Criminals, Camper Vans and Cake

Hi Folks, sorry it's been a while (again). One of the reasons for this is that I am now without a laptop. A couple of charming individuals did this to our dining room door, having slid open the half-painted sash that was without a lock.

They got a really good haul of all our electrical goods and even carted off my son's little home safe which he used to store his sweets in.

Lack of intelligence prompted them to use Mr Magpie's cards in two different cashpoints which had cameras on them and a car that was registered to their address. When the house was raided four days later our goods were long gone but other people's were found. A letter written to my son from his cousin (which had been in the safe) was also found, as was the tool that made the charming marks in our woodwork. This evidence was enough to charge a man with and he is now on bail pending a court date in the new year.

We are now waiting anxiously to see whether the insurance company will settle our claim since the window was unlocked (the lock had been removed for painting) even though the inner door was double locked.

Mr Magpie had a busy weekend after the robbery securing the house once more and adding window restricters and an alarm. I took the children up t'north to see family and we had a lovely time before coming back for our camper van adventure.

 

We have owned our old T4 Van for about six years now and although we have added (and removed, and added) seats to it it has essentially been a builders van, very useful whilst we have been renovating the house and also handy for transporting off-road motorbikes. It is also brilliant for camping since we would never fit all we take in the car. I was however very envious of my friend and her old VW in the summer when we went camping. She pulled up, hopped into the back and put the kettle on. I pulled up, had to unload all our gear and then spend at least two hours setting up camp.

 

 

Mr Magpie had been eyeing up camper vans for a while and spent much of his time at Larmer Tree sussing out the various options. We have been thinking of upgrading our T4 to a T5 so decided to hire one in half term to try it out. We weren't disappointed.  Since we didn't want to spend hours driving we had a lovely little tour of the West Country and it was just what we needed.




Glastonbury Tor
 



East Somerset Railway
 



Wookey Hole
 



I'll let you guess
 

The van was toasty warm at night thanks to the heater and it was fab for the days out too since we could provide our own hot snacks, drinks and warm seating area. This was particularly welcome at Stonehenge where the wind was whistling across Salisbury Plain.

We hired our van from here and thought the service was excellent. Although the owner is selling one of his vans, the £34,000 price tag is slightly over our budget so we will be looking for an ordinary van and 'pimping' it ourselves. I would love to hear if any of you have any camper van tales to tell or wisdom to impart.

Finally the cake you were promised. I can't show you a true 'ta-dah' since it is still in the oven and will be for at least another three hours, but it is that time of year again. I love making my own Christmas cake and in doing so I give myself the metaphorical kick up the backside needed to kick-start our annual preparations.

They are on hold for one more week though as this weekend I will be having a stall at Karen's lovely fair, so I have got a little bit of sewing to do. I am looking forward to catching up with Karen, as well as some other blog land friends like Katherine.

If you can make it to Alderholt on Saturday I'm sure you won't be disappointed, Karen did a fantastic job last time and always has a great mix of stalls and entertainment. Make sure you come and say hello!

Thanks for stopping by,

Beth x


Christmas Craft

Hi folks, sorry for the gap in posts but I'm sure you can all appreciate that this is a busy time of year. I've also been having some laptop issues, i.e, I don't actually have my own and the other Magpies are very protective of their toys and are being a bit mean about sharing.

I've been having another break from my sewing machine, but have been doing lots of hand sewing. I made a 'Merry Christmas' decoration as a present, similar to this one that I made last year.

And this is what I came back from work one morning to find. (We've been watching Ice Age films recently, Scrat is a character from them!).

I'm sensing lots more anagrams over the festive period; a quick Google revealed over 5,000 variations!

For Christmas last year we bought Grannie Magpie a copy of the book 'Knitivity' as she is a fantastic knitter. I was really looking forward to seeing this. It has taken months of hard work and we all think the results are amazing!

The dolls are really detailed, with all the pieces knitted separately. I didn't mind undressing baby Jesus but I thought I'd better not undress the adult dolls, you'll have to take my word for it that their clothes come off!

Mr Donkey still needs some wire in his legs.

I don't think I would have the patience to finish the whole scene so hats off to Grannie Magpie for this, it's brilliant!

We're currently enjoying our Christmas visit to the family in the Midlands, then it will be home for some last minute present making and wrapping before getting settled in for the main event.

Thanks for stopping by,

Beth x