Wednesday 10 December
A fitful sleep last night for reasons I do not understand. No matter. No point worrying about such things, really. I will catch up at some point and clearly something was amiss at 3, 4, 5 and 6am. Breakfast was peanut butter on grainy toast and a giant cup of tea. I ate it watching a couple of Youtube videos for a gentle start to the day, as is my way.
After that I got dressed and went to Saver’s (for a quick nick about) and then met a friend for a coffee at Preston Market.
Getting dressed: Sportsgirl granny square jeans, white and blue striped shirt, silver Birks … the usual.
I picked up a steak, some limes, some lemons, shallots, garlic, ginger and cukes. I’m going to make a Thai style beef salad for dinner. I also bought a balloon for June, one with a big smiley face on it, but when I popped in to see her she was NOT impressed by the balloon. In fact she nearly cried. Apparently she was having a grumpy afternoon before I got there, but the balloon was the icing on the emotional cake. Oh no! I hid it in the kitchen but she kept looking over at the string dangling down from it and looking very unsure until I removed even the string from sight. Lesson learned. Balloons are bad, friends.
In good news I picked up some beads to make Christmas ornaments. In less good news the clothes dryer broke down last night, so I need to invest in some racks because another dryer is not on the horizon any time soon. Never minddddd. I will think of the beads! The beads are good!
Also? Busting to watch this … I loved the book so much.
Good things
Let’s all get bloomscrolling?
I have linked to them before, but I love The Fabled Thread, so I’m linking to them again.
I love everything Kate Gwilliam makes.
Pretty pink deco for the holiday season, anyone?
Virginia Woolf on being ill
Some comforting reads …
Cute gifts for clever babies and toddlers.
I always like reading Theresa’s blog … And Leonie’s blog.
This Nathalie Lété bear rug is so cute!
Friday 12 December
It’s so beautifully sunny and blue-skied out there today. I sat on the back step with Peach for a while, then came inside to make avocado and tomato on toast and tea. Yum. The avocado was so good and reminded me of the staff avocado toast-eating sessions we used to have at my long-ago cafe, Blue Heaven. Anyway, I ate it in front of my laptop watching bits of the Taylor Swift Colbert interview on YouTube. Love her. (Don’t mind if you don’t though!) She talked about feeling like “a flickering lightbulb” after her shows and honestly that’s how I feel when I get up in the morning, when I walk around my house, when I leave the house, when I get back home again. Please call me Flickering Lightbulb from this day forward. Also? She shared that her cat Benjamin Button sometimes sleeps on her head and my dog Peach sometimes sleeps on my head so really we have a lot in common. Also I loved her description of books she loves to read too ->
“So if you’ve got an old rambling shambles British mansion covered in moss or ivy and there’s a mysterious relationship and he may not be what he seems and there’s like a murder that has happened in the past but you hear whispers of it. There’s the idea of a ghost or an actual ghost … If you present me with a plot line where there’s a family compound on an island off the coast of Maine, there’s secrets in this family. This brother—what’s going on with him? Why don’t we know where he’s been for 10 years? Why did he just show up? You know what I mean? If there’s a marriage and the marriage isn’t what it seems, and it seems like this dude is clearly like, ‘why are you with him, he’s horrible to you?’ Oh plot twist, unreliable narrator, she’s the psycho. If you got any of that, I’m gonna need to read that. And when I say read that, I mean I’m gonna need someone to read that to me,” Taylor told Colbert, namechecking Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca as a jumping off point.
I’m so tired after a few hours of medical appointment/family time yesterday so I think I will have a very quiet day. I have picked up supplies for making beaded ornaments (the ones I briefly linked to in my last Dailies) and honestly I felt like a magpie doing that because OF COURSE I had to go to four different shops to get what I needed. In the end, I could have just gone to Lincraft because they had all the things I needed, but of course I went there LAST (before my doctor’s appointment yesterday.) Annnyway. If you want to make beaded ornaments, go to Lincraft! Spotlight did not have a SINGLE sequin, can you believe it? Sigh.
Yesterday when I went to pick up Rin, June and Ari from Rin’s house, June beamed so utterly completely at me and … reached out her arms to come to me. It’s a moment, friends. Then she started snuggling my shoulder, patting my chest and smiling even more. I think she’s worked out that when I arrive it’s PLAY TIME and that baby with the six-hour wake windows loves to play. It was so sweet. Very bolstering, I tell you. I loved it so much and I think June did too.
My colourful granny square blanket
Anyway, last night I got started on my first ornament, watching the TikTok how-to very carefully. It’s a rainbow trout and so far it’s going well although I am sure the second one will be much better. I watched that ridiculous murder show on Binge (Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda, I think? ) while I beaded and noted to self that I need to switch to A Place In The Sun for future sessions. In Homicide Hunter, the narrating ex-policeman says things like “and mothers always know everything about their sons” and “mothers will do anything to protect their sons, including lying” and similar things (I’m paraphrasing.) He’s very all-knowing. According to him. Just in case you needed to know that.
Vintage wrapping paper from Saver’s
A few people asked me about my granny square blanket and how I joined the squares. I did use ‘join as you go’ and I crocheted the final round of each square onto existing squares. I used similar to this method as it leads to a simple, flat join. I actually improvised it from memory, so my version is a variation of the one I have linked to. I don’t put chain stitches between the clusters (except at the corners) on the sides I join. Hope this helps!!
Yesterday I also picked up The Family Crochet Book which is chock full of funny and also stylish things to make. So pleased. And I found two bags of old wrapping paper which I was SO PLEASED about.
My nearly finished crocheted Log Cabin Blanket
I was somehow reminded that I once – many years ago – consulted a psychic a couple of times, in the hopes of getting some ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ guidance. As I reread the information she sent me. deep in my email archives, I wondered. I mean, I’m not an esoteric sort of person, but the idea of ‘talking to my angels’ suddenly seems appealing. I suppose after so many rough things happening over so many years, I am willing to try any darned thing. But then I wondered … how? How do you talk to mysterious someones you don’t really believe in? Where do you start? And is it just the saying things that are worrisome out loud that helps? Or is there more to it? I would love to know if you are better informed than I am. I mean, I don’t mind the idea of just talking to myself out loud about my worries. I’m more the write it down sort of person, but perhaps there is room for both approaches?
In the afternoon I worked on the log cabin blanket and watched A Place In The Sun. I need to finish this blanket in two days time, so I can start on finishing Blanket 3 for Christmas. I know I can do it!!!
In the evening I ate cheese and crackers and watched the first two episodes of the new Taylor Swift docuseries, while I worked on my Claire-inspired/informed beaded ornament. I’m not great at the beading, but I’m great at the Taylor-watching. I need to watch some beading tutorials, I think, but for this first ornament I’m freestyling.
Saturday 13 December
So I woke up with the worst headache, but it lifted pretty quickly with a litre or so of guzzled water. Then I made some avocado and tomato on toast, with a few rashers of streaky bacon on the side (crispy, protein). I had that with a big cup of tea and it was super good. While I ate I watched a YouTube video by this interesting lass. I really loved watching that. High recommend if you are into cosy, homey, everyday videos by non-annoying people.
The day was a pretty quiet one of reading, working on the log cabin blanket, laundry, Era’s Tour-watching, dinner making. I made a spicy meatball and rice noodle salad which was quite nice. I made double the amount of dressing the recipe asked for and it still wasn’t enough. Next time I will triple or quadruple. I find this with most recipes, when it comes to dressing, actually.
Monday 15 December
Such a dark day in the wake of the attacks at Bondi yesterday. Thinking of those affected.
My Call-The-Midwife Crocheted Blanket
Tuesday 16 December
A cloudy, somewhat gloomy day today … partly due to the weather and partly due to the community’s post-Bondi mood. I made a bacon, tomato, avocado sandwich for breakfast, then had a little bowl of yoghurt with raspberries. I’m feeling shattered so I’m trying to eat broadly and well. After that I worked on blanket three – a granny square blanket inspired by the one made for Chummy in Call The Midwife – a little bit. I have finished blanket one, blanket two needs a few ends stitched in and blanket three is up to the joining and ends stage. I will have them all done for Christmas, which is a relief. Hopefully the kids don’t mind getting handmade presents this year.
Getting dressed: Grey track pants, Yale sweatshirt, silver Birkenstocks
I’ve also been working on some beaded ornaments inspired by this clever person. I have made the front panel of three fish so far and am going to make more and then stuff/sew them up. Some are for me and some are for the kids to add to their decoration collection. Hopefully I can make them a different one or two each year because as you know I am a sucker for traditions and our family has few due to very topsy-turvy and chaotic years. I’m going to change all that.
After a bit of blanket work I made this red lentil soup and it’s simmering away on the stove as we speak. When it’s done I’m going to nip up to the library to pick up my reservations and then head home for the rest of the day. I have to rest rest rest or else I will get progressively worse and be a total lump for Christmas. I think a lot of people are feeling the same.
I want to do some reading today too, if eyes allow. I’ve had really bad uveitis over the last few days, so it might be an audiobook sort of day instead of an actual book day. Speaking of which did you see some people are going a bit nuts over Taylor Swift listening to an audiobook in the new TS documentary. It was The God of the Woods, FYI.
Wednesday 17 December
I popped to the library yesterday and picked up a couple of books I’d reserved. I just finished In The Margins (which I HIGHLY recommend) so I’m ready to dive into The Compound. (I managed a couple of chapters last night before bed and I am liking it so much – likely due to my reality TV-watching habit.)
Breakfast today was vanilla yoghurt with raspberries and a giant cup of tea.
Getting dressed: Sportsgirl granny square jeans, blue striped shirt, silver Birks … the usual.
I worked on blanket three today, read a couple more chapters of The Compound and prepped the garden for a couple of incoming hot weather days. I didn’t do much more than that, due to not feeling great, but tomorrow is another day, isn’t it?
June reading on the tram
Thursday 18 December
So warm last night, but bearable, thank goodness. I got up early and gave the dog a bath, watered the garden, filled the paddling pool up for any thirsty birds and came inside and made tea. Said dog is suffering as she acclimatises to the warmer weather, so she was delighted to swish about, receive a robust towel-dry and then tear around the garden, stopping momentarily to tumble about in the clover. Note to self: sort out the lawn mowing for backyard.
I myself am tumbling … through The Compound. It’s a sort of speculative fiction genre telling of a game show set in an isolated villa. It’s being billed as a dark imagining of Love Island, only even more cruel. I’m enjoying it so much. You know, I didn’t really use GoodReads this year, so I moved over to The StoryGraph last night and am hoping to start documenting my reads again. Granted I will be missing most of 2025’s reads, which I have not recorded, but perhaps I can go back through my blog and add those in …? Hmmm. Food for thought.
Craft chaos
Saturday 20 December
It’s cool again today, after a couple of scorchers. I really must get used to it because these were only the beginning of a few months of intermittently boiling weather. No point flagging at the first burst. Much better to attempt to take it in one’s stride and know that the heatwave will always break. Please know that I will flag and will not take it in my stride. I’m soggy like that.
I visited Rin and June yesterday afternoon and we had a big play and a chat. June CRAWLED to me, pulled herself up by grappling my knees and then pushed her face into my shirt. I, of course, melted at this self-directed show of affection, reader. What a tonic she is. (And her mum too!) Rin and I chatted about the week and Bondi in particular. Like everyone we are trying to fill in the information gaps, but of course so little is known … and yet so much.
Avo and egg with tomato and sriracha on grainy toast
This morning I got up at half seven, made tea and breakfast (avocado, tomato and egg on grainy toast) and then skimmed social media for a short while. Next, to get in a more festive mood, I watched a Nigella Christmas special with one eye and wrote to you with the other.
Getting dressed: Gingham dress, black leggings, silver Birkenstocks
Blanket three is well underway and possibly two-thirds done. The deadline is closing in, but I know I can make it. Three finished blankets by the 25th? No sweat. Well. Actually a lot of sweat due to aforementioned boilingness. So pleased.
Blueberry muffins a la me (and will I ever stop wearing this shirt?!)
Also? I made a batch of blueberry muffins yesterday and they were so good. I added some lemon rind to the batter for extra zing and took most of them over to Rin’s house because breastfeeding mums need all the baked treats, as far as I am concerned. I used my raspberry muffin recipe, but switched out the berries, clearly.
Today I’m going to do some tidying, work on that last blanket, work on my beaded fishies, snack and watch A Place In The Sun, I think. How about you?
Your pal,
Pip
xoxo
Beef Salad a la me
If you fancy, buy me a coffee —> https://ko-fi.com/piplincolne
6 Comments
Qué deliciosos platos preparas, el plato de la tostada es precioso,saludos!
I really love your dailies, Pip – thank you for continuing to write them! Always such a cosy, calm corner of the internet 🙂
Re: psychic, calling in angels etc – I firmly believe I have a spirit guide, an elderly woman who was my best friend when I was 10 and she was 85. I have heard her voice clearly and often over the 30+ years she has been gone. Especially when I was in London and I ended up living in a house round the corner from where she had seen out the war (that’s another story!). And yet I also think on some level “her” voice is also the voice of a wiser, completely grounded version of me. When I first went to therapy nearly 20 years ago now, my therapist encouraged me to write letters as that was how I best expressed myself – uncensored to those whom I needed to express difficult feelings (and would never send!), but also letters to my over-thinking, anxious and needy young self from a older wiser me – “Wise Phil”, my therapist and I called her. It’s quite incredible to look at those letters now, scribbled by my twenty-something self in London pubs and Melbourne cafes, and realise I actually had all the wisdom I needed within all along. It’s a practice I still do now – when life is getting overwhelming and I feel myself spiralling into anxiety and panic, I sit down with my journal and write a letter to myself from Wise Phil. I was truly blown away when I leafed through my journals from the start of the year the other day and found Wise Phil’s words from March – everything she/I wrote would happen, has. Right down to the pink flowers and apple tree in the garden of our new home. Wise Phil KNOWS STUFF! 😀 Let me know if you give it a try. See what Wise Pip has to say! Though I think you’re pretty wise already xx
Do you know what I love about you, Pip? You always manage to find nice things to eat, do, make & focus on despite life not always going to plan or hard times. I think that’s a really special trait you have. I also love that these posts have so much to come back to. I’ll often leave the MMAM tab open on my computer so I can come back to things days after I’ve first read your post.
Your beef salad looks REALLY yum even though I don’t like beef much. And so do the Vietnamese meatballs. Sadie has just started liking blueberry muffins (big win!), so maybe I should try your recipe & see if I can get her onboard with a homemade version….
Funny that you mention TS listening to God of the Woods because I borrowed it from Borrow Box to listen to the other day! I’ve had it sitting unread on my Kobo for months & months, so I thought if I started listening to it, then I’d be eager to read it also. Gosh, imagine being the author & hearing that TS is listening to your book!!!
Anyway, I must go. The flooring people are FINALLY coming to finish the floors, 4 days after they were supposed to be done. Sades & I are off to the city for a quick bit of shopping before going to watch The Greatest Christmas Show this afternoon with some friends. Normally, we go to the Lotterwest WASO one, but we thought we’d try something different this year. I hope it’s good. And then we’ll come home & begin the shitty task of moving all the furniture back in. Maybe then I will actually feel as though it is Christmas & we are on holiday!
Take care, Pip xx
Dear Pip, why would your family not love a homemade gift? They are the best sort. I have thankfully finished all of mine. Our USA contingent flew in on Friday. I got to hug DS, DDIL, DGS and DGD for the first time in 3 1/2 years. They are doing a sibling/ friends catch up for a few days then we will all be together for 4 days. It will be 14 people/ 4 generations ranging from 95year old great gran to 5year old triplets. I have cooked everything I possibly can in advance. Fridges and freezers are full. Best wishes to you and your family for a lovely Christmas
Dear FL, what a lovely post to read on this sleepy cloudy December afternoon. We’ve just had friends stop by for lunch on their travels and I made sourdough and a Vietnamese chicken salad BUT now I’m peckish again for your Thai beef one. Yum.
Your beaded ornaments are great. I have made none. I did get my Christmas cards posted on Thursday…only for one to arrive back in my own letterbox today?! Busy time for the mail sorters I’m sure.
Re. Logging your books read in 25, my library logs them which is very useful…not so useful for your non-borrowed ones though. I just sped through Wreck and Raising Hare is delightful so far.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend Pip xx
First day of school holidays and off to the local outdoor pool shortly with my son for a catch up with his cousins! Nachos for dinner.
Like seeing your Dailies popping up again!