Istanbul here I come!

Pooch and I are off for a blissful week in Istanbul. We have 3 nights in a traditional place and 3 nights in a very swish modern one. Both have wifi so I may blog if I have a minute. I've got a map of a great knitting shop, curtusy of the Istanbul knitting group on Ravelry and Pooch's agreement that up to an hour will be spent there and in the haberdashery shops nearby. Awesome.

I got it into my head that I *must* make a bag to use while there. So regard! Possibly the jobiest bag in the world!

The best thing about it is the kitten fabric on the inside. I love that fabric. Not sure if I'll actually take it with me but may do just for the fun of it.

Before I vanish allow me to direct you to Nics Knots. Gorgeous knitting bags in gorgeous fabrics. I do like the sheep designs, and the skull and crossbones, but the Laura Ashley poppies is the winner. So elegant.

If I do not get a cat soon I'll......I'll......

I have been asking Pooch to get me a cat for my birthday. He keeps saying 'no' but I won't give up. Meanwhile I torture myself....

In February I spotted a picture of a cat wearing a devil hat. Too cute. Then on Ravelry I spotted the designer has a new pattern out for a unicorn cat-hat. That one didn't appeal to me especially....but the bear ears? Oh boy. So I have shamelessly nicked her photos from Ravelry in the belief she won;t mind in return for this plug - all the patterns are available on Ravelry here or on Etsy here and are only about $4 each. So if you have a cat, and it needs a hat, you know where to go.

Bear Cat

Frog Cat

Party Cat (Pooch did point out that in this one the cat looks like he's had enough hats for one day, but still)

Monster Cat

And then just in case you are deranged like me in your desire for cats, but your hateful husband has deliberately set out to be allergic to them, she has cat patterns too.

Meow!

Finally, just so you know I don't exaggerate about my working conditions....

And I'm the one in the middle. Although I'm hoping that was clear and didn't really need saying.

Slow Week

Pretty slow week at work so far. New boy started yesterday and has so far born up well to the torrent of abuse that passes for our team dynamism. He just took a picture of me and two of my colleagues with our bellies' exposed and a 4th colleague's name written on the aforementioned exposed bellies. So as I type I have a big 'A' hidden under my t-shirt. He's still managed to eat lunch too. I guess it's only tuesday though, so goodness knows what horror will strike in the next few days.

Life outside work has been pretty exciting though. You don't end up like this by playing it safe you know.

(It's the inner side of my elbow on my right arm - I know the angles look weird but it is - trust me on this.)

I went to give blood. I really should stop doing that but it was World Blood Day and they'd sent me a postcard saying the blood stocks always plummeted during a World Cup so I thought I would. Plus they had a big cake. It was good. I got through the iron test and listing current meds with flying colours and she found a vein straight away too. Possibly over confident following my assurances that something usually goes terribly wrong she said "Here we go.......................Um...............................SHE'S BRUISING!!!!!!! SOMEONE GET ME A SWAB!!!!!". I took great pains not to look, since that's what lead to my fainting last time I went. It doesn't actually hurt but I have to wait four weeks for it to heal and then they'll try again.

Do you give blood? The two main disqualifications are being a gay man (so backward but there you go) and having had a blood transfusion since about 1980. If neither of those apply to you then you really should. Click here to find your nearest donation point. There might be cake.

So apart from that....I've become mildly obsessed with the look of my blog and with having weird dreams. I've really got to write down that one about the crab. It's not even like I've been eating cheese. I have been compiling tutorials for crafty goodness and have added another page to this blog to keep track of them. I was thinking about this in the bath last night and got quite annoyed with Pooch for not earning enough to make it possible for me to sit at home crafting more often. But then he came in and said something sweet and I remembered he was ok again.

Blog pimping, again

Darling Blogger, how you do aim to please. Blogger have just introduced a new template editor which is amazingly simple to use and highly configurable. So as you can see I have changed my look - for today at least. I went with books to suit the sexy librarian theme. But who knows what tomorrow will bring!

I'm also going down the advertising route so if you are a LYS, an etsy/folksy seller, a budding author, or just have something to say I have a blog for you to do it on. I know it's a bit commerical but I really want to be able to stop scrimping to save for a deposit - and every penny from ads will help that happen sooner.

I'm a sexy librarian.

Although the boys at work say I'm more like that old lady librarian ghost from Ghostbusters.

Well what a weekend. Having dismally drawn England in the office sweepstake I am now semi-obliged to take an interest in their inevitable downfall. It was probably just as well since we were having a roomful of people round to watch their first game yesterday. I made key lime pie using this amazingly simple recipe. Pooch made chilli. Everyone was happy basically. Apart from that goal keeper. Ah well.

Of course no evening with Pooch is complete without a laptop. And in this case it was used so that one of his mates on the otherside of london who was looking after his baby girl could be with us in spirit via Skype videocall. Skype really is amazing technology - and on top of that it is free. So we were able to keep an eye on each others' reactions and to share analysis at half-time. You can see him circled in red here.

Just to balance things out and make sure no one thinks I'm actually supporting england long-term or anything, I have placed my first ever bet with a bookmaker. £5 on Germany to win the whole thing. And they've just scored twice in their first game so I'm feeling good about it. It might make the next few weeks slightly more bearable too.

On the craft side it is still all about the hexagons. So not much to show. However, I did take a break long enough to whip this up.

It ties around the door handles of the front room. The door never stays shut when a window is open because of the throughdraft and it bangs and scrapes where the catch is. So now it deliberately doesn't shut, and the padding inside it stops the banging. I is genius.