The rewards of The Good Samaritan.

My front neighbour, Granny, came around today with a tech question about the new laptop she was considering buying. Obviously our collective knowledge meant that we took a relatively straightforward query and spent 3/4 of an hour searching for answers. Answers that CK took no more than 5 seconds to identify when we sent him the hyperlink (honestly it was no more than 5 seconds). I also rang the company on her behalf and placed the order.

Sounds simple yes? But no. It involved several phone calls, lots of being on hold, a three hour wait to ring back and a few repetitious explanations of the issue. However all was resolved and Granny can expect her new laptop tomorrow sometime between 0700 and 1900 hours. With the advertised extra money off paid back into her account within three working days.

It was rather lovely to feel like I was doing 'real' work. You know the kind that involves phone conversations and dealing with adults and having a task to complete in a set period?

This afternoon Granny came up the drive to collect her bank card (and get the update) and as a thank you brought with her a fabulous selection of fabric from her volunteer job at a charity shop in town.

Wanna see?

These are a mix of cottons, slubby acrylics, flannelette and what may well be silk (bottom L). I have no idea what I am going to do with them but oooo, aren't they luvverly????

Now to the sad part of the post. As part of the Donkey's Birthday Week Giveaway Bonanza Julie at Little Cotton Rabbits was the intended recipient of birthday cake.

Mmmmmmm... cake.....

But sadly when I finally got to putting it into the correct sized box I noticed this.

It is a little fuzzy and out of focus but there is a chip in the rim of the cake body:-(
Julie I am so sorry but there will be something cakey in the post to you soon.

DottyCookie, WMK and KerryAnne I promise there will be something birthday partyish to you as well. surely I get points and kudos for being a Good Samaritan, right? Right?

P.S. Assistant's stitches out today as a small infection has taken residence. Bleaurgh!

My word! What a week!

Bit of a rollercoaster ride at Trash Towers this week.

Birthday parties, single-parenting, CK on a date with an international glamour queen, even had to put out a few fires!

d/Boy and Pr.C-W both had their ballet exams last night. Both were thrilled to take their trophy and medal respectively in to school this morning. Each also received a certificate outlining good points of their dancing and areas that may be improved. My boy and my girl came home with Distinctions. :-) So after a scrappy dinner (fish&chips followed by scrambled eggs and toast three hours later) and late bed yesterday they were both a little edgy by bedtime tonight.

Having washed ceilings and cleared and sorted the plastics cupboard (believe me a HUGE job!) this week I treated myself to a little crafting time.

Getting changed after school Pr. C-W asked if we could finally applique her t-shirt. Guess what she wanted? Yep, my assistant! I had some denim shapes excess from the back of the picnic blanket sitting there so she drew a pattern and when it was done she stitched on the eye herself.

I like it :-) and the edges will just get shaggier with washing and wearing.

It has been an amazing week mailwise this week. I was the winner of Paper&String's monthly giveaway. How gorgeous are these?

My kids are beside themselves that Oucho has released a range of accessories ;-)

The doorstop is in situ with a heavy thing inside to stop it becoming 'the worst ever doorstop' and the bucket has discovered its purpose - it is now the home of my mobile phone. Oh hooray! I shall never misplace it again. (Apparently I am remiss in not letting the world know my mobile (cellphone) is sparkly and purple - now you can all see ;-)

I was the very lucky recipient of a gorgeous P.I.F.gift from Jo in Tas this week. Gorgeous silver tissue and ricrac. that would have been enough to put a smile on my face but then ....

... I opened it!

This is such a clever bag. Loads of room on the inside PLUS four (well really eight because they are all divided) external pockets. I used it today on a day out with WonderWoman.

Jo this is such a cute bag and I love it. Thank you so much.

As mentioned above CK had a hot date this week. The glamourous and rather lovely WMK took pity on my husband and after a whirlwind tour of all the hotspots in Washington (ie flicking through a guide book at Borders ;-) they went out to dinner. Unsurprisingly he was flashing his English accent at every woman crossing his path, he seems to think that impresses foreign girlies.

Given that he was flying across theAtlantic for a blogmeet I thought the least he could do was take over some goodies for me. I made this bag to put them in. I thought it was quite nice but CK insisted upon putting it in his case rather than carrying it - Woos!


I was quite chuffed with this as there was no pattern, I made it all up as I went along! Am hoping WMK liked it to. Thanks for looking after my boy.

As it is STILL Donkey's birthday week there have been giveaways with every post and Julie at LCR won the birthday cake and (honestly - d/Boy watched me do Random Integer Generator thingy) WMK won the surprise prize tonight!

Finally I got an amazing package in the post today but there will be more about that later in the month. Trust me - it is worth coming back for.

Giveaway results complete with added geekery

There are still 11 minutes left before I draw the actual winning names but I am preparing myself ready for the event. I have a random integer generator ready and waiting on another tab but was given pause for thought when the in-house geek/tech support asked me if it was a REAL random integer generator.

After much discussion (read 'discourse') about the science behind true random generation of numbers versus the psuedo-random form in many computer programmes he came out with the comment 'Wouldn't it be really interesting to test it and see if you blah, blah, blah dispersal curve blah, blah, blah display the results from 1,000 million numbers in blah, blah, blah...' and then I woke myself up dribbling. I know that for some people maths IS interesting and intriguing and sexy and lush but I don't see the pretty paterns and loveliness people assure me are in numbers.

However my clock is now telling me it is after midnight here in the UK so ...........













AAAAAAAGH! It has taken 15 minutes to get to this point because I am not as technically capable as I have previously thought. I gave up trying to get the screengrab from Random.Org but the winners were

my thoughts,my voice, Curly Pops, bylulu, & A joyful chaos

Yes there are FOUR winners but I figure that puppy is naughty enough that two people might want to timeshare her ;-)

Thank you so much to everyone who came by for a look at my giveaway. This has been fun. :-)

three prizes to win!

Today is May Giveaway day as organised by SewMamaSew. Back in December they held a fabulous international giveaway extravaganza and I loved the idea of being part of it this time. So until 1900 hours (British Summer Time=GMT+1) on Sunday May 31 come join in the festivities.


Number One

This gorgeous vase/pot handpainted by my extremely talented friend who is about to take the ceramic world by storm (so I keep telling her). It stands about six inches tall with a three inch circumference at the top.

I was tempted to keep it.





Number Two

I wasn't tempted to keep this one. This prize needs knowledge and experience of whips and chairs. Just don't tell Princess Curly-Wurly if you win this one.

But she is cute.



Number Three.

The old linen teatowel this originally was represents a lot of what I love about craft. Beautiful colours, exquisite stitching, the texture of aged (well worn) linen. Women making their daily worlds a bit more beautiful. It encapsulates much of what I took from Jane Brocket's book. I would call it Utilitarian Art but that term has been taken already.

I have repurposed it into a smallish sized shopper and hope that comfycosy will still be talking to me after seeing this picture. The original piece came from a prize I won over on her blog a few months ago. A shopping bag seems a better life than lurking in my beautiful things cupboard to be petted and adored.

A collage of life in a week.

I have been footling around this week and stuff has happened. Most of it good. So I thought perhaps a little collage of loveliness might be in order.

reading left to right

1. this is the 6' square quilt top I have been putting together since before the grand Blogger Meet up in Oxford. The middle section is another tranche of the gorgeous squares sent to me by Kylie flanked on all sides by soft green drill with corners of 'Travels with my Aunt' by Woodrow Studio of London. I love it soooooooooo much!

While piecing the outer section CK asked me whether I had included my 'Shaker element' so I blame him for the horrible mistake I noticed when I lay it out to size the batting. Despite having spent many minutes ensuring the corners all went in the same direction I sewed one side down the wrong way!!!!!!!! So I tonight I have a date with a pair of thread scissors, a pin and quite some patience.

2. Princess C-W attended a birthday party this weekend for the Whiny Daughter of Mrs. Bit Tired. They are midst mahoosive house extension and Whiny Daughter's new room is going to be lilac. I was quite pleased with this cushion because I am not so good at the whole edging with zigzag.

3. This is the gorgeous, hand embroidered old linen tea towel sent to me as part of my fabulous prize from the very lovely Comfy & Cosy. I am extremely harsh on tea towels and frequently get through double figures in a day so there was no way this was going anywhere near my kitchen.
Currently it is sitting in the dining room waiting for something exciting to happen.

4. A button purchased on my birthday excursion to Millie Moon. Tis pretty, non?

5. What happens when you leave the seven year old in charge of washing up.

6. Another shot of the picnic quilt. Unfortunately the elf in charge of collage cut off the lower corner which shows the old man grey dog lying down mirroring the black dog.

7. A packet of old, brand new cot sheets I bought at a flea market a few weeks ago. These are magnificent. Two, bright white, crisp, 100% cotton sheets now in my possession. I am off hunting for more next time we go back there.

8. A smackerel sample of the fabric sent by Comfy&Cosy in my parcel of loveliness. (I think this deserves a post all of its own so y'all can appreciate the generosity of this parcel.)

9. A close up of the fabric used in the cushion. This metre and a half of high quality cotton came from a different jumbley in a squaddie town not far from here. This paisley is exactly like 1970s pyjamas and the more I look at it the more I love it.

The Joy of Blogging (it is safe - no beards in sight ;-)

OH! MY! STARS!


I won a lil' giveaway over at Pumkin Patch Primitives just recently and how lucky am I??

Not only did this creative (and highly descriptive and appropriate) piece of fabulousness turn up at my house last week.

But came with teh wonderfullest quilting magazine - it is upstairs by my bed so I cannot give you the actual, real published name but it was a McCall's one and I love it so much I have already used one of the patterns!

Thank you so much Brenda. You made me smile.

How would have thought it?

Twelve months ago, to CK's hilarity, I googled 'knitted monkeys'.


I did this on the off-chance that there was anyone else who had even thought of such things.


Of course there were.


After reading the hilarious exploits at Monkee Maker in her old digs (and hiding my monkeys further to the bottom of the knitting bag) and V.C. I set about making my own blog. Sadly for some many days it was quite literally unreadable.


I persevered and now here we are - today is my blogaversary.


Happy Blogaversary to me!

Limitless gratitude..

Let me start with a HUGE thank you to whichever ginger monkey or friend pulled my name out of the magic pyrex bowl and landed me the 'I don't know what to send' prize from 'I'm a Ginger Monkey's' 100th post celebration.

Now, look what Smiley Carol brought me (ably modelled by Babyman)!

That fabulous pincushion we all knew to expect adorned with the teeniest headed pins ever PLUS a bag of fudge CK grabbed (I bravely fought him for it). Then a most handsomely dressed spoon doll (I am completely stealing that idea - where did the wooden spoons come from??) How lani is that orange ribbon. The rather divine linen brooch flower has pride of place on my Gilmore Girls shopping bag which goes everywhere with me. *sigh* Such talent.

Thank you Casa Del Monkey :-)