Weekly Challenge and Chat Thread 2008, part 2

[Gingermonkey]

Ooops - we've filled the thread, best start a new one, eh?!

Hi chrissnow

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Hello Chrissnow welcome and I have a little confession just for you, you know those candy coloured granny knitting needles you get in charity shops. I love 'em, although some charity shops don't take needles and hooks now and you always have to ask to see them because they keep them behind the counter because of health and safety.

Are we doing the southern crafters thing now btw? If we agree on dates, I can arrange.

[sigh] you lot are a bad influence on me!!
i registered with etsy and bought my first thing(s) how exciting!!!

my familly have been sighing and raising their eyebrows at me today - i got 3 parcels from eBay

i now own the most beautiful button ever - i went into a bidding fever though it's also my most expensive button ever

oooh, RHW I love those old plastic candy coloured needles too, in fact I went through a right old phase of buying them all up on ebay and have a great big jug of them in my "artroom" (as it's called) now...in fact one of my artclub kiddos drew some as her observational drawing last week - nice choice I thought

not sure about southern meetup - I think I am probably the major fly in the ointment as I am only free on Thursdays during the week and will have a kiddo with me...if you need to go ahead without me I will understand but you and I will meet again RHW at the iknit thingy after Easter...we will be putting out a call for other interested parties once we know the date so hopefully some more of you southern belles will be able to come along...

Meri - I would LOVE to meet up with you but have best pal's birthday celebrations (oysters and champagne - yummy!) that day so am afraid I can't ...next time you are down though...

NBG - my DH just laughs at me, he reckons I get a parcel a day on average...'tis fab! the kids think it's christmas every day...

hello Chrisnow nice to meet you!

have just come back from dinner out with DH, he reckoned we both needed an impromptu night out after well nigh a month of poxy kids so booked last minute babysitter and took me off for drinks and dinner...was brill...and he has suggested I go to 2 days a week in the office in order to spend a bit more time on crafting/art classes etc so he is my favourite man in the world tonight (not to mention the factthat he took full responsibility for working wth DD1 on her easter bonnet for school tomorrow so I didn't have to lift a finger - what a man!)...

right, better go have a cup of tea before I run the risk of forgetting what day it is again tomorrow !

sorry VV I should have said when referring to compulsive ebay and other purchases that arrive through the post on a regular basis

Go on Vintage, 'fess up, how much was it?

Hello Chrissnow, welcome to the clan! We are all enthusiastic, but not all of us are super-professional, we just have fun!

I've had a weird kind of day today, I've hardly achieved anything crafty, except a few rows on dd2's poncho, not blogged anything, then I mismanaged my bank account (forgot my felting stuff hadn't come off my balance, didn't transfer money when I should have and consequently went overdrawn, which is going to cost me £35 - needless to say dh is seriously unimpressed!). I also discovered that I missed a night out on Tuesday (forgot about it ), and my friend phoned this evening to say her dd has bronchiolitis. I still haven't picked up the rest of my merino wool tops so can't do any more felting yet. So feel very down atm. Will pick myself up tomorrow I hope!

glad to hear you household is now over the worst of the "pox" - wow what a lovely husband
(talking of post i'm still waiting for something to arrive from you jeangenie)

miaou - is always worth phoning bank to ask them to withdraw charges...£35 sounds way to much for going over...I nearly always get manage to get them revoked I tend to incur them on a regular basis, generally due to lack of attention rather than funds

ooh yes you are...am on the case tomorrw...thanks for reminder ( see what I mean about lack of attention - am so busy I'd forget my head if it wasn't on my shoulders)

oooh GM and anyone looking for easter crafts with kids - we did egg blowing this afternoon, was great fun (hard work to start off though) and now we wait to decorate the shells on Friday when they will be dry...can't wait...is a very nice activity and you can get kid's tea out of it too...can't be beat really

will stop talking to myself now!

i've been buying lovely knitting needles too - i bought 2 pairs of really fat ones!! one was a gorgeous turquoise with black ends - i don't even knit

VV that's hilarious that you don't even knit...

am definitely off for tea and sleep now

the button cost £9.50

but in my defence [excuses excuses] it is 1930's reverse carved lucite so it's an antique - init?!!

ayyyyyyyyy tis vintage VV
You keep telling yourself that love lol

JG, Please tell me how to egg blow (that makes me snort).
Sounds like a good thing for dd to do.

I dont think I'll get much done today.
Dh is off and he wants all his snowboarding stuff and dd's ski stuff all washed and packed ready for when they go away and my mums coming with my singer sewing table
And possibly some old wool jumpers. Yey!

I had a bloody horrible day yesterday....it started so well....let me ramble on for a bit and tell you all about it (sit down, have a cup of tea - it's a long one!)
So,
I spent the morning cutting out boys bunting (and I was most impressed with it), then it was time for get the DD from school (at lunchtime, silly time to break up from school). Then we went out for some lunch. I had a very average burger from the gourmet burger kitchen (not so gourmet - just very average, and the chips were crap and the cheese was too thick so not melty). All was going well, we did some shopping, I bought some shampoo and some candles, DD bought a fab book (look on amazon for it - it's called everybody's activity book - absolutely fab), and she bought some bizarre dress up noses (odd child). DS was at nursery, so a bit of quality time for the DD.
Still going well.....we went to starbucks for a not very nice cake (the cake in starbucks is disappointing at the mo - not good).
At end of the day (at 4pm, time to get the DS from school) we went to the car....no car key. Shit. Where is it??? I got accused by dh of losing it (I din't have it) we retraced steps...no key, asked the street cleaner - no key. Phoned MIL to ask her to get DS (she did - phew), still no key. DH phones the landrover rescue people and they tell him that it'll cost a fortune to get the car - as we were in a multi storey, so couldn't be towed. I am very calm (but fuming inside). The spare house key is in the house, the house keys are in the car. My car key is in the car.
DD says - I am sure you left it in starbucks. So after an hour of traipsing round town looking on the floor we go back to starbucks, and they say 'no, no key's been handed in'. Hmmmm. DH says 'well, it doesn't look like a key - it's a square bit of plastic'. Oh that, yes we have that.

Phew, the key is found.

But then it took over an hour to get home in the rush hour traffice, and I stayed grumpy for the rest of the night.
Now I've written it down, it wasn't that bad at all. I think I was just grumpy anyway, ha ha ha!!!

did you do a huge ammount of swearing[quietly of couse because of dd] and muttering?
blardy good job i don't drive as that type of thing would happen to me on a daily basis

feeling relaxed now gingermonkey?

yes, I'm much better now, thank you VV (and I did do lots of swearing - all under breath so DH also didn't hear, as I will bring up the key incident next time he accuses me of being forgetful or has a go because I've lost something ). I'm very of your button - what are you going to do with it?

JG - what a great DH!

I am laughing so much at NBG's 'long face and big nose'. Do you look like an anteater crossed with an elephant? I'm sure you don't

Right, bunting...back to it...

Craft nightmare today. Was supposed to make an easter bonnet for dd1's pre-school easter fayre thingy. Forgot all about it until 7.30 this morning (fayre was at 10.00 ). So I went into manic mode. Made a boater type hat thingy, covered with handmade papery/fabricy stuff, cut out a million (or so it seemed) flowers from my stash of coloured card added a ribbon got us all very hastily dressed and dashed out to pre-school!!! The glue wasn't even properly dry and it didn't quite fit on the poor child's head!!! I so wish I'd have bought a hat from the shops and added a few fluffy ducks and eggs like the rest of the mums . Although bless her dd1 was parading around telling everyone 'mummy made this for me . ' - 'er. . .yes darling I think everybody can see that I made it!!' Dying for this long weekend - hopefully I can get some craft stuff done. The Grand Prix is on so I should be able to wangle a good few hours 'me' time in recompense . In fact I'm doing overtime at work tonight and am being put in the office. It should be fairly quiet tonight so I may take some beads and bobs with me and see if I can do something there? (smacks a bit of disaster waiting to happen, but it will kill some time).
VV - that button sounds lovely. I love vintage especially 30's style. I've got an old pair of 30's style bird earrings from my gran and keep looking at them trying to decide what to make them into. They're clip ons and I don't tend to wear earrings anyway.

Aw, sorry to hear about the key GM, what a 'mare!

I took your advice jeangenie and rang the bank and pleaded with them - at which point they informed me that as well as the £35 direct debit return charge I will also be charged £25 for going overdrawn At which point I practically burst into tears! They then said I could go into my local branch and plead with them and they might let me off as a gesture of goodwill as I've never gone overdrawn before. I blinkin' well hope so - otherwise my felting needles will have cost me in excess of £80 . Dh was nice about it though - he said to try but not to get too stressed and just chalk it up to experience. Feckers though - it's all because I have a basic bank account for poor people with no credit rating (any bloody wonder when the charges are so high!)

Anyway - rant over. Still not done any crafting today. Am off out with ds1 and ds2 to look at a nursery for him for next year (ie August). It's a lovely place and I'm very keen on putting him to it so hopefully it will go well! Then my parents are up for Easter so I guess I won't be on here/crafting much.

GM ..... And breathe

miaou, i know how you feel about the bank situation, i sort out all our finances, but dh is supposed to tell me whenever he uses the joint account, last week, he didn't, and had used it for quite a few transactions, first i know of it is a letter to tell me we are over our overdraft limit and the account has been frozen and we're charged £25.

dior/jg, will keep you informed about the exhibition situation, dh is always moaning i never go to any of his private views, so this year am making the effort!

particularly if he is going to be the new president of the royal society of portrait painters from july

GM, what an arsing nightmare!
FWIW i would have been pissed off too.
All is calm now though, yes?
And I do have a long face and big nose.
I probably wouldnt go as far as a cross between anteater and elephant but not so far off
Am still tempted by it though.
Dont you ever wish you had long hair? Have you ever grown it out before?

Mioau, I've found the best way to deal with banks is to threaten to leave them.
Have an almighty ding dong with them and then say right close all my accounts.
If thats the best they can treat you when its only happened once and you've been a customer for soooo long

I'm just about to get some bits done now. Dh has gone to pick dd up from preschool and is taking her up to his work for a bit so she can play. Both ds's are asleep and the house is quiet.
Bless my nan, she came up to see me with my mum today and is paying me to make a doll to go in the little toy box at her house for all the grandkids to play with
My mother on the other hand or should I say my father, forgot to load the sewing table into the car so I havent got it
I was looking forward to a play.

I did get a nice delivery from Next though. A nice new dress, shorts and some conversey type pumps for me jollys.
Can't wait.