Jaz Design

On Saturday the 1st August some friends and I went along to the James May Lego House build at Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking. I mean, how could we not go? James May is attempting to build a life sized house out of Lego for his Toy Stories series. How many people have wanted to do that? I know I have.

After queueing for three and a half hours, we unfortunately did not get to play with any Lego. We were dedicated to our cause though, despite being told many times we were in the “danger zone” and felt that the organisers did their best – 2000+ people showed up for the 600 places.

You can see a selection of my photos from the day here. There’s some cute pictures of kids with Lego and James here on the Mail website.

More details about James May’s Toy Stories.

If you were one of the ones who queued, regardless of if you got in or not, there’s a Facebook group for you.

I’ll post if I hear of any more news on what build stage it’s at. We’re hoping to go back and view it in all it’s glory!

I need to create the category feeds, but I think it’s working.

ETA: It appears to be working! Hi my two subscribers! *waves*

There have been a bunch of changes here (the domain move – remember to update your bookmarks http//blog.jazdesign.co.uk), the feeds and I’ve also rejigged the categories. I’ll probably explain the reasons in the coming weeks. The author page etc still need an update and I want to go through the old posts, remove the crap and categorise what remains.

Before I got my apartment I knew I wanted a balcony. I didn’t know why, I dislike going outdoors much, there’s always a risk of spiders, or bees, or being active. I think I knew that living in a town centre was going to wear on me, despite my dislike of going outdoors often I love nature. When I was living in Portsmouth the lack of green and trees used to drive me bonkers.

The view from my balcony, with a very very long lens. You wouldn't know I was in a busy commuter town centre would you?

As it is, our apartment just overlooks the central park, so I see trees from my balcony, and the hills during winter (see photo). There’s still flats directly opposite, but the nature’s there. And, we have a balcony. I was lucky enough to be given some plants, some grown from seed and so all very young. This terrified me somewhat, but I was amazed at how much I enjoy looking after them. I’m not doing brilliantly, but I really enjoy going out to the balcony, watering the plants, checking them, not knowing what to do when I find something wrong… ahem.

If you’re living in a small apartment, don’t have a garden etc I highly recommend just getting one little plant, herbs will gladly live on your windowsil and you can use them! I find tending to my plants very grounding and enjoyable, and I know very little about it.

More pictures of my little plant family, and Fuzz Lightyear (because he’s amazing) after the jump! To note, some of the photos are also on my flickr and you can visit them by clicking on them!

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The other half is an excellent cook. He received Delia’s Complete How to Cook for his birthday and since then he’s made one meal and one desert almost every weekend. I’m going to share some pictures of the delicious things he’s made, and as for the book, I’d recommend it to anyone! The resulting food is beautiful, the recipes aren’t excessively difficult and everything’s explained very thoroughly throughout the book, complete with excellent photographs. The information about eggs, fruits, veggies etc is also very interesting to read.

In addition to the recipes after the jump, we’ve also had leak and goats cheese tart and souffléd omelette. This weekend we’re having a blue cheese gratin and lemon roulade.

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I found this theme today and thought it was much better than the default. It doesn’t look amazing in IE6, but if you’re still using IE6… … WHY? It’s a 10 year old browser with many many flaws. Move on people, move on. Vive le revolution!

Anyway, I figure this theme will do until I have time to make my own. I quite like it, it’s very customisable. The left just feels a bit cluttered to me. Still much better than the default though.

Also – Jaz Design – I’m going to be rebranding as Jaz Design

I’ve been on a flickr uploading spree. This is pretty much my year in pictures thus far (up until May at least). I’m thinking of having a flickr cul actually, there’s a lot of pictures on there which I don’t think represent my best. I’m also beginning to accept that I’m not on the ball at all for Project 365 this year!

Week 1. Click to full view!

I love post-its. I use them whenever I can and stick them everywhere! I thought I might try something, really out of curiosity for me, and keep my post-its each week. Some things here might be clues as to what’s on the horizon.

I have to say, there’s nothing I love more on a Sunday than a big mug of tea and PostSecret. Yes it’s been around a while, I’m late to the party. I love art, and I love psychology. PostSecret is these combined, we say art is an expression of a feeling or emotion, these postcards really are just that. Each beautiful in their own way, some very depressing, some uplifting. It’s quite an emotional rollercoaster for a Sunday morning, but I still love it (plus the tea ballances out the really bad stuff, as we all know, a cup of tea is the answer to everything).

For Valentines the Mister got me one of the books. Yes there are more secrets than you could ever want to read on the website, but I still love books, and I love this book. It’s a coffee table book really, one you can go back to. Some artistic inspiration, some things to ponder. If you love the website and it’s message, you’ll love the book. Click here to find out more.

Finally updated to the latest WordPress x( Theme really needs an update. I’m using a modified version of K2 at the moment (especially since the sidebar is looking rather shoddy!) Also need to recategorise stuff and give the blog a better focus. If I ever get a minute! There’s a design in progress at least!

I added in my twitter and my delicious in the sidebar, thinking of adding flickr, but don’t know, I have a photo gallery of my own in the works, so is flickr worth the pro money? (My accounts almost full I think). Hmm. And it’s an arse to have to update two places when I take photos… we’ll see! Follow me on twitter anyway! jaz_design. I just installed Tweetie on my phone so now I’m never going to shut up! I also worked out that there was a wordpress ap so I can blog from my phone too

In other news, we got a hamster yesterday. For no particular reason, weirdest impulse buy ever! He’s very cute though, syrian. Fuzz Lightyear is his name and he sure likes to spin his wheel to fast and go flying out of it! (Falling, with style ) There’s a couple of blurry iPhone photos on my twitpic too.

I have a ton of photos to upload, but I just had to put this one up today!

Also hopefully the iPhone is on the way (decided I liked the apps etc too much, had a play with the other half’s, we’re good to go) – I tried to get one at a real store four times and have given up. Internet all the way.