Competitive Side - Satisfied!

I have quite a competitive streak, and I was getting a tiny bit peeved after months of blogging and not having won any of those lovely giveaways yet... but all is satisfied, because I have won a lovely prize from Lululiz! A tiny bit of skill (and a lot of luck) was involved. She'd posted a picture of diced yellow stuff on a chopping board, looking for all the world like cheese, and challenged us to work out what it was. In the end, I twigged that it was a soap-related product! Phew... The most wonderful smell of lavender emerged from our warm post box one day this week. A small jiffybag was inside. Inside that was:

This fantastic lavender bag, which I had actually seen on Lululiz's blog when she finished making a set! It is now beside our bed and we have been sleeping very well indeed.One of Lululiz's famous soaps was also there. She doesn't know that Son 2 and I are quite big fans of handmade soap, and he normally buys me some for Christmas each year. He and I had a good chat about Lululiz's soap, and I told him that it was a real luxury product, with good quality ingredients (I have read your soap website, Liz!). He added, knowledgeably, 'all natural, I suppose...' ...but of course! Note the essential 'boy' additions of plastic dinosaurs and pokemon figures.This very pretty Sarah Smith cleaning cloth was also part of the parcel. It's been in use already - in fact it solved a bit of an emergency when we spilled something the other day. Son 1 was a bit concerned, and wondered if it was too good to use for mopping up a spill! Thanks so much for all this, Liz - it's lovely to put it all to use!

As you can see, we are all enjoying the holidays. It's not as hot as it was before school broke up (typical) but we have a nice mixture of friends to visit, lessons to teach, walks and cycle rides or just doing very little. Next week Ben is off to a conference in Germany, and the boys and I are going to visit my parents in Edinburgh. Dear Raja and Chanel will be well looked after by a student friend of ours, who is a great house sitter.