I could ever have ended up in the same position as them because I see my self as their intellectual inferior. 

However, (Incase anyone was worried that I'm having a bit of a moment) I do also think that all people who are intellectually  capable feel a bit inferior(or feel like they don't know enough, or find fault) I think that is just a part of learning. If you thought you knew everything or that you did your job perfectly you would stop striving to learn new things. There are an infinite number of things to learn, so we should always be looking for something new. 

It would be A) An example of my own lack of intellect to assume that I knew everything and B) Extremely arrogant. I am done trying to explain the inner workings of my own mind. I'm pretty sure you understand what I am ineloquently trying to articulate.

Glass mosaic photo frame

Please excuse the not-quite dry glue!

I wanted to make something for one of my colleges for her birthday so I have beautified a cheap wilkos wood effect photo frame into a thing of beauty!

Wood PVA and mosaic squares.  Deffo worth a go!

London with Tats

On Sunday, Tats and I went to London to very belatedly celebrate her Birthday. :D we stayed out late...

We went to The British museum:

Which was extremely busy because it was raining outside. We had a whistle stop tour of most of the free galleries, but we were both pretty grateful to escape back outside again!

Next we went shopping for Japanese books- Tats was after text books and I was after Manga so we visited a selection of shops- all of which were extremely exciting. I spent £50 on 5 books in forbidden planet. It was not a very proud moment (And I've read them all already! more please!).

Following book shopping we headed to china town o get some fortune cookies for brownies... I know, we're such geeks:

Then for a mooch round soho:

And finally for dinner! We had omniokiaki. Which is amazing. It's like a kind of giant pancake. I can't explain it, but I need to eat it again! I also had mulled Sake. That was pretty awesome too.

finished glass creations!

Here are the finished articles from the workshop!
:)

Here are all the coloured glass pictures the group made:

This is my power station glass plate:

My mum went for a more conventional look:

The cooked stag beetle:

The cooked Macintosh made by my mum:

Glorious glass creation's website isn't working at the moment, but they have a Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Glorious-Glass-Creations-485677464826351/?fref=photo