Obsessed with the Doctor

I have a new(ish) obsession. It's all James' fault (he gets the blame for a lot of things round here these days ..... but that's what men are for, right?).  Up until about a year a go I was a Dr Who virgin, but now I'm totally obsessed.

If you live in the UK, unless you have been hiding under a rock, you couldn't have failed to note that 2013 saw the Doctor celebrating 50 years on television.  Just this fact alone has to be testament to the greatness of the show. 

I can't claim to be an aficionado .... yet.  There are still many many hours of the Doctor for me to catch up on but this quirky time traveller is not just limiting himself to my television viewing he's starting to creep in and invade many aspects of my life, cheeky blighter.

This week, thanks to one of my Christmas gifts from James (see I'm not blaming him without reason) the Doctor has been keeping me company as I start (and almost finish ..... get me) a new knit project.

And after a break away from needle and thread he's even tempted me back to cross stitch again.

The picture above shows me in the throes of unpicking.  I some how managed to give Patrick Troughton, who played the second incarnation of the Doctor, a larger than called for crotch.  James thinks that was my subconscious coming in to play, I have no idea what he's trying to imply! ;)

My obsession looks set to continue for a while though and you'll see the Doctor here again soon as I'll bring him back for a more detailed chat about the cross stitch.  And I also found a post that I started last year following a trip to Cardiff that I'm going to get round to finishing and posting soon, in which I have a close encounter with the daleks among other things.

Moogle

I have a few things that I need to catch up on round here and sharing some of the end of year makes is one of them. 

I made a pact with myself not to go over the top with gift buying for Christmas. Money is tight since I bought my home and things particularly over the last couple of months have been a really struggle. When you're living on a budget unexpected bills can really hit you hard. Anyway I'm digressing, this year I made a few gifts and at the very last minute decided I wanted to make something for James.

It had to be something small as in the pre-Christmas socialising frenzy I only had a couple of evenings free. You might remember seeing this picture in my week before Christmas snapshots post. 

 Well this pile of oddments soon became this.

I know there are a few gamers out there reading so fans of the Final Fantasy franchise will (hopefully) recognise this as a moogle.  James is an avid gamer and since we've been together he's been introducing me to the wonderful world of gaming. Final Fantasy X was the first game we played together so I thought this would be a cute reminder of that. 

I have to confess that I'm totally in love with him,even though he was all scary with decapitated head at one point!  Look away now if you're squeamish!

The pattern came from here and was really easy to follow. He was done in a jiffy.

I didn't have any craft wire to hand so chopped up a paperclip that I had lying around for the antennae which worked really well.  Once he was finished I really didn't want to give him away, but I wrapped him up snugly in Christmas paper, all the while knowing that I would always secretly think of him as mine.

To be honest I think my effort was a bit lost on James, he didn't seem overly enthused when he unwrapped him and then just the other day, we've been playing another Final Fantasy game recently he said to me when there was a moogle on the screen 'look at that on the screen, there is something missing from the one you made me' after a bit of puzzling I couldn't figure out what he meant so had to ask 'wings' he said.  So I promptly pointed out that mine did have wings ....... just highlights how much attention he paid.   

It's always a little disappointing when you make something which you think will have meaning to the person receiving but then it just seems to skip them by.  Oh well, handmade isn't for everyone I guess.  At least I know not to bother in the future.  I still think it's adorable.  Of course, I'll let you make up your own mind, here are a few more cute pictures to help you with that.

What's in a name

So yesterday found me babbling on about giving my little space here a mini makeover and a name change, but then I went and forgot to actually explain what the name change is all about. I'm blaming that on impeding old age, it'll only be a few years until I'm 40 afterall ;)

If you've been visiting here for a while you'll know that my blog has always been called The Adventures of Angelcat.  When I started up all those years ago I lived in a house in a rapidly expanding market town in the lovely county of Wiltshire in the company of four lovely kitty cats and could never imagine being without pets.  And that's kind of where the inspiration for the name came from.

But time and circumstances change.  I still live in the lovely county of Wiltshire but now I'm in the largest town in the north of the county and I live right in the middle in the Old Town district.  And as heart breaking as it was at the time I had to give up my animals as I'm not allowed to keep them in the building that I live in right now.  It's taken me a while but I've almost gotten used to not having pets in my life. 

I've been in my current home for 10 months now and I love it.  It's been just right for what I need and where I've found myself in life right now.  It's light and bright but at the same time feels really cosy.    It's been a lovely adventure trying to make my mark and inject some of my personality in to the rooms all on a shoe string budget.

I'm on the second floor and one of the things I love the most about my home is the lovely big windows.

These two snaps you might have seen here before, they show views from my living room.

I love being up high and looking out over the roofs of the lovely buildings around.  It's like having the kind of view you might see from a crow's nest ......... and there you have it.

Bringing in the new

I have decided to give my blog a mini makeover for 2014.  Nothing drastic I'm not really a whiz at these sorts of things just a bit of a spring clean.  A change of template to add some colour, a jiggle around of the sidebar and most drastic of all a title change (though of course the url stays the same).

I started this blog back in 2006. Wow I can hardly believe that I've actually kept this thing going all that time. The format has largely stayed the same, though looking back now my life is in an entirely different and so much better place that it was eight years ago.  And this realisation has inspired my little spring clean, time to jazz things up and make things a little different round here, even if it is just in a small way.

Compared to a lot of the amazing blogs out there I know mine is really rather boring.  I realise that I'm not the most eloquent of writers, I don't travel to the most exotic places, the photographs I share are less than perfect and my crafting endeavours are never going to be as expertly conducted as many out there, but I have fun writing and posting here and that's what counts, right?  That and the fact that I've met some amazing people through blogging and forged some wonderful friendships with folks from all over the world and I think for the most part that is what has always been the biggest inspiration for me to carry on.

Thank you visitors old and new.  I appreciate your each and every visit.  You keep me striving to try and improve things here and make it a nice place to come and spend some time xx

My year in review

Its that time of year to clear down the side bar and do a little self indulgent post to mark some of the things that I've done in the last year.  

Honestly looking back I can't quite believe how lucky 2013 has been for me.  I bought my own home, had some wonderful trips, managed to survive another year in the day job and got to indulge in all of my favourite pastimes.  

I'm truly excited to see where 2014 will take me.  If I could be selfish and have all the things I want it would be more time with family, more time for crafting, to bring back walking as a regular thing in my life (sadly that fell by the wayside a bit in 2013), and to be able to visit more new places.

It will be fun finding out which of these wishes I can make come true this year.   But we have other plans bubbling away in the background which if they come to fruition could suck up a fair amount of time and take me away from the things on my list, but if we can pull them off I won't mind a jot ......time will tell.

Do you have any exciting plans for 2014?  I'd love to hear all about them.

Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy 2014

Projects I completed in 2013

Crochet Moogle

Summer Mist throw

Ellie's Owls

Amy's owl mobile

Wildflower cross stitch

Crochet Beret

Kiss Me Cross Stitch

Three knitted Chicks

Take Time Cross Stitch

Snuggly Squares Crochet Blanket

Starburst Crochet Blanket

Wensleydale Lace Scarf

Knitted moustache

Movies I went to watch in 2013 

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
Gravity

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs 2

How I Live Now

About Time

Riddick

The Mortal Instruments

Elysium

Kick Ass 2

Lone Ranger

The Conjuring

The Wolverine

World War Z

Man of Steel

After Earth

Star Trek Into Darkness

Iron Man 3

Oblivion

Dark Skies

Mama

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

This is 40

A Good Day to Die Hard

Prisoners

Thor: The Dark World

Captain Phillips

Books I read in 2013

The ocean at the end of the lane by Neil Gaiman

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Night of the living Trekkies by Kevin Anderson and Sam Stall

Armageddon the Musical by Robert Rankin

Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell

World War Z by Max Brooks

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

By Light Alone by Adam Roberts

Laura's Handmade Life by Amanda Addison

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter

Places I visited in 2013

Avebury, Wiltshire

Aysgarth, Yorkshire

Bainbridge, Yorkshire

Bourton on the Water

Cardiff, Wales

Clapham, Yorkshire

Grassington, Yorkshire

Hawes, Yorkshire

Hudderfield, Yorkshire

Kettlewell, Yorkshire

Leeds Yorkshire

Leyburn, Yorkshire

Linton, Yorkshire

London

Malham, Yorkshire

Moreton in Marsh

Northampton

Oxford

Reeth, Yorkshire

Stockholm, Sweden

Wells, Somerset

Snapshot of the week

Christmas is full of mixed emotions for me.  The joy of celebrating with family and friends is always tinged with some sadness as looming in the background the dawning of 27th December marks another year of being without Mum.

I survived the day in disbelief wondering could it really be 8 years since she passed.   I muddled through the day, no doubt I was poor company and I had to escape to solitude and shed a tear or two when the weight of sadness built up and became overwhelming.  But the day came and went just as days always do.

For some reason I found the anniversary especially hard this year. Have been trying to figure out why and now there have been a couple of days space between then and now I think it may be this.  Apart from a couple of minor blips this year has been the happiest year for me since she left and I wish she was still around to share it with me.

If you pop by regularly (and hearty thanks to you if you do) you'll know that Sunday has become my day to post a weekly round up in pictures.  But this week I'm going to share just one snap from my week, taken during a christmas eve walk in the woods in beautiful Yorkshire with my love. 

We're being a bit goofy, but we're happy, wrapped up warm and blessed with beautiful sunshine, love and lots of laughter.  A perfect microcosm of 2013, here's hoping we can carry this all the way through 2014 too.

Hope your holiday season has been full of love and light and laughter xx

Seasons Greetings

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and fun filled 2014

Thanks to each and every one of you for continuing to visit my little corner of blogland to read my ramblings.  I appreciate every single visit xx

 

My week in snapshots

Wow only a couple of days until Christmas.  So far I just haven't been feeling very festive, lots going on at the moment which have been putting a bit of a dampener on the end of what has been an otherwise fabulous year.  But last day at work tomorrow and then we're up to Yorkshire to celebrate the season with James' parents.  And with almost 2 weeks off work to look forward to I'm sure the mood will lighten and a nice, quiet and relaxing time will be had can't wait.

Haven't really be in the mood to take too many pictures this week but when I went to download them I was surprised to find I'd taken more than I thought.  So here is my week in snapshots.

Taking comfort in some home cooked hearty food

 Is this what the apocalypse would feel like?  The moment I realised that I was the only one sat in an otherwise deserted office.

 Hooking up a last minute gift

Morning mist over the beautiful Wiltshire countryside

Counting down the days

Whatever you'e been up to I hope the world has been treating you well this week xx

Snapshots

Blogging is a bit sporadic around here at the moment. It's just crazy at this time of year, I'm sure you can all relate. Holiday preparations, catching up with family and friends whilst still working the day job and trying to keep all of the household chores up together equals very little spare time.

After a crazy couple of weeks we'll be off up to Yorkshire to spend the Christmas period. After that I'm hoping that things will calm down a bit and we can settle in to the rhythms of a new year and for me I'm hoping that will mean getting back to some more regular blogging and also being able to keep up with all my favourite blogs again.

For now here are a few snapshots from the last couple of weeks.

My fruit bowl overfloweth.  Have been feeling a bit under the weather so have been trying to eat plenty of fruit and veg to keep the energy levels up.

Loving the fact that at this time of year you don't have to be up too early to witness spectacular sunrises

Sewing in the ends, trying to get the Christmas gift makes finished

Some festive shopping at the Christmas Market in Bath

Out for dinner with my lovely man, my wonderful brother and his gorgeous fiancee ..... buy one get one free cocktails led to a very merry evening

Sunday heaven .... James' homemade bread accompanied by some gorgeous jams purchased at the market in Bath (We also bought some delicious chocolate wine but that will be saved for Christmas)

What ever you have been up to I hope life is treating you well.  Thanks for visiting my little corner of blogland, I really do appreciate you sticking with me :)

Snapshots

It's been a strange few weeks plenty of highs and lows, a lovely trip away, celebrating with family and friends, long hours at work and some tough family stuff to deal with. I'm not going to dwell on that too much, it's just nice to have a bit of blogging time again. 

It's been a few weeks since I've done a snapshot post it's been hard to try and limit myself to only a few pictures with all that's been happening.  But I managed it in the end.  So here is a little window in to my November world ...... cannot wait to see what December has in store.

Amazing Autumn walks

 Starting to feel festive with Christmas lights being switched on everywhere

 Watching fabulous sunsets out in the beautiful English countryside

 Scrummy dining with amazing family

 Exploring new cities

 Atmospheric moonlit walking in the middle of nowhere at 2am.  Chilly .....but so worth it to experience the unique peace and beauty of the countryside at night

 Feeling grateful to be surrounded by love

Third time Lucky?

Can you remember I told you all about some sock yarn I bought at bargain price in one of the local craft stores.  No?  Well I don't blame you I do tend to waffle on about lots of nonsense here.  Incase you need a reminder have a quick look here.....

Well I decided that I would actually have a go at doing something with it rather than let it languish in the yarn box for too long.  I did have a go at socks once before many years ago now but quickly gave up as I couldn't quite get the hang of it.  This time rather than brave it again I decided to have a look around Ravelry to find some non-socky inspiration.  And decided on a cowl.

Sadly I seem to have stalled a bit.  I've started twice and things just aren't going to plan.  For some reason I just can't get in to the rhythm of working with this yarn.

Third time lucky?  Lets hope so or the yarn might end up languishing in the yarn box for a while after all.

A gift for my Gran

All I seem to be doing is starting new projects at the moment. 

I've been trying to resist getting swept up in the tide as it seems far too early to be thinking about it yet but it's already everywhere in the shops and on TV ..... yes I'm talking Christmas.

These days I'm fairly lucky most of my family and friends have agreed not to swap presents any more so this time of year isn't too stressful for me.  I have decided to make a few things though.  The throw for my brother and his girlfriend is well under way and barring fire or flood it should be done in time.

The problem with such a big piece is its not very portable.  So I've turned to a gift that I've been thinking about making for my Gran.

I managed to pick up the yarn I needed from Ebay last week at a bargain price.  Oh my this is just the softest yummiest thing I've had the pleasure of working with part silk, part alpaca, honestly you don't know you're working with it.  If you could crochet with a cloud I'm sure this is what it would feel like.

It's early days yet and I had a few problems getting to grips with the pattern repeat, but fingers crossed I'm in the groove now.  This will be the perfect thing for me to take to work on when we go to Yorkshire.  We're leaving tomorrow, can't wait to have a break away for a few days.  But first this evening we're off to Bath to for the Christmas lights switch on ........ did you hear me say earlier it's too early to get in teh Christmas spirit, what do I know, lol.  See you on the other side.

Suits you, Madam

Almost finished the loopy beard but not quite. In the meantime I have finally finished the moustache I started a good couple of months ago. This was so quick to knit up it really should have been a fast finish but as is my habit I'm always trying to work on a million things at once so nothing gets done very fast.

Is it wrong to say I love my little handlebar, lol?  OMG have never had so much fun taking selfies.  Suits me, no?

I put this picture up on Facebook, and had some suggestions that I look like Luigi from the Mario brothers with the beret on too, lol

Messing around with some photo apps and I made this mirror image shot, freaky ........

I also got asked why the hell would I make a knitted moustache as what was the point?  Duh, the point is just to have fun once in a while, what is the constant obsession with purpose anyhow?  ok I understand that a knitted moustache might not have many practical applications.  But me, well I loathe housework so I shall be wearing mine while I'm doing the vacuuming ...... just because it makes me giggle.

Maybe I am just nutty?  I'll let you decide ;D

My week in Snapshots

Not many words to say this week.  Still recovering from my wisdom teeth extraction so mostly been keeping things nice and quiet.

Cosy evenings by candlelight

 Gorgeous Autumn Light

 Hat of the week - cheating a bit with a hood.  I'm looking a bit forlorn in this picture which sums up my week of pain and feeling sorry for myself!

 Comfort food - stewed apples and ice cream

 Waiting ..... and enjoying the last light of the day

 Cuddles with puppies - how I wish I could take this fellow home!

Toward the end of next week we're off to Yorkshire for a few days so I may be MIA for a bit.  Whatever you're up to have fun xx

Wensleydale Lace

We've had a fair amount of lovely Autumn sunshine recently which creates the most amazing light so I had hoped to go somewhere and do an outdoor photo shoot with my finished Wensleydale scarf, but my tooth extraction and the resulting pain put paid to that and I decided to take a couple of indoor snaps instead just so I could hurry up and share this with you.

I really love how this turned out and using two skeins of yarn has made it a super long scarf so plenty of wrapping potential for added cosiness.

It was a really straight forward pattern which was probably just as well for my first attempt at any lace effect work.  Even so I still managed to make a couple of mistakes along the way. But it really was only a couple and when wrapping me up and keeping me warm you can't see them ...... and hey who wants to be perfect anyway.  With it's little flaws my scarf will always be one of a kind and that is one of the beautiful things about handmade.

My week in snapshots

It's been a quieter than usual week as I had to have a couple of wisdom teeth out which put me out of action for a couple of days but I'm mostly feeling better and looking less hamster like now!! So here's hoping for a better week next week

The last supper (my lovely man took me out for dinner and cocktails the day before my trip to the hospital)

Halloween

Making chutney

Hat of the week

The wonders of modern technology - counting rows on my phone

 Baking cakes to say thank you to Mr Awesome for doing such a great job of looking after me this week

Hope you all have a fabulous week.  Thanks for stopping by to take a look at my little corner of the world. xx