Peachy Keen Apologises for Its Lateness :)

mmm, period drama boys... *swoon*

[image from here]

Sometimes, my internet likes to stop working. Which makes me cry, and then I put a record on and read a book and feel much better :)

*Random side note... I listen to a lot of vinyl, and this always feels completely natural. Then yesterday, I played a CD while getting dressed for work and it felt totally old-fashioned. Weird, huh?*

Anyway! When my internet isn't breaking, this is what I've been checking out...

I found an amazing list of sewing projects. Seriously, I now have a to-sew list as long as my arm. But apparently my mamma picked up a massive batch of fabric while on holiday and is donating all the bits she isn't using for curtains to my stash... she's the best :)

I WANT THIS MUG! My cupboards are bursting with mugs though. I'm trying very hard to find a way to justify buying it other that 'But, I love it, I love it, why can't I have it?' Lol.

Despite having two jobs, a masters on the go, and some volunteering on the side, I'm still a massive procrastinator. I really have no idea how I manage to get anything done sometimes. This article has been quite helpful over the last few days in getting my ass in gear. I'm not a high-powered business woman by any means, but uni work and piles of crafting keep mounting up while I spend hours reading Jane Austen fanfic and watching Miss Marple...

And finally... I picked up in a charity shop this week a record of TS Eliot poems. So in honour of how much I'm enjoying it, rest your brain on The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. What a fab poem :)

Hope you're all having a lovely week, I'm off to bake some cakes!

Jen xxxx

Back in the game...

Phew.

So. Ofsted have gone, my overtime is diminishing and it's Easter. Bring on two weeks of no evening work AND a long weekend to boot!

To celebrate, as soon as my uni seminar was over and done with, I started knitting this. And, if I finish it quickly enough, next week will be spent making this rather awesome creation. Think I'm on a bit of a neck-tie love at the moment; I love neck scarves, but since I got my bow tattooed on the back of my neck I like showing it off, so incorporating cute ties on my sweaters is definitely appealing :) Not having any time to sit down and craft these last few weeks has been quite stressful for me... I need to be making! So there's lots bookmarked on ye faithful macbook and I can't wait. This weekend also finally saw the planting and potting of purple cauliflowers (yay!), chilli peppers and lavender so it's all finally coming together.

I repeat, phew.

On another note, does anyone else watch Lark Rise to Candleford? I watched the last episode today. And I cried. That's mostly thanks to my dear mama though, who teased me by making me think there was a sad ending for my favourite couple. But there wasn't, hurrah!

Right. I have a cup of tea, and 'Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict' waiting for me... see you tomorrow for some peachy keenness!

Jen xxxx

Another Serving of Peachy Keenness!

Oh HAI blog.

Huh? What do you mean where have I been?

Here's a fact about me: sometimes, I'm useless. Life gets on top of me (see: uni, ear infections, boys, OFSTED inspections) and I spend a week in jeans, sleeping and watching Richard Armitage on Youtube. It's not big, and it's not clever but I emerge refreshed and determined to do good things.

So! Onwards with what I've been filling my screen with.



Dorcas Lane! She's just so awesome. Just in case you haven't picked up on my love of Lark Rise to Candleford, here it is again. I want to be an independent lady with a post office and a forge. And the dress she's wearing in this picture. Oh, the dress. It's love.

Jodi from If You Never Did, You Should posted a link to an awesome campaign called The Girl Effect and I think it's something people definitely need to get behind. I'm already trying to think how I can incorporate raising awareness of it into my work. I skipped the intro video the first time round, because I'm impatient but, seriously, please watch it.

Casey is one of my favourite bloggers, she's so super-stylish and talented! Her new guide to sewing is a brilliant read; I don't know anyone else away from the internet that makes their own clothes, let alone vintage inspired so it's really great to see how other people work.

Vintage at Goodwood is a new festival starting this year. It looks AMAZING. If anyone's thinking of going, please let me know! I really want to be there, but need to convince some friends first :)

I can't remember how I stumbled across her, but I've really enjoyed reading Mary Van Note's blog. And this is possibly the best photo I've seen in a long, long time.

In other news, my mama's starting to think about moving, so I got to raid through her wardrobes. Yay! Among other treasures I found a beautiful pinafore dress. I shortened it a little bit and now it's just about my favourite thing ever. Check it out :)





I'm not so good at the posing thing... It'll come with practice :)

Well that's it for this Tuesday. I'm off for another cup of tea and then work!

Lots of love
Jen xxx

Peachy, With A Side Of Keen

...And Tuesdays are bringing together all the lovely things I've been looking at!



I look at Richard Armitage a lot, mainly because he's just beautiful...

*Ahem*

I love this tutorial on how the washing up got done in the 1940s! It's especially awesome because I've been explaining to my housemates for weeks that there's a specific order dishes should be done in, and now I know it's not just me :) (Yeah I know, OCD much?)

This is the best recipe for vanilla cupcakes! Instead of the icing though, try whisking up some buttercream, add a little rose syrup, and you have the dreamiest butterfly cakes ever.

Cut-Out-And-Keep has a lovely how-to for embroidering a deer. As I might have mentioned already, I'm really keen on embroidery at the moment and this would make the cutest decoration for a bedroom!

If, like me, you're a lover of vintage and reading then head on over to the Queens of Vintage social network and join the vintage book club! We've just finished reading 'The Moving Finger' by Agatha Christie (which was brilliant) and thinking about what to read next... I'm crossing my fingers for The Great Gatsby or Lady Chatterley's Lover.

That's it for this week! It's a bit of a short list, but after finding the washing up tutorial I've been mostly reading the rest of the Behind the Curtain blog, it's fab :) What's been occupying your screens this week?

Hope you've had a lovely Tuesday!
Jen xxxx

Mondays Stuck On Repeat

So... this past week has been a massive fail! My housemate decided that being the sharing, caring person he is, he should pass his cold onto me. Cue a Jen of Doom, horrible ear infection and several days fighting the urge to faceplant my desk and take a nap :( This also means that I haven't done anything I planned on doing; both skirt and essay are glaring at me feeling unloved.

But! It's a new week and I'm starting to feel much, much better. I even ventured out of the house to join in leaving drinks for my cake-baking, bed-building partner in crime Jade. She's going back to adventure camp where she works (I have to admit to being very jealous of her job!) and won't be home again until November. Sob! I put a fancy dress on and we actually enjoyed lashings of ginger beer and cake...

As I don't have anything else to report, have some pictures of my pretty outfit :)


I don't know if I look deep in thought here, or if it looks like I'm checking my dress for dirt...!

These are my absolute favourite shoes! I found them on a random vintage stall at Ely market... they claim to be from the 1920s. Now, I'm no fashion historian but I don't think they date back that far in any way! They are beautiful though and the only heels I can happily walk around in all day :)

I tied my scarf in a huge bow at the side of my neck. I thought it looked fab, but I don't think the Monday evening Wetherspoons audience was expecting such flounce. And it made eating custard a bit tricky...

Anyway, I hope you all are planning a lovely week. It's half term for me which means no evening work and lots of time to catch up on sewing and essays.

Jen xxxx

The beginning of a new week...

I don't know about anyone else, but on Mondays I always like to make a quick to-do list of everything I want to achieve in the week to come. As I start full-time work again in a couple of weeks there seems to be lots to do in order to tie up lots of loose ends before my crafting and relaxing time gets cut into. I've also got my first comissions for sewing projects. YAY! My friend wants a skirt for her birthday, her fiancee has asked if I can crochet him a moogle and another of my friends and her boyfriend have asked if I can make them costumes for the Bizarre Ball. Lots and lots to do indeed :)

Inspiring me a lot this week is the fashion stitcher Laura Lees. Everyone who's been a regular Topshop visitor would recognise her pretty dresses embellished with awesome embroidery. As I've been making my skirt, I started to think that embroidering something on the pockets would be uber cute (especially some of the awesome birds in my embroidery book!). I went to visit my Amyfriend this weekend, and she's lent me the most awesome Laura Lees dress which just sealed the deal for me. See her work here.

So. What have I got on my list to do this week?
- Finish my skirt! It didn't get done this weekend as I got distracted by friends and shopping. Oops.
- Start my essay on anti-oppressive practice. Neither crafty nor vintage but it must be done if I want to have a chance of finishing it before the deadline.
- Go dancing. I'm going to be brave and go along to Ceroc this week even though none of my friends think they'll be able to make it. I'm bored of the gym but am getting that restless feeling that comes after not doing an exercise for a while.

It's quite a short list this week, but the first two will probably take up most of my time. It'll be worth it in the end though.

Final thought: Hobbycraft was AWESOME. The whole centre it's part of is awesome. So awesome, in fact, that it requires its own post. More details later in the week!

Lots of love
Jen xxxx

Friday Thoughts

In the future, Friday will be a day of musing on whatever has captured my brain crafting or vintage-wise. However, I’ve been at uni all week so the only thing that has captured my brain is the philosophy of religion and the theory of youth work, which I’m sure no one wants to hear about! So here’s a quick catch up of what’s been going on this week…

As I just mentioned, I’ve been at uni for most of this week, and the days have been very long so not much crafting has been done. My brain feels like it has been beaten up! I’ve got loads of work to do so need to sit down and plan exactly when I’m going to do everything and make sure nothing gets forgotten about. I’ve also just found out today that I’ve got a new job! It’s just an extension of my youth work (extra hours and such) but it’s made me a very happy Jen indeed.

In crafting news, I’m sitting down to sew my skirt today. Just been having a fight with my bobbin but we’ve managed to work things out amicably. It’s looking good! Hopefully there’ll be photos by the end of the week ☺ It was my friend Kayla’s birthday this week too and she said she wanted a monkey. As chance would have it, the girl that was giving me a lift to uni is also a big crafter and turned up on Wednesday with instructions on how to make sock monkeys! So that’s my project for tomorrow.

One final thought for this Friday… HOBBYCRAFT OPENS TOMORROW! Yep, so exciting it needed capital letters. We have a trip planned for Sunday and I can’t wait. Expect a full report soon!

Right. I have Belle and Sebastian on iTunes, a big cup of tea and my sewing calling my name.
Lots of love
Jen xxx