A new addition to the family...

I think I wrote a while ago that Ian had commented on how lovely it must be to go into a fabric shop and know that if the beauty of a particular fat quarter made your heart sing, you could just go ahead and buy it right then, as long as you had £2.50 in your purse. He said this in relation to how very different it is for him when he goes into a guitar shop...they're all there lined up on the walls, but mostly the ones that make his heart sing are quite out of reach, at least without a good few years of saving first. Anyway...last Saturday the children were staying at my parents so we headed up to London for breakfast...a pain au chocolat and a coffee or two, and then we wandered over to Denmark Street...which is pretty much for guitars, what Berwick street is for fabric shops. (I realise it does sound like I gadd off to London at the drop of a hat with three trips up in as many weeks - this is completely unrepresentative though and has come as quite a surprise, albeit a happy one)

His mission was a vintage one, in that it's been burning in him for the last decade and that the guitar he had in mind would be pre-1940s....two hours later and in the last shop we went to he found it. Beautiful wood, an interesting history and a sound that seemed alive...he was in love. And I realised how similar we are - he appreciated the combination of woods in the same way I'd appreciate combining a beautiful velvet ribbon with a contrasting piece of material. Some heavily figured Brazilian Rosewood on the bridge, worn Mahogany on the neck...he has spent hours since Saturday admiring the way they compliment one another.

Anyway...what a response I had to my boots mission! But it has finally come to an end, or will do once the postman arrives. The Camper boots were gorgeous...but not quite right for me - wellies should be wellies and boots should be boots in my book! I already have my dream boots - a 3-year old Christmas present from LK Bennett that are brown suede with a lovely crepe wedge heel that keeps the easily-ruined suede out of harms way, but I needed a black pair! And guess what?...I found their black identical twins on EBay!!! A size 36, brand new, and mine for £35!!! What have they been doing unworn in someone's wardrobe for the last three years, I wonder? - maybe their previous owner has had a boot crisis similar to my own...demonstrating that one woman's perfect boot is another woman's wellington. Anyway, the minute they are here I shall be attempting to contort myself into strange positions in order to photograph them whilst on my legs!

I have been sewing like a loon...and am making hefty inroads into the long list of Christmas presents that I am making...more on that when I've devised a way of sharing them here whist still keeping them secret from the intended recipients (who also read my blog).