Making Good Use

A Delish Swiss Dish

Yesterday P and I decided to have fondue for our evening meal.  We don't have this very often (I think the last occasion was over a year ago), and it all depends whether we have any of the genuine Swiss fondue cheese in the house.  I know my local Waitrose does sell fondue cheese (at an extortionate price!), but P and I much prefer the original Swiss stuff.

Anyway, I was fondly imagining the wonderful photo opportunities this would give me, I was hoping for something artfully arranged like Posy Gets Cosie or Yarnstorm always seem to produce - softly bubbling cheese in the lovely black fondue pan I've got, with a chunk of bread poised to dip into it (P had already volunteered to be the 'hand model'), all delightfully arranged on top of the genuine Swiss 'rechaud' which keeps the cheese hot.  Oh yes, we've got all the correct kit - being Swiss P takes his fondues VERY seriously.

The best laid plans etc etc - it was not to be.  We couldn't get the wick on the 'rechaud' to stay alight despite many attempts, liberal sloshing around of methalated spirits, and A LOT of swearing.  Eventually we had to admit defeat and eat our fondue whilst huddled around the gas cooker in the kitchen.  Not quite the atmosphere we were hoping for but delicious nonetheless.  Needless to say, no photos were taken.

Finally, Some Decent Thrifting

A quick trip to the Post Office this morning turned into quite a satisfactory thrifting experience.  As I was, for once, unencumbered by the shopping trolley I thought I'd give the charity shops a visit.  I don't know about you, but the charity shops here have been very disappointing recently - the same tired old items seem to have been lurking on the rails for months now.  Perhaps people don't donate as much this time of year, or perhaps they are hanging on to things for the start of the car boot season, whatever the reason bargains have been very thin on the ground since Christmas.  Today, however, was a great exception.

A lovely vintage wooden coat rack with these very jolly little gnomes dancing along it.

This was only £1.99, and, amazingly for that price, was from Oxfam.

Three vintage doll's faces which will probably be destined for ebay, although I am quite tempted to keep the cloth one as I think it would look good appliqued to the front of a plain T-shirt.  These were £1 for the three.

Four balls of black Jaeger pure wool double knitting yarn - 50p a ball.  I'm hoping to be able to get a hat for P knitted before his birthday at the beginning of March using some of this, and if there is enough left over I might do myself a plain black beanie - although that may be a bit too 'Howard and Hilda'?

There was also a very nice pure cotton Marks and Sparks short-sleeved work shirt for P for the summer - £2.50, and three books for resale at 25p each.

So, all in all, I'm well pleased, and am hoping that the thrifting gods will continue to smile.

I Can See Clearly ....

.... now I've cleaned the windows.

The trouble with a bright winter's sun is that it doesn't half show up the smears and streaks on your windows.  This morning I'd had enough of staring out through a misty haze and decided to give the windows a darned good clean.  This is no problem downstairs as pretty much all the windows are easy to reach both inside and out.  Upstairs, however, is a different ball game entirely.  The cleaning of the outside of those windows involves much balancing on a small pair of step ladders and a great deal of reaching and stretching at unnatural angles to try and get the whole of each outside pane clean.  I have to admit that I just can't do the outside of the landing window or the bathroom window, and neither of those have been cleaned for almost three years (and that's to my knowledge!)

These days I use the squirty clear Windolene stuff.  Years ago I always used the pink, chalky, original Windolene.  Me and that cleaner always had a very fraught relationship because every time I removed the lid the contents would throw themselves, hari-kari like, everywhere.  And I do mean everywhere.  Cleaning the windows meant liberally sprinkling the windowsills, walls, furniture, carpets, and me, with the lurid pink liquid.  I don't know what my problem with it was but I just couldn't control the stuff.  Thank goodness for the technology that invented clear Windolene in a squirty bottle.  I'm sure there are probably much 'greener' ways to clean windows - probably involving vinegar and scrunched-up newspaper, which I think Dad always used - but I'm just grateful that I have finally found something which doesn't coat it's immediate surroundings with pink gunk.

I do like to use a nice bit of soft cotton cloth on the windows.  The somewhat grubby ball of fabric in the picture above used to be a pair of Bridget Jones-style knickers (they were washed before being used as a duster!), but anything beyond wearing that is made from pure cotton gets cut up for dusters eventually, especially well worn and washed old T-shirts or pyjamas.  They don't scratch the glass, and don't leave bits of fluff behind like those hideous yellow dusters you can buy in the shops, and I don't feel guilty when they get so filthy they have to be binned.

It would be nice to be able to employ a window cleaner again but I never seem to come across them where I live.  The first window cleaner I employed regularly was when P and I lived in Nottingham.  The 'relationship' didn't start off very well as the morning I managed to nab the chap to clean our windows P was still snoozing in bed.  I saw him putting his ladders up to clean the upstairs windows first and thought I'd better dash up and explain to P that there would be a window cleaner outside the bedroom window any second.  Somehow I got distracted and before I could get upstairs there came the sound of a terrible fracas breaking out - P was trying to knock the window cleaner off his ladder as he had assumed he was a burglar and the window cleaner was trying to explain that he was only doing his job!!  After much apology and explanation it transpired that they don't have window cleaners in Switzerland (where P is from originally) so he had automatically assumed a man up a ladder at the bedroom window could only be up to no good!! 

Anyway, my windows are sparkly and clean now - it was probably just as well I cleaned them when I did as snow is forecast for the weekend - yikes!! 

Home Alone

This weekend, for the first time in nearly a year, P was away.  I had such great plans for what I was going to achieve whilst I had the house to myself - the sewing machine was going to be set up, and all the annoying little jobs about the place sorted out and crossed off my list.  Did any of this happen? - hell no. 

There was copious amounts of TV and video watching - including thoroughly enjoying Forrest Gump again on TV Saturday evening, and 'having the time of my life' watching Dirty Dancing on video (a recent 20p from the charity shop acquisition - money very well spent!)  A lazy few hours reading the rest of the previous weekend's 'The Times', and several other newspapers still lying around from the past week.  Making good inroads in a Peter Robinson novel which I have read before but can't remember what happens (dug out of a pile whilst sorting through books that are listed on Greenmetropolis.)  Sleeping obscenely long hours on both Saturday and Sunday morning, and not feeling any guilt at all that I should be doing something more useful.  And an outrageous amount of time spent just surfing blogs, ebay, etsy and any other websites that took my fancy.

I did manage several machine loads of washing as the weather was just perfect - sunny, warm and with a nice bit of a breeze.  And I also took down, soaked, and scrubbed the hideously manky mouldy shower curtain.  A few hours soaking in a hot bath of soapy water and it came up as good as new - which was most gratifying as I had seriously thought of bining the horrible article and buying a new one.  I also spent  A LOT of time knitting dishcloths for the order I've got.

The order is for ten 12 x 14 inch plain dishcloths - which is a lot of knitting.  Although it's amazing how much you can achieve with your feet up, a cup of tea to hand, and watching a film, when it's just plain old stocking stitch you're doing.

Man of the Match

DN has just started football training and this week he received a Man of the Match certificate for his skill, concentration and aptitude.  Bearing in mind that he is still only four years old we are all very proud of this achievement.

When I came across this Soccer Assoc. T-shirt in a charity shop this morning I thought it would be most appropriate for him.  I also came across this 'Tub o' Dinosaurs' which I hope he'll like too.

Nobody else in our family has ever shown the slightest interest in sport.  Mum and I quite enjoy Wimbledon and Dad used to sometimes watch the snooker, but that was pretty much the extent of our sports interest.  None of us ever had any interest in taking part in organised sports at all.  I dreaded the compulsory sports day events.  The only thing I was ever any good at was throwing things - javelins, discuses etc.  I once came third in the discus competition - the pinnacle of my sporting achievement.

Dad, my sister and I were pretty keen swimmers though.  At the hospital where Dad worked, the social club had a lovely heated outdoor swimming pool.  My sister and I spent hours and hours in that pool when we were children.  We'd stay in so long that our eyes would fog over from the chlorine and our fingertips would go all wrinkly and prune-like.  I have such happy memories of floating about in the water looking up at the bright sun and the blue sky (why is it memories of childhood summers all seem to be of hot sunny days!)  Sadly, the outdoor pool ruined any other form of swimming for me, I really dislike indoor swimming pools which I find very noisy, smelly and claustrophobic. 

I had no idea that many other countries don't heat their outdoor swimming pools until I jumped into a particularly inviting-looking pool in Spain and found that the water was so cold that I couldn't breathe - and this was on a day when the temperatures were well in the 80s.  It was a great joy to me to discover that the outdoor pools in Iceland are beautifully warm and if you don't mind the smell of suphur from the geothermally heated water - which I don't - then you are in clover swimming there.

Anyhoo, back to the Man of the Match.  We have great hopes for DN's ability to kick a ball about - even if we don't understand the attaction.  If he doesn't end up being a future Beckham then perhaps he'll be a future Jonny Wilkinson.  Whatever happens, I foresee many hours shivering on the sidelines of a sports pitch in the future whilst we all cheer him on.

Appley Dappley

I'm really chuffed to be able to say that the 'experiment' to store the apples in the shed over winter has worked a treat.

I fetched in a dozen apples this morning to make some stewed apple for pudding this evening.  It's not the first time I've used the stored apples, but it is the first time for a while.  Eleven out of the twelve apples were absolutely perfect - one showed distinct signs of having been gnawed at by some little rodent git!! 

The apples are still firm and juicy and look as if they were picked yesterday.  I'm really pleased - and a little surprised that this has worked so well.  I don't really know why I'm so surprised as I remember my grandparents storing apples in their box bedroom each autumn - if I remember correctly there were proper wooden boxes for storage and lilac-coloured tissue paper to wrap each apple in.  But in my case a cardboard banana box and bits of newspaper have worked just as well.  Yup, I'm well pleased with myself!!

The Words Wood and Trees Spring to Mind

There are two ways to look at a problem, and we either live in a house that is too small for us (my preferred opinion), or we have waaaaaaay too much stuff (probably the true problem).  Either way, I'm trying to clear some of the accumulated cr*p into more manageable amounts.  This afternoon I thought I'd try and tidy up some of the piles of books that I have littering the dining room.  Because I sell second-hand books on both Amazon and Greenmetropolis, there are, literally, hundreds of books crammed into a smallish room.  I have one very large bookcase from Ikea where everything is neatly stored, and a much thinner bookcase where books are more or less neatly shelved.  I've also got a lot of boxes of books shoved under other items of furniture, and quite a few rather unsightly piles of books like the one below.

I usually have a rough idea where a book is if I've sold it, although sometimes searching for the darned thing can take a while, as I crawl around on my hands and knees pulling out boxes, and searching through piles.  On really unfortunate occasions, it can take two or three goes through the various piles to actually locate the required tome!!

I didn't actually get that far with sorting out the books as my eyes alighted on a rather nice three-storey plastic storage unit which has been lurking under the side in the kitchen since we moved in (now almost three years!)  I suddenly realised that the trolley would be ideal for storing some of my craft items which had been shoved on aforementioned bookshelves wherever I could find a space.  On closer inspection the trolley only contained a bag of dried out garlic cloves, a cloth bag, and the cling film, foil and sandwich bag packs, and an embarrasing amount of dust - ahem!  Not exactly a good use of the item. So I rearranged a few items on the kitchen shelves, stored away the cling film and foil, threw out the garlic cloves and thoroughly washed the storage unit.

I took all my craft items off the bookshelves, which left me with ample room to store a lot more of the books on the shelves.  Which in turn freed up two rather nice plastic storage crates (a corner of which can just been seen in the top of the photo) - now in the bedroom holding piles of fabric for crafting, and the space in the kitchen where the storage trolley had originally been is now home to the laundry basket.

Without having thrown out one single item the house feels a bit more organised.  Just wait until the weekend when I have a really good go through the books, then, hopefully, I will be able to see the wood for the trees!

Tuesday

For once, today has been lovely and sunny and bright in south Essex.  I always feel so much more invigorated when the sun is shining and the unexpected brightness of the day has prompted me to do all sorts of chores around the house.  There is a line-full of washing, hopefully, drying in the warm (well, relatively) air.  I've done a pile of ironing and now there is only one suspect item in the bottom of the ironing basket, although, of course, it will soon be filled up again when I fetch in the aforementioned washing. The bathroom has been given a really good clean, I even tackled the mouldy bits around the edges of the bath by giving them a good soak in some thick bleach - horrible smell but wonderful results.  The hoovering will be done shortly - before the wonderful daylight fades.  And, best of all, the local hospice charity shop has called and picked up ten carrier bags full of books, and a bin bag full of other bits and pieces - hoorah, I can finally move around in the shed again.

I also finished off the small embroidery from yesterday and put it on to one of my card blanks.

Even the garden is beginning to show signs of life again in the sunshine.

This is Jew's Mallow (or Jew's Button) just starting to flower.  It's a gorgeous egg-yolk yellow flower when fully open, and it really cheers up its corner of the garden in the late winter.  I did give it a rather severe hacking back last autumn so wasn't too sure if it would spring back to life this year. Luckily, it seems none the worse for it's haircut!

It's Raining - Again!

When it's a wet and windy January afternoon - yet again.

The best bet is a little light embroidery,

Followed by a cup of tea and one of these.

Yup, Spring must be fairly close if even Aldi have now got Cadbury Creme Eggs on sale.

In Which it's Nearly All About Dishcloths

I went and tried my luck with my cotton dishcloths in the posh Emporium shop in Billericay this morning.

I'd got organised with some labels, having spent quite a while swearing and getting in a pickle with the computer in P's study as it's the only one with a printer.  Eventually I was pleased with the result and stuck them on to some old-fashioned luggage labels.  Each dishcloth had one of these labels attached yesterday so that I would be ready for the off early this morning.

Weeeeeell, I wasn't laughed out of the shop but if I had sold them to the shop at £2.50 each (well below the £3.95 I sell them for myself) then the shop would have sold them retail at £5.99.  Now nobody, not even in 'loadsamoney' Billericay, is going to pay £5.99 for a dishcloth so that was the end of that.  I'll just continue selling them myself through ebay.  Perhaps I was being totally naive but I had no idea shops had a 60% mark-up on such items.  Anyhoo, the chap who'd ordered some plain dishcloths from me a couple of weeks ago was well pleased with them when they arrived, and has ordered a further ten.  So that order should keep me out of mischief for a little while.

Whilst I was in Billericay I, of course, had a tour of the charity shops where, once again, pickings were very lean.  I'd all but given up finding anything at all when I discovered a box of fabric pieces in the last charity shop.  Sadly, 99% of these were nylon, polyester, and even crimpelene (you don't see much crimpelene these days - thank goodness), but there was a rather nice little bag of patchwork pieces, all cut out and ready to go.

Each piece is approx. 5 inches square and there are about 20 of each fabric.  Happily, they also appear to be 100% cotton.  Not sure what, if anything, I can do with them but for 50p (and that included a small piece of red check gingham too) I wasn't going to leave them behind.