Still not finished yet

But I am on the last leg. I picked up 252 stitches this evening and now there's only 2 inches of garter stitch between me and completion.

Oh, and weaving in the ends. Did I ever mention, I hate finishing off projects?

Hopefully I'll have a photo of the finished article for you before the end of the week.

What I get to wear to work today!

Ok, not for prancing round the office but out to a black tie dinner through work. And I must confess I felt very Carrie Bradshaw / Sex in the City as I stomped through Stirling to the train in my frock and heels. Skyscraper heels they are too!

Yum!

There's only one thing better to eat at the end of the day than a home cooked tea - and that's not having to cook it!

The best solution is if you can get someone else to cook it for you. But failing that, being able to pull something out of the freezer, perhaps adding a few extra ingredients as in this case, is definitely the way to go.

A few hours cooking at the weekend is worth the effort for this kind of mid week luxury he you ask me.

I know you can do the same with ready meals and not have to even do the cooking, but a) you don't the same smug feeling as cooking the food yourself, and b) they rarely taste as good.

Work in progress

I'm nearly (but not quite!) finished my current project, which is a long mohair cardigan cum coat.

Sadly I'm at the making up stage. And I just hate it! To make matters worse, there are stitches to pick up and borders to knit once the sewing up is finished.

I'm definitely with the author of Hooked on Life when she says making up sucks. Ok, she doesn't exactly say that. But it's what she means!

Hopefully the next post will be of the finished article. And then I can get onto my next project!

Curly girlie

This is what happens to my hair on muggy days like today.

So while I had a very pleasant walk through Stirling after work this evening, my hair paid the cost.

Believe me, it was beautifully sleek when I left home this morning!

Stirling's going bananas

What on earth is happening? Bananas keep appearing on Stirling's pavements!

Meetings with extraordinary trees

This is quite possibly my favourite tree in Stirling, and at the moment I think it's looking pretty spectacular.

What's even better is that it's located in the site where I work, so I get to see it almost every day. But it's the times when there are no cars around that you see it in its full splendour - like today. It never fails to make me smile.

Art for art's sake

At a friend's suggestion I popped into the Royal Scottish Academy today while I was in Edinburgh instead of spending all my time shopping.

And I'm glad that I did. There was some amazing new art on show, including 3 pieces from a rising star of a new artist by the name of Ross Brown. His paintings (one of which is shown here) of the now derelict St Peters Seminary in Glasgow are stunning. A worthwhile detour indeed.

But don't worry I did find some time for shopping too and am now the proud owner of a pair of proper dance shoes for my tango. And I get a chance to try them out at tonight's Milonga.

Rainbow monkey

At last I've got a sock monkey of my very own, courtesy of two very good friends.

After years of heavy hinting to my nearest and dearest (subtle hints like, why don't you buy me a sock monkey for my christmas?), I was presented with this little beauty yesterday.

It is of course from the very talented Sunset Girl and now has pride of place sitting on the files in my office.

Heaven only knows what mischief he'll get up to over the weekend. Sadly I suspect he won't do any of the reports that need to be finished!

Ice cold in Alex

Well, maybe not ice cold and certainly not Alex but it is cold in my office today. I know I should support turning the heating off on sustainability grounds. And I know that it's May and theoretically almost summer. But it's still cold and it would be a day I'd set aside for desk based research! Woolly jumpers for tomorrow I think!

Here's what to do on a holiday Monday!

Since it's such a beautiful morning I decided to go for a walk and here's where I ended up for lunch. The views are amazing but you'll have to wait until later to find out where I am! Sandwiches to eat and juice to drink before the homeward journey.