1) Wearing hot pink. I don’t know why this made me feel more lively but it did.
2) Using my (also) hot pink weights. I’m not the world’s biggest pink fan, but I did do 12 curly arm excercises. Then I did a bridge, and what in my head is ‘another yoga position’.
3) Finishing off the Valentine’s day pinot grigiot. It was just one glass!
4) Watching a documentary about Pompeii which did not nearly send me to sleep at all.
5) Reading ‘LA Confidential’.
6) Thinking up new ice-creams to suggest on Scoops noticeboard. Scoops is absolutely my pudding-based obsession right now.
7) Sorting out more clothes for the swap party, when that happens. Ah, weird black satin skirt, you do nothing whatsoever for my bum.
8) Noticing weird bumps on my wrists and wondering if a bug has laid it’s eggs under my skin and whether they’ll grow Alien style. Reassured by Stephen that this is unlikely in California.
9) Making lists (voila)
10) Browsing the internet for a pattern to make when my craft-savvy aunt visits and teaches me how to MAKE CLOTHES.

- Learn to use my sewing machine properly. A few frantic long-distance calls to Kerry and a lesson with an LA friend did help but I have to give myself ‘could do better’ for that one.
- Embroider something nicely. Hmm, I’ve done bits and pieces but I still haven’t explored embroidery as much as I’d like. Kerry bought me some gorgeous embroidery scissors for Christmas though, so I have an incentive!

And I think that was all I resolved for 2008. This year I did make excellent parkin cake, learn how to make some really pretty decorative plates, and fix my own clothes competently. This Christmas I got some excellent presents of a crafty persuasion and so I’m going to try:

- knitting scarves again. It makes watching television feel so much more useful.
- hosting a proper tea party because now I have a tiered cake stand (hurrah!)
- improving my embroidery and sewing more bits and pieces on my machine. Even if they are mainly square.

What are your resolutions, crafty or otherwise?

- draw around your hand
- make your thumb a turkey head
- make the other fingers turkey plummage
- draw wings, beak, eyes and go crazy decorating and personalising the turkey.

We’ve now got a wall of turkeys in our office which the students are adding to. My favourites so far include ‘pilgrim and Indian turkey’ and ‘turkey with five turkey heads’.

What other hand animals/monsters can be made? A prize for the best one!

Right by my house there’s an Astroburger, a decent diner chain that does quality burgers, great rice pudding and as it turns out, pretty brilliant pumpkin pie. Denny’s on the other hand does a predictably artificial tasting pie, overloaded with sweetness. House of Pies probably do my favourite (I suppose that makes sense – if they don’t win at pies, who can?)

But I need to try more, I tell you. Any suggestions? Anyone seen any pumpkin pie sneaking into England lately?

You know when it’s Saturday night and it turns out you love Roller Derby? When you didn’t know you loved Roller Derby, but your friend Josh calls you up and invites you out to Roller Derby and you all go in a group and you find they carefully built the whole rink up and then painted it pink and there’s a rollerskate-shaped disco ‘ball’ hanging in the middle, and Food On a Stick outside, and lots of cute vendors selling aprons and nice bags and Roller Derby t-shirts pre-game? And then the game begins and there’s lots of all-kind-of-girls in fishnets and hotpants with names like Jaq Pot, Minnie Juggs and Mikispeedia who are clearly not afraid of violence and are very, very fast? By now you’re convinced it’s fantastic but at HALF TIME, out comes the mini-roller-derby girls who are tiny, tiny small and playing really hard, especially the really REALLY tiny one, you can’t quite believe how tiny, she must be about 8, but who nontheless gets up every time she falls over with a thud…And increasingly the Halloween themed (Wizard of Oz themed[!]) roller derby girls proper are getting more and more annoyed and violent and sweaty and the crowd is going completely mad and it’s brilliant?

Me too! That’s what I did Saturday! And I had cheese on a stick, which is the only thing I don’t recommend. It was like if mozarella sticks were made with those foldy slices of cheese you melt on burgers, and the breadcrumbs were thick and weird. But don’t worry, they have cookies too. Go! See Roller Derby! Do it!!!

In my head, all of America looks like this; neon and shady with all kinds of characters dotted about. There’s pie in the cabinets, chilli in the kitchens, and beer in the fridges. It’s where the detectives go to get dinner when they’re on a job. And besides all that, it’s a darn fine French dip sandwich – the original in fact. A French Dip is a white bread roll with beef or pork inside that is then dipped in meat juices and gravy. Go there when you’re tired and just a touch hungover, it’s the perfect remedy, and the chilli is brilliant. You can find Philippe’s downtown, a short walk from Union Station… I had DOWNTOWN in my head while I was there, and hoped to spot the original Skid Row, but no such luck. Does anyone know where that is, anyway?

Just like Kirsty, I’m getting excited about all things pumpkin (I may even be asking for her pie recipe shortly), but also all things cold and leafy. It’s time for knitting scarves in time for winter and crunching through big, red-and-gold, fictional quality leaves. Trouble is, at least in lots of Los Angeles – it’s not really cold, and it’s not really leafy. You can definitely find trees, and in a month or so, probably snow, if you’re able to drive into nearby mountains.

A walk through the nearby neighbourhoods might not require a big sweater right now (though actually today is fairly cold by SoCal standards), but you can scout out random bits of street art. This picture is from a bus stop near my house, and is far more satisfying to discover than the Banksy graffiti scrawled on shops in Melrose.

And it’s time to try and find some LA wool shops so I can knit in straight lines (I never really manage to purl properly) and make straight objects – any recommendations?

I’m excited that this Friday, the 19th, is international Talk Like a Pirate Day. I know we’re planning celebrating it at work and we’re planning on having eye patches and pirate-talking all day the day long. Arrr! So imagine me delight when I not only found a wealth of crafty goodness on the official site for talk like a pirate (and some very rude pirate pick up lines), but this free knitting pattern from the ‘webwench’. I imagine it’s too complicated for the likes of me, but I’d dearly love to own this bag and have certainly got aspirations towards being good enough to knit it to keep me treasures in. Okay, so I’m not doing so well at the pirate talk today, but just you wait until Friday! I’m going to be obnoxious with Avasts and Aye Ayes! Ahoys! Etc.

Are you having a pirate party? You can also get party invites from www.talklikeapirate.com

And – by the by – what was/ is your favourite book aimed at children? I love ‘The Little Prince’, all of the Mog stories, ‘The Tiger that Came to Tea’, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and all the Enid Blyton novels that took place in boarding school. To this day I’ve never had ginger ale and sardines at midnight, but I’ve always kind’ve wanted to.