Yes, I Can Make a Blog Post out of a Keep Cup and a Wool Shop

I am childishly pleased with my day so far. This picture shows my hugely exciting, er, travel cup. I popped to our lovely independent cafe, The Coffee House, on Moreton Hall, today. They have a table full of these great reusable cups for sale. Now, I suppose it has been flown in from Australia, but ... it is usable by baristas in coffee shops, so I am smugly saving that ugly takeaway packaging each time I use it. It can go in the dishwasher at home, too. What's more - every time someone uses one in The Coffee House, you get 10% off your drink! Phew! Can it get any more necessary to have one of these? Mind you, it got mildly embarrassing as the lovely cafe ladies said you can choose the colour of each component...so I swapped lids....bodies....lids...cap bits an alarming number of times. The creation above, then, is truly unique. I need to get out more. Actually - I see a window of opportunity for a knitted Keep Cup hugger . . .

Now - moving swiftly on - for a recent trip to Oxford's new(ish) haberdashery shop, Darn It & Stitch. I was just wondering where, down all the narrow streets off the High this was, when I saw this bicycle on St Aldate's. I see from their blog that the Darn-It-&-Stitchers have been yarnbombing Oxford in the last week or so, and this bike seat cover is available via them on Ravelry!

Anyway:

This is the outside of the shop. It is slightly misty somehow because it was boiling hot and I'm not sure my BlackBerry enjoyed such a lot of light. Inside, the shop is laid out like the bread and fruit are at a deli -

It's a great informal layout, and somehow the boxes encourage you to, er, pinch the wool. The ribbons and other 'notions' are all good, too, and I bought myself some completely unnecessary but lovely ribbon, which I'm sure I will need for something, soon:

They run classes, too, called Pinworks, from their upstairs room: find out more at www.darnitandstitch.com. The woman at the till was lovely, too, and the shop is, I bet, a great addition to Oxford's shops. I'll have to plan another trip...

Ah - coffee and wool. What more could you want on a drizzly Monday?