Sunday 30 September 2007

Gooseflesh and fish eyes.




My mum enters competitions, for her it's a cross between a hobby and a way of life. When I was growing up I was the only kid in the playground picking up the sweetie wrappers so that she could get entry forms and there was that time that the cat had to eat dog food for months. It was a Pedigree Chum competition and there was a sticky moment when we went to the local supermarket to collect the prize - a trailer tent, no less - and the Pedigree Chum lady asked us if our dog liked the food. We didn't have a dog. However, we did have a holiday in Italy on the proceeds of the sale of the tent.

Anyway, this competition frenzy has only increased now that mum is retired and I look forward to the post arriving in the morning. This week we won the two Bourne DVDs and dad won £100. The best ever was our holiday to Hawaii. Mum enters us all into competitions which is great as I never win anything by myself. Except this once when I was the 5 millionth ( at least it should be ) visitor to the Gooseflesh blog. Helle, aka Gooseflesh makes beautiful jewelry and my prize was this amazing coral necklace. It has already been admired and tried on by many. Mr and Miss Frugality came over for a flying visit this week and Miss F is truly envious of my prize. My brother is home from the US and I will be wearing it when we all go for a meal out. Thank you so much Helle.

Other fleshy gifts this week came from Sylvia our chum. She is a vegetarian and was looking for somewhere to offload a surplus of frozen meats. We duly took possession of tons of venison, smoked goose and other treats. Next morning I went to see if Magnus was in his basket and happened to glance onto the floor next to the freezer. Horrors! I'd forgotten to empty one of the bags and there on the floor was a slightly ripped plastic bag ( thank you Mog ) with one glassy eye staring back at me. A whole trout had quietly defrosted on the floor overnight. Luckily Magnus does not like fish and other than having a damaged bag, the trout was unmolested. Archie swears that it was delicious baked with lemon and dill. I'm with Magnus, I'll stick to the venison!

I knitted a bit too - pics of my first ever handspun knitting to be posted soon.....

You can find Gooseflesh at http://www.hellejorgensen.typepad.com/

7 comments:

Julia said...

I'm still loving that coral necklace.
Magnus looks so cute and cuddly in that shot.Is he going to help you spin?

mary jane said...

wow! Your mom is amazing! What a great story. and where pray tell did vegetarian sylvie get all those frozen forbidden foods? another interesting story I'll bet! Lovely prize, and I hear your spinning is fine and even. Your pictures are great!

Orinda5 said...

You lucky girl... winning from Gooseflesh! I am jealous!
I do think your family has some type of winning gene.

Cindy G said...

The coral is beautiful. It's a sad commentary on my one track mind that when the picture came up, my first thought was "Wow, how did she do that? Is it knit or crochet?" Sometimes I think I need to get out more...

magnusmog said...

mary jane - don't worry, sylvia hasn't fallen off the veg and onto the meat wagon. Her brother bought too much of the stuff when he was over on holiday :)

magnusmog said...

Cindy, the coral is crocheted and then felted. Much softer than the real thing :)

Anonymous said...

That's a funny story. Love the title of the post too...... has a nice melodic quality. LOL!

So glad you like the coral necklace.

p.s. I'm visiting Edinburgh for four weeks in Feb 2008. Perhaps we could get together for a coffee and chat (miss frugality too).