Hi My names Kat and I'm a Haribo addict ....

My waistline seems to expanded over the last few months so after some soul searching I've decided to own up to my addiction. I think I need to kick my habit and go cold turkey as I found to my cost today that an open packet is an empty packet :/ Goodbye sour cherry yumminess _o/
I've been charity shopping today and I've had an amazing find :) I found this beautiful, crinkly, magenta skirt. It was £4.75 in Scope and it fits really well and has a kind of pointy, fairy-like hemline. I also picked up a nice pair of jeans with my favourite shade of sugary pink trim. They were also a bargain at £4.50.

I finally got down to my allotment plot today. It has recovered well from the flooding and the leeks we planted last year are really big and the parsnips are really coming along well too. My bf also pointed out a few rows of onions which have just started coming up. We were really chuffed as we've not been good recently at getting ourselves down to the plot. The best bit is that tons of crocus' have come up this year. They aren't flowering yet but there's plenty of leaves and buds. Fingers crossed that they'll be few to see next time.

Lights off

On Saturday 27th March at 8.30pm the WWF will be asking people to switch off all lights to demand action on Climate Change. To find out more check out the website.

HTML 0 Kitkat 1

I've been faffing around since yesterday trying to make a button for my blog. After playing around most of yesterday evening and nearly throwing the laptop out the window a few times cos it kept crashing, I finally had a brainwave. I got back down to business this morning (well 1ish) and got it cracked \o/ I have never done anything in HTML so I was pretty chuffed with myself.
I've also had my nose stuck in another book today. As I got through The Solitaire Mystery at neckbreaking speed I've now started The Minotaur takes a cigarette break (I think that's what its called). Totally different to what I'd been reading before but it looks promising.
Been making lots of jewellery tonight and have made a nice necklace from the vintage beads I picked up the other weekend. I also made another pair of earrings from the beads too and a pair to match the wooden beaded one I made the other day. I must get piccy taking tomorrow so I can post some pics and get some put up in the shop.
I'm going to make a concerted effort to go down the plot tomorrow, basically because I've been a very lazy gardener and haven't been down for ages. I want to check out the state of things after the flooding and see if any of my bulbs are coming up. The grounds probably going to be like glue though so I must remember to wear wellies. The soil down this way is really clayey which means we'll probably come home caked in the stuff.

New design

As you can probably see, I've had a little play around with the look of my blog. I have also had a change around of my shop logo and banner so please feel free to have a look and let me know what you think. I'm quite pleased with it, especially as its completely my work - I painted a couple of cats to try out in a logo or banner and went with the one with his paw up and then uploaded it into Gimp and added the text.
I've also been crafting away making more jewellery for my shop. I've uploaded 3 of the earrings I've made and I've just got 2 necklaces to add. I just need to have a fiddle around with ways of displaying necklaces. Earrings are easy enough as they hang nicely from the wine glasses I've got but a necklace is a bit tricky. I might see what vases we have around the house and try those out.
I've also finished Sophies World - a bit too clever for its own good towards the end but I still really enjoyed it. I've also read The Solitaire Mystery by the same author and that was amazing. I read it in about 4 days and it was one of the best books I've read for a while. It was similar to Sophie's World in that he put a lot of philosophy into the story and made it an interest of several of the characters but it managed to got loose the story to being overly clever. The story was lovely and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes something a bit magical.

Beads, Spiders and the Meaning of Life

Just before Christmas I spotted the coolest invention online, its a spider-friendly spider catcher :) Our shed at the allotment appears to have become the local hang out for the spiders of Hertfordshire. As a result getting anything in or out of the shed has become a bit of a delicate operation involving long poles and some, not so child friendly language. In fairness to the 8 legged ones they are appropriately dressed for the allotment and can be found wearing boots and heavy coats (well thats what it looks like to me!) so they maybe planning on helping out with the work. Nevertheless, I'm not their biggest fan but don't want to kill them. This little invention was therefore met with delight. It also bought back some memories of growing up. My dad is of a similar mindset and has come up with numerous, ingenious ways of catching our little and not so little visitors. I therefore thought I had to get one for him too, so one has winged its way to him too for his birthday (along with chocolate). Here's a little glimpse at the device.

Anyway, thats spiders.....
Also this week I've kind of fallen of the wagon and been buying beads again. In my defence though I haven't bought any for ages so I'd been strict until now with my bead diet. My favourites so far are a toss up between some glass beads I bought from a vintage store and some pretty ones I have got from Beads Unlimited. As well as those I've bought a load of different coloured wooden beads. I'm looking forward to having a proper play with them tomorrow and hopefully making some more jewellery for my shop.
I've also been reading loads recently. After finishing A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian I have now started and almost finished Sophies World by Jostein Gaarder. My mum bought it for me a few years back and I started it but never finished it. Its an amazing read and I've been totally engrossed for the last few days. Its written as a kind of mystery centring round a 14 year old girl in Norway and her meetings with a mysterious philosopher called Albert Knox. In amongst the story is Sophie's journey through the history of philosophy right from Greek times to almost present day. I love philosophy and studied it at A-level and uni but I have never come across anything that has been able to explain it in such an accessible way. Its brilliant. I can't wait to find out how it ends :)

All Organised :)

Spring is obviously in the air as I have been tidying and sorting the last couple of days. My task of the today has been to sort out all my art and craft stuff. My boyfriend picked up some nice shelves from our local Emmaus to store it all on so I'm pretty pleased with how its all looking.
Before I used to have all my art stuff in a big box under the bed and my beads where in a box beside the sofa and my sewing stuff was near where I sit and the wool was stacked up by the back wall along with my bag of fabric. The fabric still needs a home but everything else has fitted really well.
Over the last couple of weeks I've also been trying to be a little healthier and have been trying out Graze. They are a UK based, online company from which you can order healthy munch. You select all the stuff you like the look off from their enormous range and they will send it out to you on the day you choose. It gets sent through the post and fits through the letter box and costs just £2.99. So far I've been really impressed and I've tried a few bits and bobs that I wouldn't have tried before.
I got an email today from the chairperson of our allotment committee telling us that the plot has been flooded. Usually it floods down by the river when we've had a lot of rain but this time the entire plot is effected. My bf went down to investigate and our plot is under a couple of inches of water. The shed looks fine though and we're sure it will drain away. We've looked on the bright side and have taken the view that at least its better than the other year when we had no rain and we lost tons of veg as we just couldn't water everything as much as they needed.
We probably need to be starting a few things off indoors about nowish so I'm hoping to pick up some onion seeds to get them going. We've also been given some seed potatoes too.
Last night I also went out to my first Meditation group in over 2 years. It usually clashes with work but I've got a week off this week so I thought I'd give it a go. The group was small but I really liked it. It was nice to try out some new techniques and do it with others. Also I'd forgotten how nice the environment was and how comfy the big cushions were. With a bit of luck my hours will change a bit in the next couple of months so I'm hoping to make this a more regular thing.