Isolation Day Eight

Finally my husband has sorted out his medical appointments. The doctors' surgery didn't phone this morning so he phoned them and they said he should go in, so he drove himself down to the surgery and apparently he was the only patient there. Probably because we have all had text messages to tell us to stay away! The consultant's secretary got back to him to say the consultant was self isolating so wouldn't be seeing him on Thursday but would contact him by telephone. Phew.

The neighbours sent us clips of their CCTV video of the person opening the back of our car and he doesn't just open the back he opens both of the front doors and gets inside the car and sits in it for several minutes! He cycles along the pavement past our drive then turns around comes back and rides down our drive, gets off his bike and has a look at our car, opens the boot, closes the boot, steps through the fence and checks out the neighbours taxi but can't open the doors, so comes back to our car opens the driver's door and gets in, goes around to the passenger's  door opens it and gets in, finally gets out gets on his bike and cycles away!
My husband has now discovered that his CDs and ipod are missing.
The police rang me back and asked me to send them the video clips in the hope that the local police might recognise him. They also suggested that we keep all the car keys inside a metal tin which will prevent thieves from accessing the signals which unlock the car, so I'm off to find a tin.

The weather today has been gorgeous and I washed a sleeping bag and had it out on the line, when I brought it in, it was covered in little black specks which I thought were from the trees. I then discovered that the little black specks were crawling! It reminded me of my younger daughter's first car, it cost her £50 and it was a bright yellow original Mini. She drove it 16 miles to school every morning and I drove it  home and then drove it back to school in the afternoon and she drove it home. It was a lovely little car, a genuine Mini with sliding windows and those string door handle pulls, the only thing wrong with this bright yellow Mini was that it was always covered in thousands of black crawling mini beasts.

Today I thought I would start to sew the bright orange bag but it didn't go to plan. My new sewing machine has 3 different tension adjustment points and it must have taken me over an hour to get the tension adjusted correctly and then I discovered I was using the wrong thread and would have to start all over again. I think I'll do it tomorrow.

I have finished another crocheted baby blanket, I like to do something when I'm watching the telly, it's too dark now to photograph so I'll post some images tomorrow.

Isolation Day Seven

This post has to include Days 5 and 6 because our internet was not working properly, I expect the world and his wife were all trying to use it at the same time as me, how dare they!

Anyway I have long since forgotten what I did and in what order I did whatever it was I did.

I removed all the unwanted covers from all the leftover cushions and have made several more new covers, unfortunately every time I turn around there is another naked cushion and I'm bored with cushion covers now.

I am bored with trying to catch up with the washing.

Not my image.

I am so bored with the cooking and washing the dishes. My husband and I used to take it in weekly turns to do the food shopping and the cooking. It was absolutely great, having spent the majority of my life meal planning, food shopping and then cooking the stuff, it was bliss to get every other week off. However since he hasn't been able to participate in anything really since Christmas it has all been down to me. And I'm fed up with it, and to top it all I have forgotten to take anything out of the freezer for tonight! Plus a few weeks ago he decided that he couldn't eat anything but white fish and mashed potato, thank goodness we have now passed that stage.

Also not my image. I wish my white fish and mashed potato had looked like this!

Oh and today the dishwasher appears to have broken! It washed the dishes last night with only about half of the soap tablet, the remaining piece was left in the flappy thing. So this morning I removed the soggy tablet, cleaned out the flappy thing and inserted a new tablet and waited the one and a half hours it takes to wash. Heaven only knows why it takes so long. But when I opened the door to remove the clean dishes the tablet was lying untouched. but soggy, on the bottom of the dishwasher. So I washed everything by hand. So much quicker and probably much cheaper.

Another image which is not mine.

Yesterday was Mother's Day and the girls sent me text messages and my son deposited a lovely bunch of flowers and a card outside my door, he said there were no chocolates as the shops were sold out. But at least they all remembered.

Today all three children are working from home and I have received various images of them sitting in front of their computers working.

This morning the next door neighbour called round to say that someone was breaking into our car last night! The neighbour has CCTV and he has images of someone actually opening the back door/boot of our car! They had also tried to get into his taxi. What we can't understand is how they opened the back of the car because it was locked. Interestingly our daughter in law who lives around the corner said the glove compartment in her car was open and everything had been taken out of it, but she too had locked her car. I have reported it to the police but there was no damage and nothing was stolen which is the most important thing.

Once again our celery soup friend left a couple of packs of paracetamol and a homemade banana cake in our front porch. It's getting to feel a lot like Christmas!

For the past two or three weeks I have been arguing with my husband about whether or not he should keep his appointment at the GPs and then at the hospital. He has to go to the GP to get his blood taken, so that when we go to see the consultant at the hospital he has the blood results infront of him. Well its been like talking to a brick wall. Today he finally rang the surgery and was told it was perfectly fine for him to go in to have his blood taken??? Then he immediately got a text from the surgery saying they would ring him in the morning. He has left messages with the consultants secretary regarding the hospital appointment but as yet she has not replied. Possibly because her answer machine is choked with other people asking the same question. Then suddenly he received a message from NHS Coronavirus Service to say that he had been identified as someone who should stay in! But he is still contemplating going, I understand that he feels he needs to go because he needs the treatment, but what about catching the virus - I have given up arguing and he has gone to bed for the moment.

On a more cheery note what else can I say, well the weather is lovely it is really sunny outside and quite warm, but I won't be going any further than the washing machine in the back of the garage. The road outside is eerily quiet in fact I actually can't hear any traffic noise at all.

And yet another image that is not mine.

Today has not been very productive, roll on tomorrow.

Self Isolation Day Four

Worst news of the day is that my younger daughter has had to cancel her wedding, just the same as my friend's daughter. it is so stressful for them and so very sad. Never mind we will make up for it at the rearranged weddings.

I only have a limited amount of fabric scraps left after my first cushion cover so today's cushion cover was smaller but I managed to finish it all and this time I had to use yellow poppers after wasting my orange ones yesterday. But here they both are and I am very pleased with them and they are all made from my fabric stash, so have cost me nothing.

My husband sent out a text this morning saying that he was running low on black grapes, I couldn't understand why and pointed out to him that he had half a packet left in the fridge. Later on in the day my daughter in law dropped off some 'essential supplies' in the front porch.

Fabulous 'essentials'!

Not long after this a friend of my husband dropped off some homemade jam, a couple of homemade  scones and a container of homemade celery soup. All left in the porch.

And then later in the afternoon my son in law popped round with two slices of homemade Nigella Lawson's 'Grasshopper cake' and two packets of black grapes! Anyone need any grapes?

What fabulous friends and family we have.

My husband didn't manage much today, he got up about 3.30 pm and then went back to bed at 4.30 pm. He did surface again about 7.00 pm which was handy because we had a family get together over the internet, it should have started at 8.00 pm but by the time I had worked out what I was supposed to do we managed to join the chat about 15 mins. late. Technology is a wonderful thing if only I could understand it!

The new printer has arrived along with some ink supplies and more importantly my sewing thread has arrived. I think perhaps I should finish my cushion covers first before I start my bag, after all there is no rush I have plenty of time.

Oh dear I am having problems with technology again, I don't think the internet is working very well. This will either not be posted or will be posted many times!!!

Self Isolation Day Three

Today I finished my cushion cover.

It took a lot more fabric than I originally thought so I decided to make the back out of normal fabric. I found an unused pillow case that was a perfect match for my colour scheme. Way, way back (probably about 20 years ago) we purchased a wardrobe for my younger daughter's bedroom, it was one of Ikea's the sort that came in sections. So there was a section for hanging, a section of wire trays and a section of shelves and drawers. It came with wonderful mirrored doors, available separately of course, but we couldn't afford the mirrored doors, so we bought a duvet set and cut it into curtains which we hung instead of doors, and the pillowcase was left unused. I have saved it all these years knowing that one day I would need it!

To make life easier I used poppers for the closing, well it would have been easier if I had put them the correct way round. I had to use 2 pairs of pliers to break the poppers off, very cross with myself for being so stupid, but I do quite like the finished cushion.

My husband announced that he was going to do some paperwork today as he was so far behind with it, unfortunately he didn't manage to make it from the chair to the desk, so it will have to wait for another day.

Had a very long chat on the phone to my friend who is self isolating on her own and in her words 'going stir crazy'. I wouldn't mind but it's only day three! Hopefully I cheered her up a bit. She mentioned that some kind person had left her some cheese, cat litter and milk on her doorstep which her daughter organised through a friend.

The trouble with this self isolation is that I spend more time on the computer and usually this means buying things! So today I have purchased a new printer and some inks. This will have to stop, I can't afford to buy things every day. To be fair I have been looking for a new printer for some time now, spending hours and hours reading reviews, checking technical websites, trawling through best buy sites and to be perfectly honest I am non the wiser. Well its too late now because I have pressed the button.

I am going to have to write things down as I go through the day because I'm sure I must have forgotten lots of things, re-reading this gives the impression that I haven't done very much today but I feel as though I have been busy all day and its definitely time for bed now. See you tomorrow.

Self Isolation Day Two

This is the photograph that I should have taken yesterday, it shows the entertainment centre now fitted into the wardrobe. All this has been done for my husband who now spends more time in bed than he does downstairs, he would be in his element watching sport - if only there was any to watch these days!

Good luck finding the correct hand controls.

First thing I had to do today was to cancel two appointments, one for my hair and the other for the dog's hair. The dog needs clipping so that he can see where he is going and I need my hair looking good for my friend's daughter's wedding, I'm not sure what I am going to do now.

I asked my husband this morning what jobs/activities he planned for the day and his answer was "I've unplugged the shredder. Its been on my list to do for weeks now." At least I had a really good laugh.

Fed up with the fact that I don't have any thread to match the bright orange future bag I decided to make a cushion instead. We have a very rural house in France (which we may never see again) and the lounge is natural stone walls, orangey floor tiles and a yellow leather suite. Now the suite used to have some brown fluffy scatter cushions until the dog decided to take them outside and kill them. I have had in mind to make some cushion covers and re-use all the leftover cushions that the children discarded, after the mad craze of having scatter cushions all over their beds. So I raided my bin bag full of scraps of fabric, chose the appropriate colours and ironed them all and now I'm left with this.

I am going to make a patchwork type cover using the 'quilt as you go' or 'crazy quilting' method, basically I am making it up as I go along but it's keeping me busy.

This afternoon my husband announced that he was going to go to the bottle bank. 

Why?

When was the last time you went out?

It's funny how when you are told not to do something you instinctively want to do it, whatever it is. In this case it was to go out. I wouldn't let him go so he moaned to the children via 'Whats App' and my son came around at night to collect all the bottles, which I have to say are mostly Baileys and I'm the only one that drinks it. We spoke to him through the closed windows, the world has gone mad.

The window bit reminds me that this morning as I was looking through the bedroom window whilst chatting to my husband about the state of the garden, I saw the man who lives behind us come out of his patio doors, walk across his patio and place something into his dustbin and then he urinated into the hedge!!! Then calmly walked back into his house. Maybe the poor man has no inside toilet?

Unfortunately I got a text message from my friend's daughter to say they have had to postpone their wedding. It's good news for me and my hair but I am so sorry for them, such a shame. Roll on November which is their new date.

A quick shot of where I am up to with my cushion cover. 

Self Isolation Day One

In order to keep myself occupied I thought I would write my blog as a diary and record all the events or non-events of my husband's and my self isolation, it may well be fun to read at a later date if we all get through this disaster.

We are having to isolate as my husband is over 70 and is quite poorly with 'underlying issues', on the other hand I am not yet 70!

I managed to install a DVD player in the wardrobe, where I had already installed a television and a sound bar. Simple though this was it did entail having to drill holes in the existing shelves to push cables and plugs through and to unplug the television, the soundbar and the Virgin cable box. I am very impressed that I managed to plug them all back into their respective places. The entertainment system in the bedroom is now working! There are however 5 separate hand controls so I foresee a lot of problems.

I also did 3 loads of washing, I always have a backlog of washing over the winter months as my machine is in the back of the garage and in order to access it I have to go outside, which I know is no hardship but it always puts me off going to the machine. Inevitably what happens is I put some washing in the machine and then completely forget about it, several days later when I return with another load of washing I find the first load still in the machine. This first load then has to be re-washed so I take the second load of washing back into the house and the whole process starts again because I forget about the washing in the machine. Some loads are washed many, many times and some loads just make a bigger pile!

I have been planning to make a particular bag now for weeks so today I decided to finish all the cutting out and start the sewing. Unfortunately although I seem to have every conceivable colour of thread I don't have the colour I need for this bag and I can't go shopping. Not to worry I will order some online. Naturally you can't just get a reel of cotton without incurring ridiculous postage costs, so of course I had to add more things to my basket until I qualified for free postage. Turns out one reel of cotton can be quite expensive!

I never remember to take a picture when it is daylight so this is a bit dark and doesn't really display the bright orange at it's best.

Today I learnt that you can't iron vinyl. No need to say anything else regarding this!

Luckily the dog's food was delivered, so he now has enough to last for 3 weeks.

Tomorrow I must plan to do something more exciting.

On Safari......

Occasionally two of my grandchildren have a 'sleep over' at my house and they sleep in the spare room in a double bed, which they love, but it is not always conducive to a good night's sleep for them or us! So I decided to redecorate a bedroom especially for them.

I had several tins of leftover paint from a previous decorating project and the colour reminded me of a sandy,tropical sunset and this is really what inspired me to do a 'Safari' room.

I am incapable of drawing anything but I'm quite good at copying so I trawled the internet to find some simple black and white images of safari animals that I could adapt to fit on the walls between the ceiling and the picture rail. I found several suitable ones and decided on a zebra, a rhino and a lion.

I measured the space where I wanted to paint these animals and taped several pieces of paper together to get exactly the correct size. It took me several days to copy the images from my laptop onto the much larger pieces of paper and when I was finally satisfied with the results I cut them out to make stencils that I could draw around on the wall.

I used a combination of black acrylic paint and black felt tip pens to draw and paint the animal pictures, with extra gold felt tip on the lion and I think they look brilliant.

I then decided that one wall was going to be a real focal point and whilst trawling the net in search of safari animals I had seen lots of elephant silhouettes, which inspired me to have three elephants (one for each grandchild) walking across the wall.

Everyone needs an elephant in their room!

Three walls were already painted in the safari/sandy/sunset colour and I decided that the fourth wall would be a bluey colour with the elephants painted in black. I was going to paint a tree on this wall in the corner but by the time the elephants were done they were so big there was no room for the tree!

I already had the tall set of drawers and they were just perfect for a giraffe. Again I had to copy and adapt several pictures before I came up with the final design, which I cut up so there was a section on each drawer. I engraved the design with my dremel taking great care not to cut too deeply as the drawers are made from laminate not real wood. I was very happy with the engraving but felt that it wasn't easily noticeable so I used a felt tip pen to colour in the engraving. I am now happy with the finished result but feel that I could have achieved the same effect by just drawing the giraffe with a permanent marker, which probably would have been a lot easier!

I finished it all off with some safari themed bedding and a hippo's head just the right size for the window sill.

I am thrilled to report the grandchildren loved it - so it was worth all the hard work!

HAPPY 2019

On January 1st I spotted this post on a Facebook page that I follow

“Show us your best makes of 2018”

It was followed by lots of posts of some truly beautiful makes.

It dawned on me that although I had made many things and finished many more DIY projects, plus had several total disasters, I hadn’t actually recorded a single one and I hadn't taken any photographs.

This year I am going to attempt to take some photographs and record my achievements and disasters just so that at the end of 2019 I can look back and say 

"Here is one I made earlier!"

My first attempts at (Shrink) Felting.

Probably not really my first attempt because I used to shrink my son’s designer jumpers regularly!

Some time ago I purchased several balls of 100% wool to knit and then felt.

I had no idea what I was going to do with them but they were on ‘Sale’ and such a bargain that I couldn’t resist them.

Fast forward many months and I spotted some felted slippers on Pinterest. Good idea, I thought, my feet are always so cold when I sit down in the evenings, and felted slippers would be perfect. 

After a long search I managed to find the original posting of the felted slippers and the knitting pattern that accompanied it.

I purchased the pattern from Ravelry   https://www.ravelry.com/

and here is the link to the pattern for the slippers (which are called Duffers) if you too would like to make a pair https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/duffers---revisied

This is the wool that I used

I followed the pattern exactly, which is actually quite unusual for me.  

I always seem to alter patterns by adding a bit here or taking away a bit there, but this one I followed.

They looked a strange shape and rather large when finished.

I followed the instructions on the ball band when it came to the felting process.

I used new tennis balls - not the ones the dog chews, and I washed them first just in case they were going to bleed yellow all over my new slippers.

This is what they looked like when they came out of the washing machine. Quite a bit smaller!

I shaped them into a more recognisable slipper shape and left them to dry naturally and this is what they look like now.

One may be very slightly larger than the other and the shaping over the toes is slightly wonky.

But they are my first make of 2019 and I am rather proud of them. Even if they are slightly odd they will still keep my feet warm and that is the most important point of slippers!

With a Heavy Heart and .....

With a heavy heart and a thickening waistline I have to admit I am longer a size 12.


Very slowly over the years I have ‘grown’ from a size 8, to a 10, and then to a 12 and I don't remember being the slightest bit concerned.

The actual numbers are not important, it is the 'extra' bits that have arrived without an invitation. They have been coming for years but I have been ignoring them. At only 5' 2" these extra bits are now quite noticeable, especially to me.

I admit to having been extremely lucky, I have eaten whatever I wanted all my life. I eat chocolate like there is no tomorrow and still have 2 sugars in all my drinks.

When I stand on the scales I discover that I weigh less than the 'average' for my height, and yet my stomach is too big, my waistline has vanished and my bottom- that I have never really noticed before, has suddenly become quite noticeable!

I am not the shape I want to be!

 As I said the actual numbers are not important, it is the lumps and bumps that are important and all in the most ridiculous places, I mean who knew you could get ‘back fat’? I certainly didn't and what is more I don't want fat there or anywhere else either.

Can you remember that advert that said "If you can pinch more than an inch..."?

Well I can pinch far more than an inch!

I blame Joe Brown for all this.

I do love Joe Browns clothes, they are different and quirky and I just love them. I don't own many of them because they are not all suitable for someone of my age! However I spotted a couple of lovely tops in their Autumn collection but I thought they were too expensive so I waited and waited until their sale and just before Christmas the tops were reduced and I bought them. Naturally I ordered my normal size 12. When they arrived I was bitterly disappointed to find that they were far too tight for me!

I am going to have to do something about my ‘shape’ as I cannot afford to replace my entire wardrobe.

However in the meantime I have decided that I am going to 'alter' my tops  and I have found a lovely dress in the local charity shop which I am going to chop up and use to enlarge one of them. It may take me quite some time.....but I will post an image when it’s done!

Joe Browns have now sent me their Spring catalogue and once again I have found some lovely tops which I couldn't resist. This time I have bought them in a size 14 and they fit me! Soon they will be too big.........I hope!

First time for Gel nail varnish.

I bought some gel nail varnishes and an LED lamp for both of my daughters and my daughter-in-law for Christmas, so naturally I had to buy one for myself.

 

I had spent quite some time researching the best buys for the lamps (we all had different ones so that we can compare) and the varnishes and was very proud of myself for selecting 'soak off' varnish. Ideal for one of my daughters who has very sensitive skin on her hands and fingers, my only concern was - if the varnish soaks off, then surely it will soak off in the shower and whilst washing dishes etc.

 

However we discovered that it doesn't 'soak off' in water, it requires nail varnish remover to soak it off!

 

We tried them out on Boxing Day. It did take quite some time to cure our nails this was because the lamps were 12 watt and all the instructions I could find on the internet were for 36 watt lamps, so we just tripled the times required for all the various layers. I think we probably over did the times and in future we will experiment with shorter times.

 

18 days later and my nails are still looking brilliant.

 

Can you spot the nail that I broke on Christmas Eve?

I never managed to get 10 perfect nails at once.

 

 

You can even see how much my nails have grown over the last 18 days. I have never had 'gel' nails before and I am so impressed with them, no cracks or chipping, still intact all around the tips and still so shiny.

 

Today I decided to attempt to remove the varnish.

I had read somewhere that you should soak the cotton wool pad in acetone, wrap it around your nail and then wrap it in foil.

 

However they kept falling off, so I wrapped them in cling film as well.

 

 

They stayed on slightly better but all my fingers kept sticking together!

 

Reminds me of the time I tied to glue a broken finger nail back together, don't actually remember exactly how I did it, but I managed to glue my finger to my lip!

 

I removed the first foil and as the varnish was still there I began to scrape it off with a metal cuticle scraper. By the time I got up to about the seventh nail I realised that if I had just waited longer the varnish was now quite soft and bubbly and came off easily!

Scrapping off the varnish was not a good thing to do

 

 

I have now rubbed a cuticle/nail oil all over my nails and they look a little better.

 

 

I am going to invest in those plastic peg like structures that clip the cotton wool pads onto the ends of your fingers and in future let them 'soak off' for longer.

 

Despite my problems removing the varnish I absolutely loved my beautiful, long lasting, shiny nails and I will soak them for longer next time to avoid scrapping and damaging their surface.

 

We each had 6 different colours of varnish, so I have another 5 colours to choose from and I can't wait to try my next colour.

 

 

 

 

 



Goodbye to 2016

Surprise! It's me, I'm back.

I must apologise, to those of you who were reading my blog, for my absence, but life got in the way.
This time around I am going to attempt to keep up to date with my ramblings.

Having spent weeks preparing for Christmas and being so excited about everything ....... I had to go to bed very early on Christmas Eve because I felt poorly. I had a lousy night and just wanted to stay in bed on Christmas Day but managed to drag myself out of bed when I heard my husband trying to cancel all the arrangements.  Nooooooooo.

Currently still wrapped in my dressing gown but beginning to return to normal, although my family would probably not agree with the 'normal' bit.

I have some fantastic presents that I will be using in 2017 and a massive list of exciting things that WILL be done and I will keep you informed all the way.

Just to whet your appetite......

• I am going on a stained glass workshop course - so excited.
• We are having secondary double glazing put in. You may not think that is very exciting, but believe me it is.
• My husband and I are going to attempt to landscape our garden and build 3 (yes 3) patios.
• I have a Dremel 3000 - can't wait to use it.

Plus there are a million other things on the 'To Do' list.

But I won't be starting any of these until 2016 has finished.
So Goodbye 2016.
Roll on 2017 and a very Happy New Year to one and all.

Happy Strawberry Parfait Day.

Hands up all those who knew that today June 25th was National Strawberry Parfait Day.



As I have been glued to Wimbledon since it started on Monday and getting a little envious of seeing people eating strawberries and cream, I thought perhaps I should make myself a Strawberry Parfait.

I couldn't find a recipe that I liked the sound of, so I decided to take a bit from one recipe and a bit from another and add a few bits that I liked and I came up with this....

Ingredients: Strawberries, Double Cream, Brown Sugar, Condensed Milk, Brandy (not essential!), Black Pepper, Muesli (or a flapjack!)

 

Keep a few strawberries for garnishing the finished parfait.

Add the remaining strawberries to a frying pan and sprinkle one dessertspoon of brown sugar over the strawberries.

 

 

Heat the strawberries gently - you don't want to make jam!

 

 

Once the strawberries have softened add a dessertspoon of Brandy (only if you fancy) and grind some black pepper all over the top.

 

 

Squash the strawberries a little and mix well.

Remove sufficient of the mix to fill your bowls/glasses.

 

 

Beat together 125ml of double cream and 125ml of condensed milk.

 

 

Once the cream and condensed milk are mixed together well, add the strawberry mixture that is still left in the pan.

 

 

Leave some of the juice in the pan for later.

 

 

Keep beating until this now pink mixture thickens.

 

 

Choose your bowls/glasses and add the strawberries to the bottom, then carefully add the cream mixture onto the top.

 

 

 

Slice the strawberries you kept back for garnishing and place on the top (mine are a little too large).

Scrape the juices from the pan and pour over the top.

 

 

 

 

 

Place in fridge to chill until required.

My original idea was to sprinkle muesli (or flapjack) over the top just before serving - but as my strawberries are so large I don't really have the space, and anyway I can always eat the flapjack later!!

 

Please let me know what you think if you make it.

Better still send me images of your Strawberry Parfait.