roll up, roll up!

Image stolen (with permission) from here.

Ta-da! I say ta-da as if these wondrous creations had anything to do with me. They didn't, but there is something about this image that means no other introduction would be quite appropriate. How amazing are these? I especially love the strongman. I had been hankering after making a strongman for my nephew, but now I don't know if I could handle the disappointment when mine didn't look like this now.

These beauties were made in Melbourne by handmade romance, a talented lady with a lovely shop (check out the bearded bloke brooches) and blog. You know, the more [craft] I see from Melbourne, the more I want to move there - I like to think of it as the Australian Glasgow, but then I have never been so can't really compare... And we all know it would be very foolish to move to the other side on the basis of a stuffed strongman. Don't we?! (But, oh, look at his bulging muscles and his hairy chest, not to mention his lustrous moustache and his anchor tattoo... And his eyebrows? Eep!)

I'm sure I have mentioned recently that my criticism skills are not to be envied, and I'm certain you don't need me to explain the greatness of these circus dwellers, so I will say no more about them for now, other than one final, "Ta-da!" and a parting, "How great?!"

p.s. This is not the first time that I have featured a unicyclist on my blog. Ten points to anyone who can tell me who/what/why/when/where the other unicyclist is...and maybe even a prize since I'm still sending lots of nice mail in the hope that one day I receive some. My letterbox is truly fed up of bills and election bumph.

down at the pool

This is the view from my favourite changing cubicle at the swimming pool where I have spent the past two mornings. As you can see, my swimming pool is a bit shabby round the edges, but in many ways is quite beautiful.

Most of the graffiti is not too pleasant (lots of young team shenanigans - sheesh!) but I didn't mind this wee scrawl so much yesterday. Polar bears are cool, after all.

It's been very nice to swim in the middle lane underneath the glass panels in the roof this week. The sunshine has been pouring in, making my back nice and warm and the water prettily patterned.

I do wish I could take some photos of the actual pool. Now that I can swim in my contact lenses, I see all sorts of great stuff that I would love to share.

These are some of the things I have seen just recently:

A Chinese lady in a pretty stripy, stripy swimming suit giving her husband a shoulder massage. He liked it.

A blind lady swimming up and down in dark goggles. She had over a third of the pool to herself (so that she wouldn't swim into anyone, I suppose) while the rest of us were squeezed into the remaining two thirds, trying not to kick each other too much.

A tidal wave coming over my head and making me cough and splutter after an elderly man belly-flopped into the deep end.

A young Glaswegian boy and an old Chinese man making friends even though the man didn't seem to speak English. They used hand gestures to make up new swimming strokes and then raced each other.

A very overweight lady who had a special dress to swim in.

Old men scrubbing each other's backs in the showers and shouting, "We're not gay! We're not gay!" as they did it.

Towels hanging on the fire exit rail underneath a sign saying not to hang towels on the fire exit rail.

Lots of tattoos.

A girl bossing her friend around, trying to teach her to dive without splashing.

The bossy girl's friend belly-flopping repeatedly.

A man wearing safety goggles and a clothes peg on his nose. He looked like he had raided his shed before he came to the pool.

sabbath bloody sabbath

I have just read the best book ever - The Comforters by Muriel Spark. I do like Muriel Spark, but had never read this one and picked it up at random in a charity shop a few weeks ago. So glad I did! I don't want to say too much about it because it's probably more fun if the book takes you by surprise, but if you enjoy reading, then read it. I can't believe a) this was Muriel Spark's first novel, b) it was published way back in 1957, c) that means Muriel Spark's first novel wasn't published until she was 39. (Could there be hope for me yet? Er, I fear not.) Look, even Poppy likes it and she can't even read!

And just because Poppy was being so cute sunbathing on the windowsill, here's another photo of her. It's hard to get a nice photo of my cats usually, but, aw, they are lovely. They're on a strict diet right now, but I suspect they may have had two breakfasts today as they weren't very excited when I fed them. Oh well, it is Sunday, I suppose. In many ways, I am having the perfect Sunday, starting the day with reading in bed until I had finished this book because I couldn't bear the thought of rushing through the last few pages on the underground.

After a leisurely shower, the cats and I had fun watching the two squirrels who live in our back garden having a fight. Yes, I know this looks like they are humping, but to the best of my knowledge it was definitely a wrestling match. It's just a shame that the only photo that came out vaguely in focus was the one of them in a classic humping pose.

These squirrels have been entertaining me a lot this year. Even the way they nap in the tree is cute. Today I think they were looking for nuts. I have heard that squirrels don't keep track of where they bury their nuts (or whatever it is they bury/eat) and so just dig randomly until they find some and that is what they seemed to be doing today. They were pulling big tufts out of the grass. The one on his back here has a bit of grass and earth in his mouth and was not up for surrendering it. He took it off to the tree with him while the other squirrel went to visit Mrs Nibbles, the very nice rabbit who lives in a hutch in our back garden.

Quite idyllic and Sundayish, you see. I've just had a cup of tea with a roll and sausage followed by a roll and jam. Mmm, lovely Sunday. So why oh why do I have to go to work for ten bleedin' hours?! I had planned to walk, but I'm now running late and have to prepare dinner to take to work as well as hang up washing before I leave. This is probably because I spent all morning lying in bed reading a good book and watching squirrels in the back garden. Harumph. I repeat, harumph.

Oh well, to distract from that rant, here is a lovely mug that I saw but did not buy in our charity shop excursion this week. I totally would have bought it if it hadn't had a nasty great chip just where you would put your mouth to drink out of it. I've been thinking about Brownies quite a bit lately, not sure why.

I have a photo of myself in my Brownie uniform somewhere. I may try to scan it soon and share it here. I truly have no shame. Anyway, I really do have to get going to work now (roll on May when I have taken half the month off - hooray!) but those of you who do not work on sunny Sundays like today, can enjoy the Cardigans on my behalf. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath indeed!

scarborough, here we come!

grand hotel over the beach by dropstitch

After a long day's charity shopping (we are pooped!) we've just come home and booked a wee holiday to Scarborough for my birthday. Yippee! I can't wait! I wonder if we'll see Jimmy Saville again...

tomorrow

I've got a date with a hot man and a whole load of charity shops tomorrow and I can't wait! I was busy looking forward to it (while cleaning the bathroom - I do like to multitask, you know) when I remembered that I took this photo in the changing room of one of my favourite charity shops last month and then totally forgot to share it. This sign always makes me laugh, especially as it is in a shop staffed by the extremely elderly.

Hopefully I'll have some fun finds to share - touch wood - or at least a funny story to tell after tomorrow. Yippee!

ps All the bunting is made (phew!) and now I just have to make some acorn brooches, package up egg cosies to send to France and make toad in the hole before Graham gets home... Yikes. Why do days off go by so quickly when days at work seem to last for ever?

pps If you're about to watch EastEnders...don't! I had to subtitle it yesterday and swear I am suffering from post-traumatic stress as a result. Gee whillikins, I will be staying away from Walford for a good while longer yet. My nerves just cannae hack it!

not good enough... good enough!

"Not good enough!" is the phrase rattling around my brain this morning. I'm doing my best to fight it off and I thought sharing this treasury from a few weeks ago might help boost my morale as I was so pleased when I saw it. There's my Big Daddy lavender bags sitting pretty amongst lots of things that I love, love, love, which is a very nice feeling indeed.

The creator of this treasury also makes things that I love and that would help kick the butts of those "Not good enough!" monsters. Check this out!

The Instant Comfort Pocket Box! What a lovely idea, huh? I do indeed feel better already :)

Right, off to make some more bunting in a box and remind myself that someone favourited it overnight, which I can take as proof that it is NOT not good enough. Hmm, but before I go, it's kind of interesting how much your crafty self-esteem can be boosted/dented by comments and favourites/lack of comments and favourites, I think. Does it really matter? Here's a nice recent post about that from handmade romance who, coincidentally, is maker of one of the things I love in that treasury up there.

laying egg cosies

This egg is now so cosy I wouldn't be surprised if a little chick popped out.

I made my other two egg cosies last night. Saturday night! Rock and roll! I can't remember the last time I actually did something rock and roll on a Saturday night, but crocheting egg cosies has to be a new rock and roll low.

You can see the purple one is a bit smaller than the other two. That's because my purple wool ran out two rows before the end. It's still big enough to cover an egg though and I don't have another colour of wool that Kim would like as much. Her favourite colour has always been pink, but it changed to purple just recently and she could even tell me the exact moment this change happened (when she chose purple trainers with flashing lights in a shoe shop in Elgin) so I really wanted hers to be purple. I gave her the pink duck as a sort of insurance policy though.

I can't tell you how much I love crochet. It just makes good sense. Now that I've seen how to make a ring and crochet into it and increase, I'm thinking there are loads of things I could make from this starting point. And no seams to stitch! I did another row on my blanket this morning, just to make sure that crocheting the egg cosies hadn't made me forget how to ripple. It was OK - I remembered. Phew! How ace that I have a new hobby?! Yippee!

Now I really am off to make some bunting. I did some boring preparations for it last night after egg cosying, so I am good to go and am not letting crochet take over absolutely everything. Just.