One Night Stanzas

1. Baked some tasty vegan treats.
The above cupcakes are triple chocolate ganache truffle cupcakes and yep, they’re totally vegan. Dark chocolate sponge with chocolate ganache in the middle, chocolate not-butter-not-cream frosting, and a Moo Free truffle added to the top for good measure! The rather beautiful cake dome was a Christmas present from the loveliest Lovely Boyfriend. Though it looks like a vintage one, it’s new, but it is made out of 100% recycled materials! Amazing gifting, methinks.

The aforementioned LB requested “a gigantic mince pie” for Christmas dinner dessert, so I duly made a full-size 9-inch diameter mince pie with rather delicious boozy mincemeat. I had some scrappy little bits of rolled shortcrust pastry left over, so I used them to make these: the world’s ugliest mince pies. They obviously still tasted great, though!

2. Had some even tastier vegan treats made for me.

I think I may have already mentioned here that Lovely Boyfriend is the best vegan cook since Isa Chandra Moskowitz, yes? Well, over our winter holiday he’s had even more time than usual to cook up a storm, so my belly has been extremely happy. Lots of people have been curious about how the heck you even do Christmas as a vegan — the answer is, the same as everyone else. You eat lots and lots of extremely tasty stuff! This was our Christmas morning breakfast:

That’s Isa’s own tofu scramble with a Lovely Boyfriend twist: a Christmassy spice mix featuring lots of rosemary, and extra mushrooms. All on a sesame bagel and served with champagne, because Christmas.

I didn’t get a pic of our Christmas dinner because it seemed rude to be a food-snapping hipster blogger in front of our guests (also I was too keen to just SCOFF IT), but again we are indebted to The Great Isa. We had a version of this stuffed seitan roast, with a more traditional sage-and-onion type stuffing to make it more Christmassy. Plus all the usual roast potatoes and veg type stuff, and then my uber-mince-pie with vegan ice cream and these to finish. Delish!

3. Received many amazing gifts.

I couldn’t really do a gratitude post at this time of year without thanking everyone who bought me gifts over the festive period. Thank you, amazing people of my acquaintance, for giving me so many thoughtful, useful and beautiful things. I especially want to thank the folk (a lot of you this year!) who shopped local, supported small businesses like mine, bought secondhand, and/or made charitable donations in lieu of presents. You rock.

I also love that so many people got me gifts that are so ‘me’. (This seems to happen a lot, so I hope that means I’m easy to buy for. Or perhaps I am just easily pleased!) This vintage typewriter calendar was clearly an obvious choice… and now I have one for home and one for work! Perfect!

4. Met the newest member of the family.

My parents have always been cat people. Seriously: their house is full of cat-related stuff. Cat mugs, cat ornaments, cat coasters, cat Christmas tree decorations… they really like cats. So they were devastated when their faithful furry friend Beatrice went to the great cattery in the sky back in 2012.

After a period of mourning for “Little Bertie,” as she was affectionately known, I was extremely excited to hear that they’d decided to rescue a new fur-baby. World, meet Benny! He’s been part of the family for nearly three weeks now, and he’s a super cute, slightly eccentric TOTAL BABE. As you can see, he knows exactly how beautiful he is and loves having his photo taken.

Like me, he’s also a stove-worshipper. Smart kitty.

5. Bought a lot of books.

I know, I know, so what’s new? In short, I made the mistake of going to Bookcase Books in Carlisle while on my New Year travels.

I’ve blogged about this place before. The bookshop occupies two big townhouses that have been knocked together, and there are books in every room, including the two basements and the huge attic. You can also buy the artwork, paintings and oddities (I found an antique book-press I so wanted) which are displayed in the various corridors and staircases. There are over thirty rooms full of books here. It’s AMAZING.

Hours of book-browsing fun, and only an hour on the train from Edinburgh. Just sayin’!

6. Did a lot of plotting.

I love New Year, perhaps even more than I love Christmas (and I really love Christmas). I’m very good at saying “yes” to things and ending up super busy all the time, and very bad at pausing to take stock. So during that between-Christmas-and-going-back-to-work lull, I try to do as much mental stock-taking as I can.

There’s always a lot of journalling. This year, I’ve been reading posts like this and thinking about ways to make new year’s goals and resolutions (which I always make, regardless of how uncool everyone says it is) that are meaningful and will last. I prefer to set new year goals — a list of things to achieve — rather than make resolutions, because goal-setting feels way more positive than ’stop doing this thing you do because you like it,’ and ‘do more of this thing you don’t do because you hate it,’ etc. (For example, this year I’ve got ‘find a yoga class I like,’ rather than ‘do more yoga.’) But I have also committed to a couple of “higher resolutions” (the big stuff), which I hope to work on all year.

[One of them is: get better at being sociable. I am generally bad at making new friends, especially with women (this article, the part about rejection, rang so true with me). I have this assumption that most of the people who hang out with me only do it out of some masochistic form of politeness. I'm sure you'll all agree that that mindset is pretty toxic and needs to go. It's been with me a long time, but this is the year I intend to at least begin to cut that shit out. And the other big resolution is a secret for now, because I don't want to jinx it. If I manage to keep it, then all should be revealed in due course.]

Finally, I also use New Year as a time to think about the past year, and what I achieved. Every life coach/internet guru/mindfulness blogger and their dog is keen to point out that saying thank you for the good stuff in your life makes more good stuff happen. So that’s why I write Things I Love Thursday posts (still), and it’s also why every year I write a ‘in [year], I…’ post. Usually I have to go through my old diaries, Facebook updates, and blogposts to recall what I did. So much good stuff gets instantly forgotten and I’m always gobsmacked to revisit it… which is another reason why this process is useful.

If you haven’t done any 2014 plotting or 2013 revisiting yet, try it! The year is young! I highly recommend it.

What are YOU loving this week?

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Like shiny things? Check out Edinburgh Vintage, a totally unrelated ’sister site’ full of jewels, treasures and trinkets. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

So yeah, TiLT took a break… I was that lethal combination of sick and busy. Sad trombones. BUT! A ton of lovely stuff happened in the intervening period, so yay! Here is some of it.

Working with wonderful women
I just finished work on part of a creative project with a local women’s community support group. In the interests of confidentiality, can’t get any more specific about it than that, but I can say that I had an incredible, emotional and hugely rewarding time working with these amazing women. When I was initially approached about facilitating this part of the project, I have to admit — I was kind of scared. I’d never worked with participants like these before, and I felt wholly unprepared for what might happen. I also felt extremely excited about the aims of the project, though, and knew that my involvement could potentially be something to be proud of. So I gathered all my courage about me and said yes.
Fast-forward a few months and I am gutted that this part of things is all wrapping up. I’ve had some of the best, most revealing discussions of my adult life over these past few weeks, and learned so much from the incredible women I was teaching! What’s more, I’ve had a whole ton of fun and laughs in the process. In a lovely but rather emotional final session, my wonderful group presented me with the bouquet of flowers above, along with some tasty chocs and a card. The card was filled with sweet messages thanking me for my presence and hard work — although in fact, all the hard work was done by the ladies themselves! Thank you, wonderful women of the world… you know who you are!

Where Rockets Burn Through: Contemporary Science Fiction Poems From The UK
HOW FREAKING GORGEOUS IS THIS BOOK? Seriously! It’s been months now since I got the exciting news that I’d be having three (or five? One’s a series of three) poems published within its pages, so I’ve been extremely impatient to get my hands on it for a good while now! Last Thursday night it was finally launched, at a brilliant event at Blackwells, one of my favourite places. Yours truly got up and read some poems (thanks a million billion zillion to the uber-talented Chris Scott for managing to photograph me not wearing my usual pug-chewing-toffee reading face!), alongside a glittering array of great poets — I particularly enjoyed hearing from Pippa Goldschmidt and Andrew J Wilson, Andrew C Ferguson’s poem about John Knox and the fishwife, and Jane McKie’s spellbinding moon poem. They all have several works in this lovely book, which would make a fantastic Christmas present for the geek in your life. I mean it!

Want to read more? Buy the book!

Major props to Russell, the editor, Tom, who runs Penned in the Margins, and the fabby people from Blackwells and beyond who organised the launch. There were sci-fi fairy cakes — here’s young Leon getting extremely interested in one! — and space travel survival kits on every seat! It was a great night, and as you may have gathered by now, it’s a great book! Buy one, buy one — support a great press, a ton of fabulous poets, and this exciting poetic genre!
(PS: I’m extra excited about this book because it’s the first major anthology I’ve ever seen published by an English publisher where Scottish poets make up the majority of contributors. More like this, please!)

Advent!
For some reason, I am extra-super-excited about Christmas this year. I feel like a little kid, counting down the days! I’m hyper-prepared… almost all my Christmas presents are bought, I know exactly what I’m going to bake for the big day (very important), and I’ve even bought myself a festive starry onesie (YES) to wear on Christmas morning for maximum present-opening cosiness. But the cherry on top of the festive prep cake was definitely my fabulous sister rocking up to my house on December 1st, bearing this amazing gift — a hand-made advent calendar! She knows it’s kind of tricky for us vegans to find a chocolate-y advent calendar that’s cruelty-free, so she took the stress out of it by just making one for Lovely Boyfriend and I. Each hand-sewn pouch is stuffed with dairy- and egg-free treats, and as the month goes on, the goodies get increasingly exciting! She is truly the best sister in the whole wide world.

Honourable mentions:
Vegan cooked breakfast a la Lovely Boyfriend // Getting my Christmas shopping SORTED without any stress, largely thanks to Etsy // MY NEW ONESIE. Seriously you guys. So cosy. // Book Week Scotland. I loved their events at the Mitchell Library last weekend. // Cute stuff on Tumblr (you’re welcome). // Balsam tissues. They are a life-saver… or at least, a nose-saver! // Lovely folks on Twitter // People who exclaim to me that my shop contains “the perfect gift!” for someone they know.

What are YOU loving this week?

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You can also visit Read This Press for poetry and typewriter paraphernalia! Alternatively, check out Edinburgh Vintage, our sister site. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

Cute earthenware Halloween pumpkin lantern candle holder — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Hey you guys, BY THE WAY, I have an Etsy store! (In fact, I have two, but that’s by the by.) It has a ton of lush autumnal lovelies in it at the moment, AND there’s a sale on until the end of October! You can get 20% off anything in the store — even the sale and clearance items — by quoting the coupon code EDINA20 at checkout. Read on for my autumnal picks — or click on the shop homepage to see what else I’ve got!

Pumpkin skirt — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Autumn berries sweater — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Wrap up warm cap — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Gathering clouds sweater — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Fireside sweater — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Bramble overcoat — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Falling leaves scarf — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

Farmhouse kitchen tea cosy — for sale at Edinburgh Vintage

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You can also visit Read This Press for more poetry (and typewriter paraphernalia!). If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

A little more shameless self promotion — yesterday, you got to hear about my vintage store, Edinburgh Vintage. Today, it’s the turn of my other Etsy store, Read This Press, which is much more suitable for poetic gift-giving!

For over two years I was the founding editor of Read This Magazine, a grassroots arts and literature zine aimed at promoting the work of new, young and emerging writers. After our editors scattered to the four winds in 2010, I wanted to carry on the work of RT in some way that would allow me to manage the workload alone (I know, some folk edit magazines single-handedly. I genuinely have no idea how).

Read This Press was born. We (as my team has now expanded to include Stephen Welsh, aka Lovely Boyfriend) make small, limited edition runs of handmade poetry chapbooks, make them as pretty as we can and sell them for a teeny price in the hope that we can lure some non-poetry readers in our direction and trick them into seeing that poetry is actually awesome. Our most recent endeavour was an anthology of poems inspired by the great Allen Ginsberg, Starry Rhymes, which you can buy here. We also published Eric Hamilton’s Sharks Don’t Sleep, which is sadly sold out.

Skin Deep, our first Read This Press title: an anthology of tattoo-related poems by talented folks like Kim Addonizio and Kevin Cadwallender.

To support the press, I also started making typewriter-related jewellery and accessories, in collaboration with Amanda of Reworkd Workshop. As a typewriter fanatic, though, I found it heart-wrenching to think of all the beautiful machines that had been ripped up in order to create our bracelets and necklaces (no, really). I gave up the jewellery-making a while ago, but the pieces I have leftover from my jewellery days are still for sale on the site — and there are others yet to be listed, so keep checking back!

The Camel Necklace, currently for sale here.

As the Christmas shopping frenzy is upon us, I’ll be uploading new items as often as I can in the next little while. If you like what you see in the shop, stick around and check back regularly. Please note: I am totally open to handing out mates’ discounts, so drop me a line if you see something you fancy and I may well be willing to haggle! Enquiries to claire[at]onenightstanzas[dot]com.

Merry Christmas Shopping!