Little girl...

So, I'm pretty on track stitching wise at the moment. I wanted to complete 4 kits this year... I'm halfway through the year almost and I've finished the Iris and also now I've finished the Banksy picture of the little girl with the balloon.

This one I'm definitely keeping, I love how it looks, and it's stitched up really well. The black took almost no time, but there were a lot of little stitches in many other colours which meant it took longer than I had anticipated once I started.

The fact that it's finished before the end of June gives me a little breathing space, which I'm quite happy about, although I find if I stick in the routine of doing a little every day, whether on my main project or a little side project, this helps keep me going and keeps me relaxed.

So, here's my little girl, I think I'll call her Gloria.

Drumtastic

This week was my birthday, and after nagging quite a lot for quite a long time, I was given the Band Hero kit (we totally have room for a set of drums... honest!)

After a bit of a slow start, I've spent a few days playing now and finally got into it... the drums are just great fun. I'd played a little guitar hero, but found that it gave me sore hands to play for too long as I'd be gripping the guitar too hard. The drum kit is much easier for me... although I am only playing on easy so far...I think anything more than that is gonna need a lot of practice.

Favourite song for when I'm feeling a bit grumpy has to be Joan Jett singing Bad Reputation, once you get the hang of it, it's a good speed and a lot of fun.

Of course, now the equipment is also compatible with the Rock Band games, I am mainly waiting for Green Day Rock Band, which is due out in a couple of weeks time. I'm thinking a little practice every night in the run up to then will be great. I'm sure it also counts as exercise... surely your arms and feet are getting a workout while you play drums, even if they are only a teeny gaming version!

Finished stitchy!

So I'm pretty happy. I've finished the cross stitch that I was doing. It's an Iris design that I bought around 5 years ago and only got round to starting at the start of this year. I'm impressed that it stitched up pretty quickly, it's probably the largest design I've done so far.

Here's a photo:



So that's the penguins done, the Iris done. Next up, Banksy's little girl with the balloon... (the Banksy design is one of the few that I'll actually keep).

By the Seaside

This time last week, I reached the end of a very lovely holiday up on the North Yorkshire coast.

The base for the week was in Filey, which I didn't really remember much about - most of the times we went to the seaside when I was younger, we usually went to Scarborough.

Filey was a pleasant surprise. Although it's fairly small, it was clean, it had a lovely and huge sandy beach when the tide was out. There were enough shops and coffee shops and things to do. It was really quiet, especially at this time of the year. The weather for the week was mostly sunny, but fairly cold still. That didn't matter though, we got wrapped up and managed plenty of walks with my sister's dog. The arcades were fantastically old fashioned. 2p slots were plentiful, we won a fantastic Wall-E toy (amongst other things) without having spent more than a couple of quid.

The only real downside that we found was that for a lovely view of a beach in a self catering apartment, you have to give up any kind of internet connection or phone reception. Up in town, it worked fine, but to be honest I'd rather have the beach and the sound of the sea and the sunrise. We just had to do a little more planning between the 6 of us.

Later in the week, we made a special journey to Whitby for fish and chips. The best in the country, I swear, and believe me, I have sampled many. Here's a photo.



We stayed in St Kitts Holiday Flats 2 and 3, 2 The Beach, Filey.
We ate in Whitby at the Magpie Cafe, and for posh nosh at the Downcliffe House Hotel, The Beach, Filey.

Stitchy update

Well, it's the middle of April and I thought time for an update on my current stitchy project. This is the Iris I've been working on.

I now reckon I'm about three quarters of the way through it. It's been quite a nice project as it's been big blocks of colour. Having said that, I'm getting close to the end now and this is normally the point where I just want to get it finished so that I can move onto the next one.

The frame Rob bought me for xmas is working out well, it's much easier to do a big project when I haven't got to handle the material, and as this is a slightly bigger project than I'm used to, it is keeping everything nice and neat and easy to do.

Fingers crossed I'll have it finished in the next month.

Jo and Rob go to the Forum

8th April. The Forum. Adelaide. Mayday Parade. We are the Ocean. Madina Lake.

When I booked this I wondered if it was bad form to be going to a gig purely to see one of the support acts. I think it's pretty bad planning if the doors open at 7 and the first band on starts at 7.10. Particularly if the queue goes the whole way round the block and most people miss the whole of Adelaide. I was a little grumpy about that, it surely could have been avoided.

Thankfully, we made it in with minutes to spare for Mayday Parade. And I sang my little socks off, danced as much as possible and thoroughly enjoyed the goosebumps shooting through my body from this lovely band. I mean, honestly, with song titles like 'If you can't live without me, why aren't you dead yet?' it's so easy to love them. They kept things lively, which meant I didn't get a couple of my faves, but it fitted the gig well and the crowd loved it. In my opinion, they should have had higher billing. They had flown over from the US afterall.

We Are The Ocean. I really don't know what to say about them. Neither of us knew who they were, although they were a local band by the sound of things. The guitarist had a great voice and led most of the songs, I liked his sound a lot. The other singer seemed more content screaming. Ruined it for me, I wasn't sure at all, but I'll go and have a listen to some of their recorded stuff, I suspect it's better than it was live.

Finally, the headliners, Madina Lake. I had gone some way to listen to their album on Spotify knowing that I was going to their gig. The songs I knew, I really enjoyed. A lot. The ones I didn't, not so much. They all have a bit of an out of space theme, which is quite funky. Highlights for me were Never Take Us Alive (the first song, kicked their set off nicely), Let's Get Outta Here and Welcome to Oblivion. They clearly put some thought into it, there were huge balloons at one point and streamers during another. Good fun, but wish I'd known more of the songs. The sound wasn't the best at times, but perhaps that was my hearing. I've seen a recording on youtube since and it sounds better than I remember.

Not too often that we get US bands that I quite like over here, so I'm pretty chuffed that I managed to see two in one go. I'll keep my fingers crossed for a Mayday Parade headline gig here at some point, I think they are definitely good enough and have a pretty loyal fanbase building over here.

Jo and Timmy go to a gig...

31st March and Timmy and I hit Shepherds Bush, Bush Hall to be exact. We were there to see Steve Appleton, someone Timmy had discovered a while ago.

Firstly, Bush Hall. It's gorgeous. Big chandeliers, pretty lighting, a lovely balcony and terrace outside. It's hosted many big names when they were still small fry - think Kings of Leon, Killers, Lily Allen, Florence and the Machine, the list just goes on and on.

Having listened to his stuff on his website and decided it was quite funky sounding(and moreso because the tickets were pretty cheap), we decided to give it a try - to be honest, I think this is a guy who is much better live. For a start, he looks like he's turned from a kid with a guitar into a grown up. He has funky hair, piercings and a bit of a swagger. The teenage girls are going totally nuts - it's been a while since I've been to a gig with such a young mostly female crowd and I felt like I was 16 again. It also makes a massive difference with a live band, and in the course of the show, he manages to show off his skill on both acoustic and electric guitar, keyboard and saxaphone. This is one talented guy, which makes me feel he's definitely going to be one to watch out for.

If you're in the UK and have spotify, go look him up on a sunny day and whack up Dirty Funk.