A Knit One, Tea Two Thank You!

How exciting!
I came home from a difficult day at work today to find a parcel from Maine. It's from Cindy, who is my Knit One Tea Two spoiler. And what a good job she did of spoiling us. I say us, as some of the items she sent were sent kindly for j. He sends his thanks too.

Here's the parcel porn shots!





The tea all looks gorgeous. I'm looking forward to exploring red teas. That large strainer I love the knitted cup cosy and the yarn is wonderful. I'm tempted to cast on straight away! The Icebreakers, Skittles gum, Atomic Fireballs and Maine lobster seem to have disappeared upstairs already...

Thank you again, Cindy! We'll keep in touch on Ravelry!


Edited to Add...

I've just stopped laughing...! J was just in the study talking to j, when he spotted the sweets. j gave him an Atomic Fireball. The hooting, squealing and running around in agony has just stopped!!!

No grouse

- found out today that it isn't a grouse living in our garden. She's grown a long tail and is identifiably a female pheasant.





These aren't brilliant pictures - she'd very shy around me, but spends her days hopping around near J.

Thank you for all the messages of support we've had. J is feeling much better and has been taking things easier this week.

I got my Ravelry invite last week and have been pottering about on the site. If you're over there, I'm ravelling - add me to your friends list. It's great to look at other people's finished objects.

I'm inspired to have a go at Sally Mellville's Enstein jacket.

Our weekend

On Saturday morning I took J to our nearest A&E department with chest pain. He'd been back to work the week before and I knew he was exhausted but it seems he just did too much. So we ended up in resus again. No changes to his ECG and no troponins (cardiac muscle proteins) - so no new damage, but he ended up in the emergency assessment unit all weekend... which was a sad as well as worrying as it was j's 16th birthday and my brother and his wife and my niece had come to visit.
J's out again now and we're facing the possibilities that he has developed angina or has simply pulled some chest muscles.
I'm really tired.

Safe arrival number one

My Knit One Tea Too parcel arrived at it's recipient, Katie in time for her birthday. Happy birthday Katie and enjoy the tea!

Picture Post

Went for a longer walk this afternoon as we didn't get out much this week. Took some shots of the South bank of the Tees at Teesmouth from North Gare. Back home I found that I have some nifty software that stitches photos together to make a panorama. Next time I'll try to get shots right around the bay. I quite like this!



While we were walking we met this chap. He was bored with the fishing his owner was doing...



Catching up with some crafting swaps. These ATCs are for a swap on the theme of books. I'm quite amused by the 'dirty books' one. It's based on the furore surrounding Lady Chatterly's Lover in Penguin in the 1960s.



These are Call Me Ishmael collages - Moby Dick.



Finally, on the needles entrelac scarf in silk garden (my first attempt at entrelac, but not my last. I'm hooked!):



inspired by the English plum season:

Back to school

A little corner of the desk in my classroom. I'm teaching part time with two other colleagues this year and we have a group of 33 year 3 and Year 4 children - mostly boys, all 'less able' in terms of maths and Literacy attainment. Lots of spark and enthusiasm so far though! It should be a good year...hard but good.

Having posted off my Hogwarts Sock Swap package and my K1T2package this weekend I found this:



International Scarf Exchange begins again soon and sign ups are open. Hurry on over there.

Owls away!

I've gone out on a limb and despatched my owl to my Hogwarts Sock Swap pal Rowena. I don't get many chances to get to the owlery at this time of year so I have to take my Saturday mornings when I can. So, apologies to the Deputy Headmistress if I was supposed to wait, but I wanted to make sure it got off safely. If I was supposed to wait I'll cast a charm banning Rowena from opening it until all the other owls make their journeys.

I'm not sure how long that poor little owl will take to drag the package across the Atlantic and what perils it may face so I bought owl insurance just in case...

Thank you!

Thank you Grace.
I received thse lovely wash cloths from the USA today - they're my gift from Grace in the Pay it Back exchange. Much quicker than the 365 days she said it might take!

When, oh, when?

Periodically, I check the waiting list checker at Ravelry:

Found you!
You signed up on June 30, 2007
You are #11685 on the list.
703 people are ahead of you in line.
18583 people are behind you in line.
36% of the list has been invited so far

How come some things (like the time until birthdays when you were a child) drag and others rush by?



Like my holidays....back to work today :(