Philanthropists of the sun

I was rummaging around the shop at the Tate Modern art gallery the other day (forgive me for the pretentious cultural reference… it’s just that it’s not often you can say that when you don’t live in London). And I came across a couple of rather nifty little products. There’s a solar glass jar, which soaks up [...]

Cor blimey

Back in Blighty, for the first time in 3 years, and it feels very very strange. Culture shock (how sad is that? this was my culture for 31 years, after all, before I moved Stateside) but in odd ways. There was the heat: mid-70s when we hit London, a good 15 to 20 degrees below [...]

Welcome to the world of “hackea”

Followers of my blog will know about my IKEA obsession. Kitchen, office, guest house, Sweetpea’s and Munchkin’s rooms…. there’s barely a square foot here not touched by the value-conscious Sweden maiden. So I was curious to come across a website dedicated entirely to “hacking” IKEA products. Appropriately called IKEA hacker, it’s for people who love [...]

The Hubby of all inventions

Oh, the joys, surprises and frustrations of being married to an engineer. You give him a task like fitting a new surround to the bathroom door and it sits there, half-finished, for eight months (I’m serious). You give him a task that requires actually inventing something and he’s on the case, pencil and piece of [...]

Missing: two contractors and a slacker Hubby

Allow me a little rant. About men. About contractors. About people who say they’ll do something and then don’t. Our fireplace folks have disappeared. It’s been a week now and I still haven’t got round to finishing off the grout and putting in the fire-retardant caulk, the two tasks they left me. I suppose I half expect [...]