Resurrecting an old love affair

It is very daring of me I know, especially as I have my beloved Minder, though yesterday he was very grumpy, probably something to do with the fact that he decided to swap the beds over. We have a beautiful bedstead, like something out of Bedknobs & Broomsticks, also know as our bondage bed, lol. Sometime ago the Minder decided he fancied sleeping at the front of the house instead of the back, the back bedroom has an ensuite & the front bedroom doesn't but as we have no lodgers now, that isn't really a problem.
So we swapped rooms but left the beds where they were, recently the Minder has been pining for a head board, so I suggested we moved our old bed into the front room, I didn't mean for him to do it as soon as he got up & whilst I was cooking his breakfast that he's just asked for & couldn't help him. Hence one very grumpy Minder.
Eventually, tired of being grumped at I went to sort out some more books, this is when I decided to resurrect an old love affair. On the bottom shelf in the furthest corner I found my book on Dorset Feather Stitchery.
Now I had seen some lavender bags with machine embroidered lavender sprigs on them & had looked at the price of a sewing magine that would produce such a thing. I had palpitations at the prices, they seem to be between £2000 &£6000, not that I was seriously thinking of buying one, but did wonder how many lavender bag's you'd have to make to recoup your money on one of those!
I have a few meters of calico, lots of lavender, it grows in my garden & I will make some lavender bags with these & try out some Dorset Feather stitch on them. I used to love these stitches & I hope I will enjoy doing them again.

One more squeeze

As I've said before, we help out my DD by taking her a large bottle of milk every week & a bag of fruit & a dozen eggs twice a month, I try to add a little extra as well, a loaf of bread, of something on a buy 1 get 1 free. We're also planning on helping BIL out, but I don't write about that on here for 2 reasons, firstly one of BIL's ex who is a bit of a wedding cake addict, reads stuff on here & spreads tall tales amongst the family causing general alarm & distress, secondly the inlaws are in general as mad a box of frogs & we are still dealing with the repercussions from our Handfasting, that none of them liked/approved of.
Anyway, back to the squeeze, my SIL is a serving soldier & currently in Afghanistan & I am sending him a care package as often as I can & I am also sending one to Support our Soldiers, so someone else can receive on as well. I've printed out the list of suitable items & will carry it in my bag & try to pick up things on offer when I see them. I'm not sending very big parcels, but I have some shoe boxes that I think will do nicely.
I'm still decluttering my book collection & have had messages from people interested in the books I have already sorted out, they have offered payment, but as they were destined for a charity shop I have asked instead for a donation to Help the Hero's charity. It is a charity we support at school, so any donations I receive I can add to the school totals.
So my next book collections to go are some of the Jim Butcher Dresden Files, some James Patterson & some Micheal Connolly.

Decluttering madly

Now that the Minder & I both have Kindles we have decided to get rid of all the books we have on the Kindles, we both had Amazon vouchers for birthday & Christmas & have stocked up on all the books that we know we will read repeatedly, for me that meant Terry Pratchett & for the Minder that meant all the Lee Childs. The local charity shop is in for a treat, lol.
I did look into selling some of them on Amazon, but even the hardbacks are only selling for 1p so it's not really worth the effort, especially since a lot of people complain when I send their books in reused jiffy bags.
We have decided to get rid of our unused bed in my sewing room, this will give me a lot more room up there to sew. We are also going to swap the bed round in our bedrooms so that we have a bed with a headboard.
Tomorrow I am collecting the Minder from work along with all the tools he has there, he finishes the following Friday & starts his new job on the following Monday.
I shall have a look for some new bedding whilst I'm in Basingstoke as most of ours is looking very old, stained & thin or bobbly.

I'm back

Not that I've been away, oh no, nothing so exciting, I have been without a phone line & internet access since 21st.
It is, it seems all my own fault, oh good.
On the 20th I had no internet access & although I had a phone line it had been crossed with a line belonging to a very nice man called Barry, we were receiving each others calls for 48 hours, BT refused to help as firstly the lines were working (Yes we know this, but the lines are crossed) & secondly we had caused the problem ourselves (WTF! How?) as there was no BT work being carried out in our area. (Really, what about the various BT vans in the area who are rolling out BT Infinity!
Eventually this problem was sorted out, it took a while because BT kept sending updates via my email, which I couldn't access as I no internet! I only had my line back for about 40 minutes, when BT cut me off again, as I'd signed up to Infinity, BT had sent me an email with a list of instructions on how to retain my phone line until 4th January when I would be connected to Infinity, as I didn't follow these instructions (Well I couldn't could I, I couldn't access my email with no internet!) My phone line was cut off & wasn't due to be reconnected until 4th Jan. In the mean time I have spent many a pleasant hour on the phone to BT, via my mobile, speaking to an endless stream of BT muppets, who all wished me a Merry Christmas & assured me that they were very concerned about my lack of service but totally unable to offer any help except to send me emails THAT I COULDN'T ACCESS AS I HAD NO INTERNET!
And breath.
On top of this we had a very heavy rain storm on 23rd, which swept a tile off next doors roof which in turn knocked out out Freesat, so no TV either, this wasn't much of a loss as the Grand Prix doesn't start til later on in the year & we don't watch much else. Another neighbour popped over & straightened it on Monday & today I finally had my phone reconnected.

I hate shopping

I had a list of jobs to do today, going to the post office to collect a parcel, buying some coke & ginger beer for me for Christmas day, drawing money from one account & paying it into another as a I am unable to access one of my online accounts, etc. In amongst all this I tried to find some new clothes, all I wanted was one tidy day wear outfit. I have work clothes, 5 pairs of black trousers & an assortment of tops, these are all bought from charity shops & thrown away when they become to damaged/stained by work to wear.
I have one pair of posh trousers, they look smart & are fine if I'm standing, but uncomfortable to sit in as they fit as though my knees are on the wrong side of my legs. I have a black lightweight jacket & 3 tops suitable for evening wear, I've had the jacket 16 years & the tops are all at least 10 years old.
I have a black leather skirt & a red corset for 'performance evenings'.
I have nothing suitable for a trip out with my DD's & I usually wear my cleanest work wear. Today I decided to look for something suitable, tidy enough to wear out. I find buying clothes a nightmare, I cannot buy dresses as I'm shortwaisted, if I buy skirts they almost always drag on the floor, most of me fits into a size 16, but my boobs need an 18. Today I was determined, I had £60 & I was going to find something to wear come hell or high water!
I bought 3 dresses for DGD who has suddenly changed from being a jeans wearing tomboy into a girly girl, insisting on wearing a dress everyday to nursery, even though all her dresses are summer weight, so as not to leave out DGS, I bought him 2 Mario tshirts, I spent £24 on them. What did I buy for me? a 4 pack of cotton knickers as mine were all falling down as the elastic had gone in them!

A nearly finished gift

This gift isn't quite finished but I'm not going to have time to photograph it between finishing it & giving it to the recipient, it's a Knitting Needle Roll.

Yes I do have a lot of the red & white stripey fabric, my DD gave me 2 huge curtains made of it & it's lovely heavy duty cotton, I was considering making another rag wreath from it, but decided it's too useful to use for that & so I will make the remaining curtain into more peg bags & needle rolls.

Another hand made gift

The photos aren't very clear, partly my poor skills & partly the stripey fabric. It is a peg bag.

Yet another wreath

The final wreath for this year, I have other things I need to concentrate on.

Pea sticks & Pussy Willow

Having reorganised the living room we don't have anywhere to put the tree, so this year I have pea sticks & pussy willow in vases.

So what else would I do when someone is throwing away a kettle?

Someone was throwing away a kettle at work yesterday & asked me if I wanted it before it went into the skip. I bought it home & today in the garden center they had these beautiful flowers, £1.99, the Minder was happy to buy them for me. I'm very pleased with the result. We also bought a bunch of pea sticks, I'll show you what I have done with those later.

Fair exchange

We usually do our Secret Santa on the last day of term but this year, for various reasons it was decided on Monday to bring it forward to Wednesday, it was a nightmare & I tell you more of that in a sec.
On Tuesday I told a colleague who was out sick on Monday of the change in the arrangement, this caused her a problem as she hadn't bought her gift yet & as she's working at her 2 job that night she had no time to get anything. I offered her a gift set that I had received 2 years ago & never used, she offered payment but I refused as it hadn't cost me anything. I wrapped her gift & mine & put them in Santa's sack. On Thursday she gave me a gammon joint in payment for my help, lol. it may have seemed a strange exchange to some people, but I was delighted.

Now onto the nightmare that was Secret Santa, one colleague, who is leaving soon (good riddance) gave another colleague a picture frame with a nasty spiteful message in it, not a jokey one, just really unpleasant, along the lines of 'Mrs X is a fat cow' in it. Fortunately he was so proud of his cleverness that he boasted to another team member & we were able to swap the message in the frame with a Christmas message & add a box of chocolates to it. What a horrible & malicious thing to do, thank heavens he's leaving soon.

Rag Wreath part 2

Two more rag wreaths, the top one was made using the same fabric as the first, but using 6 pieces of fabric at a time & then changing to the next colour, this time in a set pattern, rather than 'Ooops it's time I changed colour, lol.

The bottom one is just made with 2 fabrics, a cream chiffon with gold stars, leftover from a table runner, & a ruby satin from a nightshirt, bought from a CS ages ago as I thought the fabric 'looked useful'.

Baskets

Ok, as you have probably all realised by now, I am slightly batty, ok, ok, more than slightly.
But I have just signed up for a course of evening classes, basket making, but not just any old baskets, these will be made from such items as parcel tape, old magazines & electrical wire, even my mind is boggling. The classes start in February, if I manage to make anything that even vaguely resembles a basket I will post pics.

Rag Wreath

I sat & made this yesterday evening, there were a lot of things & could have done, such a vacuuming, cooking or tidying, but I made this instead. It is a rag wreath, I copied the idea from Mooloo, she added bells & ribbons to hers. I have no ribbon or bells, so I used some gold net to add sparkle & scrap satin from an old pyjama top.

All the fabric is green, red or gold, although some of it looks blue in the photo's. It took me a couple of hours to make & now I fancy making one in just the 'luxury rags' the satin & gold net but first I need to find another metal coathanger.

1 packet of bacon scraps = 4 meals

Thank you for all your comments about the Minders job, I'm so relieved he was successful & it will save us a lot of money.
Now on to the bacon scraps, I'm sure you all know about rubber chicken, it's something I do regularly. I make one chicken do for a roast dinner, then a chicken & ham pie, pasta bake, special fried rice & finally soup. Sometimes I use bacon scraps instead of ham in the chicken pies, I can buy a bag of scraps for 99p & this is what I make. I use about a quarter of the pack in the chicken pie & pasta bake.
I use another quarter to make bacon hotpot, fry the bacon scraps, layer the bacon in a dish with sliced potato & onion, starting & finishing with a potato layer. Make a thinnish white sauce & pour over the layers, sprinkle with breadcrumbs cook in the oven til the potato is cooked through & the top is crunchy.
Breakfast toad, This is like toad in the hole, but uses fewer sausages, cook another portion of the bacon scraps along with some sausages. Cut the sausages into 3, scatter the sausage pieces, bacon scraps & some mushrooms in a metal dish, pour over batter cook as for normal toad.
Minestrone soup Fry the bacon in a large heavy based pan, add a pint of water, any veg sulking in the corner of the fridge cook until veg are done, add 2 tins of tomatoes & some tinned beans even cheapy baked beans will do & some oregano, serve hot with chunks of bread.
Of course the scraps can also be used for bacon sarnies, quiche & omelets.

Gissa Job

Well not me but the Minder, I worked a bit of a fast one. I heard that 2 people were giving their notice in within a week of each other so the Minder got a copy of his updated CV ready & presented it, between the job advert being prepared & it showing on the website. Strike while the iron is hot, lol. He had an interview yesterday & came away with a written job offer in his pocket. He doesn't even know what the salary will be, but the minimum is £60 a year more than he is on & he will save £1500 a year in fares. So we will be better off whatever. He starts in January & will hand his notice in at work today, we no longer have to worry about the 'restructuring' & the threat of his hours being reduced

Conversation at work

'Hester, Mr Smith wants to know why his copier bill has tripled in the last 3 months?'

'Because he is now paying the copier bill for the garden project'

'Can you give me the request slips?'

'Here they are'

'Aargh, only 3 people are allowed to copy against this project & you have slips from 15 people at least'

'And you tell me now, 3 months after the project started? Well done!'

Say What!!!

No full on punch ups at the do, just a lot of bad tempered sniping, well there might have been a fight after we left at 11, the place didn't close til 2.

I had 2 funny conversations during the meal, people were talking about foreign travel & I mentioned that my son has just returned from Vienna, someone said their mother had been there but found the canals very disappointing! It seems she had visited in April during the week when the canals were closed for cleaning. I smiled & nodded, I have no idea if all the canals are closed for a week in April, the canals were all open in the April I was in Venice & it seems unlikely they would all be closed simultaneously, but if her mother was in Vienna then no doubt the canals were a disappointment!


The second conversation that surprised me was when one of guests mentioned that her mother was bedridden with a broken hip, I said how sorry I was & the reply came back 'Thank you, but she is very old, so it's only to be expected, she's nearly 64' What! Bedridden a 64 & considered very old!
I was dumbstruck.

It's the weekend

I need to run round like a small fat running thing this morning. We are going to hubby's Christmas do tonight & we have to set off at 12ish so I can drive there in daylight (if DS manages to sort my car out in time) & have a snooze before we go to the do as I have been up since 4 this morning & between 2 & 3 most other mornings this week.
The do is just a meal in a restaurant, 15 people, most of whom are all at each other throats, I can envisage a brawl breaking out once alcohol is added to this already explosive mixture!
I need to do the washing & tidy the kitchen before we set off, hubby needs to do a few things too, including repairing the garden gate. Some lowlife must have seen the postman drop a couple of parcels over my garden gate & they have tried to force the gate open & damaged the latch. I don't know what has been stolen as I have a few things I've ordered from Ebay, I hope it isn't the Barbie dolls for my foster granddaughter, I really hope it's the cellophane bags or candle wick, either of which will be a great disappointment to the thief.
Friday was a bad day at work, lots of problems & lots of shouty people, as I am pond scum I'm sure it will turn out to be my fault, hey ho.