fuschia friday

Fuschia. Salmon. Cotton candy. Magenta. My-red-football-socks-got-into-my-white-wash-again.

 
Yes, today Fruit Towers went pink again for the fourth year in a row, all in support of Breast Cancer Campaign 

Last year's photos have gone missing but 2007 looked like this and 2006 looked like this.

Everyone paid £2 a pop to pink themselves up and those who forgot their pink pullovers/pants were imaginative in their use of office stationery/stuff lying about the gym (think used pink raffle tickets over nipples and tights worn as headbands).

IT Samuel bagged the prize for best outfit

 

And the whole thing was organised by our very own pink lady, Bryony, who spent most of the day running round the office (just like last year).

Here she is in a blur of pink flurrying

And here she is pausing for breath.

 

Over in Hamburg, it was suitably rosa too (note the pink hat collections and good use of accessories)

 

And we're now counting up all the pound coins and 50ps to see how much we've raised.

Same time, same place, same pink next year.
 

tried and tested by tineke

Some drinks are so good they don't make you feel thirsty anymore. 

Some are so good that they make feel pleasantly satisfied afterwards. And some are so good that they make you change your facebook profile picture in celebration like Tineke (above). As she rightly points out on our facebook page we've made a new smoothie and not really told anyone yet. 

It's called cranberries, blueberries & cherries, it's our second ever banana-free smoothie (making it one of our most refreshing yet), and will be working it's way into the shops over the next week or two. Keep an eye out for it, and don't just take our word for it, take Tineke's too. You heard it here first.

happy halloween

Said the hats...

Pictured from left to right we have hat hat, ghost hat, spider hat, pumpkin hat and cat hat all courtesy of Mrs Rosalind Good from Berkshire.

Any remaining hats need to be working their way to Fruit Towers as soon as possible where we are taking off our shoes and socks and readying ourselves for the grand annual hat count. Think of us this weekend whilst you're holding hands, shuffling through leaves, reading papers and roasting food stuffs. We'll be up to our necks in little woolly items.

A big thank you to everyone who took the time to get out the wool this year, and remember there's still a little time left, so please do package up any late comers.

Have a great weekend.

say hello to Beryl and Jean

Please say hello to Berly and Jean, expert knitters, friends of Age Concern, friends of The Big Knit and now stars of our new Big Knit Choir video (preparing to storm the xmas pop charts this year).

The single and video won't be out for a few weeks yet but you can get to know both Beryl and Jean a bit better in the below little film we made last year. We'll let our Joe (middle, blue t-shirt, slow knitting) pick up the conversation from here...

back to school blues

A few weeks ago, we ran a competition to win everything you needed for hosting your very own catchily named 'beat the back to school blues' party.

All you had to do was guess the weight of this small yet delicious cake (as modelled by Simon K)

The lady who came closest to guessing the correct weight (deceptively light at just 190g) was Sarah Jane from Saffron Walden.

As well as a boxful of party paraphanelia from Little Cherry, Sarah Jane and her kids also won a bumper box of cakes from Cupcake Dolly and a boxful of our finest kids drinks.

Sarah Jane sent in this photo of the pre party calm

 

And this photo of the pre party excitement.

 

Apparently, cake + smoothies + party games = surefire way to banish those double-maths-followed-by-cross-country blues.

linda's hats of the world: part 2

Last year, Linda (who looks after the innocent foundation) knitted a myriad of hats for the Big Knit to represent all the countries in the world where the foundation supports projects.

 

For this years A/W 09 collection however, Linda has outknitted herself by whipping up hats to represent the type of projects the foundation supports.

 

From watering cans and garden tools (to represent projects like rainwater harvesting and sustainable agriculture training)

 

Through to fruit, veg and bees to represent crop production, income generation and setting up honey farms in Africa.

 

Hats off to Linda again for another stunning collection.

The deadline for all hats for this year's Big Knit is this Friday 30th October. So if you're sitting on a hoarde of hats or are just adding the finishing touches to your bebobbled creations, make sure to get them in the post quick sharp to hit this year's target.

 

bit bored? fancy learning a new skill in under two minutes?

Then just follow this video and make like a Wookie

fruit trolley fundraisers

Pete from Marlow sent us this photo of the new trolley ladies in his office, Amy and Rosie.

 
They spent a day at their dad's office on last week, pushing round their healthy food and drinks trolley to raise money for their school's charity project, Volunteer Uganda.

In total, they raised £230 and everyone at Softcat went home for the weekend, full of fruit and slightly emptier of pocket.

Talk about a fruitful Friday.

freaky faces

Having got the idea off the back of one of our kids' wedges, Amy very kindly sent us these photos of some sandwiches she made at her after school healthy eating club.

 
Unfortunately, she didn't give us the names of her creations, so we've had a go at naming them ourselves (NB headtiliting, squinting and daring to dream/imagine/squinting a lot more are required for these names to work)

 

First up is the wise old gnome king, resplendent with tomato beard, a fetching lettuce mohawk and lambchops to match.

 

Next is the somewhat cheeky but nevertheless charming Cucumber Specs, sporting a foppish basil barnet.

 

This one looks like a dragon. If you tilt your head to the left and squint a bit.

 

Jury is out on this one. A tomato cyclops? A self portrait of the artist, inspired by Picasso's tomato and basil period perhaps? Most definitely freaky.

 

And finally, a bread ghost with a vapour trail of camembert and little lettuce wings.

Incidentally, a recent joke just in:

How do you get a bear to eat cheese?

Camembert

Right.

Back to sandwich faces. 
 

veg pot warmers ahoy

Seeing as it's Big Knit season, as well as the little hats for our smoothies and squeezies, we're also knitting lots of little warmers for our veg pots too.

 

The lovely ladies at Age Concern have been knitting their socks off but we still need a bit of a nudge to hit our whopping 620,000 winter woollen target.

So we're hoping that our hoardes of infamous knitters (that's you) can do their best to help out.

All you need to do is follow the pattern here. 

And when you're done whipping up your warmers, just pop them in an envelope (or small lorry) with your name, the amount you've knitted and send them to:

Big Knit Warmers, Fruit Towers, 3 The Goldhawk Estate, Brackenbury Road, London, W6 0BAThe closing date to get your  warmers to us by is Friday 6th November, so plenty of time to get those needles trying something new.

Happy knit knit knit knitting.