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Oct 7, 2010, 6:31 am
The fact is, my darling readers, that my life has become busier recently than it possibly ever has before! Getting Natural History up and running has been, as you might imagine, terribly time-consuming, then there's Beatrice of course (and how could I grudge her a *moment* of my non-work time? I c... Comment - Like
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Sep 16, 2010, 4:55 am
Well, mostly I have been sitting here in Oxford, wondering about errant builders (they came back today after an absence of TEN WHOLE DAYS) and trying to unteach my baby to swear. Note: don't place too much faith in the reluctance of a toddler to speak - she will suddenly repeat your husband's expl... Comment - Like
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Aug 30, 2010, 12:50 pm
So the builders came and went and DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN but my garden is a mess. The work isn't finished yet - they're coming back tomorrow to carry on, although the building itself is actually there and looks fantastic beyond belief - I'm really, really happy with it! They were able to fit it in w... Comment - Like
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Aug 24, 2010, 7:29 am
The last two weeks have been my busiest in a *very* long time, but also probably the most productive. Among many other projects, we are having a garden room installed this week. At the time, I negotiated like mad with the garden room people for the
lowest possible price and one of t... Comment - Like
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Aug 14, 2010, 8:18 am
...Chincoteague again! For the last couple of weeks we have been visiting my husband's family in the US and joining them on their trip to Chincoteague in Virginia for a couple of sweltering weeks at the beach. We had a wonderful time, as we always do there - swimming, cycling, night-time walks o... Comment - Like
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Jul 18, 2010, 6:21 am
Last week I stumbled across this wonderful collaboration between Di Overton (of Ghost Furniture and Designer's Block) and the sculptor Kathy Dalwood - and evidently what a perfect pairing, because they came up with these stunning concrete tassels - utterly desirable and terribly chic (... Comment - Like
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Jul 10, 2010, 12:47 pm
The weather here has been heavenly lately and I've been basking in the sunshine nearly every day - I have even bought not one, but TWO pairs of shorts, a garment that I have shunned since the age of about ten (unless you count the PVC hotpants that were a staple of my goth wardrobe in 1998). The o... Comment - Like
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Jun 22, 2010, 7:20 am
Yesterday my husband finished the course he came here to do and while he will probably stay on for a doctorate, at the moment he is free as a bird, so to celebrate finishing up, we went out for the day yesterday to meet up with some friends who also finished yesterday to celebrate.
Although... Comment - Like
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Jun 17, 2010, 7:04 am
My hands have been a little tied for the last couple of days because everything is pretty much ready to go, except for the checkout on the website, so I have nothing to do. Well, that's not entirely true - I have a LOT to do - I could be catching up on my book keeping, for one thing, but someh... Comment - Like
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Jun 15, 2010, 12:29 pm
So the last few days have been busy (as always!) between having my kitchen redone and trying to get the Natural History site up and running. The site is soooo close to being functional, but the checkout isn't quite there yet, which is really, really frustrating for me. I have been purposely avoi... Comment - Like
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Jun 10, 2010, 7:02 am
Oh my patient, patient readers, if any of you are left! I have been working terribly hard on the opening of Natural History and have not had a moment to think about anything else and as a result, Passementerie has been sadly neglected.
Next week we should be up and running and I won't hav... Comment - Like
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Jun 2, 2010, 12:16 pm
In a flurry of business-related enthusiasm, I bought a new computer for my office. Although I am a Mac girl through and through, my limited budget did not allow for what I would have REALLY liked, so I got a very sleek and more than adequate Dell. It arrived yesterday and was set up this morning... Comment - Like
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May 31, 2010, 2:25 pm
On Friday night I abandoned husband and infant and took myself off to London on the train with a number of friends to celebrate a birthday. Our plan was to see a musical and go for dinner, so the birthday girl suggested Avenue Q and Dans le Noir.
Although I had never heard of it before, I believe... Comment - Like
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May 29, 2010, 6:06 am
To celebrate the opening of Natural History on Monday the 7th of
June, we're giving away one of our beautiful leather-bound Entomology
notebooks. The winner can choose between Ateuchus, Stellognathe,
Pyrophorus and Cercope (don't worry - I'll tell you which is which!).
All
... Comment - Like
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May 22, 2010, 4:13 pm
The weather has turned completely gorgeous here and I have been busy out in the garden whenever I have not been working on trying to get Natural History open for the 9th of June (the current launch date!). We have been removing an ugly, huge and powerfully constructed planter from the centre of ou... Comment - Like
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May 14, 2010, 6:35 am
Yesterday was a reasonably nice day - perhaps not by any standards other than British, but when you are as accustomed to cold and wet as we are living here in Oxford, you take what you can get!
Rather than waste the watery sunshine by sitting inside, we decided to take a picnic to Magdalen ... Comment - Like
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May 12, 2010, 12:19 pm
Yesterday I went to Bicester Village with my husband and the baby -
we hadn't been out there in ages and had a present to buy as well as a
vague desire to have a poke around in Jack Wills (where I got a pair of
tracksuit bottoms which have to be the cosiest things I have ever worn
in... Comment - Like
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May 10, 2010, 7:09 am
Feeling a little bit delicate yesterday, I decided that we needed a robust lunch that didn't require too much thought. Looking around the kitchen, I noticed a superabundance of red onions.
So, with the addition of some olive oil and fresh thyme from the garden, I turned them into this:... Comment - Like
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May 9, 2010, 4:07 am
We lined up around the huge redbrick quad with our tickets and the organizers handed out umbrellas...
I was the girl in the floaty mushroom dress with a surprising weight of metalwork on the top (and thermal underwear underneath because looking cold is always unattractive)...
Everyb... Comment - Like
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May 6, 2010, 12:18 pm
It's ball season again here in Oxford and on Saturday night we are going to Keble College's Alchemist's Ball and despite the chilly weather this week, I am very excited about it. Not least because I *love* dressing up and my gown this year is quite different to the more traditional gow... Comment - Like
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May 3, 2010, 5:20 am
Like the horse-racing industry in Chad. Did you know there *was* a horse-racing industry in Chad?
Amazing photostory on the BBC today Comment - Like
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Apr 30, 2010, 7:47 am
Utter silence on Passementerie doesn't mean that my life has drifted into oblivion - usually quite the opposite! This week my father has been visiting us from Dublin and we have been eating out in a variety of my favourite Oxford restaurants - The Vaults, The Ashmolean Dining Room, Loch Fyne a... Comment - Like
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Apr 16, 2010, 5:37 am
I can't believe that it is Friday morning and I am sitting here in my office trying to decide which of the myriad tasks I have to get through will be first - I have blankets to measure for boxes, ribbon to be ordered, photoshop work to arrange, cushion innners to order... and that's all long... Comment - Like
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Apr 14, 2010, 3:14 am
It's getting closer, without a doubt. Although you would never think it from this morning's grey, overcast appearance, my sources tell me that summer is very nearly here. This means that I'm starting to get little things in place to make it even better than last summer when we were s... Comment - Like
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Apr 9, 2010, 7:22 am
I hate ironing and almost never buy any garment that might ever require such activity, and several times over the years people have suggested I buy a steamer instead. Occasionally I have considered the possibility but it wasn't until things started getting closer to lift-off with Natural Histo... Comment - Like
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Apr 1, 2010, 1:39 pm
I have strep throat and it's agony. Sympathize with me, please, while we wait the 24 hours for the penicillin to kick in. Just as well I'm getting into the blanket business - I'm so cold that I need about five extra ones today! Maybe I need a gorgeous quilt like this one to cheer m... Comment - Like
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Mar 30, 2010, 6:56 am
I go through phases of being interested in painting my nails and having painted them about twice since Beatrice was born, I decided the other day that I had gone naked in that department for long enough.
This time I decided that if I'm going to make a splurge on some new colours, I should av... Comment - Like
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Mar 29, 2010, 4:34 am
Yesterday morning was distinctly springy and I took our baby out into the garden to try to distract her from her teething misery. It was warm and hazy, although perhaps not quite as tropical as this snap, taken by my husband on my iPhone from the back door, implies... Comment - Like
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Mar 26, 2010, 2:23 pm
I'm not sure whether I should be posting this here on on Natural History, but it has been so very, very busy here that I have hardly known which way to turn for weeks now. The opening date for Natural History, while still not definitely fixed (late April/early May) is rapidly approaching and t... Comment - Like
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Mar 23, 2010, 4:31 pm
The moral of the story is DON'T try to save money by going to a small, cheaper hairdresser miles away where most of the customers you see are 40 years older than you. It will suck. Go somewhere with customers your age and younger and if ANYONE other than the owner is older than you, run away... Comment - Like
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Mar 22, 2010, 2:04 pm
This weekend, as I said, we went down to Wiltshire with 14 intrepid friends for a few days in a very strange place - a Victorian mansion, but built to resemble a small medieval castle, with varying degrees of success, but overall deeply pleasing, if only for the novelty value! It was perfect for o... Comment - Like
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Mar 19, 2010, 6:06 am
Many of the books I read set in England over the years gave me something of a skewed vision of the country before we moved here, particularly when contrasted with the rather dingy weekends I would spend here in my late teens and early twenties, when groups of us would save up to come over to London ... Comment - Like
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Mar 18, 2010, 12:54 pm
Today, inspired by the fact that the lovely weather we've been having
means one can venture outside without a coat for the first time in many
long months, I took myself and my protesting husband off to our local
courts for a private tennis lesson. It was my first time playing since I was... Comment - Like
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Mar 16, 2010, 4:55 am
This morning I looked at myself in the mirror as was about to stagger downstairs in my usual morning attire - pyjama bottoms, Uggs and a long green jersey top with buttons at the shoulders and realized that the mere addition of a tweed jacket with the sleeves rolled up and an oversized scarf and I c... Comment - Like
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