100 Years of Solitude

Okay, maybe not 100 years, but I do love my exaggerations... 


Earlier in the week, my housemate had a crash in his car.  He's fine, fortunately, but his car is more than worse for wear so he's been staying with his girlfriend who lives much closer to his work.  And I've been flying solo in the house all week.


Now, I've often found that when you live with family, friends, lovers - as opposed to random houseshare which I've thankfully never done - your alone time is often limited to going to bed or taking a long, long bath.  So it's been quite odd having the house to myself for what is almost a week.  I don't think I've lived on my own for over two years now!  I really enjoy my alone time... as lovely as it is to see friends, go for coffee or go out dancing, I also crave hours of my own company.  And I never get bored; I'm always baking, crafting or cleaning, usually with some radio 4 drama in the background (Raymond Chandler this week!).  Being alone was the best thing.  Ever.


Or so I thought...


It had gotten to the point yesterday where I was going to bed super early because I couldn't think of anything to do!  The house was clean, dinners were cooked, laundry was done, so I may as well just go to sleep.  Hence the lack of updates round here.  Today, I said no to apathy... I got up, went into town, took a leisurely stroll round my favourite thrift stores then came home, did some gardening and cooked up a yummy veggie bolognese.  I've just had a lovely long soak in the bath and now plan to do this for the rest of the evening...

Mmm, gin and a good book!

... tomorrow I'm going to get up bright and early again and carry on cooking, then have a bit of a pamper session in preparation for what's shaping up to be about 50 hours of work next week...

A lot of my girlfriends hate to be on their own.  If their lovers are busy, then they surround themselves with friends.  I'd go crazy!  But sometimes it helps to reinforce just how nice alone time can be, and I know I'll be really happy to see people again come Monday rather than feeling all 'socialled out' :)

So how about you guys?  Do you like alone time?  What's your favourite thing to do when you've got no one else around to entertain you?

Peachy Keen 22.02.11

Happy Tuesday everyone, hope you're all having a super start to the week :)

Spring is here! Actually, it's still freezing here and not feeling much like spring at all.  But the spring clean is definitely on.  Today was my first day off with no uni work for months (hurrah!) so I cleaned, baked and planted like the domestic goddess I sincerely wish I was.  In the kitchen we now have fresh homemade bread and yummy sweet potato and lentil soup as well as peppers and onions planted in containers ready for sprouting.  I love home days.

This week's Peachy Keen is a short one, I'm looking forward to having lots more time to waste on the internet! (That's a joke... kind of)

Miss James has a darling blog, and she recently linked to these old / new photos by Irina Werning.  Such a cute concept!

I'm a massive Haruki Murakami fan, his novels are amazing.  And I absolutely can't wait for the film of Norwegian Wood.  Check out the trailer here.

These gin cocktail recipes are making me long for lazy summer evenings.  The Blue Moon sounds particularly delicious!

And finally... someone has turned The Great Gatsby into an 8-bit game.  It's a little bit genius actually, but I had to stop on the second level because a) I'm rubbish and kept dying and b) I really need to go to sleep!

Right, that's it for me... super tired and already curled up in bed with a chai latte, what a lovely way to end the day!

Jen xxxx

Fangirl Friday 11.02.11 and What's My Motivation?

Oof. Uni work is boring today! I've read and researched for almost a million hours (no exaggeration...) and must now accept that the time has come to actually start writing.  It's feeling like a real struggle, and I keep finding so many more fun things to do.  Tomorrow I'm packing my bags and going to the mamma bear house in the hope that some countryside quiet will let me focus.


So tell me... how do you get motivated when you really don't want to do something?  I need all the help I can get!


And on with the roll call of what's been distracting me from 4,000 words of youth work management theory this week :)


Reading: 
Sadly not a lot apart from textbooks!  However, some things I ordered from Amazon arrived today, so added to my must-read list are Henrietta's War: News From the Home Front 1939-42 by Joyce Dennys and Wartime Women: A Mass Observation Anthology: A Mass-observation Anthology of Women's Writings, 1937-1945 by Dorothy Sheridan.


Dancing to:
A lot of Glenn Miller, as usual!  I've discovered the amazing effect opera has on my levels of concentration, so I've also been playing a lot of The Magic Flute.  And here's my two favourite songs of the moment...



Best TV introduction ever?





Watching:
I've hardly turned my TV on in the last week or so!  But when I have, I've been mainly watching / falling asleep to series one of Land Girls  Thoroughly fluffy and enjoyable :)


Generally loving:
Any time I'm away from my uni work.  Soy vanilla lattes.  Practising my ukulele.  Writing plans.  Convincing people in the office they should cheer every time I walk in the room.  All the pictures my sister sends me of her baby bunnies.  Catching up on The Archers.  Buying tickets for more dances :)  Twitter!  I finally understand it (maybe)... find me @Nana_Jen


And that's it!  Hope everyone's got a lovely weekend planned.  In with the studying, I'll hopefully be off to watch Black Swan, finally!


Jen xxxx

Peachy Keen 08.02.11

Hello lovelies! Are you having a good start to the week? Mine's been mostly filled with essay work, boo, but in a week's time it'll all be done (for now!) and the fun can start again...

Otter love! Just because we all need some cuteness sometimes :)

So what's been happening in my world of the internet this week?

I've been planning lots of things to do and read once my work's out the way.  And Persephone books is definitely responsible for my to-read list growing!  I'm tempted to try the 6 month subscription... it's a vintage reading geek's paradise :)

I love the film noir genre.  There's a super box set sitting on my table, again waiting for me to finish my work.  Radio 4 has this interesting background piece on some of the big names in film noir; I've not listened to any of the shows, but I want to!

This article on book collecting is a bit like my 'ghost of Christmas yet to come'.  Yep, I really am a book geek... the bookshelves on my landing are arranged my colour and then alphabetically, the ones in my room are all my favourites (still two book cases' worth) and are organised into genres :)  Secret librarian fantasies maybe?

I found this super interesting.  I spend a lot of time worrying that I'm not achieving enough, and reading this article was exactly what I needed.

I'm not an online game person, but Winterbells is just adorable. Bunny in the snow!

And finally...

Katy Carr! I'm learning to play this on my ukulele at the moment :)

Just in case the otters didn't fulfill your daily cute quota...

And now it's time for me to catch up on Lark Rise to Candleford!

Jen xxxx

Summing up, and some nice things too...

Well. The past few weeks have been entirely eventful. Bag stolen. Mild nervous breakdowns thanks to the huuuuge amount of work I've been doing/avoiding. Cameron becoming prime minister. All just thoroughly too depressing.

Then! I found some beautiful dresses, started reading some lovely books and listened to Mahler's 5th Symphony on repeat. And I gave up smoking. Everything is okay again. Maybe. If I can just get some uni work done...  So let me forget about those 4,000 words that are due in next Friday and think about something else instead.

I picked up an awesome book in a charity shop in Cambridge - '1939: The Last Season' by Anne de Courcy.  It mixes stories of the final party season of the thirties with the political issues as we headed right into the middle of World War 2 (parties and politics are two of my favouritest things).  I'm not even halfway through it yet, but it's got some fantastic quotes (matched up here with some pictures, just because, well, I like pictures!)

"...for a young woman of the upper classes, adult life began with a curtsey."

(image from here)

"Two good subjects if you are stuck for conversation are ghosts and the royal family."

(image from here)

Apparently, the advertising for a car called the Lancaster really was 'At 50 m.p.h. you can knit comfortably'.  That is so my type of car! (I gave up trying to find a picture of the actual car - my car distinction extends to "it's red"...)

(image from here)

Finally, apparently my sister not only has been reading this blog but also enjoying it (thanks panda!).  So for her, here's some outfit pictures from when I felt particularly lovely over the last few weeks.

Me feeling a little Miss Marple-y. Actually, this happens quite a lot.

My hair makes me happy here :)

Yep, I liked this outfit a lot...

No outfit in this picture. Actually, no clothes except a towel. But Lilycat's just about the cutest thing ever.

Other exciting things have included some amazing acquisitions from various shopping trips to Cambridge, which will hopefully be posted as soon as I can access some passable photographic equipment, and some true visual treats.  But that's another story for another day!

Jen xxxx

Miss Marple: Style Inspiration!

Until a few weeks ago, I'd never watched or indeed read a single Agatha Christie novel.  Then, thanks to a combination of circumstances (The Moving Finger being first read in the Vintage Book Club, and discovering that Richard Armitage was in one of the adaptation...) I decided to finally sit down and watch this knitting super-detective!

And oh my. What style inspiration! Beautiful dresses, immaculate make-up and some seriously swoon-worthy chaps. Don't take my word for it, have a peek :)

Photos from the PBS website

See what I mean? I've almost worked my way through every episode, and have no idea what I'll do when they're done! Someone's recommended I try Foyle's War for some 1940s drama... any thoughts?

One final Miss Marple thought: Megan Hunter... the unlikely, scruffy, clumsy heroine of The Moving Finger.  She falls off her bike, can't darn her stockings and is generally a little bit quirky.  Love. Her.

(I can't remember where these photos are from, they were just hanging out on my laptop... if you know, pass that info to me and I'll credit them!)

And now... I have a big cup of Earl Grey, some champagne truffles and absolutely must get on with my uni work!

Jen xxxx

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

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