Tuesday 13 May 2014

Ten Random Facts.....




I thought i'd join in with Gillian today and state ten random things.


1. It bugs me if the dishwasher isn't stacked in a particular way. Everything has a place, and if the cutlery is put in all randomly into the cutlery rack it REALLY annoys me. It's so much easier to just lift all the forks out at once and put them back in the drawer.

2. I adore fresh parsley, basil and coriander. I fail at plating my own in the garden, but I always have pots in the kitchen and I just munch on them all day.

3. I love the smell of fresh cucumber and tomatoes on the vine. They remind me of my dad's parents. My Grandfather always grew his own and when we would stay in the summer, their kitchen would smell all fresh and heavenly. Fairy washing up liquid did a cucumber scented one and it smelt just like their kitchen. I loved washing up with it as it instantly filled my kitchen with their kitchen smell, and transported me right back. But after a couple of months they changed their formula and it didn't really smell like cucumber anymore but non-descript flowers. So I wrote and complained, that if they have a washing up liquid that was cucumber scented then it should be and not smell like flowers but of cucumbers.

4. I also felt strongly enough to complain to Laura Ashley last week. When I was in my 20's I shopped there ALL THE TIME. I loved their floral prints, I loved their feminine style of dresses, I loved their individuality and their timeless quality. There was no Cath Kidston then. Something happened. They got in a new board of idiots, lost their way, lost their whole sense of indentity and sold out to what made them a great, individual and unique business, in favour of boring mainstream. I was looking online at their fashion range and was just appalled at what they were selling. Well, appalled enough to tell them to sack their design team and bring in fresh blood. I just felt sad that they had once been so wonderful, and looking blankly at my screen, I could have been looking at a really bland M&S department. They really are missing a trick. Bring back their gorgeous prints, classic style dresses (just seeing what's available on etsy that is very 'Laura Ashley' in style and ever so popular), I just think they are missing a trick and could begin to give Cath a run for her money. There, got it off my chest.

5. I would love to read more, but magazines and Home style books are about all I can manage. Crochet always takes priority when I have a spare hour in the day. It'd be nice to change that.

6. I'd be terrible on Masterchef. I love my food crunchy and no hint of pink in my meat.

7. I see the world in terms of hard and scratchy and soft and round. Colours, names, views....everything, I like or dislike depending on whether it's hard and scratchy or soft and round. I can't incorporate black into any of my crochet work, it would make it all hard and scratchy to live with. I was drawn to a pale aqua desk lamp today. That was soft and round.

8. I am a fast walker. Really fast. I just don't see the point in walking slow. I never notice it until I walk with other people. The bears have learnt to keep up with me.

9. I struggle sharing a bathroom with males. I grew up with two brothers who were, well, boys and it really bugged me that they didn't care that they left toothpaste or shavings in the sink, or never put the toilet seat down. I vowed that I would have girls to have a better bathroom experience. Yeah, well, look how that turned out! Some one was laughing at me! The bears are just like my brothers and sometimes I feel like I have come full circle and am back to being 16 again, shouting at them to clean up after themselves and hang the flipping towels up on the towel rail and not on the floor.

10. I don't like dark curtains where I sleep. I like to wake up to natural light shining through.

So, there we have it. Possibly erring on the side of ten random moans, but those were on my mind today!


xxx

27 comments:

  1. I'm with you a lot of the way - especially on the masterchef bit. I couldn't possibly eat all that pink meat. Some of it looks as if it could get up and walk!
    And don't start my on boys and bathrooms - particularly complete with muddy rugby kit. I'm more pink and girly. x

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  2. Great list. I'm also a very fast walker. My mother was a nurse and when I was growing up I had to walk fast to keep up with her. I don't know if it's the same now, but when I was a child, nurses weren't allowed to run when they were on duty; just walk very fast. The reason was that you can easily fall if you're running but not if you're walking.

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  3. PS - I absolutely love your tiny flowers in the spool of thread.

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  4. Totally agree with you on the dishwasher stacking. In a lot of households I know of, it is the husband who is anal about the dishwasher is stacked, but in our house it is most definitely me (maybe something to do with me being the one who does it mostly??). All cutlery has to be together - knives together , forks together etc as makes unloading so much quicker! I love a good moany blog post now and again, otherwise everyone's lives appear too perfect end rosy!

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  5. Hey, just popping by to say Hi....I hope you are well.....I'm so with you on many of your points.....dishwasher, definitely, so much easier for unloading, and there I was thinking only I did that.....parsley, basil and thyme for me.....ditto cucumber and tomatoes, both my dad and his dad grew the, well my dad still does, just wish I could still share in his gorgeous, fresh abundance.....would love to read more too, I have a stack of books waiting, but home & craft mags are easily flicked through with breakfast or a coffee, and crochet is easy to make good use of otherwise wasted tv time.....definitely can't be doing with any pink in my meat either.....I'm a fast walker too....if there's somewhere I need to go, I want to get there without any wasted time.....my angels learnt to keep up too, and now Big Miss can't understand why her friends dawdle when walking, she's just like me lol.....I like to sleep with no curtains, so I can look straight out the window when I wake, to see what the weathers like, I love the sun shining straight into me, or the rain lashing down if I can snuggle back under the covers and just listen to it....and yes, I write letters of complaint too, it doesn't usually change much, but sometimes I get a positive outcome, so it makes it worthwhile. Drop me an email sometime if you fancy a chat.....ps your new kitchen looked fab by the way....I've just painted my bare brick kitchen walls white....it's 100 times better, wish I'd done it years ago...take care lovely -xXx-

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  6. I agree completely about Laura Ashley - they really lost their way after she died, and have missed out in not taking Cath on. They had a head start but lost it. I'm sure there's a gap in the market for them to squeeze back in there. I feel the same about Prima magazine (not sure if you'd see that?) Anyway, 30 years ago (argh!!) it was full of great patterns (knitting, sewing, the lot) which you could pull out and keep. Nowadays, it's full of ad's and referrals to patterns you can send away for - a great disappointment. Oh well, rant over - have a great week, BTW xx

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  7. I enjoyed this read, made me smile all the way through. I have four girls & seriously they have never been tidy.....even in the bathroom. All that hair in the shower UGHHHH!!!!!!! along with my hubbies shavings & the old toilet seat thing.
    Enjoy your day
    Karen x

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  8. LMAO @ Bathroom sharing with boys. They are smelly and hairy aren't they! ;-) I am lucky that my husband isn't that messy, but I have some basty memories of sharing a bathroom with 2 male flatmates in uni. Ugh! Threaten your boys with military camp! ;-)

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  9. I used to love Laura Ashley a few years back when they used to stock a petite range of clothes & Monsoon come to that. They change things to much but I do agree with you on the designs offered by Laura Ashley now. Your description of sharing a bathroom with boys made me laugh, I share your pain. Then again I feel there is too much boyness spread throughout my house! I enjoy reading these kinds of lists.

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  10. This made me smile. =) I love your list! I agree with you about boys and bathrooms, as a mother to three sons, it can get pretty scary in there! I love garden fresh cucumbers and tomatoes. I can still remember the faint cucumbery smell of my mother's kitchen when growing up. Summers in the U.S. south were heavenly. =) Love your blog, a bright spot in my mornings, Valerie

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  11. I like my meat pink and walk really sloooowly. Other than that, I think I'm with you on most of your random facts! Especially the dishwasher thing. And the herbs. Oh, and completely agree with you re Laura Ashley - hoorah for you complaining - they've gone all dowdy and middle-aged.

    Absolutely adore your photo. xxx

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  12. I'm with you on Laura Ashley, I used to love it and now I barely remember to go in there - good for you Vanessa. Have a great week.
    Jane x

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  13. I wrote a list of 10 things and I worried that mine sounded like moans - I will post it tomorrow - but rest assured that you do not have 10 random moans here! It is great to know more about you and I am totally with you on the Laura Ashley thing and the washing up liquid thing, I use the lemon one, but it doesn't seem to smell of lemon to me! Loved your list! xx

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  14. Very insightful. I like light curtains, glad you spoke up to Laura Ashley, I like to stroll, I do like the smell of fresh herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers too.
    All good!

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  15. Loving these ten random posts. I don't like dark curtains either and often don't bother closing the curtain, even in the summer. I hate walking slowly too and can't see the point. I know only one other person who can walk quicker than me!
    Thanks for sharing
    Caz xx

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  16. You will probably think that I'm bonkers but I had never thought about organising the dishwasher cutlery in sections and I think that your idea of dividing the forks from the knives and from the spoons and stuff is brilliant.
    In which planet was I? Then again, I'm famous for overcomplicating my life with all sorts of things and this, today, has been a bit of an epiphany for me. Yay!
    Pati x

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  17. This is so funny to me. I love hearing quirky facts about others. Such a great way to connect :-)

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  18. Great list ��, it feels good to moan once in a while. You completely rights about the dishwasher but I feel happy when the rest of my family puts their dirty dishes in the dishwasher, I don't care how they do it as long as they don't let them in the sink. Most of the time I get one of my daughters to empty it ��. Thank god I don't have to share the bathroom with my daughters, even though I'm the one that has to clean it. But with all the moaning and the complaining we all happily do what needs to be done!!!
    Maria xx

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  19. I have to have the curtains open at night as well and natural light streaming through. It does mean I wake up quite early in summer, but that's how it should be I think. I have a similar bathroom experience to you, four males and just one of me. It infuriates me when companies change something I love too. The Body Shop used to have the most wonderful cocoa butter body lotion, I bought it in industrial quantities, and jojoba oil shampoo. They were world leading products. Then they changed one and stopped making the other. I was devastated. I love that tomato smell too. Sometimes I rub the leaves just to smell the smell. Wishing I had more time to read too, I have an unrealistically big pile of books from the library! CJ xx

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  20. I'm a fast walker too, though I have slowed down with age. My nana taught me to walk fast when I was 6 and now I find it very tiring to walk slowly.
    Tracey xxx

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  21. Brilliant post Vanessa, I love these 'random things' ones. Love No 1, I'm so arranging my cutlery in the dishwasher now. Agree with 3, my Granddad had a farm with a giant tomato greenhouse and the smell of tomatoes on the vine always take me back there. Agree with 4 completely. I'm the same on 5, although I don't often even manage the home style cooks or magazines now, need to change that. Yep, me too on No 8!

    S x

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  22. Had to smile at the bathroom fact. I live with four boys 6 - 41 and one girl of 18 and she is the messy one by far! :-) Pam

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  23. The forget me nots in the spool photo is adorable! I loved reading your ten random things, and especially the bit about Laura Ashley......you put it so well and I so agree with you......I do wish they still made beautiful dresses in beautiful fabrics. Thank you for an interesting post. Wishing you a happy week.
    Helen xox

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  24. Boys and bathrooms, eugh. I vowed my two would be bathroom trained but the younger so isn't. I will have to apologise in advance to whoever he partners up with!

    Lovely list. They're fun aren't they :)

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  25. I love it! Yes, bathrooms - wet towels garlore here, one day I'll have my own bathroom with piles of dry, fluffy towels.

    Number 7 is very interesting - I see things like days of the week as colours, no idea why. Gorgeous image too, by the way! x

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  26. Definitely moany but quite funny! Wondering what the reply from Laura Ashley will say? I've always thought that she came long long before Kidston and wonder how many younger people realise

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  27. Vanessa, missing your posts. Hope all is well, come back when you can.

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