Bright morning

We are promised a fine day, so washer is on, should get the washing dry on the line, there is a reasonable breeze too.

I finished the cream set I was making, just need to float off the stabilizer and press them and they will be good to go. I will sort out the stuff for the santa, I have black felt for his boots and pinkish for his face, will use white felt for his gloves and the fleece for  the fur on his coat etc. see how we go on.

The chicken yesterday was delicious air fried in the ninja, there is enough left for tonight possibly with a jacket potato and a side salad.

My cleaner is back today, she emailed last night to say she was feeling a lot better.

 

Fraught morning

Trying to order an on line delivery, I have changed banks since the last time I ordered, so had to go through a rigmarole to change my cards.

Cooked a bacon joint and also made a pot of leek and lentil soup, we had some with french bread for lunch.

I have started on the cream set of mats, done the big one, now on to the two smaller ones, they take an hour each to sew. I have my machine set to 600spm, I cannot cope with it going at full speed 1095spm, its finished before you get your eye in!!

Its a dull but dry morning, hope that we are getting the grass cut this afternoon, it has grown a lot since we started getting rain.

Roast chicken and veg for supper tonight. No dessert. 

Gosh, that was quick

phone call 9.20am yesterday, your scissors and shears are ready to be collected!! So off we went to collect them, very reasonable £27 for 4 pairs if scissors, a pair of long handles loppers and a pair of hedge trimmers..........I tried out the scissors yesterday, even the cheap ones I use for cutting paper went through fabric like a hot knife through butter.......wow!!

I finished the last two doileys, so I have a full set, have cut out fabric for the centre of a large and two medium doileys for a dressing table set. Need to press the white ones, have washed to stabilizer out of them, just a short burst of starch on the centre and that will be that. I also cleaned off the 4 mats I made, so all ready for the coffee morning on Wednesday. Going to start the Santa, I have some white fleece I am going to use for his beard and the faux fur round the bottom and sleeves of his coat.

Quiche and salad for supper tonight.

More rain

 overnight, but it appears to have stopped for a while. Its quite windy though.

The end of another week. Yesterday I sewed the largest of the lace mats, I have the two small ones to go and then I can soak the stabilizer off and give them a light press. I plan then on starting the santa claus.

Our neighbour laid more of his grass in the back yesterday. DB now wnta to grass the path up the side of the garden. Not sure if the gardener is coming, depends on the weather, if he does come, that will be his job for the day. I will need him next week as well to do some autumn pruning and I also want to sort out pots.

Fish and chips tonight. No dessert.

Rain

rain, go away, come back another day!! We have woken up to leaden skies and pouring rain. In one respect its good, our next door neighbour has decided to take up the grass in the front garden, he asked DB if he needed any, so we have one of the old veg beds relaid with the best of the turf. The rain will water it in nicely.

We went on a semi jolly yesterday, took the scissors and some shears to be sharpened........it was quite nice driving, the sun was out.

I got the load of white laundry out on the line and it dried. I finished off the last of the circle mats and have cut the damask to make a bigger lace mat.

Think I will do frittata and salad tonight. We opened a tin of peaches last night and finished off the ice cream with them, enough peaches left for tonight.  

The sun is out

and DB tells me its 15c outside. We are off this morning to put in scissors and garden shears to be sharpened. A trip into Nottinghamshire.

White load of laundry on, will hang it out when we get back, everyting dried yesterday apart from the pockets on DB's tarck suit trousers.

Pork casserole for supper tonight, will cook it when we get back.

Quiet day

DB had an appointment for  blood test, so off to the Dr's. Back home I cooked pot full of scotch broth using the remains of the lamb from the weekend.

Load of coloured laundry done and out on the line to dry.

Feeling a bit tired for some reason.

Supper tonight is stovies.

No rain

as yet, but the sky is very grey. We had quite a bit of rain overnight, parts of Melton were flooded water just could not get away.

Bed change, my cleaner is ill, has a very heavy cold, so I told her to stay at home, no germs here thank you........so it will be a quick flick of the duster. I did put the Tfec over the carpet yesterday after I finished sewing.

Sheets to wash, hoping to get them dry on the line, the other stuff will have to wait till tomorrow.

Lamb for supper tonight, possibly with jacket spud and salad.

Rain again.

After a lovely day yesterday we woke up to pouring rain, and it kept on pouring until lunch time, when the sun decided to shine for the rest of the afternoon.

I finished off another mat, just one more to do and then it's on to Santa Claus. That will be interesting to say the least.

I cooked the shoulder of lamb yesterday, so sliced it this morning when I prepped the veggies for supper.

DB spent half an hour out in the garden this afternoon, the gardener did not come on Friday, thanks to the rain. My cleaner has just phoned to say she has a bad cold, so I told her to stay at home, we will manage for this week.

The lamb was lovely, I used the Ninja for the roasties, cooked the veggies in the steamer with the foil wrapped lamb.

 

More rain

we have had over 2" of rain over the last two days. Yesterday morning was fine, but at lunchtime it started to  rain again and by 4 pm was very heavy again. Today is supposed to be fine all day, we shall see.

I plan to cut out the fabric for 2 bigger mats today, hope to get them done so I can start on the Father Christmas, the felt for his coat came yesterday. Cannot decide whether to make him double sided or not. If I decide not to I think I will mount him on cardboard.......will see.

I expect DB will be out in the garden, we have lettuce growing in the greenhouse, so he needs to keep an eye on them. After being without rain for so long and the ground being cracked, it is now all soggy. We will need the grass cutting again in the next couple of weeks unless a frost is forcast.

Supper is sausage mash and beans. Not sure about a dessert as yet. I want to cook the small shoulder of lamb I got yesterday, its ages since Aldi had lamb shoulder, cost me enough in all conscience.

 

Try again

it rained almost all day yesterday. By this morning it was fine, so we decided to head for Aldi. There was evidence of water in various bits of the road.

Shopping done we were soon on the way home via a diversion which has been set up on a main road into Melton whilst services are laid into a new building site. Once home all the shopping put away. The freezer in the shed is bulging, should keep us going for a while.

Gardener due this afternoon, it is forecast to rain again later.

Parcel sent last week has not arrived at its destination, so searchs going on here and also in Dronfield........so much for first class paid for!!

Fish and chips tonight.

That was a quick trip

We woke up this morning to heavy rain, set out to drive into Melton, drove through 3 lots of flood water, which is only going to get worse, turned round and came home. I guess that the roads out of the village will be closed due to the flood water before long. So supermarket trip put off to tomorrow. As always I have emough food in for several days.

Yesterdays coffee morning was well attended, I had taken the mats for the chapel, sold two of them and an order for two more, as well as the bookmarks I sewed earlier this week. So more sewing for me. I did start another mat yesterday as I had the fabrics cut out, will finish that off this morning and cut out the bits for another one and then get on with the order I have. Had to order more fabric. When I donated my quilting fabric, I did keep back the Christmas fabric, good job I did.

So tonights supper will be Italian meat balls and spaghetti with garlic bread. Possibly ice cream for dessert.

Coffee morning

at the little chapel, have mats and book marks to deliver, so bag ready to go.

Bad night, DB woke about 4am coughing, I could not get back to sleep, so feeling washed out this morning, a double coffee should help.

Its very sunny but down to 6c outside brrrrrrrrr...........

Yesterday afternoon I decided to sew a sample mat, gosh I was blown away with it. Its given me an idea for the 4 older ladies who go for coffee, they really will not want note books, so am going to make them candle mats in red with scraps of fabric I have left from the big mats.

No idea whats for supper, possibly egg and chips, its shopping day tomorrow. I am going to do a big top up shop and will then start having my groceries delivered again from Morrison.

 

suffering from withdrawal symptoms

Decided to try the smallest version of this lace may using a scrap of fabric...... oh wow!! have ordered some damask fabric to make a set.

 

 

And relax

yesterday was, as I expected quite busy. Bookmarks were collected, laundry dried outside and boiler checked.

It was sunny for most of the day which helped dry the laundry.

DB was planting garlic in the garden, we were I bag of manure short, I am still waiting for delivery, have sent an email to the suppliers.

It looks like we may get power cuts during the winter, so I have ordered a rechargeable work light which will allow us to read during a power cut. As the cuts seem to be during the early evening, we may be forced to change our eating habits and eat a hot meal at lunchtime, sandwiches or soup when we would normally have supper.

Another fine morning although it is down to 6c.... brrrr.

Supper tonight will be shepherds pie and veg. Enough rasps in jelly for tonight.

Busy day?

Up early, we are due a gas check and they can come anytime between 8.00am and 5.00pm. I have to move the shelf unit out of the cupboard where the boiler is. Cleaner is due this morning and I am expecting a friend to collect a couple of book marks. On top of that the washer is on.

Its a dull morning at present, there is what I call a lazy breeze, so hopefully the laundry will dry on  the line.

Yesterdays chicken, steam roasted in the ninja was delicious, not at all dried out, enough left for tonight supper.

I have been looking at a design for a Santa Claus, its all done in the hoop and is about 11 inches high. I need to get some felt. I hate working with velvet, cannot stand to touch it. All stems from sitting on the piano stool which was covered with velvet.......even thinking about it makes me shiver.

I had been having a run of bad nights, but last night, although I woke once I did sleep better. My sleep pattern is so irregular. Does not help my energy levels.

Indian Summer

We appear to be having an Indian Summer, the nights are brrrr, but bright sunshine and occasional showers most days. It least our solar panels means any electricity is generated by them and not by the power grid. So we are getting a small amount of solar power from them.

Yesterday I completed the bookmarks and also washed the stabilizer out of 4 sets of tree decorations, they are drying, I will press them shortly. I have taken out a design of a Christmas tree which is made in bits like the mats, am going to have a shot at that, need to sort out some bits first.

I did find the wash away thread, it was in with the other cops in a drawer, I have now marked the top of the cop........no more loosing it. There is a bobbin somewhere wound with the thread, will have to check the bobbins in the cases.

Veggies done for supper, roast chicken etc, have also made rasps in jelly, stall have a freezer drawer full to use up.

Rain

 overnight, the slabs at the back are wet. Its quite sunny, but a cool breeze, no matter the sun through the sitting room window will keep the chill off when the heating goes off.

I am driving myself loopy trying to find a large cop of wash away thread. I know I had it recently, can I find it?? No!!! We will have to take the sewing room to bits to try and find it.

Gardener was here yesterday, next week will be his last visit until next spring unless something urgent come up. We got all the pots empties, bulbs planted and a couple of pots of white geranium cuttings planted. We also put two fuschias in the greenhouse to over winter.

I managed to cut into one of the embroidered book marks yesterday, so need to sew another one, blooming nuscience.

All day breakfast for supper tonight, have got chicken out for tomorrow. 

Some free standing lace ornaments. 4 sets still to soak the stabilizer off

Using up some off cuts of fabrics.

Different mats, there are 6 for the tables at the over 60's Christmas lunch.

Book marks, 4 of the cross ones and 6 of the Peace lily, all ordered.

I have 2 of the celtic runners which are Christmas presents, I also made a smaller Mandela mat, which is also a present.

I now have to see what else I can make. I might do some mug rugs.

Grey Day

DB tells me that it is going to rain this morning,hope it clears up by lunchtime, I want to get the garden pots sorted ready to plant the bulbs for the spring.

Yesterday I finished the last of the mats for the chapel and also the remaining book marks, so once I have done the magic with some warm water and dried then, the book marks are ready to go. I need to clean round the mats with a damp cotton but to get rid of the stabilizer thats peeking through. Everything ready to go to the coffee morning next Wednesday.

I need a trip into Melton, several things I need, its also Aldi shopping week, so 2 trips into town.

Courier coming this morning to collect a rather large box with the trolly bags for my old machine in, have sold them to a lady who sat by me at the retreat in April. She has just bought a Brother XJ1. It is the same model as the one I bought. My new machine is too big for the bag, hence selling it. 

Fish and chips tonight for supper.

The last

 lot of laundry is in the washer, towels. I need to sort out a way to do a couple of washes a week instead of the way I am doing them at the moment. Not sure if its going to dry outside but will give it a shot, I can finish them off in the dryer if I have to.

I was 10 degrees under the weather yesterday, so spent most of the day reading, felt a bit better after lunch, up to present I am ok this morning, just one of those things.

Had a message from my machine dealer, I had not sent to cover and one of the feet with the machine, had a sort round and found both, it cost me £8 to send them first class recorded delivery.......expensive mistake!!

Very dull this morning DB tells me it is going to fine up later, we will see.

My cooking mo jo has gone out the window, scrabbling around to find something for supper, think it might be mince something tonight.

More laundry

A load of whites this time, DB says it will rain later, so want to get them out for a bit of a blow at least.

Woke a couple of times in the night, DB wriggling in his sleep, which means he was dreaming about something.

Waiting to hear when the bags for the Stellaire are being collected, all packed ready to go.

Not such a nice morning, although the sun us truggling to get through.

Supper tonight, sausage, mash and beans. We have been having a couple of scoops of ice cream for a dessert, so guess it will be the same tonight.

More laundry

No idea where it all comes from, there seems to be more each week. I want to dry it on the line, its due to be a sunny day. Got the sheets etc dry yesterday, all folded ready for the ironing lady who is collecting it today. Such a blessing, I can no longer stand and iron, so only the absolute essentials get ironed these days, but I do love ironed bed linen.

Had a bit of a bad day sewing again yesterday, got 3/4 way through a project and realised I had missed a step out grrrrrrr, then the machine started to 'click' I took the needle plate off and found the tinest bit of thread under the bobbin case.........I use dry cotton buds to clean round the race, it was amazing just how much fluff there was in there, just from a days sewing. I should get my green screw replacement bobbin case today and also the thread to finish the book marks. I think maybe I should buy another spare, just in case. I will be looking for something else to stitch then.

I need to spend some time really getting to grips with the Luminare, it is a very versatile machine with lots of bells and whistles. The only thing they could add which might tempt me to change it is, if they bring out a machine that makes a cup of tea as well!!

I need to sort out some supper, we had todays supper last night, might do fritatta and salad.

Bright morning

 The sun is shining and DB assures me that there is no rain forecast, so I will get the laundry dry on the line.

Had a dreadful night, I seems as if sometimes I just cannot sleep, which does not help the energy levels. I got up at 7am to take my nasty pill and did not bother to go back to bed.

Had a problem with the new machine, but managed to sort it myself, however I do need a new bobbin case, the needle had punched a hole in the one in the machine. Need to phone up and order one.

Bed stripped and in the washer, need to sort it out before the cleaner comes.

No plans as yet for tonight, might do an easy egg, chips and beans, its a bit of a cop out but I am very tired. Want to do a bit of sewing if I can.

On Friday afternoon, I cut the last spray of blooms off the Compassion rose which grows on the fence outside my sewing room. It was just one bloom starting to come out, since then 5 more blooms have opened and there are 3 buds left..... fingers crossed they will come out. I love the colour and scent of this rose, not so keen on the thorns though!!

 

Late posting

Today has not been a successful day, I made a loaf which has come out like lead, the yeast must have gone off, so will need to source some more, makes me cross because the whole thing has been a waste of money.

Had a slight problem with my machine, but managed to sort it out, thank heavens, I did not want another trip up to sheffield.

Neighbour has been round and put all but one box up in the attic, the one left I have found a place for behind a shelf unit in the sewing room....

Supper tonight, roast pork steaks and roast tatties, cauliflower and calebrease. DB asked for ice cream for dessert, so thats fine by me. 

Grrrrrr

Half way through sewing a design and the thread ran out........cannot get anymore till possibly Tuesday, depending on whether Royal Mail are on strike or not. Worked out a way to save the project and have been told that I can do it, phew, that means I can get on with something else whilst I wait for the thread.

Sunny morning, but quite a breeze, the gardener did not come yesterday, It started to rain and rained on and off all afternoon.

I was exhausted by the time we had put the groceries away. I just have to get the machine boxes etc up into the loft, the are in the hall.

Think we may have salad for supper tonight, its a while since we had salad, no dessert, will do something for tomorrow nights supper. 

Waiting to go up into the attic

Well its working, much bigger than the Stellaire.

Using the ironing board to follow instructions, its adjustable so at the right height to read by just swinging my chair.

Grocery Day

As we were away yesterday, I did not do my normal shop, so we are off this morning.

Tired after yesterdays journey, did not sleep too well, too hyped up me thinks.

Its quite a nice morning we are expecting wind and rain later today, but the sun is out just now. Rain is forcecast for lunch time, so the gardener will not come. I have to sort out the pots ready for the bulbs to go in.

Usual fish and chips tonight, have run out of the haddock I had in stock in the freezer, so we will be on to cod, which is not my favourite. Aldi have not had frozen haddock  for a number of weeks noe. Guess its too expensive to buy just now.

Off again

On a journey to take my machine in again.

Did very little yesterday except sort out stuff in the sewing room. Coffee morning was much as usual, not so many there, T has hurt hhis knee, he was on a walking holiday last week, think he has strained it.

We have belly pork and rice for supper tonight. Tomorrow I may have to get up early and go to Aldi. 

Coffee Morning

Monday and Tuesday were funny days, I was made an offer which we needed to discuss and decide what to do. 

Its very windy this morning, the trees are swaying in the breeze and leaves are dropping, its not too cold though.

I was asked last week to make two more book marks for a friend, it was whilst I was doing those the machine decided to seize up. I need to soak the stabilizer off and they are ready to go.

DB has spent the last two mornings cleaning the inside of the greenhouse, he plans to store bags of manure in there during the winter. Gardeners job on Friday is to empty the summer pots and we will plant the tulip bulbs.

I have a delivery of meat coming at lunchtime, fill up the freezer. I have ordered a boneless Turkey crown which I will cut in half, thats Christmas lunch sorted. Also have a joint of beef and loin of pork as well as braising steak, meat balls and pork steaks.

Supper night is quich and jacket spuds I have coleslaw to have with it. We are not eating dessert just now.

Sorry

 I did not get to post yesterday, the day just got away from me one way or the other!!

Usual hum drum Monday anyway, washing etc plus a visit to see the practice nurse at the surgery, UTI giving me bother. I did get the laundry dry on the line.

Its a cool 12c this morning, the sun is making valliant efforts to shine but not succeeding.

Have a quick trip to the chemist to collect a script, we usually get them delivered, but I collected them yesterday.

Supper tonight is mince, may be shepherds pie will see how I feel later.

Sunday

We had sun yesterday and we have it again this morning, how long for is anyones guess.

I switched the gas heating on yesterday, on first thing then off until 6pm until 9.30pm. I will check the reading tomorrow when I send it off to the energy company. I did a white wash which dried more or less on the line, just finished it off on the rads.

DB is out in the garden. I am girding my loins to pack up the machine waiting for my neighbour to get the polystyrene cases down for me from the attic.

Veg etc prepped for supper. Having pork etc tonight. not sure about a dessert as yet.

Not much to report

I managed to finish both my library book, so all read and ready to go back to the library.

It seems very strange not to be doing any sewing, am waiting for my neighbour to come and get the cases down. I did look at doing it myself and then changed my mind.

Its a lot warmer this morning, I have put the gas heating on, it has cut out so the temperture in the house is ok. This is the start of the months usuage to see what uses the most gas or electric. I put the new fleece over my feet last night it worked ok, my feet were toasty.

Apart from a sore arm no apparent side effects from the Covid jab yesterday, we have a flu jab next weekend.

Supper will be sausage, beans and mash, Possibly ice cream for dessert. I do plan to make a rice pudding at some point, but need some condensed milk or cream for it.