Disaster and misery!!!

Argh my computer has died (I am typing this on my boyfriend's).  I switched it on the other day only fora nasty blue screen to appear showing a nasty mean message about parity errors or some such.  This means my half finished accountancy project, and my sewing productivity project spreadsheet are lost in it's depths until I can (hopefully) get it fixed.

I am not happy, now I don't know if I should re-write my project from the beginning or hold out until someone can check my laptop and see if it is fixable.  Also it means all the fancy graphs and pie charts I was going to make on my sewing productivity levels have gone the way of the dodo.

I am not happy.

Oh also I gave up on my embroidery christening gift.  It just wasn't working and I had no time to bash out another one.

Bleugh

On a happier note, I am planning to finish the top of my first quilt , my echino bag and that darned grey leafy skirt in the next week or so.

I've also decided to scrap making pyjama's and have a crack a a summer top or two.  Details to come.....

Istanbul Bargaining

Well I’ve been away for a few days, being a classic tourist in Istanbul.  We ate a lot of kebabs, did a fair amount of sightseeing and did a little bit of shopping.

One of my favourite places in Istanbul was the Grand Bazaar, a massive indoor market of shops and stalls selling everything including carpets (lots and lots of carpets), leather jackets, soap, lamps and various trinkets.  My boyfriend John is an unbelievable bargainer, I have never seen anything like it. He honed this particular skill when travelling around Morocco for a few months with friends a few years ago.  His philosophy is that there is little point in shopping unless you can negotiate a good price.  Where’s the fun otherwise?  After watching him wear down one shopkeeper to the point he almost walked off in a frustrated huff knowing he’d reached his lowest price, and then shaking hands with another shopkeeper who loved John for his banter and bargaining skills (we were then invited to check out his very good denim shop and carpet shop too, but had to decline) I knew I needed to get in on the action, so went in search of what I truly desired, fabric.

I found a few fabric shops within the bazaar and went rummaging.  They had a lot of cheap cotton rolls at the front, very bright colours but poor quality.  But when you wandered into the depths of the shops you discovered all sorts of lovely things.  They had silks and satins and wools, lots of embroidered pashminas and blankets, so much fabric it was overwhelming.  I find fabric shopping a bit intimidating at the best of times, so stuck with the brief of cotton, and only cotton.  And I found this fabric straight away. 

It’s a lovely cotton, quite drapery but with a good weight, as the touts would say “very good quality, nice price”.  It worked out about £6 a metre and I got 3 metres.  Good for a summer dress, or vintage pattern shirt waist dress methinks.

Then at the counter I spotted a lovely lush red fabric with cream flowers dotted about, but when the shop keeper took it down from the shelf to show me it was a polyester that was so synthetic it felt like plastic.  I was so disappointed and the shop keeper was so keen to help me find something he rushed off to find a similar thing in cotton.  But he brought back a bright pink fabric with a grey paisley pattern, not exactly what I was looking for!  Then a colleague got involved and disappeared further into the shop and came back with a nice red cotton but with a very large flower pattern.  It was a lot closer to the fabric which had caught my eye, but still not right, Then I got ushered into another shop next door to look around, but which ultimately had nothing I wanted in there.  Finally I gave up, feeling rather guilty for all the effort they’d gone to.  Then when re-entering the original shop to buy the first cotton I’d found I looked up and saw this:

Well then I knew I wanted this one, and it was cotton (phew, although I think it may be a poly mix).  John by this point had reached the end of his tether (20 minutes hovering in a very compact fabric shop is too much for even the most patient man) but he still managed to knock the price down by 5 Turkish Lire a metre (I got 2 metres of this one and am thinking a blouse would be good), and I was proclaimed “a very good explorer” by the shop keeper so all in all a good days shopping!

Istanbul itself is very East meets West. Fascinating and hectic, historical and modern. Here are a few touristy snapshots of our trip to enjoy.

I'm stylish!

Well according to Carly and Lucy anyway, as they have both given me a Stylish Blogger award!  Thanks guys. 

 Apparently I have to reveal 7 things that you may not already know about me, so here goes:

1. I work in finance but am rubbish at mental arithmetic.  Don’t get me wrong I am very good with numbers and maths in general, but I never learnt the times tables at school and calculators were all the rage so I never picked up the skill of counting (or multiplying) in my head.
2. The only form of exercise I take is hoop dancing.  If you don’t know what this is check out this youtube clip for more info [BTW I am nowhere near as good as that].  I hate exercise and am not a believer in “no gain without pain” so avoid the pain as much as possible! Hooping is so much fun, although I do get weird looks in the street / on the bus when I have my hoop with me.
3. I have a fear of going to the corner shop.  This isn’t a specific corner shop, it’s all local newsagents.  It all stems from a time when I was young when my mum let me go to the corner shop on my own  A big dog was outside, who barked at me very loudly and chased me for a bit back down the road as I fled in fear.  Actually my mum may have been there too, my memory is a bit hazy, but the fear was real and even now would rather starve [read: go without chocolate] than go to the shop by myself.
4. I have an oversensitive sense of smell (and I think maybe hearing too).  I am learning this as I seem to smell & hear things which other people can’t.
5. I enjoy reading comic books and graphic novels.  It’s an expensive hobby (graphic novels are pricey) which I haven’t been indulging in much recently.  My particular favourite is anything involving the X-men, the Fables Series and I really enjoyed Persepolis.
6. I studied Psychology at University and love social psychology (mainly group/social behaviour) in particular.  I’m also 2^nd author on a paper which was published in the journal Social Cognition titled “Beyond secondary emotions: The infrahumanization of outgroups using human-related and animal-related words”.  I don’t get to boast about this much as infrahumanization is not exactly an easy word to drop into conversation! 
7. I love cake.  Baking it and eating it.  Cake is basically the best thing ever.  Whoever first thought, “lets mix flour, eggs, butter and sugar together into a splodgy mess then heat it up and see what happens” was the most amazing persion in the world! I think maybe it stems from being Engish, as there is nothing better on a cold, wet and wintery English day than a cuppa and big piece of cake!  



Proof that my love affair with cake started at an early age


Right that’s my seven things.  I’m off to find some cake now.  Oh yes and I need to nominate 7 people to pass this award onto.  Well my nominations are quite tricky, as a lot of peeps whose blogs I admire have just got this award (or sent it to me).  So rather than pass on the 7 things aspect, I’m just passing on the award as I like your blog (although you can do the 7 things list if you want).  Also apologies if you have already got this award, but it's getting passed around faster than head lice at a primary school (but in a good way)!!!

Marie of A sewing odyssey

Scruffy Badger Time

Natalia of 52 things to make and do

Zoe of So Zo…

Jane of Handmade Jane

Kate of M is for Make

Alana of Lazy Stitching