£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  For cost per item, it was superseded  by the skein of Tilli Tomas 'Disco Lights' that found it's way into my hands, an aran weight 100% silk yarn with a running thread of mini pailette sequins.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.

Rant 'a.k.a. Plea for a New Stereo Whilst Celebrating the Old One'

In the Top 10 of 'Songs You Don't Want To Hear On The Radio When You've Just Returned From A Long,  Trying Day At Work' is Justin Beiber's latest piece of rubbish.  Imagine my horror when turning on my trusty stereo after ten pm I am subjected to the kind of aural defecation that is equivalent to a seriously dodgy case of food poisoning.  I did not think that this Alvinesque voiced pre-teen pipsqueak (I do not believe the media when they say that the boy is 16-my voice has a deeper pitch than his!) could get any worse, but he has far excelled my expectations.  For this release he has teamed up with one of those incredibly un-credible stalwarts of pop/reggae/r&b/dancelite Sean Kingston or Iyaz and produced some utter bilge that I am sure his fans will love.  If someone is willing to pay me, I would love to train as an assassin and personally wipe out every single one of them, just for the fun of it.  Then I can get back to my everyday life.

What this basically boils down to is that I really need to get a new stereo.  I could change the station but it has a dial tuner, making it extremely annoying to tune in to or out of anything else. I have it locked into 102.2 FM, which was Choice FM, then Galaxy 102.2, now GalaxyFM.  At the time I received my stereo my musical tastes weren't as diverse as they are now and I mostly listened to r&b and dance, which was what Choice FM played.  When it became Galaxy it stayed the same but over the years it has become increasingly more commercial, giving the station a playlist that is mostly pop/chart, with a few specialist r&b/dance shows on Friday and weekend evenings.  Some of the pop is fine to listen to, yet at other times it's the kind of dirge that makes me want to kick my defenceless Amstrad MC 800 so hard that it explodes.
The stereo that I will eventually end up getting will have to have digital radio, so I can flick through stations with the same ease that I can eat three Krispy Kremes without feeling remotely guilty.  I also want it to have a USB port and MP3 playback so if such bad music moments occur I can listen to music of my own choosing.

I will admit that I am not yet ready to give up my Amstrad audio device.  It will be celebrating it's 12th birthday on my 26th birthday in a few weeks and although it doesn't like the occasional CD and the back of it has broken near the speaker sockets, making the left speaker go mute sometimes, it has been my faithful friend, accompanying me when I get ready in the mornings, craft, dry my hair, tidy my bedroom (not a regular occurrence of late), get ready for bed...  Until the radio broadcasters decide to do away with analogue signals I think I will stick with it.  Then, AND ONLY THEN, will I shamelessly pick up the Argos catalogue and pick my ultimate dream stereo.  For less than £100.

I ♥ Misery Bear

In the spirit of Valentine's Day (albeit a day late) I feel I should confess that Misery Bear is my new found love.  Thanks to the wonder that is the BBC and Rough Cut, this wonderfully woeful animal has been brought to my attention and I am very happy that he is now in my life.  If you would like the chance to love this bear and bring a bit of hilarity to your day, visit  http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/comedy/2010/02/misery-bear-valentines-blog.shtml  for a little taster

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...     

  

The limitations of living with family

Ahh, family.  Can't live with them, can't live without them.   Can't shoot them either unless you're planning a stint in prison.  I do live with my brother so I guess I should amend that well-known adage to can't live with them without wanting to take all their annoying little habits and setting them on fire (if that is technically possible).  I list my brother's faults as thus:

1.  He never shuts the door when using the bathroom-unless he's "laying down the law" (his words)
2.  He makes noise from the moment he gets up.  As a child he was always beat boxing and he still hasn't grown out of that habit.  I do not want to hear some drum and bass/dubstep remix of whatever song he wishes to remix when I'm trying to sleep.  He had the gall to call me a cheeky c*** under his breath when I told him to keep the noise down whilst he was singing in the shower.  He is not aware of the thinness of the walls (or the perceptiveness of my hearing) so I told him off.
3.  He leaves his worn socks in the living room.  Ditto trainers, biscuits, biscuit wrappers, Ped-Egg filings (yuk!), plates, mugs and other day-to-day detritus.
4.  The mantlepiece of said living room also serves as an extension of his bedroom with his cosmetic products-baby oil, deodorants, aftershave, lotion (body and hair).
5.  In the back room (which to be honest serves mostly as a thoroughfare to the kitchen and upstairs) he keeps a bike which he bought on the cheap because it was old and he took it out once and the tyre burst and it needs new wheels because the rubber is all cracked but he is too cheap to buy new ones.
6.  He is cheap.  Whenever there is a cheaper option available he will take it, regardless of whether it is actual value for money.  He baulked at the idea of spending £30 on an iron, so I bought it with my own money.  As for the ironing board, it came out of our joint account.  I was hoping that he would take a tenner and add a couple of quid of his own to get the £12.99 one.  Instead he got the £8.99 cheapo and kept the change.
7.  He does not know how to wash his clothes.  Rather than wash on a weekly basis he waits until he has no clean clothes left then shoves everything in the machine.  I once took 14 t-shirts, along with bedding, jeans, socks and underwear out once because I needed to use it and the clothes had been left in there.  Then he complains that his clothes never dry properly in the dryer.  Other times when he hasn't got a full load he will put a few things in the machine and just leave them without washing them.
8.  He does not do any washing up until he has used everything.  I do it on an 'as used' basis, unless I'm feeling lazy, then I'll do it later in the day or the next if I'm positively slovenly.
9.  He moans that he has no money.  That's because he spends it on crappy car/graffiti magazines and food that he doesn't need.
10.  And trainers-that boy has far too many trainers!  He is a Vans officionado.  He has at least 40 pairs, yet he still buys more.
11.  He does not buy milk, yet uses most of it.
12.  He's been with his girlfriend for about a year, yet he always complains about her.  Last year there was some farcical happenings concerning a pregnancy scare and frankly I was sick of it all.
13.  He watches the Hollyoaks omnibus (a leftover habit from a previous girlfriend)

I never realised there was so much that annoyed me about him.  I'm not saying that I am perfect but at least my habits are less annoying, from my point of view at least.