Time for a little bit of housekeeping

There are a whole list of things I've failed to blog about this summer, and a whole list of reasons for not doing so. I haven't blogged out of idleness (ooh look, the wine is open, and a film is on); I haven't blogged because the USB port on the computer isn't working so the photos have to be loaded onto the laptop which is kept upstairs, and the stairs are tiring and the laptop runs much slower than the PC and my life is so hard; and I haven't blogged because my children have spent the whole summer beating one another to a pulp. I can't turn my back. I'm telling you.

So. I've done a few star jumps. I've found Eye of the Tiger on Youtube. Let's do this thing.

(For example, back in June (JUNE!) a woman from Douwe Egberts sent me some chocolates in a jar to mark the fact that the company had now started selling refill packs to cut down on packaging. I was supposed to eat the chocolates, fill the jar with something interesting and take a picture of it to share with you. I ate the chocolates. I had great plans for what I would put in the jar, but I ended up forgetting all about them and just putting coffee in it. Anyway. Douwe Egberts make coffee which goes in nice refillable jars. I think that was the gist of it. (There was a competition, but I've told you about it far too late for you to enter. What can I tell you. I'm only human.))

Many, many moons ago - and this is even before the Douwe Egberts Fail - we went to the Lakeland Wildlife Oasis for a very fine day out to see their new snow leopard. (Mr Coffee and I believe that 'snow leopard' is a worthy alternative to the term 'silver fox', by the way.)

I failed to take any decent pictures of the snow leopard, but here is a very attractive-looking, erm, birdish thing.

It is utterly fine to blog about this even though it was months ago, because the children revisited with The Grandmother this week. This makes it a Current Event, I'm sure you'll agree. If you're in the area, go visit! There's a snow leopard! For heaven's sake!

There's more to come. I haven't even told you about my new vacuum cleaner yet. Really. I need to tell you.

I'll finish off for today with a picture of the Portfolio dress, because so many of you asked to see it. (I'd like to throw my weight behind Duyvken's Operation Pinterest project - this is my contribution.) I like the dress; I don't like the dress. It's a very beautiful item - right up until the moment that I try to put my boobs into it, and then it begins to look slightly as if I have tried to dress myself in a large blue bag.

It has to be said, the full-length picture isn't the best photograph. I tried to take self-timed ones out in the garden, but you don't even want to know what they looked like.

I made it in a cotton dobby fabric, with a flat check from the exact same range as the contrast. Though I did look at picking up one of the bold colours in the fabric itself, it could have easily looked very alarming - I liked the slight contrast much better.


Mostly I like the pockets.

More housekeeping to come. Stay tuned.