Going To England For A Warm

How's the weather where you are?  They tell me the weather here it's about to warm up but I'm sick of waiting and I'm off to England for a warm - and that's not something you hear people say often!

Thought I share a handful of photos I've taken from my living room window over the last few months.

It's been cold and grey and ice flowed down the Hudson.

Sometimes the sun shone but it was bitterly cold...

that's -15C/5F and RealFeel -30C/-22F, brrrrrrrrrrrr

...and the ice on the Hudson continued to grow.

This is how things looked down at street level.

Pretty cold yeah?

I did enjoy this pop of colour as I crossed Target car park one morning on my way back from the dog groomer.

It was a painful walk over there when my eyes watered from the cold wind it turned to icicles on my eyelashes - but look at these freshly groomed cuties, well worth it :D

And this made me giggle just last Friday morning - thoughtful of them to dig those seats out but I'll pass on sitting in them.

Last week I ventured out to Lion Brand Yarn Studio on 15th Street, Manhattan (read more about the store here).

Pics of their latest store window display, I love how they change this and it's always something eye-catching and wonderful.

And the purpose of my visit to the store?

To purchase the yarnit ready for my trip back to England.

I forgot to take pics of the yarnit in use before I left but trust me it's AMAZING, I've no idea how I ever managed without it, even in the home, let alone how fantastic it'll be on the plane.  Take a look at their website for how it works, apols for not showing it off better here, but it's so worthy of a blog post mention I'm doing it anyway.

I fly in a few hours and I'm so excited to see Mum, Flicky and Joe on this trip - we're celebrating English Mother's Day and Mum's 80th birthday while I'm there and we've lots and lots planned.  I've got a few posts scheduled while I'm away so I won't be disappearing altogether.

Here's hoping for much, much warmer weather by the time I return.  See you in a few weeks :D

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That Was February, This Is March

So it's March and I've been buying some gorgeous new fabrics at Pins & Needles on the Upper East Side.

A couple of Ed Emberley "Picture Pie" for Cloud9 fabrics - you just have to love those raccoons and Michael Miller's black & white Clown Stripe.

2 yards of multi pom poms, white fleece and white french terry.

Some fat quarters - I haven't got a printed selvedge on any of them so I have no idea what I've bought, if anyone has any idea I'd love to know!

So that's what I've been doing in March but what about February and, for that matter, January?

Well in January this little guy came to live with us, his name's Watson and he's a Havanese.

Yep he's pretty much running the household and, as you can see, he's totally taken ownership of Tatty's bed!

Then in February Simon and I headed off for a week to Seville to see all the kids - that's right, ALL the kids - it's 2 years since we were all together!!!

The trip involved a lot of this -

there's half a bottle of Tanqueray gin with a thimble of tonic in my glass!

Need more evidence of how we passed our time?  

Here's Ana, Jack, Joe and Katie and a table full of our cocktails.

We didn't take many pics (see my post about my previous trip here) and a lot of what I do have are poor quality phone photos, but there's not a single one of us all together :( and turns out this is the only pic I've got of Flicky!

and this one's me with Simon.

It rained every day and although it wasn't warm it was most definitely warmer than NYC.  The sun did break through for a couple of hours one day as I snapped this pic of Joe and Katie dancing in Seville's Cathedral garden

and this is the sunny view from the top of the Cathedral's Giralda Tower.

I loved all the hand stitched scarves

and there was quilty inspiration on every floor.

Here I am on the flight home - knitting and stretching out as there were only 80 of us on the 335 seater plane.

Airplane food was, as always a trial for me - just because I'm gluten free doesn't mean I like rice cakes, I hate rice cakes.

So that's my dinner and below's my breakfast - another rice cake that someone's gone to the trouble of cutting in half - makes no difference, I still hate rice cakes.

Since I got home I've been working on a sampler for a potential class, late into the night I've been busy sewing together jelly roll strips.

Tomorrow I'm off to San Francisco till Monday and I'm looking forward to some potential sunshine instead of more of this.

Here's to Spring in New York - though I've got a feeling we'll be skipping Spring and going straight into another scorcher of a Summer!!!

I know it's terribly British of me but I'm wondering how the weather's treating you?  Answers on a postcard please or even in a comment.

Is That A Dog In A Pram???!!!!!!

View out to the Empire State

I just have to share today's news with you all.  Since last November, I have been walking miles each day to improve my health.  I had an idea that it would be nice to have a dog to walk with me and hence the arrival of Thatcher, known as Tatty to her friends.  Unfortunately Tatty isn't quite so keen on the idea of walking as I am.  By the time we've trotted to the lift, gone down 23 floors and crossed the lobby of our apartment building Tatty's tired and ready to go home.

View down to 1 World Trade Centre

It's been such a disappointment for me, she's at home and I'm still out walking alone but I had an idea - let's get a dog pram.  Hubby, S, took quite some convincing, it's not something that you'd want to be seen with in England - you'd be laughed at in the street, but we'll be walking around Manhattan, Hoboken and Jersey City and here, anything goes.
 
So the pram, a top of the range Pet Gear AT3 Generation 2 All-Terrain Pet Stroller arrived today and we were straight out of the door to enjoy the lovely weather and do a bit of shopping in Hoboken.  Tatty took turns at walking and then riding in the pram when she was tired and best of all she loved it.  A few people did do a double take, a woman in a car was heard saying "did you see that dog in a carriage?".  Meeting up with us on her way home from school, our daughter, F, completely disowned us but I don't care, we'll be out again in the morning doing a good 5 miles, Tatty and me, the two of us together.  Lovely x

Updated at 14 May 2014

I'm very pleased to be able to report that Tatty graduated from her pram later in 2012 and has been happily walking on all four legs ever since!!! :D

A Very Wet Tuesday

Coming from England a girl is quite used to a fair bit of rain but I have to say that this American wet stuff is something else, when it decides to rain boy does it rain and boy do you get wet.

It's rained off and on all day even so, I've had a really good day, managing finally to find a coat suitable for my Dad's funeral (do you have any idea how difficult it is to get hold of a coat at this time of year in Manhattan?  Quite incredible really, lots of suit jackets and North Face coats but nothing that bit longer, suitably smart and dressy! My husband, S, suggested that I wait till we get to England and buy one there - you can buy a coat all year round in England, maybe it's down to the constantly changeable weather?  Anyway, I didn't fancy doing that, I want to travel with everything already sorted and ready and now it is so that's a huge relief.

This evening S and I went to our monthly Film Club meetup, a year looking at some of Stanley Kubrick's movies - so far we've watched and discussed Paths of Glory (1957) and tonight we looked at Lolita (1962).  

"She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks.  She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always - Lolita." - Vladimir Nabokov

We've pretty much all heard of the movie and at least know something of the term 'Lolita' but I'd never seen it or read the book.  Well now I've read the book written by Vladimir Nabokov in 1955, (previously I'd only heard of him in the line from The Police song 'Don't Stand So Close To Me'), I've seen Kubrick's 1962 film version starring James Mason, Shelley Winters and Peter Sellers and also Adrian Lyne's 1997 film version starring Jeremy Irons and Melanie Griffith.  Have to say I'm crazy about the book, I thought it was amazingly well written, I loved the character and story development and constantly struggled with just how much I was enjoying a book about what is still a taboo subject.  For me the Kubrick movie was incredibly disappointing, probably down to constraints due to the period when it was made, but it failed to deliver on many levels.  However, the more recent Lyne's movie was, in my opinion, a joy.  It stayed faithful to the book and managed to take every image I'd conjured in my head while reading the book and reproduce them accurately on screen - quite a rare feat.  So tonight's discussion was, as always, very lively with varied opinions, much chat and even more laughter.

I did manage to get in a bit of sewing today.  I'm a bit further on with the 'Children of Israel' block and here's the proof.

'Children of Israel' block - progress on the sewing front!

If tomorrow's visit to the dentist to have a crown fitted isn't too traumatic I may try to get it completed, but don't hold your breath!

Other related posts about my 'Children of Israel' block:
My First Quilting Bee
Children of Israel 12" Quilting Block
Creating and Adding Applique to the Children of Israel Block