Fun Monday# 22

We have a little Swampwitch hosting Fun Monday this week and this is the task she set us:

"So, Fun Monday's challenge for today June 25 is to post pictures of your bookshelves or stacks of books. Hopefully, we will be able to read some of the titles. If you want, while you're at it, post pictures of ANY shelves...shelves with toys, dishes, collections, Aunt Gertrude's ashes in an urn, etc. Also, post pictures of your garage, carport, or places where you store 'stuff.' (No cleaning first, but if you must, maybe this will be the motivation to do so.)"

I've cheated for half of this because I posted pictures of my clutter sometime back so although we have tidied up a lot little since then I'll just link to that post so that you can feel very smug because no one will have as much junk and muddle as we do and you may even choose NOT look at the link!!! here

As my little slide show proved popular last week I decided to do the same again. I have not tidied the shelves so you are getting as it was yesterday when I took the photos.

Dining room: The first bookcase mostly contains nursing, social work, health, books. The other unit has a set of encyclopedia , Kipling, travel, books on Bristol, also shelves of nicknacks and pictures. The other small bookcase is full of EmBee's books (and stuff). The recipe shelves have been in a previous Fun Monday post so won't dwell on those. Bookshelves in top bedroom include books not yet read. I have just given you a glimpse into Embee's study (far too full to use) shelves all around. You will see a bookcase of children's books some from when the girls were young plus others I have got for my grandchildren. I have one cupboard full of toys for them and although they have really grown too old for these, they still enjoy creating with stickle bricks and lego. In my sitting room I have an untidy cupboard of games,video and DVD's. Also in that room you will see figurines and paintings done by my grand children, on shelf units either side of the fire.
I'm tempted to watch a little Wimbledon but I think I'll go visiting your shelves instead see you soon!!

PS Now I have posted and viewed the slide show I did it smaller (it looked fine on my screen) but published it is not as clear as I would have liked- no time to change it!!

How not to treat your baskets

Mimi's post on baskets see French Kitchen in America immediately made me think of resurrecting a favourite basket of mine that has been languishing in my cellar for over twenty years, well in fact since we moved into this house. Now, I cannot remember how I acquired it but I really loved it and it was regularly used for popping out to the shops for the odd few items. The basket became impractical once supermarkets took over from the local shops. A weekly shop was much more convenient and supermarkets gave plastic bags in an effort to reduce the shop lifting, so you were not allow you to use your own bag. Now we have come a complete circle and with all the recycling bags have once again become 'fashionable' and stores encourage rather than discourage own bags and baskets. In fact many actually sell bags for re-use, the cynic in me says are they really trying to save the environment or line their own pockets. This is open for debate and I'm sure you all have views. You can see from the first photo taken in the cellar my basket has been used to store my grandchildren's buckets and spades. As an aside the boat you can see is one of two that were made for Sam and Beccy by their father back in the early 70's (I hope you note we were ahead of the times not all stereo-typical girly toys). I have so much stored in my cellar I have enough material for quite a few posts if I get short of ideas. I think a cellar sale would be a good idea once it's all sorted.


The basket is currently sitting on my hearth and I have been wondering whether to keep it as a feature and fill with dried flowers or pebbles. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Was yours a top toy?

Well folks, as promised on Saturday's post, here are the results of the top toy survey undertaken here in Bristol. There are a lot of very popular toys that are not on the list but how many are on your list.
1 BMX bike
2 Transformers
3 Rubik's cube
4 Action Man
5 Lego
6 Etch a sketch
7 Barbie
8 Fuzzy Felt
9 Pound Puppies
10 Gameboy
11 Scalextric
12 Space Hoppers
13 Yo-Yo
14 My Little Pony
15 Chopper Bike
16 Play-Doh
17 Mic
18 Slinky
19 Cabbage Patch Kids
20 Girl's World

This was not a national survey so we must take the result with a pinch of salt but it's been nice to see your personal favourites and thanks to all who participated, hope it brought back some good childhood memories.

Top 20 toys of all time

An article caught my eye as I read our local 'Evening Post' this morning. I often read it with breakfast the following morning as it's a hand on from my neighbour when he's finished with it. The article was written by a Lucy Parkinson and was based on a survey by Toys R US stores here in Bristol. The poll involved asking 4,500 adults 'what was their favourite toy as a child'. It made me think back to the late 40's and 50's when we had very few toys and mostly made our own entertainment. I do remember having a much loved china doll and although it's arm got broken I was very upset when my mother got rid of it when I left home. I had a few books which I still have to this day. I also remember being very frustrated when I could not do tricks with a yo yo. Another thrill was having a bike for passing the 11+ exam (who said bribery doesn't work) and a watch (still have this as well but it's no longer in working order). I remember my brother having Meccano and Dinky cars which he later sold, bet he's wishing he kept them as they were all boxed and in good condition. I've just remembered 'hula hoops' I spent hours trying to keep a hoop spinning around my waist, never did master it very well but had lots of fun trying and I was getting plenty of excercise although that was furthest from my mind at the time. Pity I didn't keep this toy as my waist could certainly do with the excercise now.

When my own children were growing up we had a very good toy shop (Dawson's) a couple of miles from where we lived and I saved all year get the 'must have' toy for birthday's and Christmas. There were no super toy stores that I remember back in the 70's. I won't elaborate on Sam and Beccy's favourite toys as I'm sure they will respond to this post.

So what was your favourite toy as a child how about sharing it with us (actually this would have been a good one for 'Fun Monday'). Although there's no prizes for guessing the top 20 toys from this survey, have a go anyway. I will print a list later in the week and you can see if your favourite is there and how many of the top toys you named.