Suze H

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Tuesday 31 July 2012

New job!

Hooray!!  I have finally got another job.  It's a climb up the ladder, a much higher salary and more prospects of career advancement!  I only have another 2 weeks left at this place and overall I will be pleased to leave.  I will miss working for my wonderful boss (GG, you are totally awesome!) and will miss some of my lovely friends, but I will stay in touch with all of them.  I will also miss my friend's lovely dog, Gizzy, who sometimes comes to visit us in the office.
Here is Gizzy with a sneaky biscuit in his mouth!
I start my new job on 22 August, so wish me luck.

Well, I got my hopes up the other week with the promise of a summer, but it seems to have been a cruel hoax and now we're back to rather grey days, with the occasional burst of sunshine.   Cue, comfort food:
Some homemade bread

Yummy strawberry cake

I rarely put strawberries on the icing - lovely though theylook, the juices leak into the cake

Some of HP's home grown produce




One rainy lunchtime, I sneaked to one of Cambridge's few wool shops and bought a new pattern.  I really like the King Cole Riot yarn and thought another project with this was in order:



I'm going to make the long-sleeved cardigan but with the yarn shown in the waistcoat picture.  I love the mix of purples and browns and greys.  If only I could knit faster!  Or if only I could knit all the time!

When I wasn't knitting, I was reading a wonderful book called "The Girl with Glass Feet".  Rarely do I find a book that I'm so moved by, although I spend a lot of my spare time reading, so I highly recommend this book by Ali Shaw.



I meant to take some pics of my current knitting project, but forgot!  More on that next time.

Thursday 12 July 2012

Choccie and jewellery

While HP was happily destroying redoing our kitchen, I thought I would stay completely out of the way, so I confined myself to my craft room.  This gave me the perfect opportunity to make some jewellery, which I must confess I haven't done for yonks!  I've been more in to my knitting recently.

I wanted to make a little something for a lovely colleague whose birthday was on 7 July.  She's been very supportive over the recent troubles at work, so I wanted to let her know she was appreciated, so she got a silver memory wire bracelet.


She loved it, so I was most pleased!  She wears a few silver bangles, so I thought this would compliment them nicely.

Well, then I got on to a bit of a roll and made a couple more bracelets.

Had a few shells I wanted to do something with

Didn't have enough shell discs to make a full bracelet so had to put on a logo!

Then moved on to a couple of necklaces. 


Sadly the photos don't really do the colours justice.  There's a lot of shimmering going on there!

As HP has been working so hard, I thought he deserved a little treat so I got him some choccy as I was passing Thornton yesterday. 


 Speaking of chocolate, I realised that I didn't post any pics of the amazing stuff I got from Brussels.  Well, most of it didn't last long enough to get a photo taken, but I did manage to hold off long enough to take this beauty:

A thing of beauty is a joy forever - or about 10 minutes in this case!

The funky box the chocs came i
With all this refurbishment going on at home, it does mean the place is somewhat untidy and messy, so some serious housework is called for this weekend.  I really want to make up a top I've finished knitting in Sirdar Firefly (which I'm hoping won't be too small for me!) and do some work on a simple lace top I'm knitting.  We'll have to see how much time I'm left with after I'm done with the Cillit Bang and Mr Sheen.  We're  hopefully having some friends over for dinner next weekend so I do want the place to look nice.  I'm doing venison for the main course but need to sort out the starter and dessert.  Add to the 'To do list' - look for recipe inspiration.

Thursday 5 July 2012

Completed works!

As I mentioned in my last blog, I'm very proud to say that I have kept my New Year's resolution and completed nearly all my WIPs.


The funky soaker pants for my nephew are finally complete.  Little Alex arrived on 5 May and although these pants are still way too huge for him, his parents appreciated the humour (as I suspected!)  His Dad was a bit disappointed that he didn't arrive on the main Star Wars day (May the 4th), but took consolation that he arrived on another SW day - revenge of the fifth!  (think about it - groan, groan!)  I've still got to get to Sheffield to see him, which I hope to do very soon.

I've also completed some cardigans and tops:

Baby cardigans for forthcoming arrivals of friends

Pink shrug for those slightly chilly summer evenings (actually, where is summer?)

Really pleased to finish this one as I started it when I was new to knitting about 2 years ago and didn't know how to complete it, so my knowledge and skill level has obviously improved slightly!

Sirdar waistcoat - I didn't like the ribbon round the middle so changed it to the top.  This style is more me than the suggested pattern.


Very simple design, but I love this with a halter neck or vest top underneath, coupled with jeans.



Also knocked up some scarves quickly too:
This is a b'day present for my best friend (isn't until December, but I like to be prepared!)

I'm going to make one for myself in black too.


Love Sirdar Firefly yarn and love these 'large necklaces' which jazz up an outfit.



I got a load of sequins in my Christmas stocking and have been meaning to do something with them,



so while I was on a creative roll, I decided to jazz up the neckline of a rather boring black top:





Not sure how I'm going to wash this now though!


I'm also giving some thought on how I can organise my craft room a bit better.


As you can see, it is crammed with tons of yarn, beads, books and various other 'junk'.  I feasibly can't fit another large shelving unit in there, so I may have to put some of my books in the loft that I don't read anymore.  One to think about.

In between all this crafting, I found the time to go to the Waterbeach Feast and help out with the Waterbeach Community Players' stall.  We were lucky enough to find one of the few days when it didn't pour down with rain, although it was somewhat windy.

As usual, it was great fun, but the village was sad to say goodbye to our army boys as the barracks are closing.  We were treated to a march through the village:


Love the little dog in the corner!

Farewell lads
These kind of events always remind me of my childhood:



Aah, the old Hook a Duck stall

I luurrrvvvve bouncy castles!

The ole' win a cuddly toy
Hmmm!



I've also made sure to keep HP happy with some baking:

Apricot and sultana flapjacks

One of my faves - shortbread

And to keep me happy, I purchased some awesome shoes:

I thought these beauties warranted a BIG picture - oh, colourful shoes, how I love thee!!!























Tuesday 3 July 2012

Back in the land of Blog

Well, I've been away much longer than I intended.  I've been off work ill for some weeks, not helped by the stress of having to work with some highly unpleasant colleagues.  A new job is most definitely called for!  I'll keep you posted on that one.

There's been a lot happening since my last post.


I went to Brussels to visit the European Commission for work, a trip I always enjoy because it means a Eurostar trip and in first class!


For those of you who have not been lucky enough to travel in Eurostar's business class section, I can thoroughly recommend it.  You get totally spoilt and you get a scrummy meal.

This meal picture was taken on my return trip when I came back in the evening, hence the cheeky little bottle of wine - well, it is all free!

I arrived in the afternoon on a quite pleasant but rather windy day (until the heavens opened in the early evening and we had shocking thunder and huge hail stones!).  However, at the time of my arrival, it was perfect for a nice stroll around Brussels.  I visited Grand Place,


which is home to my favourite chocolate shop in Belgium:

 
Of course, all that choccy has gone now :( but it was yummy!

Had a lovely meal out that evening with a colleague at a little bar.  I had some pork and pasta dish and it was to die for.

















 J ordered a beer with his meal and we were rather impressed when it arrived.  This is what is so awesome about other European countries - you'd never get this in the UK!



















I often find I get rather bored when I'm back in my hotel room though, especially on those occasions that I don't take HP with me.  The view from my hotel was uninspiring to say the least!
Yuck!

but naturally I had some knitting with me!
I managed to almost finish this scarf during this trip.  I've made it really long, not quite Tom Baker's Dr Who scarf, but not far off!  I just need to add the tassles and it's done.

Before I forget, the play, "Summer End" went off without a hitch and was enjoyed by nearly 250 people over 4 nights.  Not bad for a village amateur production.  It was great fun and brilliant to work with some lovely and talented people.  The only downside is that there are now some very embarrassing piccies of me and other cast members for all to see on the internet! ;) And no, I'm not including the link to these pictures!

I have also managed to complete a lot of projects in my time off as there was little else for me to do but knit, but I shall post some pictures on that in the next day or two.