Customise a T-shirt: ribbon collar and cuffs

I'll come clean: I love ribbon. I hoard it. I spend lunchtimes gazingat it in VV Rouleaux, Liberty and MacCulloch & Wallis. And now and then, I actually make something with it. I took a basic navy V-neck T-shirt from Uniqlo, and sewed on some toning striped ribbon from Jane Means around the cuffs and the collar. I started sewing on the ribbon at work, carried on with it on the train home, and finished it off at home. The T-shirt has been uplifted into a whole new fashion class and best of all, it's unique.

We've got an allotment!

After just two years on the waiting list, we've got half a plot - shared with one of our friendly neighbours, who's also a new plot tenant.
We've had a quick peek over the fence (haven't got the keys yet) and it's hideously weedy and overgrown as you'd expect, but there are a couple of artichokes, two rose bushes and a massive lavender plant, as well as a bean frame and lots of odd pots and bit of wood and metal poles lying around. This is going to take some time...
Although I may mention allotment issues on here now and then, it's not going to become an allotment blog; there are already loads of people who do it far better than I could.

Sew cute

Seen in the window of my local soft furnishings shop (also where I arrange to have my sewing machine serviced), this gorgeous cake decorated with a curtain tassel, reels of thread, ruler and pins. Seriously impressive.

One of the wonders of nature

Looking too good to eat, marvel at the swirling geometry of this Romanesco broccoli... fractals in food. According to Wikipedia: 'The head of Romanesco broccoli is a visually striking example of an approximate fractal in nature. The pattern is only an approximate fractal since the pattern eventually terminates when the feature size becomes sufficiently small. In computer graphics, its pattern has been modelled as a recursive helical arrangement of cones.' And the number of spirals is a Fibonacci number. You can read the definition of Fibonacci number here, but although I'm good at functional maths, I stopped at O level.

A wreath is not just for Christmas

Sadly, our trip to New England last month was slightly too early for the magnificent autumn colour show, but there were hints of what was to come... like this leaf I picked up by Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont (where the town was papered with posters advertising a wool show celebrating all aspects of the material).

After we came home autumn set in here, and on a walk with friends we all foraged for autumn leaves and berries, and I made a wreath for the door - much admired by the neighbours and the postwoman. As you can see I used berried ivy, old man's beard, hops and autumn leaves, plus some evergreen leaves from my garden. To make it, I used a woven twig wreath as a base, which normally hangs on the wall indoors, and wove in my greenery (and goldery and orangery). As there was no moisture-retaining material like Oasis the wreath didn't last long...

...but that didn't matter because a couple of weeks later the weather suddenly got cold overnight and the little maple tree spat all its leaves on to the ground at once. That vivid red is too good just to sweep up and throw in the compost heap, so I made another wreath, using the same twig wreath base. This one only lasted a couple of days, but it was worth it!

A baker's dozen of tomatoes

Sometimes I don't know why I bother growing tomatoes: here's the whole harvest from a patioful of plants. Pathetic, innit? Still, at least I don't have to deal with a glut! (I'm thinking cherries)

Set in stone: a tailor's measure

This is the 'Plaiden Ell' in Dornoch, in the Highlands of Scotland. As the plaque says, it's a tailor's measure 'for measuring cloth at the fairs and markets held on this site since medieval times'.