What I'm Loving - May 2014

*My Photography Assistant*

Ah, May. You tricked me into thinking summer was finally here, with your one week of absolutely glorious sunshine, only to pour down on me when I was without a coat or umbrella. Touché. Here's a round up of what I've been up to and enjoying this month.

What I've Been Doing
I finally kicked my sewing nerves into place, and have started delving into my fabric hoard. For someone who sews no where near as much as I'd like to, I have rather a lot of fabric stored up. After a bad experience some time last year with bias binding (not fun), I'd put off sewing anything that looked overly complicated. And when I say 'complicated', I mean anything that involved more than sewing in a straight line. However, I have really enjoyed sinking my teeth into a new project, and have learnt so much from this project. It is not quite finished yet (only minor hemming work left), but when it is, I'll dedicate a whole post to it. Until then, here's a close-up of my first ever sleeve - ta dah!

What I've Been Reading
I'd been wanting to read The Catcher In The Rye by J. D. Salinger for a while, and was keeping my eye out for a copy. Then I discovered that I already owned a copy, and said copy had been sat on my bookshelf for quite a while. Whoops! Charlotte, you are a bad book hoarder. Scattiness aside, I really enjoyed reading this. Written from the point of view of teenage drop out Holden Caulfield, it is a novel that deals with the process of growing up and finding one's place in society. After being expelled from his latest school, Holden decides to run away for a few days to New York, only to find that everything he hoped he would find is out of his reach. If you've ever travelled to New York (or want to) then this is worth reading alone for the atmospheric descriptions of the Big Apple.

What I've Been Listening To
When I heard the lead single from Coldplay's Ghost Stories, it would be safe to say that I was rather apprehensive about the release of the album. Even now, I don't think anything would persuade me to be overly fond of A Sky Full Of Stars (except a complete taste transplant), but that doesn't mean that the rest of the album isn't worth listening to. It's pretty impossible to listen to Ghost Stories without thinking about that split, because at heart, it definitely feels like a break-up album. Yet at the same time as being sad and sentimental, it manages to veer away from being bitter and scornful. My favourites are the piano heavy O and Oceans, and all in all, it is a good album to listen to on a rainy day when you are doing nothing in particular.

What have you been loving this month?