Outta here

Oh - and if you want to watch me sail tomorrow night there's a webcam here that you can control. The Overseas Passenger Terminal is opposite the Opera House (but should be easy to spot because there'll be a hulking great ship there tomorrow!). There's only one little itty bitty problem which is we're not sure exactly when we're leaving...

Sydney Port Authority say we're off at 8pm, RCCL think we leave at 10pm. So maybe see if there's movement at around 8:05pm and come back in a couple of hours if there's not.

Toodles!

(World time converter here. Chose Australia/Sydney)

Snap!

Taph and I playing snap with the lovely Aesop free samples Janet at DJs Woden gave me last night for my trip.

"Mandarin Facial Hydrating Cream? Snap!

I made sure I shared my booty because I'm a nice girl...

A burning STS question

Transcript of an email conversation that occured last night:

TSS:
Are condoms consumables? :-P

Taph:
Dunno? Are they flavoured?

There's not much else one can do with a used one, so yes, they are consumables. Green As a Thistle had a post about greener condoms recently - in the last couple of weeks.

TSS:
Not flavoured. Very very over their use by date. Oddly enough.

Rats. That's what I thought. Which also probably means I can't count the samples of products I'm taking with me as Outs either....

I knew you'd be The Voice of Frugal Reason.

Taph:
Nothin sadder'n out of date condoms.

TSS:
And they say stash building is wishful thinking...

Taph:
Heh. At least yarn doesn't have a use-by date.

TSS:
And if you happen to have a ball of wool on you people don't call you fast

Taph:
Doesn't fit so discretely into a wallet, though.

Busy and bored

Many things to do. Still so long to go (or so it feels). I'm feeling rather frustrated - like I want to lean out the window and scream "HURRY UP ALREADY!" to Friday. Like that would help.

Instead I've been keeping busy with vitally important stuff like watching the entire first season of Ugly Betty on Saturday night and Sunday (and feverishly knitting cupcakes). Mowing the back lawn. Dosing my new vintage embroidered pillow cases with TLC (And bleach. And laundry whitener. And a good soak in a bucket of washing powder. And lemon juice. Resulting in pristine white pillowcases. Yay me!) Talking to Richard, the rhubarb plant that followed me home from one of Saturday's fetes. And cleaning bits of the bathroom that haven't had attention for a incy wincy bit too long and need to be sorted for the friends who are staying here while their bathroom is renovated.

Oh - and cleaning and arranging my new pear collection in place of honour. Vitally important stuff, as I said.

Seven Things Spring Week 11: no partridges, lots of pears

In:
(optional: to be sung to a strangulated version of The Twelve Days of Christmas)

* On the first day of the week Taph came to dinner and gave me 42 crafty goodies
* On the second day of the week I went to the DJs Christmas Preview Evening and bought 1 set of bath towels, 4 pairs of knickers and 3 pairs of pantyhose (all nicely discounted)
* On the third day of the week I picked up Sept 2007's Living Etc from the newsagents
* On the fourth day of the week the Golf fabric to make a Christmas gift arrived from eBay and I bought 2 pairs of black trousers for the cruise and 1 Actil First Line Queen sized sheet set - the last one in Canberra at 30% off and no payments til February.
* On the fifth day of the week I followed the frugalling fairy and came home with 5 items. I also bought 4 stitch markers.
* On the sixth day of the week Taph and I had a frugalling frenzy, hitting two fetes and 5 op shops and I came home with this:
(Brand new still with tag attached removable bike basket with carry handle: $1. Brand new still in packet pantihose: $2. Vintage white embroidered with daisies pillowcases (need a little TLC to bring them back to full working glory): $5. Book: $2. 5 metres of vintage white pom pom trim: $2. Small cute white jug-thingy: 50 cents. Ball of Cleckheaton 8 ply: $1. Container of knitting needles of which I took 2 and left the rest with Taph to distribute to various new homes:$5. And more pears for the collection: Large glass pear jar: $2.50, Wooden pear: $2, another cut glass pear like Friday's $3.00 and paper mache pear: $1.)
* On the seventh day of the week I breathed a sigh of relief as I realised that I'd still meet my Seven Things goal for the week.

Total In this week: 78

Out:

* 2 handmade goodies heading off as Christmas presents
* 17 old UK marie claire magazines: donated to Lifeline Book Fair. That's it - the last of my UK marie claire collection assessed and purged. It's a bittersweet moment as I've been lugging this lot round since 1989. *sniff* But on a good note, the empty space these created under the stairs has now been filled with my travel bits and books which makes much more sense as that's where I store my suitcases. And the cupboard in the craft room where the travel stuff was now holds piles of neatly folded fabric. Which used to live on the floor.
* 15 Christmas decorations: donated to Salvos (don't panic, I still have the blow up Christmas trees, the hand knitted stocking and the button wreath!)
* 1 set of old towels: donated to The Smith Family
* 1 metal CD holder that I'd stupidly bought months ago thinking I'd send it to my mother in NZ (what was I thinking? Obviously not about postage costs!): donated to The Smith Family
* 9 books: sold to Booklore
* Spare motorcycle helmet: bin (while I was under the stairs pulling out suitcases for the trip and putting away travel stuff I came across my old helmet for the scooter (which I sold in January 2006 to pay for my 40th birthday trip to the USA) and the old old helmet I'd kept as a spare in case I needed to give someone a lift on my scooter. I really should throw away my old helmet as well since if I ever buy another scooter I'll need a new helmet but I just couldn't yet...)
* Also no longer under the stairs, 2 roman blinds I had up in my bedroom in New Zealand. That I shipped here in 1996 in case I moved into a place which needed window coverings. And have been sitting under the stairs since 1999 when I moved into this place. I figure if I ever move from here into a place that needs window coverings they'll probably not fit anyway: Salvos.
* Wooden dolls house shaped shelf thingy, spare copy of The Decorated Dolls House given to me by Taph and a broken (but easily fixable) miniature cot: gifted to Janet.
* 27 postcards, given to Taph to donate to her postcard-collecting friend.
* 1 mangy old laundry hand towel: bin. I got this towel for my 30th birthday. It had my initials monogrammed on it. I've held onto it for far too long for sentimental reasons but as I dried my hand the other day I realised it really did look disgusting, especially with all the stains from where I'd dried my hands after not quite washing all the stain off them when staining various wooden things.
* 25 bits and bobs of old broken and not resurrectable (is that a word?) dolls house accessories: bin.

Total Out this week: 104

Shake-it-all-about:

* 4 white wash cloths
* 1 "coconut ice" wash cloth
* 2 black wash cloths
* 18 cotton cupcakes
* 1 bunny wash cloth and a bunny pouch
* 1 pear doorstop requested by Princess B and not quite finished.
* 2 soft trees: only a year late and mainly because I wanted to use up these buttons (which have been sitting in a tray in the craft room ever since). I used Little Birds' soft tree pattern and leftover fabric from this project.

Net items out so far during Seven Things Spring: 269 (or an average of 24 a week or 3 and a half things a day)

And that's me for the season. Although the eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed a change in the tag name for these posts and on the sidebar. Yes, Taph and I (and hopefully a few of you) have decided that STS also works rather well as Seven Things Summer and so we're continuing on through December, January and February. I'm still to decide if I'm counting while I'm away and we also need to discuss how to handle Christmas.

Friday frugalling finds

It all started innocently enough. I needed to go out to Mitchell and drop off the last load of UK marie claires to the Lifeline Bookfair bin and decided while I was there to drop some other stuff off at Salvos.

But then Miss Daisy hit autopilot and headed straight across the new Gunghalin Drive extension and parked herself in front of Vinnies Belconnen and sat there looking smug. Minx.

Here's what came home with me today from my op shop wanderings:* Spare Bloom oilburner: $1. I have one identical to this which I bought to replace my original one which eventually developed a leak. I guess the current one will eventually do the same so I was happy to find me a replacement for such a good price.

* Cut glass pear: $4. Bit exxy but I had to get it. I'm a Canberran therefore it's built into my DNA to like pear shaped things.

* Square jar to add to the craft room collection: 50 cents.

* Lovely pyrex bowl with funky 50s design in black and gold on the side: $4. There was a matching smaller one as well but the pattern had rubbed off in places so I left it behind. I'm finding it interesting seeing what pyrex is being priced at around the op shops. Some places don't seem to recognise it as collectible (Salvos Mitchell recently had two bowls for $1 each - a small one with an ivy design and a large one with a geometric orange design. Later the same day I saw a pyrex divided dish at Vinnies Phillip for $8...)

And then there's this:1 kilo of Bendigo Woollen Mills alpaca in geranium. Plus bamboo needles and a stitch holder (and a half-knitted project): $40.

Yes, I know, slightly more than I'd usually pay but it's so soft. And beautiful. And perfect for knitting a stoley wrappy thing I promised Princess B to replace one she has that's a bit worn out. I had to laugh though, the woman who took it out of the display case for me was trying to sell it to me by saying "the needles alone are worth $15". I looked at her. Blinked. Replied "Errr, no they're not. I get bamboos from you guys for $2 a pair." She looked a little taken aback.

Oh, and since I seemed to be on an utter "let's sabotage the figures for Sunday" bender I picked these up at the Newsagents (of all places!) this afternoon:

Cruise ship stitch markers. 50 cents each.

This time in exactly a week

my plane to Sydney will be taking off. (Actually I think I can hear this week's version as I type!)

I feel like I could happily recycle this post to mark the occassion (maybe with the addition of this photo from May 2006) as I'm busy at the moment doing 5 weeks worth of accounts at once and paying massive amounts of rent and stuff to tide me over til I get back. Scary stuff...

How cool is this?

the big knit: over the last few months in the UK, people have been busily knitting little hats for innocent smoothie bottles. "And these behatted bottles are now available in Sainsbury’s – for every one sold, innocent and Sainsbury’s will give 50p to Age Concern. If we hit our target of 400,000 hats, we’ll raise £200,000 to help keep older people warm this winter. Good eh?"

Go check out the gallery of hats of the week - some pretty cool designs in there...

Hopping some bunny will like this...

I finally got my Pay it Forward gifty finished and in the mail. One more thing marked off my things to get done before I go away list. Hurrah!

Magnificence in miniature

Head over here to hear m1k1 talk about how she knits her exquisite dolls house bedspreads. I'm in awe!

Cupcakes, cruising and champagne

Introducing my latest cupcake flavour - cotton!
Showing off my cruise documents which I picked up last night. Very happy to see that gratuities are included already - one less lot of money I need to budget for.

Making the yearly decision later in the night over a glass (or two, or three) of free champagne.

42

Would not be the answer to life, the universe and everything* but the number of Ins that stampeded through the front door with Taph last night. I'm not complaining (much) that I now have a huge challenge ahead of me meeting the final Seven Things Spring goal before I go away.

Because this is what arrived:

4 pairs of vintage cream knitting needles to add to the collection (or "kinetic sculpture" as Taph likes to call it):

Two lovely thick cotton vintage sheets for The Stash:

5 metres of Michael Miller Have a Seat fabric. (It's BLACK and WHITE and has CHAIRS on it and was only (wait for it) $2 a metre! I now own 5 metres and have an itching to do some PJ stitching...)

35 balls of cotton in various shades to feed the wash cloth obsession (with the promise (threat?) of more to come when I finish this lot):

Ahhh... I'm a lucky girl indeed...

(*actually maybe yarn, fabric and needles are the meaning of life?)

ARGH!

Look what finishes the day before I arrive in Singapore!

Sulking now.

Shop talk

The nine vintage fabric patches above have just been listed in my Made It store - just in time for Christmas present making! But be quick, there's only three of each design available (except for the butterfly which I only have two of as one has a small hole in it)

In other shop news there's a 20% off sale this week in my eBay Lundby store Runout Department - these are the last of these pieces available and will revert to full price on Friday.While you're there you might like to pick up a Lundby advent calender for the countdown to Christmas. From clothes for the Lundby family to accessories and Christmas decorations for the dolls house, there’s a treat for every day in December up to and including Christmas Eve. And I have two designs available.

Do you think I'll find a pot of gold under my stairs?

It's official. I live at the end of the rainbow. Actually, if you look closely there are two in the picture. Does that mean I get a second pot of gold?

Seven Things Spring: The power of (week) 10

In:

* 27 mobile phone keypads

* 10 white plastic bottle tops, 3 miniature giftwrapped boxes, 1 handmade card (cheers Janet!)

* 2 pieces of printed drill and 1 knitting pattern from Taph

* Urbis Design Annual 2007 (Newsagents)

* December 2007 Aust marie claire (subscription)

* November 2007 AMEA Tiny Times

* 3 sets of white taps.

* Second copy of Fall 2007 Knit.1 mag (I emailed them because my summer issue hadn't turned up by the time they announced they'd released the fall one. They sent me replacement copies of both. Silly (but nice) people!)

* Glass jar for keeping buttons in ($3 at Salvos - sorry forgot to photograph it!)

* 8 balls of white cotton.

* Length of very colourful fabric swapped with Janet (see below)

Total In this week: 61 (gulp!)

Out:

* 1 pump pack of sunscreen. When I was sorting out my bathroom cabinet to make room for last week's influx of skin stuff I did the yearly check of expiry dates. Obviously I missed last year's check as this had an expiry date of 2006 so out it goes. I doubt I'll replace it since I only use sunscreen once or twice a year and I have a couple of small sample packs in the cupboard: bin

* 1 dead white cotton sheet. (It's had a good life - I bought it on sale in 1992 for a whopping $7. I contemplated moving this into my craft room to cut up and repurpose but I already have at least one other in there waiting to be dealt with): given to mechanic friend to turn into rags.
* 1 broken Mary Quant travel umbrella. I really had to face the fact that no matter how long I kept it it wasn't going to magically mend itself. *sniff*: bin (even though, after seeing this I was sorely tempted to keep it just in case I ever needed to make a bat costume...)

* 1 little cupcake: given to Janet in return for a supply of bottle tops for the inside of future cupcakes

* 2 fashion magazines: given to Taph

* 7 books destined to be Book Crossed on the ship: sent to Sydney with Princess B's sister

* 8 Candyfloss for the brain books to be read and disposed of while on holiday: also sent to Sydney with Princess B's sister. Who knows I might get round to registering them for Book Crossing as well...

* 1 Christmas tablecloth and 1 Barbeque towel, the last of the stuff from my general swaps drawer: also sent to Sydney. Hopefully Princess B will want to keep them otherwise I'm sure they'll be passed on to a good home!

* 8 old summer T shirts of varying ages (up to 10 years) and stages of wear which I know I'll never ever wear again, 2 black plastic sellotape dispensers (a girl only needs so many), 1 op shopped cushion cover I was going to send to someone but changed my mind: donated to The Smith Family

* 14 wooden clothes pegs which I probably won't ever use but Janet will.

* Second copy of Fall 2007 Knit.1 mag: given to Taph

* Large length of this fabric, swapped with Janet for fabric above

* 20 old UK marie claire magazines: donated to Lifeline Book Fair

Total Out this week: 70 (phew!)

Shake-it-all-about:

* 1 little cupcake
* 1 tiny cupcake
* 1 teeny tiny cupcake
* 4 white cotton washcloths
* 1 Mama tote bag and 1 Groovy Green bag destined for gifts

Net items out so far during Seven Things Spring: 243

"Just"ing

Nothing much to report today. It was a late night last night so I had a slow start to the day and the trend continued.

There was a quick run to the supermarket when I realised there was no milk for tea, a visit from a mechanically minded friend who spent some time with me trying to work out why Miss Daisy's interior light isn't working (and in the process we buggered up the horn. Oops - I think Miss Daisy is off to the car doctor next week...) a little bag making (order finished and ready to pack so I can post it tomorrow. Yay!), some washing, food making, tidying, blog reading and wash cloth knitting, bed making and magazine sorting.

None of which is really blog-worthy let alone photograph-worthy.

Maybe I should share the song which started going through my head yesterday and I guess will be around for a while (which is a pity because I hate it hate it HATE IT!):

Spotted in traffic at lunchtime...

"Is something too pristine? Call Munters and we'll wreck it for you. Chose from water or fire damage. Or ask us about our special discount for a combined package. Remember, it's the messing up that counts!"

Dear Frugalling Fairy,

Has anyone ever told you you have a warped sense of humour?

Love
The Shopping Sherpa

(8 balls white cotton. $3 the lot. Salvos Phillip)

Doing a little tap dance

One of the problems with living in an old house with cheap rent is that things tend to fall apart. And not get fixed*. Whenever it rains, for instance, I get a wet bathroom floor. Which is a bit of a pain when I go to the loo half asleep in the middle of the night (luckily we're in drought so it doesn't rain very often!). There's been a leak in the cupboard under the basin for 8 years. I keep my stuff in a plastic box with a sponge on top to absorb the water.

And the hot tap on my bath shattered months ago, just after the plumber swapped my basin taps for the bath taps because "they're about to fall apart and you use the basin more". It really hasn't worried me as I don't have baths because of the water restrictions.

But yesterday I discovered these at Salvos: white taps almost the same as my dead brown taps. $2 the lot (and of course I forgot to pick up the matching bath set which was $5 so will have to go back for them today. Duh!..).

Now I have to Google how to change a tap. And have a bath to celebrate!

(* Fair's fair, some things do get fixed)

Special news bulletin

I'm off to see The Special Beat in Sydney on Jan 3rd next year!

How completely excited am I?!

Pity I no longer have a scooter to ride there on...

I just had to share

the beautiful work Janet McKinney (who just started blogging here) brought with her to show me yesterday when she delivered some white bottlecaps for my future little cupcake knitting escapades.

A beautiful miniature knitted layette,a miniature quilt with feather stitching embellishment (each of these squares is 1 cm across!) plus a clothespeg doll with a delicately crocheted dress and bonnet.And a knitted dress which perfectly complements this vintage German Ari rubber doll (she's about 3 inches high).
Thanks for sharing your stunning work with me, Janet!

A cupcake-less post

Looking for a green* Christmas?Check out my mini shop update. More to come (hopefully tomorrow)

(*Not only are they coloured green but all fabric is vintage. I'm sorry to say I don't use a treadle machine, that would make it perfectly green!)

They're coming to take me away, Ha-Haaa!

I'm stopping now, OK?

This might just take the cake

I'm mad, I tell you. Mad!

M is for...

... Monday. Kinda handy since that's what today is!
... Mobile phone madness. I took delivery this morning of 27 keypads for my trusty Nokia 3310. Yep. 27. There were only supposed to be 25 according to the eBay listing but 27 turned up. This does nasty things to my tally for Seven Things Spring but I'm rather relieved to now have a stockpile to keep me going for a wee while since they're no longer sold in mobile phone shops (odd that).*

... Mushrooms which have sprouted in my backyard over the rains of the last few days. I must have fairies (and here I was thinking all that screeching and hissing outside my bedroom window was possums...)... Miniaturising. Yes it's another knitted cupcake.But a lot smaller. I had the sudden image of knitted cupcake Christmas tree decorations and so had to see if I could turn it into reality. Answer: yes. Problem: I used the lid off my water bottle for the base so unless I feel the need to go buy packs of Woolworths Home Brand water bottles with white lids this may end up being a one-off. Is cute, though, yes?

...Mystery. Why oh why has my laptop stopped acknowledging when I plug my printer in? ... Mats. While looking to see if I had some silver thread to sew french knot silver sprinkles onto my cupcake I came across these two unfinished dolls house rugs in my embroidery box. These have been sitting there for an embarrassingly long time. I promise to finish them this week.

...Make it yourself. It's too late for me to take the pledge this year as I admit to having had some bought items squirreled away for months but I think this is an awesome initiative. If you're not a crafty type (or don't have time to cover your whole list) check out Made It, Etsy, or your local markets for hand made Christmas ideas.

.... Must buy. craft::boom has a code for a 3-for-2 deal on Moo cards!

...Mellow How I'll be this evening as I slide towards an unexpected public holiday.

(Why 25?" you ask. I could have bought 1 for $5 total including shipping. I got the 25 for $15 total.)

And the winner is...

Using my trusty random number generator:

*insert drumroll*

Number 11!

Oops. That's me. Suspected that might happen.

Let's try again...

*Insert longer drumroll*

Number 5!

Gemma! Please email me your address and I'll get your box in the mail to you.

Seven Things Spring Week 9

In:

* Oct/ Nov 2007 Home New Zealand (subscription)

* Nov 2007 Elle Decor (subscription)

* Nov 2007 US Elle (subscription)

* Nov 2007 US Vogue (subscription)

* "New" shower caddy (to replace mine which was looking rather worse for wear. $3 from Vinnies)

* Oct 2007 Real Simple (newsagents)

* Oct 2007 Living Etc (newsagents)

* Spool thread stand (brand new, $1 from Vinnies)

* Black & white stripy T ($5 from Salvos)

* Black floaty skirt just perfect for travelling (I kinda sorta grew out of my other one and doubt I'll manage to get back into it in the next 3 weeks... $5 from Salvos)

* Air Virgin Suicides soundtrack ($3 at Salvos)

* 1 pair 4mm cream and black knitting needles to add to the collection

* L'Eau D'Issey perfume gift pack (I always buy my perfume in November from DJs as you get a little something extra like moisturiser for the same price and by using my Christmas Option I don't have to pay for it (or get charged interest on it) until February next year.)
* Living Nature skincare gift pack (DJs have just started carrying the Living Nature range and appear to be marking the occasion with brilliantly discounted deals on gift packs (eg: $156 worth of items for $29.95). Since Living Nature is one of the few brands I'll use I snapped one up and will be back at the post Christmas sales to see if there are any left)

* Natio eye contour treatment gel. Since I was doing the skincare stock up at DJs anyway.
* 1 pair new cotton/linen trousers (for the cruise)

* Wool to make a blue Ralph Lauren-ish sleeveless vest for E ($8 from Vinnies)

* The wool fairy was (unfortunately) with me this week as I also picked up two more lots of wool for E jumper-knitting ($16) It's a good thing actually as he's almost grown out of the pirate jumper and the stripy hoody but I'll hold off starting any more projects for him until closer to winter so we know how big he is. Seems silly to knit something now that he might grow out of over summer...)

Total In this week: 19

Out:* Old mangy shower caddy: rubbish
* 10 old UK marie claire magazines: donated to Lifeline Book Fair

* Blue and yellow sun and moon tin which I bought in Manukau Shopping Centre in Auckland in the early 90s while on holiday in Auckland. (I think this is the last of the blue stuff I have in the house.)

* Very bright potholder and dishtowel set which I got in a Swap-bot swap and was keeping in case I came across someone who would actually appreciate it.

* Wooden tissue box which I bought at The Reject Shop for a couple of dollars and stained for use in my home office. Then I started working from home so had my spunky metal IKEA tissue holder back here from my work office. Then I stopped using tissues so I certainly don't need 2 tissue boxes (I'm holding onto the spunky one for now.)

* Towelling barbecue mit thingy. I have no idea if this is supposed to protect your hand from heat (yeah, right) or it's designed to be use as a bath mitt by a meat obsessed person. I got it at an op shop with a matching towel. The towel is going to Princess B (probably to end up at her parents' place in the barbecue area).

* Very cheap very nasty and very very useless plastic black and white scissors which I discovered in my Black & White swap carton.

* 2 hairclips with covered buttons attached which I got in a swap. I don't use hairclips.

* 6 sheets of stickers which I got as part of a job lot for 10 cents. I used a lot of the full sticker sheets in swaps earlier in the year but the rest can go.

* Steve Parish photo book of Australia. I got it for 20 cents. I was going to include it in a swap. I didn't notice there's a hand written dedication inside the cover.

* An embroidered tray cloth which I bought to give to someone. Since I can't remember who I'm not keeping it.

* And, finally, a very colourful and very cute notepad I was given that I'll never use.

17 items in total: donated to The Smith Family.

* Box and 19 goodies inside it: all packed up and ready to head off to persons unknown (to be decided at noon)

Total Out this week: 48

Shake-it-all-about:

* 9 Wash cloths
* 4 Knitted daisies

Net items out so far during Seven Things Spring: 234

Friday frugalling finds

Before you say anything yes, I know they're all pink and blue and shabby chic-esque. But they're not for me.

Fold-up 1950s(?) bed tray: $5. I whipped this out of the window display the minute I saw it. Not sure if you're allowed to do that actually...
Similar era teatowel to match : 50 cents

Both from Vinnies Queanbeyan. Thus redeeming them in my eyes. I promise I'll never again say rude things about how I don't like them anymore now they've moved and become a "new style" Vinnies.The underside of the tray tells us it's The "Luxure". All I know is it's damned cute and if Princess B doesn't want it I might be ever so slightly tempted to repaint it and keep it for myself. Yes, I know that would be sacrilege...

What they call a "Win/Win" situation...

For those of you not reading this via a feed reader you might like to scroll down and check out my stats waaay down there at the bottom on the left.

Don't worry I'll wait right here for you.

(To the tune of Greensleeves: plonk plonk plonk plonkiiiiity plonk plonk plonk...)

Oh you're back already. Good. That was driving me almost as nuts as the Chicken Dance.

So I've hit 40,000 readers since I started counting (a couple of months after I started this blog - can't remember exactly when.) I'm pretty gobsmacked really and figure it's probably a good time for a giveaway to mark the occasion.

I'm getting crafty (no, not in the "Let's knit 9 wash cloths in 3 and a half days" way but in the "Woohoo! how devious and conniving!" sort of way)

See that there box at the top of the post? It's part of a carton of bits and pieces I amassed when I was doing regular Black and White swaps over on Swap-bot. It's bursting with black and white goodness (I counted - it comes to 20 Outs for me which is a pretty good total)

How can you get you sticky paws on it? Leave a comment of course! Anything will do (OK I might decide to un-award you if you win because you left me spam or a flame...) Entries close this Sunday at noon AEST (because then I can count it as an Out in this week's total.)

Oh - and I'm happy to post it anywhere in the whole wide world...

Lundby sale time

Just thought you'd like to know that I'm offering 20% off all Lundby dolls house garden items for the next week.

More info here.

The Librarians

Here's the Triple A Team at last night's screening of the first episode of The Librarians at National Library. Oh - I was wrong about having a glass of wine in one hand as there was only tea, coffee and water (I was happy though as it left that hand free for holding the delicious salmon and cucumber sandwiches they had and my mind clear for dealing with my first bout of knitting straight on circular needles. In the dark. Yep, wash cloth #7 went with me on the circs I had left over from The Kittyville Hat)There was an excellent turnout. Even The Parliamentary Librarian got excited about the event (or maybe she'd just spotted the smoked salmon sandwiches?) Please note that she, like many others, made sure to wear her pearls and cardigan (in a completely ironic and Halloween-costumish-way)

We got an official Thank You from the ABC:
So..... what did I think of it and will I be watching it again?

I found the Head Librarian (Frances O'Brien) to be very irritating and racist and just basically a nasty piece or work. (I mean come on would someone like that really get let alone keep a job in Local Government these days?) Oh, and every time she spoke with that rising inflection all I could think of was dust...anybody? No? Hopefully I'll get used to it (or she'll settle down somewhat) otherwise I think it'll annoy me so much I'll have to stop watching.

As for staying up regularly to watch it (added to my ability to forget to watch TV even when there's something on I want to see) the chances of me lasting the distance, are, I fear, Not High. Unless I gather a support group to come eat dinner, drink wine and watch it with me.

Did you watch it? What do you think?