Thursday 31 December 2015

A happy new Year!

Warmest greetings to everyone in blogland and followers! Bring on 2016 and lets enjoy it!


Thank goodness Xmas is over. Love my sons and their various families and today is the first for 10 days we are alone and quiet and doing our own stuff, bliss. Listen - ?   Yep. Nothing.  sun is shining, washing drying on the line, and no large meals required today.

We had a great time and lots of nice meals after which no one was desperately hungry and no one picked or wanted extras after a meal.  My eldest son baked us another large Xmas cake (he is an excellent baker, gets it from his master baker Grandfather and not me) so we are well stocked in cake till the end of January.  Husband was not particularly feeling well so he actually lost 2 lbs over the holidays.   I filled the freezer with turkey bones and will get it all out to make a big stock pot next week when I feel more like cooking again.

As the two youngest grandchildren are both 18 months there was a lot of running round and entertaining. One was not too well for most of Xmas so there was some stress with what to feed him, ending in the hospital saying give him nothing but water and clear soup for 24 hours.  Which did the trick and the endless nappy changing and screaming stopped and he and I played "go, run, stop, go" till he fell over exhausted and slept most of the way back to London. Grand daughter ate like a horse and walked for miles on her own at the beach, the park and our long field till she fell asleep for 4 hours on the way home to Wiltshire.


What was the best thing on the very little children's TV we managed to watch? Stick Man. Excellent art work and a gentle story well told and grandson and I had quiet granny time watching it together.

Tuesday 22 December 2015

No Xmas pud!

Sainsbury's has just brought the basic food for the next week. No Xmas pud available! Should I rush round in circles in the morning and find one?  Probably not, as I don't like them that much and who will really want it anyway after all that turkey?  Bah humbug!  Plenty of lovely kale and sprouts to eat in the veg plot and l just dug up and cooked some beetroot.

At least the Christmas tree is looking nice. Despite the 3 hours spent untangling the wires on the lights at least three times.


We have had lots of windy squalls this week. Here is a photo of the edge of one storm cloud just clearing, it was a  very strange colour.


The neighbours fence to the right started to come down at mid day today and we rushed out to help him.take the last panel away before the whole lot came loose. His wife, who has cancer, has worsened this week and we really felt our little bit of aid was the least we could do. In fact the whole village is saddened by the fatal accident on the road into the village from the A17 yesterday - such a waste of a young life. It is a junction we approach with great caution and I am sure we annoy lots of drivers as we wait for a very, very long gap int he speeding traffic before attempting to pull out ourselves.

Going to sit down in a moment and plan out some meals for the next few days and not panic. The shops are open again and we can stuff ourselves on the bargains!


Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to everyone! 


Grandchildren on their way so I will probably not blog for some time as I intend to play with all their toys and spoil them rotten, before sending them home for their parents to deal with (revenge for the three sons running me ragged for so many years!).


Saturday 19 December 2015

Having found the missing piece of sewing machine lost yesterday hiding under the mat, peace is restored in the house. For five minutes and then we got snappy - husband with IBS and me with cystitis - cancel Christmas!  Not helped by the oil delivery man coming unexpectedly two days earlier than arranged, before we were out of bed, and because he could not be bothered to wait 5 minutes for us to get the key promptly broke open the lid of the new oil tank to make the delivery and get on his way.  Complaints will be made on Monday!

Husband retired to woodworking in his shed and I went to continue some sewing. I am trying out a rag doll pattern from my SEW magazine. I have been promising this all year but could not find a pattern I liked till this week.  Progress? Two arms - not matching!


Perhaps the first doll may stay at Granny's and baby will have to wait for an improved version.

I have also been trying out some simple patchwork with the left overs from renovating the lounge curtains before we have visitors. I have final achieved matching, albeit short, curtains at each end of the lounge. These double aspect windows can be a bind when your curtain stock was for a house with large bays but one per room.
The second one I added some wadding and quilted between the strips.  In daylight the two orange fabrics look identical but under a flash one is definitely red! No one will notice (I hope).

In preparation for small children over Xmas I have been digging some odds and ends out of the Xmas box to decorate the kitchen/dining room. Two strings of LED lights from the pound shop years ago, on the window cills to start.  Then I found these awful gift tags. What was I thinking? I hope I got them cheap and did not spend good money on these, but I cannot remember them at all.  I found some green ribbon from a gift some time back and spaced the tags out before stapling them on. Now we have a cheerful "garland" for the little ones to see at meal times.
I also found some old IKEA decorations. In the big house we used to have at least two trees to decorate!  I liked these so kept them when downsizing. This week I raided all sorts of bits from the craft boxes to make a cheerful picture on a bit of foam board next to where the high chairs will be.



Stars from some forgotten table set, sequins off an old dress, second hand bow thing at the top, bit of cake band at the bottom and bits of ribbon for the trunk. Sponged water colour to make a sky. May add to it as things come to hand.

Proper tree decoration on Christmas Eve in the lounge; keeping tree outside till the last minute to stop the needle drop.

Nearly 4 o'clock and I had better make a cup of tea for us to relax with before getting an early meal; ready to watch the Strictly Dancing final. Probably one of the last good things on TV for a while. Where are they getting all these hopeless B rated movies and repeats?
Hoping we are in a better mood tomorrow.

Thursday 17 December 2015

Is Christmas affecting our minds?

Is it Christmas stress or age?

First - Husband took the box of outside lights to decorate the garden then returned 10 mins later asking where the transformer/plug was?  In the box, where its been for the last 5 years in storage since we sold the "big" house, downsized and stored sealed. (Sorry, Mrs Grumpy has not had a good nights sleep all week).  Oh, and I thought I saw it, he replied but I can't find it.  Two days of searching the 40 feet of garden and in the shed brought nothing to light.  (Ha Ha). The plug was no where to be found.  Luckily our neighbour asked what we were doing eventually had a suitable spare!

Second - I got something stuck in the feeds of my new sewing machine and I had to take it apart to release the jam.  Carefully replaced bobbin, plate and screws - and then could not find the plastic cover. Searched high and low round the machine, the floor and the shelves.  Still can't find it. Given up and will look in daylight tomorrow.

Oh for goodness sake have we got ghosts or have we lost our brains?

Image result for old confused people


Tuesday 15 December 2015

Red onions stewed

Found the last 3 red onions from the early summer crop lurking in the veg basket. Not having all the ingredients for red onion marmalade recommended on the web I made a similar and tasty dish to my own liking and what was in the cupboard.

Using butter and olive oil I saute'd the sliced onions until soft then used red wine vinegar and some nice stock to make a nice rich sauce. Added two big tablespoons of brown caster sugar to sweeten. A sprig of thyme to add flavour and a little flour to thicken.

This proved very tasty and accompanied various meals for two or three days - especially nice with macaroni cheese.

No picture as we ate it all!

Saturday 12 December 2015

Messing around in the kitchen

Having tidied the cupboards ready for Xmas I closed all the doors and thought how boring the kitchen looked. We are planning a kitchen revamp along a "beach" theme when my husband has his woodworking shed re-clad and up and running but meanwhile......

I painted the kitchen cupboards with some more of the "storm blue" chalk paint our son bequeathed us last year.   Nearly got two coats on it all after two half days work.
No cost and it looks brighter!

 I also remembered a tiler-person once telling me I can brighten up tiles with furniture polish. As the earthy colours look a little dull I will be giving the splash-backs a good clean and have a go with a can of cheap supermarket polish. We have a new bright striped blind (a deckchair pattern/colours) at the other end of the room (double aspect) so I am going to cover the dining room chairs with similar fabric and then make some bunting to hang above the sink. Will post some pictures shortly. That should brighten the place in the rest of the dull winter weather!

Outside it is dull and wet. It has been so mild my husband has had to mow the grass areas around the house and in a side bed I found our hellebores think its spring and are putting out flowers!



Wednesday 9 December 2015

Christmas prep

Well actually, non-prep. We are just not into it that much. I steam cleaned the carpets and rugs yesterday for visits from two very small grand children to toddle and crawl safely on. And I emptied the cupboards and fridge of any out of date stuff at the back.  My very tall sons always manage to find something from 2013 and I get a lecture and teased about being short (5'6" is NOT short).
Empty fridge ready for shopping around the 22nd? Will just tick over till then!  Annoyed with butcher's assistant just now - when I asked for 1kg of chicken pieces he offered to put them in two 500g bags for me. But what he did was well over 500g in each bag and he did not say that clearly,  so I actually brought 25% more than I planned.  Up till now I have had a good deal at this butcher's and it has annoyed me slightly.  Will be on my guard a bit more next time. And now I have open those bags and take out the excess as we try to stick to the recommended meat portions along side our 3 or 4 veg per main meal.

Cleaned, organised and labelled.

Also now know there are no milk products around for the very, very milk allergic grandson to find on lower shelves in the kitchen.

The wood cladding for the rebuild of the large workshop arrived early on Monday and we spent two days taking up the garden and storing inside to dry out a bit before it is used. Now both exhausted and having a couple of rest days to recover.

That was hubby's Xmas present; perhaps I will tie a bow to one end.

Monday 7 December 2015

Sunday walk

As storm Desmond high winds (but very dry here) died we took ourselves out for a dose of fresh air (and ignoring any ideas about Christmas preparations).

Husband managed about 2 miles along Snettisham to Hacham Bank before his arthritic ankle declared war. There were a few others about, but plenty of room! When we tired of the wind we had a look at the marshes behind the dunes.

The bit of sun had faded by now so made out way back calling at Wolfenden nature reserve to see if it would be suitable for family walks over Xmas. Looks ideal. There was still some colour in the trees and a rhodi thinks it spring!
Back to work Monday - wood for shed rebuild delivered at 9am and mostly moved up the garden by 3.30!

Wednesday 2 December 2015

Very nearly a sewing makeover too far!

I had a nice linen style work suit hanging unused in the wardrobe and several times it nearly went to the charity shop. But I like the colour and the fabric effect even though the accompanying pencil skirt was a size too small now.



So finally I settled on a make over to a short jacket for spring using a freebie pattern I had. This will be a good alternative to a cardigan.
I wanted to reuse the front lower edges and the sleeves and
there was plenty of material to play with when I put the pattern against the suit.

What I had not realised in this pattern  was this was tailored collar rather than a dressmaking mandarin style. By the time I had worked out the construction the material showed how much it liked to fray! Got there in the end but made it more complex by trying to reuse sleeves and their lining. In the end virtually re cut these to fit.

 As it was so hacked about in the end I added a "groovy" lining to the body to hide all the makeover edges.

It may not get many wears, but at least it will come out of the cupboard! And I learnt a lot about fabrics used commercially which while looking great in the original were actually a rubbish fabric for home sewing! I was reading some sewing blogs that make-over clothes and it is not an immediately easy way to save money.



Tuesday 1 December 2015

No time for an advent calendar make

As our Grandchildren are not coming to just before Xmas day an advent calendar in full is not really needed here in the otherwise Bah Hambug house. My Sew magazine had a nice material-stash busting idea which I have adapted to have ready for their presence over the actual holiday.

Here is the idea - 25 little houses with pockets for sweets.



I enlarged the pattern by 25% on screen and then made one for each letter of their names. I am looking for some nice farm or zoo animals to pop in for them as sweets don't appear in this house very often.  Didn't take too long and all the materials and cotton were in the house already.


There were ideas for Christmas decorations in there too but we have accumulated a large box full over the years so not going to do those.  The templates are free on line on the magazine website - but the instructions are in the magazine itself.