10 Days To Go - The Empty Stocking

If there's two things I love in this world (apart from knitting and dogs and cats and all that other stuff I love), it's Christmas and books! So when my Dad decided to write a Christmas book I was pretty excited! When I found out Rebecca Cobb was going to illustrate it I was just  a little bit more excited and when I found out it was my job to make a cake for the launch party I was pretty much over the moon. 

I may be a tiny bit bias what with it being written by my Dad and the fact that I would pretty much love any book if it had a sparkly Christmas tree on the front, but the book is very good! It's about two twins at Christmas and I'm not going to give away the ending up it does end very happily (can you imagine a kids book with a sad ending!). Anyway the story is very good, the illustrations are amazing and if you are buying a present for a child this Christmas I would most definitely recommend (or you could just pretend you were buying it for a child and buy it for yourself!)

I made the cake a few weeks ago when the book came out and we all carried it down to our lovely local book shop (Lutyens and Rubinstein) and ate the cake while reading the book! I would love to say I hand carved the cake myself but that would be a lie, I had a book shaped cake mould (please don't ask why, I honestly have no idea!) which you can buy here. I made a plain white cake and covered it with jam and white fondant icing. Then I used cake pens (if you don't own these already, please ask for some in your stocking!) to draw the illustrations and writing on the cake. My favourite bit was the pages on the sides I think, and the lopsided tree! You can see more pictures below. 

Here is the link to the book on amazon however if you do get the chance to buy it in a book shop please do! Because book shops are amazing and amazon isn't! 

I hope everyone is having a lovely Christmassy weekend and enjoying the weather. 

Lots of Love Scarly x

If you're loving the Olympics...

I've never been one to get into sports (and when I say never I mean NEVER) but just like the rest of the country I have developed a slight case of Olympic addiction this week. I've been staying on my own so have the TV on most of the day and something about the energy, the story's and the patrioticness (is that a word?) has got me hooked. Oh and this could have something to do with it as well...

Anyway, all this Olympic action has been making me think a lot about a book I read last year called The Art of Fielding. There was quite a big fuss about it when it first came out so you've probably already heard of it but in case you haven't here's the blurb - 

In The Art of Fielding, we see young men who know that their four years on the baseball diamond at Westish College are all that remain of their sporting careers. Only their preternaturally gifted fielder, Henry Skrimshander, seems to have the chance to keep his dream – and theirs, vicariously – alive, until a routine throw goes disastrously off course, and the fates of five people are upended.

After his throw threatens to ruin his roommate Owen’s future, Henry’s fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his; while Mike Schwartz, the team captain and Henry’s best friend, realizes he has guided Henry’s career at the expense of his own. Keeping a keen eye on them all, college president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, falls unexpectedly and dangerously in love, much to the surprise of his daughter, Pella, who has returned to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.

Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warm-hearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment – to oneself and to others.

Now, if you know me at all you will know this is not really my kind of book but in actual fact this is one of my all time favourite books ever written. Watching the Olympics has made me think about it a lot. It perfectly describes the strain, struggle and emotional challenges of being playing sports and made me think about athletes in a way I never would have otherwise. On top of that it's one of the best written books I've ever read and some of the passages about the character's pasts will stay with me forever. I find that books can move you in all different kinds of ways and while this book may not be overly emotional I found myself crying at the end just because of how complex and well written all the story's were. Basically... it's an incredible book.

So if you're short of a summer read and want something that will tie in with the Olympic fever I would really recommend reading (or listening to) this book. 

Lots of love Scarly. 

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again

As everyone knows I'm a huge fan of audiobooks. If you spend as much time as I do knitting it's just a fact that you cannot spend any time reading, unless you had four hands of course, as a result of this I am obsessive (we're talking two a week) audiobook listener. So when one of our family friends told me she had an audiobook she wanted me to listen to I was obviously drawn in, and when I found out the person reading the audiobook was David Tennant, well, it was a sealed deal.

Before I talk about how amazing the book was, I want to talk about something to do with audiobooks that has been bugging me for a while. In my opinion, the skills needed to read an audiobook are huge! A well read audiobook can be a true work of art, and a badly read audiobook can be hell. I once listened to 30 hours of Jane Eyre read in an American accent and let me tell you it was one of the worst experiences of my life. The artists reading the audiobook put in hours and hours of time and effort and yet when it comes to purchasing an audiobook you basically never even get to see who is reading it! It's never advertised on the cover, barely even mentioned, and yet for the audiobook listener, quality of the recording is as important as the book itself! In my opinion, websites such as audible and the audiobook section of iTunes should put much more effort into telling the customer who it is that they are about to spend 24 hours of their lives listening to instead of putting it in as an afterthought! But this might just be me.. after all I do spend about half my life listening to these things!

Okay, back to the point, the reason I really started to care about this is because David Tennants recording of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again is so amazing I couldn't not talk about it! 

The book was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce as a sequel to the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming. It is set in modern day England and tells the story of the Tooting Family who find an abandoned engine that they attach onto their camper van, only to find out that the engine used to belong to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The car then leads them on a crazy adventure all over the world. I always loved the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and bringing it into the modern day is such a great idea. I had a worry the book was going to be too 'young' for me but I ended up loving it so so much. It's really funny, exciting and amazingly written. It would obviously appeal to people younger than me but I would recommend it to all ages!

The camper van that takes 'glamping' to a whole new level!

David Tennant brings the book to life with his brilliant recording! I hadn't really clocked how great his voice was until I listened to this but it really is. The audiobook begins with a very interesting interview with him about the book. He does a very clever thing while recording it which is that he uses 'voices' for all the characters except the dad of the family which means the dad ends up being the only one you really think of as 'David Tennant'. This may sound crazy but when I was listening to it I almost felt as if I was watching David Tennant play the part of the Dad. 

If you've already read this brilliant book please leave a comment to tell me if you agree and if you haven't I would DEFINITELY recommend either buying the book or, even better, the audiobook! 

Have a great Tuesday, Love Scarlett xx

Sunday Book Suggestions.

'Lasting Damage' by Sophie Hannah.

This is something I have never done on my blog before so I am a little nervous but there was NO WAY I could not tell as many people as I can find about this book. It's Incredible. Also I thought Sunday seemed the perfect day to curl up with a book and some hot Ribena. Especially if the book is as good as this one.


Anyone who knows me can tell you I'm a complete wimp. I've never been on a rollercoaster, sleep with the bedsite light on, and the scariest movie I've ever seen is the Scooby Doo movie which I couldn't even finish! But recently I have been getting very into thrillers (books not movies). I cant stop. Its an addiction. I may need thriller rehab.


I have read quite a few great ones in the last few months but none are as good as the book I have just finished. Before I go into detail I must explain that I did cheat a little and listen to the excellently read audiobook, which I would definitely reccomend to all those who like to knit and read at the same time.


I came across 'Lasting Damage' really late one night when I was desperatly searching audible.com for something new to read. The blurb immediatly got me excited and I downloaded it striaght away:


"It's 1.15 a.m. Connie Bowskill should be asleep. Instead, she's logging on to a property website in search of a particular house: 11 Bentley Grove, Cambridge. She knows it's for sale; she saw the estate agent's board in the front garden less than six hours ago.

Soon Connie is clicking on the 'Virtual Tour' button, keen to see the inside of 11 Bentley Grove and put her mind at rest once and for all. She finds herself looking at a scene from a nightmare: in the living room, in the middle of the carpet, there's a woman lying face down in a huge pool of blood. In shock, Connie wakes her husband Kit. But when Kit sits down at the computer to take a look, he sees no dead body, only a pristine beige carpet in a perfectly ordinary room . . ."



You couldn't not be intrigued by that incredible twist and although this may seem like enough to carry a whole novel this is one of the many terrifying, exciting and un-believable twists throughout the whole book.

Not only is this book an amazing thriller, and super exciting it is also exquisitely written and covers some really interesting issues such as marriage and moving away from home and trust. One of the things I loved most about this book is the way that you are not always certain if the charcter you are being told the story by is completly mentally stable and this makes everything a lot more exciting.


As you can proabably tell from awfully this review is written, I haven't written a book review since Year 4. But all I am trying to say is that 'Lasting Damage' is the best book I have read in a long time and maybe even ever and if you are looking for something, exciting, compliacted, clever, well written, sad and complex. This is the book for you. And even if you aren't looking for any of these things, It's still the book for you!


Love Scarlett.

Summer Reading Suggestions

Anyone that follows me on Twitter knows that I LOVE reading and am constantly asking for suggestions. I will confess that I hardly ever actually read but am a complete audiobook addict. The second I wake up I press play on my ITunes and for the rest of the day whenever I am alone I will be listening to an audiobook. It may seem a little strange and is probably not the best way of reading but it means I get through a lot of books and that I am never ever lonely. It also provides great company while knitting. I absoulutly love every book on this list so if you do feel like reading any of them please tell me if you love them too. And if you hate them then please dont blame me!

My Favourite Author - Kazuo Ishiguro.

I finished Remains of the Day at 3am and went running into my parents room crying like a lunatic, mostly because of how sad it was but also because it was over. Not a day goes by when I don't think about these two books and what they mean. 

One For The Knitters.

If you love knitting, and if you are on this blog there is a pretty big chance you do, read this book straight away! Not only is it about knitting and New York (the best place on earth) but it is also a really, really great book.

The COOLEST Book I Have Ever Read.

I read this book a few months ago and have been forcing it on every single person I know. It's impossible to explain so just read it... NOW. 

Comfort Reading.

The Best Book to Read on Holiday.

HILARIOUS

This is the not only one of my favourite books but my single favourite AudioBook of ALL TIME. Michael McIntyre reads it and its basically 8 hours of stand-up. I love him so much anyway that I was always going to love his book but I actually think it's a really great and beautifully written book. 

Moving/Sad/Beautifully Written.

VERY Scary.

Two Classics.

Favourite Authors

Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh are two more of my favourite authors and it's really hard to pick just one of their books each as I love everything I have read by both of them (especially handful of dust). One of the reasons I love both these books is because everyone thinks you are very clever while reading them and your teachers love it, but in my opinion they are so cool and clever they could have been written yesterday.

What I'm Reading Now... (and LOVING)

Love Scarlett x

Lutyens and Rubinstein.

Hello :)

Sorry about not blogging for a few days. The country is lovely however the one downside is we have no internet most of the time. I have been fast working on the MOST exciting easter project ever and I am so almost done so fingers crossed I will be able to have it finished by Saturday and I can blog some pictures.

I also have a lot of very very very exciting royal wedding crafts and if our internet holds out I am planning on posting one a day in the week leading up to the big day (if you didn't already know I LOVE the royal wedding, all true grannies should).

Also last night me and my mum watched a film called 'Unrelated' which was SO good and if you havent already seen it but are in the mood for something a bit different I would really reccomend it.

But for now here are some pictures of my chicks and bunnies in the window of the best book shop in the world, Lutyens and Rubinstein. It is just off the Portobello Road and is honestly the best book shop ever. It made me so happy to see these pictures I couldnt even believe it! And after easter you can adopt the bunnies and chicks from the window and all the money goes to Comic Relief. Yay!!

I hope everyone is having a lovely easter.

Love Scarlett.

Best Poem Ever

Mrs Darwin
By Carol Ann Duffy

7 April 1852
Went to the Zoo.
I said to Him—
Something about that Chimpanzee over there reminds me of you.



This always cheers me up.

Love Scarlett