July Craftings

Carnival Decorations 

(36 sunflowers, 36 poppies, 8 ladybirds, 8 hedgehogs and toadstools)

Start: 9th July 2018

Finish: 13th July 2018

July Goals - Review

My goals for July were:

• only consume fizzy drinks at the weekend, or on special days
• work on City Slickers quilt
• finish duck quilt
• work on "Never be cruel. Never ever pears" cross stitch
• make 5 things

The fizzy drinks goal was a huge failure for the first three weeks. Also consumed was a lot of chocolate and crisps. For the last week, I've had 6 squares of chocolate and two mouthfuls of Coke! I don't know quite what has happened, but I've just stopped, 'cold turkey'.

Whilst my sewing machine was being serviced, I started work on "Never be cruel. Never ever eat pears", and I didn't get back to quilting. Also 10 days straight of headaches made me long for quieter pastimes than machine patchwork and quilting. 

The Ducky quilt has been progressed, but it isn't yet finished. My aim is to finish it by Tuesday, so I can show it off as a finished project at Quilters. The pond section has been quilted, and the binding has been put on. It needs the binding hand sewn on the reverse, and the ducks and clouds quilted.

"Never be cruel. Never ever eat pears" is progressing nicely. Almost all of the circular Gallifreyan has been stitched - just half a circle to do. Then it's on to the text.

Never Be Cruel - Update

Work progresses on my Gallifreyan cross stitch. The central circle has been stitched, and I'm working my way out. The section of the left has been fudged a bit. When I put the guide lines in, things became a huge deal easier. My stitching more closely resembles the chart. 

My plan is to centre the circular Gallifreyan, and then left justify the text. This will leave some white space on the bottom right. A TARDIS may materialise in that area.

Favourite Books: Born A Crime

I listened to the Trevor Noah read his book, and it was utterly amazing. He described his childhood; the hateful, barbaric laws of apartheid, and the love and laughter of his family. This man can really tell a story, and mixes the poignant and humorous with such skill and dexterity. "I always believe that funny is serious and serious is funny. You don't really need a distinction between them."

Favourite Books: The ABC Murders

This was my very first introduction to M Poirot and his good friend, Hastings. Together they solve the murders of Alice Ascher of Andover, Betty Barnard of Bexhill, and Sir Carmichael Clarke of Churston. At each murder scene was found an ABC railway guide.

I can distinctly remember reading this book, whilst trying to tan my legs during the summer holidays. I had opened the French doors and arranged cushions over the lip of the door frame. My legs were outside, my torso was inside, and I was cut in half by the blinds. My eyes were (are) too sensitive to be able to read a book in bright sunlight.

Whilst sunning myself, I fell in love with the murder mystery genre. Every summer I would read a few Agatha Christie novels, marvelling in the skills of the detectives. Forty years later, I still love this genre.

Favourite Books: Hilda Hopkins, Murder She Knit

The story starts out with Hilda Hopkins finding her elderly lodger has died in his sleep. He has left his bank card out, along with a his PIN. Hilda realises no one is going to miss him, and decides to keep his death a secret. This enables her to collect not just his rent, but all of his pension. As he will have no grave, Hilda makes a beautiful knitted doll in his memory.

Hilda decides to advertise for a new lodger, but this one proves to be a right pain. A new decision is made, to sedate him, and then garrote him with a knitted cord. This decision leads her on a killing spree, a flight from the law, and into many interesting places including a police cell, a castle in Scotland,  a seaside B&B, and a dominatrix's home.

I thoroughly enjoyed the stories about Hilda and her sociopathic life. I bought a copy of the stories for my Mam, and she loved them too. She has passed them around her circle of friends as is trying to get them back so she can re-read.

Favourite Books: The Grand Sophy

Georgette Heyer is an author I come back to time and time again. I have been reading her books over the last 30 years. The majority of her books are set in the Regency period. I've read a couple of her mysteries and other books, but for some reason I don't get on with them. It's her Regency romances I enjoy.

At their most basic, the stories are about young women who find themselves in difficult circumstances and do things that were outside of the norms of the time. My favourite is "The Grand Sophy". It's a glorious romp of a book. Sophy is foisted on her aunt at very little notice as her widowed father is required to travel to America. Sophy's well mean act turns the household on its head as she works her way through tricky situations to bring about the best for everyone. The final chapters of the book take one little logical step after another, but somehow it ends in utter chaos and confusion, until Sophy puts the final puzzle piece in place, and everything falls out neatly.

It's totally unbelievable, and a thoroughly good read.

Favourite Books: The Lonely Heart Attack Club

This is a book set on the Isle of Man, and written by an acquaintance's husband. The locations are so familiar to me, but it's the characters and humour that have delighted.

Jack owns a coffee shop, a rather down-at-heel coffee shop, and he is desperately trying to keep the business open. He is hopeless, and everything he touches turns to disaster. 

Emma works in the coffee shop, and grows concerned when one of their elderly regulars doesn't show for his morning coffee. She find out where he lives and pops round to check. He has been the victim of charities sending appeals after appeals. The letters keep coming, and he is phoned at all times by people begging for money. Emma helps him get the situation sorted, and learns quite a number of other elderly people in their community have been scammed.

Together Jack and Emma work to create a social group for isolate, elderly people where they can meet, laugh, dance, etc. The group shares information, and they teach each other how not to be scammed.

This description does not express the rounded characters, the humour, and what a joy it is to read. There were sections I had to read multiple times because they were just so funny.

Air Flow in a House

The sizes of the windows in the diagram are wrong for a house in the north of the northern hemisphere. We need large windows on the south side for the passive solar gain, and small windows on the north to minimise solar loss.

But, there is a definite need for passive cooling through airflow in a house, especially this summer. It's the warmest, extended period I can remember. The walls of our house are big, thick and solid. It is significantly cooler inside than out, and the airflow from the south to the north is producing a wonderfully cool alley through the house. Da Hound has discovered how fantastic it is to lie on the ceramic tiles by the front door and just let a cool breeze waft over you.

Some lessons for a future house are to have small windows on the north, large on the south, Plant deciduous trees eg apples to the south to give shade in the summer, but allow sunlight and warmth to get into the house in the winter. Make sure there's going to be an airflow through the house, and that the doors can be effectively held open to prevent banging.

Favourite Books: Skullduggery Pleasant

Meet Skulduggery Pleasant: detective, sorcerer, warrior. ... Oh yeah. And dead.

I love the very word 'skulduggery' - underhand, sneaky, not exactly on the right side of the law, and to team it with 'pleasant' is masterful. To me, it speaks of a likable, a very likable rogue. And, that's what the Skeleton Detective proves to be. He is an intelligent, humourous, wise-cracking person, full of goodhearted devilment. He knows the difference between right and wrong, and also that lawful isn't always the same as right.

Stephanie meets Skulduggery briefly the funeral of her uncle, Gordon Edgley, and then again at the reading of Gordon's will. Gordon was a writer of fiction, and Stephanie learns that Gordon's world might not be as fictional as people first thought. She discovers she has the ability to work magic. Stephanie and Skulduggery team up to do what is right (but perhaps not always what is lawful).

Favourite Books: Good Omens

On Facebook, there's a nomination thingy where for seven days you post a picture of the cover of one of your favourite books, and nominate a friend to do the same. It's very interesting to see what others have been enjoying.

My first choice was 'Good Omens' by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It's the story of the birth of the Son of Satan, and how he will bring about the end of the world. An angel (Aziraphale) and a demon (Crowley) have been charged with hindering/helping. They later learn there's been a mix up in the hospital, and the boy they thought was Son of Satan is just a brat, and the actual Son of Satan has grown up to be incredibly human. This fully human boy decides he rather likes the world as it is, with a few tweaks, and stops Armageddon.

There's a supporting cast of nuns, Horsemen, bikers, a car that gives error messages in haiku, a couple of witches and witchfinders, and aliens.

To make things even better, Neil Gaimen is bringing the book to television. Along with Pterry, he created the world and wrote the book, and he has written the screen play. The television programmes will very much be grounded in their joint creation. Add onto this David Tennant (Crowley) and Michael Sheen (Aziraphale), and it's going to be good!

Daily Kitchen Tasks

(How I wish this was a photograph of my kitchen, and not just a random photograph from the interwebs!)

Some rooms in the house I'm finding are easy to keep tidy than others. The upstairs loo is always tidy. Sometimes the bin needs to be emptied, but it's never overflowing. The bathroom is almost always tidy. Our bedroom is generally pretty tidy. The bed is made almost every day, dirty dishes don't congregate, dirty laundry normally end up in the laundry basket, and clean clothes are normally put away.

But the kitchen. Oh, the kitchen! This is a room that needs a lot of work. It get tidied and cleaned, and I close my eyes for two seconds and it's messy again. It's currently looking rather good, and a plan of attack is required to keep it that way!

1. Wash the dishes and pots as cooking is happening. The first job when cooking will be to fill the sink with hot soapy water. In the lulls in cooking, the utensils, dishes and pot will be washed up. It really feels amazing when the cooking has been done, the meal eaten, and all that's left to do is wash the plates and cutlery we have just used.

2. Create a post-dinner routine. The current one sucks. It's eat dinner in the sitting room. Sit, sit and sit some more, and at some random time take the dirty dishes through to the kitchen and set them down by the sink. What needs to happen is we eat in the dining room, and at the end of the meal, take the dishes through to the kitchen. As the sink is being filled, put away the pre-dinner washing up. Then transfer any leftovers into single portion containers and pop in the fridge or freezer. Wash the dishes, take out the veggie scraps to the compost pile, and clean the counters.

3. Sweep the floor.  Since Ava  joined us, I've noticed an increase in the amount of dirt and sand being brought into the house. The floor needs to be swept every single day.

Ava - the Might Guard Dog

Ava, the might guard dog, always ready to protect us. Except she has never shown any aggression to any person, and has never raised her voice to anyone. 

A plumber came today to fix our broken loos (yes, both!). The front door was open and Ava was lying on the cool tiles of the hall, looking out of the front door down to the garden gate. The plumber shouted into the house that he had arrived. I came down the stairs to find him look at Ava. His first comments were 'Fantastic guard dog.' Yup, that's Ava. She'll let anyone into the house, but she will extract a payment of some belly scritches.

A couple of weeks ago, the postie had a difficult job trying to deliver a letter. Ava was sitting right by the gate. He made the mistake of reaching through the gate to give a scritch, and Ava didn't want this state of affairs to stop. She wouldn't move. 

Post-Migraine Hangover

In a number of ways, the actual migraine itself is a great deal easier to deal with than the post-migraine 'hangover'. With a migraine, I take medication, and head off to bed for a couple of hours. But today, it's like swimming in treacle. Everything takes so long, and so much effort.

The top item on my 'To Do - Ta Da!' list is 'get up and dressed'. It's been achieved, but today, it's an accomplishment.

Ta Da!

get up & get dressed

feed the dog 

put on a load of washing

make breakfast for The Beloved (he walked the dog for me this morning)
put away dishes
wash dishes
clean kitchen counters
wash shower
wash shower room floor
wash loo
wash sink
hang laundry on the washing line (Beloved)

repair Younger Offspring's costume

clean loo

School Bears

I saw these teddies made from old school uniforms, and thought 'Oh, these look great. I want to give them a go.'

A friend has two children leaving primary school tomorrow, and I thought these might make a rather nice gift for them.

Migraines

Migraines utterly suck! 

Fluctuating hormone levels can bring on migraines in me, and also it can be a sign that I've been glutinated. This week, it's fluctuating hormones. This means I don't just get the standard migraine crap, but the 'weepies' too. At such times I feel such a burden on everyone, that I'm contributing nothing of value, and I just want to run away and hide under a rock. 

When this happens, there doesn't seem to be much I can do about it. Giving myself a stiff talking to is useless. Hug and kisses last for such a brief moment, and then the sadness and negative feels overwhelm again. Everything I think, everything I say, everything I do is wrong. (And yet, it isn't. It just feels that way.) 

It seems the only thing I can do is ride it out and wait for better days to come.

Dates and Numbers

A couple of tips when learning numbers and dates in a new language. 

As you are putting things away, count them out in the new language. As you climb the stairs, uno, due, tre, quattro... Look at phone numbers and read them out in Italian. When you see a car, look at the registration plate and read out the numbers. With a plate that has "756", say "sette, cinque, sei". Then later when you are feeling more secure with your numbers, turn it into "seven hundred and fifty six" (settecentocinquantasei).

Each day, write out the date in your journal or diary, or even just a random piece of paper. Today is dominica, quindici luglio duemiladiciotto.

It's practise, and more practise, and a bit more on top. Use numbers and dates, and keep using them.

Noi Parliamo Italiano

I am buzzing!

Last night,  we went out to the local Italian restaurant to celebrate my birthday (earlier this month). I was talking with two of the waiters, in Italian. They understood me, and I understood them! It wasn’t big complicated stuff, just the little bits like ‘Good evening, a table for 3, please’, “I am learning Italian”, “I would like the duck”, etc.

The lovely tall waiter asked in English when I started learning Italian, and I replied in Italian, ‘marzo’ (March). He was so kind, and said I was speaking the language really well, and was surprised at how well I could speak it given the short time I have been learning. He said he could understand everything I was saying. Talk about a boost! I’m buzzing, buzzing, I tell you.

Toadstools

More toadstools painted today, this time against a green background. They need to have some black outlines drawn on to finish them off. Also painted were loads of poppies. They haven't been photographed as they don't yet have their black centres. Those will have to wait until tomorrow when I will be in town and can buy some black paint.

After the poppies have been finished, that's me.  If they had put up the plea a little earlier I could have managed a great deal more. But we do what we can, and we can't do any more.

Chicken in Marinade

In my new box there's frozen mini chicken breasts, gently resting in some chopped garlic, oil, cider vinegar, a bit of soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, ground cumin and coriander seeds. As the chicken defrosts it will take up the flavours. It can then be bbq-ed, or pan fried.

But really, it's the box that I love. It is FÖRTROLIG from Ikea. The base is glass and the top is silicon and plastic. It can be used in the fridge and freezer. When the lid is removed it can be used in the oven.  I used it to make clafoutis recently. I'm loving having a couple of lidded deep dishes.

Next time we are near an Ikea I'll buy a couple of the smaller dishes.

Time for Toadstools

A whole bunch more sunflowers were made yesterday. Today, I've turned my attention to some houses for the fairies. And a few hedgehogs.

Chimeric Kitten

On another part of the web, we were discussing chimera and other similarly interesting genetic stuff.  I couldn't find a copy of a chimeric kitten I could link to and needed a place I could pop a picture. This is that picture. 

Carnival Flowers

In a facebook group, a request was made for 'paper plate' flowers for a carnival float. These are my first batch, sunflowers. 

They are making me so happy. I think I'll need to make a second batch of sunflowers today.

Clafoutis - Fruit Tutti

A group I'm in has a recipe of the month, and this month it's Clafoutis. I'e gone way, way off-piste, and come up with my own recipe. The standard recipe produces something more akin a slightly sponge-y custard, and the Beloved does not like custard. By using my pancake recipe, it's made a gooey cakey thing instead. I call it 'Fruiti Tutti'.

Ingredients

2 cups SR gluten-free flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

milk to mix

soft fruit

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 200C.

Mix the flour and sugar in a bowl, add in the egg and some milk. Add enough milk to make a medium thick batter. 

Pour the batter into a greased dish (30x20cm), and drop in fruit. Cook for around 45-50 minutes, until golden brown.

Notes

Left to right, I used strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. It was served hot with cream. There were mutterings of 'Yeah, this is nice', but I didn't get the impression they would want me to nae a fresh batch for tomorrow.

Crossed Out Cross Stitch

The cross stitch chart I bought for the Doctor Who picture I'm working on came in the form of a .pdf. Previous, as in many years ago, I used printed patterns, and patterns in books. I would often photocopy the pattern, and then mark the sections I had sewn. 

My electronic alternative it to enlarge the section of the .pdf, and take a screen shot. This is taken into a Paint programme, and I can cross out my cross stitch sections I've sewn. It keeps the eyes straight, makes counting easier, and it has a nifty zoom function.

Days for Girls

Jenny James, a local volunteer for 'Days for Girls', was at Quilters tonight. She was speaking about the difference a period pack can make for adolescent girls.  Jenny brought with her a simple drawstring bag. Inside, there were two pairs of knickers, a wash cloth, a bar of soap, two ziplock bags, two waterproof shields and 8 absorbent liners. This little package makes a significant difference to many, many girls. The "kits don't look like traditional pads...and there's a reason for that. The bright colors camouflage staining. The absorbent liners unfold to look like a washcloth, which allows women to wash and dry them outside in the sun without causing embarrassment. All of these design choices add up to a lasting, easy-to-care-for solution."

Before receiving the kits, many girls would miss out on school one week out of four because they didn't have any ways to manage their period blood flow. Typically when girls receive the kits their school attendance rate increases greatly, and also the length of time they remain in school. 

Education of girls makes a huge difference to the individuals, but also the societies in which they live. UNICEF has a fantastic article, Education empowers girls to change the world. 

The kit lasts between 2 - 4 years, and it one of the most environmentally friendly period solutions.

Never be cruel, never be cowardly. And never ever eat pears!

As Peter Capaldi's Doctor regenerates he has a word with himself:

You wait a moment, Doctor. Let’s get it right. I’ve got a few things to say to you. Basic stuff first.

Never be cruel, never be cowardly. And never ever eat pears! Remember – hate is always foolish…and love, is always wise.

Always try, to be nice and never fail to be kind. Oh, and….and you mustn’t tell anyone your name. No-one would understand it anyway. Except…

He gasps, falls to the floor

Except….children. Children can hear it. Sometimes – if their hearts are in the right place, and the stars are too. Children can hear your name.

Gasps, grunts more

But nobody else. Nobody else. Ever.

Pulls himself off the floor

Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.

Stirring music.

Doctor – I let you go.

I loved this speech the moment I heard it. These are words to aspire to, words to live up to. (Although, I'm not too sure about the pears.)

At Quilters on Tuesday, someone was giving away cross stitch fabric, and I picked it up. Then I was reminded of the quote, and the decision was made to combine the two. This was then joined by a cross stitch representation of the Doctor's name in circular Gallifreyan.

If I were making this as a gift for a child, I would use the section about children being able to hear his name if the stars and their hearts were in the right place. Instead I'll go from "Always try, to be nice and never fail to be kind." straight into "Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind."

July Goals

My goals for July are:

• only consume fizzy drinks at the weekend, or on special days
• work on City Slickers quilt
• finish duck quilt
• work on "Never Be Cruel, Never Eat Pears" cross stitch
• make 5 things