Noro striped scarf and hotch-potch beanbag

Just to show you quickly a couple of things I actually managed to finish (still having trouble finishing things. Partner says this is because I go out too much and should stay in every evening and listen to him chatting to me about the problems he has had with the buses. Because apparently sometimes you can be waiting for half an hour - and then three come along at once!).

Often we find Partner lurching towards that bookshelf, muttering, oh bloody hell I shall have to look in Lewis and Short

I styled this photo and put the fibre optic lamp on and everything, I do appreciate we're still a few steps away from Apartment Therapy. This is the Amy Butler Gum Drop Pillow pattern (larger version), modified only slightly to make it more patchwork-y (I cut the main pieces in half, adding a seam allowance to use two different fabrics).

You name one single thing that's more stylish than a fibre-optic lamp. I knew you couldn't

Actually it is since I filled this beanbag with the appropriate beanbag balls that I have been Statically Supercharged so let that be a warning to you (thank you Lucy for the paperclip info, I will actually try it next week. Things have been so bad I have been having to wear my pole dancing shoes to work in case it is the soles of my shoes that are the problem, so now I am wandering about with pole dancing shoes and pink hair in a job where we deal with major corporate donors, I am taking bets on whether they renew my contract at the end of the month).

I don't know why I can't get more excited about this. It's woolly! It's full of mad colours! It's got all my trigger points! I think I'm just fed up of anything that reminds me of winter

And this is just the Noro Stripy Scarf, pattern here - I am reasonably happy with it but I just find Noro a bit challenging. I think I shall have a bit of a break from Noro.

I don't know how to deal with my finishing-things problems. I think what I will do, is, I will go to Hobbycraft later and buy some cheap acrylic and crochet a cushion of such easiness and boringness that I can do it on autopilot while I am doing other things. Because, you can always use another cushion, can't you? (Or actually, I might have a go at this - it doesn't look impossible, does it?),

And one more thing - I wondered if you had seen this craft book/ magazine review on the Guardian website? I have the book reviewed in the middle, Granny Chic (got it in The Works! Bargain!) - I like it for inspiration, there are some nice ideas and pictures, and I've looked at the authors' blogs and I actually quite like them as well. However I am glad this woman has said this because now I feel less like an evil bitter old mare saying what I am going to say: there is a strand in craft writing which is cutesy, twee, and escapist, and I find it difficult in large quantities.

Dan drew this! Isn't it good? The spire is intentionally crooked because it is Chesterfield and the devil sat on it

I mean, we all have our cutesy and twee moments, don't we - I visited a ginger kitten last week and sat cooing at him for an hour going 'look at you! look at your big pointy ears!!' in a way that was possibly not wildly edifying to witness - and I'm not sure I'd like someone picking my verbal mannerisms apart generally, but honestly sometimes I read things and I feel like wearing black, curling my lip, smoking a gauloise and muttering, do you people not realise this world is also filled with Passion and Death and Complexity and Pain? In the spirit of that, I shall make the following confessions to you. 1/ at least 70% of the time when I look at something vintage I think yes, but will that actually work/ last, I would rather have a nice new functional one from Ikea, John Lewis or Argos, and 2/ I have never knowingly used the word 'yummy' about anything that isn't actually food. There. I understand now if I wake up tomorrow morning to only one follower.

Last thing - my family read this blog and like to keep tabs and make fun of the things I do - so for them I state the following information. I have bought a Groupon for horseriding lessons. Have at it, family.