Life in the Knitty Nud

I wanted to share this short animated film, amazing in it's execution and wonderfully silly. Take the time to get past the musical introduction to the film proper and I'm sure it will delight you. It's quite saucy and risque, full of double entendres, in true seaside postcard fashion.

I first saw it over at Crafts from the Cwtch.  Make a pot of tea, and click on this link, you'll be transported to the yarny village of Woolly Bush.

Dame Vera Lynn Dresses Auctioned

Another gorgeous sale today at Kerry Taylor Auctions. Lots and lots of special costumes and some surprises too. Here is the link to today's catalogue if you want to take a squiz and see what went under the hammer. I'm hoping it will stay on-line for a while and give you a chance to view it.

In the past they have sold some very high profile clothing and textiles. I had hoped to download a few more images for you but alas I think there was some kind of 'technical hitch'. So I only managed a couple, which show a vintage suitcase and some dresses donated by Dame Vera Lynn to be sold for a charity.

If you like perusing beautiful clothes and textiles, you can sign up for their newsletter and get information on future sales. It doesn't matter if you don't buy, after all a cat may look at a King.

Welcome to my latest Google Connect Follower(s) The Squirrel Family who blog here.

Buns and Bacall

I am amongst other things a Sarf London girl, Battersea born and Fulham schooled. I love London, and go up to the big smoke as often as I can. I keep a small list of things I'd like to see or do up there and try and tick a few things off the list in one hit.

Tuesday was The Scandi Kitchen and Bonhams, plus lunch at the 'club' to make use of my free 6 month membership I received with The Lady magazine subscription.

I've been wanting to check this place out for a while. It was smashing. My chum and I shared a Semlor cake with some fresh coffee. Divine. I also made a few essential grocery purchases.

We then pressed onto Bonhams to check out some objet d'art from the estate of Lauren Bacall, due to go under the hammer in New York next month. I do love a bit of Hollywood glamour. Brought up on it you see.

They only had a few lots on display, which are touring  London, Paris, Hong Kong and Los Angeles before the big event. Beautifully displayed with some gorgeous huge black and white images of Miss Bacall, totally seductive. The auction in New York will be made up of more than 750 lots. Oh if only I had some spare cash masses of cash I would definitely try to buy something. The estimates look quite low, but I just know the items will go for huge amounts.

A few years ago there was an 'attic' auction at Chatsworth. One of the lots was a tiny brooch that had been owned by the Dowager Duchess, Debo. The estimate was something like £250. I left a bid of £450 and the hammer went down at £4,500. Nuf said.

A Busy & Fun Weekend

Valentine's date night went really well, with The Mister getting back from the rugby in goodly time. We don't tend to go out to eat on Feb 14th anymore as we always find the prices are hiked up and the quality reduces accordingly, with two sittings being the norm in restaurants.

So after some research I decided that the Waitrose £20 deal was going to be the best option for us. It was tremendous value with a choice of starter, main, side dish, pudding, fizz and a small box of chocolates. That is all I bought from Waitrose though, as I went on to do the rest of my shop in Lidls and Morrisons. Going to 3 supermarkets in one morning was a bit of a schelp, but I don't mind as it meant I got the best deals from each shop.

The starter I got from Waitrose we actually had for lunch today with some salad and coleslaw left over from making a lunch for friends yesterday. So that stretched the value even further.

I made my own starter on Saturday with the last of our home grown beetroots. A healthy beetroot hummus, which I have to say was picture perfect in its vibrant hue.

The recipe was quick and easy.

350-400g boiled beetroot

1/4 lemon juiced

4tbsps thick natural yoghurt

3 tsps olive oil

1 crushed garlic clove

1 tsp cumin seed toasted and crushed

S&P to taste.

Simply blend all ingredients with a hand blender until smooth, then tweak any flavour adjustments.

Served with warm pitta bread it was gorgeous, although I say so myself.

We've had a very busy weekend and are a little bit over tired, (I feel a darkened room may be calling), as we went out on Friday night too. Still all good fun so I'm not complaining.

Friday we went for a light bite and a glass of wine, before going to see a 1965 Dr Who film at our local heritage cinema, Hailsham Pavilion.

It's such a lovely place to go and on Friday they even had a real Dalek to greet us in the auditorium, I gave him a wide berth of course, I'm not silly. The Mister tried to get on the right side of him by offering him some tea, but the Dalek wasn't having any of it. Apparently he'd already eaten, but what or who I wonder?

I saw the film when it came out in 1965, my big brother took me, it was wonderful seeing it again on the big screen.

Treats

Hope you're all having a lovely time today so far. I've got a date night with the Mister this evening. He's at Twickenham at the moment watching rugby, so I'm sorting things out at Perfect Towers. I can't say too much about my plans for tonight as he sometimes takes a look at my blog on his train journey home. Can't catch me out eh?

More importantly here are some treats for you m'dears. First off a lovely bunch of roses to show how much I care.

And some delicious coconut and chocolate cake that is guaranteed not to make you put on weight.

Lastly and non virtually here are the details for some 'free' flower or vegetable seeds. Woman's Weekly magazine is running an offer for 5 packs of seeds, you just pay £1.99 postage. All you have to do is sign up for their emails. HERE.

Hope you all have a brilliant weekend with the folk you care about most.

Cake, Cream and Questions.

I have had a rip roaringly busy day and feel as though I have achieved much, and the day is not over yet. I feel the urge to blog.

Cake.

A couple of days ago I baked my first cake from the smashing Scandinavian book I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.

I am as you know dear reader trying not to indulge over muchly in calorie laden food. But I have decided that to make just one cake a week would be OK. Especially as I normally have one slice and The Mister valiantly eats the rest, to save me from myself. He's a brick.

The first cake, a chocolate and apricot pound loaf didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. Kinda dry I felt, although The Mister had no complaints. It may well be down to the fact that my oven cooks a wee bit hot. So if I make it again I will turn it out earlier than the recommended hour and let it firm up in the hot loaf tin, outside the oven.

Next Wednesday I have some friends over for afternoon tea and will be making a second selection from the book, chocolate and coconut cake. The choice of cake was largely decided by the fact I have left over chocolate from the first one and a pack of desiccated coconut in the pantry.


I have also been 'pimping' up my bargain face cream from Lidl. I use their Cien Q10 moisturiser because I find it every bit as efficient as the Nivea Q10 one it replaced, at a fraction of the cost.

It is rather bland smelling though and I do like my face potions and lotions to have a strong floral fragrance. I usually only get a really fine fragranced one when I get free samples from Espa or Elemis. So to get the expensive salon effect I have added my own essential oil blend. Camomile, Rose Geranium and Frankincense. The latter being especially good for more mature skin. It smells divine and strangely, feels much better too.

I also put a few things on Ebay today:

a rather fetching Wade teapot

and some pretty Ming sateen cotton fabric

Lastly, I have been trying to understand some of the mysteries of my Blogger dashboard in a bid to improve my blog. And so I have to ask you dear blogging chums for some advice. I have discovered during my research into setting preferences that I have my custom robot txt and my robot header tags disabled. My question is should I enable them to help my SEO and are there any down sides to doing so?

Also how does one set up labels on the sidebar of a blog to categorize topics and subjects so that folk can find posts more easily.

Sorry about the homework, but if I can't ask you guys who can I ask?

Getting Hygge With It

Hygge is an old Danish concept that helps Danes get through their long dark winters. Originally an old Norwegian word for well-being, it roughly translates to coziness. It's all about creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people. I approve, not only because of my Scandi crush, but because I think it's a good blueprint for life generally. Denmark is officially the happiest country in the world, I think more Hygge is required all round.

Last Saturday I had the best Hygge evening. Listening to Lisa Tarbuck on the radio and knitting by a roaring log fire. Pendragon meanwhile was experiencing her own Hygge moment enjoying the underfloor heating in the kitchen.

Images of Childhood

Just checking in with some info on a couple of exhibitions I've been to recently, that I think may interest one or two of you.

The first was at a fairly local school gallery, Mascalls in Paddock Wood, Kent. I hadn't been to this little gallery before but happily somehow got sent an invitation to the private view of 'School Prints, Art for the 1940s Classroom'. The Mister and I spent a lovely hour or so, drinking Prosecco and secretly wishing we could take some of the works away with us.

'Some of the most important contemporary artists were commissioned to produce original, hand drawn colour lithographs with accessible imagery'. It was a bid to expose school children to their first experience of contemporary visual art. And was the brain child of Brenda Rawnsley, who by the third series managed to persuade hugely important artists such as Picasso and Matisse to participate.

Vogue magazine loved the school room concept so much, the prints were touted as the clever way to add colour to interiors.

The second exhibition contains a lot of heart warming nostalgic imagery from my own school days.

image BBC

'Ladybird by Design', has just opened at the de la warr pavilion East Sussex. A celebration of the significance and affection that we feel for these early childhood books.

Looking at these gorgeous illustrations brought back floods of memories for me.

Not that my own experiences were reflected in these depictions of a middle class Utopia. I love them nonetheless. A gentler, simple and more uncomplicated way of life, well that's how I remember it anyway.

The exhibition displays over 200 original illustrations that cover a selection of Ladybird books from the 50s to the 70s.

There is no admission charge to either of these delightful exhibitions and they are both on for a wee while yet, pop along if you're in the vicinity.