BINTM Live

This weekend, a friend and I went to the Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model live show at the Excel centre in East London. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it sold itself as a great girls day out. There were various tickets available, but at £49, I thought that VIP was a little too much to fork out so instead we opted for the Premium tickets for £28. This included a ticket to the live catwalk show. There was also a £20 ticket for entry and a seat further back in the show or £12.50 just for the shopping and no catwalk show.

I have to say I found the whole day out a bit disappointing. Having been to Excel a few times before and knowing how big it is, I was sad that the actual shopping area took up so little room, and I think this made it feel like it wasn't worth the ticket price. There were a lot of makeover stands to get your hair or nails done, but these had big queues and quite a lot of the same things appeared multiple times and not the variety that I would have liked.

The live catwalk show was really impressive, and it was good to see the girls from this year's show put on such a great display and to demonstrate why they were in the show, and they all looked truly stunning in real life. The male dancers (mostly topless) and live music made it more of a spectacle, and I thought this redeemed the day out a little.

But overall, I have paid a lot less money to go to much better shows than this - I don't think I'll be returning next year.

Pass it on...

I'm lucky enough that my grandma was very crafty. She always had a project on the go, whether that was sewing, knitting squares for blankets, or I remember her over a number of years making lots and lots of these cute knitted dolls for charity and every time we would visit her she would show us the latest doll she had made. Such an amazing lady.

Sadly, she is no longer with us, but the last time my parents came to visit, they brought with them a couple of her unfinished stitching projects. So now I have decided to finish those off before I start on my other backlog.

First up is a piece of floral tapestry. It comes with instructions for making it up into either a cushion or a framed piece. It's quite cute but I'm finding it hard work to pull the wool through and not as enjoyable as cross stitch. Still, it is only small, so I shall crack on with it and get it finished. I like the idea that I am finishing off the couple of things that she started, it has a nice feel to it.

When I look at some of the photos of samplers from generations ago, I am amazed that children so young could produce such detailed, disciplined and neat work, and I think that it is a shame that this has been lost on our younger generations. But I hope that some day I can pass my skills down to another member of my family for them to learn.

I'm not anywhere near as neat as my grandma was, but she had years more practice than I did. But I'm proud to say that I'm getting there.

Finish - Beyond the Garden Gate

Woohoo!!! I am so pleased, I managed to finish this one in a little over 2 months, it's great to have my stitching mojo back and to be excited by working on pieces. I think it looks quite sweet, and although I think it would make a quite nice cushion, it's more likely to be framed for someone.



What's not so great is how carried away I got at the Knitting and Stitching show. Whoops! Within about 5 minutes, I'd bought some halloween related charts, but I know, they won't be done in time for this year, so they will have to wait until out of season. A bit further round, I saw some other lovely things I wanted to try, and further still and there was the Jane Greenoff stand. So many beautiful samplers hanging on the wall and Jane herself was there, who convinced me to join the Cross Stitch Guild. I also bought a lovely floral book to stitch and a blackwork house sampler. Since I wanted to extend my skills a little and to try some blackwork, and I've also been keen to try a sampler, this seemed like a great combination.

I also splashed out on a colourful green and purple tile that I thought was pretty and a bit different and a few HAED charts and kits. Terrible, I know, but having seen many of the blogs I follow who are working on HAED charts, it was just too hard to resist and they had one hanging up that I absolutely had to have. I have a sneaky feeling this is how the addiction to HAED starts. Even though I'm sure each one is at least a 2 year project! I guess I won't be needing to go to the show for about another 10 years! Pictures to follow as I start and progress... yes I will be better with the stitching updates.

Beyond The Garden Gate progress

Just a quick update with a photo of the piece that I'm currently working on. This one is called Beyond the Garden Gate, and I'm just over a month into it now... I started almost as soon as I pulled the tiger off my frame.

Looking pretty cute I reckon, I'm hoping to have it done by the end of October. Scarily, it's the Twisted Thread show in a couple of weeks, where I will have to try not to buy oodles of new stash to stitch!

Jersey Boys @Prince Edward Theatre

Having seen the adverts for this plastered all over the tube stations, buses and from walking past the theatre itself, I finally bit the bullet and booked myself a ticket. I'd been putting it off because I couldn't find anyone that wanted to come with me, but since I'm not working, I'm getting more used to just going to do the things I want to on my own.

So, middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday, me and quite a lot of coaches of OAPs sat in the theatre and watched the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I didn't know the story at all, and it is staged with each of the characters telling part of the story from their viewpoint, with a whole heap of fantastic songs thrown into the mix - Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You managed to draw cheers and clapping from the first line! With other songs like Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry, Walk Like A Man and December 1963 (Oh What A Night) also in there, it made for a great afternoon of entertainment, and I can see why it's had such a long run here in London. One thing I will say was that even though there were a few empty seats in the auditorium, the crowd more than made up for it - even the actors looked surprised at the reception they got from an afternoon crowd at points, and a good atmosphere really makes all the difference.

Ryan Molloy did an amazing job as Frankie Valli, hitting those high notes quite easily, or so it seemed. The other actors playing the Four Seasons were excellent too, the accents were pretty good, the swearing was plentiful (there is a warning about this on the ticket booking site), but it never felt out of place within the story. The funny and sweet little dance routines were a reminder of the era of 50s and 60s music. Clearly a very talented cast and brilliant staging, and I left the theatre uplifted, with the songs in my head and a warm fuzzy feeling for the rest of the night.

The Bluetones @O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

Last week, my husband, whilst in a pub trying to explain who these guys were, said that they were like the 3rd Britpop act after Oasis and Blur. I laughed and told him not to be ridiculous.

Having said that, as the gig on Friday night started, and they burst onto the stage on their farewell tour, I thought, well, maybe if I'd paid them more attention at the time, I'd have thought they were the 3rd Britpop act as well. There was something about them, it was easy to tell that this was an excellent touring band who clearly still has a pretty big following.

I have grown used to being at gigs where I'm one of the oldest there. Since The Bluetones is more one of Rob's favourites than mine, and because they are a band who were probably most famous in the 1990s, the crowd was very much different. For starters, when we were a few minutes late after the doors, we walked into a nearly empty venue. We could have stood at the barrier if we had wanted. Instead we chose a nice high viewpoint next to the bar and had the perfect view for the whole evening.

Clearly though, many of the crowd had followed the band since university days and were treating it as a step back in time. There were moments of now fully grown men jumping around like young boys, which was quite frankly hilarious to watch. Although they played a few songs that I didn't really know, they also played a lot that I did. Whether that was down to hubby playing them in the house, or I had actually paid more attention than I remember whilst I was at university, I was glad that I probably knew more than half of the set, and during the old favourites, the audience were all too happy to sing along and get right into the spirit of things.

Personally, I'm not all that keen on Mark Morriss' voice, although it is hugely distinctive, but during the instrumental parts, it occurred to me that the sound is quite rock and roll, which I am a huge fan of - and you can't really argue with the fact that they have been playing shows for 17 years. That's pretty good going. Apart from anything else, there was a lot of humour and plenty of energy in the show, which meant that I did actually enjoy it all very much. And it was nice to be at the farewell tour, knowing that they aren't going to be playing again as a group, the atmosphere was a little bit special. 8/10.

11th September

As big news events go, this was probably the biggest I've seen in my lifetime. It's funny how you always remember where you were when things completely stop you in your tracks.

10 years ago today, I had spent exactly a year in my new job at at a media company. When the plane struck the first tower of the World Trade Centre, I had no idea what I was seeing. I think I and the rest of the people in my office spent the rest of the day reading the news streams and looking at the photographs as a very bizarre spacey emotion took me through the day and we watched the toll rising. It was one of the strangest days of my life.

So today, I just wanted to say that I'm thinking of those people who were there and who got through this day, those who lost their lives, and especially of those who lost someone they cared about. I won't be watching the news or reading the stories, but I will remember and I will be thinking of you.