My month in numbers: June

Hi.

I hate to be the one to break this to you but we're half way through 2010 now you know?

Half way! Six months! Only 177 shopping days left 'til Christmas! But, before we all panic and rush out to buy those last minute gifts ..... let's have a look at the numbers which have played a part in my June:

0. Free. Gratis. For nothing = the price of two trays of marigolds which had apparently been blighted by frost and were being given away at a garden centre.

I simply snipped off the dead bits [a delicate horticultural procedure not to be attempted by amateurs ;)] and now their vivid orange is cheerily lighting up the bottom of my garden. Isn't 'free' pretty?

1 = If I tell you that this is in relation to a jigsaw can you guess what significance the number '1' has? Let's see...

I found two vintage Waddington's jigsaws in a charity shop for £1 each and despite not knowing what on earth I was going to do with a jigsaw map of the British Isles and New Zealand [!!] I bought them both! Then, last Sunday afternoon at my parents' house, [post-barbeque and pre-England-v-Germany match] four of us, in a scene which could have been from an earlier age, sat down together and spent a couple of hours working on a jigsaw!

And after all that effort ... guess what?

Well, there was only ever going to be one punchline to this story wasn't there? And here it is: Typical!!! But then , what can you expect for £1?

And no Dad, I won't be taking it back for a refund .... [he was only joking, I think .....] ;)

53 = the number of followers this blog had at the time of writing this post. I'm not going to lie to you and say that I don't care about numbers and popularity ... I know I shouldn't care and keep count and compare .... but I am only human ...

A few weeks ago I realised that at least one of the reasons [although I'm quite sure there are others ...] that I didn't have more followers was that I didn't have a 'Followers' gadget in my sidebar. So I added one and watched the number climb and then plateau at 40 something.

The day after it reached 50 I mentioned to some friends who were discussing their follower numbers, that I was happy to have at least reached 50 ... but, as the old saying goes, pride comes before a fall ... and over the next two days I lost two followers!

Now after writing that last sentence I realise that, if history repeats itself, by telling you all about this ... I'm in line for losing followers left, right and centre ..... unless you feel like boosting my numbers yourself .... ;)

A few hundred = roughly the number of my tweets that went missing when Twitter had a server glitch for a couple of weeks. While this may not sound like much, if you're not a Twitterphile like I am, it really did bother me ... I do some of my best writing within the confines of its 140 characters!!

It also gave the appearance that I didn't Tweet very often as it registered only 600 or so. Thankfully now it's back as it should be and as you can see I've actually rambled on, all be it in very short bursts, over 1600 times now!!!If you still don't 'get' Twitter, I'm planning a post which I hope will help demystify it, show you a few ways to use it to your advantage and may just make you reconsider your current anti-tweeting policy! Just be warned, may get a little evangelical about it. Again.

4 hours = about the amount of notice I got that we were having two small house guests for the weekend. The same weekend during which I had to produce 5 projects for a magazine article! A weekend which was apparently all planned and one which someone forgot to mention to me.

After I'd taken in the news [quietly, but pointedly!] I was fine with it. The small house guests in question are aways impeccably well-behaved and rather oblingingly they even share James's and my respective loves of sci-fi and crafting. So while the big boys waged Star Wars Lego battles we, the girls, worked on crafting deadlines and making mini-albums.

You'll have to wait until Issue 78 of Papercraft Inspirations Magazine is published [which I think is September] to see what I was working on, but here's a peek at what the small house-guest made for herself. Her little book of things she likes:Which, as you might just be able to make out, adorably includes animals such as 'ginny pigs' and 'gecos' and the colours 'perpol' and 'wight'! So on this surprise house guest weekend what did we learn? Well...

• Small House Guest 1 learned that the one and only time he won a round of 'flicking over Lego Star Wars men with elastic bands' his uncle James hadn't actually meant let him win ... he'd won fair and square on his own merits! [But really? One round! Why can't men let kids win more often?];
• Then Small House Guest 2 learned she's never too young to begin scrapbooking;
• James learned the joys of taking two kids to the cinema on his own to see a film which he was embarrassed to ask for tickets to ['Furry Vengeance'!!] and during which he nearly fell asleep.

And finally .....

• I learned to be highly suspicious of phone calls from him on Friday afternoons which begin with the words: "How much do you love me? ....."

OK then, that's June under our belts. Now what? July is currently offering me:

• a short break;
• a trip to an airshow [for which I'm already forcing James to pre-prepare a treasure hunt style worksheet [like museums have to stop kids getting bored] for me to play with while I'm there!];
• swiftly followed by a trip to a large antiques fair; and finally ...
• the opening of 'The Carousel Zebra' my first online shop. [I've edited this to add the link so some people don't burst with curiosity ;)]

Non-stop action or what?

Happy July everyone, I wish you everything you wish for yourself.

Julie x