No strings attached

It was Mr J and P's birthday recently.  Imagine his bemused and bewildered happy, smiling, little face when he opened his pressies to reveal these:

Cute huh?

I can sense you're wondering what the devil they are.

String holders no less!

Fabulous aren't they?  They are wall mountable and they have a  handy loopy thing at the side where you can store your scissors.    I know what you're thinking:  cute, vintage and *er hem* useful all at the same time.  What could be better?

The dog string holder is by Arthur Wood and dates from the 60s.  The cat string holder was made by Howard Holt in 1958 - very fitting as it was the year that a little Mr J and P popped into the world.

Just wanted to say a BIG thank you to all of you who commiserated with me over the hard disk drive debacle that I bored you all with in my previous post.  I didn't think anything could be done about the drive but lots of you encouraged me to seek further advice, and I'm currently badgering the resident computer geek at the university I work for.  Fingers crossed.....

We're off on holiday next week.  Camping in Aachen (Germany) and Namur (Belgium).  V excited.

On a final note, the latest event to rock J and P Towers (almost literally) is that the next door neighbour's builder has knocked a hole in our kitchen wall!

Yes, that is daylight you can see - top left.

Grrrrrr........

Heavens to Betsy (must use that phrase more often), whatever next!

Down in the Dumps

I am officially down in the dumps.

No, dear readers, I've not been reduced to scouring our local dump for bits of tat - even I might draw the bargain hunting line at that (mind you.........).  

The thing is that I'm just not a happy bunny at the moment *sad face*.

I wasn't going to post about this as really I'd prefer this blog to be a bit of light-hearted fun,  but I would appreciate some sage advice and some kind words from you, dear readers.  Our computer hard drive is destroyed and Mr J and P and I are so rubbish at backing anything up that we've lost a lot.  And when I say " a lot " I mean ALL our photos from 2008 to now.  The most annoying thing is that our external hard drive that we had bought an age ago to back-up our computer hard drive is completely bloody empty.  Nothing on it at all!  Zilch.  Nada.  Nowt.  Blurgh!

Last week when I realised the enormity of it all, I could hardly sleep a wink that night as I kept remembering all the photos from all our trips that we haven't got anymore.  Aaaagh!  *sob*.

The man in the computer shop said he could do nothing for us but I've kept the old hard disk drive because one day scientists may discover a miracle cure for hard disk drive disease.  Here's hoping......

So since then, I've been over-compensating for our loss, and annoying all and sundry by taking too many photos. 

Oh dear, I really must get a grip.  It's not as if someone has died or is seriously ill but I do feel bereft.  I know we have our memories but what with my poor addled brain, my memory is a diminishing resource *sniff*.

So that's it, dear readers, I'm through with technology at the moment.   I'll be back when I'm feeling a little stronger *very sad face*.  After all, I've got a lot to report on:  jumble sale finds, a tea towel frenzy, a post on ridiculous obsessions - all of which are paling a little into insignificance at the minute, as I'm sure you'll understand.  TTFN. xx

On the Make

There has been much activity at J and P Towers this week. 

I've made two fabric flower brooches.  The first one I made from black felt:

This one is made from the leftovers of some Ikea fabric I bought a while ago.  Both embellished with a vintage button of course.

There are lots of tutes on the internet for these.  I used this one.

On the subject of brooches, I thought I'd show you these  knitted flower brooches that I made a little while ago.  If only I could remember where I got the pattern from.....

Mr J and P has just commented that my beloved brooches look like some kind of "weird fungal growth".  Cheeky blighter!

Little Miss J and P has also been busy on the brooch-making front.  Take a look at this little cutie:

You can see what she did can't you?  Three circles of differing sizes and sewn together with a button in the centre.  Simple but very effective methinks.

Mr J and P is also getting in on the act and has been making jam.

His plums:

Here he is posing with his well preserved plums:

I think that's enough references to plums, don't you?

Mr J and P tells me that his rhubarb and gooseberry wines are coming on a treat.  Which reminds me of the last time I imbibed the dreaded gooseberry wine many moons ago.  While Mr J and P sensibly sloped off to bed, I felt curiously lively and was awake until the early hours dancing and acting out the words of  "Like a Prayer" by Madonna.  Over and over again......  Oh dear.  Needless to say, the next morning I had one humdinger of a headache.

Talking of a humdinger of a headache, Saturday night at the Hop Farm Festival (see previous post) was brilliant.  Iggy and the Stooges and Morrissey were legends.  No pictures, I'm afraid, as  all our photos turned out to be blurry rubbish.  The only mishap of the event was that our friend left his shoes outside his tent and got them pinched!  Dear boy had to schlep to the loos in the morning in his socks.  Nice.

And on that note, darling readers, I'll love you and leave you.  Byeeeeeee  xx