Show and Tell

It has been a while since I took part in one of the Stirrup Queen’s Show and Tells, but yesterday I received something in the post that is absolutely perfect for Show and Tell! If you haven’t come across this before, it’s essentially show and tell for the modern world – just take photos and blog about it!!

Anyway, this gorgeous purple wrap-scarf-thingie was handmade for me by the fabulous Katie who blogs at View from the Hill. It was made for me as part of this pay it forward scheme I have involved myself in. (I did take more photos but they didn’t come out that well.)

Which reminds me, I really had better get on and finish what I have chosen to do for this pay it forward – after all, I only have until the end of the year to finish it!! I don’t doubt that I will finish it, but it might get a bit close to the wire as I seem to have a lot going on at the moment, but hey, it’s not over until it’s over!!

In any case, thank you ever so much Katie for sending me this beautiful lacy wrap, I look forward to wearing it and being the envy of everybody I meet! ;-)

Guest Bedroom

For Show and Tell today I am showing you what my guest bedroom now looks like.

It's not too bad is it, but it is a great difference from how it used to look. Before Matt arrived it had a double bed, a bookcase, a bedside table...and that's about it. There was hardly any storage in it although I should mention that there was indeed a lot of junk underneath the double bed.

I do actually find it slightly odd to walk up the stairs and catch sight of this room full of Matt's stuff, none of which has anything to do with me. The furniture might be mine, but the contents are all Matt's (except for the pictures on the wall) and it is peculiar to me especially when just a few days ago everything in the house was mine.

However, it looks as though Matt may not be staying as long as previously thought. No, we haven't fallen out or decided that we simply cannot live with each other. What's happened is that the move here has clarified a few things in Matt's mind and he now realises where he would rather live and if it takes him longer to save up for his next goal (going to Australia) then so be it. (because he would have to pay rent in his preferred town)

Of course, it is a bit annoying that having made room for him, he no longer wants it!! But that's not the point, the point is that he needs to be happy wherever he lives and if that is not here then I would rather he went somewhere else than be miserable here. I should, of course, point out that this is not a reflection on me!!! ha ha

Instead, it is the fact that he has a social circle elsewhere, he doesn't know the area around here, and so it would be easier to find a job in a place that he does know and can spend time with his friends whilst doing so.

In the meantime though, I am happy to have his company for now and will enjoy that for as long as it lasts.

P.S. if you look close enough at the second photograph and spot the round mirror to the left of the computer, you will see my pink tartan pajama-ed legs!! ha ha, I hadn't noticed that until just now.

A Christmas present

I just wanted to show you one of my Christmas presents.

B and E gave this to me along with the bottle of wine that it is currently attached to. Did you ever see a cuter corkscrew? If you look closer you can see a face in the head of the corkscrew. I love the fact that there are people in the world that can take something purely functional and make it look attractive.

I was a bit wary about using this hallelujah corkscrew because I never seem to get it right and prefer to use my oh-so-simple lever cork remover - it is so easy as to be silly. But this Alessi corkscrew? It couldn't have been easier, the base is molded in such a way as to make it easy to fit over the bottle and not have to worry about aiming the point of the screw in the right place!

Plus of course, it's a lovely blue colour and it looks cute. That's a win-win in my mind! Thanks B and E!!

Don't forget to pop over to Lollipop's place for more show and tells.

Summer

Well, seeing as it is time for Show and Tell over at Lollipop Goldstein's,  I thought that I would show a couple of photographs in honour of summer!  OK, I know that it is summer down under and I have seen a couple of great photographs of my cousin and her new daughter in Adelaide.

But here in the UK, it is cold and wintry, while we are not getting the heavy snows that can be seen in North America, it still feels cold and summer feels far far away!  So, here are two photographs of a childhood summer, probably about thirty (!) years ago.

Doesn't that make you long for summer again, to be on the beach basking in the sun and dabbling a few toes in the water?  That's not to say that I don't like winter, but sometimes only warm sunshine will do!  And these photographs will just have to remind me of summer while we wait for spring to come round so that we can see the flowers blooming again!

Show and Tell Memories

These six photographs contain the memories of Christmas 1996, and they make me smile even now, twelve years later! Mum has given me permission to post this photos, and I apologise for the poor quality as I used my camera to get electronic copies - I should have remembered to scan them at work! (Also - you should be able to click on the photos themselves if you want to see larger pictures)

Anyway....

Nana and Grandad were spending some time over Christmas with us, it may have been Christmas Day itself or a day soon after, I cannot actually remember.

The first picture shows my oldest brother (he must have been 19 and he definitely doesn't have that long hair now!) demonstrating a party trick that requires two people to be joined together by rope at their wrists and the point is to work out how get free. (Grandad's helping in the corner!) He got Mum and Nana to play this game....

In the second picture you can see Mum and Nana concentrating very hard and thinking about how to release themselves from their predicament....

The first signs of laughter appear in the third picture, although Mum is still concentrating....

Mum's cracked up now and they still can't get free....

Both Nana and Mum are now in fits of laughter....

And Mum ends up wiping away tears of laughter.....

I don't actually remember this moment, but the photos show what happened so clearly that is all comes back to me and leaves me smiling for a long time, even as I wipe away a little tear cos I miss my Nana. (What surprises me is that the mantle behind Mum and Nana is so bare of ornaments, you should see it now!!!)

Don't forget...more Show and Tell is going on over at Lollipop Goldstein's!!

Dasher

I have a new friend.....

Isn't he smart? His name is Dasher and he was fortunate enough to win me on Saturday!!  I should explain...Mum and I went on a coach trip to Oostende in Belgium.

This trip was organised by some people where Mum works and this is their fifth trip I think, but their first time to Oostende.  Anyway, not only do they organise a trip to Belgium, but they also organise quizzes and raffles and all things fun.

During the coach trip out we were all given a raffle ticket and told to hang on to it.  Once we all had tickets, wrapped presents were dispersed from bags at either end of the coach.  These presents all had numbers on them and we all simply had to pass the presents back and forth until we ended up with the one that had our individual numbers on them.

Last year I won a bunch of ribbons for wrapping presents, but this year I think that Dasher makes a very good addition to the family!!

I am a bit tardy with this weekend's show and tell, but if you want to see what all the other kids have to say, just go and visit Mel's Show and Tell!!

More Christmas Cards

If you read my last post about Christmas Cards, you may know that I am taking part in a craft fair on Tuesday and so I have made what feels like hundreds of cards. Definitely a hundred cos I have made just over a hundred!! As much as I love card making it does get a bit wearying if you're trying to meet a deadline, but I am pleased with what I have done so far.

Here are the two boxes full of cards....

And, with apologies for the very poor photographs as I have yet to work out how to take card photos properly, particularly when they have been sealed in plastic bags, here is a selection of the cards that I have made.

With a close up...!

I hope to be able to tell you all on Tuesday evening how the craft fair went - I do hope to sell at least ONE card!! Anyway, a real make-and-take show and and tell that one I think!! If you want to see more Show and Tells then go and ask the teacher and she may be kind enough to let you see what other people have brought to the classroom!

Cats....

....know how to make themselves comfortable despite whatever you may be doing, and so for Show and Tell I am going to show you just what Phoebe did!

It is fortunate that my laptop has a built in camera cos I was able to take these few photos!!

I was in the middle of writing an email to my middle brother when Phoebe wanted a cuddle, and she clearly saw that my lap was full of laptop so she decided to climb on my chest. I was actually somewhat slumped down on the armchair as I don't think that she would have tried this otherwise!

She is still here as I type this up the night before Show and Tell and this is probably an indication of how accommodating I am and how much I don't mind if the cat sits on me!! Fortunately I can still see the screen and can touch-type so I don't mind in the least; we are keeping each other warm on this cold night when all the weather forecasters are giving weather warnings of snow and ice and all things cold!

She finally got comfortable and settled down in a suitable position (i.e. her posterior wasn't in my face!!)

And if you want to take part in Show and Tell or see what other people have got to tell us, then do go and visit Show and Tell!!

Finally - today's ICLW comments were....

Vickie Press
Nervous Breakdowns are Highly Underrated
Fighting Infertility
The Idle Mind of Beth
One Small Wish
Preheated Oven - where is my bun?
Junebug's Musings
Infertility Podcast and Blog
In Pursuit of Parenthood
Mommy Confessions
The Great Big If
From Such Great Heights

Fireworks...

...are very difficult to photograph, but of course it would help if I hadn't accidentally changed the setting on my camera to "underwater" instead of "fireworks"! The little fish icon in the corner of my camera screen eventually came to my attention and so I groaned and changed the setting again and hoped for the best.

I have to say that even with the firework setting on the pictures are not that brilliant. I needed a tripod for the camera and as I don't have one I had to make sure that I held the camera as still as possible, which of course was utterly impossible.

But for Show and Tell this week, here are a few of the better pictures. But before I go and show you the pictures, don't forget that you can see other pictures and other topics at Mel's Show and Tell and if you have anything you want to show the world, just head over there and wait patiently for the teacher to call on you!!

We were at Leeds Castle for the fireworks, and I must say that I think this is a rather impressive castle...

Then we had fireworks and lasers all set to music, it only lasted about half an hour, but it was good fun - loads and loads of people were there eating hot dogs and candy floss and all things yummy!

Of course...I must show you my birthday present from Mum and Dad too!!

I have had the bag for about four weeks, but have refrained from using it until it was actually the day of my birthday, don't you think that I am very restrained!!!?

It's Sunday....

....so it must be Show and Tell! Today I want to tell you all about just how good some shops are when it comes to customer service. First of all you need to know that a few months ago I had my ears pierced with a second set of holes! (which doesn't actually sound all that attractive does it - "set of holes"!?).

Anyway, I'd been wearing these gold studs for ages and was fairly desperate to get something else, something that would go with whatever else I chose to put in my first set of piercings. Cos, as you know, gold doesn't necessarily go with everything!

I'd been looking for something like diamonds or some sort of stone, but I couldn't find anything that I fancied and, of course, I knew that I couldn't afford real diamonds!! In fact, I am not even prepared to wear diamond earrings as I'd be so worried about losing them that I expect that they would be worn once a year and then left to sit in the jewellery box!

All of that is beside the point.....I found myself some nice diamondy-looking earrings and even had a look at some real diamond earrings that were about the same size and they cost about £450 so that was definitely a no-go. But, back to customer service; these earrings were for me and the saleswoman knew that, but she still prettied up the box, dropped some silver circle confetti on it, wrapped in tissue paper and put it all in in a lovely bag.

When you see the photos, you will see why I shall be going back to that place again. It feels so much better than simply asking your customer if they'd like a plastic bag!! Okay, okay, so perhaps this isn't exactly environmentally friendly, but the pleasure that I got out of this was just....mmmmmmmm.

Wouldn't you go back? Treat yourself to some more jewellery?!

Filling time

Now that I am not watching telly in the evenings four days a week, I have decided to take up a new hobby and and am now going to Show and Tell all about it!

You might think that I already have enough to do in the evenings, but I do like variety and the option of being able to pick and choose what I want to do in an evening and let me tell you now....there is absolutely no way that I will ever study four or five hours in an evening after a day at work, I am just not going to do that as I wasn't built that way! (is anybody!?!)

For a while now, I have been wanting to learn about this particular craft and to attempt it for myself, but every book about it that I have looked at has just freaked me out because there are pictures of so many beautiful and creative versions of the finished products related to this craft and I just haven't known how to begin.

Anyway, I went looking for a card-craft shop the other weekend as it had recently moved premises. Having bought some nice paper I then walked back to the car and spotted that there was another craft shop in the same shopping area. It perked my interest, so I wandered in and had a look at the materials and chatted to Yvonne, the shop owner and asked if she held classes.

Of course, she said yes and so yesterday I went back and began learning all about this new-to-me craft and I had two hours of fun choosing materials and deciding how to lay them out. Yvonne was great too, very patient and explaining things clearly, not to mention suggesting that I only buy one or two bits of equipment until I decide that I will lay out the money to have a few more bits at home as I can use the cutters and irons at her shop.

So....what is it? Perhaps a picture will help?

The picture may not necessarily make sense to you unless you have done or seen this before, but this is very very beginning of a Christmas Quilt. Yes, I am learning how to make a quilt using the usual technique of patchwork (although I always thought that patchwork WAS quilting - to me the two are the same thing!), and what I have to do is create a pattern that has three squares in a row and three rows in a block, so you can see that the above picture really is the very early stages of this quilt!

I have got to make several more squares and blocks and then put them all together to make a quilt. Quite how big this quilt will be I do not know, perhaps it will just be a lap-quilt that I can snuggle under in my armchair when it is cold and blowy outside. I don't think that I am up to making a double bed-sized quilt just yet!! That may take a few years, but in the meantime I am having great fun making this one. Perhaps in a few "show and tells" later I will show you where I have gotten to.

Lottery!

How many of you play the lottery? I very rarely play the lottery as I think that the chances of winning are so very minuscule! I can remember both times I ever played and the last one was on Friday as you can see with my Show and Tell photo!



Of course, I didn't win, but kinda felt that my chances were slightly better seeing as I didn't have to match everything in order to win. You see, for those of you that don't know, last Friday's lottery wasn't allowed to roll over so someone had to win it which meant that if no-one had the winning numbers then the winners would be those with the closest match. Quite naturally though, it wasn't me!


Now that I think about it, the last time I played was also on a EuroMillions non roll over about a year or eighteen months ago. I know that my chances are never very good, but who doesn't dream about winning the lottery? Clearly I know that you have to play in order to win and seeing as I am not a regular player then I am never going to win, but I don't like the thought of throwing away hundreds of pounds every year (which I would do if I entered the Wednesday and Saturday lottery as well as the EuroMillions on Friday), so all I am ever going to do is dream about what I would do if I actually played and won!

So what would I do? Obviously this would depend on how much I won, but lets say that I won the very nice sum of, oooohhh, ten million pounds, then I would try to spread the moolah around a bit by helping family and friends do the things that they've always wanted to do or to get them the homes of their dreams.

Then I think that I would do a lot of travelling, perhaps even buy a house or two in places like Sydney or Vancouver or even someplace else!! Given that I had a few million the flight back to the UK to visit people wouldn't be quite so onerous as I could buy business class tickets (I still wouldn't get first class tickets as I would still think that that was just too much of a waste of money!) or even get them to visit me!

Umm, I think that all that travelling would end up being a bit boring after a few years, so I think that I would then settle someplace and perhaps go back to University to learn something new and interesting, but I think that what stands out most is that I wouldn't go back to work! ;-) I think that I do volunteer work and stuff like that but actual proper work? Nah!

You can see that I've given this quite some thought even though I am never going to win!! It's always nice to dream, so what do you dream about doing with the lottery money that you're clearly going to win one day!?

Oyez, Oyez, Oyez!

If you didn't know, the above is the cry of the Town Crier - it's to get your attention before they start telling you of local news. Yes, they were the BBC news or CNN of the day!

As you might expect, there are very very few of them about these days. It is indeed a dying art, but my little village has it's own Crier and you can often see him dressed in full regalia in the High Street, particularly on festival days. Certain people in the village have also decided that it would be good for the village to host a Town Crier competition!

As you can see, that happened yesterday - the village was full of people in bright and fantastic regalia, and that's just the men! There were a few women Criers, but the majority were men and they were accompanied by their wives (I assume!) who were also in some of old fashioned dress.

And boy...have they got loud voices! That is the point I suppose, they are meant to be heard over the usual sounds of the market. There were about 19 Criers in total all with bells and scrolls containing about a hundred words for them to read out and be judged by. I didn't stay to listen to all of them, but I am sure that it will be in the local paper at some point!

Some (quite possibly all, I didn't check!) had this badge on their clothes labelling them members of the Ancient and Honourable Guild of Town Criers. I don't know how old the Guild is, but my village has had a Town Crier since 1720!

OYEZ! OYEZ! OYEZ!

Holidays

Well, it's about time I told you all about our narrowboat holiday! Our boat was called Georgina...

and she was as skinny as the rest of her friends, but was surprisingly comfortable too. The only room that was truly a room in it's own right was the bathroom (and that was a good thing too!), everything else was very open plan - the singles bedroom was at the back near the tiller, followed by a little corridor taking us pass the bathroom and opening into the double bedroom, and then after this was the teeny tiny kitchen which looked into the dining area and lounge area right at the front of the boat.

Naturally there were times when it felt a bit cramped, particularly when we needed to rush from one end of the boat to the other and the dog insisted on getting in the way - I think that she had her paws trodden on a couple of times! Fortunately no one fell in the water, although Poppy (the dog) got left behind at one point.... (Poppy is right in the centre of the photo looking bit small!!)

What happened was that after a few days of being very nervous of getting on and off the boat she suddenly developed boundless confidence and when the end of the boat got a bit close to the bank she jumped off and no-one realised!! We had to back track just a little to get her back on board, especially as she was on the wrong side of the canal - i.e. the one without a towpath. In the photograph above, you can see how rather concerned she is at being left behind - especially with all those scary cows in the field!!

Despite moments of frantic activity and close shaves with other boats or hitting bridges, it was actually quite a serene holiday just puttering down the canal with the sunshine on our faces and the wind in our hair - there was simply no rush to be anywhere and we could only travel at about three miles an hour, so it was an exercise in relaxation! And, yes, that's me with my feet up!

Television

Guess what's on the television at this very minute?



Yes, it's one of the family's favourite films, The Princess Bride, I even have the book, but in this particular instance I think that the film is actually better than the book.

What I like about this film most is that it is one that the whole family likes, which is fairly unusual as there were six of us back when we were all living at home and I should think that we all had fairly different tastes when it came to all things dramatic.

The Princess Bride also reminds me of a particular family memory...we were all sat there watching the film (not for the first time I might add) drinking tea and eating too many biscuits when it came to the bit where Fezzik the giant throws a rock at Westley, only to explode against a boulder behind Westley. It made me jump so much that I threw tea all over myself!!!

Even as I watch the film now, I know all the ins and outs of the story and yet I still get pleasure from it, fortunately I am past the time where the above scene still makes me jump! This is quite definitely a classic film that will never grow old I am sure.

Leaving presents

My show and tell this week is all about leaving presents!! As you may know, I left my evening job for the last time on Thursday evening. I'd been working there for nearly two years and was getting rather fed up of not spending time at home in the evenings, so I handed in my notice.

The last day at work is always a bit odd, people start gathering and standing around in purposeful groups, still chatting away whilst trying to remain nonchalant. It never works! We all know why we are there and what's about to happen, but no-one ever openly says so - it's rather amusing!! It's even more amusing when you realise that I work from 5:30pm to 10pm and that most people have gone home by the time I am ready to start work.

Anyway, I was "surprised" with the most lovingly wrapped present, a lovely blue paper with elephants printed on it and green tissue stuffed in the ends, all tied with gold string. I opened it to find a handbag! One that is big enough for all my needs plus the novel that I usually carry around with me!!

The card that came with it was full of really nice comments such as "who is going to shut off the upstairs lights on students now?" - hardy har har very funny, and "how are you going to fill those cold winter evenings now" - don't worry, I'll find something! And, "I will miss your cheerful smile" - people are so nice, in fact two people made similar comments, which makes me think that I should smile far more often!

But that wasn't even the end of it! I was expecting to simply leave at 10pm having closed up the library for the last time. However, about five or six of my colleagues who live nearby all came back at about ten to ten with a bottle of non-alcoholic bucks fizz (I had to drive home after all!) and proceeded to toast me and my last day at work. Now wasn't that sweet of them?

Summer Sunshine

Once again it's show and tell time, I just love this weekly thread as it makes me put photographs on my blog, which is far more interesting than just a bunch of text, it makes me go and look at other people's photos and read their stories. Sometimes a bunch of bloggers will hit on the same theme for some really weird coincidental reason and sometimes the stories are sad, fascinating, funny, simple, amazing, and interesting, but above all, they are personal.

Anyway, on with my show and tell! It is an absolutely gorgeous weekend, weather-wise, here in the United Kingdom, the sky is clear, the sun is shining and invites us all to go and sit outside and soak up some much needed vitamin D and simply lie in the deckchair, close our eyes and get all mellow.

That's what I did yesterday and quite likely what I shall do today. However, it does get too hot if I stay outside too long, so for about an hour I abandoned the deckchair for the cool of the house and when I went back outside for another hit of sunshine, my chair was occupied....





Yes, Phoebe cat had decided that the patio flagstones weren't soft enough and had decided to borrow my chair!!


She has one eye open here because I am taking photographs and disturbing her precious comfort!! I didn't push her off because I am a softy, but she didn't stay there long so I could reclaim my spot in the sun!

Bodies!

This week's Show and Tell is a strange one - how many of you get to see fake babies and torsos littering the hall in your place of work!!?

There was an advanced paediatric life saving course running at the hospital last week and when I saw the above bodies lining up in the hallway, I was so glad I had my camera in my handbag - so I went back to my locker, grabbed it and snapped this photograph.


These rather lifelike faces have come a long way from the original Resusi-Annie that definitely looked fake and plastic! Despite the oddity of seeing such things in the hallway, I am glad that someone had the idea of creating fake bodies so that paramedics, nurses and other healthcare staff could practice as it's the old catch-22 isn't it - how can you get experience without practice and of course, this is one sort of experience that you really would rather not obtain via a real life experience so the fake people come in handy here!

Awards!

Do you all remember back in May, I announced that me and my little library team had been nominated for and won a Special Achievement Award (team category)? Well, I have finally managed to drag the photographs out of the public relations officer so that I can use them for show and tell!!

I feel compelled to point out that the photographs are not brilliant, but I suppose as she (PR Officer) had to take several photos in the space of about an hour, she didn't feel that she could take the time to arrange everything as she would have wanted, or perhaps I am just being a perfectionist!! Naturally I have covered the faces of the other people in the photos as they don't want to be plastered all over the net!!

What was nice is that we all got to see the nomination that led to us winning, said nomination is now pinned up on my noticeboard in the office and the plaque that I am holding is now on the wall behind the main service counter in the library! I did feel a bit silly about putting that up on the wall, but libraries need to be able to blow their own trumpet some times!!

By the way - if you want to read other show and tells this Sunday - go visit Mel's Show and Tell!