Lyra, Oggs, Berrie, Zeb (and Binkle) ....

[oggsfrog]

...... do you realise we've been chatting now for almost 18months .

Berrie, thankyou for the very kind offer to mug your children. It's much appreciated .
Tbh the car only cost £150 last year so it's reached the end of it's days I'm afraid - we need to get another one.

I know the feeling though - I think I've done really well at the shops sometimes, but try as I might I can't get it below £100 a week. Must Try Harder.

Have fired off an email.

How did ds's birthday go?

Oh ok I suppose. I think that because I am a teacher I find it difficult. I was responsible for but not in charge of all these rowdy and excited children. It sets my teeth on edge. I wanted to tell them all to sit up straight and fold their arms...tee hee...in fact I did that in the end! They rampaged all over the soft play hurting each other and crying while their parents looked on. I raced about sorting things out worrying that a parent might get shirty that I was 'speaking to' their child. Anyway, they had fun and ds has an obscene pile of presents. I squirreled half of them away in fact and he's only realised one of them is missing.
Will you really live in the tin house? Won't it be very cold?

Morning!
Anything from Zeb?

Hi all, house going well. The front living room is now decorated thanks to a huge effort from DP and the kitchen will be (almost) finished once the tiling is completed later today. Still no broadband though. They promised I'd be connected by today.
I was just thinking about Christmas and I'm keen for my family not to add to DSs toy/book mountain. What can I ask them to get them instead? I'm thinking stuff that eventually runs out, eg bubble bath, that won't end up cluttering the house. Problem is my family enjoy buying toys for the boys. The boys won't be impressed with new clothes either.
Any ideas?

Oggs, I'm very that you have a dh who can build you a house. DP would never manage it.

Hello Lyra!
It's quiet on here.

I'm new to the toy mountain. Had the first experinece of it this week with ds's 5th birthday.
Can you have too many books? Crap ones yes, perhaps a book wish list?
Don't know how wealthy your relatives are but could they join up and buy one much more expensive gift that would normally be out of price range?

Great news about the house Lyra, glad that you are getting settled.

That's not a bad idea. They do want some Wii games but they hardly play the ones they've got. No you can never have too many books I suppose but they've got several shelves groaning with the things.

At work today Lyra?

We've always had this problem re; toys. The lack of space in our caravans makes it particularly problematic.

Dd was given a Barn Owl adoption certificate as a gift once. There was a picture of the owl, a certificate, a letter telling all about said owl, and a few other bits and bobs. She could also have visited the owl (Willow) at the sanctuary - if it hadn't been at the other end of the country.
I think you could also get mugs etc with the owl on.
She was chuffed to bits that she had an owl.

I think you can do it with all sorts of animals...chimps at Monkey World etc.

No word from Zeb.

Dear oh dear...I veer between thinking she is dead to she's sick to death of me.
Hope she's ok...

Ah well. She has our email addresses and phone numbers and knows where we are.
Maybe she's just got a lot going on in RL at the moment.

You are right of course.

She's fine . I had an email today - she's just snowed under and has been having computer probs.
She'll try and get on tomorrow.
She has no news or gossip but is prepared to make some up for us if we'd like .

I think I'd like to hear how she turned down a no-holds-barred date with Hugh, in favour of Eddie Grundy who whisked her away to Clacton-on-Sea for a romantic getaway bag of winkles and a half of bitter

Swoosh!

It's very quiet in here... hope everyone is okay .

Been busy with school things and helping do the present shopping for the Church Xmas party for the village kids.
Spent all day Sat buying 40 presents for under twelves and was absolutely knackered.

Dh is out at a meeting tonight so will get dd to bed and then sit knitting with a dvd.

Morning Oggs.
Here I am. Will pop back later when Ds is at school. DD and I need to get dressed and we all need to wask and brush our teeth!

Gawd. It's bloody cold here this morning. Frosty too.

Frost here as well this morning. A frosty windscreen was not what I needed having forgotton to do DS's swimming kit then racing around looking for lost trunks.

I went on to Tesco after dropping him off. In view of our current finacial situation, I had decided that I would buy smart price everything...oh well, nice idea. I did buy some Christmassy things though while it was not too busy and some presents.

I went to the choir thing again last night. MFL'sF was there and it was really nice to sing with someone with such a beautiful voice though it made us sound pants!

Brrr. Swimming in this weather - I don't envy them.

Are you enjoying the singing then? It's supposed to be really good for feelgood feelings.

I'm playing catch up today with paperwork.

Yes it's lovely although I never want to go. I always fancy nipping home for some Star Treck and a cuddle on the sofa. I don't get back before 9.30 which is bed time!

Right, that's this years notelets printed. I don't know why I bother they cost a fortune in materials and half the recipients never sent them last year because they wanted to keep them. I'd put doubles in if they didn't cost so much to produce. They were requested unfortunatly. Right, calenders now..even more of a faff! Bah Humbug!

Tell me more.

I could maybe make some as gifts this year.
Family have agreed on a £5 limit for gifts and I don't think they'll all be over the moon with my knitted faceloths and dishclths

These notelets...are they using the photos you gave me? and the one you sent me of coloured shells and seaweed? (this one wasn't on the disc... could you pretty please send it me as it's such a gorgeous picture(as are the others of course))

What paper do you use? If irc it was a sort of dimpled white card?

How do you do the calendars? We have got a Publisher applicatio but I've never worked out how to work the damn thing.

Right, can certainly send you oodles of photos. Last time I printed them on dimpled card and used a guillotine to trim them and cut in half. This time I bought a pack of ready made blank cards and envelopes from tesco and printed them straight on. I tied them up with a ribbon.
I can also send you the calender for next year.(the hardest bit) All you will need to do is replace the photos which I can talk you through.
I've got a recipe for Christmas chutney too if you are interested!

Ooh, yes please! To everything

I decided ages ago that everyone would get personalised facecloths, dishcloths, scrubbies (ingeniously knitted from jute garden twine) and a bar of soap.
However my personalised ones aren't quite working out. I showed dd a facecloth with a reindeer in relief (complete with embroidered red nose) - she turned it this way and that and said 'oh it's a cat'

So any other ideas for other tried and tested home-made pressies will be very welcome.

Do the cards use up loads of printer ink? What do you do, a pack of say, six?

I put new colours in after I'd printed a few and the yellow is a quarter gone with the pink and blue less gone in different degrees. I printed 42 A6 cards but you could always make the picture smaller. I'm quite pleased with that. You can buy A4 card and cut it which would be cheaper though my program is set for an A5 sheet now. Let me know and I'll set you up for 2 on an A4 sheet. My pack of 50 cards and envelopes was £6 but online prices might be cheaper if you order that way. They need to be A6 cards for my set up.

I have not printed the calenders yet.

The Christmas chutney is actually Nigella so you can google that, if not I'll send it. I've not tried it but it was raved about lasy year by my brother.