Make my day Steampunk.

Not Book of September, as that accolade is taken, but I'm greatly enjoying the steampunk adventure 'Glass Books of the Dream Eaters' by GW Dahlquist.

Steampunk (if you don't know it) is things set in a Victorian world but with more modern, weird technology.

Picture shows the three main characters: Celeste Temple; a jilted woman in search of revenge, Cardinal Chang; a professional assassin and Dr Svenson;...a doctor. I won't go into the plot here as it is fiendishly complex, but is riproaring fun. Even better, part of a series of three!

Think Ink

Another Lost Victorian Country House. Yes, I'm a bit morbid. This is Millearne in Perthshire.

Drawn in pen and ink. Proper pen with a nib and proper ink in a glass jar with a squeezy dropper. So much better than modern pens, old pens make a varied and chaotic line.

Important note to self: work from left to right if right handed. It takes Ages to dry.

I remember leaning handwriting with cartridge pens when I was young, I always got huge blobs and smears everywhere. Now I embrace blobs and smears, perfect is boring.

Craft Tech

Sewing machine! It is pink, but only came in pink for the bargain price of £35. Off-putting for male sew-ers, although until recently, the colour pink was associated with boys, as girls wore blue like the Virgin Mary. Anyway.

Following a long train of circumstance involving an unsteady bookcase full of priceless china, a bargain ebay purchase, and an enjoyable visit to a friend, I bit the bullet.

I must say that threading the machine is the only challenging part, which is like the Krypton Factor with the added challenge of focusing upon the completely miniscule while needing new glasses.

I am very excited by the sewing possibilities now and am crazedly envisaging funky retro home furnishings and one-off outfits. As well as covers for giant pieces of antique furniture, which came out pretty well.