I've been going through a bit of an obsession with the stripe effect, and this is another one that began with that. A couple of brushes, and for the first time I played around with the edges to make it not quite as rectangular and full of straight lines. Made with: Pixelmator Brushes: Floral Decor Art Brushes Font: Party LET Filter: Stylize / Edge Work

Ignore everything I said in the previous post about Superleague in Italy. Franck is not racing there this weekend. Supposedly the team withdrew because of financial difficulties. Probably a mixture of that and a rather annoyed FKM after the last race they did manage to attend. What a mess.

They have recommissioned Sherlock! Fabulous news, although I don't think anyone expected any different. The intriguing part of the announcement is that it is to be another batch of three episodes, and they will each continue the format of a 90 minute sitting. After the second episode of series 1, I felt that 90 minutes was drawing things out a little, but if it helps them to tell the story, …

This post is specifically for Amy, because she asked for more stationery. Reluctantly, eh-hem, I am obliging. It is such a wrench to scour the web for this stuff, you know? Monopoly Game Board Planner I hate the idea of someone throwing away Monopoly, because... why would you? But if you're going to get rid of your board games, it makes sense for them to be turned into something useful, …

What a great way to start the month - a surprise wedding! (Actually, it wasn't that much of a surprise to me as I read this fabulous post first - oops!) Not such a great surprise for Jennifer, though. I have honestly never heard anyone quite so snobby. Of course, she inhabits a world where a barbecue takes two very stressful weeks to organise and involves marquees and hiding the …

It was a warm, sunny afternoon in August, and Mr C and I found ourselves sitting in a large back garden with a cup of tea. This is unusually civilised of us. We surveyed the extra-long grass, and discussed what size plot you would need to fit an underground bunker. Quite big, is the answer. We discussed the pros and cons of more than one storey, and the concept of …

Franck has seemingly disappeared off the face of the planet, and so it is left to other drivers to preview the upcoming Superleague Race. I'm assuming FKM is still driving in the series, although last we heard he was a little bit peeved at the entire thing - his team included. This weekend the gang head to Italy, the Adria International Raceway for Round 8 of the 2010 Superleague Formula …

A while back, I pondered the state of things in Dorset, where they drink beer from the Piddle Brewery. Fast forward a few months, and my Dad presents me with three bottles as a house-warming present. Here we have: Piddle in a bottle Jimmy Riddle in a bottle Little Willie Naturally, the next step was a taste test. Piddle in a Bottle - At first I thought it just tasted …

Ahh, that makes a nice and classy change from that last header, doesn't it? I was mostly inspired by the image used to promote the brushes for this one. Something nice, bold simple and blue. It pretty much fits the bill. Although it has just occurred to me that the bit in the middle looks like a moustache. Made with: Pixelmator Brushes: Baroque Ornaments Font: Copperplate Gothic Bold

I figured I had gone on about running a bit too much for a little while, so I saved two weeks of the programme to go up at once. Here goes nothing: Week 7 Day 1 I don't want to say anything that is going to jinx the next few weeks of running, but this was relatively easy. I wonder if having a goal - a race to actually train …

I know, I know, it's not called 'Baby Panda and Man Thursday' but I love how the panda is just oblivious, happily chewing on what I assume is bamboo but looks suspiciously like a cigar. Credit: Shinya ICHINOHE/Flickr

The Ironbridge Gorge Museums are actually a collection of ten separate attractions spread out over a small area in Telford. There are all kinds of things there, including tile and china museums, pipeworks and a tar tunnel. I didn't really fancy visiting all ten of these. In fact, there were only two bits that I was really interested in - the Ironbridge itself, and Blists Hill Victorian Town. The bridge …

I completed the next letter of the A-Z Adventure yesterday, and it was great fun! I will blog it soon. Before I left in the morning, though, I had a bit of a panic. I have lots of plans and not enough time and why did I ever think this was a good idea in the first place? After a bit of thought and contemplation, I came to some conclusions. …

I started with the brushes and was working purple on white. It was an interesting start, but it wasn't quite what I was after. Then I put the spirals in place and applied one of the blending options (I forget which) and this amazing thing happened. I'm pretty sure it's channelling E4, although entirely unintentional. Made with: Pixelmator Brushes: Circle and Brush Font: Arial Rounded MT Bold

After a long week at work, this is the kind of thing I like to come home to. I have the best husband in the world. Even if he does wrinkle his nose and say: "It's just a box of breakfast." Oh, it is so much more than that, my friend. Just ask the leprechaun.

My mum said: "Try it. It looks like it will be sour but that's just because it is green. It's basically just like a plum." That is exactly what it was. Just a small green plum. Even if it does have a name like... greenhouse? rain gauge? Greengrass?

Maybe you have already heard of Mighty Girl, maybe you haven't. I've been following her blog for a long time, and occasionally glanced at the Mighty Goods shopping site (which she's now sold, but it's still pretty cool). I never bought anything, but it's like the ultimate window shopping for the internet. Anyway, this is not about shopping. A while back, Mighty Girl, otherwise known as Maggie, created a Life …

Mr C and I have often discussed our desire to have less stuff. We move house on a frequent basis and the more stuff you have, the more tired your arms get by the end of each moving day. The Amazon Kindle apps were a big turning point, I think. A big marker in the sky saying that it really is possible to own less junk. You also have to …

Hey, look what I made! You've all been incredibly generous so far - so much so I've had to up my target total. I was not expecting that. I notice everyone has donated the same amount, so I hope no one is put off if that isn't the amount they want to give. I'm happy with 20p, too. I realised that I wasn't that sure how far I was actually …

This one may not be as spick and span as some of the others I've come up with, but the point about this header is that I made it up and created it all from scratch. The wavy background was done by hand, which is why it's slightly bumpy, although I secretly think that adds to the charm. Plus I was trying to use some nice bright colours to make …

Yesterday, I was just possibly thinking about signing up for a 5K race. I couldn't have made that tweet more unsure if I tried - and I really did try! Somehow, today, I've taken it that next step. I signed up for the race and I set up a Just Giving page. Oops. I have written more information over on Sidepodcast (as the charity is a Grand Prix related one), …

A slightly better week this week, although I had to work through a bit of "why am I so rubbish" emotional stuff, as you may notice halfway through. Week 6 Day 1 I must have been a bit smug about the twenty minute thing because today was quite tricky. It's been quite a few days since my last run, so perhaps I left it too long this time. Even so, …

It must be time for another Etsy-flavoured Baby Panda Thursday, in which I bring you some of the cute handmade stuff I have spotted over there. Painted Rock Panda with Bamboo I know, I know, it's a painted rock. But look at how much detail there is! It's definitely weird, the panda is a bit squished but I like it. Ohm Ohm Panda We've already established that I like pandas …

Channel 4's fantabulous program Grand Designs featured an Underground House in the third series, so this evening I watched the show via 4OD and took copious notes! Here's what I found out as I watched. They built their house in a conveniently house-sized gap in a quarry that was already dug. The guy said he wanted a house like that to both "hide away and not impose." Sounds about right. …

Lukeh wrote an excellent post yesterday to celebrate the 101st blog post on his site, and as you can imagine, he went for a Room 101 feel. Lukeh's three choices to go into Room 101 were Facebook, buses and clubbing. I pretty much agree with all of that, but given the option to choose some hateful items of my own, I couldn't resist. First, let Lukeh explain: Then of course, …

Thus the series comes to an end - three episodes is clearly not enough, but at the same time, I'm not sure I'd want thirteen or so of them either. Suddenly, all that talk about Watson's blog and Sherlock's website is actually impacting on the story. It starts to make sense why they actually exist. I was worried that it might be a bit too inclusive, though. I like the …

My dad sent me a link to this video, in which a man saw some birds sitting on an electric line and wondered what they would sound like as musical notes. Sounds weird, but it's kinda intriguing. And of course, it's very fitting with this week's header.

Ah, the difficult second album. I've seen plenty of people slating this episode, and I'll be honest, I'm almost right there with them. I lost track of the story mid-way through but I wondered whether this was my fault more than anything else. I've watched it twice now, and I do think the underlying story was pretty simple but it is very dressed up and quite confusing. I don't believe …

The BBC played a risky game with this short series. Aimed very directly at the people that love Doctor Who, they built it up to be something enormous. Steven Moffatt spent a lot of time raving about it on Twitter, and between him and Mark Gatiss, interviews, blog posts and adverts, it was hard to escape from the glare of the descending Sherlock. When it finally arrived, it turns out, …

Recently, we found ourselves meeting up with some F1 fans - families of weary parents and gadget-hungry children - and we managed to sell several iPads to them. The kids just loved the iPad, whereas the parents were keen on the F1 Timing App - and it is pretty revolutionary. Selling the iPad is actually really easy to do. My mother is a notorious technophobe, but I left her alone …

There are lots of things the internet is good for, but handing over control of your life to internet users for a year would never have struck me as one of them. The newest show on Revision 3 is called Dan 3.0 and it features Dan as he takes a year out of his normal schedule to do what the people on the internet tell him. It's a strange idea, …

The fabulous Alex pointed me in the direction of a site called Pencil Talk, and I love it. It does exactly what you would expect, looks at pencils from all over the world and reviews how they look and how they write. I don't have much else to say, the pencils speak for themselves! It's nice to have some stationery thoughts to blog about since the end of Stationery Corner. …

Hadrian's Wall is quite confusing. It's a big long wall, obviously, but I wasn't sure if just seeing it counted as part of the alphabet, as most of the visitor spots are Roman forts that come under another name. To combat this, I chose the Housesteads Roman Fort. Win-win! To get there, I had to travel along the amazing Roman roads. You know, you drive along a straight road and …

I stumbled upon these brushes of electric poles, wires and birds. It seemed like such an odd combination that I instantly downloaded them to play around with. Turns out it was a lot of fun, particularly when you had tiny wires and enormous birds. Of course, I had to get a bit more sensible with proportions for the finished product, and I hope I got it right. The text was …

In the ongoing saga of Montagny versus Superleague, it looks as though our favourite Frenchman is still not happy, particularly after events at Brands Hatch this weekend. In this week's Autosport magazine (available digitally here), they suggest that the team behind the football name Barazi-Epsilon gave priority to Tristan Gommendy when it came to pitstops. Franck said: We had good pace here, we were fast, but I think we gave …

Yes! Jude is out of the way. The only real problem this story had, aside from the ongoing annoyances at David putting his size fifteen wellies in it every step of the way, is that it was so obvious from the start. Jude was older, not that bothered, pretty darn lazy, whilst Pip - although head over heels in love - was none of these things. Her friend Izzy put …

A while ago, Mr C compiled a list of things you cannot podcast near to, and they are (including but not limited to): near train stations in windy locations anywhere close to police or fire stations next door to noisy neighbours in an owl sanctuary Owls are a surprisingly common problem. A week or so ago, I offered a throwaway comment on Sidepodcast, suggesting if we had the funding, we …

It's time for our next set of headers to appear (although technically this should have gone up yesterday - shhh). This first one was never intended to be a header, I was just messing around with the original photo, taken in Gretna Green. It's silly, and it won't win any design prizes, but I like it. Made with: Pixelmator Original photo: Welcome to Gretna Green Filters: Sepia colour, small amount …

As we established, Franck was back in the car for Girondins de Bordeaux for the Brands Hatch weekend, although we still don't know where or why he went away for round 6. Maybe he just needed a rest. I didn't get to see any of the action, apart from a few videos of the terrible crash for Chris van der Drift that overshadowed the entire day. It was an awful …

It's been another slow "week" on the running front but not due to my inability to complete a workout. This time, it's been real life getting in the way. In iPod news, I fixed the syncing issue so the music returned, and I think now the runs are getting longer, I welcome the distraction rather than the silence. I also went and broke my earbuds, though. They are hanging on …

It's been a while since I perused the mug scene, and since then I have been more interested in drinking hot chocolate and cups of tea (not in this weather, obviously). That being the case, the innovation that is taking place in the mug world is even more fascinating. I mean, who would have thought you would one day be able to properly hug a mug? They call it "the …

I'm officially confused. Franck is back with Girondins de Bordeaux for the next Superleague round at Brands Hatch. But why did he go? Why is he back? Why did he have to come back on a weekend when I can't watch it? So many questions.

Yesterday, Gavin posted a great link in the Sidepodcast comments - 10 Things You Didn't Know About Ghostbusters. For once, this is a list where I did not, in fact, know any of the items on it. To be honest, though, they aren't all entirely fascinating, but you must keep reading to the end to uncover this gem: ...you won’t find the music video on the home video version of …

I've spent a good few months now trying to consolidate all my writing into one or two spaces. Sidepodcast benefitted from the F1 related thoughts that used to appear here, plus the articles I wrote for BellaOnline. Meanwhile, this here space of the web suddenly found itself merging with the other blogs I used to write, plus a whole load of archived stuff that was without a home. Going through …

There was no Franck Montagny at the Superleague race in Zolder this past weekend, and we aren't the only ones who missed him. Firstly, the team finished 12th in the first race and 10th in the third (which sounds better but is actually only second to last). Meanwhile, there's a post on the Superleague site today suggesting the team aren't happy without him. Apologies for the rather dodgy Google translation: …

Yesterday, I posted the results of my Alphabet Adventure when it comes to the letter G. As you may have gathered from the posts of Edinburgh, Falkirk and Gretna, I took a quick trip to Scotland to take in some of the scenery. I must say, for some reason, I really like things like this: Because I drove past it, and just around the corner was the sign saying 'Welcome …

Gretna Green was a tricky one. I wasn't 100% sure it counted - given that the rules of the alphabet challenge say it should be attractions rather than places that are worthy of a visit. I thought I could spin it that the anvil thing was an attraction, but that is technically called the World Famous Blacksmith's Shop. None of those letters are a G. In the end, I went …

We all know that I have a love/hate relationship with Twitter. I swore off it for a while, and when I returned I left the design as a default wallpaper - one you can get to under the settings tab. I looked on as many, many people put photographs and custom backgrounds on their Twitter account, and I never really felt the need to do the same. Since the World …

I had initially planned to split the nine week course into three blog posts of three weeks each (you can catch up with weeks 1-3 here). But this fourth "week" has taken so long to complete that I just have to blog it and get it out the way. Week 4 Day 1 Wooo, now I can run five minutes at a time! Sort of. The shoes still rock (or …

Autosport is reporting that Franck Montagny won't be driving for Girondins de Bordeaux at Zolder this weekend, and it reads as though his time with the team and with Superleague has come to an end. Bourdais left the sport just a couple of days ago, and he said: I've stopped for the moment and I'm not pointing fingers at anyone or anything, but I don't see it getting any better. …