I have been looking for kittens for some time now as my friend’s have been looking for them 
I was extremely fortunate to be allowed to come along to meet the ones that I found. The little girls are so pleased as their mum and dad said they could have one each So that leaves one of the three to go elsewhere – poor thing! The mum is a complete beauty both in looks and purrsonality!
1. A picnic blanket – we have several nice ones.
2. Our picnic basket. We got it as a wedding present and it comes with glasses, plates, cutlery etc.
3. Jamie Oliver’s Rolled Picnic Bread without cheese for pao.
4. A bottle of Lorina Pink Lemonade
5. Strawberries and cherries.
6. A shawl to put round my shoulders.
7. Nice napkins.
8. Lots of small snack like foods – mini scotch eggs, sausage rolls, etc.
9. A small knitting project. (Anyone who knows me, knows I hate to sit still without one on the go)
10. pao*
*Provided it is cloudy and we are sitting in the shade. Perhaps a trip to King’s Wood may be in order for a picnic..
Not really a picnic item but I could kiss and snuggle with this little kitten, picnic or no. She is one of three little kittens we went to visit on Sunday. My friends chose two and this little sweetie was the one who was left behind, poor soul. I’d love to take her but I think Sirius might be a tad put out.
I bit the bullet on Saturday and decided to make myself a garment. I found a beautiful pattern called Miette for a wraparound skirt. I had had the idea of making a blouse but it did look a little complex.
Miette was only a few pattern pieces which you downloaded to print out. Sirius was rather helpful with cutting out the paper.
I can happily report he is back to himself.
Perhaps even more so.
He was enamoured with my fabric so it was very difficult to do anything with him lying on it.
I had to shut him out of the room at this point.
The fabric pencils Louise recommended really came in helpful.
Somehow, he managed to sneak back in.
I’m sure he was just weighing it down.
Eventually, I managed to have it all cut out.
I think he is leading Tamyra astray…. but at least she didn’t try and get involved. I’m looking forward to Louise’s next visit as she may well have two helpers!
This is as far as I got on Saturday – I pinned it together to have a little look to see if I’d like it and I do – phew!
Today’s blog entry is provided by Sirius with pao’s assistance – mainly due to Sirius sleeping on the job.
Sirius decided that the wireless signal round the house was simply unacceptable as he was unable to get onto the net to check his email from the back backroom or the conservatory since I had relocated the wireless router to the front room to ensure that the TV and PVR had wired connections.
After a brief discussion, I (on Sirius’s instructions) delved into the garage and found some redundant networking kit, this comprised of an old wifi router and a couple of powerline ether over power adapters.
Once all the bits were vaguely in place, Sirius’s networking skills became quickly apparent.
Sirius confirmed that we had all the tools needed, particularly a small screwdriver to factory reset the router as it hadn’t been used since Merlin decomissioned it.
Sirius made sure that all required cables were present and correct, even checking that the lock clip was failure on a cable, so that had to be replaced.
Cables all seem to be in the right place and secure.
Sirius confimed that the router appeared to at least start having not been turned on for about 6 years. Sirius was very concerned that the wifi security didn’t support at least WPA PSK and so ensured that we downloaded the latest firmware. Thankfully Belkin do provide considerably newer firmware that provided what we needed for what is a 10 year old router.
After uploading the firmware Sirius was delighted that the unit could be configured specifically as an access point and so extend our wireless network using the same subnet as this meant that the Airport Express unit would work from anywhere in the house due to Bonjour networking not easily crossing subnet boundaries.
Finally Sirius checked that everything was working just as it should, before he went for a nap as it had been a tiring couple of hours supervising those ridiculous humans.
* Certified Cat Network Administrator
I met a friend for coffee this morning and we popped up to take a look at a medieval fayre. Sadly, it was just about to close when we arrived but I was highly amused by her prop – do you see the F&M on that basket? That is a gift basket basket from Fortnum and Masons – I did comment to the lady that they obviously went back a long way
It did look fairly interesting but we’d missed the main action as people were starting to take it all down..
maybe next year!
The kittens are frolicking. Sirius is back to his very naughty self!!
I found a couple of super websites: Colette Patterns and Tilly and the Buttons where you can download and print out your patterns for instant gratification. I also love the idea that I can print it out again if I cut it out wrong or print another size if I need to I would like to make the Tilly’s Miette Skirt and the Jasmine blouse from Colette. I was thinking about using the cat fabric for the blouse but as it is cut on the bias, I really don’t have enough even with the other metre that I sourced so I’m going to use some spotty fabric instead. Tilly and the Buttons has some great step by step instructions for the skirt. I’m going to be making a toile for the blouse as it looks like it will need it for the fit. Any one got any suggestions for websites that can help with making a toile?
I’m quite relieved that Sirius is back to his helpful self again. Of course, I may not be so pleased if he gets that friendly when I’m trying to cut the fabric!
We had some bad news about our car and are currently carless for around a week. The main computer in the car was fried so has to be sent off to be replaced and re calibrated for our car. We are taking buses which although are very green are not very time friendly. We missed the one at 7.25pm and had to wait until 9pm for the next. I won’t be miserable when the car comes back!
.. we can only live in hope. Last night, it rained like it was November…
1. Ma Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie. I totally loved that show when I was little and loved the fact that Ma and Pa were so kind but firm and didn’t really gossip about anyone.
2. Violet Crawley, The Dowager Countess of Grantham. Downtown Abbey’s doyenne. I love how direct she is.
3. Lorelai Gilmore. She’s a cool mum.
I can’t think of any more favourites. Of course, there is Peggy Bundy etc but I wouldn’t class them as favourites!!
This is my all round favourite mum
I did rather enjoy finishing off my bag!
I gathered a few pieces together to get my bag all lined. I found a remnant in our local fabric store for a third off that went beautifully with the bag and my friend Annie gave me a corrugated plastic bottom for it.
The corrugated plastic piece was a great idea as it will reinforce the bottom of my bag. I puzzled a little over whether I should glue it to the bottom of the felted bit or sew it to the bottom on my lining. In the end, I decided to let it float free so I could fold the bag to make it flat for storage, photos etc if I ever needed to.
Thanks to a great tip from Louise, I used some baking parchment to make a paper pattern. I added on a 1/2 inch seam allowance.
I put it inside the bag to see if it worked and saw that I needed to reduce the height a bit.
I added some very thick iron-on interfacing for extra strength
before I cut out my inner. That was scary but I did it. I used my wonder clips to hold it together.
I sewed a 1/2 inch hem at the top of the bag lining. I did this for two reasons – the first to make it look neat and secondly to have a line to follow when I got to the handstitching part of the bag.
It does fit fairly well. It isn’t completely perfect but I figured that since it would be filled with things, I wouldn’t sweat it too much.
Finally, I added some leather straps so I could use it as a shoulder bag. I ordered them from a great place who describes himself as ‘one man and his dog’ called Barefoot Leather.
The main thing is that it meets Sirius’ approval! I think he is more keen on it than he is locker hooking!