Went to stay with Scarlett in London for the weekend as we had tickets to see David Tennant and the royal Shakespeare company in Richard II at the Barbican on Friday night.  It was very good and David's performance was not quite what we were expecting!  The Barbican centre itself is interesting, pity it was dark.  Built in the 60s it houses a cinema, theatre and exhibition space as well as upmarket apartments.  

Got sidetracked into Accessorise on the way there and picked up this hat for half price.  Thought it would look nice for the theatre.

On Saturday we walked down into Brixton to the markets which are full of interesting shops selling hand made, retro, vintage and other interesting and unusual items.  Could have bought lots of things but was quite restrained.  Did pick up a couple of craft books though (one for me and one for Scarlett) which look interesting and are signed by the author. 

In the evening Scarlett had tickets for the Cirque du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall.  We met her friends Connie and Jay before the performance in a very busy pub in a rather select mews just down the road.  The performance and venue were just amazing!  We were in row 5 so had a really good view.  The timing was split second and they had no safety nets.

Sunday morning was lovely and sunny so we walked through Brockwell Park to Herne Hill where there are some nice shops and a street market selling things produced locally, both food and crafts, as well as retro and vintage items.  There is also a rather good Oxfam shop which has some good labels so I bought a Ted Baker coat. Scarlett bought a table to put her TV on from a second hand furniture shop which turned out to be a sewing table and still contained two carrier bags full of sewing stuff which Scarlett very kindly shared with me.  Just need to sort it all out!


Happy brthday to Tracey for today, the 19th

Happy birthday Olivia for tomorrow, the 20th.

One week gone already!  Sunday 5th was my friend Tracey's husband Adam's 50th birthday and she organised a surprise meal for him on the Saturday for about 80 family and friends at a resturant at Kinver.  It was nice to see everyone I had met at their wedding 18 months ago.  Adam bought Tracey a baby doll for Christmas which she has called Sophia Alice and which is scarily real (It breathes!).

I  have plenty of magazines and books to inspire me in the new year.  My sister bought me a subscription for Mollie Makes and I also had a Mollie Makes book for Christmas, I subscribed to a trial of Simply Crochet, I have my Homemaker magazine and also picked up some back copies of various magazines from the garden centre in their post Christmas sale. Most also came with free gifts.  I love the needlecraft stamp set.

Finished the scarf I started over Christmas in the triple scarf wool.  It looks quite good and is very thick and soft. 

Have ordered some pom pom makers and some flower makers from China but will be a while before they arrive.  I was impressed with Michelle's flower maker that I had a go with over Christmas.  They are so quick and easy to make but look quite impressive. I wore mine this week for work.

All the Christmas decorations down now and house slowly returning to normal.  There is so much I want to do in the house this year but my problem is I like to go away as well!