mumblings

In order to fairly judge the 1000th post caption contest, I copied all the eligible comments to a Word document and got pao to read those out and choose.

It boiled down to three contenders number 5, 8 and 13 so in order to choose one,

we had a draw.

Pao plucked out the winner no 8

Well done, Bilbo, for your prize-winning entry:

How long do you have to leave game before it’s ready to eat?

As consolation for those of you who didn’t win, here is a cute kitten. I wish I could have awarded each and every one of you a prize as the captions were all very funny and just the ticket after I got back from a very tiring work trip in Leeds. Well done, everyone!

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Happy New Year! I’m starting 2010 as I mean to go on in a celebratory, joyous and significant way. It is snowing slightly outside and I’m in a jubilant mood today. It was purely a coincidence but I’m now up to post 1000 and I’m celebrating by having a caption contest.

Please leave your caption for this photo in the comments and the winner will be whoever makes pao laugh the hardest. The contest is open until 9am GMT 23 January and you can enter as many times as you like in that time period. Prizes will depend on whether you are a knitter or not so please mention if you are a knitter or a muggle in your comment.

Good luck and wishing you a very happy 2010 filled with joy, peace and love.

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I won a competition on Apple and Spice for these wonderful oaty products. Ariel couldn’t keep away from them! Doesn’t she match the boxes?

The prize arrived perfectly timed so I could make these Honey, Lemon and Oat cookies she’s posted the recipe for. They are very tasty!

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I’ve had a very lucky week. I also won a contest at Zoe’s Knitting Bag and this wonderful package was waiting for me when I arrived home on Friday.

Inside was an East of India Brit Heart, a tube of cheery red beads and a pretty cat button. I’ve already started looking at my stash to see what I can use those beads and button with.

It was perfectly timed for cheering on the UK during the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday evening. We had a few friends round to enjoy a Russian feast of meatballs and ketchup, kebab (Krygstan influence), Crimean cream and Apple Charlotte. Sadly, no photos as I was between sleeps all day as I was feeling a bit bleurgh. The UK have done very poorly at Eurovision of late so we were much heartened to find we had made the top five. Norway won by a landslide so it will be a Norwegian meal next year – any suggestions? For some reason, the thought has reminded me of the Prairie Home Companion as Garrison Keillor is often talking about the Sons of Norway

Merlin has been my nurse over the last two days and he must be a lucky black cat because I also won three prizes in a school tombola (a pink box – good for the next Tat for Tat, a box of chocolates and a Naan bread (!?!) and I heard when I got back that I’d won a competition at Apple and Spice.

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Lynne very kindly fixed the brightness on my train pic from Guildford so you can really enjoy the train building I stayed in. Thank you, Lynne!!

Friday was an interesting day as my friend Mrs H-B had her last day at work and I was very sad. A bunch of us went for a Mexican after work and I thought I’d try a margarita as I’d never had one before. Bear in mind two things: 1. I don’t drink vast amounts or that often and 2. I hadn’t eaten a lot so the tequila hit my system very quickly. I’ve been told I got very giggly indeed but I don’t remember much

After we ate dinner with Mrs H-B, I went on to a Tat for Tat party. I came up with the idea at Christmas when I got a load of gifts from an auntie which really weren’t me at all so I decided to have an unwanted gifts swap party which pao swiftly named ‘Tat for Tat’. It was a great success and I got the amazing knitting box at that party. Consequently, Emma decided to have a Tat for Tat II party which I went to on Friday. I was still feeling the effects of the tequila and was feeling very wibbly wobbly still when I arrived at Emma’s.

As Vicki pointed out when she came round on Saturday afternoon, I’d asked for some tat which she would have never imagined being my taste. Shiny bag? I remember thinking how lovely the lining was. Red bag – dunno! Zippy bag – zips tada! Vicki and I did gain lots of nice purple towels which smell strongly of essential oils and I did get a portable CD player which I’ve been wanting for a while plus some other random stuff.

So in the spirit of Tat for Tat – does anyone want the shiny bag or red bag? Sorry, even though I was tequila-fueled, I still like the zip bag a bit as it would make a good sock bag and it’s got zips. Leave me a comment and I will send either the shiny or red bag to you. If there is more than one taker for each then I will get the random number generator out. I’ll give you until Friday 1st May to get your comments in and spread the word

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I thought I’d post my coffee swap contest entry photo here as well as on the contest blog. I love the way that the cup and saucer coordinate with the yarn. The lace and linen tablecloth which they are all sat on was one that I bought in Bruges the first time I ever visited quite a long time ago. I love all that white linen. Funnily enough, I’ve not been inside a lace shop in Bruges since then as the lacework seems to be really expensive. I also have another white linen and lace table cloth from the island of Burano just near Venice which I bought in the same year.

Last weekend was one where we hadn’t had anything planned to do so we did a couple of spontaneous things like whipping over to Herne Bay for a quick trawl through the charity shops. I managed a quick visit to the Wool Baa where she was having a bit of a sale including the blue cone for a £1. We now have a nice new pile of books we picked up on our travels to read.

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I got the cutest Valentine from Sarah – isn’t it cute? Thank you, Sarah!!!

Talking of cute, I won a knitted cupcake in Monkee Maker’s raffle HP6 is now a very happy monkee indeed.

I’ve just finished the knitted part of the cushion cover.

It has proved to be a battle though.

Ophelia loves it so much she keeps on jumping on it when I am trying to work on it. No idea how I’m going to sew it up without her assistance.

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I won Trek’s contest so I’m going off to Amazon to buy Sensational Knitted Socks now

Thank you, Trek!!! I’m so excited!!

We are so not amused. Why hasn’t she fed us yet?

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Trek was holding a Fiber Fiction contest which I only responded to today way past the deadline. I don’t know if she will accept my entry but I posted this for her amusement.

The sock said to the dishcloth “Whatever shall we do?
The girl in the stocking is going to the zoo,
With lions and tigers and antelope and bear,
She just can’t imagine what knits she’s going to wear.”

The dishcloth replied to sock,
“At me, she’ll only ever mock.
She’s ever so pretty and has curls in her hair,
Rather you than me, she would take there.”

The girl in the stocking wasn’t unkind
And a thought came to mind
She’d wind that dishcloth into a rose
And wear her socks to cover her toes.

I’ve not got any photos of dishcloths to show you as I’ve never made one but I can show you some progress of the Dalarna sock from the Knitting on the Road book instead

This particular tiger likes to munch on DPNs.

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pao and I have been driving around for the last week or so getting pictures for Kat’s XXmas contest. I hope I’m not too late – the deadline is today!

So here is what some of us English people do at Christmas to our houses (click on teeny picture for larger version):

There is a whole street in Broad Oak (just outside of Canterbury) where most of the residents decorate their houses. We visited earlier last week to find most of the street in darkness and thought they weren’t doing it this year – it was only when we saw that the two pubs were in darkness we realised that there must have been a localised power cut!

Here is one of the houses on that street.

I tried to take a photo of the street but didn’t manage it. This is the best I could do!

I really liked these deer in Broad Oak:

This house is decorated for the Dave Lee Happy Holidays charity.

The best house is Stan the Man’s in South Street. This is a Christmas institution in Canterbury. Stan has been decorating these two houses for years. He lives in one and rents out the second and decorates them to collect money for Kent Air Ambulance – he and his daughter stand outside the houses each night from 6-10pm to collect money. This story is particularly poignant this year for him as his wife and daughter were in a car accident earlier in the year. Unfortunately, his wife died in the accident and if it hadn’t been for the Air Ambulance, his daughter would have lost her legs. I felt really sad for him as he is a lovely chap and he insisted we get out of our car and have a proper look round and he turned on the snow machine for me so I’ve had the closest to a white Christmas. He uses white camoflage net to simulate snow and there are deer and a train behind the front wall.

Canterbury City Council have updated their Christmas Maypole this year. No expense spared – they’ve added some green lights!

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