April Craftings

Upcycled Bag
Start: 28th April 2018
Finish: 28th April 2018

Rose Soap
Start: 25th April 2018
Finish: 25th April 2018

Cinderella Costume
Start: 14th April 2018
Finish: 18th April 2018

Vanilla and Oatmeal Soap
Start: 12th April 2018
Finish: 12th April 2018

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Items made this month
3 sewn, 0 knitted, 0 crocheted, 5 soaped

Items made this year
8 sewn, 8 knitted, 0 crocheted, 5 soaped

Yarn this month
bought: 0
finished: 5

Yarn this year
bought: 17 (950g of DK)
finished: 15

April Goals - Review

My goals for April were to:

• to finish the Zig Zag Blanket
• spring clean and declutter my bedroom
• declutter the Younger Offspring's bedroom
• paint my bedroom
• work up to cycling 30 minutes each day
• paint the garden wall
• finish 10 balls of yarn
• make soap

The Zig Zag blanket is still under construction. Fettling the Cinderella costume took priority, and since then my hand has been playing up a bit (and I fallen out of the habit). 

The decluttering, cleaning and painting in my bedroom is part way through, and will be completed soon. The Younger Offspring's bedroom has been partially decluttered, and those areas as staying relatively mess free. YO has started decluttering sessions unprompted by me, and this is a huge step forward.

The cycling hasn't happened, at all! Neither has the painting of the garden wall. I'm waiting for one of Ben's friends come to teach me how to re-render a wall, and that's taking quite a bit of time.

Five out of ten balls of yarn have been finished. The five colours I am working with don't have much left in the current balls, but with the slow down in crocheting, I haven't managed to get it done.

I have however, made some soap: vanilla & oat, and rose.

Train Smoker

We saw one of these fabulous machines yesterday. It's a giant bbq machine! You'll never guess where the smoke and steam come from!  Well, that's probably a rather erroneous declaration. The steam and smoke obviously come out of the funnel.

The most amazing smells were coming from it; so much better than a plain of bbq grill. It really has the wow factor. As well as great cooking smell, it's a wonderful contraption to look at.  I'm a fan of exposed engineering. I love old motorbikes, and devices where you can see how they work. A machine fit for purpose, well built, and showing off its engineering is a delight to me.

One of the women working at the bbq train was also looking after five children. Two were little, and strapped in a pushchair, and the other three were on seats in close, but safe proximity to the train. There were spare seating beside the children, and we sat there to eat out ice creams. The children engaged us in conversation. The first question was "Is that a wolf or a dog?" We explained Ava is a dog who looks a bit like a wolf, but she's very soft and gentle. However, she can get a bit bark-y around other dogs.

I was asked 'Are you the mummy?' The Younger Offspring was asked 'Are you the nanny?' We presumed they were asking if YO was the person who looks after children rather than being a grandparent. I explained YO is my baby. Then the Beloved came over with our ice creams and he was declared to be 'the Daddy'. I introduced Ava as 'the cat'. The children looked at me in a very confused way. People often have the reaction around me. 

Upcycling Workshop

This afternoon was spent at an upcycling workshop. Jen provided us with a range of clothes, fabrics, trims, buttons and fancy bits. I could have made lots with the fabric, but my objective was to take an old thing, and re-work it. 

The velvet waistcoat called to me.  The bag uses the button loops and leather covered buttons. The red lining of the waistcoat is now the lining of the bag. The grey cotton back has been made into the strap. The remains of the velvet was cut into strips, pieced and used to embellish the strap. 

Conjugate Your Way Out of That!

In the latest lesson, we were learning about time, and prepositions. Suddenly a whole host of possibilities opened out ahead of me. 

We were set homework of writing out our day, hour by hour, and saying what we are doing. Things were rather normal, until I reached 4pm, and then I went to the moon, in a rocket. But, I was back home in plenty of time to cook dinner at 5, and then eat it at 6pm. 

Having the class, and then completing my homework immediately afterwards sent my brain into a series of loops. I was getting it. I new what I wanted to say, and it was coming, and then suddenly, I was derailed because I don't yet have the vocabulary. Dictionaries were consulted, and I managed to add in some interesting words. 

The conjugations were coming along nicely, but they wouldn't stop. At bedtime my poor brain was still racing round in circles, conjugating any verb it happened across. This was incredibly annoying, but it's a very good sign. The new information is now sticking, and my brain is craving more and more. It's shouting, screaming 'Feed me! Feed me, now!'

Io parlo un po 'di italiano

Io parlo scozzese, inglese, gallese, e un po 'di italiano. (I speak Scots, English, Welsh and a little Italian.)

Over the last few weeks I've been learning so many bits of Italian. It feels like I've accumulate a load of jigsaw pieces and I'm now ready to start thinking about putting little bits and pieces together to make up actual Italian sentences and conversations.

Here's some little bits.

Io ho Ava, il cane. Tu mangi la mela. Noi abbiamo la foto. Luigi e Anna parlano italiano. (I have Ava, the dog. You eat the apple. We have a photograph. Luigi and Anna speak Italian.)

More practise is required. There's three main verb ending -are, -ere and -ire.

To speak or talk/Parlare

Io parlo

Tu parli

Lei, lui parla

Noi parliamo

Voi parlate

Loro parlano

To sleep/Dormire

Io dormo

Tu dormi

Lei/lui dorme

Noi dormiamo

Voi dormite

Loro dormono

Rose Soap

I've been playing again with soap. Such a clean hobby! 

Rose curls and using the heart mould were what I tried my hand at yesterday. Pink dye and rose essential oil was added to the soap mix to create two colours of pink. It all looked so much better in my head, but one of the great things about making soap is that you can wash your hands of it. :o)

Practise is most definitely required, but I'm prepared to give it a go.

A Border for the Optical Illusion Zig Zag Blanket

I'm about two thirds of the way through the blanket, and have started thinking about a border for it. 

The blanket started in purple with a foundation chain, and then two rows of double crochet (American terms being used). I'll apply a border on the other three sides of two rows of double crochet. The top one will be made first, and then the sides. There might also be a single crochet too. I'm not quite sure yet. As the rest of the blanket has been made by working into the loop, I'll do that too on the edging.

Then, switching to the light blue, I'll make a double crochet and a chain into every other stitch. This will be done through both loops. Changing to teal, the next round will be working two doubles into each hole created by the chain stitches in the round below. A further round of double crochet will be added, working only into the back loop. 

Into the Woods We Go!

The Younger Offspring was in a production of 'Into the Woods', and playing the part of Cinderella. The group bought a costume, but it was rather cheaply made, and with the Disney Cinderella rather than the Into the Woods Cinderella. 

So very many things were wrong with the costume. There were puffs and frills in the wrong places. The zip had been shoddily installed and broke. The V at the front of the dress was off-centre, and the bodice cut too low. 

The photographs above are the results of a good few hours fettleing. The V front was sorted. Bling was added to the waist and hem. Puffs and frills were reworked into sleeves. The broken zip was removed, and replaced with a modesty panel and ribbon cross lacing. A band of wide lace was added to the bodice. 

Then, a very simple cloak was constructed. I hemmed a rectangle of gold fabric, and made a casing at the top. Button hole elastic was threaded through the casing, and the cloak was attached using buttons sewn to the shoulders of the dress. 

The resulting costume was much more flattering, and allowed the Offspring to 'swish'.  A performance is always better when the performer feels the costume is right. However, a seam on the side of the bodice ripped open during the first performance, and wasn't noticed until 90 minutes before the second. A frantic phone call resulted in a mad Mammy-dash to the Arts Centre, needle and thread in hand. The shoddy costume was repaired again, and held through the run.

Goat's Cheese Salad

Ingredients

60g salad leaves

cucumber (about 7cm)

6 cherry tomatoes

1/2 apple

30g goat's cheese

1 Tsp pine nuts

1 Tsp lemon vinaigrette

Method

Place the salad leaves in a dish. Rip them if they are too large. Cut the cucumber into cubes, the apple in to slices and the cherry tomatoes in half. Crumble the goat's cheese over the salad. Add the pine nuts, and then drizzle the vinaigrette over the finished salad.

Carrot Soup

Ingredients
1 Tsp vegetable oil
1 onion, slices
500g carrots, chopped
1 tsp garlic, chopped
1 tsp ginger, crushed
1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
1.5l vegetable stock

Method
Gently fry the onion in the vegetable oil until the onion begins to acquire a little colour. Add the carrot, and cook for 3-4 minutes. Then add the garlic, ginger and coriander seeds. Cook for a further minute. Add the vegetable stock and simmer until the vegetables are tender. Remove from the heat, and blend until smooth.


Serve with a sprinkling of chopped chives.


Notes
There were some parsnips in the fridge that needed to be used. I substituted some parsnips into the recipe.

Using my Soap

It's a strange feeling using soap you have made. It's rather wonderful to see all the bubbles and have clean hands too.

The top layer of soap has been washed away, leaving some of the ground oats at the surface. This makes a wonderful defoliator. Vanilla has a reputation on discolouring soap, and this has happened. But, as it's taken a stark white to a very soft cream, it isn't a problem. 

Something I hadn't counted on was the sight one sees when lifting the bar of soap. There's a brown sludge trail! No brown on the bottom of soap bars from now on! There used to be a crisp interface between the vanilla layer and the brown base. This has changed into a gradient. It's rather pretty.

Soap-making

Behold! My very first bar of soap. It's a melt-and-soup soap. There's three layers. The top is the soap medium with ground up oats. The middle is has vanilla added, and the bottom is also vanilla with brown colouring added.

Let's just say, I learned stuff. The new jug I bought for melting the soap in melted. If you leave the soap in the microwave too long it boils. Thankfully, I haven't had experience of burning soap. From all accounts, it's not something I want to experience! 

Another thing I have learned is how difficult it is to get a good brown using red, blue and green. It's also more likely to come out looking like poo. The mould I used (a small food storage box) was on the big side. Smaller bars of soap are easier to use.

An Action-packed Afternoon

This is Chicken Thief, formerly known as Ava. On Monday evening she wandered into the kitchen and snatched a chicken carcass and started chopping on it. Chicken skin - good. Chicken meat - good. Chicken stock - good. Chicken bones - bad! She managed to eat a thigh or two and a wing. Not a lot for the size of dog she is, but enough to cause problems.

Ava had been having problems with diarrhea last week, and had been on rice and chicken/salmon. On Tuesday, her poo was the consistency of  soft serve ice cream, with bones. Today, she was back to diarrhea, but some drops of fresh blood, and she was also straining to poo, with nothing coming out.

The interwebs recommendation was to take her to the vet. I called and explained the situation. The vet said they weren't hugely worried, but would like to see her just to make sure. After the vet examined Ava, she was wasn't too concerned, but gave her some medication that will help her colon. She was please to see Ava, but wasn't worried for her as she is bright, lively and interested in things. We've been asked to keep her on rice and chicken (or salmon) for 72 hours. The vet expects everything to work its way through her system.

And now we need to get a system sorted whereby the Chicken Thief can't have access to chicken carcasses!

"Mondays, when all the possibilities are possible"

I love Mondays, when all the possibilities are possible. It's a fresh start. What's happened has happened, unless you have a TARDIS or a DeLorean equipped with a flu capacitor. But the future stretches ahead, and there are so many possibilities.

It's rather spring-line today, and that's bringing out the decluttering/tidying/cleaning desires in me. The declutter and tidying of the Offspring's bedroom is going very well. The areas that have already been done are staying rather spiffy looking. Day by day we are chipping away at the clutter and mess. The trick is going to be helping them to get into routines and patterns that will allow the decluttered, tidy state to prevail.

Work has started in my bedroom. The spring cleaning begins in there, and I'm all revved up and raring to go. As the sun is out, I decided bed linens were the first order of business. Next will be sweeping and steam cleaning the floor. The rug will be swept, and the mirror polished. And this is starting to sound reminiscent of the song the Dwarves sang as they were washing the dishes in Bilbo Baggin's house!

Right! I'm off!

Pockets!

The sunshine of recent days has spurred me into wanting to ditch my blacks, whites and greys and move into my summery white and navy clothes. 

IronMay is coming up, and I bought new trainers, and earned a couple of heel blisters. This prompted me to look at mules when I was in town yesterday, and for the first time in quite a number of years I was able to buy shoes in a shop rather than ordering them on-line. 

 Today's ensemble is a navy, v-neck t-shirt with 1/2 length sleeves, a white, long length linen skirt with navy over-printing of stylistic flowers, and my new black suede mules. I'm feeling very summery, and hope I don't have to go outside today as I will not be warm enough! There's two wonderful things about this outfit. The first is the mules - footwear without the risk of aggravating my 'sports injury', and the new skirt has pockets! Yes, Pockets. The joy of finding pockets in women's clothing is fantastic. I have pockets!

Kitchen Declutter

The kitchen declutter continues. The drawer containing seeds, nuts and dried fruit has been decluttered and tidied. The tea towel drawer has been tidied (nothing to declutter), and also the drawer with food wraps, cling film, foil etc.

There are two more drawers to go. Both have cake decorating things in them. Then it's on to the cupboards and pantry.

There's been a new addition to the kitchen, a nesting set of three stainless steel bowls, with lids. The smaller two fit very nicely onto the same shelf in the fridge. One currently has stock with chunks of chicken and veggies for the dog, and the other has some coleslaw left over from dinner. 

These bowls were bought to replace a set of plastic ones that were surrendering to the ravages of time and use. The old bowls will leave the house tomorrow. They would have been binned today, but it was raining and I didn't fancy a trek down a wet garden to dispose of the bowls. Instead they are by the back door, ready for a break in the weather.

Decluttering the House Again

Decluttering is going to be a lifelong goal. Each time round the decluttering cycle I keep things I later realise I don't want or need. Also more things come into the house and become clutter. 

Yesterday, I started decluttering from the beginning again. My kitchen sink was cleaned and the area around it decluttered. Today, the work surfaces will be decluttered and cleaned.

The utensils were decluttered a few weeks ago, and the utensils drawer was given a good clean and reorganisation. The cutlery drawer was also done recently. The rest of the kitchen drawers will be next.

Decluttering the Younger Offspring's Bedroom

One of my original April goals was to declutter my bedroom again, prior to painting it. This has been put on hold a little while as the Younger Offspring has agreed to me helping them declutter and organise their room.

One of the biggest problems is they have the ability to see how items can be useful, and this leads to the desire to keep everything! But keeping everything leads to a horrendously messy room, where nothing can be found. Through talking, I've learned the YO wants to be able to see their things, but for them to be organised. We have bought attractive storage boxes and after they have been filled we will label them. The goal is to find a home for all of their belongings.

We are making really swift progress. They are keeping far more than I would like, but enough is leaving to keep me happy. So far, we have done the entrance to the room (where the most of the shoes are kept), the desk, the sofa and the fire place. 

The sofa was a place to dump clothes. These are being washed, and when dried we'll fold and organise them on the dining room table. When the washing piles are much smaller, we'll go through them, working out what should be kept. YO has the final say in this matter. I can make suggestions and give reasons, but their's is the only one that counts. 

As we have been working, YO has been keeping a list of items they would like to buy. There's things like 'a shoe rack' on the list and 'new jeans'. When the room's finished and the clothing decluttered we'll look at the the list and check the items are still needed.

I'm delighted with the progress, and I'm hoping it will all be done by the end of the week so I can get on to my own room.

April Goals

This month's goals are:

• to finish the Zig Zag Blanket
• spring clean and declutter my bedroom
• declutter the Younger Offspring's bedroom
• paint my bedroom
• work up to cycling 30 minutes each day
• paint the garden wall
• finish 10 balls of yarn
• make soap