For the life of me I don't know why I get up so early in the mornings, but when there are scotch pancakes with golden syrup on the menu it doesn't seem quite so hard to emerge from hibernation.
I spent most of Sunday teaching myself how to crochet granny squares, having finally found the most fantabulous and instructive how-to series over at meetmeatmikes. If there's one thing that's tricky to get the hang of with crochet it's making good square corners; this tutorial will transform you into a corner queen in no time at all.
I've also been putting a package together for my dear friend Toni, who teaches English at a university in China. We spent a whole year living there together in 2008-09, working at a school in Guangdong. When we returned to England and she went straight off to university to do an MA, I flitted about for a year not knowing quite what I wanted or who I was. When Toni went back to China I started uni again doing the same Masters in English teaching. Now I'm getting ready to up-and-off again to East Asian waters as soon I have finished my MA, and I am sure our paths will cross again. Watch out China!
I crocheted the string, used the tissue paper my Doctor Martins came in to wrap two cotton dresses for her, and as she is so obsessed with rabbits I gave her one of my favourite Belle & Boo postcards that I got from Paperchase a while ago. My vintage copy of I Capture the Castle, one of my favourite books in the whole wide world, adds the finishing touch of whimsy.
