{mally powell}

Planning a no fuss feast

I am currently wrestling with a bit of a quandry. Next weekend we have a house full of guests and a family celebration on Sunday for which I want to cook something suitably celebratory - it's Mothers Day here in the UK and Ginger has a Big Birthday following (very) close behind.

But... we have a house full of family all weekend, so I don't want to be doing anything that demands too much time or attention. The more I can do up front or throw together quickly at the last minute, the better.

So: what to cook? Easy, low faff, high impact. And preparable well (as in DAYS) in advance.

I'm thinking roasted marinated meat - chicken? lamb? both? - with lots of dressed green leaves and a huge platter of jewelled couscous so people can dip in and share.

Some good bread. Some unctuous dips...

For pudding maybe big blousy meringues with whipped cream or (as we all seem to be trying to loose a few pounds ahead of various family weddings) more likely greek yogurt with vanilla paste stirred through and a big bowl of decadent out-of-season berries.

And cake. Obviously. Which is another question in itself. I'm itching to try a Pinata cake, but low faff? Easy and effective they may be, but low faff they aint!
The Blueberry and almond cake (pictured) I made last year was pretty simple and popular (not to mention yummy). A classic sponge is always pleasing, but best made on the day... or apple cake. Which I've been itching to make all winter and which has the enormous benefit of actually improving for a few days 'sitting'. So maybe apple cake, stacked, with lightly spiced cinnamon-vanilla butter icing and some sparkly golden cake dust (oh yes, I know all the technical terms) to make it look a bit more special...

All the pretty things - duck egg blue satchel

via www.clothingattesco.com

My newest blog crush skinandblisterblog.com included this little beauty in a recent round up of loveliness and I was instantly smitten. It's a satchel! It's duck egg blue! It's affordable!

I have no need for another bag. I have no need for another bag. I have no need for (yet) another bag...

If I say it enough I might even believe it.

 

The ghost of fashions past

via shop.uniqlo.com

Did they learn nothing from the horrors of our youthful misadventures? Who looked back at pictures of the flower of 80s youth looking like a sack of spuds in blouson, elasticated, patterned cotton trousers and thought 'Now THERE is a look worth bringing back'?

I've spotted several examples of the form around Shoreditch over the last couple of years and I can safely say that, twenty years on, they look just as unflattering now as they did then. No bum, however hip or trim, is flattered by such a garment.

Step away, your future self will thank you.

All the pretty things - Node rug

While I was pottering around the interwebs over the weekend I came across (via Apartment Therapy) a lovely Fair Trade company which makes fantastic rugs. Node rugs are hand made from wool hand dyed with beautiful natural pigments in a collective in Nepal. One of the founders is Chris Haughton - children's book illustrator extraordinaire - and the designs are as beautiful and whimsical as one might expect.

The original link was to this brilliant 'Bear' rug by Nadia Shireen. Isn't he beautiful? I think I love him. And at 525euro including shipping for a hand made 183x120cm wool rug, I think he's pretty amazing value.

The best bit, though, is that they offer a 'design your own' service, starting at £250 per square metre. I am powerless in the face of design-your-own anything (as my mountain of as-yet unused Spoonflower fabric will testify) so this made my heart skip a beat. The cogs are already churning and pennies going in a pot for when we finally have A House.

One day...

Before that, though, I will be doing my darndest to get the the Design Museum to see the collection of 10 rugs designed by 10 illustrators that opens on the 5th March. See you there!

What they say:

"Our rug makers, Kumbeshwar are a founder member of Fair Trade Nepal. Employees are taught literacy and skills. In addition to fair wages their work supports a school of 260 children and an orphanage of nineteen."

via noderugs.com

Image copyright Node Rugs.

Pretty song, pretty incredible video

via www.sivusivu.co.uk

Apparently the artist, sivu, spent several hours singing in an MRI machine to make the film. Fascinating, beautiful and a little bit ookey. Like so many of the best things in life.

I wish I could remember where I first saw the link; that'll teach me for leaving it in an 'I'll look at that in a minute...' tab for two days. I really must stop with the procrastination/'multi-tasking'(read skatter-brained-ness) already.

happy list #3

ooh. Happy list #2 was published way back in November 2010. I promise I have been happy since then...

My list for this week includes:

* promises of spring, small and shy but very welcome.

* brief visits back to beautiful, bonkers Shoreditch. I'm beginning to realise I feel better for a regular fix of My London (not just meeting-London).

* a couple of very-nearly-dry days from Titch, promising that one day potty training really will be a memory (it has be s-l-o-w)

* pancake day!

* tiny steps towards a clearer head and a fitter me.

* warm chai and a gentle sunrise.

* being able to see the sea pretty much whenever I want to by coming upstairs or walking to the end of the road. Treasure.

Living with intention

So I've been making my Mighty List recently. It is long. Excitingly, dauntingly long - there is a LOT I want to do (so I really need to start getting on with it).

To that end I hauled myself out of bed an hour early this morning in a bid to buy myself a bit of time to do stuff for me - Get fit, Draw, Live intentionally, Start a business... All these things need time. Chipping away at the head-fogging Stuff - tidying and sorting, filing bags of correspondence (I know, I know - I had a big pile on my desk in the old house, now in a bag by my desk. I am not proud), archiving and backing up a gazillion photos, creating blurb year books for 2012 and starting the 2013 one, a pile of nagging household and personal admin chores... so much stuff just floating around my head and my space and gumming me up so I can't function properly but sit here instead, like a rabbit in really muddy headlights. And maybe have another look at Pinterest or Facebook, both of which are well known tools to boost morale and productivity... Ahem.

Anyway, this morning I actually managed to get up rather than just switching off the alarm again. Win! I plodded blearily upstairs, did two thirds of my home bootcamp workout (I didn't think the boys sleeping below would appreciate mountain climbers thudding about their heads so they will be a fun mid-morning break), then looked at the piles on and around my desk... and went to make a cup of tea.

I fully intended to draw. Or maybe sort through my Flickr feed to find pictures to illustrate my goals over on the Go Mighty site. But it turns out, today at least, my brain is just not in that 'creative' groove at the crack of dawn (blushing pinkly over the rooftops and sea out of my office window. A definite boon to an early start).

So I'm writing this instead. Because I keep promising myself that I will be better at blogging... and then not doing anything about it.

So that's a sort of progress. Right?

stuck

I keep getting stuck.

I work from home, for a company. I come up to my office every morning and sit at my desk, looking at my computer; but just lately I have found that my brain really doesn't want to kick into gear until about 3pm. I need to leave to pick up The Boy at 4:30. This does not leave a whole lot of productive time!

Clearly, something needs to change.

There is a lot going on at the moment, STUFF that eats up head space even when it doesn't take up a huge number of hours. I think this is the underlying problem but, until the STUFF is resolved (not imminent) I need to find a way to focus my mind for 8 hours at my desk. Apart from being a boon to my colleagues and bosses (!), I know this will make me feel a whole lot better in and about myself.

So. What to do?

I have followed the blog and work of Sandra Juto for several years now, and never fail to be inspired by her aesthetic and approach to work and life in general. Sandra, it seems to me, is all about quality: finding or creating moments of beauty in the everyday. She wrote a recent post outlining how she goes about structuring her working day which resonated with me, so I'm going to try a few of her tips:

* start every day with a walk (/run. Generally leaving the house so I can 'arrive' at work.)

* Dress properly for work. I tend to wear my mum-uniform day in, day out. It is practical and comfy but doesn't make me feel great. I'm going to start dressing as though I'm going to the office or to meetings.

* stick to a timetable - basically, behave as though I'm still in an office. Get to my desk on time. Take a proper lunch break. Go outside for 10 minutes in the morning and afternoon to get some air.

I'm hoping that once work is back in its box, my non-work time will also start to feel a bit less amorphous. Just at the moment I seem to be wrapped up in a big cloud of 'should' with very little progress on any front. And that is just boring.

Time for a change.

Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think

I drafted these posts a while ago and never published them. I wanted to run them by my friend first, to make sure she didn't mind (when in fact I knew full well that Mrs Positivity would have been horrified!).

Events rolled on, as events will, and I find myself still struggling to really get my head around the turn they took. So, although these are not in real time, I wanted to post anyway...

My best friend is dying and I don’t know what to do.

I don’t know how to be there for her - we are not in the same neighbourhood so popping round is hard, particularly with a toddler. Particularly when her primary illness meant that she would never be able to have a child of her own, even before this secondary slap in the face that means she may not see her next birthday. Particularly when time is precious and we want to talk and be together without a lively toddler demanding constant attention. And particularly as the niggly bugs and lurgies that seem to be part and parcel of life with a toddler could potentially lead to a major health crisis for her.

I don’t know how to deal with the emotions it has stirred up in me.

I want to tell her what she means to me and to spend time with her, but she is grittily upbeat and determined to focus only on being well and avoid all talk of ‘the T word’ which makes me hesitate. Telling her these things would feel like admitting that there may not be as much time as we hoped - assumed. And that feels like a betrayal of her steadfast courage and focus on recovery.

I’m angry. And sad – really, really sad.  I feel strangely vulnerable, and scared  - she’s only 6 weeks older than me. What have I done with my life? Not enough; not nearly enough. Am I leaving it a better place? Have I achieved anything of substance? I don’t think so.

I feel overwhelmed and paralysed and acutely aware of all the things I should do but don’t, or can’t.

So I text and email and leave voice mails. I draw & send little cards and think of suitable gifts – flowers, food packages, good-to-go meals – then worry that they will be inappropriate or somehow not quite right. I even set up a subscription to Macmillan Cancer Care. Mainly, though, I just feel bad.

Then I feel bad for feeling bad as I, after all, am not the one who is sick.

So I joined the gym, and fat club, and started to make a concerted effort to savour every day as I feel I owe it to her, and to myself, and my son and family to do everything I can to make sure I stay not-sick and actively happy for as long as possible.  I’m drawing up notes and lists and firming up plans to take some of my long held dreams and ‘really should…’s off the to-do list and put them into practice. Because my best friend is dying, yet she has never lived more healthily, treatment aside has rarely looked better and is - for the most part - is as happy and sorted as I’ve ever known her. If she can do it I’d better think of a bloody good reason why I can’t do the same. So I should just get on with it.

Things I can do...

Be there as much as I can.

Let her know I’m thinking of her when I can’t.

Look after myself- all those things I know I should do, eat well, exercise, get plenty of rest, attend to any niggling health concerns.

Make a regular contribution to – or fundraise for – a relevant charity.

Join the organ donor register. (done)

Join the bone marrow donor register. (done)

Give blood (super easy, super important, have been a donor for years).

 

My best friend is dying and I don’t know what to do #2

Her health has taken the nose dive we feared. She is in hospital and I am not able to visit her, though I long to see her and talk with her as, I’m sure, do many of her friends old and new. Her family have, quite understandably, closed ranks and her mum is fiercely protective of her. Knowing my friend, this is as she wants it. She’s a shutdown kinda girl.

It is hard, though. I get regular updates on her health but have a million questions. How is she in herself? Is she still feisty? Still funny? Is the overwhelming sadness that I heard in her voice for the first time the last time we spoke still weighing on her or has she found an acceptance and a way through? Is she able to have the conversations she needs to have with those closest to her?

I hope so.

I send her texts and notes; send love and strength and hugs via texts to her mum. But my best friend is dying and I can’t reach her.

I don’t know what to do.

 

My best friend has died.

And I don’t know what to do.

begin it

So, my the exercise thing is not going so great.

I started well, got busy (Titch turned one! ONE!), got sick and now here we are. No matter, I'll just start again. We'll get there. I have a number of weddings coming up this year - it would be nice to feel foxy by then.

Meanwhile life is throwing me reminders - some gentle, others painfully harsh - to get on with my 101 things.

Some are little things, things that are important to me but not ultimately important (hello craft projects...); some are much bigger: a new home, a new business. These are the ones I really need to get to grips with. So I'm taking baby steps, a little every day.

Life is short. Begin it.