25 is a magic number...

... Well ok maybe it's not, I don't know. According to Wikipedia it's also a Cullen number, I don't know what a Cullen number is but it makes my inner twihard happy.

I try to blog about once a week, not always successfully, but my slightly OCD tendencies feel happy when the archive for each month has at least 4 posts in it. What I do more often than writing my blog is reading other people's blogs. Recently Mumma Troll posted 25 things about herself, and Susie from Useless Beauty joined in and posted 25 things too. I decided to join in, I just gained my 25th follower over the weekend so it seems appropriate. Hope it doesn't drive anyone away....

25 things you possibly didn't want to know about me:

1. I never got any taller after I hit 13 years old.
2. I still have a pair of trousers from when I was 13 that I was "going to grow into", I still wear them on nights out.
3. I get obsessed with books and films and watch/read them over and over till it passes. Some examples are Harry Potter, the first Matrix film, The Lord of the Rings films, and most recently Twilight.
4. Quite often I will love a book while disliking the author. E.g. JK's obsession with suing people even though her books have blatant rip offs in them too. 
5. I once tried to make fudge without having the proper cooking equipment and burnt my hand, I haven't tried anything involving heating up sugar since.
6. My favourite alcohol currently is Jack Daniels.
7. I can't get drunk on peach schnapps no matter how hard I try.
8. I have a slight phobia of phones. I hate answering the phone and if I need to call someone I don't know and I can't get someone else to do it I will put it off for ages and then I need to write a script before I dial.
9. I hate bananas, a lot.
10. I don't iron my clothes, I hang them up while they're wet and let gravity do it for me.
11. The most expensive piece of clothing I own is an Emily Strange hoodie that cost me £75.
12. I think my style could sometimes be described as "hippy goth". I like gothic stuff, and rainbow coloured stuff, and tye-dye.
13. I eat jaffa cakes the same way every time. I nibble round the orange bit, eat all the sponge from the underneath, peel the last of the chocolate off the top then eat the orange part last.
14. I bite my nails because I used to copy my dad when he did it, now it's a habit.
15. I used to talk to my granddad all the time when I was little, I never met him, he passed away two years before I was born.
16. I loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a child, I used to write to them and post the letters in the sewer grates.
17. I'd love to rent my house out, buy a van, and just drive around the UK for at least a year.
18. I hardly ever wear make-up, I only recently figured out how to put it on properly.
19. I always got good marks on exams, I sometimes wonder how far I could have gone if I'd actually revised for them and put more effort in.
20. I'm not very good at numbers, and I never learned my times tables, not one teacher noticed this.
21. I'm allergic to pollen, cats, rabbits, rats, dust, and banana flavoured children's medicine.
22. I want to get a tattoo I just haven't found an image I'd want to wear forever yet.
23. I panicked a bit at turning 20 and leaving teen behind. That's how I got my first piercing (the top of my left ear).
24. I've always felt under pressure to do well and have some fantastic career, when what I really want to do is have a family.
25. I really want to try past life regression and see if I've been here before, but I don't want to get ripped off and I don't trust a stranger to hypnotise me.

So that's 25 things, hope it wasn't too boring, throw me a link in the comments section if you keep the 25 things going.

D.I.Y and rude veg

Yesterday I put up a shelf in the kitchen. It's blog worthy because like most things I do I made it up as I went along. The shelf was found with a bunch of others up the loft when we emptied it a few weeks ago, the brackets were about 60p each and the screws and wall plugs were conveniently already in the tool box. I don't own a spirit level so I balanced a measuring jug with some water in on the shelf with one hand while I drew under it with a pencil. I marked the screw holes with the pencil through the brackets. Luckily I estimated the electrics correctly and managed to avoid death and electricians bills. The shelf is now housing my cookbook, scales, flour, and alcohol. It looks straight to me, which is good enough.

I'm going to put another shelf over the draining board when I get some more brackets. At the moment a clock lives there that always ran five minutes slow no matter which batteries it had, it's now showing an entirely different time zone so it's going in favour of useful surface space. I salvaged a clothes rail from a broken wardrobe in the garage so that's going under the next shelf for towels.

I've also been harvesting more carrots from the garden, and the first of the potatoes, although I didn't water them enough to get an impressive size. I often give my dogs some fruit or veg instead of dog treats so now every time I pull some carrots they assume they're getting some.

Last but not least, my very first rude vegetable. Pulled up on sunday and photographed for my amusement, and now yours!

Wall Hanging WIP*

I've been busy this last week working on a spur of the moment project. My beautiful nephew has just turned one and I was struggling to come up with a present for him that would actually be useful. He's already got about a million toys and things so I didn't want to add to the pile. I finally settled on something decorative for his room. I decided to make a fabric wall hanging, he's not really into any specific things yet as far as I know, so I went for 'pets' as a theme. I decided bright colours were a must, and I'm hand sewing it all because it seems simpler than trying to figure out my sewing machine.

I bought all the fabric in one go so if it's a little garish it's because I didn't have much time for colour matching beforehand. I googled to find the animal designs I wanted to use and made some alterations to them to make them easier for me to cut and sew. I even got the iron out and pressed seams! I never usually go near the iron. 

So far I've got the six backgrounds blocks stitched together, and all the animals cut and pinned in place. I've finished one of the blocks so far and I'm halfway on two others. I can see it taking another week to finish. I guess it would be a sort of mini quilt with appliqué but I'm making it all up as I go along. 

I enjoy sewing by hand but after this project is done I might dig out the sewing machine instructions again. Just because it's faster. Anyway, back to stitching.....

*WIP = Work in progress