I’ve never joined in with Maxabella’s meme before & I really should try to from now on; if there is something we should all do more regularly it is stop & think about just what we have that we cherish.
After the shock of the Christchurch earthquake & the sadness that has been radiating from it; the loss, the devastation; I am, more than ever, so grateful to be safe here in our little home, with my two gorgeous children.
What are you grateful for?
The Boy ordered some roasting garlic to grow from eBay & this is the “card” that came with it;
Oohparently two little boys grow & sell it with help from their Mum. My Boy has planted it out with some onions; obviously that’s the stinky garden bed.
Still more cute; chickies! Cocco, Annie & Clarabelle, they’re teeny weeny!
…when questioned, The Punk replied “She’s very, very, very, very, very, very sick.”
I’m not surprised.
The Punk-induced injuries my old sewing machine sustained last week proved fatal, in spite of my heavy-duty gluing efforts, there was nothing I could do but hope for another sewing machine to fall from the sky.
I posted a “Wanted to buy” on my local Buy, Swap & Sell facebook page & received a message from a lady with an Elna in good working order she could give me for $50 – halleluiah!
Suspence & I drove out to have a look at her on Monday; The lady wanted me to have a bit of a test-sew & was holding Suspence when, horror of horrors, he pee’d everywhere. EVERYWHERE. There was an actual puddle of pee on the floor, & pee dripping from the poor lady… Mortified is not a strong enough word… I practically threw the $50 at her while apologising like someone with an unusual form of Tourette’s, & ran out the door.
Here she is. I wanted to call her Ellie, but oohparently she will only go by Eleanor, a grand name for a grand Swedish gal. She’s not as old as I thought she’d be, she sews like a dream & has some fancy-pants stitches that my old machine didn’t have… I do believe it’s love.
(Ooohparenly, that’s “finished” in Japanese; Japanese in honour of this divine Echino fabric…
Well, this bag felt like an ORDEAL! I had to wait for my fabric to arrive (not that it was slow mind you, Kelani are all woohoo & yeahaw when it comes to fast, free shipping, I’m just impatient…), then the time I had “booked” with The Boy for him to watch Spence while I made a start on it was nixed, then it was all a-wonk, then my sewing machine broke… I could, & normally would, go on, but I’m trying to make this quick!
So MY Emma Day Bag is 終了 AND I have a new girl here to show you tomorrow; tomorrow because I presented my lovely bag to The Boy for his admiration & “Aren’t you a clever cookie?!” type comments, only to be told: “That’s good, now clean up the lounge room?”…
So, it seems to be that it wasn’t all that long ago when I had one lonely blog follower. When I got to fifty I was shocked & amazed, and have continued to be pleasantly surprised ever since…
However.
I get very self-conscious when that number goes down – not because I think that everyone should read my blog or like it, I am still pretty surprised that anybody thinks my drivel is worth the time it takes to read, but because I think I have done something to offend them, or bore them, or something, because they were following, weren’t they, and now they’re not?!
Blogger eased my anxiety somewhat by somehow making the text of how many followers there are in the box the same colour as the background so I have to physically highlight it to see if the number is up or down or static and generally, I can’t be assed to check, but sometimes I do, and sometimes the number has gone down by one, and I think “What did I do?”.
(Looks like Twits have similar issues…)
Most of you by now will have heard that Borders & Angus & Robertson are in a whole world of hurt right now & have entered into voluntary receivership.
This makes me sad. I loved Borders, LOVED. I used to work at Borders Bondi; I was there before it even opened, sorting the books onto the shelves & stepping gingerly between unsecured tiles. I loved it from the start – it was my kind of store & the people that worked in that store were my kind of people. It’s the only job I have ever liked, & I have thought since leaving to have Miss Punk that one day I would work at Borders again… but, well, it doesn’t look likely now.
There has been much talk about the evils of eBooks & buying books online, & while those two things may well have contributed to the financial dire straits that the company found itself in, I doubt they were the only factors & I’m not the only one.
Ironically, The Boy received an ereader for his birthday on Thursday – the Borders affiliated Kobo – and a Borders gift card. Not only did that mean that I now have myself a shiny new Kobo (he had zero interest & although I was excited initially I have deducted that ereaders are, disappointingly, not ‘all that’…), but that The Boy had an acute need to get in store to spend that voucher. We heard on the radio that there had been conditions placed on gift vouchers due to the current ‘situation’; in order to redeem you have to spend the same amount of the gift voucher’s worth; ie: If you have a $50 gift voucher you have to spend $100 in total, & as annoying as that seemed, the lure of a 40% off offer saw us head in yesterday afternoon for a bit of a book buying frenzy.
The Boy stocked up on gardening books & I picked up Pip’s new book, as well as the new Frankie; I wasn’t going to get Frankie (I have been trying to pretend it doesn’t exist, as it gives my inner hoarder pangs of regret still, to think I recycled my Frankie collection in a fit of insanity), but it was at the counter & we had to make up the money to use the gift card as our calculations as far as the discount went were a bit off; I’m glad I got it, it looks good, just like the fresh, fun mag I discovered when it was brand-spanking-new… although it makes me feel old to think that it’s “already” up to issue 40.
We had coffee & chai & jelly slice in Gloria Jeans & chillaxed mid-shop, & it was nice. It reminded me of the days & long nights I used to work & was just a pleasant way to spend the afternoon; but it made me sad to think that we might not be able to do that for much longer.
