£369.25 in 14 days (excluding other monthly expenses)

I have spent far too much over the past two weeks.  Luckily most of it was unusual purchases that shall not dent my finances again (or for a while at the very least) but some of it was complete frivolousness that truly warrants me a harsh slap on my debit card carrying mitt.  I went to London on the 27th May to see the incredible Hindi Zahra sing at the Jazz Cafe.  Her debut album 'Handmade' is a short but sweet affair showing her variety in tone, moving from big and soulful to delicate folksiness to traditional North African along with her musical blending of jazz/folk/blues/North African/Mediterranean .  Seeing her live made me realise that her album doesn't do her justice-behind a microphone in front of you her voice is bigger, better and the addition of a live band who moved the music into the realms of rock, reggae and afrobeat, in addition to those in the album made it the most enjoyable gig that I have been to.
Before my musical evening I decided to visit Loop, a yarn shop in Islington which I knew sold luxury yarns.  I had intended to go there to buy a skein of 'Magic Ball', a yarn produced by an American company Be Sweet.  Each one is a texture fest-100 metres of mohair, bobbles, loopy boucle and ribbon that is hand dyed and painted.  And costs £24 per 50g.  I figured that wasn't much to pay as one would make a scarf, plus if I considered it to be a birthday treat it wasn't that much.  What I hadn't bargained for was all the other stuff that would catch my magpie eyes.  With there being a lack of yarn shops in Birmingham any time I visit one that has yarns that I cannot obtain unless I get them online I always spend far too much.  Which wasn't hard given the cost of most of the stock in Loop.  For weight, that skein of Magic Ball is the most expensive yarn I have bought.  For cost per item, it was superseded  by the skein of Tilli Tomas 'Disco Lights' that found it's way into my hands, an aran weight 100% silk yarn with a running thread of mini pailette sequins. This shiny, wine coloured little beauty knocked my bank balance down by £28.  I regained the most meagre of slices of financial sensibility by also purchasing 3 balls of cotton yarns (Rico Essentials DK and BC Garn Allino) which in total cost £11.50.  I was thrown a 'freebie'-a cotton bag to stow my purchases in, with the Loop logo in bright pink on it to make people fully aware that my label whoring tendencies only extend to yarn shops (cue flashback to two years previous in Edinburgh in similar situation and returning with similar cotton bag with k1yarns knitting boutique printed on front).
If that wasn't enough yarn buying I took a trip to John Lewis the next day before I had to catch my train back to Birmingham.  This time I did restrain myself, only spending £15 on four balls of Gedifra Amara, a shiny cotton/polyamide that is going to be made into a summer bag.  As per usual, I am sort of winging it with the design, making strips of Tunisian crochet in two colours which I will join with surface crochet.  I like the optical blending that happens when you use the two colour technique, yet when you look closely each colour becomes distinct.

The beginnings of the bag

The rest of my money had been spent entertaining friends.  It was the first time that I had people over to stay so there was a distinct lack of sleeping stuff in the house (bar those that grace my own bed and my brother's).  Thanks to eBay I am now the proud owner of two inflatable mattresses (each with it's own in-built pump) and I also have 4 extra pillows, 2 fitted sheets and 2 blankets (courtesy of Primark).  All of these items now need to be vacuum packed into storage bags before they take over my wardrobe.  The best thing about having friends over was that it gave me a chance to cook for people.  I'm quite lazy with regards to my own food habits so I wanted to make something from scratch.   For our lunch I made a Chinese chicken soup (I used stock cubes as I did not have the time to be boiling chicken scraps) and baked a rather tasty peanut butter pudding, which was accompanied by a toffee sauce.  Both dishes turned out far better than I expected so I'm definitely going to make them again.

Like a ball of yarn, but more awkward

In honour of St David's Day (a total lie, it was mentioned on Something For The Weekend this morning, but it is coincidentally appropriate) I had bought some very lovely yarn from a very lovely company called Colinette, based in Wales. They hand dye about 20 different yarn types in a range of up to 80 colourways, or some ridiculous number around that.  I have already used this website before to purchase some of their newest yarn called ART (a wonderfully soft merino/bamboo blend) but this time I went for Banyan (cotton) and Parisienne (a kid mohair blend).
For those unaware, yarn comes in two formats-a ball (self-explanatory) or a skein, in which the yarn has been wound in a circular method, tied then twisted together on itself to stop it tangling.  These have to be undone and rewound into a ball before you can use them-I have found that out the hard way in the past.  I also had trouble learning the right way to unwind a skein. Cotton and wool are nice smooth fibres so it is not too difficult to transform the skein to the knitter-friendly format. Mohair, on the other hand will tangle with itself faster than you can say dammit Janet so I assumed that the hard work would have been done for me and it would be ready-balled.....WRONG!  I spent an hour yesterday turning 50 piddling grammes of mohair into something workable.  The sad thing is that is pretty good timewise for me, I once spent over four hours having to unknot an incorrectly unwound skein.
Anyways, I show you my before and after handiwork below:

Before-an unwound skein

After-workable yarn

 
With all that effort I may not even bother making anything out of it, it shall stay as a testament to hard work and perseverance

Write it down before you forget

Following on from yesterdays listing  I add a few more minor irritations:

14.  Occasionally he has tidying moments and he moves/chucks my stuff without asking whether I want it.  Yes I know my stuff may be slightly in the way but I know where everything is and when you move it I don't.

15.  He never cleans the sink after he washes his face/shaves, thus leaving me to get rid of the stubble/ beady exfoliator bits.

16.  The shower curtain rail still hasn't been put up after about 6 months.

17.  He leaves scuzzy bubbles at the bottom of the bath after he showers, and gets water everywhere (due to no 16)

Now to the listing I was actually supposed to do-ideas for things that I want to make (and hopefully sell).  My problem is that I have a million and one thoughts about things I should make but never write them down.  I did attempt putting pen to paper but I always lose the scraps of notepaper.  By committing them to the internet they will be down for posterity and I will be able to refer to them when my ideas tank is running dry.  Whether any of them will be made is another story.

1.  A complete set of Mario Mushrooms (probably felted as crochet and knit will require me to make, sew together and stuff, whereas if I felt them I can make them in one piece)

2.  A bag with paisley patterning.  I feel that paisley is an underrated pattern, it seems to be left to old-man cravats in shades of burgundy.  My paisley bag will be red, with paisley shapes in differing sizes.

3.  Felted animal characters.  Circulating in my head is a rat with a chef's hat and apron-'Rat in Mi Kitchen' would be the name.  Also one of those retro owls with huge eyes, a panda and some fish.

More to be added...