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jennie_jay
28 November 2009 @ 17:02
I've caught my daughter hanging out with Prince William!!!  
Shock, horror?

Not really, it's not what you think, but it made me laugh when I saw it. On my lace pillow.



I have some "mother and babe bobbins", with my children's names and birth dates pyrographed on them, and a miniature bobbin in the hollow body of the bobbin. A while ago I bought a Prince William mother and babe, inscribed "Prince William of Wales born ....." and inevitably the two bobbins would run across each other sooner or later on the lace pillow..

There are all sorts of commemorative bobbins. I have one with the text "The Falklands are British", another commemorating the discovery of the sunken Tudor ship the Mary Rose, and various British Royal commemoratives. Pretty things with sparkling shiny beads, just what I need in the November darkness...
 
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jennie_jay
24 November 2009 @ 21:13
The last battle in Sweden - 200 years ago  
The very talented Elolinona sings her own song, about the latest, and hopefully last, battle on Swedish soil.... 1809. Against Russia.

 
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jennie_jay
22 November 2009 @ 18:10
Obsessions.... my daughter has discovered "Twilight"  
"Hello, I'm Jennie and I'm a Phantom-addict"

This is how I've introduced myself in various places. Because that's what I am. Among other things, of course. Not many of my Real Life friends (the ones I meet every day) understand my obsession. Which is why I am eternally grateful to the internet and its endless possibilities of finding others who share this particular interest...

We now have another budding obsession in the family since my daughter has just discovered Twilight, and is starry-eyed about it. Anything that gets her reading books has my vote, but I will be keeping an eye on her, of course. She's going to see New Moon with some friends, and has strictly forbidden me to go to same performance. I think I'd better see it too, to see what it's all about.

I'm looking forward to studying the blossoming of fandom in someone else....
 
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jennie_jay
08 November 2009 @ 22:09
Lacemakers do it on pillows..... and other cheerful messages on lace bobbins  
Have just bought some bobbins on Ebay, by my favourite bobbin maker David Springett. These have sayings pyrographed on them, one of which was "Lacemakers do it on pillows".

I also have bought "Blow the dust, let's make lace", and "I will do some housework tomorrow".

Little things that make me happy.
 
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jennie_jay
30 October 2009 @ 16:30
Phantomy echoes...  
Daughter made waffles, and put one into a plastic box in the fridge, saving it for breakfast the next day.

To make sure no one ate it she wrote a note and stuck it on the box:

My waffle
Do not touch!
If it is gone, dire consequences will ensue.

It reminded me of the ALW Phantom's threatening notes in "The Phantom of the Opera". The tone was pretty much the same.
 
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jennie_jay
26 October 2009 @ 21:47
Must check the moon  
Am tidying up and re-organizing my "home office". Daughter is changing rooms, moving into our "office", my husband will move his stuff into her room, and I'm moving my paperwork & files into our bedroom, because that's where I have my computer most of the time. Also, husband is.... disorganized.... ie he doesn't keep things in the order I think they should be. So I don't want to share "office space" with him any longer... He can have the room to himself and I shall close the door!

Not really too happy to have a work space in the bedroom, but I don't see the shelves of files from my bed, and I hide away my laptop in the cupboard at night.

Have had a sudden burst of reorganizing and tidying up both at home and at work....  have found that this often coincides with the waxing or waning of the moon, must check the moon and see which it is...  Aha, waxing.... must try to remember that until the next time.
 
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jennie_jay
07 October 2009 @ 20:42
I am The Mom (seditious cupcakes and sibling conspiracies)  

My son wanted to have a computer LAN thingie with his classmates, one of whom didn't have a computer of his own. So my son negotiated with my daughter to borrow hers. She agreed, on condition that he let her make cupcakes for him and his friends, and that he vacuum her room three times. They drew up a contract and signed it. (I'll be saving that).

Anyway, she and I made cupcakes. The ones with green frosting we decorated with World of Warcraft Horde signs we made in chocolate.

On the pink ones we wrote I <3 WOW etc in white icing. On one we wrote I LOVE MOM, thinking the boys wouldn't notice. They did though, but thought it funny. So did my daughter and I. My son said afterwards: "Mum, you really ARE The Mom" (as in "The Mom Song" see my earlier entry). I'm taking that as a compliemnt

And now it's show and tell:





 
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jennie_jay
10 September 2009 @ 21:05
Perhaps not, after all. Interesting revealations...  
Told my son what his sister had said, about not wanting the rabbit to die a virgin.

"Well he isn't. Probably" he said.

"What?"

"Well, you know, that weekend training camp we went to, rabbit jumping?"

"What??"

"Well, you know, he sort of got away a couple of times. Or so."

"HWHAT???"

"Well, yeah, you know, and there were these girl rabbits. Like.... ummmm.  Aaaw c'mon mum, you know what I mean, you've got kids."

I'm making HIM tell his sister about it.

"Yeah, you know, that's cool, it isn't as if rabbits care about virginity, they just want to mate, I'll explain it to her," said the Young Man in the House and sauntered off.
 
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jennie_jay
09 September 2009 @ 23:03
Cute kidde quote of the day: "I don't want him to die a virgin"  
Our grey dwarf lop-eared bunny, Hoppe Ludentass, Jumper Furrypaws in English, is now seven years old. A bit lopsided in the face, it happens with age in lops I've been told, but lively and sociable.

Today my daughter said: "Mummy, can't we let Hoppe become a father? I don't want him to die a virgin."

Well, what do you say to a plea like that! I've explained to her that not having babies is probably NOT a major issue for Hoppe.
 
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jennie_jay
27 August 2009 @ 22:11
ASHES  
A response to my previous post about the sale of the crypt above Marilyn Monroe, translated from Swedish:

Imagine a place, a tree, a pine that carries on growing, where your ashes can be scattered.... when you no longer breathe with your own lungs, but in all simplicity be one with the lungs of the tree... I want to be there one day...

We often go to E's pine.

(You're welcome to translate what I've written)

Hugs

Sis.

I want to be cremated, too, and have my ashes scattered. Haven't yet decided where.

That way I will be nowhere and everywhere. And when you think of me I will be with you.

 
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jennie_jay
24 August 2009 @ 13:09
Passing into eternity next to Marilyn Monroe  
I haven't been able to make up my mind what to think about this yet.

The widow of the man who rests in the crypt above Marilyn Monroe is selling the space on E-bay. The bidding ends in a few hours, and has reached a staggering $ 4.6 million. 

The blurb from ebay:

Here is a once in a lifetime and into eternity opportunity to spend your eternal days directly above Marilyn Monroe.  This crypt in the famous Westwood Cemetary in West Los Angeles currently occupied above Marilyn Monroe is being vacated so as to make room for a new resident. "Spending Eternity next to Marilyn Monroe is too sweet to pass up", recently quoted by Hugh Heffner, who has reserved his place in eternity next to her.  The lucky bidder will be deeded a piece of real estate that he or she will make their last address. And below you will be Marilyn Monroe.  In fact the person occupying the address right now is looking face down on her. 




Apparently the widow is hard up and needs the money. Well, money is better spent on the living than on the dead, IMO.

I sort of wish someone like Madonna would buy it, and leave it empty, to give Marilyn some space! How silly, it doesn't make any difference to the deceased, does it.?

The chase never ends. Even in death Marilyn Monroe is an object of desire to many.
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jennie_jay
14 August 2009 @ 19:14
's Gravenmoer lace on my pillow  

Am half-way through my piece of  's Gravenmoer lace.

There are different ways of making lace, you can knit, tat, crochet or make BOBBIN lace. This is a type of lace from the town of Gravenmoer in Holland. It distinguishes itself by some special stitches, and by the motifs it contains, that are linked to this town. It contains windmills, boats, flowers and trees.

This is what it looks like so far, it's hard to show it off, there are so many pins and only a small part is visible.. When it's completed I'll mount it with parchment in a frame and hang it in a window.

This piece uses over 50 pairs of bobbins. All these are made by an English bobbin maker called David Springett. His bobbins are my favourite. So I am a lace bobbin geek/nerd too....

Another bobbin maker makes exquisite lace bobbins from bone... am planning to order some special ones from him. Among them something commemorating "Phantom of the Opera".

There are commemorative bobbins for all kinds of events, ranging from births and deaths, to hangings (in the 19th C). Every now and then a hanging bobbin turns up on Ebay.




 

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jennie_jay
13 August 2009 @ 21:48
Yay! Halfway through!  
Have been struggling with my 's Gravenmoer lace project, the diagonal half-stitch sections have been so hard to get right.

But now I'm halfway through the piece I have to make and don't think I've messed up. The Perkinneke, Honeycomb, Roseground look OK, too.

Am working with fine cotton thread, that puts itself right, I don't need to pull on the bobbins as much as with a coarser linen thread. Then again, I can't make too many mistakes because each time I undo a section it wears on the thread and increases the risk of it snapping.

Silk is easier to work with in the sense that it is very tough, but falls smoothly into place.

Enough lace geekery.

But it's fun.
 
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jennie_jay
06 August 2009 @ 21:45
Stomping slugs.... ugh...  
We have a slug invasion in our garden. When they come out in the late evening, I pick them up and dispose of them, to put it euphemistically.

Have also tried stomping on them, but the dull plop when they explode makes me feel sick.

They're incredibly slimy and devastatingly ravenous, a real pest.
 
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jennie_jay
03 August 2009 @ 21:44
Souvenirs from England  
Two absolutely brilliant kitchen utensils.

A sauce boat for separating the fat from the stock, and a carving fork. The lethal-looking fork is great for holding the chicken/joint/steak/or whatever in place when you're trying to carve it, and also has a hand protective thingie to flip up if you need to carve towards yourself without endangering your fingers..



Simple things that make me happy.
 
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jennie_jay
03 August 2009 @ 20:04
There's no pleasing some people....  
I tried a new dish today, that the kids actually liked! Hooray.

It was chicken quarters, baked in the oven on a bed of mixed veg. Potatoes, red peppers, red onions, carrots, squash. Bunged in the potatoes first, to get them going, in a butter-greased tray, then added the chicken after 10 mins. 10 mins after that I chucked in everything else (after tossing with a splash of olive oil in a plastic bag).

Salted, turned everything over every 15 mins or so, but with the chicken always on top.

It came out very rich, juicy and full of flavour.

Kids liked it so much they finished it off. Darn, I'd meant to have the other half for our lunch tomorrow.

There you go, no pleasing some people. Either I'm complaining because they don't like the food, or I'm complaining because they eat too much...
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jennie_jay
23 July 2009 @ 18:17
I have just ruined my son's live for ever.  
Again.

( I have shattered his every hope of ever )
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jennie_jay
21 July 2009 @ 19:02
I've just poured a bucket of water over the neighbour's cat  
I saw it sitting outside our rabbit's run and snuck upstairs with a bucket of water. It was the perfect target from our bedroom window, so I poured.

The cat flew a metre into the air, and dashed straight ahead, ran up the side of the outside of the rabbit pen, down the inside, up the inside and down the outside. And out of the garden.

The rabbit just looked surprized. He's a calm little bunny.

I wish I could have filmed that.

Before you report me for cruelty to cats, I want to inform you that this cat has maimed and killed pet rabbits in the neighbourhood. One neighbour's rabbit was mauled so badly it had to be put down, another neighbour's pet was rescued just in time, and survived, but required surgery.

We've talked to the cat's owner, who has put a bell on it, and said it's OK for us to pour water on it if it comes into our garden. I hope this has deterred it from coming into our garden again, but I'm not counting on it. I've secured the net over the rabbit's pen, and will be checking more often on it.
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jennie_jay
16 July 2009 @ 19:17
The "Tama Mama" - and other new levels of parenting  

In Sweden we've coined the expression "curling föräldrar", curling parents, meaning parents who do everything for their children, literally sweeping the ground free from all obstacles in front of them. A term derived from the sport of "curling" where you shove a "stone" towards a target and the other team members frantically rub at the ice with brooms to make it go far enough in the right direction.

So, a "curling parent" is basically a parent who "does too much".

I am not a curling parent, I hasten to add.

I have advanced to another level.

That of the "Tama mama". I don't know if you are acquainted with the electronic gadgets called Tamagotchis? Quoting Wikipedia, to save you from googling it:

"The Tamagotchi (たまごっち?) is a handheld digital pet created in 1996 by Aki Maita and sold by Bandai. Over 70 million Tamagotchis have been sold as of 2008.[1] The Tamagotchi is housed in a small and simple egg-shaped computer. Three buttons (A, B, and C) allow the user to select and perform an activity, including:

  • Feeding the Tamagotchi a piece of food or a snack.
  • Playing games with the Tamagotchi.
  • Cleaning up a Tamagotchi's waste.
  • Checking its age, discipline, hunger, happiness and other statistics.
  • Connecting with other friends "
My daughter has three Tamagotchis, and went through a very intense period with them a couple of years ago. They distracted so much in school, that they were banned.

Daughter was distraught.

If she put them on hold/paused them during the day, they wouldn' t grow. If she didn't look after them, they would fall ill and die.

Solution?

I took them with me to work, and looked after them there. My friends fell over laughing when they heard about it.

I became quite attached to them, and my friends call me the "Tama Mama".

Now, what are your name suggestions for the mother who logs in on her daughter's Stardoll site when she is away, just so she can earn the extra points by logging in daily???

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jennie_jay
12 July 2009 @ 21:31
A lace bobbin for every occasion....  

Ah yes.

I was wondering how long it would take.

Lace bobbins in commemoration of Michael Jackson, on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LACE-BOBBIN-MICHAEL-JACKSON-MEMORIAL_W0QQitemZ230355464625QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Crafts_Lace_Making_ET?hash=item35a24171b1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A1688%7C293%3A9%7C294%3A50

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