emily at beSottied.com

Here at Chez beSottied, it’s the end of another lovely sunny day, after a weekend of lovely sunny days. Hopefully it’s been the same where you are.

I’ve had a nice relaxing Monday off work today, following a weekend away in Northumberland with Neil. It was great to get away to one of our favourite places, and the warm weather was the icing on the cake.

Did someone mention cake??

To help celebrate the occasion I channeled my inner Women’s Institute member and, with the help of Helen’s Kitchen Aid mixer, whipped up a lemon meringue cake to take with us. It wasn’t too shabby! (And don’t panic, I sliced it in two and left half at home: no two people should eat that much cake in a weekend.) It’s a basic sponge recipe, with meringue on top of each layer of cake. The filling is a mix of lemon curd, mascarpone cheese and a little bit of icing sugar. It was pretty good, but I think if I make it again I will use smaller tins, and make more meringue!

We spent a few days in the Northumbrian village of Embleton, walking, lazing, and eating very nice food. We’d booked up at The Ship Inn in Low Newton by the Sea weeks ago at the end of March: we wanted to be sure we got a seat!

The pub is very small (I’d say 15 tables at the most) and only serves evening meals between 7 and 8 pm. It’s within throwing distance of the North Sea and a glorious beach. Definitely stop by if you’re ever in the area - I heartily recommend the crab, and Neil seemed very happy with his scallops!

It was nice to leave little Muriel parked outside the cottage for a few days and enjoy walking everywhere. Coming back from the Ship Inn meant a late-night walk along the beach armed with torches, and going for lunch in Craster involved meandering along the coast, past the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle (which some of you may recognise from last year), the cliffs… and the sheep, of course.

Back home - after a stop-off at Kielder Water and a very solid night’s sleep - I finally set to work on the Swing Bag. It’s a reversible bag, made more sturdy with a layer of canvas between the interior and exterior panels. That means a lot of cutting! Anyway, I’ve cut out all of my fabric and have machine-basted the canvas to the reverse of the exterior straps and panels. Fingers crossed, I’ll get to do a lot of tricky wizardry and finish the bag this weekend (Bank Holidaaay!).

Tomorrow is Tuesday, back to work and back to uni. It all seems a bit inconvenient, really, doesn’t it? I think I’ll comfort myself with a little bowl of Frosted Shreddies! Happy Monday everyone.

Uch. One essay down, two to go. I’m a third of the way - or 33.33% - through semester two of year two! Only two more essays and… three more years to go! Go team!

How I dislike assignment season. I handed in one essay on Monday evening and my next isn’t due until 13 May, so I’m planning on having myself a nice little break - perhaps even with some blogging!

As usual with assignment season, a lot of things have gone on the back burner somewhat. Things such as putting on nail polish, taking photos, knitting, and updating beSottied. I managed to get in a fair bit of bike-riding last week but haven’t been out since Sunday. To be honest, my bottom is probably glad of the break. I hadn’t been to Knit Happens in weeks when I went tonight - but luckily the group still welcomed me back!

I haven’t knitted anything since before Easter. I had planned to make a whole host of Julie’s gorgeous little cotton egg cosies, but evidently hadn’t planned very well and I didn’t get them finished in time. I did the exact same thing last year. Perhaps next Easter I will have sorted myself out enough to finish them off: I have all the composite parts at least!

I’m actually thinking of starting to sew a bit over the summer. I bought fabric for an Amy Butler Swing Bag months ago, and now I feel I might be able to make it without exploding through stress (how university affects me so!). I’ve made quite a few Swing Bags before so hopefully it’ll be plain sailing. After that, I’m thinking about making a skirt. I found a McCall’s pattern to make a skirt a lot like the skirts I usually buy, and I thought it would be handy for me to be able to whip up a couple of them in any fabric I so desire. But therein lies the problem: I think it’s so tricky to find nice, contemporary fabrics. Perhaps it’s where I live. I could order Heather Bailey fabrics over the internet (I do love Nicey Jane) and John Lewis in Newcastle stocks a few Amy Butler fabrics, but then I’m looking at £40 for a skirt: I may as well buy one (or three!).

I’m also aware that sewing would probably just become another thing that I don’t get done, like my knitting, and very much like my ironing! I’ll make myself walk before I run, though, and get the Swing Bag done first. If I don’t throw out the sewing machine in a rage doing that, then I may allow myself to buy the McCall’s pattern! Hee hee.

I am still riding the gee-gees, of course. I’m working hard at it in the vain hope I will get a lot better. I noticed at the beginning of the year that I had been schlepping about in the saddle. Now that I have one-to-one lessons with Jill and her gorgeous ponies (I say ponies, but they are all horses. Huge horses. I use steps to get on) I’m really trying to sort myself out a bit. Hence the two days of aching I tend to endure after each lesson. Ouch.

Has it really been over a month? I should really come up with some sort of ‘hiatus’ message to put on here when I inadvertently vanish, in order to prevent loyal visitors from sending out search parties in a hunt for my dismembered remains.

This isn’t a groundbreaking blog post. It is, however, a little promise of things to come. It’s been pretty quiet around here over the past few weeks but now that spring is in the air and the clocks have gone forward an hour, I actually feel like getting up to crimes various worthwhile activites, as opposed to lying in bed dying of dehydration because I’ve demolished a party sized bag of salted pretzels.

I have a beautiful Mary MacBook now, and I must use her for something other than watching endless repeats of Snog, Marry, Avoid on the iPlayer whilst lying in bed eating aforementioned pretzels. Though I do love Snog, Marry, Avoid.

Happy spring, everyone, and here’s to a newly refreshed, lively beSottied.com. There’s life in the old girl yet.