QUIRKY?

So Karen has tagged me and I have to share 5 quirks or eccentricities - but 5 only. So here goes...

1. I am a list writer but I never take my lists with me. So I write a grocery list but it never comes with me to the supermarket. I think the act of writing the list enables me to remember it.

2. I abhor spelling mistakes on signage but mostly on menus in cafes/restaurants. I can't help but point them out to whoever I'm with. It makes me think less of the cafe (that they have spent money on something that is wrong).

3. I wash my hair everyday - I can't not.

4. I can't sit down and watch TV in the evening until the family room/kitchen is tidy and the dishes are done.

5. I can only play one song on the piano and I play and sing it everyday (boy is my family sick and tired of Let it Be)!

Now I'm tagging Sandra, Penny and you because you're reading this and you have quirks too!

AND THE WINNER IS...

Well there are three winners because I really need to get rid of some of these bags.

So...

drum roll...

First out of the hat was...


ALI DUB (although I think a certain 13 year old might be getting this prize)

then PENNY(Could you please email me your address thorns@xtra.co.nz)

then SHANI.

Congrats all and thanks to everyone else who left such lovely comments.

And I confess - there is another bag on the needles as we speak.

PS For those deperate to have one I have been convinced to sell them on TradeMe (check out 'Thorns" listings in a couple of days or email me ($40 each - you can pick your colours).

JUNE'S A TV STAR (and a role model)

At 9am every Monday to Friday you'll usually find me at Lifestyle Health and Fitness Club in Lower Hutt. I'm not a gym bunny. I'm not one of those who LOVES to exercise. If someone could wave a magic wand and tell me I never had to go again I don't think I'd be back. But I do it because I know it's good for me. It's really helped me lose weight and I feel better when I've been.

At 9.15am most Mondays and Fridays you'll find me in the Muscle Express class. It's a 35 minute full-on weights workout. It's a popular class. There are usually about 30 people there. We're a motley crew. Participants range from serious body builders to really fit chicks to beginners and (in between somewhere) people like me.

And then there's June.

June Struthers is 82 years old. That is not a typo. EIGHTY TWO! She does the Muscle Express class twice a week with us. One day as she snuck out of a class 5 minutes early I asked her if she was ok. "I'm fine, dear, " said June "I'm just off to go swimming at Point Howard." In the sea. She is one amazing woman.

And on Monday at 7pm on Closeup, TV One you can find out more about June (and our class). June is a TV star!

OBSESSION

Is this an obsession? How many felted bags does one person need? Some are going to be given away. If you leave me a message sometime between now and Sunday night I'll pull a name out of a hat and RAK someone.

Can anyone suggest something new I could make?

BLOW ME A KISS

On her blog today Janine tells us about one of her favourite childhood books. I have a favourite kids book but I discovered it as an adult.

As a 4 year old Caitlin got the same book out from the Hutt Library week after week. It was called 'Blow Me aKiss, Miss Lily" by anAmerican author called Nancy White Carlstrom. It was a really old book. We read it EVERY night. A story about a little girl and her family befriending an eldery neighbour and what happened when the old lady, Miss Lily, died.

We read Blow Me A Kiss, Miss Lily so often that I tried to buy a copy. But it was out of print. No one could get it for me. I offered to buy it from the library but they don't 'do that' (I have since befriended a children's librarian there who tells me they actually would do that now).

I eventually tracked down a secondhand copy from Amazon. It was a surplus copy from a library (figures). I bought it - it cost about $20 - US! And by the time I had it shipped it cost me nearly $50.

I didn't care. It's the best kids book ever.

BLINGIER. BIGGER. BETTER?

Here's K's bag. It is blingier and bigger than the last version.
I think it's better.
Hope K thinks so, too.

And...

Karen tagged me and asked me to reveal something about the latest book I am reading...

1Find the nearest book...

Yep

2 Name the book and the author

"Finding Cassie Crazy" by Jaclyn Moriaty (it's one of Cait's that I've borrowed. She reads and reads and I'm just discovering the delights of teen novels. They were never like this in my day.)

3 Turn to page 123

Done

4 Go tothe 5th sentence on the page and copy out the next 3 sentences onto your blog

"It's like you're over there having a little sleep on the couch -lots of love, Cassie.

To Cassie Aganovic I know your name. I know where you go to school..."

(And 3 sentences on it says "You want to explain to me how you got to be so absof***inglutely stupid" and, as I said to Karen, for one second as I scanned that sentence I thought "OMG - my eleven year old is reading this" and then I thought - "That's OK, she's cool". Some parents would censor it but we wouldn't. Cait is sickeningly well-adjusted. )

5. Tag 3 more people

OK I'm tagging Annie, Debbie and Penny (but does she have time to read anymore?).

ON A GOOD DAY

You can't beat Wellington on a good day.

Yesterday was a good day. A great day. The sun shone all day for AMR's family day out at Days Bay, Eastbourne.

Elliot had his second ever go at kayaking. The last try was 2 years ago in Rarotonga.

On the way home Elliot said to us "This year can we go on holiday again to Rarotonga or Days Bay so I can go kayaking again?"

Wonder what option would be cheaper?

Thanks, Scott, for bringing the kayaks and supervising the kayakers!

I MAKE STUFF

I like making stuff. I make all sorts of stuff...


... bracelets, preserves, mosaics, cards, gardens, wall art, pumice garden sculptures, cross stitch, beaded brooches, knitting - oh, and I scrap.


Yesterday I made 17 jars of Derek's Spicy Tomato Sauce (Derek is a lovely man D and I worked with nearly 20 years ago - it's his recipe).


And for some time I've been intrigued by some of the US scrapping gurus who've turned to knitting as a creative outlet. I haven't knitted for years (I once made D a purple cardy - OMG!). Cathy Zielske and Donna Downey have both been bitten by the designer felted bag bug. And so have I.

Here they are.









We (my sister, K, and I) don't like the cream one (the alpaca brown/cream wool I used as a contrast didn't felt too well - it would have been better just cream) but we love the charcoal one and another blingier version is on the needles for her as we speak. (D just rolls his eyes and tells me I am turning into my mother.)