Chatiryworld

Happy birthday Chatiryworld

I've been adding crap to the internet since 2004.  Happy birthday also to my sister Ellen, who doesn't add crap to the internet.  We celebrated with cupcakes from Bibi's Bakery.

The year in Chatiryworld

1. Salts Mill, 2. Jon's birthday cake, 3. Kiki and her big sisters, 4. Jon on North Berwick Law., 5. Broadford, 6. Harbour office, 7. Us in Brussels, 8. Knitted poem, 9. Computer at Bletchley Park, 10. Pittenweem, 11. Forth Bridge, 12. White!

January - I baked speculoos, made Jon a hat and rediscovered a childhood favourite.

February - we visited my mum, became the proud owners of a KitchenAid mixer and celebrated Nagglemas.

March - we learned about a Moomin exhibition in Brussels but decided we couldn't go to it and I wondered about the charmed lives of lifestyle bloggers.

April - we climbed North Berwick Law for the first time.

May - a return visit to Seven Stories in Newcastle, some nice weekends and our first wedding anniversary.

June - writing up about our May adventures in the Highlands and our new favourite pub that we discovered, and why Facebook is great.

July - 5 years together and we decide to go to Brussels after all.

August - I go to Knit Camp, write up our Belgian trip and we head north to nose at houses in Inverness.

September - two weddings and a blocked drain all in one weekend.

October - describing celebrating my grandparents back in September, discovering Charles Rennie Mackintosh's only English house (also in September) and loads of new breakfast ideas.

November - autumn light, celebrating Chazmas and a festive gift guide.

December - it snows, really snows and some festive images.

Have a lovely new year!

Charmed lives?

I was very sorry to read that Elspeth Thompson has died, I used to enjoy her column in the Guardian on renovating an old railway carriage into an eco-house.  I'd also borrowed the book she wrote with Ros Badger, Homemade , from the library.  Whilst it wasn't one I felt worth buying, it was still a lovely craft book.  Elspeth was only 48, and I just assumed that she had died as a result of an accident or had cancer.  But then I read her obituary and discovered she had been battling depression and taken her own life.

I like reading housey/crafty/bakingy blogs, and often these can present the impression of a perfect life.  Sometimes they receive criticism because of this.  We sometimes forget that blogs by their very nature are personal, and we use them to present ourselves in the way we want to, or to document certain aspects of our lives.  I used to rant more in the early days of this blog, but I just can't be bothered nowadays (plus my job means I need to be careful commenting on anything potentially controversial).  Plus I'm now much happier than I was back then.  But that lovely flower up there?  I took that photo when I was off work with stress back in summer 2008.  I did write a little bit about it back then, but not loads as a) it could have turned into loads of rants where I ultimately slagged off my then workplace and got the sack, and b) I was using most of my energy to try and recover and needed to focus on the good, positive things in life.

It's easy to forget that behind the blogging about knitting, the homegrown vegetables and the Cath Kidston fabric are real people whose lives aren't perfect.  I know some of you write about your struggles, some of you hint at them and some of you say nothing at all.  And sometimes life completely surprises us and hits us right in the face.  Kate from needled has gone from documenting her knitting designs to describing life recovering from a stroke (she's only in her thirties).  It's absolutely fascinating reading although I wish it's something she would never have had the opportunity to write.  But these things make us who we are.

Browsing through Elspeth's blogs, she definitely presents the perfect home-making life.  And why shouldn't she, if that's what she wanted to do?  Maybe it was a form of escapism for her.  There's something very bittersweet about reading her posts now, what inner turmoil was her mind grappling with?  We'll never know, and I hope her husband and daughter will at some point be able to find comfort from the beautiful home they created with Elspeth.

We spend our lives eating cupcakes

That sounds like the start of something that could be quite profound, doesn't it?  It's not, it's just that I seem to be blogging about cupcakes recently.  Jon and I don't actually spend our lives eating cupcakes, mainly because it would make us fat and unhealthy.  These are some slightly squashed (they travelled in Jon's bag from North Berwick) mini ones from Cath's Cupcakes.  Isn't that a great packaging idea? 

We headed out to North Berwick today for a food fair organised by Slow Food East Lothian.  We recognised a few stalls from Edinburgh Farmer's Market but there were several that were new to us, including Cath's Cupcakes (incidentally these are very tasty and highly recommended.  We didn't spend that long at the fair and I was disappointed at the lack of hot vegetarian food available, all there was for lunch was a cheese platter, and that may not be much good if you are a strict vegetarian, or like me, can't eat too much cheese.  Jon enjoyed his burger and I created a sandwich of sorts using marinated olives and feta and a roll I was kindly allowed to buy separately from the meat soup.  We finished off with chocolate ice creams (sorbet for me, and that tasted pretty rich!) from The Chocolate Tree, who produce an amazing array of chocolate goodies.  A wander along the beach rounded off our time there nicely.

Yesterday I met fellow blogger, knitter and librarian Catrin from everyday life (wearing her gorgeous candle flame shawl).  She has come over from Sweden to have a little tour of the UK to celebrate her birthday.  We went to knit and eat cake at K1 Yarns, and managed not to buy the entire shop, then enjoyed lunch at The Elephant House.  Lovely to meet you Catrin and enjoy the rest of your stay here!

Days

It's Delurking Day again, so if there is anyone left reading who has never left a comment, please do so! 

More importantly, Jon and I have now been engaged for a year.  We've been working on the invites this afternoon.  Well, Jon's done most of the work, I've floated around finding stamp pads and quotes.

5 years

When I started this blog 5 years ago today I was single, working as a public librarian, living in a crap flat in a slightly crap area in Leeds and apparently I had a sore neck.  Well now I live in Edinburgh, am an information officer, live in a lovely flat in a lovely area and, most importantly, am getting married to a fellow blogger in May.  But I have another stiff neck.

Typepad is 5

And we're helping the celebrations.

'Our story' is currently at the top but probably won't stay there for long so you might need to scroll down.  Assuming you can be bothered to read it of course.  Happy birthday Typepad!

Happy blogday Chatiryworld!

I nearly forgot!  It's my sister Ellen's birthday today which means it's also this blog's birthday - 4 years old now.  Look at all those months!

This seems a good day for me to take part in the Pay It Forward meme (no one knows where it started but this is one I took part in before).  Basically, the first three people to comment (and don't mind me knowing their addresses) will get a handmade gift from me in the next 365 days (probably not that long though but don't expect anything too soon because I'm not the sort of crafter that has things just sitting around).  All you have to do in return is run the meme on your blog.

I think I have at least 3 readers not including Jon...

This time of year

I was talking to someone today about the high expectations people have of Christmas and how you Have To Have A Good Time And A Great Christmas.  The reality is of course that accidents, disasters and illness aren't able to tell that it's the 25th December and shit still happens.  Or maybe shit doesn't happen but the pressure of trying to make sure it doesn't happen sends people over the edge.

Like most of the blogosphere, I've been reading dooce for a while.  The other week she wrote an absolutely fantastic post on getting treatment for mental health problems.  I can't begin to know what chronic depression and postnatal depression are like, but I do know what it feels like to have your life ruled by feeling permanently anxious.  I also know how wonderful it is when you find a medication that takes this away and you can get back to living.   I won't babble on more about this, because dooce writes it much better than I could.  Her hubbie Jon has also written a companion piece about being married to someone with chronic depression.

End of NaBloPoMoNoNoDoReMiFa

Last day of NaBloPoMo today, not as easy as it looks is it?  Mind you, I'm going to posting daily for the next few weeks anyway with the advent calendar, but I can draft a whole load of those up beforehand, and it's dead easy to find festive links (remind me of that when I whinge later won't you?).

So, anyone else doing an advent calendar?  So far I know Caireen at the patchwork dress is doing a scrap one.  Rachel at Do Good Design (fellow knitter and she lives in one of my home towns, Stromness, in Orkney) is searching for a magical Christmas and is going to have a secular calendar of finds.  Let me know if you are doing one too.

If you have any kind of interest in children's picture books check out my latest del.icio.us link, Lookybook (via swissmiss).  You get more out of it if you register and it's basically online versions of some gorgeous books.  You'll be there for a while though.

Right, back to the knitting.  I might do tomorrow's calendar post as well.

NaBloPoMo

WTF?  National Blog Posting Month (well, international really) and, inspired by Manda and Madeline, I've decided to sign up.  November seems to be the month for this kind of thing, I've just decided not to take part in NaKniSweaMo, where you knit a jumper in a month.  I may well do this anyway, but I've got other things to knit as gifts and don't want the pressure.

Anyway, I have to post every day in November, and post properly, link feeds don't count.  I can't see any reason why I can't and it may help inspire me, or just make me cross.  Plus November is Big Birthday Month so there should be plenty of lovely things to blog.  Hm, how much crafty stuff though?  Some things I make will be presents and I won't be able to blog them until December 25th.   Let's see how it goes.

Speaking of birthdays, if you are a relative or close friend (or plain nosy) there's some prezzie ideas under the cut.

Blog Action Day: Normalise

I feel like I've been slacking on green blogging recently, I certainly haven't done anything at Green Girls Global for ages, which is not good at all.  Today is Blog Action Day when bloggers all over the world post about the environment.

My thoughts/message are very simple.  Normalise being green.  It's not a novelty concept for hippies, it's what everyone should be doing.  We're much better at it now, you can get energy saving lightbulbs at Tesco and Ecover at the crap Somerfield down the road.  John Lewis sells Method, Organic Surge, Korres and Dr Hauschka.  Waitrose sell paraffin-free wax candles.  Glasgow hosted a highly successful Organic Food Fair this weekend.  Marks & Spencer do fairtrade clothes.  More people are concerned about food miles, organic produce is more popular.  It's not always about easy decisions, do you get the organic apples flown in, or the locally produced ones that aren't organic, or the fairtrade?  Big supermarket or local shop?  But at least we have the opportunity to make those choices.  I can pick up organic mushrooms on my way home instead of treck across town to find a wholefood shop.  I don't have to search high and low on the net for soya or plant wax candles.

We've still got a long way to go with green and ethical consumerism, but it is becoming more 'normal' and not just something that reeks of patchouli oil in a tiny shop that's hard to find.

I'm laughing so much it hurts

At the reviews on the Amazon page for Richard Littlejohn's book, Littlejohn's Britain.  He writes for the Daily Mail and rants against recycling, immigration and gay people, things I will quite happily rant for.  Idiot.  The reviews are worth working your way through.

So, I was the Featured Blog yesterday.  A 'Typepad Loves Me' t-shirt arrived at work this lunchtime, I shall of course model it for you all, if we ever see sunshine again (I hope we do, there's a massive book sale tomorrow and last year they had stalls outside, and yes, this is one of the few ways to get me in a church).  At the beginning I was getting a hit a minute but it calmed down to be every couple of minutes, pretty impressive!  I've had some lovely comments and hopefully I have some new readers (I don't why I say hopefully, it's not like my life depends on it).  And thanks to my friend Rachel for leaving a nice comment on the Featured Blog page, you must go and visit Rachel's blog, especially if you're into your food, it's very good.

Welcome

From 6pm BST (yes, ignore mentions of GMT in previous posts) on Thursday 10th May to 6pm BST on Thursday 11th May Chatiryworld is the Typepad Featured Blog.  I'd like to welcome anyone that has come here because of this.  Hope you like what you see, and if not, don't waste time, find something you do like.  (Of course I never waste time reading blogs that annoy me, oh no...)

The above mosaic is a kind of visual representation of me.  Things I forgot: bunnies and Sheffield.  Jon (my boyfriend who I met on Typepad) and I have a strange fascination with rabbits since watching a Bill Oddie wildlife programme about a year ago.  And Sheffield was where I went to university and had fun.  Great city, when I lived in Leeds I sometimes regretted the move, but who knows where I'd be now if I hadn't left.  I'm of the opinion that you should only regret forgetting an umbrella, because supposedly bad decisions can sometimes lead on to even greater things.  Anyway, enjoy, and clicking on the photo will take you to the Flickr page with links to individual photos.

EDIT:  Comments now working.

Content on Thursday

Ok folks, as some of you know, Chatiryworld is going to be the Typepad Featured Blog on Thursday (from 10am PST, 6pm GMT so really Thursday and Friday for those of us working on Greenwich time).  I've been umming and aahing over what to write for that day, something special or just the usuals?

So I'm turning to you for help, is there anything you'd like me to write, answer, think about?  Any favourite posts you think should be highlighted?  Any photos you'd like to see (not rude ones of course, durr)?  The most I've come up with is doing a mosaic of photos that represent me, but I'm open to ideas and creating a rambling, scrambly blog post full of them.  Or not, the editors decision is final.  I suppose a rambling, scrambly post would sum me up best, this isn't a craft blog, it isn't an atheist blog, it isn't a Scotland blog, it isn't a ranty blog but all those things go into it.

I'll need to write it up on Wednesday night, as it will be my night to cook plus there's good TV on, I'll need your suggestions by 5pm GMT.  Using the magic of time travel it will be up on Thursday at 6pm GMT.

I've been finishing off some knitting projects so stand by for them over the next few days as well.