We asked you what you use your hats and warmers for once purchased from le Sainsbury's.
We really have had some beauties, including babies donning warmers for head bands and grown women, yes grown women, using the little hats as ear muffs.
We really thought we had seen it all. Then these arrived.
Oh my.
Ronan the hamster looks dashing in his hat and the pink really sets of his eyes.
Smudge the cat looks irresistable in his very "en vogue" snood. Wouldn't you agree?
And, as for these two cheeky chappies or chapesses, there really are very few words to describe their wooly look.
Very professional modelling. Stern, rigid, alert.
You can vote for your favourite animal snap by leaving a comment to the blog, the winner will receive a case of smoothies.
This Saturday, a giant blue wave will hit Parliament Square at 3pm.
Well actually, first
it will assemble around Grosvenor Square at midday and then march
through London in support of a safe climate future for all.
Ahead of
the UN climate summit in Copenhagen next week, The Wave has been
organised by the Stop Climate Change Coalition
in support of action on climate change.
It all culminates in the big
march on Saturday and tens of thousands of people are going to be
there, all dressed in perhaps this link will show you more.
Teapots, swans, pigs and lots of bobbles - this year's Hat of the Week has been a rollercoaster ride and make no mistake.
This week marks the final week of the contest. Next week, the winners of the last few weeks will go hat-to-hat in the 2009 Hat Off where one hat will reign supreme.
So for the last HOTW 2009, here are this week's contenders.
In Cupid's Corner are the Hats of Love knitted by Tracey P of Catford.
And over in the the Corner of Fuzz are the Fluffies as knitted by Marian H from the Priddys Purlers of Alverstoke (and lovingly named by Gurdeep).
Okay, so there are no corners. And no wool will be pulled. And yes, there is no mini woollen ring where these hats eschew their little capes and do battle.
But despite all that, only one of these trios can win the final HOTW. Fluffies versus Lovehearts. You decide.
Hate that embarrassing moment when someone hands you a nicely wrapped Christmas present and you're left, awkwardly shuffling and looking intently at a piece of fluff on the floor because you've not bought them anything?
Well to avoid such festive faux pas this year, here's our top 5 list of failsafe emergency Christmas presents.
Simply buy a few, wrap them up and keep them on hand with a stash on unmarked gift tags so you can scribble a quick seasons greeting before handing it over.
Top 5 failsafe emergency Christmas presents (or as Charlie H calls them 'floater gifts')
1. Socks: Totally failsafe. Especially those one-size-fits-all types.
2. Panettone: Posh. Christmassy. Posh. Yep.
3. A nice pen: Will make said recipient feel important. Especially if it comes in a special pen box.
4. Cheat's homemade chutney: Buy some nice chutney, steam off the labels, handwrite your own, tie a fancy bit of ribbon round the top and Rudolph's your uncle.
5. Our books*
They're perfect for budding business types or the loved ones in your life who like messing about in the kitchen. Plus they're pretty sizeable so all you'll need to do is pop a few walnuts and a clementine in for generous looking stocking/well thought out gift.
We could do a special deal on them but you know and we know that you'll get a better deal on Amazon, so here's a handy link instead.
*EXTREMELY STRONG DISCLAIMER: We never usually do stuff like this but since we've written them and you've got stockings to fill, we thought a shamless plug in support of stocking filling would be okay
You may have heard by now that we here at innocent have just released a charity single to support this years Big Knit... hoorah I hear you cry. The innocent Big Knit choir's charity single "There's no-one quite like Grandma" is NOW available on iTunes. It's a meer 79p (the price of 2 apples or half a sandwich) and all of the money raised will go to the Big Knit charities, Age Concern and Help the Aged.
Download your copy from iTunes today (and maybe one for your nan to). We are of course gunning for that Christmas No.1 spot - giving Simon Cowell a run for his money - so every download counts.
You can also watch the music video below, with the very lovely June Whitfield and Age Concern Camden's infamous, Carmen, Beryl and Jeane.
We had a quite a day when the actual, real life choir came to visit us in Fruit Towers this weeks - fresh from a live performance in London's Regents Park. There was a lot of excitement, especially for those of us who remebered St Winifred's School Choir the first time around.
Don't they all look lovely in their pink cardigans? So please get involved and buy your single now, think of it as an early Christmas present from you to Age Concern and Help the Aged.
This is Ollie. He came to visit us last Friday. He's like an understated version of Gambit from X-Men.
Ollie is a confidence trickster. An illusionist. A bloke that's good with rabbits. A magician. You know, cards and stuff. No rabbits though. Bit disappointing. But cards are pretty cool. Especially when they go jumping all over the place in front of your eyes without actually appearing to move at all. Most of the time they're just still. But they're jumpy creatures, cards - one click of a finger and the jack of spades has shot out from under the bottom of the deck, zapped itself through some invisible vortex (the same one missing socks end up in?) to find itself residing, casual as you like, in your back pocket, paper in one hand, cup of tea in the other, wondering what took you so long to find it.
And all you can do is go 'whoa, that is chicken oriental' and look around to others for confirmation that they too missed the invisible vortex, the unseen card and sock carrying highway, to check that you are not the only one who feels like an eight year old again - giddy with excitement because something strange and cool is happening that you don't understand.
It's all way beyond us. But then, so is the tube on a Monday morning. Ollie, however, sees the vortex highway. Actually, he is its traffic controller, ushering card after card up and down it at his making. He's not seen our socks though (where's the practical application of your skills man, we ask?)
Check him out making us go 'whoa' (and before you ask, no, it's not fake).
This week's hat of the week vote is between Homer and Dennis the Menace, a cartoon special. Go and cast your own vote on which you consider to be worthy of this week's hat of the week accolade.
Our big knit hats are now in Sainsbury's stores up and down the country. Once you've found a hat you like you can add it to our flickr group or tweet us a picture and we'll give prizes to the best in a few weeks.
You hire great people. They work really hard. They get promoted. And then you need even more great people to come and fill their shoes.
It's what HR types call a circle of win win.
And that's the sort of situation we're in right now.
Thanks to a recent spate of promotions, we've looking for some sparky, on-the-ball types to come and join our sales team as commercial account executives.
With a catchy title like that, ideally we're after people who are looking for their second sales job. Whether that's a year's work placement somewhere or experience working as part of a crack core FMCG 'I-don't-eat-lunch' team, if you're into sales and fancy a new challenge, then this role might be right up your street.
There's more information on the role right here. Deadline for applications in Monday 22nd November and you'll need to be available for an assessment centres the first week of December.
And who knows?
Next year you too could end up in aspirational motivational posters just like this one.
We found a new website yesterday, called learn something new everyday. It's nice and colourful, and does exactly what it says on the tin. Here's a few of our favourite learnings from the archives...
Sorry for the delay, the dog ate my computer. So, it was a stunningly close Big Knit hat of the week last week.
The creatively titled competitiors were "the flower that looks a bit like a lion", aka Dandelion (geddit? DandeLION?), and, an oldy but a goody, the Christmas pud, aka "51 days to go". Dandelion took an amazing 56.46% of the vote, with "51 days to go" finishing a brave second.
Congratulations Bev from Derby, you did a spectacuraarrrrr job. A case of smoothies will be winging themselves to you.
A few months ago, James (our Finance Director) entered his team for the Accountancy Age Awards (the Oscars of number crunching) and excitingly, they've been shortlisted for the Finance Team of the Year. The awards are next week so we'll keep you posted on how they do.
Meantime, here's a picture of the whole team together, one big happy abacus loving family
Except there's one member of the Finance team who is not in this picture.
Who never gets invited to lunch, never gets asked their opinion on the latest budget and never gets any desk toys or email forwards whatsoever despite being integral to the running of the business.
All this team member gets to do is to sit in a lonely part of the office, with nothing but a filing cabinet, unhung picture and a few random trays to chat to.
Occasionally Ryan remembers this neglected team member, comes along and gets him out his box.
Spend some time with him, chucks a few coins his way and makes him feel such a part of the team again that his little face lights up in green LED joy.
But then it's back in the box, back on top of the filing cabinet and forgotten about until the next time petty cash needs counting.
He's hired a tux especially for next week's award bash.
Fingers crossed they'll remember to take him along.
Our big game of consequences is now in it's last 24 hours. If you want to write the very end line to any of the 26 stories just pop over to our consequences website, pick any letter, catch up on the story so far, and bring it to a happy ending. Then just wait until 4pm tomorrow (Thursday 12th Nov) to see if your line was chosen as the winner on any of the letters.
3 free fridge magnet versions of each letter are still available in all of our kids smoothie multi-packs in the shops now. They'll be collectors editions soon so an eye out for them.
Our friends from Thoughtful really are very thoughtful. Very thoughtful indeed.
It was a cold, rainy London day when I received a call from the lovely James (pictured above, on the right). He wanted to know if it was ok if he organised a knitathon in aid of the Big Knit. I thought about it for about 12 seconds and replied "Well of course it is. That indeed would be very, very thoughtful".
A few phonecalls and a delivery of all the neccessary knitathon bits and bobs later, the Sainsbury's Romiley Thoughtful Knitathon was born.
They knitted and chatted and knitted for a whole 16 hours and managed to knit well over 100 hats. We just wanted to say an enormous thank you to everyone who took part.
So without further ado [cue drumroll/cymbal crash/other exciting sound effects] sit back and enjoy Jim Anderson's Chiller. (You can also watch it bigger in HD here if you like).
By day, they manage everything from getting smoothies from A to B, keeping the office ship shape, answering the bananaphone and doing IT stuff.
But by night (and every other weekend), they rise up, cast their day jobs to one side and dance like the living dead.
If the living dead had a thing for talc, ripped lycra and mixed ability dancing.
Please say hello to the Zombie All Stars
Eddie- Office Superman (and self proclaimed Head of Security)
Day-to-day job: Manning the grassy van fleet, filling the fridge, fixing all problems when Ian the Builder isn't about, refilling the fridge, lifting lots of heavy stuff, using a drill and sporting an array of day glo flat caps.
Zombie role: Werewolf and zombie dancer in Troop Camp. Someone has since stolen said mask. He'd like it back please. No questions asked.
Interesting fact: Eddie has just won the innocent scholarship to take acting lessons in New York. In anticipation of hitting the big time, he very kindly signed his autograph for you to add to your collection.
Print out, save and then whack on eBay in five year's time.
Ruth - Commercial Operations
Day-to-day job: Ruth describes her day job as 'Working with the sales team to make sure all their chat actually happens'. Or getting the right smoothies get to the right place at the right time.
Zombie role: The receptionist and lead dancer in Troop Literally
Interesting fact: Ruth had planned to bury her costume for that authentic zombie look. Told everyone she'd buried it in fact. Went out in the newsletter and everything. Turns out after all, she forgot to bury her dress. Thankfully, talc disguises a multitude of hastily purchased sins.
John T - Commercial Manager
Day-to-day job: In his own words, John 'looks after' the high street. Meaning where ever you see one of our drinks in a high street shop, you'll have John's silver tongued sales patter to thank.
Zombie role: Zombie Dancer #8 in Troop Smash. Lightest on his feet of entire cast (see below)
Interesting fact: Despite being a lifter of big weights and lover of all things sporty, John won the award for Ponciest Dancing Shoes this side of Fame, chasséeing up in slip on dance pumps.
Mark G - Infrastructures Analyst
Day-to-day job: Something to do with networks and servers. Something to do with going into a big cupboard under the stairs that no one else is allowed in.
Zombie role: Boardroom zombie, gym zombie and integral member of Troop Literally
Interesting fact: Mark knew his calling from an early age. Sadly his fashion forward jumpers and trendy bowl cut weren't enough to cut it at fashion college. So he plumped for a career in IT instead.
Check out that keys on that board.
Jim Anderson - Head of Projects
Day-to-day job: In his day job which is "more than just I.T", Jim and his team are in charge of changing the difficult stuff in Fruit Towers. Explains alot really.
Zombie role: Casting director, location scout, producer, dance teacher, screen writer, the main man (Pictured below: Front of shot, slightly green, tight red jeans)
Interesting fact #1: Jim reckons he spent 10 hours learning the dance. That's not taking into account time spent practicing in meetings or whilst standing behind people's desks. Just imagine. All that gyrating, all that hee hee, going on right behind your chair when all you'd ask for was an Excel formula.
Interesting fact #2: The hardest bit of the dance to get right was this sequence:
Right hip, right hip, right hip, in, out, left hip, left hip.
He's got it nailed now. After all that back-of-chair rehearsing,
So now you've met some of the cast, gleaned their vital stats and had a sneak peak of the choreography (right hip, right hip, right hip etc), why not check them out in action right here?
So having won the innocent scholarship, back on a sunny Saturday in September, Jim, film crew, makeup artists, an array of mixed ability dancers and one zombie baby descended on Fruit Towers for the filming of Jim Anderson's Chiller.
For those who like to see how the magic happens, here's a little behind the scenes tour of the day.
Location location
Chiller was filmed in a series of glamorous locations across Fruit Towers.
The products kitchen: pre the zombie smoothies arriving.
Interestingly, the gym has had a strange effect on Mark G in the past
Rehearsals
Car park practice went on all day. And well into the night.
Have a little look here:
Zombification
The lovely makeup ladies worked their magic to transform fresh faces into less fresh faces.
They were brilliant at talcing it up
Paid close attention to detail
Made sure everyone looked suitably terrifying, including Baby Zombie, Eva, aged 2 (left)
And Ed G and Joe.
Post makeup.
Filming
There was a lot of this
Quite a bit of this
And lots of waiting around, maxing out the rider (which consisted mainly of sausage rolls and fizzy cola bottles)
Special effects
The amazing smoke machine was used in the gym, the post room, the car park, where ever needed copious smoke really.
(Thanks to Louis who won the award for spending most time lying on a wet car park floor, pumping smoke out at people for hours. And hours)
The monster jeep also came along
It rocked up, complete with massive floodlights on the back, metal shelves to leap onto, Bodyform style, and the capacity to go underwater (which was not needed during filming but reassuring to know)
And of course, the fake hand
The fake hand was used in the video as a pointer in the zombie boardroom meeting and can be also be seen later on, falling off Olly H, mid dance off.
Currently, Ruth is using it as her own personal receptionist to answer the phone and freak out Sustainability Lou.
The cast
Having subjected them to a set of gruelling auditions, Jim handpicked every dancer and then sensibly split everyone into dance troops to learn a section of the dance each.
There was Troop Smash
Troop Camp
And Troop Literally
A good proportion of the dancers from Troop Literally are members of the GoldFork Toad Football Team
You may recognise them from such features as Return of The Goldfork Toads
Here they are, off the pitch, on the car park floor, mid pelvic thrust.
Spot the difference.
Fancy finding out a bit more about the Zombie All Stars? Get up close and personal right here...
Every three months, applications open in Fruit Towers for the innocent scholarship.
If you win the scholarship, you get £1,000 to do something you’ve always wanted to.
The only rules are that whatever you apply to do must be a) legal b) for you and c) not for anything medical.
You have to present your application to the whole company in the Monday Morning Meeting and then everyone votes for their favourite.
Over the years, there have been all sorts of applications. Rachel learnt how to breakdance, Kat H qualified as a masseuse and Jojo learnt how to take amazing pictures.
Others have climbed mountains, taught football to streetchildren in Thailand, rebuilt beloved boats and installed a massive fish tank in their living room (it took Peter 4 applications to get that one through).
Mark and Shrimp even went all the way to India on a quest to find the best chutney (which for the record was coriander, mint and lime). They not only brought some back for everyone but also gave a slideshow about their chutney odyssey.
Jim however decided to use his scholarship win to make a little music video.
It involved a large cast of dancers, some tight red leather and a whole lotta hee-hee.
Just like Amy, they decided to have a go at the activity on the back of one of our kids' smoothies and made some smart maracas out of their empty wedges.
Very generously, they then took their maracas along to a wedding where Designer Kat was bridesmaid and presented her with them to shake on the way down the aisle.
If you've made any of the ideas off our kids' smoothies or have any ideas what our bottles, pots and cartons can be used for once you've finished with them, then please email your suggestions/pictures to hello@innocentdrinks.co.uk
If they end up on pack, then we'll send you a case of smoothies to say thanks.
We've always liked to keep ahead of the times at innocent. But there's a point when you're so ahead of the times that you're in the past. Like when mohicans and mullets were all the rage, and rave music came back again.
So this week we're going to be so ahead of the curve that we'll be celebrating halloween a week later than most people. Here's our starter for ten with a game of spot the smoothies in Marie Claire's September 2006 halloween spread (thanks to Dominika for adding this to our facebook group)...
Then later in the week we're going to have something very, very special to share with you in an ironically, slightly delayed, halloween resurrection kind of way.
Today we spoke to a lady called Alison, who was calling on behalf of her daughter Anjani.
Anjani has a bear whose name is Oscar. I think it's important at this juncture to point out that Oscar is actually a girl bear. Apparently as Anjani and (all right thinking people) know Oscar is, in fact, a name for girls and not a name for boys. Now that's cleared up, we can move on.
So, picture the scene, Alison Anjani and Oscar all went shopping this week. Conscious of a bit of a nip in the air Oscar was hoping to buy something for the current Autumn/Winter season. After a disheartening afternoon traipsing round the shops they were about to go home defeated, when to everyone's surprise the local Sainsbury's delivered big time.
Here's Oscar looking stylish in outfit one 'ear flap hat'
and here reclining like a pro in outfit two 'blue frill hat'
We hadn't thought of the Big Knit as an opportunity to expand your wardrobe, but if it worked for Oscar it might well work for you. So if you know of any under dressed bears, or hamsters with cold ears, or even have some dreary boots you want to jazz up then you know where to look.
This is our Big Knit Choir. The ones who are re-recording their 1980 hit single 'There's no one quite like Grandma' to help raise money for Age Concern and the Big Knit this Christmas. Last week they were all very busy recording the single and video for the song at a variety of secret locations around London. All very X-factor.
And this is June Whitfield, our favourite Absolutely Fabulous star who puts in a cameo performance in the Big Knit Choir video.
You can nose over a lots more behind the scenes photos of June, Rich, the Big Knit Choir and Beryl & Jean on our Big Knit Choir facebook page here. And also watch some exclusive backstage video of the choir reminiscing about Mrs Hartley, fainting singers and ghostly monks.
Today is a big Big Knit day, it's the very first day of the hats making it onto the chilled shelves of Sainsbury's stores up and down the country. Here's some very early spots our drinkers have made of the hats for us so far.
And finally Bella's customised her ugg boots with a veg pot warmer (via flickr).
Keep an eye out for them if you're going to do your big shop in Sainsbury's tonight. And keep adding your pics to our flickr, facebook or twitter places.
Dodo :) x on hamsters, dogs, cats and brilliant hats
Dodo :) x on hamsters, dogs, cats and brilliant hats
Dodo :) x on hamsters, dogs, cats and brilliant hats
Jazzie on hamsters, dogs, cats and brilliant hats
Debbie Mills on hamsters, dogs, cats and brilliant hats
Lily on hamsters, dogs, cats and brilliant hats
Jenny :B on hamsters, dogs, cats and brilliant hats
Row at innocent on the house of the mystery hat
Ali on hamsters, dogs, cats and brilliant hats