Eggstreme disappointment

DH candled the eggs today, as he's not going to be able to do it tomorrow.

None, yes none, of Bertie's eggs seem to be fertilised!  Four of the 6 I bought from someone else are.

We'll have to candle again in a few days to make sure, but I now need to come up with a back-up plan.

Anticipation

Ants are such hard working creatures.    We have quite a few in the garden, normally they ignore us and we ignore them.   The other day,  I had a couple of ants climb on me while I was sitting outside by the backdoor.  I knew this heralded potential ant trouble.

Over the next week, we saw the odd ant on the worktop.   I picked them up and threw them outside, asking them not to come back.   Then I killed the next few, but realised that was futile as the colonby would just send replacements. 

I cleaned the worktops and the stiff on it, and moved anything vagiely edible off it on to shelves.  I hoped that the ants would go back and report that there was nothing of interest and they'd not bother to invade.

I searched for the entrance point, but failed.  Outside, the ant activity increased, but we couldn't see where they were getting in, nor where they were going to. DH was adamant we'd have to find the nest and destroy it.    I baulked at that.   We've done it once before, and I always regretted it.  (I know they are only ants,  but they aren't generally doing any harm and they have the right to live).

We then had 4 ants over two different (adjacent) worktops.   Small Person was here, and she reminded me about talcum powder.  If I could find where they were coming in, I'd try that.

Yesterday afternoon,  I opened the condiments cupboard and an ant came out.  I checked, he was on his own.     I checked the other food cupboards,  no ants.     Last night, there were 8 ants running around on the worktop.

I could see that this was going to end in an invasion,  and that is horrible to deal with.    We had an invasion when I was a child, and it wasn't pleasant.  We'd had an invasion here once, that's when we destroyed the nest I mentioned earlier.  

I didn't have anywhere to put talc, but I did decide to try an ant bait station.   I had two in a drawer  so, last night, I opened one up and put it on the worktop.  DH was not impressed.    The ants avoided it.  

This morning, we had no ants on the worktop.

I'm not sure if the scouts have died,  or if they've gone back and the ant bait has made the colony decide not to invade, or if they are rallying troops ready to invade.  Or, of course,  if I've sent back poison which is going to kill the colony.

I guess we'll find out.

Hmmm

So.  Bertie has a real downer on Pong.    He chases her away when their paths cross.  For that reason, we decided we'd breed from Pong's sister, Ping.   Ping scuppered this plan by deciding to go broody. Ish.

So, plan C was to separate off the breeding girls (Barbara, Ann,  Pong, and one of the Harem girls),  and to put Bertie in with them for periods of time but not to leave him in there overnight.     Immediately we separated them, Ping got distressed (presumably because she couldn't get in to her usual nestbox),  and Bertie got indignant.   He called, and all his ladies came running, lined up against the fencing that separated them.

Bertie showed no interest in any of the girls.   We put Ping back in with them, and went home.   We came back later that day to let Bertie out and to check on the girls.  As soon as he was back with everyone else he humped everything in sight.

There were 3 eggs, including one each from Ping and Pong.  We collected them, and broke them at home to see what was going on.  One egg - we don't know which of the other three laid it - was definitely fertilised,  it had the tell tale white bullseye ring.    One of Ping/Pongs was definitely not fertilised.  And one had a white bit (as many eggs do) but I couldn't be sure it was a bullseye.

Since then, every other day,  we've shut Bertie in with the 5 breeding girls in the morning,  and let him out in the afternoon.    The idea is that the breeding girls don't have to put up with him all the time,  and he he can still keep control of the main group.    We were going to put him in every day,  but we were sort of hoping that a day's absence from the breeding girls might make him fonder.... but we haven't seen any evidence of that.

Still, we've collected a number of eggs, although we haven't tested any more for fertility.   The plan is to incubate all the eggs, even if it means 2 incubators,  and then remove the clears at Day 7 when we candle them.

That's the idea, anyway.

We're planning to put them in the incubator on Saturday.

Knees up

Yesterday, for some reason, I decided to try and play some classical pieces on my Orla, and to use my left foot on the pedals.  I hardly ever use my left foot any more, I'm well out of practice.

It was hard work.  I managed to get mself into position so that my left foot hung naturally over the G pedal (as I was taught when I was 11),  but that isn't the position I sit in normally so my chord hand was out of position.

I tried The Blue Danube and was slightly more successful than I anticipated.  I think it was muscle memory really.   As a child, I used to play this all the time.   I've played it a couple of times in the years I@ve had Orla, but I've never really tried to play it properly.    I fluffed quite a bit,  but it was much better than I thought it would be.   

Then I tried Symphony Number 40 and was surprised that I could do that (sort of) too.   I don't remember when I last tried to play that.

Even my nemesis,  Arrival of the Queen of Sheba was not a disaster.   It wasn't pretty, but it wasn't a disaster.  I have played AoTQoS, the right hand,  quite a bit.  I've even tried using my left hand to play the pedal part (obviously not to press the foot pedal, dummy,  I've been using the left hand on the upper keyboad to press the foot pedal part as my right hand plays the tune).

I had to stop because my knee was killing me.

Today I put a brace on my left knee, and tried all three again.      None of the pieces were perfect,  but they weren't at all bad really. Well,  Arrival of the Queen of Sheba was not good, but that was mainly because my hands were too cold to flow.  I had a cup of coffee, and another go.

The sound quality on Orla was amazing.

Even though they were all riddled with mistakes,  I'm really really happy at how un-badly I did.

Old Childrens Tv

A Don Quixote related crossword clue led me to think of Sanchez,  to Sancho,  to a Mexican hat and a donkey.

A very clear picture popped in to my head, and I knew  it was a kids programme I had watched.  I remember my mum and I talking about the donkey.      I just couldn't remember the name.

I reached for my phone to google, but put the phone down and tried to remember.

I just couldn't.  At all.   It wasn't a programme I'd thought of in all the "do you remember....?" discussions during my adult life.  Not ever.

I just couldn't think of it.

So I googled it.

Donkey Sancho Mexican hat.

And there it was.

Hattytown.

How could I have forgotten that!?!

Card work

May is a busy month for birthdays, and the first 4 all take place over 3 days in the middle of the month.

I had been trying to work up enthusiasm to do some embroidery, but...well... it just isn't happening.

 I bought some 3fold aperture cards to see how they would work with embroidery,  and it occurred to me I had the ideal fabric for two of the birthday people .  So,  here are those two cards.

It took longer than anticipated to get the fabric placement just right.   I then decided to work on something special for the insides.   I had to obtain a Batfont to do the text,  and it then find just the right Batman related images.   The wording worked just as I pictured it in my head, so I'm really happy with that.

I hadn't used this size card before so it took a while of faffing around trying to get the sizing of the paper  and then the relative positioning of the artwork just right....  I had a pile of rejects!

For the second one, I searched for a simple E-type jaguar outline,  then a font that suggested speed. I made the '65' in a circle, and voilà  Sorry it's upside down.


I'm really pleased with them.

I've still got two more cards to do for the middle of the month, and one at the end.    I've not had any bright ideas yet.  I'm hoping inspiration strikes soon.

Blacksmithing

For our last-but-one birthday's,  DS/DDIL bought us a Couples Blacksmithing experience, some way away at a forge in Herefordshire.    We had planned to go late summer last year, but plans for this were stymied early in the summer by a complicated broken arm which was going to take many months to heal.  As soon as I knew we weren't going to be able to use the voucher  I contacted the company and asked if they could extend it.  I explained why, I was phoning  with still 4 months before the expiry date,  I offered to send proof of incapacity... and they agreed to a limited extension,  on a weekday only.   That suited me, I wouldn't have picked a weekend date anyway.

We have commitments at home which make overnighters (for both of us at the same time) difficult,  so we wanted to be there and back in a day.    Worst case, we'd leave at silly o'clock to arrive for a morning course, and then get back mid afternoon.   I was pleased to find that they did a session starting at lunchtime which meant this was doable without an early start .   We'd only miss one of our commitments, and that was manageable.

Yesterday was the day.

A good journey there.  Sparkling sunshine when we left home,  not so much when we reached Herefordshire.  The scenery was spectacular, and the sun did come out eventually.       Oldfield Forge was easy to find, the setting is magnificent,   and we were surprised and pleased to find it was just the two of us booked in.  

I picked the easiest thing to make,  a hook,   a DH picked a useful thing to make,  a poker.  

Of course this was all right up DH's street and he took to it like a duck to water.     It was more of a challenge for me, I've never done any sort of metal working or woodworking.  The process was actually being quite straightforward, it was just all new,  and I was pleased with the way my hook turned out.

The chap teaching us was lovely, very patient, and very encouraging.  Just what I needed.  

I decided to make a second hook, to consolidate my learning.    Poker finished, DH also decided to make a hook and of course his was not only complete before mine, it was perfect.   I don't mind.  Mine is fine; not perfect but perfectly useable. And MeMade.

We stopped at The Red Lion at Peterstow on the way home.  The food was excellent, much better than we were expecting.  I nervously had the pulled pork.  I've had pulled pork in pubs before and it's been really dry.  This was lovely,  it was shoulder of pork in Five Spice,  and I couldn't have made it better myself.   They served kimchi with the meal,  and it was lovely. Better than my own attempt at kimchi some years ago,  and I think I might have another try.   I'd definitely make a detour to visit there again.


Happy day.


 

Clean

The unexpectedly warm weather may bring red mite, so I decded to do a preventative clean at the Allotment.   I emptied and cleaned and poultry shielded the shed and two coops.  I also dod the nestboxes in the shed.      I scrubbed and Miltoned all the poo trays,  the three metal drinkers, and the watering can.  When I got to the end, the shed was dry enough to put stuff back in,  so I stalosaned and diatomed,  then put stuff back in, and put fresh Aubiose everywhere. Then the other two coops.

One of the Girls was desperate to lay part way through this,  and she seemed very upset. I made up a neat box for her in the shed, but she wouldn't use it,  she wanted to lay where she usually lays. So I made up a nest box in the appropriate coop and then worked round her.

I wished that Small Person was here to help,  it's much quicker and easier with 2.  It took me several hours, I'm cream crackered.

Bear necessities

The lady from Little Baby & Co liked my teddies.  She posted about them.

Kneed it

We went back to Pilates today, it's been four weeks since our last class. 

I've got problems wth my knee, so it was tough.

But good.

Umbrella-ed

Three of the Girls -  Poppy, Gloria and Fay - are cheeky enough to come in the house and to eat the cat food.  We chase them out, and they run,  but they aren't scared.  They just wait a few minutes and try again. Poppy is probably the cheekiest/worst offender.

Poppy came in this morning.  I chased her out.  Then I remembered that I had had an idea to try and resolve it,

I armed myself. With an umbrella.

The next time she came in, about half an hour later,  I went in to the kitchen umbrella first.  I was opening and closing the umbrella as fast as I could.  She shrieked, and ran out.

I'm pretty sure the call of the cat food will overcome her fear,  so I the umbrella is on the sofa, all ready to go.

We'll see.

Summer

We had Summer today.

Not Spring. Definitely Summer.

I did many loads of washing, and put them out on the washing line.  I love washing on a washing line.  I did 6 loads, including 2 loads of fabric.

I was going to do a bedding change for one of the chooks's coops.  I found a broken egg,  not the first, either Gloria or Poppy is laying very weak shelled eggs at the moment.  I decided a deep clean would be a good idea,  and I wondered about waiting to the weekend to see if Small Person might want to help.  

In the end, I decided I'd best just get on with it.  And then I decided as I had the pressure washer out that I might as well deep clen both coops.  And the nestboxes in the run.  And the patio.  And all the run covers.....

I also put up some green netting inside the run,  which helps keep the heat out.   I can't believe that 2 days ago it was really cold and wet,  and today it is so warm.

DH hacked back the Pampas,  digging up lots of bramble that was hiding inside.  The girls were delighted to investigate his handiwork.

I also cleared out a bit of Myshed, mainly because I was trying to find the pressure washer, and the Stalosan, and the Diatom. And clean covers.

I'm cream crackered now.  I've put my clothes, which are covered in moss and heaven knows what,  in the washing mashine.  I've had a shower, and I'm in jimjams.  It's only 5pm!

Fabric fail

I bought some inexpensive stretch fabric about 5 weeks ago.   The supplier was struggling with the hugh level of demand,  and the package eventually arrived a couple of days ago.   I told DH it was fabric,  and I left it, unopened, in the hallway.

Today I opened the parcel ao I could start washing the contents.   The first piece that came out was....well,  it was a (to me) bizarre shade of pink. It wasn't a colour I would knowingly have picked,  and it was also on its own - the rest of the fabric was in two other parcels inside the main parcel. I wondered if maybe they'd thrown in a freebie as an apoogy for the delay.

The other 4 pieces of fabric looked like stuff I'd order, and a couple of them I actually recognised as ordering.  It occurred to me that I should probably check the original order, so I did.

Turned out I'd ordered 6 pieces of fabric, not 5.

The original confirmation email had helpfully contained pictures of the fabrics.  Unfortunately, the images weren't actually sent in the email,  they were just links to an online repository.  Only 3 images still exist,  but luckily one of them was a pic of fabric I hadn't received.

How frustrating. Still, this sort of thing happens.

I've emailed the seller to ask them to send the missing fabric, or to credit my Paypal account. I've also queried the pink stuff.

Normalcy

I made a thank you card for my uncle.  He built me a beautiful castle.  I embroidered a castle for the thank you. Its quite large...both the castle made for me, and the embroidery.   This is my second version.  I managed to snip the border thread on my first  one.

DH is teaching himself how to cut glas and join the pieces using copper tape so it looks leaded.  He's planning to make me a terrarium big enough to cover the castle.

Spring is finally on its way. The Forsythia, which normally blooms in February, is finally in blossom.; the grass has been cut;  DH is cutting back the pampas grass (which will be a bit of a shock for the chooks); we've emptied the stored wood out of the greenhouse; and  I accidentally Spring cleaned a set of kitchen drawers.  I was looking for something, which caused me to empty it out, which resulted in me sorting it out as I put stuff back, which then impacted on the contents of two other drawers.

Not sure I can stand the excitement.

Adjournement.

The inquest started yesterday, having been adjourned last time immediately after opening (and that one having been moved from an even earlier date). 

Just before it started we were informad that one of the key witnesses was ill and after a brief consultation it was decided to go ahead with Day 1, but to adjourn the second day.   

My cousin's children had travelled several hundred miles, again, to get there.  Others had booked holiday from work,  arranged childcare, done preparation, whatever.   Adjourning was the right thing to do.

It was an intense day, with a lot of written evidence and some live witnesses.   Going over it all yet again was hard on all the family. It was hard on the witnesses too.

Oh well.

The delay couldn't be helped.

Bearing up

My latest "make" is for a charity called "Little Baby & Co".  This charity provides special items for "Angel Babies",  babies which are miscarried before 18 weeks.

There was an appeal last year on one of the embroidery groups I belong to  to make angel wraps for them  The angel wrap is a cleverly designed piece of clothing which wraps round the miscarried tiny  baby, which would otherwise not be dressed at all (it's not possible to put even dolls clothes on them.  It's shaped a bit like angel wings.

Meryl from MerylMakes digitised the pattern so it would work on an embroidery machine, and she did two options.  It's a really small item of clothing.  I tried 3 times (using 2 different options), and I just couldn't make it work, my workmanship wasn't good enough.  I gave up in the end.

A few days ago, there was a request to see if anyone could make some tiny tiny bears, smaller than a 1p piece.    Meryl again stepped in and digitised a tiny bear,  and I had a go.   My first attempt was awful.   

I then decided to try and do a whole load in one go,   hooping the front of the bear and some wadding, and stitching the face and outline.  Then I put some felt underneath, and stitched the outline again.


I then spent a few hours cutting them out,  and  cutting & trimming them more carefully.   I wasn't able to trim them quite to the shape of a bear, but they looked as good as others had posted on the facebook page.    

There was a lot of trimming, which was frustrating.   I love the multi needle capability of my machine,  but I miss the cleverness of my top of the range, single needle, Janome.     I think that's why I haven't bonded so well with the multi needle.

I didn't think to take a pic of any of the cut bears before I packaged them up to send.

Add caption

Finish line

I completed 3 UFOs (unfinished objects) today.

First was the top that I made to wear to the show at Birmingham,  but stopped working on because I stuffed up the shoulders.   I cut and attached a band for the neckline today, then overlocked (serged) it, and then folded it over and stitched in the ditch all the way around.  I had planned to coverstitch it instead of the overlocking/folding/topstitching, but my coverstitch machine was in a mess.  I don't quite know what happened to it.... I'm wondering if the small girls accidentally did something? 

I fixed the coverstitch,  rethreaded it, and did the waistband on the posh fabric leggings for DGD.  I also attempted to fix the ankle hems,  but that didn't go so well.  I was tempted to cut them off and redo them, but I suspect they may be too short then.   As the test pair had been left behind, I also did some finishing to the ankle hems of those  and I'm not sure I improved them.

I think they're all done now.  I just need to package them up and send them.  And think about what to say to DD about the less than great ankles.


I've got another top cut out waiting to be sewn  but I've had enough sewing for the mo.     I've got a couple of "really ought to do" embroidery projects, so I'm going to try and do those next.

Sunshine

We've had some sunshine for the last couple of days, making the days (although not the evenings) warm and pleasant.

Yesterday DH cut the grass and gathered some bits of carp ready to go to the Tip.  My brother and I visited a nearby large town, in search of somewhere to have a proper up of tea.   Coffee shops just can't make decent tea,   there are several of us having business in this large town in a couple of weeks,  and we really wanted to find somewhere that we could get a proper one.


We planned to visit a few cafes and restaurants and try the teas.  They needed to be within a few minutes of the train station and the TownHall, so we had a defined area to look in.  We both like tea, but we knew it wou;d be difficult to sensibly sample more than, say, four cups, so I'd compiled a shortlist of likely venues. 

The main car park was closed to casual parking for the next two months.  That in itself was good to learn now rather than on the day.  Against my brother's better judgement, we parked in another central car park.   My brother said he'd parked here befoire, and it always stank.

He was right.  It was the most expensive car park in the town,  and the stairs reeked.  We'd had to park on the 11th floor.  We took the lift (which I never normally do) because I couldn't face that stench for the length of time it would take me to walk down the stairs.  The lifts smelt of  cleaning fluid, so were marginally better.     Another good learning.  Even though this would be the most convenient car park,  we couldn't suggest that anyone park here.

Out in the fresh air, we started on our shortlist.  One failed immediately because it turned out it doesn't open until 9.30,  and we need to meet at about 8.   We added the opening time to the criteria.

The second one,  which was an ex-Wimpy bar,  looked promising... the sort of place where you would expect a good honest cup of tea... but the tea arrived in a bag in a cup. It was definitely better than Cafe Nero,  but it was still not good.        We sipped our teas and discussed the demise of tea.

We realised that maybe we needed "tea in a pot",  and that might be a better way to approach the task. Doing this would mean that we didn't need to restrict our list. We could walk in to any venue and ask if they served tea in pots,   if they did we'd try it,  if they didn't, we'd leave.    

 If they didn't open before 9, we didn't bother to ask anything.  If they opened for breakfast, we went in, asked if they served tea in pots, and took it from there.

M&S used pots, and open at 8.  We didn't bother trying the tea,  we knew we at least had a fallback.    We then tried the  main streets, the connecting streets, the little alleys....  it was, from a teapot point of view,  disheartening. It took forever.

Some of the places were very interesting and looked like they'd be good to visit for a meal, but not suitable for our purpose.    After quite a long time, I peered down a dingy street whose name suggested it should have shops down it (but I couldn't see any). 

We decided to walk down it because the street sort of led to the stinking car park.  Half way down, we found a little tiny cafe.  We stood outside.  I didn't want to go in... if we chose this place,  those people driving would park in that god awful car park, and what on earth would they think?  They were coming from various parts of the country,   I didn't want their dimpression of this big town to be that it was a complete sh*thole.

My brother said "I think I can see teapots".  So we went in.

It was lovely.  The food looked fabulous,  the place was clean and welcoming, the service was great.  The tea was in pots (and not typical catering pots),  they open at 8.  It was one teapot per person, and each pot held 3 cups of tea.

We had our winner.

I hope all is OK when we need it in a couple of weeks.

Holiday over

Small Person was here on Tuesday Wednesday and Today.

She has been super excited for the last couple of weeks because we've arranged for my youngest DGD to come and stay, and they haven't seen each other for three years.   DD and I exchanged messages a few days ago, and DGD was in a similar state of excitement.

So, Tuesday,  Small Person was delivered to my door ny her Mum.  We jumped in my car and drove for 2 and a half hours to collect DGD.     They spent about 15 mins in DGD's bedroom, while I had a cup of tea and chatted to my DGSs.

.I've lost track of everything we did,  but I remember that making slime was part of it.   They went to the shop to get some of the ingredients,  and they went back to the shop later to get some more.  One of the shopkeepers phoned me to check it was OK to sell them a particular item (shaving foam) because he was a little suspicious about their motives for buying it.   In the hardware shop, the shopkeeper guessed that they were making slime when they asked him for Laundry Starch.  They went back later for yet more PVA, and he remembered them.


I also made leggings for DGD - a test pair, and then a pair in expensive fabric.  She was not particularly impressed, which was a bit of a disappointment. I'm pleased that I've done them, but Ill focus my making energy elsewhere next.

They played lots of games, went to the Park,  played with loom bands,  chatted.   It was mostly OK.  They are very different personalities, in almost every way you can think of.   It's an interesting dynamic,  challenging (draining)  at times.

We met up with DD at lunchtime to hand DGD back,  and it seems likely that Small Person will go to stay with them in the Summer Holidays if mutually convenient dates can be found.  They'll l

Small Person was tired and quiet on the way home.    We got home and had about half an hour before her mum came to take her riding.

And that's the end of the Easter Holidays.

It's all been a bit of an abrupt end,  and I'll miss her.  It's a long time to the next holidays. 

Delia Chocolate Beer cake fail-ish

So I followed Delia's online recipe  for  Chocolate Beer Cake.  All went well, until I followed her instructions for the icing.

It said:To make the icing: melt the broken chocolate with the stout in a bowl set over a pan containing 5cm of barely simmering water, without the bowl touching the water. When it’s melted (5–10 minutes) take it off the heat. Beat in the butter and leave it to cool a little before beating in the icing sugar with an electric hand whisk.

I read it twice, because putting anything containing water in with chocolate is a bad idea. It causes seizing.   It was definitely correct though so I did it.

Beatng in the butter was OK.  As soon as I added the icing sugar,  it seized up into a horrible, grainy, mess.  I'd used spreadable butter (as stated in the ingredients list). Maybe that was the problem?

I tried again, with ordinary butter, which I'd let soften.  I waited longer before adding the icing sugar.  Same result.   I put it on Bernie the Bosch and beat the c*ap out of it to see if that helped.    It was smoother, but still seized up.  

I used some to sandwich the two halves of the cake together.  There was no way on earth this was going to work as an icing.  I looked at the picture of her glossy chocolate icing.  I looked at my... my...  attempt.

I googled delia chocolate beer cake icing and found someone else had had the same problem.

I felt better knowing I was not alone.

I had no more 70% chocolate in the house.   I did have some 51% cocoa nibs, maybe I could use those?

"Can't you use Nutella?"  DH asked.   We have a ginormous jar as it's a staple of Small Person's pancake breakfasts.   "tToo sweet!" I replied, shuddering.

And then I remembered.   Tucked at the back of the cupboard.....  a jar of posh dark chocolate hazelnut spread.  Not Nutella.

I've used that now.  I hope it saves the cake.

Easter

We don't 'do' Easter, it's usually just a normal Sunday.   We used to do something when the children were, well, children.

This year Small Person's mum and dad have asked us over for dinner.   I wasn't sure what to say.   It was very kind of them to ask,  and we like seeing them.... but...  well..  we don't do Easter,  we don't really want  to do Easter...  

DH and I chatted about it, and in the end we decided it would be much harder to try and explain things without it sounding like a weak excuse,  than it would be to accept the invitation.   It's also a very sad anniversary today and tomorrow,  and that is more important than the whole Easter business.  So, we're going.

Of course this raised the spectre of  the whole Easter Egg/Chocolate stuff. I'd already explained to SP (before we were invited for dinner) that we wouldn't be getting her anything, and I asked SP's Mum not to get us anything. She said it was too late.

I know I'm ungrateful,  but I don't want or need Easter pressies. I'd rather they spent the moneh on buying stuff for themselves, or for Small Person, or whatever.      I also don't want to get a present and have nothing to give in return.      I know one doesn't  'give to get',  but it's just so uncomfortable. I know Mrs SP means it all very kindly, and I don't want to hurt her feelings.  

I just prefer to do little things throughout the year when I think of them,  not on days that someone else has designated as needing to be marked.

Anyway. Earlier in the week I  went to the supermarket,  stood in front of the grotesque displays of Easter Eggs and chocolates,  and tried to decide what to do.  I couldn't bring myself to buy any.    It's all so overpriced and overhyped.  It has nothing to do with Jesus Christ's deatha and resurrection, it's all just marketing.

I thought about just buying a selection of sweets  but, for some bizarre reason,  that seemed worse than not buying anything at all - like it was an afterthought.  How ironic that something I've been fretting about for days should seem like an afterthought. 

I decided I'd make a chocolate cake instead.


I'm trying Delia's chocolate for Adults, which is made with Guinness.

The cakes are cooling, and I've still got to make the icing and ice them.    The kitchen looks like an explosion in a chocolate factory.  I've gone into another room to escape the mess and to pull myself together before I try and tackle it.

I hope this bloody cake tastes OK.

Small Person at Easter

We were lucky to have Small Person for 3 days last week.  Her Mum messaged me today to say that SP had been very excited on the way home, telling her all the things she had done.

I hadn't thought we'd done much,  so I was scratching my head a bit to work out what had been so enjoyable (so that we could, perhaps, repeat it).  I asked DH  what his recollection was.

She'd been to the Allotment with DH, twice;  She helped DH with putting the base down on the new Garden Girls run;  we'd made cheese scones. There had been a lot of homework - maths puzzles,  comprehension,  reading,  and there had been  lots of teacher-mistakes in (I was seething!).  We'd watched some TV;  she came to Air Rifles with us; we played a couple of games of Hide and Seek.  She'd played on the xylophone I bought to put in the chicken run;  she'd tried to teach the chooks to eat seeds from the xylophone;  she'd tried to get the Girls to fly up on to her outstretched arm.  She'd read most of the first chapter of A Bear Called Paddington out loud, and I'd read th elast couple of pages to her.

We'd done some work on Space and she used my laptop to so her research She likes it because it has a touchscreen.     We tried to help her remember the planet names, as she was mispronouncing a couple: Plunto instead of Pluto,  Mercy instead of  Mercury  . To help her remember Pluto, I told her to think of Mickey Mouse's dog, and  said "Hey Pluto!" in a Mickey Mouse voice.      It sort of worked,  except everytime she said Pluto, she said it in the same voice as I had used.   She was very upset on Pluto's behalf to find that it wasn't classed as a proper planet any more.

I taught her (or attempted to teach her)  the mnemonic  My Very Excited Mother Just Served Us Noodles to help her remember the order of the planets.    To help I was trying to get her to picture her own Mum being excited andholding a big dish of noodles.  This is where it stopped working, because SP was adamant she didn't like noodles so her Mum wouldn't give her any,  and her Mum wouldn't be excited about serving noodles anyway.

She popped to the shop,  and she borrowed DH's old phone to use while hers was out of action. She was very excited that it had facial recognition (which didn't work when she tried it wearing a Minions hooded dressing gown).

She's most excited because our youngest DGD is coming next week for a couple of days.  They haven't seen each other for over 3 years.   I hope it all goes well.

Distraction

The start of a difficult few days, today.

I decided distraction would be the way to go  so I started by decluttering my baking cupboard.   That may not sound like much of a challenge,  but it is - it's a floor to ceiling 500mm larder cupboard.     I've already decluttered (sold, selling, given away, charity shopped, binned) enough stuff to give me one free drawer.   The rest has been rearranged to reflect changed priorities, which mainly means most of my cake tins are now in a crate up out of the way,  the sugarcraft stuff has been thinned out and packed into one small drawer,  and I've been brutal in culling my cookie cutters.

A couple of other bits got sucked in to the decluttering process,  and a few more will undoubtably follow.

No creative work done.  I keep thinking I ought to do those two tops that are currently buried under the mountain of bakeware but I need to clear the clutter first. I know that's just an excuse.    And I keep thinking I ought to be making some bits on the embroidery machine.I was going to make a treat bag for Small Person for Easter.      I ought to try and make that bag thing I bought a sewing pattern for.

Ought, ought, ought.   We all know what that means.

It's wet and miserable here, which suits me.  I'm going to light a fire and then I'm going to crack open another cupboard.

Does this count?

Pilates yesterday was tough going.    It's our last class for 4 week. FOUR weeks!    That's not good.

I'm limping along on my creative challenge.    I managed to cut out the back and sleeves for a top (I cut the front out a week or so ago) while SMall Person and DH were at the Allotment;  I pinned the bust darts and shoulder datrts on said top as well.

We made cheats lemon curd in Thermy.   It's not as luscious as proper lemon curd... but it took 7 minutes in Thermy instead of 45 minutes of me stirring over the hob, and that was a trade off I was happy to make.  I'll definitely make it again and I'll probably double the recipe next time.     That counts towards my creative challenge, doesn't it?

 I was trying to teach Small Person how to use a potato peeler to get zest off a lemon.  She managed, but I couldn't quite teach her the knack.  I might get her to use a grater next time... but I'd really like her to learn to do it 'properly'.  I might have to buy a different sort of peeler for her to use.

Raymondo's new AeroVac bin arrived.  I fitted it and set him off to work straight away.  It's much quieter than the old bin.   It seems to work really well,  so that's good. And a relief.   After testing him, I installed a new side brush.  I can't remember when I last did that.

It's going to be a tough week this week and I'm not feeling very resiliant.

Raymondo's new lease of life

Ten years ago, give or take a couple of weeks,  we bought our first robot vacuum cleaner. He was the top spec Roomba when we bought him, and we spent ages watching him work (and trying to confuse him).    Once the novelty wore off, we set him up to go cleaning overnight, and we'd take things off the floor before we went to bed.

Raymondo has worked hard over the ten years.  He's very battle scarred, because he's taller than he realises.  Mostly, the two-tone "Uh-oh" means he's managed to get wedged under something.

He's had a couple of  (3 maybe?) new batteries in that time,  and when we bought the second replacemwent battery we bought some additional bits (newly designed brushes) which effectively upgraded him to  higher spec model.

I've also replaced the front wheel, because it got damaged with years of pulling it out of its socket with a skewer.

He isn't, and hasn't ever been,  our only vacuum cleaner. For the past few years we've kept him upstairs where he does an outstanding job of picking up all the cat hair. 

Recently, and quite suddenly,  his battery became useless.   I had always tried to make sure the battery discharged fully each time I put him to work, so the NiCad didn't "learn".  Bit I may  have messed up, or maybe it was just worn out.    We tried a few things to rejuvenate the battery, but no luck.

He's also lost a bit of his bin,  so I needed to replace part of that.    We discussed what to do.  DH suggested getting a newer model... I knew how much they cost and said I wasn't sure I wanted to spend that much.    DH didn't know the latest price,  looked online, and then agreed with me. 

We decided to buy Raymondo a Lithium battery.  It arrived a few days  ago and today I put him to work for the first time.    He did upstairs and downstairs, and still had a bit of puff left.  Now that I can see it was definitely a battery issue, I've ordered him a new, upgraded,  bin and spare filters.   An upgrade all over again.

He's not quite like Trigger's broom... but he's still mainly the original Raymondo. 

Head Butter

Small Person visited.  I picked her up from her Drama class on Saturday afternoon, and she stayed until lunchtime on Sunday.  A rare treat as she's usually picked up at 9am to go riding.

This Saturday I needed to make butter, so she helped.  I explained the butter making process and it all went swimmingly.  I showed her how to pot up the salted butter,  and she did that while I got on with the rest of the process.  I now have two bowls for Bernie (the Bosch Mixer),  and so the process was remarkably smooth.

I churned 4 litres of cream, then washed the butter in the churn.  I divided the butter into two, one in each of Bernie's bowls.  First bowl was salted and put on to mix.   When it was mixed,  Small Person started potting, and I put the second salted bowl on to mix.   Meanwhile, I got on and churned the second lot of 4 litres.  

We watched Paddington 2 in the evening, and all went to bed at about 10pm.

Small Person was very tired, she slept until about 9.30 Sunday morning.    After she's made pancakes (using buttermilk), she got dressed and helped me put some covers on the sides of the Cubes to try and protect the chooks from the vicious wind.   She also made snow angels, so she got soaked and had to get changed before going out again.

I'm looking forward to the Easter holidays

So close

I made a top!

I haven't made one for ages - my time has been spent on leggings for Small Person and then leggings for me - and I was struggling to remember the construction steps.     It came together very quickly though, and I even managed to hem it.

A minor disaster struck when I was putting the sleeves in.  I managed to have an overlocker steering malfunction.   I cursed a bit.      The top is still sort of wearable, but it wasn't suitable for it's intended purpose.  It's still sitting on the kitchen table waiting for me to cut out and apply the neck binding, and I really ought to do it otherwise it'll just become another UFO (unfinished object). 

So what was the intended purpose? I was making it to wear to the Sewing show at the NEC.   I

I wasn't going as a visitor, I was going to be helping out on one of the stands!    I decided I couldn't risk wearing it because I was afraid people would look at my top, and judge the product I was representing by my shoddy workmanship. So I wore shop bought clothes.

I had a really enjoyable day.      I found it tough at first, because I don't like encouraging people to spend their money (even though I thoroughly endorse the product I was representing).  Luckily the lady I was representing was not interested in making people buy her product at the show,  she was happy for them to find out about it and go away and maybe buy it later.    

I settled into it when I talked with people about what the system was and why it might help them.  I usually started the same way Do you make your own clothes?  Do you use a commercial pattern?  How did you find the fit?  And then we could talk about the system and whether it might help them.  There were some people where the system wouldn't help them and I was honest with them about that.
I guess it helped that I am a customer of the system, not an employee.

If I hadn't already had other commitments, I would have gone back to do a second day.

I'm looking forward to finding out how the remaining 3 days went

Bittersweet

When I bought my latest lovely sewing machine,  I sold my previous one along with the myriad of feet I had accumulated.  I was sorry to see them go, most of them were unused, just waiting for me to find a project to use them.

I resolved that I would not buy lots of additional feet for my new machine.  I would only buy feet that I was (reasonably) sure I would use.  (Unless I saw one at a bargain price, of course) .

I kept to that.  I did buy some additional feet, but the feet I bought have been in frequent use. Mostly.

When making my duvet cover recently,  I needed a "stitch in the ditch" foot.  I could swear I had one.  I looked through the myriad of feet that came with the machine,  and the feet I had bought. Couldn't find it.  Then I loaded my spreadsheet and realised that I'd had such a foot with a previous machine,  I hadn't bought one for this machine.

I did a quick search and saw one on Ebay at a really good price.  It was too late for my duvet cover, but it would be rude not to buy it.    I bid and, as usual, I had a look at the sellers other items, just in case.  She was selling quite a few feet and other sewing bits.   I decided to break my rule and bid on several of the feet which I didn't have.  I resisted bidding on some of her other items,  and I didn't bid on all the feet. 

I won some, and I didn't win others.    I messaged her to ask about combined postage,  and found that she was a really lovely older lady.     I realised from her messages that she was me in the future.  Lots of feet, unused and still in their packaging.  She was obviously downsizing  and getting rid of the paraphernalia from a once loved hobby.

It choked me up a bit.

Ta Daaa!

Finished, at last!

I wish I'd thought to take a picture when it was pristine: newly finished, newly ironed, and newly on the bed. 

I've ended up with puckering and not straight stitching, but I'm not too bothered.  I spent so long measuring, marking, sewing in lines before I started cutting; I finished my raw edges before I started working,   I measured and basted everything before sewing,  then I sewed.  I've sewn hidden seams, folded hems, I've done all sorts.  At some point I stopped taking out the basting stitches, partly because I'd reached the "I don't really care anymore" stage,  and once because I realised I hadn't done a proper stitch afterwards. Oops.

To make sure that it all stays in place, I was going to coverstitch it.  This worked really well for one of the four sides.  Then it just wasn't working.  My little Bernina Coverstitch machine has a tiny space to the right of the needles,  and I was trying to feed a superking sized duvet cover through that space.  It just wasn't working. 

So,  I decided to top stitch all the way round using a decorative stitch.  My thinking was that my decorative stitch would also stitch down the folded seam underneath,  if I did it a particular way I'd also topstitch the very edge of the panel down,  and a decorative stitch  would cover my decidedly wonky seam (and basting) stitching.  I chose to do it in a colour which wouldn't show up too much.  

I chose a cat shaped stitch.

I then spent forever holding a superking quilt over my shoulder and across my arm while trying to keep the seam straight.  It takes a surprisingly long time for the machine to sew a cat shape (complete with whiskers).  I thought it was never going to end.    When my arm and leg started to ache, I tried disassociating myself from the task.  That was OK, but did cause a wonky stitch line.

When it was all done,  I whipped up a couple of extra large pillow cases.  We have lovely wool pillows, but they are a bit too big to fit comfortably inside normal sized cases.  I'm really pleased with them.  I was cream crackered when I started them,  but I really wanted to get the bed made.  The picture doesn't so them justice.

I know that not doing this project  (and knowing I should  do it) has been a contributory factor to the loss of my Sewjo.  I'm hoping that having completed it, it may come back.

We'll see.

Working on it.

I was going to send my mum some flowers for Mothers Day,  I just had no enthusiasm for embroidery. Then I saw a really simple design on merylmakes.com.   Meryl is a friend of mine in real life,  I love her embroidery designs.     I decided to do it.  So, I did.

I still had the clamp frame attached to Bertha.  I faffed about choosing colours,  rethreading the machine,  changing the colour selections, blah blah blah and cutting the upholstery fabric I was going to stitch on.      I centred the design, did several tracings  (getting the machine to pretend to stitch the design so I can check it isn't going to hit the frame),  and then I decided to add a border.   I faffed around doing that, and then I was ready.

I decided to get the border stitched first, as this would help keep. the fabric and stabiliser taut.  It's lucky I did.  It's also lucky I didn't walk away  There was an almighty crunch, as the needle hit the frame.  When I added the border, I hadn't repositioned the design.   The frame was scratched, the needle snapped,  the fabric chewed... but all survived.

New needle.  Rethread.  Recut fabric.  Try again. 

The fabric was fraying like mad, so I ended up using the sewing machine to stitch an additional hidden border.   I just did a straigh stitch, which wasn't enough - that will only stop the fraying once the ffraying has reached the stitch.  next time I'll probably do an overedge stitch.

 I hope Mum likes it as much as I do.

I've also been making progress on my duvet cover. More about that another time.  Maybe.

Oh, and I handmade enriched bread for hot dog rolls lasrt night.   They were good, but no better than breadmaker made. 

Lambiness

Lamb butchery at Shirley's on Monday.

She's right, it's very very different to pig butchery.     With a pigm, the carcass is halved and you work on a half carcass.    WIth a lamb, the carcass isn't halved,  and you don't halve it to butcher it.   That means you butcher the whole carcass as you go.

Our lamby requiremens are quite simple, so I don't know how much butchery there will be for us to do next time.  From Shirley's point of view, it's actually easier for her to cut it for us than it is for her to cut it into pieces for us to butcher further.  Unless we wanted a rack of lamb -  which we don't. 

Made some amazing-smelling lamb stock from the bones yesterday.  We've got lamb chops today,  and Im making with boulangere potatoes.  It was going to be dauphinoise,  but we don't have any cream.

Slippery

My fab new slippers arrived in the post today.

I was hesitant about buying them because often these sort of slippers are too tight for my poor feet.

They seem OK.    They are so lovely that I'd probably wear them regardless.

Old Farts

Old age creeps up and catches me unawares.  Example: one day, I could suddenly see that those llift out chairs (HSL advertise quite heavily) might actually be a good idea, one day.   If only they weren't so darned ugly!

My SIL had her hip done (or it might have been her knee, I can't remember now.  Another bit of old age creep) .   My brother bought her a single motor Riser Recliner chair, advertised locally to him on Gumtree.     It worked really well for the intended purpose.  I vaguely looked at them, but DH wasn't interested (we already have electric recliners in the sofas) and I didn't bother.

Time moved on.  A couple of weeks ago,  my brother bought a better riser recliner. It was in tip top condition,  was  a petite model,  and had a dual motor.  It was much better made than the other one,  and he was singing its praises.  So much so, that he went and got another one for himself.

The other day we popped over to see them, and he was keen that we tried the new chairs just to see why they were so good.  I sat in one and it was surprisingly comfortable.    I got DH to try it.  He wasn't too keen, but 'had a go' to be polite.   He really liked it.

And so, I did some research,  looked around to see what was available, and found a bargain of a Sheborne leather chair in the next town,  and  a top of the range HSL fabric chair near that.  We arranged to see both.

We went along to see the leather chair first,  and had agreed a code phrase before hand just in case  it wasn't possible for us to signal to each other if we didn't like it.   It was immaculate,  used for a month, and very comfortable.  It was on Gumtree, and we decided to buy it immediately.  I messaged my brother to let him know we'd joined the Old Farts Chair club.

The second chair was on Ebay, and the auction was still running.  We wanted to see it to see whether to bid or not.       It was another immaculate chair, and this one hadn't been used.    We decided we'd bid and see if we won.

At home with the first chair, we had nowhere to put it without rearranging everything,  and no point in rearranging until we knew whether we had to fit in one or two chairs.  Luckily the auction was a short one,  we won, and we braved the snow to collect it.  I told my brother we now had two Old Farts Chairs, and he started to guffaw.

We then spent hours trying to rearrange the furniture to fit them in. We knew that something had to go, either one of the two seaters, or our lovely Gravity chair.   Currently, the Gravity chair has been relocated, and we're seeing how it goes.  The living room looks a bit like an Old Folks Home sitting room,  like an assortment of chairs has been dropped in at random.

We've had to do some artful arrangement to try and make it look a bit more considered, and this means we've lost all our hidden storage (the space behind the sofas). We have a pile of stuff that needs to be reviewed and stored, donated, or chucked.

My brother turned up to look at the chairs.  He's always so enthusiastic, even if they'd been a disaster he would have found something positive to say.   He liked both of them.    We sat in the living room and chatted,  and the new furniture arrangement made this much better than the old arrangement. 

Usually we end up in the kitchen,  but maybe we'll socialise more in the living room now?

The cats have been exploring everything, and are completely confused about where they are allowed to sit.

When we put the chairs in the room, before we started arranging, Izzy got up in the same place whereshe usually gets up... only now it was a single chair, and there's no nice fluffy cat bed.   She did look surprisingly comfortable though, and she was most put out when I made her get off. 

  


We've got to sort out the side tables next, but we need to know whether we're staying like this or whether one of the sofas is going.  The room looks so...so...full of furniture right now.

We'll give it a day or so, and see how it beds down.

Bread head

Long and difficult day yesterday, might write about it some other time.

Today DH, my brithers, sister in law, and I went on a Nordic Breadmaking course at the lovely Willow Bakery in Shepperton.      Willow Bakery is a home bakery, open one day a week.

I don't make many sweet breads, so this was  really interesting.   In addition to the Pulla (Finland), Cinnamon and Cardamom knots, we made some Swedish rolls and a Danish Rye Bread.   it was a jam packed course, only possible because Nicky had weighed out most of the ingredients in advance.

Of course we have double of everything. One of the Pulla loaves will be sliced and frozen;  we've frozen all the uncooked Knots, we can bake them from frozen as we need them.  We'll start eating the Rye in a couple of days when it has had time to mature.  The rolls are waiting to be eaten.

We did all the kneading by hand, which was a lot of work because these particular doughs are very wet - and two of them were enriched with butter.    Nicky is building a workshop in the garden to house the bakery,  and this will enable her to provide mixers for at least one of the doughs in future.
I'll certainly be using a mixer when I make these at home.  Now I know what texture I am looking for, it will be easy to tell when the mixer has done it's job

I have no pictures.  I just didn't think to take any. 

It was good to spend the afternoon laughing and concentrating on other stuff.

Sew Pleased!

Half term week.

We looked after Small Person for 3 days.  She spent one and a half days playing on my starter sewing machine, with mixed success.  She did well at sewing fairly straight lines (at least as well as I would do, without my trusty guide foot).     She did well at turning corners, with practice.     She did well at inventing stitched together bits and pieces,  but couldn't grasp the need to sew right sides together and then turn out.  Maybe next time.

She's a bit of a butterfly, so I was surprised (and impressed) that she stuck at it for such a long time.   I'll be interested to see if she wants to do more another time.

We had a day on our own, which we mostly spent faffing about.  Then the Twins arrived.  Their parents left them here for the afternoon and went off on a long walk (much longer than they meant to). 
Twin S spent the afternoon with her grandfather, learning how to use a 3D printer (she printed a cat shaped phone stand), and then how to build a motor from scratch. 

Twin G spent the afternoon with me,  learning how to work with stretch fabric and, specifically, how to make leggings.   She had brought her sewing machine from home, and made two pairs of leggings.  She wore one of the pairs out to dinner.
Saturday morning,  Twin S and Granddad finished building the motor,  and Twin G used the cardboard template we made to cut out fabric for 2 more pairs of leggings to make when she got home.

That makes up for my lack of creative makes for the  month so far, I think.

Faster Pasta

I have a few kitchen gadgets,  and I don't ever buy gadgets on impulse.

As a young adult, I would be swayed by demos at my first couple of Ideal Home Shows.   When I got home, often the gadget just didn't work the way it seemed to when demoed

As I started to move into more expensive, often electrical, gadgets,  I learned to look at the gadget more critically, and really see what the flaws were.  Would it really do somethng better than I could do myself, or an existing gadget could do?  Would the cleaning routine really be worth the effort?

If I'm interested in a gadget,  I look at it critically, research it,  and (usually) I walk away from it. In these internet days, I store my research in folders, just in case I decide to look again.  Often the itch goes away. Sometimes it doesn't.   Sometimes it goes away for ages and then comes back....

A while ago, I heard about an electric pasta maker made by Philips.  It looked.... surprisingly good.   I read about it, but decided against buying one.  We have pasta rollers for our Kitchen Aid, and these work really well.

A few things then happened.

My KitchenAid has recently been supplanted by a different mixer.  I didn't sell the KA, I put it in the loft.     I did, however, decide to sell the pasta attachments. 

While thinking about selling them,  I looked again at the Philips Pasta Maker.    They now had two sorts,  a big one and a small one.  A Facebook group related to one of my machines had a discussion about them, and one chap had both sorts.  I quizzed him a bit.        More people bought one or other of the machines, more raved about it.  

I couldn't justify the expense, but I did set up an Ebay and Gumtree alert.  A machine came up at an inexpensive price. The seller  had gone gluten free, so wasn't making pasta any more.  One part of the machine was cracked,  so I googled to see how much a replacement piece would be.

My googling revealed some interesting things.   A better-loaded model, not available in the UK,  was available from Amazon in Germany at relatively low price.   That same model was more expensive - a lot more expensive - on all the other European Amazon sites that I visited.     I couldn't understand why it would be so 'cheap'.  Even with shipping, it was cheaper than the small version, and this one came with lots of extra dies,  it had integrated scales.....      When I looked at the second hand model I was considering,  added in the cost of the extra dies and the cost of a replacement lid,  there wasn't much in it.

I ordered it.

To make myself feel less bad about what was almost an impulse buy,  I sold my Kitchen Aid pasta rollers and I also sold my lovely food processor.  It was fab processor - I just don't need to use it anymore.  Last time I tried to sell it, I wrote the ad and it made me not want to sell it.  The same thing nearly happened this time,  but I made  myself go through with it.    The money I made almost covered the cost of the pasta machine.

It arrived quickly, and we had pasta that same night.  It was amazing!

Now, it's not at all the same as making pasta by hand.  You don't atually make a dough at all.  You put the flour (or semonlina, or combination) into the machine,  you add the egg and water (or just water),  it mixes it to something like breadcrumbs and then a few minutes later, it extrudes it through a die into your chosen pasta shape.

The resulting pasta looks crumblier than conventional home pressed pasta.  It cooks beautifully and tastes wonderful.  We've had pasta about four times since we bought it.      It takes just a few minutes from putting in the ingredients to having pasta ready to cook.  We can have pasta on the table within 15 minutes of deciding to have pasta for dinner.

We can also make noodles, we just haven't tried that yet.


It is a big machine. The little Philips Viva is much more compact and (by all accounts) works just as well


I'm really pleased we went for the all-singing model.  We put in the dry ingredients, press a button, and it tells us how much liquid to add.  No guessing. 
It's here if you are interested (this is not an affiliate link)  https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01HH5N1VA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1


What's your position on gadgets?

Personal space

Poppy laid her first egg (since moulting) yesterday.     That means that 3, possibly 4, of them have now laid at some point in the last week.     Nest Box Wars have broken out,  each Girl is very vocal when she finds the nestbox already occupied.

We have 5 hens and 4 nestboxes.  Each nest box is big.  Big enough for 2 hens to sit end to end with a big gap in the middle  3 of the could sit side by side.

They all, however, have to use the same nest box.  They all have to have it to themselves.  And they all like to take their time about it.

I'm surprised the neighbours haven't complained about the racket.

Does this count?

Last night I decided I would DEFINITELY do something creative today.
I bought the last of the patterns I wanted to get printed,  organised them into a flder ready to upload, and noticed that one was missing.  I contacted the designer, using their web contact form,  immediately.

This morning, I hadn't had a response, so I emailed them.  They are a US company so should have had time to look at my query yesterday.   If I don't get this sent off soon, I won't get the printed patterns back in time to sew a top for Small Person at the beginning of next week

It was distracting me from my planned task.  I printed out the instructions for several of my existing patterns, including the two I was dithering between making.  I recognised the instructions for one of them, I've obviously printed them before.  So,  I decided to bind the instructions into a booklet and, of course,  I had to print the instructions for the other patterns i've already got so that they could go in as well.

I moved to clear the cutting table, still undecided about which pattern to make.  One of the items to be cleared was a book about sewing jersey with a sewing machine (a birthday present for my sewing grand-daughter, who is coming at the end of next week to learn to make leggings.  It reminded me that I had meant to order some ballpoint needles for her sewing machine,   so I went and ordered those before I forgot again.

And then while I was in Ebay,  I saw those aluminium flat pieces that I'd toyed with getting to help me mark and press long seams.    I thought about the duvet cover upstairs and decided that today I'd order them.  When I had several of varying widths in my basket, free postage,  I realised that I'd get them cheaper if I went direct.  So I did.

So I've been doing stuff which will enable me to be creative.

Does that count?

Spoke too soon

I was feeling very pleased with myself after sticking to my creative goals in January.

So how come it's now 6th February, and I have done NOTHING?  Not even for my best friend's birthday!

I've really not been in a creative frame of mind.

I've spent a lot  of time= looking at downloadable patterns, which I don't need as I have ny Surefit Designs body blueprint and I can use that.  And I can use thechildrens kit for Small Person.

A while ago I bought some patterns which I planned to get printed on A0.  I've done this before, it's fab.  I wanted to get them printed,.  The main cost of printing is postage, which is the same whether I have 1xA0 pattern piece of 20 A0 pattern pieces.  I decided to finally buy those one or two that I keep looking at -  they were children's ones, which included options for raglan sleeves,  hoodies, cowls and all sorts,  so it was a reasonable purchase.  Smnall Person is here next week and I want to try making her some tops,  which will help me learn how to do these techniques.   

It snowballed a bit.


I'm embarrassed and a little ashamed.

I know it's a distraction thing.  No time to sew because I've been looking at these patterns.  I've been  rigorous in my evaluation (mostly).     

It's done now.  I'm not buying any more, and I'm going to send these off tomorrow. I'd send them off now, but one of the designs where I was expecting an A0 pattern didn't come with one.  I've contacted the designer, but I guess it might take her a little while to get back to me.

On the plus side,   Small Person surprised me by saying she wanted to try sewing next week.    I'm thining a tote bag or a pencil case to get her started.

Holy Smoke!

The loins and the lardons were ready to come out of their cure.  We decided to smoke 1 piece and ost of the lardons, leaving the other 2 pieces unsmoked.

It's been a while since we last cold smoked anything.  We went through a cold smoke phase a couple of years ago, it was surprisingly easy to do. We'd got a range of smoking dusts, and it was interesting to try the same sort of food smoked with different dusts.

We liked things with a hint of smoke, rather than really smoked.  Smoking stuff ourselves enabled us to control just how smoky things were.

Hot smoking, which cooks the food as well as smoking it,  has never really appealed to either of us, so our inexpensive and reliable ProQ Eco has been ideal.


After some headscratching, we retrieved theProQ Eco smoker box from Myshed.  I remembered that it retained the smoky smell, so we knew it wouldn't be in the loft with the  smoke generator and sawdust.  Instead of trying to remember where I put it,   I imagined that it was in front of me and needed putting away; where was the most sensible place?  I find that technique qorks well for most things..

Anyway, I digress.

We sniffed the open packets of smoking sawdust  (apple, oak, beech) and decided that, unsurprisingly,  they'd lost their aroma. We opened a new packet of apple, as  Apple would go really well with the cider/apple cure.

And off we went.

DH went out to check on it after about ten minutes,  and again after half an hour;  it's just as well he did.

I've now placed an order for a Thuros smoker.   This one also does hot smoking and I think we might try to hot smoke some sausages.   It's too late to smoke the remaining bacon.

It's a compact size,  it's got a lot more adjustability,  it can be used for both cold and hot smoking, and it's not horrendously expensive in the scheme of things - £159 vs about £30 for the cardboard Eco.   And it's  metal.   We may well have decided to upgrade to this anyway,  recent events just brought the purchase forward a bit.


We also had to replace the smoke generator,  so I ended up buying the Deal
from AngusAndOink.  It was a bit cheaper anyway  than buying the two items, plus it had some sawdyust, chips, and BBQ dust included.   I'd never heard of Angus and Oink before:  they hadn't come up when I was googling,   I found them through their YouTube video of them using the Thuros.  

I noticed that a lot of places were out of stock of the Thuros,  so I messaged Angus and Oink to check if they had any in.  Luckily for me they did,  so one will be with me soon.

Birthday

I've managed to complete January and I've done something creative (or related) almost every day.  Of course my definition of "something creative" is a bit elastic: I've included butter making, pork butchery,  fiddling around with the embroidery machine.... but I'm happy enough.

My last make for January was another card

I had several attempts at this.  The first one used a Westie-dog fabric, which had the Westies so far apart I had to cut and stitch them together first (and I didn't like the result).


The clamp frame works really well,  but the design of it means the amount of  embroidery space is really limited.  I had originally added a built-in thin border around the design (the better borders were too big to fit) but it started to unravel after I'd removed everything from the embroidery frame, and I had to unpick it all.

I quite like the "linen" fabric look - it makes a change from my usual felt - but it really does fray! Next time I'll have to shrink the design more and use a bugger, solid,  border and trim to that.

All good learning.

For February I'm going to try and do some clothes related sewing rather than embroidery machine stuff.  I'm not sure I'll manage something creative almost every day.... but we'll see.