Dragon's Den

How could I?

How could I forget Dragon's Den when I was scheduling my Soap Night. So change of plan. 9pm Dragon's Den. 10pm ANTM. Only next week, Prison Break might be back on and I will have to re-schedule .. again! Who said watching soaps made for easy viewing?

Anyway, had a (very) quick look for the You-doo Doll featured on last night's show. Couldn't find her website (well didn't look very hard) but it is for sale on a few wesites including this one. Good luck to her, I say!

Had a chuckle at the teacher's presentation - but who am I to chuckle? I have to do a presentation on Mon 5 Nov to a group at a local church. Oh, BTW, does anyone have any unusual yarn I could borrow to show? Not for me to knit with!!!!! I would like to show some yarn from unlikely sources. I have cotton, bamboo, soya bean fibre, crabshells and possum. I am going to see if I have time to do a wee sample using carrier bags and I have a UFO knitted with wire and beads. And if you think, at least I'm not looking for money like the teacher was, think again - they want me to take stuff to sell. Won't sell much if they have all nodded off!

Hee-hee. We were asked to a group before. We thought it was just to take a few bits and pieces to sell. Turned up at the hall .. well, to cut a long story short ... I ended up doing a half hour off-the-cuff presentation with TB looking through the window in the door, pointing and laughing. Later, after we were asked to judge a sewing competition (!!), when we were sitting having tea and cake, we were asked how much our fee was. I nearly drowned the woman with tea spray as I choked telling her we didn't want a fee and they should keep it for their funds or give it to charity.

Lesson learned - before you enter the dragon's den - be prepared!!!!!

Off to do some paperwork, continue with Muti-directional scarf done in Tapestry (soya bean fibre - guess what for), go to Hamilton and head for Livi to see TAH and get a baldie. Oh and possibly do a bit of ironing and other sundry housework stuff. Oh, nearly forgot - try to get a small bit done on shop blog????

Day off - bah humbug!

See ya, wouldn't want t'be ya!

Dangling Dangly Bits

Good evening visitors. How are you?

TB has been watching football (the makems) and is now watching the Grand Prix so I have had the opportunity to catch up on some blogs. I can't believe how long it has been since I last visited. We are not talking days. We are not even talking weeks. We are talking months!!!!

I was going to do the shop blog but I have left my camera in the shop and photographs that were meant to be put on are either still on the camera or have been downloaded in the shop. Not much use then!! Guess I'll have to do it tomorrow and there will be a greetin' match tomorrow cos I'll get pelters for being on the computer. Oh, not because I'll be in the back shop and not in the front shop, but because someone will not be able to get into their precious football forum. I am going to join it on the quiet and noise him up. lol

Anyway, I have a cunning plan to buy a laptop and use it when he is playing on-line poker. I can sit at my Gran's bureau and tap away to my heart's content, with the telly on, and I won't have to get off to let him on cos he has a game in ten minutes. I love my bureau and I'm so glad we have finally brought it round from MWM's. Gonna have to get a French Polisher to give it a good going over - it had years of abuse from me years ago (including a big blob of Tippex which I don't want to go picking at. Pesky students!)

So - have just about finished the Freedom Spirit hat with sideburns - just have to attach the dangly bits to the sideburns. (These are technical terms for the uninitiated.) I have decided to finish a UFO every wek until they are all done but that doesn't include the stitching ones. The knitting ones are mainly finishing off, the stitching ones are WIPs. There is one stitching one I do want to finish though. I want to give it to MWM for her Christmas - well, she was meant to get it two years ago when I started it.

It's gone all quiet downstairs - Grand Prix finished? Don't hear that damned annoying Sky music so he can't be checking out the channels. Oh no. It's Star Trek. he has it on Series Link.Sorry, I am not a Sci-Fi girl, although I don't mind one of the minging ones he watches. I just don't tell him.

Never mind, tomorrow night is Soap Night. Only complaint is that River City isn't on a Monday. But ... ANTM is on at Nine and Prison Break is on at ten. Yippee. Soaps from seven til eleven. How sad am I? But soaps good for a knit-along and I have (another) cunning plan for that. More later.

Sunday night has become 'Running About Hamilton With Tables And Chairs' night while we await our delivery of new ones. Never, ever ever buy from Furniture at work. Delivery is usually 7-9 days? Looking more and more like 7-9 months, never mind 7-9 weeks. Shuda gone to Ikea but they didn't have what we needed. We need them for the Beading Group that meets on a Monday morning in the shop Craft Room.

Anyway, so while waiting for folk to get home from where they have been so we can borrow their furniture again, I'm off to make some dangly bits dangle. Catch ya later when I have my camera.

Yes, I'm STILL Still Alive!

I can't believe it is over a month since my last post!

I haven't been in any other blogs, haven't updated the shop blog ... haven't seemed to have done much of anything really but it is now October and I haven't a clue where September went to!

Funny though, cos for not having done anything, I have been helluva busy!

So ... here is a picture I took at Stirling all those weeks ago. It is a picture of work done by an Embroiderer's Guild Summer Scholar and it is stitching done on slate. Yes, slate!

I have enough bother trying to motivate myself to stitch on fabric at the moment never mind climbing up on the roof to nudge a slate off for stitching. Although ... one of the things I have been up to is getting back to the EG (Embroiderers' Guild). Maybe I'll get one or two stitching UFO's finished. Oh, did I not mention that I have hunners of them as well as my knitting UFO's? Yep, another condition I have is CSD - Compulsive Starting Disorder. I just love starting things. (Er ... C&G. Least said, soonest mended. However, in my defence it is the sort of thing, ie education, you do over the autumn, winter, spring months and then you have a summer break. TB - we didn't have a summer though!?! Wheesht.)

So, here are some things I have to fill you in on:

• Stirling
• Insulin Pump
• Car off the road
• New ceiling in living room and ensuing coup of a home
• Mad David
• Noro scarf, slipovers, Baby Bamboo baby jacket all finished
• Tables and chairs and a big THANK YOU God for the nights drawing in
• Sundry items probably not worth bothering about ... but I like to drone on zzzzz

So I'm now off to bed - have a pile of things to do tomorrow in the shop (and that is Stitching Time, 14 Haddow St, Hamilton in case you had forgotten) and I want to be up and as fresh as a daisy (first time for everything).

Catch y'all later. Night, night.

Multi-tasking

Just to let you know I am still alive!

Back from Stirling and off for another skive next week - I'm off to Monklands every day next week to learn how to use my INSULIN PUMP. Yippee! I will be a real woman at last cos I will be able to multi-task. Yep! I will be be able to walk and pump at the same time. What's that? Real woman, is it? That kind of humour is more akin to that of a young boy? Ach, geeza brek!

Ever done that doing something and it happens in slow motion thing? Happened to me not 15 minutes ago.

Came upstairs with a coffee and a glass of Diet Coke. Put on the light with my elbow. Leant over to put the vessels on the desk and don't know what happened next but it happened in slow motion. O v e r t o m y l e f t I w e n t, a r m s a n d l e g s a k i m b o. C o f f e e a n d C o k e f l y i n g e v e r y w h e r e. L a n d e d o n m y a s s a f t e r s h r i e k i n g l i k e a b a n s h e e. How did I get so far from my starting point? Silly sod! Now sitting in a t-shirt and my knicks cos I soaked my fleece and joggies. Not a pretty sight!

Anyway, off to bed. Just wanted to let you know I am still in the land of the living. Still doing stupid things. And ... still not caught up any blogs. I will be up early on Sunday before TB gets his mitts on the pc and doing some blog reading - looks like I have a lot to catch up on!!!!!

Catch ya later. Might get some Stirling pics on.

ps Have you seen the new Rowan pattern book for Kidsilk Haze yet? I can see my Autumn resolution being broken soon. (It was to finish all - well some - of my UFOs.) Btw, it is (the book) available from Stitching Time, Hamilton of course!

I Don't Beeeeelieve It!

Just a quickie while the footie is on (Everton v Spurs or Spurs v Everton - Who knows? Who cares?) and before I go making notices and posters to take to Stirling. Yep! Sometimes I do take work seriously. What was that? Was that my conscience asking why I am so behind in preparations if I take my work so seriously? Ach, shut it. I've got my knitting projects ready and packed.

Well, I was taking it so seriously that I was down at the shop on my day off. We were making up fabric packs, pricing threads, making lists of what has to be packed last thing before we go, etc, etc. We were so engrossed that we didn't even break for a fag until 5.50pm, when we headed out the back door. (Yes, we have a back door now .... as well as 3 toilets. 3? Yes, 3!) So out we toddled through the communal corridor (close) to the first of the big doors and realised that all was locked and secure for the night. Oh! (or words to that effect!) Guess what. We were locked in. When we arrived at the shop, TB went back out and secured the front doors including the padlock on the storm doors. When I had to go out later on, I just used the other door. Unfortunately, amonsgst the things we are waiting for Rigsby to see to is the supply of keys to our new property - oh, and a handle to the outside of the door. Oh the building is lovely and secure - especially when you are last to leave and you don't have a key.

So ... on to the phone. Got BIL. 'Is anyone free to come down to the shop? We're locked in.' 'Oh. Do you want someone to come down and feed you chips through the window?' 'If the window could be opened we'd be out' (From their kitchen.) ... TMO ... 'Is Nan locked in the shop?' How did that happen?' BIL 'It's Nan ...she's a bit simple.' TMO 'Is she having a hypo?' TB 'Tell them it was my fault.' TMO 'They're as bad as each other!' (She's got great hearing being a teacher.) Me 'No, I'm not having a hypo. We're just locked in.' BIL 'Flora doesn't have any keys.' Me 'We'll put them out the letterbox.' TB 'How did she get in the other week?' TMO 'Hehehe' BIL 'How did you manage that?' Me 'It was David.' BIL 'Euan's just away out in my car and Gillians car is blocking Flora's' Me 'We'll wait.' TMO 'How did they get locked in?' BIL 'It's Nan - she's simple.' TMO 'Is she having a hypo?' Me 'No!' TMO 'Is the padlock shut too?' Me 'We're locked in!!!' BIL 'Someone will be down the now.'

That was the shortened version. Thank God I wasn't phoning a mobile! And how come everyone can hear everything being said?

And how come an old strange looking bloke with a collie was mouthing obscenities at me when I was driving along a road doing 30 mph (cos I was passing a speed camera but would have been doing 30mph anyway!) and he and his dug were jaywalking? Is it just me or does no-one bother with the traffic anymore and just launch across the road because the driver'll be done not them? BTW, try turning into Avon Street - nobody looks there.

Right - three fronts of slipovers to be knitted at Stirling and a sock and a half just in case. Yes, one front is the Grace slipover one - because I am sooo embarrassed taking the same thing every time I go to the Tramway. Y'never know, I might be wearing it next time. Mind you, I might get caught up in the enthusiasm at Stirling and start embroidering something. Nah! Going to finish my projuects, even if it is to prove I can!

So off to get some coffee and get on with the notices. I will have time when I get back to catch up with everyone on their blogs - I promise. Taking my camera with me this time so I will be able to post some of the work they do.

In case I forget - D - delectable? (Are you sure it was TB you met?) and SB2 - slightly cheekier? (Was that a wee implication there?)

Bye fur noo. Won't be there on Sunday. Off to Stirling. Nan in a van with a man. Oo-er missus!

PS What's orange and sounds like a parrot? Doh! A carrot! No I'm not having a hypo!

Photos as Promised

Noro Silk Garden Lite - I feel a slipover coming on It's Silk Garden but DK! (Get that other stuff finished first - TB) TB was quite excited when about 10 boxes of different yarns from different suppliers arrived yesterday. But then he got quite 'emotional' because the one he was hyper about never came! (Emotion - hint, hint Wait and see!) Then he was going spare cos he had to find room for it all. (Ha, ha. Can't blame me this time, can you Mij?) Wait until the back orders come. lolol

There's a Stranger in These Here Parts ...

... yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's been over a month. What can I say? Well, there was the world cruise to start with, then every single yarn producer that ever lived came to visit me and left me samples to try out and then I finished all my UFOs. It's my blog and I'll lie if I want to. In fact, you would lie too if it happened to you. (Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo do)

Actually I have managed to sneak on to show you my pictures of some of my new stash. (I'm not going to tell you how excited I was yesterday cos even I'm not that crude!) But ... guess who left their camera at work. Yep! However, let me just say Lang, Louisa Harding, Debbie Bliss and Noro (I'll not mention the others in case there are any yarn snobs reading this - you know who you are, India oh that slipped out lol.)

I'm not allowed to take any of it to Stirling with me - I have to take a bundle of UFOs to do while I sit between classes. TB is such a spoilsport. Mind you with no car and too far to walk to the bus stop there's not a lot else to do. I suppose I could go and take some of the EG classes but since I haven't bothered my *rse doing any of my C&G stuff yet I don't feel suitably artistically enthusiastic and especially not for stitching! So will get some stuff finished to save me going stir crazy.

Hmmm. Could always take your C&G stuff? Aye, right! Well, I might stick in my Drawing for Dummies book if there is room.

DAFNE and I are not hitting it off. So, I am going for a pump. And yes, my sense of humour has not matured any. Probably Septemberish. At least I won't have to worry about that at Stirling.

Have to go and do some more preparation work but before I go here is a worrying thought ...

TB and I set off for Stirling Uni on Tuesday morning. We stopped in Bridge of Allan for some lunch. Sauntering back to the car, we saw this old bloke with a stick trying furiously to get into the drivers door of a huge black Mercedes saloon parked by the pavement. We looked at each other with that look that asked a thousand questions, the main one being 'Whit?'.

On spotting the black Fiesta behind with who we supposed was the old blokes wife pointing like a looney to the inside of the car where she was a passenger and mouthing 'This one', we guessed he was trying to get into the wrong car. Now ... Mercedes - Fiesta. Both black. Easy mistake? Wife in passenger seat - old bloke driving? Yet again we looked at each other, but with a different look - the one that makes a thousand comments, the main one being 'Scary!'

Will catch up on blogs as and when. Adios for now!

PS Here is a big hello to my new friends from over the pond. 'Hello!'