bee handmade

weekend pleasures

• Strictly Come Dancing. I LOVE it. I'm full of admiration for them but unfortunately I have zero rhythm and a bit of a phobia of the dancefloor. I can't believe we've almost reached the end of this series. Saturday evenings won't be the same. If wishes were real I'd ask my fairy godmother to enable me to do this. Oh, to dance the Argentine Tango with Vincent!

• Cooking and baking. Today I'm going to make some of Nigella's spanish macaroons. I'll let you know how they turn out.

• Completing jobs. I finally finished one of the kitchen chairs before being rained off again. I'm really pleased with it. It looks much fresher.

• Appreciating being at home and seeing a little bit of sunshine. These are roses given to me by a friend. They lasted for ages and dried well.

• Reading magazines. The latest Easy Living magazine has a great supplement on stylish one off shops such as RE, Made in Hastings and Berry Red. Lots of fabulous Christmas gift ideas. RE is one of my all time favourite shops. It's so beautiful and full of things you suddenly feel you can't live without. I'm really lucky that I can visit when I go back to the homeland. I feel a bit excitable just looking at the picture.

• Looking at Christmassy inspiration to try to get into the December spirit such as this amazing advent calendar, An Angel at my Table's snowy white decor and Linaloo's beautiful advent calendar.

an NYC taster

I really loved New York. It was fun, friendly, interesting and so much less hassly than London. We had a fabulous time and some really scrumptious food. I swear that I literally expanded my waistline on a day by day basis. We went to a great diner called the Lexington Candy Shop and had delicious french toast while soaking up its 1940s interior.

I really want to eat this RIGHT NOW.

Another gem was Cafe Habana. Unfortunately I was way too busy stuffing my face with their grilled corn to take any pictures but here it is in all its glory on their blog.

The Staten Island ferry journey was full of atmosphere as the New York Yankies had just won the world series.

The view.

Visiting Purl Soho felt like some kind of pilgrimage to a crafting mecca.  It was twinkly, inviting and packed full of gorgeous things.

Last picture for now is Central Park.

I didn't take many pictures with my digital camera so am really looking forward to getting my lomo films developed. Watch this space.

I'm in a crochet hexagon vortex at the moment, hence the lack of crafting news. The blanket will be finished soon. Repeat to self, the blanket will be finished soon.

the big apple: part one

Soooo exciting. I'm in New York City!! I can hardly believe it. I've never been to America before and we are spending a week visiting friends.

My other half got us into the spirit of things by making this New York cheesecake. Apologies for the poor photograph but it was so dark in our kitchen when we were about to tuck into the meringue topped wonder. I was so impressed - how clever was he? This is a man who has never baked before.

I've delivered these to two little ladies.

 

And will be trying with all my might to channel some of this.

 

and this.

 

Wish me luck, I'm now off to have breakfast in a diner. Bring on the pancakes ...

ice cream and petals

What with a recent anniversary and this beautiful delivery from Twigs and Honey I've been thinking a lot about weddings.

 

I literally couldn't resist this piece of deliciousness, my justification being that I can use it to titivate dresses I already have. I could even hang it on the wall as art as it's so pretty to look at. A confection of froth and fancy reminiscent of ice creams, petals, macaroons, autochrome photography ...

I'm going to three weddings this year and I can't wait. Fun filled days of happiness and good will and hopes for the future. The colours of my beautiful belt inspired me to surf here, here, here, here and, of course, here to feast my eyes on some pretty dresses.

 
images courtesy of sarahseven, liza rietz, Leanimal, frolic and  snippet and ink

Aren't they all delightful? The trouble with having a sartorial interest in weddings is that, depsite being really happy with my own choices, it's terribly hard not to idly look at pictures thinking ooh I could have had THAT one, no THAT one .... I think that basically translates as perhaps gleaning too much enjoyment from looking at pictures of dresses!

I would do it all again in a heartbeat, I loved every minute. The excitement of spending a day with my favourite people in my favourite place, seeing P standing waiting for me with a smile on his face, ceiledgh dancing for hours, listening to the waves, wearing a dress I loved, drinking homemade sloe gin, seeing the delicate northumbrian sunshine break through the clouds, going over all the details with P marvelling at how quickly it all dashed by, eating fish and chips on the harbour with friends the following day ... I could go on and on.

beautiful film

I get really drawn into the world created in a beautiful film. I remember going to see Amelie and emerging from the cinema feeling slightly disconcerted and disappointed that I wasn't in Montmartre. I waxed lyrical about wine glasses and bathroom tiles that my friends hadn't even noticed. I then became intent upon tracking down said glasses (eventually found by a friend on a French road trip).

Sorry about the poor light.  It's evening (as you can see a glass of wine is ready). I've also just noticed that the wine and green glass stems coordinate with the crochet tea cozy you can see on the top left!  Serendipity.

Here are a few of my cinematography favourites.

In my purely personal opinion Marie Antoinette isn't a great film but I really love the colours and set design. It's as if the whole world is made of these.

A world of ice cream colours, macaroons, satin and frippery. In contrast the colours in The Piano remind me of Northumbrian beaches - slate grays and blues, misty greens. Raise the Red Lantern conjoures a haunting atmosphere and, in my mind, marries the bleak shades of The Piano with the opulent colours of Amelie. I couldn't resist bringing my own red lantern back from a trip to Hong Kong.

What are your favourite visually beautiful films?