Nesting bees and hatching Butterflies

Listening to- Mentira by Manu Chao

Our catapillars have finally pupaeted, their cocoons are a dull green colour with gorgeous little gold flecks, not long now til we can set them free as butterflies and they will hopefully breed a whole colony in the wild.

Which brings me to my next point, we have found a nest of little bumble bees in the compost bin who have built a home for themselves out of teabag papers, which is lovely but means we will have to buy a new compost bin as we cannot disturb the little ones. It also means we will have a huge bees nest next to our house in a few months, although all bumble bees die in the autumn to make way for the new ones.

The Vegetable Dress

 Listening to- Nightlight by Bonobo ft. Bajka

Ok... the love for vegetables has actually just tipped the scale a little too far.... Yesterday I progressed into making a dress depticitve of actual vegetables...

The top was made from single crochet, no pattern used, with yarn from the trusty Grainger Market habadashery and the skirt is made up entirely of a variety of fabrics from remnant bins at Uni, fabric stores and charity shops. The thing about making your own clothes that I love is that if someone were to purchase them, they would be fair trade. Because the work itself is done only by me.

The dress features a quilted carrot and onion (made from borrowed merino wool tops and my grandmas old curtains) backed onto an embroidered cabbage (from old skirts and jumpers) with layers of soil and a hand dyed (with henna) gingham patch pocket.

Unfortunatley, as I have no access to the industrial machines over the summer, and as it is expressive to a taste only as hideous as mine, I'm afraid it would be unsaleable if I were to produce more than 1.

Embroidering the cabbage with spaghetti stitch and attaching the top piece to the skirt, with the obligatory morning cup of gunpowder tea

The Final Dress, and details of the vegetables :D

Broccoli clouds

Listening to- The Camel Song by Bo Diddley Squat

Do you know... I can't get enough of vegetarian food. It is so much more gratifying to make an amazing vegetarian meal then to fry a lump of meat and call it dinner.

My favourite vegetarian/ vegan restaurants would have to be Inspiral Camden, Sky Apple Heaton and Antonias Organic Kitchen in Barcelona. I'm awaiting my visits to Earth Cafe Marrakesh/ Essouaeira, Vegetalia, Self Naturista and Juicy Jones in Barcelona.

And every one of them seems to have the right idea.... Bundle a gazillion different little flavours onto a plate at once, almost like tapas and drizzle some kind of pesto-y hummous-y seed thing ontop. Excellent.

This is why I love it......

 Some kind of lovely sweet potato, roasted onion and feta quesadilla thing with paella- I don't remember exactly- La Boqueria market Barcelona

My Lunch today... Seared broccolli sprouts with goji berries and linseeds, toasted spelt focaccia with guacamole cream, griddled butternut squash, mozarella and olive oil. and A spinach salad With hummous drizzle, goats cheese and dried cranberries. Where else is it acceptable to combine this many different things on a plate....?

And for desert, strawberry bakewell :D not vegan, but not bad ...

Oh which reminds me, I came across a total Heston Blumenthal-ism yesterday at Sky Apple, having a chilled out snack with my dad.... "Little Weed Tiramisu" which came in a plant pot with some kind of tofu cream and an oreo soil layer, complete with edible pebble and flower. My face looked totally delighted when it came to the table as you can imagine.

Doilies aren't just for grandmas, they're for life.

Listening to John Coltraine and Dave Brubeck- Take 5

I'm having a tendancy to dis- regard everything I've ever learnt in my education about trend lines, and embrace the ever- so- classy, ever- so- up to date Doily.

I took a plain old topshop vest, cut it up, re- arranged it, hand dyed, appliqued, embroidered,  crocheted, appliqued some more and came out with this... (it looks terrible on the hanger but very nice on)

So next time you're feeling a bit retro, retire your grandmas doilies from the arms of her Stannah™ chair lift and join me. Classy bird!!

The First Blog

Listening to: Norah Jones- Sunrise

Ok, well maybe not the first blog ever..... but my first blog. Apparently it's the "in" thing to do, with the likes of Tavi Gevinson and Colin McDowell on the loose, not to mention most of my friends.

A little about myself; my name is Kat, I'm 20's years old (so far) and I adore all things textiles. Such a foodie where all food is concerned, even though I'm a vegetarian. (I consider myself to be a human version of Remi.) I love vegetables.

I'm all about the kindness; I don't know where courtesy has gone these days, but I'm assuming I absorbed most of it saying as I'm such a colossal push over. I've become recently peturbed by the human race and am intent to create my own little world of calico, buttons and hand embroidery. (The plan is to build a big permaculture tree house in a hot country and go completely off grid in terms of electricity and water. After all, there's no point in even having a blog if i'm going to dissapear completely.)

I have peculiar taste in music from dub and reggae to new age acoustic, a bit of drum and bass fused with latin here and there and the ever popular non- music that just doesn't make sense at all.

So this blog, as if you hadn't guessed, will probably be filled with textiles, food and the environmental issues that concern me so.