princessdeia

January 30th 2011
Filed under 101 Things, General

1. Vanilla Cupcakes. As I was running out of time during Week One to finish a knitted item, I opted to bake some cupcakes! Boring vanilla, but I figured it was essential to perfect this recipe before moving on to something more complicated.
2. Wollmeise Stripe Socks. A really simple easy knit, these sock clubs where finished in a few days. Even if I didn’t follow the Sock Club pattern, I still love these socks.
3. Elijah. It took me two evening to finish this little sweetie. Ysolda’s pattern is amazing well written and easy to follow. I would say the pattern is aimed for an intermediate knitter as it does involve a few complicated techiniques (short rows and picking up stitches), but should be in everyone’s Ravelry queue.
4. Crowley Socks. The final installment from the 2010 Knit Love Club! Again another really quick sock to knit (taking me a week to knit each sock). This pattern looks a lot more complicated that it is, with traveling stitches and cables, but mainly it is simple 2×2 rib

January 13th 2011
Filed under 101 Things, Finished Projects 2011

So one week on, I am doing pretty good with the plan, but awfully with the blogging. I send out several Thank You cards from Christmas, a little late I know, but we mainly received money this year so I wanted to wait until we had spend it to thank everyone.

I also have been knitting and baking! I am planning of cooking a cupcake a month – maybe try and theme them along with the month, e.g. Strawberry in June, Pumpkin in November. January is just plain Vanilla as I wanted to perfect my frosting before I experimented.

On the knitting front, this week I finished these plain socks, made using the Knit Love Club Wollmeise  (from October). I could not get the pattern right on these sock, it involved elongated stitches, that I seemed to knit too tight! I even tried knitting the larger size, but that was too big. As I am determined to knit with all the yarn from the Sock Club, and I loved the stripes, so I opted for plain socks (knit over 63 stitches to get the spirooling*)

* Spriooling – a yarnie term Alice has been using to describe the Spiral Pooling varigated yarn does – not to be confused with self striping yarn.

January 4th 2011
Filed under 101 Things, 52 in 52, General

I have seized the day (year) and am taking full advantage of the New Year to work on my 101 list! I have added a few extra items to the list and I am hoping to do weekly updates (That should encourage me to blog more).

Firstly, I want to be more creative in 2011 not just knitting but to use this year to craft something new each week. Either finishing a knitting project, sewing or even just baking a cake! At the end of the year I want 52 entries about something I made with my fair hands!

Secondly, I want to send at least 52 letter this year, I tend to only use Snail Mail to post birthday cards and as I love reciveing mail (Am I the only one who gets a thrill from opening a letter?) I thought I would pass that thrill on to others – If you want a letter email me or leave a comment

Thirdly to read a book a week and watch at least one film from the AFI top 100 list.

These are not really resolutions more plans for the year.

August 17th 2010
Filed under 101 Things

One of my current obsessions is Afternoon Tea, which is very strange as I hate clotted cream, but there is something lovely about the tiered cake stands filled with finger sandwiches, cakes and scones, and of course drinking tea from a proper teapot! When I started to restart my 101 list, one of the things I was really keen to do was have Tea at the Ritz, reading  up about the experience online I discovered afternoontea.co.uk – a website dedicated to places to have afternoon tea in the UK.

The website list several places and I soon discovered several interesting twists on the traditional tea, from a Sex in the City themed tea to the Not the afternoon tea at the OXO tower. So, I decided rather than have just Tea at the Ritz, I would try three different teas.

The “alternative” tea that appealed to me the most was the TLSee at the Swissotel, a traditional tea themed around London landmarks! I noted they were doing an early bird special, so on Saturday we had afternoon tea as a late lunch. I have to admit, I had a bit of a sugar overload but luckily they supplied us with a lovely themed box to take the biscuits home in.

July 20th 2010
Filed under 101 Things, General

Over the last few months, I have been trying to keep two blogs… One devoted to knitting and the other in my attempts into being a domestic goddess, as a result I have done extremely well at ignoring both of them! I have just had to pay for the renewal of this domain and for a long time I thought about letting it lapse… but then I thought I used to love writing this blog and it does serve as a great memory of everything I have been up to.

So I have decided to just keep the one blog (this one), but am going to take some of the ascepts of the other blog (my attempts at cooking, my favourite things for each month and some of my adventures in London) and add them here!

To add to this reset, I am also going to restart my list for Day Zero. I still don’t have 101 things (at the moment it is around 50)

January 21st 2010
Filed under 101 Things, General

Instead of setting mini lists and deadlines this year, I thought I would focus on a larger list of things I want to this year. Jason and I have created a list of things we want to do in London (but for some reason we have never found the time).

1. Tea at the Ritz.
2. See Mousetrap.
3. See Avenue Q.
4. Lose another stone in weight.
5. Use my pedometer for 30 days.
6. Do the couch to 5k.
7. Do a charity run.
8. Start a new blog.
9. Design a layout for the new blog.
10. Create a new gallery for deeandjason.co.uk
11. Finish all the Sock(topus) Club 2009 socks by the deadline (28th Feb.).
12. Finish all the Knit Love sock within the year.
13. Compete and finish in the Ravelympic.
14. Knit another lace shawl.
15. Take mum to Paris.
16. Read all the Sookie Stackhouse books.
17. Read all the Vampire Diaries books
18. Read all the Adrian Mole books
19. Re-read the Harry Potter books (before the films are released).
20. Re-read the Twilight books (before Eclipse is released).

I was hoping to have 40 items on this list (to insure I did the 101 things in 1001 days), so it is still a work in progress.

January 11th 2010
Filed under 101 Things, socktopus club 2009

I seemed to have a bit of a slump over Christmas where knitting was concerned, now I am on a quest to get my knitting mojo back! First off I am determined to finish all the club sock from 2009 and before the Knit Love Club starts (which I think is the beginning of February). I am not doing too badly, I am on the second Socktopods sock, which I should complete tonight, all that leaves is the Mince Pie Mayhem socks to knit in three weeks. I was hoping to start some of the socks with the yarn I recieved over Christmas, but I think this is a pipe dream!

Then just to make matters worse, last weekend I fell in love with a pattern on ravelry and now all I can think about is the lovely Candy Stripe Jacket, I had a quick look on there website and discovered the yarn and pattern was available at Mrs Moon, which I found very exciting. Before Christmas, two of my local yarn stores closed down, which is extremely sad but also very fustrating, now I have an excuse to check out the new store. (I was pretending to be on a yarn diet for a few months again – but figured this was the reason to break the diet).

As well as planning all this lovely knitting projects, I also have another little project in the sidelines. For a few months now, I have been toying with the idea of setting up another blog. Somewhere to talk about my other crafts, and journey into domestic goddessness. When I set up this blog, it opened my eyes to the wonderful knitting community within the UK from fellow bloggers, to locally produced yarn and designers. Previously, I had been forced to read about all the lovely yarn American bloggers had brought at Knit Picks, or fabulous sock clubs, that I was too late to sign up for. I am hoping this new blog will do a similar thing. I have been reading numerous blogs with amazing recipes or party ideas. Where the supplies have all been brought in Walmart or the Dollar Store and I keep thinking there much be a British alternative, and I wanted to set up a blog to address this issue. So on January the first I jumped in at the deep end and started my new blog. I plan to keep this blog going for my knitting projects (although I think the knitting might feature on both blogs) and a more general blog.

Note: The layout of the new blog is a mess at the moment, I was hoping to create a new theme this week, but my laptop has died on me.

August 14th 2009
Filed under 101 Things, General

5. Create a Home Organisation System.
Over the last few weeks, I have completely organised our household, I have a nice folder with all my cleaning plans, useful information (size of the windows, tables, beds) for when I am shopping, and of course all those technical manuals! The de-cluttering is still going along slowly, it is amazing how much stuff one can accumulate.

The same website also runs a 16 week plan to get your house and family ready for the holiday season and it starts next month – which is pretty scary! But I am planning on adapting the plan to get us ready.

7. Boost My Income by £1000.
After carrying on with the advice from the moneysavingexpert website, I also started claiming back money I was owed – fuel surcharges from our recent trips to America and some bank charges, which sent the total over the £1000 mark. I think I am going to try and earn an extra £500 by the end of the year.

10. Book (or go) on a holiday in the sun!
Finally, we have got around to sorting out our summer holiday! It has been over two years since I have been near a beach and 15 months since our last week away, so next month we are off to Miami.

16. Drink a two litres of water a day for a month.
I have up coffee 8 weeks ago (yes I am counting the days), and cut down on all sugary drinks, since then all I have left to drink is herbal teas and water, as a result I have found it incredible easy to alter my routine to include 8 or more glasses of water a day.

20. Complete 5 random acts of kindness (Knitting related via the Ravelry board).
I have always loved the idea of RAK, this board on ravelry is similifies the process of brighting someone’s day. The added bonus is you don’t need to spend loads of money. The lovely ladies on the boards are looking for all sorts of things, and I managed to de-clutter a lot of my knitting supplies,  clearing out old knitting magazine, the freebies from the magazine that have never opened, some old acrylic yarn I was given and never used.

It is a board everyone should check out for the price of a postage stamp you can make somes day.

June 11th 2009
Filed under 101 Things

I haven’t forgetten this list – I am just a little late posting it

Starting: June 8, 2009
Ending: September 16, 2009

1. Finally finish my Clapotis (and start another one)
2. Complete the Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred.
3. Start a home decorating planner.
4. Knit something other than socks or a scarf/shawl.
5. Organise knitting patterns.
6. Drink a two litres of water a day for a month.
7. Start a Scrapbook, including our extra wedding photos.
8. Watch all the seasons of Battlestar Galatica.
9. Visit Vinopolis.
10. Complete 5 random acts of kindness (Knitting related via the Ravelry board).

May 14th 2009
Filed under 101 Things, General

Before starting my 101 list, I read the survival tips on the Day Zero website, written there clearly is “Welcome Failure.” What I didn’t realise was how spectacular I would fail! 30 days after my first deadline here is how the list currently stands.

1. Lose at least a stone in weight. – Fail
Although I have been making some effort to exercise (see  number two), my diet has been just awful this year.

2. Use the Wii Fit at least 3 times a week for 30 minutes.  – WIP
Currently, I am easily managing to fit in two sessions a week, although I have to say I am getting a little bored with some of the exercises and think it might be time to look for a new game.

3. Find a decent Sugar Cookie recipe and make at least five varieties of cookies. – Success!
I managed to find a wonderful website, that sells cookie cutters in all shapes and sizes, with some great tips and ideas. Plus I have been buying every cookie cookbook I can find! I am still not confident enough with my baking to try them on anyone but my immediate family.

4. Reduce my stash by one mile. – Success!

1. Leyburn Socks, 2. Garden Trelis Sock, 3. Meret,
4. Jaywalker Socks III, 5. Vinnland, 6. Spring Forward

5. Create a Home Organisation System. – WIP
I have to say the one thing I have discovered from trying to make a system is that it is a definite “work in progress.” I started taking inspiration from the FlyLady system and also Cleaning Grand Plan, and am pleased to report the we have already made great headway with decluttering.

6. Manicure my nails each week and get them done professionally at least once. – Success!
This one has been a really easy item to keep up, I treated myself to a manicure at the beginning of the challenge and seeing my nail look nice for the week inspired me to keep them manicured! I was given a selection of Nail Inc colours at Christmas, that I should really make more of an effort to use.

7. Boost My Income by £1000. – WIP
This was probably a little adventurous for the 10 weeks  (or maybe it is because of the credit crunch), but I have re-assessed all our money looked for saving where I can. Maximised using cashback websites , loyalty cards started a change jar and I even managed to make £200 recycling our old mobile phones.

8. Do The Torres Bounce in The Kop. – Fail
This is the one I am going to have to admit defeat on, even though we managed to make it to Anfield, it is proving impossible to sit in The Kop! Plus on my two recent trips to Liverpool, Torres has been injured for both games, so we still haven’t been able to see him play. The season ends this weekend so this one will have to go on the back burner until August.

9. Go to the Museum in Docklands. – Fail
I really have no excuse for failing this… I had several chances to go.

10. Book (or go) on a holiday in the sun! – Fail
Although the sun did shine when we were in Brussels, it looks like that will be our only holiday for a while, we have both been extremely busy with work and are currently looking for a new car so the holiday is on hold.

I am not going to give up, my plan is create another list of 10 items which I will start in June. I will continue working on this list until then and carry over all of the failures.