Giveaway winner!

It seemed like such a good idea at the time, but now I feel so mean not being able to give everyone who took the time to leave a comment a tin and with comments being left by friends I feel uncomfortable choosing... so Perhaps next time I'll use the random number generator, I am too sensitive for this :D

All the suggestions were really great and I would enjoy blogging about them all.  I am so overwhelmed that anyone has taken the trouble to make comments on my blog and hope this continues on my posts without giveaways ;)




The first winning suggestion is from Siouxsie and was to blog about my wishlists.  I picked this because blogging about my wishlists on my blog would mean that there is more room for just my photography on Flickr and would not just be a repeat of something on there. It is also something that I could make a regular post, which made it stand out from the other suggestions and lastly I now have an idea for my first wishlist post, so it has inspired me a lot!
Thank you Siouxsie - as the first winner you get to choose which tin you'd prefer :)

The second winning suggestion was to blog about my Miriana doll collection.  I am so in love with them and admire Miriana's work so much, it would be such a pleasure to share my collection and to promote Miriana's work here.  I would love a reason to take some more photos of them, so as Abby suggested this first you get the second tin.  Thank you Abby....but, as Cosima also suggested this I am going to find a tin for you also because that feels like the right thing to do!

Please would Siouxsie (with your choice of tin), Abby and Cosima email me your addresses to hellorach@tiscali.co.uk and I will pop your tins in the post to you next week.

I plan to do some more giveaways and if I discover somewhere you can get hold of these elusive tins more easily I will share with you!

Thanks again for supporting my blogs :) xx

Karel Capek Tea Tin - giveaway!

So, I read that you should write about things you love in your blog...I also read that you should stick to one subject, but that I can't do sorry :D  Oh and you probably aren't supposed to use laughing faces and the amount of exclamation marks that I do, but hey I'm going to be myself here!  Perhaps over time a topic that I can focus on will evolve naturally, but for now I'm just going to chat away about random things that I feel passionate about.

Therefore, with things I love in mind, for my second post I've decided to share my love of Karel Capek - not the Czech writer, but the tea that is named after him by the wonderful illustrator and children's author - Utako Yamada.  



I can't remember how I first came across her illustrations, but it was love at first sight.  I managed to find a shop online, long since closed down, that sold a few of the tea tins, so snapped them up.  I started with a collection of just 3 tea tins.  It took me a while to track down the website but when I did I wanted everything!  There's not just tea tins there either, check out the cute mugs, cookies  and even a yearly calendar, to name just a few!  Sadly they don't ship direct out of Japan, but I live in hope they will one day.  You can use an international shipping site to buy and ship them for you, but I refuse to pay the fees!  However, I've been really lucky over the years and have had the opportunity to buy some from fellow collectors I've met online and even luckier to have been gifted some tins and other Karel Capek illustrated items from some wonderful friends in Japan.

My first 3 tea tins

 

The tea tins make great props for photos, like this one I used to help show off my homemade biscuit sandwich for Flickr!

 

I have 38 at the moment -I've given a few of them away as gifts. Most of them I acquired empty as the tea makes them heavy to ship, but I have been lucky enough to have some with the tea inside and it was delicious! I think the Welcome tea tins above maybe my absolute favourites in my collection, as they have such cute designs and are also in lovely pastel colours, but I have lots of other favourites too!

Just a few of my other favourite tins

 

 

I know that a lot of my online friends have admired my collection and so as they are so hard to get hold of and as a thank you for supporting my new blogging hobby I'm going to 2 away to 2 lucky readers!  So all you have to do is leave me a comment suggesting what I put in a future blog post.  I will choose the 2 suggestions that I'd most like to blog about and announce the winner in my next blog post.  It might be a photo from my Flickr/ipernity pages that inspires you, or anything you fancy!  I am excited to see your suggestions. 

 

The prizes! You will win either the Caramel tea or Pancake tea tin

Me and my rescue cat - one year on

Tomorrow - Sunday 26 May 2013, will be the day a year ago when I brought home my first cat Dexter.  So what better subject for my first blog post!




Is it dinner time yet?

One of my favourite photos of Dexty that was featured in Explore on Flickr and the Flickr blog

 

It was May 2012, my daughter Holli had recently left home and I was feeling lonely.  It had been suggested to me that owning a cat might be a good idea.  So, after reassurance from Holli that although she's allergic to cats she'd still come and visit me, I visited the Cats Protection League rescue centre in Truro. A week later I came home with Dexter, or Dexty as he's now known, a  12 year old (well 13 tomorrow!) mackerel tabby. I don't know much about his background at all apart from the home he was in before he came to me was with a load of students and it wasn't working out for any of them (lucky for me!). 

Having never owned or really had anything to do with cats before, I was a bit nervous about bringing him home.  All the way home he was meowing, I thought this was so cute, a cat that talks to me, how wonderful....how wrong could I be, I realised when the most awful smell suddenly started to fill the car, that far from chatting away to me he had been trying to tell me that he didn't like travelling by car and he was going to empty his bowels at any minute!  Not the start to our relationship I had been hoping for.  So instead of following all the rules in my newly acquired cat book about settling him gently, he was bundled upstairs to the bathroom and washed down with the help of my neighbour Jacky, who thankfully is an experienced cat owner.

The good news is that he didn't hold a grudge, settled in immediately and it's like he's always been here.  I just can't imagine life without him now.  I am always excited to see him when I come home from work, he's very vocal and will meow away about what he's been up to while I've been out (sleeping mostly), how late home I am and what he wants for his dinner.  He likes to spend every waking hour with me and every sleeping hour too!  I feel so much calmer since I brought a cat into my life and can't recommend highly enough getting a rescue cat.

I hope you'll join in with me and wish Dexty a very happy birthday!