wordful wednesday - shit of a job (haha)

haha i'm funny

this is horse guard's parade in whitehall, london

in the time of henry VIII, tournaments were held here

the horseman is a 'trooper of the blues and royals'

the soldiers are drawn from one of the five regiments of Foot Guards in the British Army

they are apparently relieved every hour, which is just as well, because they have to sit stock still!

i also couldn't get over how young this guy was!

...and how he could stand the smell!

i thought he looked really bored, but i know that his role is a huge honour


for more wordful wednesday

visit angie over @ seven clown circus

PS: UK bloggers feel free to correct me if i got any of this information wrong!

six word saturday (on sunday), the weekend report and an apology

let's start with the apology. i'm not visiting as many blogs as it'd like. i participate in wordful wednesday and photostory friday, and between the two of them, there are over 100 bloggers linking up! that's a whole lotta blog hopping, and basically there aren't enough hours in the day for all the hoppin' i wanna do!

PLANNING CHRISTMAS PARTY

THIS WEEKEND ROCKS

so there's my 6 words. it's sunday afternoon and i'm lovin' this weekend, even though i had to work friday - i consider fridays (my day off) the start of my weekend!

yesterday mr scrappy and i dragged misses 11 and 13 into the waterfront to the french food festival.

three words

FRESH CARAMEL CREPES

[that's all i'm sayin']

the sun was out, and even though it was a little windy, it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

we even saw a dude that looked like he'd got lost on his way to the people of walmart websitelast night we chilled out at home by watching wellington lose a rugby final (boo hoo) and nz (the all blacks) win (yahoo) - against wales. poor wales, they haven't beaten us since 1953. that's like, a REALLY long time.

this morning tara and i walked all the way into town (10km maybe?) to the waterfront (again) to the sunday morning city food market. we have a friend who was 'plying her wares' - hazelnuts and hazelnut products. we've since devoured some of her home-made pesto. yum.

the market was full of free tasters; gourmet sausages, snail croquets (you know you want one), caramel cupcakes, cheeses, chocolates - you name it.

misses 11 and 13 would NOT be dragged back into town, so i made doubly sure to rub their noses in the fact that they missed out on a tonne of free food and gave them the least tasty cupcakes (which let's face it, ISN'T really a hardship). one had a lemon cupcake and the other had a vanilla bean.

their life is SO TOUGH.

i don't remember having to drag miss 18 and miss 20 around at the same age. they still wanted to DO STUFF with us. lately i feel like i have to beg. i keep telling them, you should be thankful we want to spend time with you!!!

anyone else have this problem?

"i'm sorry i can't come to the market with you mum, i'm slammed right now..."

mr scrappy and i have also decided [on the spur of the moment] to throw a 'come as you are' christmas party on dec 12th, so if you're around on that night, throw on something green and red and glittery and come have a drink with us (you know where we live, right?)

...and here's some weekend pics to finish with...

cultural display at the french food fair
miss 11 has been working very hard on some guide badges, and this weekend so far she's gardened, cleaned windows, re-programmed things, changed batteries...
and sewed this...
pretty cool huh?
a cushion - and she did it all by herself
and miss 13 and miss 20
aren't they gorgeous?

photostory friday: from wellington to whistable - part 2: featuring a famous chef, green beach huts and a lady in her dressing gown

i bet you're REAL curious about that last one, aren't you?

and you know coz i'm like, totally immature, i'm gonna make you wait almost until the end to see it!!!

when we last left whitstable, we'd walked the beachfront, drunk a lot of gin and beer, eaten a lot of cheese, and shopped up a storm.

...and let's not forget all the whistable fun facts. i KNOW you're hanging out for more...

whitstable fun fact #7
if you can eat half a dozen whitstable oysters and wash them down with a half pint of whitstable brewery pilsner faster than anyone else
(during the annual oyster festival)
- you win a prize.

our afternoon at 'the fountain' was followed by dinner at the 'sportsman'. we were very excited to be having dinner here, because the chef - steve harris, had just been named Best Chef by the Good Food Guide Editors for his 'brilliant, idiosyncratic' cooking.

here's us in our 'goin out clothes'

here's the sportsman

and here's some brilliant food. brilliant oysters to be exact

whitstable fun fact #8
the oyster is both male and female, but never both at the same time

after dinner we went down to the beach and recaro cracked open a bottle of bubbly. we sat in the dark and talked about such important things as the 1667 dutch invasion of the isle of sheppey and the british politicians' latest expense scandal

the next morning it was off to 'tea and times' for breakfast
tea and times?
could this place GET any more endearing???

and they sell magazines too!

so you can sit up at the counter, eat your food and have a good ole' read!

then it was off to do some more whitstable wandrin'...

that pointy thing is called 'the street'
sass has a good story about the street

and here's us ON the street!
the wind was a little chilly

more beach huts
i couldn't get enough of these!

but wait!
not everything about whitstable is cute and sweet
it's actually FULL of hazards

well, MAYBE it's full of hazards
(if you look hard)

'the smack'! sounds pretty hazardous to me!
it's actually one of those really cool places that has 'open mike' nights
way back in the recesses of my mind, i sometimes dream about being a stand-up comic
(with only one funny joke and really bad timing)

whitstable fun fact #9
the alleyways in old whitstable were the spaces left for the oystermen to get to the beach, or shops (or the pub!)

case and point...

whistable fun fact #10

peter cushing (you know, the vampire dude), lived in whitstable after retirement

there's even a 'cushing lane'

but back to the quaint...
'the sugar boy'
has there EVER been a cooler name for a sweet store???
the lady behind the counter wore a red and white striped apron and the lolly bags were red and white striped too

whistable fun fact #11
sass is a very talented knitter

whitstable fun fact #12
in whitstable it's totally cool to step out of your house in your dressing gown - cross the corner to the 'windy shores store' to get the sunday paper, and scurry back to your front door

and now for the green huts
cool huh?

and another one...and before we knew it - it was time to jump back on the train to london

time for a 'secret smile' with peaches

a hug
and a wave goodbye...
missin' you already...

Hosted by Cecily and Emily

wordful wednesday - hey look, it's me at the colosseum!

first of all, i want to thank my lovely bloggy friends for your kind thoughts about my incredibly STUPID bunny oscar, who went on a 3-week bunny road trip and came home, only to get very sick and lose the sight in one eye!

i can report that even though the eye is still scary-creepy milky white (and that won't change), he survived the critical the-eye-might-explode-and-have-to-be-removed phase and is doing really well.

he's eating, drinking, grooming and seems very happy. mr scrappy is also eating, drinking, and happy (the grooming can sometimes leave a little to be desired - just kidding hunny!) and coping very well with having to give oscar daily injections of antibiotics.

misses 11 and 12 are also caring beautifully for their bunny, having to rub cream into his eye THREE times a day!

and now back to all things rome for wordful wednesday...

good lord, could i look any more like a tourist if i tried?

this was the first of THREE trips we took to the colosseum.

it was a real treat to be able to photograph it at different times of the day and night

this is sandy. we stayed with sandy and pete.
they're the ones living in rome for 3 months to celebrate being 100 (50 each).

and now for today's history lesson:

the colosseum is also known as the FLAVIAN amphitheatre, and was inaugurated by titus in 80 A.D.
it was the first permanent amphitheatre to be built in rome.

it seated 50,000 people and had 80 entrances, so spectators could arrive and leave quickly.
it was made in the style of classical, doric and ionic (among others).

it was built on an area that had previously been occupied by an artificial lake, which was on the land where nero resided. upon nero's death, emperor vespasian wanted to make a political gesture by giving back the land to the romans.

so there you go (i hope you read that thoroughly - there'll be a pop quiz on friday)...

for more wordful wednesday, see angie over @ seven clown circus

CSNBaby Giveaway winner!

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24 

Timestamp: 2009-11-02 05:15:11 UTC

#24 is marina at energizer bunny's mommy reports!

Marina, please send me your MAILING ADDRESS so i can notify CNS Baby!

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yakety knack, the big shwop and blind bunnies

last week my blog friend, scrapmate, real life friend and hopefully soon, my neighbour mandy took me along to yakety knack. yakety knack was created by jacq and anna who gather crafty minded women (like myself and mandy) together once a month in a room at the back of a central city pub; ply us with a free hot drink of our choice and a KIT of crafty goodness all ready to make!

the kit comes with everything you need to make that evening's project, including instructions! it's genius!

here's what we made:

the white bag was already sewn, we just cut out the circles and did all the stitching. i luuuuuuurve hand stitching. it's sew theraputic. SEW theraputic - get it??? haha - i kill me!

here's mandy, diana and myself at our table

and here's me trying to cut out perfectly round circles for my bag
some days, near enough is good enough!

then today it was onto the BIG SHWOP
you can read all about it here and on their blog here

their blog actually has some very interesting videos, like what goes into the making of a pair of knickers, and one video of a woman who wore the same dress for something like 206 days (and how she changed her outfit. 206 photos all run together, very cool actually).

basically, you take high quality used clothing (bags and shoes too) and for every item they accept they give you a 'voucher' - they used puzzle pieces which i thought was fun!

i have to say there was a little of 'label bashing' happening, in that they refused some very good quality stuff based on label alone, but the concept itself is fantastic.

they have sponsors now, so we got wine beforehand and nibbles too
i had 11 puzzle pieces to start, but i gave 2 away to a woman who had all her items rejected!

it's all being prepared behind THE BIG RED CURTAIN!

i was starting to freak out a bit! you could see women scoping each other out in a
" i could take her in a shake down for a pair of size 7 jimmy choos" kinda way

i was worried that i'd have to deal with some badly behaved women, but it never came to that. even though there was a mad dash at the start, it was all quite civilised...

and they're off!!!

every item you 'buy' costs you one 'voucher' (puzzle piece) so no money changes hands
this apparently makes us 'ECO SHOPPERS'

there was also goodie bags which was very cool
(peoples' fair trade coffee and trilogy hand cream)

here's my with my stash (i came prepared with a big bag!)

and here's mandy with her lone skirt
at least she got something!
and here's some of my stash back at home

yes, i like red shoes - so what of it???
this is my favourite 'find'. i'm going to wear it tomorrow over my new bootleg flare jeans to MAMMA MIA - after yum char lunch with my scrapmates
see that welcome home sign? it's been there a YEAR - since i got home from new york. it's not there to remind me that my family missed me and that they were glad to see me home...

...nope - i just can't be arsed taking it down...

a closer look at the red dress
cute green top
i might just have to take this baby out dancing one night soon

and now for the sob story of the day...

the fat bunny on the left (oscar) has run away not once, but TWICE

he came back on monday after THREE weeks away looking thinner but fine, but today miss 11 noticed one of his eyes was totally milky white and weeping (note i have not photographed this)

i went straight to yahoo answers and read that it was probably an infection (that can come on slow) due to stress (or a poke in the eye) and that he should GET THEE to the VET

which we did

it's a BAD infection and now mr scrappy has to inject oscar every day for a week and put cream in his eye THREE times a DAY!

poor oscar is now BLIND in that eye, and it may swell even further and actually EXPLODE, at which point it will have to be removed.

i know! totally gross and he had to have pain relief too!

not mr scrappy - the bunny!!!

he seems calmer now. the bunny AND mr scrappy!

fingers crossed for a full recovery please my bloggy friends!

we're off to the rugby tonight - wellington are in the semis of the NPC

wish us luck and have a happy halloween everyone!

photostory friday: someone turned 18

she had 'drinks'
this is not to be confused with a party
'drinks' is invite only for between 9-12 of your closest friends

there was a greek toga theme

although i don't remember the greeks wearing sports socks

they played drinking games
they sung along loudly to bon jovi and aerosmith
they said thank you when i brought in snacks

there was cake

at midnight they turned off the music
brought out the dishes
recycled the empties
vacuumed up the cake crumbs
and put the furniture back

the boys went home
and the girls went to bed

but wait!

where's the rebellious teenager?

oh. there she is

but enough about me.

there were presents too

mostly brought from overseas

the 'joey hat' - LONDON BABY!
i couldn't resist
then there was the tootsie roll jackpot

candy sent from this blogger and this blogger too!
these are the faces of two people not in the know...

but the biggest thanks goes to my KC peep melinda, who sent enough candy to satisfy the scrappy family sweet tooth until long after christmas!

and i got some too!
junior mints and york patties are my fave

and some of the mini album i made her, which is more like a MONDO album because the child has had such a busy year

Hosted by Cecily and Carissa