Tea Towel Tizzy

It's not every day that I get asked to review some tea towels......

Yes, dear readers, you read that correctly, little old moi has been asked to choose and review two tea towels from All Tea Towels.co.uk and what's even better, I get to keep them!  How exciting is that!

What I like about tea towels is that they're almost like a little work of art in your kitchen!

Get a load of the first beauty that I chose.

Cutesy gingham border:

Pretty floral background:

And a slogan right up my street:

What's not to love?

I may have mentioned that my cake baking is not my forte.  My cakes tend to resemble hard, dry, old biscuits - not dissimilar to the hard, old biscuit that I blogged about in my previous post.  Oh, and by the way, to those of you who mentioned dunking.  Yes, I did dunk the biscuit in my cup of coffee - it was still rock hard (and absolutely tasteless).

Anyway, back to teatowels.  My second teatowel features an image from a Ladybird book (I'm a big fan and a collector of Ladybirds):

I'm a big fan of boiled eggs too!

Both tea towels are 100% cotton, fabulous quality and I'm very pleased with them.  Go check out the All Tea Towels.co.uk website.  They have an immense collection and they even have a "Nostalgic and Retro" range.  Free p&p to UK residents too!

Between you and me, dear readers, I could get used to this reviewing lark.  If anyone would like me to review the iPad 2, I'd be happy to oblige......

Anyway, my tea towel collection is coming on a treat.  As well as my two new additions above, I've struck lucky in the charity shops recently:

This is my favourite

As part of Lakota's fabulous Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping Swap thingy, I received this bunch of goodies from my swapping pardner, Land Girl (many thanks Old Bean):

And, if that little lot wasn't enough, there were tea towels too:

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm a little tea-towelled out.  Luckily, I'm off on holiday (again) to recover from all the excitement!  Bye bye, dear readers, or, as they say in the part of the world that I'm going to, Nasvidenje!  xxxxxxxxxxxx

Holiday Shenanigans

Hello dear readers.  

I've decided not  to rant on about the hideous goings-on perpertrated by morons up and down the country.  Many bloggers have posted about this far more eloquently than I ever could.

So, er hem, where was I?  Oh yes, I'm going to bore you into submission, instead, with a few pics from our holidays near Aachen, Germany and Namur, Belgium.

An interesting objet d'art:

We visited Maastricht in Holland for a day and this is Mr J and P posing outside a house in which he squatted for 9 months back in days gone by:

Look at the aged rebel in his battered straw hat & Hawaiian shirt.  Doesn't he cut a dash?

A bit of grafitti art:

We visited a brewery and this is what we drank:

Dinant is a very pretty town on the banks of the Meuse:

A view from the citadel

It's famed for its biscuits.

Moulded into various shapes and sizes, these are the "hardest" biscuits in Europe.  Let me tell you,dear readers, these cookies do not readily crumble.

We bought one of a man in an aeroplane and here is a piccy of Little Miss and her cousin just before we attempted to sink our teeth into it.

It was rock hard and completely tasteless plus it cost a whopping 7 euros (yes, that's nearly 7 of your good pounds)!  We was robbed I tell you.  Back in the olden days, neighbourly disputes were settled by the protagonists throwing these biscuits at each other to inflict maximum pain.  According to Mr J and P, the winner was declared a jammy dodger after over-crumbing the opposition......  Sorry, dear readers, he's not the full packet today.........OK, I'll stop these terrible biscuit puns immediately.

An interesting "shop", selling kinky boots, perhaps, or in Mr J and P's blunt words - "a sado-masochist house of ill repute".  Yikes!

And on that note, dear readers, I have to dash, I'm hobnobbing with some of the mums from school tonight (geddit????  hobnob?).  OK, I'm going now.....  Bye bye xx

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

Twitty bits of Tat

There is much consternation in the J and P household.  Mr J and P is threatening to launch a rival blog solely devoted to complaining about the "twitty bits of tat" (try saying that after a few drinks) that he claims are taking over the house.   Classic attention-seeking behaviour, if you ask me.

Let's ignore the poor deluded fool and instead have a look at what I've been buying recently.

Some weeks ago now, I went to what was advertised as a "humble jumble" in Westcliffe on Sea in Essex.  A bit of a way to go (50 mins on the train) but you know what I'm like - dedicated to jumbling and chazzing above and beyond the call of duty.  Plus, did I mention the 8 charity shops in Westcliffe plus 8 more in neighbouring Leigh on Sea?  Huzzah!  What could be more perfect?  Little Miss J and P was very patient with me (for a bit), however, we did have to cut the shopping short as the beach and ice-cream were calling.

The humble jumble had the usually jumbley things.  Tea and cakes were served on vintage crockery and there was a band dressed in vintage garb and playing classics from the 40s and 50s.  Sorry, folks, no pics, I was far too busy scouring the place for bargains. 

A Kate Sheridan bag.  Never heard of that make but had a look at the website and the bags were quite pricey, so was very pleased with this large tote with its grasshoppers design for 20p:

Little Miss J and P is delighted with her Tumtum bag which is now her new school bag.  20p.

At the charity shops I bought this silk tie for Mr J and P.  50p.

It's always great when you see something in a charity shop that you have genuinely always wanted.  I've been after a sun catcher for aaages and look what I found for 75p:

There's a little crack in one of the panes of glass but for 75p - who cares?  Not I that's for sure.

A pack of vintage playing cards.  Loving the roses.  50p.

I very nearly jumped for joy when I spotted this peeping out of a 10p basket outside a charity shop.

Oooh, what can it be.......

OMG, yes, it's a TG Green (Judith Onions backstamped) gold and white Cornishware salt pot.  Eeeek!

Little Miss J and P had to restrain me from doing a happy dance  when I poked about further and discovered its little friend, the pepper pot:

10p each!

What I like about this set (apart from them being 10p each) is that they are gorgeously chunky, measuring 13 cm high - that's a fair few inches I can tell you.

Look, here's the salt pot being clutched by my eager little mitt just so that you can get an idea of the size:

And here they are again next to my Gaydon melamine salt pot:

Oh and did I mention they were 10p each?

On a different note, I recently saw these in my local charity shop:

Not the prettiest of sheep in my opinion, but did you notice the price?

Yes, that's 99 of your good POUNDS for the pair.  Yikes!

I did enquire within and was told that they were late Victorian and had been valued by an auctioneer at between £100 and £120.  So, it just goes to show (Mr J and P, I'm talking to you) that "twitty bits of tat" can be real nuggets of treasure.

One final note, we're camping, yet again, on Saturday.  This time sans children and at a festival.  Yay, we're off to the Hop Farm Festival.  Very excited about Morrissey and rather over-excited about Iggy and the Stooges.  There'll be lots of gratuitous happy dancing I can tell you...

TTFN.

As per, I'm late in playing along with:

Apronthrift Girl

Her Library Adventures

Magpie Monday