seeing double

This is the kind of thing that kept Mulder and Scully in a job for so long. It's the kind of thing that just defies belief. It's the stuff, we dare say, of Big Knit legend.

Sabine lives in Germany and is a big fan of our drinks, so when she visited England last week she was dead chuffed to see our little bottles wearing hats in Sainsbury's. By sheer coincidence though, and what really made her day, was seeing her favourite recipe sporting a miniature version of her own hat. She bought it straight away and sent us this picture.

We like stories like this. They make us smile. In fact, we haven't smiled this much since Del Boy fell over sideways in Only Fools and Horses, so if any of you crazy cats out there should happen to find miniature versions of your own hats, do send us a snap. We like a good smile. 

fruit towers

As envisaged by iz, ce and ju.

out the door

This is the main door into and out of fruit towers. And every night that I go through it I get the fear.

Press the button on the left to let yourself out. Press the one on the right to let everyone else out with you.

I've never been very good with left and right.

Update: Jen has rightly pointed out to me that this isn't a fire alarm but a clever button that keeps the door open if it needs to be kept open. I can now go through it with no fear.

the pinboard gallery

We get loads of great stuff sent in for our pinboard gallery so we thought it was time we did a bit of a Tony Hart style round up of some of the gems adorning our pinboard of late.

Here are Becca's top 5 favourites this week

This collage came in from JS and Jake. Becca particularly liked the use of glitter, that Jake's favourite thing is buttons and that JS and Jake collect their chicken's eggs in a bucket.

 

Isabel Mitchell sent us this brilliant comic strip, illustrating how sharing is always caring.

Class P4M made us a graph of all their favourite smoothie recipes and got a fat red tick (and a sticker) for their efforts.

 

Will designed us a whole host of fetching fruit character cards.

  

And Emma made a decoupage of one of our bottles in a field.

You can look at more stuff on our online pinboard but in the meantime, please keep sending us your stuff to keep our wall full and happy.

dr where?

You may remember a couple of weeks ago that we were having a spot of bother with some psychedelic daleks (let's face it, we've all been there.) Well, we promised that we'd keep you posted on how things turned out, so here's the update.

We left IT Sam in our phone box, fighting for his life (ish). This is what IT Sam fighting for his life (ish) looked like:

Lots of you posted comments on our knitter natter blog suggesting how we could combat these tiny terrors. Some were so clever we couldn't understand them. Others were genius in their simplicity. 

No sooner had the ideas come in, we gathered the materials you guys said we'd need (took us ages to find a sonic screwdriver) and headed to the phone box to Save Our Sam.

However, by the time we got there, both Sam and the daleks had disappeared. Where once advanced a marauding mass of psychadelic daleks, now lay a piece of paper.

  

It was a note from the daleks.

   

As this photo clearly shows, the daleks have escaped (in fairness the queue for the sonic screwdriver in Argos was rather large). And no sign of our Sam either.

However, we're pretty sure they've snuck into the last batch of hats that were sent out to Sainsbury's stores this week - meaning they're out there, somewhere, now.

So, your quest is simple. Track down the bottles that have these dalek hats on them, take a picture to prove that you've found one, and send it in to [email protected] to win yourself a case of smoothies. There are fourteen dalek hats in total, waiting to be found.

If you do find one in your local Sainsbury's, please approach it with caution. They may look cute, but they're a force to be reckoned with.

And if you find IT Sam on your travels, perhaps sat a-top a smoothie bottle pretending to be a hat, please tell him to stop messing about and get back to Fruit Towers, my laptop's bust.

May the dalek hunt begin.

timer for tea

For the perfect cup of tea, simply assemble the necessary kit

And then choose your sand.

(Thanks to Tom for being such an excellent hand model)

the fat duck vs. innocent

The development team from The Fat Duck came in the other day to see us. They're the people who invent all of the groundbreaking new dishes that eventually make it onto the menu of what is arguably the world's finest restaurant. Our Lucy (Head of Products/Chief Smoothie Inventor) recently spent 3 months working at The Fat Duck, learning lots of foodie tricks and techniques, so she thought she'd invite her new friends over to ours for a day.

"Mmm, dog food"

The highlight of the day was the sensory challenge. Blindfolds were donned (blue for The Fat Duck, pink for us) and a range of weird smelling things were passed around, with points being scored for guessing what the 'thing' was.

"But is it Pal or Winalot Prime?"

"I'm more of a Whiskas girl myself"

We can confirm that dog food, garden herbs and some other tricky items were on the menu, but modesty forbids us from revealing which team won the challenge. That information will remain strictly between us and losers.

caption competition

Latest news just in.

Whilst kissing levels in the Movember group have seen a sharp decline since the start of November, tweezer productivity, beard trimming and grooming-time-spent-infront-of the mirror have increased dramatically.

In other news, Atha has decided to call his moustache The El Rancho (thanks, Becky).

 

The best caption for this latest Movember lineup will win a case of smoothies.

So make sure you post your entries below by Friday 28th November.

This competition is now closed. A fine array of smoothies on their way to Simon Stanley for his winning caption

The coconut shy had finally hit puberty

Thanks to everyone who entered and all the boys who took part in Movember.

can you felt it?

Feeling left out of all the Movember malarky?  Or perhaps your chin and upper lip are feeling a little bit drafty.  Well a young lady in the States called Erin could be your saviour.  She loves making beards and you can check out her blog to get some crafty inspiration.  And in case any of our innocent Movember boys are struggling, check out the picture below.  I reckon no one would ever be any the wiser.

 

Thank you to Ant for the link.

pick of the packaging

Vice Admiral T. R. Cardboard-Box, Sir Reginald Bubblewrap, Lady Margaret Cell'Ophane - oh yes, the great and good of the packaging world were all out in force last week for the annual UK Packaging Awards.

The glitzy ceremony was held in the Grosvenor Hotel in London and we picked up the rather heavy, slightly sharp edged yet nonetheless coveted award for 'Brand Client of the Year'.

Beating off strong competition from Apple, Proctor & Gamble and Coca-Cola, we won in recognition of our 100% recycled bottle, our quest for sustainability, our all round packaging design and for being the brand most people would like to work with.

Which is always a nice reason to win.

John Inverdale presented our Jaqueline and Simon with the award, confessing in hushed tones he had 'literally millions' of our drinks at home.

No favouritism there then.