Election

I've just voted (by post) in both the local and council elections. It's been a wierd campaign not only because of the impact of the debates but personally because I've been too swamped with work to pay as much attention as I normally would. Having said that no-one seems that interested in campaigning where I live, there are a few signs and the odd leaflet but despite working at home for the last month I've not seen any door-to-door campaigning or seen anyone out in the community. The leaflets have been different as well, most have been from party central offices not the local candidates. The overriding focus has been on trashing the opposition; I don't for instance know anything about what our local LibDem parliamentary candidate actually supports, only that he seems to believe we have been living under a reign of evil not seen since Sauron stalked middle earth. Anyway these leaflets have been piling up at the end of my desk in the vein hope I'll recycle them but now I'm thinking about crafting with them instead. Not sure exactly where its heading but the first step is pictured above and the second is after the jump:

Progress

 I have a few things in progress at the moment but with deadlines looming there is no realistic hope of finishing them in the next couple of weeks. I do have a knitted scarf to post that I made to try out a stitch pattern from Lynne Barr's excellent book, Reversible Knitting: 50 Brand-New, Groundbreaking Stitch Patterns.   I hope to find the time (+cash for yarn) to try one of the projects very soon. In the meantime I've started to do an embroidery I drew out an age ago, here's the progress so far:

More food, less craft.

Yum. Asparagus and cheese muffins. No home grown asparagus yet though, have a purple variety plant but its looking pretty peaky.

Real Big Fish Cross Stitch

"Monkeys for nothin' and the Chimps for free.." made as a birthday present for a friend with a ska-punk/ska-rock type obession! I created something like a pattern before hand, mainly for the space monkey (it's laughable really but if I come across it I'll add it to a post).

Mighty Mighty Elm

I have the feeling this blog might go in a similar plant-based direction to Ian's. Mostly plants just die in my care but I'm making a concentrated effort this year. Got myself the bonsai (epi the chinese elm) and it is looking good. Plus I've got a whole crop of wickedly spicy chillis growing on my OAP of a chilli plant and I'm determined to be involved in the growing - and not just the eating - of our vegetables this year.

Office Chair Revamp

I meant to add this to the last post! I love this fabric, not sure where this trend for birds has come from but not complaining. It is almost worth the hell that is shopping at Ikea.

Almost, but not quite.

Office Chair Revamp, seat and back

Cutting and shaping the foam for the seat. The seat is curved and the original foam had been glued on to it, figured I'd follow suit so it'd be sure to follow the contours. Had no idea how difficult it is to glue foam though. Hot glue: fail. UHU: slightly better but still sucky. Superglue: so-so. Thought about going the araldite route but I hate the stuff so in the end the foam held to the seat by the fabric tension which worked fine.

More chair revamping: the first stage

In the before. I'd taken the armrests off by this point, the rips also were me seeing how bad the foam padding was and whether I needed to add to it or wholsale replace it (verdict: bad, replace). The stains however, nothing to do with me!

Reasons I'm never going to finish my masters....Part #1

So with the whole day stretching ahead of me I could have done any number of things, could have even put the finishing touches to 1/5 of my dissertation. So what did I go and do instead? Well it started quite encouragingly when I cleared several weeks worth of notes/receipts/coffee cups off of my desk so I could actually get to do some work. But its also when the trouble began, I found my bag of embroidery floss which has been in such a mess I've been avoiding doing any stitching: obviously sorting it was more important than essay-writing so several hours later....