Alcest, Opeth, Beastmilk & In Solitude

There are so many good gigs on here at the moment, I'm having to choose between them. I've still got Solstafir and Bast to look forward to and, already this month, I've seen Opeth, supported by Alcest and Beastmilk supporting In Solitude another night.

My friend is a big Alcest fan which is what lead us to going to this gig in the first place. However, I especially enjoyed Opeth who I'd not heard much of prior, I hate to admit. Alcest were very good too. The tracks I liked the most were apparently from their older albums so I'll need to check those out. 

Two days later I donned my new Restyle harness (love it!) to go and see Beastmilk. I hope you folks are appreciating all these tiny, blurry pictures of bands...

Beastmilk put on a fantastic show as we'd hoped and In Solitude were great too. Good stuff!

Luminous Pink Skull Brooch

I made a large pink felt skull brooch (because who doesn't love pink skulls, right??). You can purchase it from my etsy shop here.

First Saturday Off In A Year

My day job rota has changed so instead of working Fridays and Saturdays, I am now working Mondays and Fridays. I'm so happy. Every craft fair and art exhibition in my local area seems to be on a Saturday and, as terrifying as it is to think of exhibiting/selling my stuff in public again, I know it's something I really need to push myself to do. Having Saturdays off could really open up so many opportunities for me.

For my first Saturday off (other than annual leave) in a year, however, I decided not to do any work whatsoever and take the day off to celebrate! 

Top: Restyle.pl

Jacket: h&m (+ Vastum patch)

Shoes: Primark

We had lunch at one of our favourite places. It's closed on Sundays so Tim and I haven't actually been there for about a year. We're usually the only people there who aren't pensioners (pensioners have good taste in food and coffee. What can I say?), but I think there were a couple of other "young" people there on Saturday too, haha.

I finally had a chance to have a proper listen to the metal mix tape my friend made me. Really digging the Agalloch tracks and Chelsea Wolfe who I've never really listened to before. We've got so many metal gigs coming up (including two next week we've already got tickets for) we both want to go to our wallets will probably be suffering by the end of the year.

At night, Tim and I made veggie sushi based on this recipe. It's the first time I've made anything like it and the first time I've ever ventured into a Chinese supermarket either. It was definitely worthwhile though. The rolls were delicious and the sauce totally made the meal.

I'm not actually a vegan though so next on the agenda is probably to look up some recipes for sushi involving (cooked!) fish.

Picking Up Small People After School

I went to pick up my little niece and nephew from school the other day for the first time (for me, not for them!). As it turned out, my sister was there in time to pick them up anyway, but it means I now know where to go if they need picked up again. Or even if they don't. Because spending time with them is pretty great fun anyway (they're nuts).

Of course I arrived an hour early, but better early than late. It means I had some time to have a coffee at one of my favourite coffee places and do some reading. I've just started on this series by C. J. Cherryh.

The kids were picked up safe and sound. Even if my wee niece's school bag looks bigger than her.

My nephew doing his homework. He's a maths genius already because my sister is a maths teacher. Also, check out how cool my sister's kitchen is. I always think it looks like something from a magazine. Don't tell her I said that.

And I finally had a chance to give my sister the fimo ring I had made her for her birthday. It's the black, bulbous one on the right and the other two are ones she made herself.