Barking Cloth Mad

I'm EXCITED on a number of counts today.

Firstly I scored these magnificent bark cloth curtains in perfect nick from a charity shop.  mmmmmmmm drooooooool mmmmmmmmm.

I'm very pleased with them.  They cost me £4 plus I got a carrier bag of books for Little Ms J and P thrown in for free!  A bargain methinks.  The curtains actually fit a window in our house but I'm rather attached to the rather lovely patchwork sari curtains we have up at the moment (bought an age ago at the now defunct The Pier). 

I think I might use the bark cloth to re-cover a floor cushion of ours and make a bark cloth scarf that I saw on the internet recently (if only I could remember where).

Secondly, I've WON another giveaway. Yahooo!  Courtesy of Wendy of Cheap2Chic.  It came beautifully wrapped but in my haste to get at it I forgot to take a photo of the wrapping.  Thank you Wendy.

Thirdly, Nic of Woodbank Crafts has very kindly passed on an award to little old me:

Thank you so much Nic.  I now have to tell you a whole 7 things about myself.  I'll be brief:

1.  I am Holiday Queen.  Oh yes I am!  When I was little, the only holiday that I went on was for a week with the school when I was 11 to the Isle of Wight.  I didn't go on holiday again until I was 18 with a friend - to the USA (Charlotte, North Carolina) to visit my friend's relatives.  I've more than made up for it since then and all the money Mr J and P and I earn goes to fund our hols!

2.  Still on a holiday theme, wherever we go, we try and learn a little of the language of the country that we're visiting.  Consequently we know a teeny bit of lots of languages (I could once count to 10 in Arabic and Mr J and P was a dab hand at Bahasa [Indonesian]!!).  This makes for a confusing time I can tell you.  For instance, on a visit to Spain once we wanted to buy two stamps.  Mr J and P asked for due (Italian) timbres (French) por favor (well, at least he got that bit right).  The bloke behind the counter looked at us rather sadly and immediately said "Engleeesh?".  How did he guess!

3.  I've done yoga on a regular basis for years.  Love it!

4.  One of the luckiest things that ever happened to me was when backpacking in Thailand some years ago.  Mr J and P and I were travelling on a bus, each with our big rucksack and smaller "day bag".  We got off the bus just outside a small town and as the bus moved off I realised that I had left my day bag on it.  I ran after the bus waving and shouting at it to stop, but to no avail, and then watched helplessly as it disappeared from view.  Just at that moment, a young lad on a moped drew up beside me.  He could speak no word of English and despite what I said in point number 2 above, I could speak no Thai, but he gestured that I get on his moped and we sped off in hot pursuit of the bus.  Meanwhile, a rather bemused Mr J and P watched, as we hurtled off ,wondering if he'd ever see me again!

The Thai lad and me eventually overtook the bus, he flagged it down,  and I dashed on, retrieved the bag, then got back on the moped where I was delivered safely back to a still bemused Mr J and P.  How about that!

5.  I went to a Convent School for Girls (in fact, the very same one that the Blairs, as in Tony and Cherie, sent their daughter). 

6.  I am addicted to jam doughnuts.

7.  I like to collect things and over the years my collections have included:  ladybird books; Puffin paperbacks; any books, fiction or otherwise, on India; broken crockery collected from the beach; corks; salt and pepper sets; stamps; coffee pots; egg cups; jars etc etc.

I now hereby pass on this award to these 5 versatile bloggers:

The fabulous Alex at Odd Socks and Pretty Frocks

Lovely Lucy at Tete en L`air

Creative Emma at Sylvie's Garden

and the very versatile Alison at Hill and Vale and Fee from FeeBee

Well, hasta la vista babies (guess where I'm off to next week!).