Making Good Use

Cards

Just a very short post today as am I absolutely pooped - having spent the morning in Basildon touring the charity shops and checking out the church 'bargain box' sale which, I have just discovered, is held every Friday morning.  The church sale was very good and I think there will be a lot more trips to Basildon on Fridays in the future.  I carried a HUGE bag of books back with me only to find that most of them were of no use whatsoever for resale!  B*gger!!  And now my arm is hurting where the bag was so flippin' heavy.  I should really have taken my shopping trolley but they are a bit of a pain on the bus.  Anyway, I'll know better next time.

On to what the topic of the post is really about - cards.  Sunday is P's birthday and I've made his card using die-cut pieces which I bought cheaply on ebay.  I've never used these sort of things before and wasn't sure how I was going to attach them to the card when I suddenly remembered a 'make your own card' kit I bought cheap last year in the sales had those tiny stick-on bits with it that gives things a bit of a 3-D effect.  They worked a treat and I'm quite pleased with how the card turned out.

P is always very appreciative of my home-made card efforts, and as he is uber-keen on chess I thought these were just the thing for his birthday card.  I'm not sure I attached the horse-shaped piece (is it the knight?) the right way round, but I'm sure P will soon tell me if I've committed some cardinal chess sin. The little gift tag is to go on one of his presents which is a set of new cufflinks (shaped like chess pieces naturellement).  It was just as well I'd decided on getting him another set of cufflinks as we've had a really good run of finding lovely M&S shirts for him in charity shops lately, but every single shirt required cufflinks.  At the moment P only has two pairs of cufflinks so I'm sure the chess-shaped ones will be a welcome change for him.

I've also been having a bit of a try-out with an embroidered Easter egg card.  The egg shape was a bit tricky and I'm not sure I've got it exactly right yet, but all in all it's turned out quite well.

I'd also made a Mother's Day card for my Mum but posted it off without taking a picture - idiot!! - so can't show you that one.  Although I'm not a Mum myself I did have a lovely Mother's Day / Auntie card from DN which he'd signed himself.  I was very impressed as he is still only four and the writing was excellent! 

Message for DN: Thank you for the card sweetheart, I'm very much looking forward to seeing you next weekend, and I'm blowing you a big raspberry to be going on with!!

A Random Act of Kindness

I had the most lovely surprise this morning when, out of the blue, a parcel arrived from Heather.

 

I had already ripped open the padded envelope and the first layer of wrapping when I managed to pause long enough to take a photo of the beautiful way the contents were wrapped.  (The lovely little red satin roses have already been squirreled away for use at a later date!)

Inside were all sorts of lovely bits and pieces, including this fantastically vibrant ball of mohair wool, some excellent rose-pink and gold braid, and a gorgeous collection of red buttons - including a couple of brilliant tartan ones.

A piece of cat-print fabric featuring an amazingly Lily-like cat (Mum, can you spot which one I mean?)

Two pieces of Toy Story material - definitely destined to be something for my nephew at some point as he really loves Buzz Lightyear.

And last, but by no means least, this fabulous Scottie dog card.  Heather, thank you so very much for all these lovely things, it was such a nice surprise and really made my day.

Coincidentally, Claire at Pinky and Boo awarded me a 'Random Acts of Kindness' award at the weekend.  Thank you for that Claire, that was another very nice surprise.

The Singing Ringing Tree

I don't know if it was yesterday's post which brought back memories of childhood television, or the conversation P and I had the other evening about cartoons we used to love as children, or the comment from Heather the other day mentioning Top Cat, but this morning I've been thinking about all those programmes I used to watch as a child on TV.

Apparently BBC childrens' television was very short of funding in the 1960's and had to rely heavily on bought-in programmes from the continent, hence people of my generation have great memories of some amazingly culturally diverse programmes.  There was 'Belle and Sebastian' - a French (I think it was French, maybe it was French/Swiss) series about a little boy and his dog who lived in the mountains and had lots of adventures.  The German version of 'Robinson Crusoe' who's evocative theme tune can immediately transport me back to winter teatimes sitting in front of a roaring fire, watching the old black and white telly.  'On White Horses' which was (again I think) a Yugoslavian series about the Lipizaner horses, also with a great theme tune (oddly enough, sung in English).  This particular story used to really amuse me as the characters lips would be moving frantically for 30 seconds or so and all you would get from the English voiceover was something short and pithy like "Yes, said Uncle Dimitri."  Clearly Uncle Dimitri was saying an awful lot more in Yugoslavian but presumably the translator didn't think what he had to say was suitable for English childrens' ears. 

But the one story that has stuck with me all these years was 'The Singing Ringing Tree'.  I think it was part of a series of continental fairy stories - although I don't remember a thing about any of the others. I was terrified by this story although I only remember an evil dwarf, a large puppet-type fish in a pool and the tinkling bells of the tree itself.  A quick Google search shows that it was originally from East Germany and is now available on DVD.  I don't think I'd want to watch it again as I'd be afraid it wouldn't be as I remember it, seeing the photos from it in colour was odd enough as my memories are of seeing it in black and white.

Naturally, we also had American imports - 'Casey Jones', 'Champion the Wonder Horse', and an extremely ancient (possibly from the late 1930's) version of 'Flash Gordon'.  Slightly more up-to-date (then) was the 'Banana Splits' - although I never really 'got' those puppets and the canned American laughter used to drive me mad.  From Australia we had 'Skippy, The Bush Kangaroo' - now often the butt of comedians jokes.  Can't think why they'd find a 'talking' kangaroo funny!

On the cartoon front there was 'Deputy Dawg', 'Scooby Doo', 'Roadrunner', 'The Pink Panther' and 'Top Cat'.  But my all time favourites were 'Tom and Jerry' - not the Hanna Barbera modern ones, but the original 1940's ones, directed by Fred Quimby - brilliantly funny and beautifully drawn.

As for home grown childrens' telly there was, of course, the perennial 'Blue Peter', and it's not quite so upmarket ITV version - 'Magpie'.  The 'Magpie' presenters were all very trendy and good-looking while the 'Blue Peter' presenters were very middle-class and sensible.  And there were those lovely little five-minute cartoon series that were on just before the evening news - 'The Wombles', 'Paddington', and 'Captain Pugwash.'  Not forgetting the 'Watch with Mother' characters (I'm so old I can even remember 'Listen with Mother' on the radio with the story being read by Daphne Oxenford - gulp!) 'Andy Pandy', 'The Woodentops', 'The Flowerpot Men', 'Trumpton', 'Camberwick Green', 'Mary, Mungo and Midge', 'Noggin the Nog' (my favourite), 'The Herbs', and 'Pogle's Wood.' 

I haven't forgotten 'Jackanory' which also sometimes scared me (I was an easily scared child) with the stories of 'Green Knowe' and 'The Wolves of Willoughby Chase', and 'Dr Who' which only scared me when the Cybermen were involved.  I'm sure there are many more I've forgotten - what are the programmes you remember?

Update.  Apparently I was not the only child who found The Singing Ringing Tree frightening, check out this chap's opinion.

When All At Once I Saw A Crowd ....

I can't claim to have a 'host of daffodils' in the garden, but we have got a couple of little patches of them.  This particular patch is just outside the shed door (home to myriad mice), and has been in bud for what seems like weeks and weeks until finally, yesterday, they burst open, bringing with them the promise of sunny days and lighter evenings ahead.

Today has been one of those very gusty early Spring days where you can see the cloud shadows scudding along the ground.  These sorts of days always remind me of when I was at junior school and often used to come home for lunch.  The way home was across a very large and open playing field which has the most stupendous views of the start of the Cotswold hills.  This playing field can be arctic in the winter, and desert-like in the summer as because it is so high it always has extremes of weather.  But at this time of year it is wonderful as you can watch the clouds' shadows chasing one another across the grass.  My sister and I used to take ages crossing the playing field on the way home as we would run about with our anoraks on back to front and the hoods over our faces (why?).  It was the perfect environment to do this in as there was no traffic, few other people about, and the only hazard was possibly crashing into the fenced-off cricket pitch.  Miraculously, I don't think we ever did collide with any of the rather vicious metal posts that used to mark out the wicket area.

Speaking of anoraks (not the nerdy types but the actual garment), whatever happend to them? When I was about ten or eleven every child seemed to wear a navy blue quilted nylon anorak with a zip up the front and toggles around the hem and the hood.  Each sleeve would be adorned with sew-on patches from places you had been, and the more patches you acquired the 'cooler' your anorak was.  Sadly, I think my only patch was from Weston-super-Mare!

S*dding Rodents

Those thieving, pesky little rodents have been chowing down on my store of apples in the shed.  I knew there were mice about in the shed as Jester (next door's killing machine cat) has been known to show an enormous amount of interest in that area, and has actually been seen with a 'kill' from behind the shed too.  When I stored the apples away I fully expected at some point in the winter to find the odd tooth-mark or two, or even a few nibbles out of the apples, what I didn't expect was that they were chomping away with such gusto that the whole apple would disappear, just the apple-shaped newspaper being left (and a ton of mouse poo!)

I hope you can see the evidence in the photo above.

I find it all somewhat disturbing as this was by no means the only apple to have totally vanished - I should think the little swines have got through at least a dozen, maybe more - God knows how many mice are actually calling our shed home.  And, more worryingly, how long will it be before they look for pastures new and follow Maurice into the house!!

Eclectic Tastes

I've had one line of a song going round in my head for weeks, although I had no idea what the song or the singer was.  The line was 'I can be brown, I can be blue, I can be violet sky'.  I'm sure everyone but me knew that the song was Grace Kelly by Mika.  A quick google search soon told me what the name of the song that had been bugging me for so long was, and an even quicker ebay search revealed a new copy for sale at 99p.

It arrived this lunchtime, and I can foresee me playing this time and time again (and singing along loudly but somewhat squeakily - how can a man reach such amazingly high notes!)  As I added it to the pile of CDs which sit beside my rather ancient CD player I was struck by what an odd combination of music is amongst the CDs I play frequently (as opposed to the shelf-full in the living room which hardly ever get played.)

There's the fabulous Amy Winehouse CD Back to Black - she has such an amazing talent and thoroughly deserves every award she wins.  I do hope she can sort herself out for good, it would be tragic if she let the drink and drugs kill her.

A three-CD box set of the Best of Ska.  I just love Ska music, it has such a fantastic feel-good, summery sound, and there are some real classic tunes on this set.

Gloddiggas, Headbangers and Pholk Songs by The Beautiful South.  I adore pretty much anything The Beautiful South do, although this CD is a bit different from their normal fare as they do cover versions of classic songs in their own inimitable way.

Madonna - Confessions on a Dance Floor.  Love, love, love this CD, especially the single Hung Up, and track 10 - Isaac.  Madonna's two years older than me but my goodness she wears well - if only I could look half as good as she does.

Shania Twain - Up.  Another great female singer / songwriter, and another fantastic feel-good CD.  My favourite track here is Kerching - says it all about the spend, spend, spend culture with a great tune too.

For just a smidgeon of 'Kulture' there is The Best of Carl Orff.  This includes highlights from Carmina Burana (better known these days as the music to the Old Spice advert) which is a truly wonderful opera.  Dad really loved this opera too and we played part of it at his funeral - I wouldn't mind it played at mine either.

Fat Boy Slim - The Greatest Hits.  Fabulous make-you-want-to-dance tracks.  Fatboy Slim used to be in The Housemartins, which eventually morphed into The Beautiful South - so a bit of a theme going here.

The CD single Crystal Frontier by Calexico.  I happened to come across this once on TOTP 2 and thought it was fabulous, at that point never having heard of Calexico, and just had to go out and buy it immediately (not like me at all.)

Finally, The Very Best of Steeleye Span.  I just loooove Steeleye Span, and have done since the days of Gaudette being a top ten hit (I think I was 13.)  Does anyone else still enjoy their music?  I've got loads of their albums on tapes but they're boxed away in the loft for the time being.  I can never get enough of Maddy Prior's wonderful vocals and the  English folk music meets electric guitar sound of this group.  There's the oddest thing on this CD though - a hidden track.  I discovered it by accident when I left the second CD playing after it had finished, after about 15 minutes of silence there is suddenly another track.  It's not listed on the cover and you can't jump tracks to get to it - you just have to be patient and all of a sudden you're rewarded with this bonus song.  Very odd, I've never come across this on any other CD.

What CDs do you listen to time and time again?

Well, At Least I've Kept Awake Today

Still feeling really bunged-up in my nose, and somewhat spaced-out in my head, but at least I've managed to stay awake today (so far, at least.)  Of course, I haven't managed to actually do anything except the absolute necessities - washing up, bed making, cooking etc., and I had such great plans for these past couple of days, including getting out the sewing machine again.  Never mind, I did make a couple of Easter cards at the end of last week which I haven't shown yet.

A candy-pink Easter bunny.

And the same in baby-blue. 

These were done using vintage iron-on transfers on pure linen fabric.  I'm pleased how these have turned out and plan to do a few more in 'spring' colours of yellow and green.  I'm trying the pink bunny card on ebay as a buy-it-now listing and I'll be interested to see how that goes.  Perhaps I'm too early for Easter at the moment, or perhaps it will just get lost amongst the hundreds of other handmade Easter card listings.  Oh well, you've got to try these things.

Lurgy

I've succumbed to the dreaded lurgy and have a bunged-up / runny nose (it seems to alternate every half hour or so!), absolutely no energy - I've spent most of the day asleep or dozing in bed - and am feeling totally spaced. 

I've no idea where I picked this little beauty up, but my money is on the bus journey to Basildon last Friday - there were some very ominous sniffles, snorts, coughing and wheezing going on amongst the other passengers. 

The only good thing about having a cold is I get to drink loads of freshly-squeezed orange juice with copious amounts of organic honey - yum.  (Luckily, my taste buds don't seem to have been affected yet.)

Pyrex

At the regular Monday morning 'Coffee and Jumble' today I managed to double my Pyrex collection for the princely sum of £1.  Admittedly, I only had two Pyrex casserole dishes anyway, but now I've got four.

I don't know if this pattern has a name, but it's very cheerful and very 1950's, and features lobsters, fish, onions, tomatoes and what I think are tea-towels in lovely bright red, air-force blue and chartreuse colours.

The second casserole I picked up today is in the classic Snowflake pattern.  Both these casseroles are a smallish size and will go very nicely with the two I already had.

This rose-patterned casserole dish is a bit larger than the others and was the first Pyrex bowl I acquired.  I got it about 20 or so years ago when a friend of mine's parents had died and she was clearing out their house.  I'd gone along to give her a hand and she didn't want this dish so I said I could make use of it.  And make use of it I certainly did, goodness knows how many oven-cooked meals have been baked in this dish since then. 

I picked up this nice little casserole a few years ago in a charity shop in Billericay, it was in the 10p box along with quite a few other Pyrex bowls.  For some very strange reason I left the others behind and only bought this one - what aberration had overcome me that day I have no idea, but I've often wished I'd bought the lot!!  This dish has also seen a lot of use.  It's been a salad bowl, a storage bowl, a casserole dish, and a serving bowl many many times.

That's what I particularly like about Pyrex bowls - they are so versatile.  You can store them in the fridge, or cook in them in the oven, and they also look great when they are on the table as serving dishes.  Plus with their wonderfully diverse patterns they are such a great piece of vintage kitchenalia.

Fun With Felt

I came across this nice little book in a charity shop this morning.  It's just the thing for me as I've got quite a stash of delicious pure wool felt which is just crying out to be used.  Some of the designs are a bit 1970's for my taste but there are one or two gems in the book.

I rather like 'Seraphina' the cat, although I think I'd lose the lace if I made her.

Then there is 'Mozart' the owl - who apparently is a pin-cushion / paperweight combined, very versatile.

And I do love these blackbird shapes on the oven mitt, I think they'd look very nice on a card.