activity advent calendars

i came across the idea to do an activity advent calendar from this season's copy of anthology magazine.  running out of time before the first of december, i put together 24 paper boxes made out of old magazines and a christmas catalogue. i even enlisted the boyfriend to help, but he gets distracted by making videos very easily. by the end of the evening we had 24 boxes plus quite a cool iPhone video to go along with it.

take a look!

if you still want to make your own activity advent, check out this one by jordan on oh happy day. i used a lot of the same activities she mentioned there, as well as adding some local london events to the mix and customizing others.

for the paper boxes, i used instructions from this video.

Tweet

one pair of hand warmers

nothing bothers me more than having an unfinished project on the go. i am a slave to lists and love the feeling of crossing something off. the same goes for knitting. i cannot concentrate, i cannot work with a knitting project sitting on my desk... staring me in the face saying "finish me, finish me" all day long. at times, i actually have to pit it away in a desk drawer so i can concentrate on my work for the day.

at least i finished my latest project, these hand warmers were quite easy to knit up and quite quick too. next time i'd go for bigger needles and chunkier wool. sometimes i just can't be bothered with size 2 needles, they're so small!

Tweet

lomography: Diana Mini roll #1

at first glance i'm not totally impressed with the results of my first roll taken with my new Diana Mini from lomography. i think next time i'll keep it in one format, instead of switching it constantly between the 24x24 and the 24x17 settings.

there are a few great ones though which i'd like to share. i think the more i shoot with this the more i'll get a feel for what works with it. the foggy day photos turned out well which was a nice surprise. does anyone have any experience with this camera? which type of film works best for you?

all of the above were shot this past weekend in richmond park on a very foggy morning. our shoes were damp with dew in seconds but we kept traipsing, hoping to catch some shots of the deer but no luck. 

underneath is a photo of chiswick house, without a doubt one of my favourite places in sw london. gorgeous house, gorgeous gardens.

p.s. the guy at the kodak store felt bad some of the shots had multiple exposures so he gave me £3 off. little did he know i did it on purpose :)

Tweet

knitting wish list

you know the thing about hungary, england and knitting?

in hungary it was considered irrevocably "nagy mami" (grandma) to knit and even worse, to sew.
gasp//

imagine someone in their 20s wanting to do either of those two things... in public.
double gasp//

in england, and even more so in canada, it's actually quite trendy now to knit, handcraft and create with two hands. somehow that just hasn't caught on in eastern europe yet. but alas, i can knit on the train and tube with ease. i can still remember the curious looks when i would knit in the underground in budapest to and from work. the wide eyes, like they had never seen double-pointed needles in their life.

it seems every year my wish-list of knitting projects to execute gets longer but here are some of my "must-knits" for this season (the hand warmers are already on the needles).

herringbone cowl

colourblock hand warmers

short row sweater

what are you knitting up?

Tweet

murmuration

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

how incredible and moving is this?

Tweet

this is what a road trip in england looks like

this is what a road trip looks like in england.

london - manchester - exeter - london in a two bus caravan of 100+ people and a buddhist lama. travelling and meditation, i can think of few things better than this especially when so many friends are along for the ride.

Tweet