Just another dent in the damage…

It’s actually amazing what you can teach yourself given an hour or ’sew’ to focus. After finally fixing up Max’s gi (one of the bigger boys at Brazilian Ju-Jitsu ripped it up) I decided it was time to teach myself the buttonhole! For Christmas I received Cath Kidston’s awesome book Sew, complete with bag project. Problem is I’ve been too scared to tackle the project because of those dreaded buttonholes required to attach the bag strap. Well, turns out they’re not so bad! With not so much help from Alison Smith and surprisingly my machine’s manual I set to work and with a few tweaks managed something that resembles a buttonhole in about an hour (and most of that time was spent threading my machine because the naff cotton I’m using keeps snapping).

Anyway given The Sewing Book’s reputation as a seamsters’ Bible (which I have to agree is, most of the time) I was a bit disappointed to find it lacking a clear step-by-step explanation of how to actually create a buttonhole – how to position the foot, which stitch to use, what to do to adjust the stitch balance etc. Sure enough it includes beautiful photographs of each stage and when you’d use the different types, it even gives instructions for the more fancy buttonholes but honestly I’m a total beginner you have to spell this all out for me. I still haven’t managed to work out how to round the corner for a keyhole buttonhole but I will. So… take a look at what I did, all by myself!

Here I’m learning how to build the stitches:

My buttonholing foot:

And here’s a close up!

I’m not much of a New Year’s Resolution type person but last year I did write a list of 25 things I wanted to do in 2009. I thought it’d be worth going over what I did and didn’t do ready to prepare a new list of 26 things I want to do in 2010. So let’s see:

1) Set up an Etsy store and start selling small crafts: Well, I got the Etsy store bit sorted but getting the stuff to sell has been harder. I thought it’d just be a case of make a load of stuff and get it listed but it turns out a lot of the patterns I’ve been using to make consumables are all copyrighted and you can’t sell the stuff you make using them. Turns out I need to start writing my own patterns if I want to sell anything I make. The only things I really have for sale are my SSCS crochet whales as it’s OK to make money you intend to donate to charity, but a store with only one item to sell would be pretty naff right? I’ll work on this one. Promise.

2) Make more use of sewing machine and create at least one skirt from scratch: Again I kinda half did this. I reorganised my craft room so I can actually get at my machine without having to carry it about everywhere and I sorted out all the stuff I need to get on with making things – I just didn’t get round to making the skirt. But, I did make a lovely cushion (and embroidered it) and ploughed through one of my sewing books so I can learn more about what my machine does. I think this coming year will be my skirt making year so watch this space!

3) Learn to dive: CHECK! I actually did this one. This year I not only got my PADI Open Water but I completed my PADI Advanced Open Water and got qualified in Enriched Air diving. I’ve got about 20 dives logged now and am super excited about getting out and seeing more of the world’s oceans. At Christmas I went to Malaysia and got to play about with my new camera, here’s Nemo:

4) Learn Photoshop basics to improve photographs: So Photoshop is harder than I thought and there is definitely a lot to learn on this… but I’ve made a start. I’ve managed to cut three people out of one image and put them in to another, I’ve rubbed out plastic bottles and lamp-posts and learnt about image size and how to crop (ya’know – the simple stuff). My cutting out skills definitely need working on though. Max also showed me how to open my eyes – i.e. cut out Claire’s open eyes and stick them over my closed eyes!

This is a photo taken of Claire and I with Todd Kowalski from Propagandhi. On the original picture we were outside a pub and my eyes were closed. Here we are in Hawaii with my eyes open (if you look very closely you’ll notice they’re very similar to Claire’s eyes).

5) Take more photos and get uploading to Flickr: My new camera has helped with this one. On my last holiday I took about 1000 photos! Can you ever imagine doing this with an old camera that needed film? Crazy! Anyway I’ve slowly been making more use of Flickr and you can go and see my photos any time – lexrigby’s Photostream.

6) Make Donna a big granny blanket: Yes yes I did this. It got completed on March 18th for her birthday. Here is a picture of me admiring the finished product:

7) Print some Moo cards: Totally failed on this one. I figured I didn’t really need any if I didn’t get the store up and going. They’ll come eventually when I’m all business like.

8) Get funding for the IATUL conference in Belgium: I failed this too but it was kinda out of my hands. I wrote my statement about why I should be awarded the funding but at the last minute one of my bosses decided to write the entire thing himself on my behalf. I don’t blame him for not getting it or anything as I was told the application was exceptional, just not exceptional enough. Life goes on.

9) Design a cross-stitch pattern to raise more funds for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society: This was another one of those half did/half didn’t ones. Whilst I didn’t get around to design the pattern I longed to do I did get all subversive after buying Subversive Cross Stitch and started writing some cross stitch patterns inspired by Propagandhi lyrics.

10) Organise another SSCS fundraiser: This one is another ’still to do’. I think time ran away with me on this one. Whilst I didn’t organise a fundraiser myself I did volunteer at a number of events this year (including the International Dive Show at the NEC) and completed the first round of volunteer training. I’m now listed as an official volunteer on the Sea Shepherd UK website, so it’s all good in the hood still.

11) Make sushi: No making but plenty of eating. I’m going to get Donna to show me how to do this, she makes amazing sushi!

12) Finish Ursula tattoo: Yep, done and dusted. This is on my back:

13) Start work on Kali tattoo: I didn’t do this but I did get a whale instead, I think Kali needs more thinking about. This one is on my left inner arm – it was pretty swollen so excuse the chubbiness, I think the photo is a bit squished too (I got it off Myspace because I couldn’t be bothered to take a photo):

14) Keep up the weekly postings on my work blog: I did this! Want proof? See Librarians’ Blog for Science and Engineering.

15) Master the art of false lashes (just because there’s got to be at least one vanity thing in here): I did this too but none of my pictures are close enough for you to see them clearly. I’ll work on getting proof of this.

16) Keep up with the personal training sessions: After a year I figured these were just getting far too expensive to continue. I went from about August 2008 to August 2009. I fully intended to restart them but really £120 a month on top of my £42 a month gym membership… really.

17) Tick off the to-do list and write up results: I guess the result of this is this blog post. I did tick items off in my book and did refer back to my list to remind me what I needed to do, I just didn’t do as much as I wanted. I had planned to do a scrap book but I definitely think a blog post is more my thing.

18) Start open uni short course on marine biology: The Open Uni course I wanted to do is a short module called Life in the Oceans: Exploring our Blue Planet. It looks like the greatest short course of all time but a las I’ve not had a spare £150 to do it yet. I will though, studying Richard Attenborough’s Blue Planet sounds like the best thing ever.

19) Prepare for Cilip (this is the professional association of librarians) chartership: I simply changed my mind on this one I’m afraid. I just don’t know if I want to charter just yet. The chartership means doing a lot of work I just don’t want to do at the moment. Career development portfolios and all that malarky… snore.

20) Cook for Max at least once a month: I managed this one I think for a few months. I mainly make him puddings like cookies and cake. This will change this year though as I’ve a new cook book and it’s amazing. I won’t tell you anything else yet as I’m working on a post for this beauty that stands alone.

21) Visit Stef in Canterbury: Sorry Stef, you just come home too much. I’ll visit her this year for sure.

22) Read Moby Dick: I didn’t do this either, but I did read a lot about other whales!

23) Cycle to work at least twice a week in the Summer: This is my main regret I think. I should have done this, but I didn’t. Curse me.

24) Watch a broadway show: For my 25th birthday Sarah got me some gift vouchers for a London show and after loads of faffing about she never got to come with me. Instead, Max and I went to see Wicked… and it was wicked. I’d already read the book (and thought it very strange) so was interested to see how it would translate to stage. I liked it, it worked well and luckily they kept all the sexy scenes out.

25) Finish decorating the kitchen: YES, YES and YES and it’s the greatest kitchen of all time.

I’ve already written this year’s list… I might put it up later but in the meantime, thanks for reading.

I absolutely love crocheting, knitting, sewing, crafting… Anything that involves a needle of some sort and a piece of thread/yarn/whatever. I love reading craft weblogs and looking at pictures of other people’s craft rooms and I’ve always wanted to try and use this blog to show you more of the stuff I do but I just never seem to get round to it.

This week I’ve had a massive clear out of my craft room to try and create an inspiring yet functional place! Most importantly FUNCTIONAL. I moved to by new house just over a year ago and was super excited about getting a work space but the more kit I brought to fill it out the more it got crammed into bags and baskets, hidden away to keep the room looking tidy-ish. So after mistakingly managing to pull one of my only two shelves off the wall I decided it was about time to sort this tip out. I got pots, baskets, tins, jars and new shelves and set to work. It took a couple of evenings and a few missed episodes of Hollyoaks but I’ve FINALLY sorted it and thanks to Max I’ve an extra couple of shelves to store all my crap on! Tonight I got my camera out to start snapping away but the damn battery died so alas… no pictures yet. It doesn’t really look that different just much better organised and I can actually get to my sewing machine!

I uploaded a few choice pieces of some of the stuff I’ve been doing lately to Flickr in the hope that it’ll prompt me to document my activities better. I’m working on a couple of craft related posts so if you don’t see something by the end of October nudge me, please… I need it!

For now I’ll leave you with this little guy:

Made by my own fair hands for my pal Vic! The pattern is available from Ana Paula Rimoli’s Etsy store (she’s the writer of Amigurumi World and Amigurumi 2), if you’ve never heard of her go check her stuff out, she’s seriously amazing (her patterns are so simple to follow and are all totally adorable).

So this landed in my inbox today:

This message might meet you in utmost surprise. However, it’s just my urgent need for foreign partner that made me to contact you for this transaction. I got your contact from chambers of commerce search while I was searching for a foreign partner. I assured of your capability and reliability to champion this business opportunity when I prayed about you.

I am Mr Delchan Ouedraogo,banker by profession in BURKINA FASO , WEST AFRICA. I have the opportunity to meet unclaimed funds of ($5.5 Million Dollars) This is an abandoned fund that belongs to one of our bank foreign customers who died along with his entire family through plane crash in 16 September 2007.You can see the website link below.

BBC News

Meanwhile i was very fortunate to come across the deceased file when I was arranging the old and abandoned customers files in other to sign and submit to the entire bank management an official re-documentation and to the law imposed by the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in World Press Confrerence on Tuesday 6 december 2005 at 12:18 GMT

For more information about the prime Minister decision on dormant accounts visit: BBC News

Audit of the year against 2006.informed clearly that it was stated in our foreign banking rules and regulations which was signed lawfully that if such fund remains unclaimed till the period of 3 years started from the date when the beneficiary died, the money will be transferred into the Goverment treasury as an unclaimed fund.

Hence; I am inviting you for a business deal where this money can be shared between us in the ratio of 60/40 if you agree to my business proposal. Further details of the transfer will be forwarded to you as soon as I receive your return mail at delchan_ouedraogo@voila.fr

Unfortunately I’m unable to help Mr Ouedraogo out at the moment but if any of you want to take this opportunity, feel free. And if you actually make any money out of this lemme know, I’m up for a giggle.

This weekend we made 103 flat breads… 12 spiced loafs and a million cookies. We called it bread club:

We gobbled up all these bad boys pretty quickly:

Why did we do this? Well, it was all for this:

Good times had by all… The BBQ went down a treat (I don’t have any photos of this yet but I’ll try and get some), the bands were all awesome, costs got covered (which is always a huge relief) but I still just gotta ask: Why was this place not packed out? Where have all the UK hardcore kids gone?

The ocean fascinates me, everything about it – its beauty, its depth, its life, its centrality to our existence, its mystery, its colours, its wonders – but it wasn’t until recently I finally decided it’s about time I learnt how to scuba dive. The original plan this year was to head out to Honduras and qualify somewhere like Roatan but alas it was not to be, considering I couldn’t find flights for less than £800. PAH. So after hunting around and having a chat to a few travel ‘advisors’ I settled on the Red Sea, Sharm el Shit Sheikh to be precise.

Bracing myself for what I already envisioned as tourist hell I set sail, crew pak in hand, ready to return Ursula for battle with the almighty Triton (for those who don’t know me Ursula is the rather large sea witch from The Little Mermaid I have tattooed on my back). I’m getting carried away now right? But anyway off I went anxious, nervous, excited fully prepared to test out whether or not my ear had fully healed from that really disgusting ear infection I had on holiday when I was a kid. Right the way up until my last dive out there I was praying my eardrum wouldn’t explode leaving me with little else to do than fight off all the ‘please come into my shop – good prices’ stalkers until it was hometime.

Turns out Triton didn’t want to battle this time, or rather I took to diving say like a ‘duck to water’ and my ears didn’t complain once… Four confined water, four open water, two adventure and one fun dives later I’m a qualified Open Water diver and almost half way to my Advanced Open Water. Next stop the world eh. Well, maybe. I thought the classroom work may get a little tiresome but it didn’t, not at all. It was all so much fun, even the learning how to read a Recreational Dive Planner bit, even the standard what to look for when buying your own equipment bit, even the ‘what next – your continued education’ bit. Yes yes all of it. I love it, I loved it, every second. My instructor was incredible, I’d totally recommend anyone going to Sharm to visit the Red Sea Diving College and get kitted up. The snorkeling is wicked, but seriously the diving is insane.

On my travels through the blue I saw turtles, blue spotted rays, eagle rays, moray eels, needlefish, cornetfish, all kinds of butterfly and angelfish you could imagine, lionfish, sand eels, too many different types of coral to name, parrotfish, groupers, two-bar anemone fish, trigger fish, wrasses, giant clams, puffers, boxfish… I pretty much saw it all! No manta rays though, which was a little disappointing. Those things are massive! I didn’t get to go shark spotting either! One day though! One day! In case you’re one of these people that thinks ‘a fish’s a fish’ go take a look at some of the things I saw over at UK Divers, they’re amazing.

So now I’m home what next? Well, as soon as I receive the pictures of my underwater photography adventure I’ll be getting some images uploaded to my Flickr, including some of me with my kit on the boat. Last night I headed over to my local dive shop seeking a dive group to get involved with and keep practicing and I’ve got my boy at the travel agents on the job of getting me back over to Sharm. Maybe if this whole career in Librarianship doesn’t work out for me I could fall back on dive instruction? Hhhhmmmm we’ll see but for now onwards and downwards!

My two most visited websites now optimised for the iPhone. Genius!

lexrigby.com/heatworld.php and lexrigby.com/reddit.php

Feel free to steal them! What more could you need in life?

I have a treat in store for all you Sheffield peeps!! My friend Donna and I are organising a showing of Rob Stewart’s Shark Water (click image for details). It’s going to be a great evening of entertainment. For those coming expect a short talk from Giles Lane (ex-SSCS crew member), vegan fish and chips (electricity permitting) and plenty of cakes, a little craft and lots of fun! All money raised will go directly to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to continue in our struggle to protect the seas.

For filmmaker Rob Stewart, exploring sharks began as an underwater adventure. What it turned into was a beautiful and dangerous life journey into the balance of life on earth.

Driven by passion fed from a lifelong fascination with sharks, Stewart debunks historical stereotypes and media depictions of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters and reveals the reality of sharks as pillars in the evolution of the seas.

Filmed in visually stunning, high definition video, Sharkwater takes you into the most shark rich waters of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world’s shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.

‘We British LOVE to queue’. I went to the post office the other day and there were three of us waiting to reach the counter – so we decided to form a queue. We talked about the weather but we must NEVER talk about the kids. In Iran a crowd fights to reach the bus first but as the doors opened the crowd backed down – ‘oh no no after you’, ‘no please my friend after you’.

It doesn’t sound so funny now does it? But believe me when Omid Djalili told it I was in stitches! I went to see him at the City Hall in Sheffield at the weekend and my God this guy is so funny. I was nearly crying when he started with the Taa’rof stuff because you can totally see it happening. That’s what’s so funny. I’ve never really been a big fan of stand-up comedy because mostly I see it as an excuse for disgusting old men to exercise vulgar toilet humour – the stuff that’s not funny unless you’re a ten year boy (or a disgusting old man). But Omid – now that guy’s funny. He’s like Peter Kay in that he knows his audience and knows that it’s far far funnier to tell a true to life story than some lame ass knock knock joke. The Dad-run, the weddings, the supermarket shopping and the garlic bread. Legendary!

And for your viewing pleasure: