quiet weekend post

[vampyresheep]

Will proceed with my Gala Nocturna posts at lunchtime, in the meanwhile, a quick update on the weekend.

We had a quiet one (relatively speaking!)

On Saturday we'd planned to go to the Natural History Museum to catch the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition before it closed - unfortunately realised that it was also the first day of the school holidays, so we had to get up really early to get to the museum before it opened. 
Good thing too, as a queue was building up even then!
Fortunately most people were going to see the dinosaurs, so we got into the photography exhibition with no problems.

As previous years, a good 90 minutes or so was spent, ooh-ing and aah-ing over the photos, invariably disagreeing with the judges choices for winning entries.
There weren't quite so many awe-inspiring pictures this year, although they were rather lovely overall but here is an obligatory puffin pic!


Happily, the text explained that the puffin did manage to escape with his catch!

Also thought of Audrey when we saw this one:


After the exhibition, we retreated from the crowds to the Queens Head pub for lunch.  By some co-incidence, a number of familiar looking people came into the pub - it turned out that there was a sci-fi convention at the college this weekend and the familiar people were friends with Rob's brother!

In the afternoon, we headed to Goldhawk road for fabric shopping.  I'd heard so much about this legendary street full of fabric shops, so was eager to check it out, although all i needed at present was practical stuff like lining fabric.

It didn't start well - got off the bus at Shepherds Bush and headed down the road.  After about 20 minutes, and still no fabric shops, I decided to check the gps on my phone.  Stupid me, we were walking down Uxbridge Road instead! doh. 
Thank goodness for my phone, as obviously "aly-nav" was faulty. :-)  Managed to find a side road to take us to the correct road but by this time we were both exhausted.

Not sure if it was down to tiredness or because I had nothing specific to purchase but I found the shops a bit overwhelming.  Hardly anything was priced, some stuff very cheap indeed and some very, very expensive.  You were expected to haggle to get the best prices and staff in some shops were rather persistant.
Had it all been in the one shop, I might have fared better but by the time I've managed to get a price on one item, I really couldn't be bothered to remember what shop I'd seen something similar and possibly cheaper.

Didn't leave empty handed though.  Purchased some pretty gold coloured "habotai silk" (unlikely to be silk, given the price) to go with my green oriental fabric - feeling a bit despondant about that, as I thought the oriental fabric had turquoise details, which turned out to be green, so there goes my accessorising plan for this outfit! :-(
Also got some black satin to add to my planned red/black 50's dress and some boring black poly-cotton for lining.

The evening was spent trying to watch 100,000 BC (the remake version) - god awful and I fell asleep halfway through!  Also made a rather lovely pie for dinner, using some of the bacon offcuts i purchased at Ruislip Farmers Market.




Sunday was spent at home, being a domestic goddess. :-)  Made some home-made bread (OK, a packet mix, but still!) and cupcakes.  My first attempt at cupcake making, based on a recipe from my Zombie cupcake book i had for my birthday, and I think they came out pretty well :-)


The rest of the day was spent making my military overskirt, as usual getting all carried away with the trimmings, so it is looking rather bling!

Comments

[demonmoonglow.livejournal.com]

What pattern are you using for your overskirt?

[vampyresheep.livejournal.com]

Truly Victorian's Side Drape Overskirt (TV303). I'm planning to wear it over a fishtail skirt rather than the full bustled affair.
Have already made one of this pattern before and it works well with straight skirts, so its great for a more every-day wear Victorian style.

[demonmoonglow.livejournal.com]

Oh right - I've got TV324 but not tried it yet. Just seeing what others have used

[vampyresheep.livejournal.com]

I've not got that one. Have made overskirts from TV305 and TV365 (August overskirt - which I severely adapted to make a skirt to wear by itself!)