I’ve only gone and done it!!

Now that caught your eye didn’t it! What have I done? I’ve listed some of my bags on Etsy – you can find me here at Handmade by Heather. I’m not sure if they will sell but if I don’t try I will never know will I? The pricing looks a little strange ‘cos you have to put the price in US dollars and I suppose depending which exchange rate the site uses the rate will vary. I really struggled to come up with a price that reflects my expenses and that will appeal to the buyer, I’ve had a good look around Etsy and at the various craft fairs I’ve been to and the prices vary widely - £10 - £45 for very similar items. I thought if I offered free UK post and packing it might seem a good deal.

Now just have to sit back and see what happens – gulp!!

In other news, we head towards Christmas wondering where the year has disappeared to. Matt seems to be settled in Brisbane now for a couple of months at least. He has a job working for a meat supplier – he works nights loading orders for supermarkets. Working nights should suit him as he has always been a nit of a night owl anyway and the money is good. It’s going to be very strange mot having him around at Christmas this year although we will talk on the phone.

And that’s probably all I can think of – oh, nearly forgot – the shoulder business. It’s getting better I think and I’ve finished the acupuncture – can’t say it’s made any difference really but it was worth a try, I’m still taking the medication because when I don’t take it the symptoms all come right back! But the good news is that the Physio suggested I try some hand stitching or crochet – almost like getting back on the bike when you’ve fallen off I suppose. I tried some on Thursday to no ill effect so hope that I can carry on. I’ve packed up the sewing machine as I don’t think I’ll have any time leading up to Christmas but a spot of hand stitching might just fill the gap!

Well, that was Christmas, that was!

I finished the last post wondering what it was going to be like waking up childless on Christmas morning and I can tell you it was … OK! I still woke up early and sat around waiting for John to wake up but I have to confess the excitement levels weren’t quite the same. We’d already decided that we would wait until the boys & FDIL arrived before we’d even touch any presents and that was just fine!

Previously we’d have had breakfast about 10.30 after we’d prised Son2 from his bed (he doesn’t do mornings) but this year we had a lovely cooked breakfast at 9 o’clock and were all cleared away, veggies prepared by 10! I had a feeling that Son1 and FDIL would be early arrivals so thought it would be a good idea not to be wearing pyjamas when they arrived! They let me down and didn’t arrive until 12.30 – Son2 was actually the first to arrive which was very surprising!

We had a huge mountain of pressies under the tree – it must have looked like we favoured Son2 but a mental calculation of the financials meant they came out equal – thank heavens for a certain large store that has regular discounted days!

I had some lovely gifts, notably copies of Jane Brockurst & Kaffe Fassett inspirational quilt books, some lovely flannelette fat quarters which I think I will turn into a very simple square quilt with a thickish wadding in time for next winter. I also got a lovely cake stand, something I’ve wanted for a while and, as has become traditional, a years supply of Dove shower cream!!

As this is the first year we’ve had visitors for so long I can’t remember, I thought I’d make a real effort with the table and stuff. This is where I show you a picture – only it isn’t because in the excitement I forgot to take one! But trust me it was lovely – red & gold was the theme, with my table runner at the centre of attention. Flatteringly (I think) FDIL thought I’d bought it!! Dinner was consumed with delight – not a lot of anything left anyway so that’s a good sign.

Son2 had man-flu and was not at all well, FDIL had been out the night before(!) and Son1 had just finished nights so they all slept through the afternoon – not wanting to be left out John joined them, again this is where I show you a photo – not. I was wedged on the sofa and couldn’t get up without disturbing the sleeping beauties, I did try to capture something with the web cam but failed on that too!

Our visitors departed around 5.30 leaving John & I like Darby & Joan for the evening to watch Christmas TV and eat the remains of the food. I just loved The One Ronnie – especially this is sketch

Great update on an old favourite

Yesterday John was going to football with Son2 (I’d kindly given him my ticket – too blooming cold for me hehe) but it got cancelled about 90 minutes before kick-off, instead Son2 went home and John and I went looking for some cheap furniture for our (now) spare room so that all the people queuing up to come and stay will have somewhere to put stuff, we succeeded in getting a couple of bedside chests and a chest of drawers…mm, seems a shame to have them empty, perhaps I’ll decant some of my stuff…

So now it’s Monday. What’ll I do? There’s only so much sorting and tidying a girl can do – oh, go on then I’ll get the machine out if you insist!!

Christmas Post

 

As I woke up at stupid o’clock this morning I thought I’d use my time wisely and have a quick update of the Ramblings!

The madness from last week has so far continued with lots of things to do and little time to do them in! Monday has been our only ‘normal’ evening this week – by normal I mean getting home about 5.30, plonking myself down on the sofa, rising only to cook dinner and go to bed! Yes, I confess that that is my ‘normal’ evening pattern, I’d like to say it’s because I’m slowing down and don’t have the energy anymore but, if I’m truly honest, that had been the case for many years now – maybe I’m due to enter an energetic phase in my life (but then again, maybe not!).

Tuesday evening took me off for the Christmas meal with work colleagues. We went to a ‘Hollywood Nights’ themed evening at our county showground which was very nice – they even had a carousel ride (yours truly, being the coward that I am, did not venture on) just outside the function room – they were very brave souls who ventured on,  let me tell you, because it was absolutely freeeeeeezing outside. It was lovely to see everybody in their finery shivering and shaking as they got off – amazing how many women sat side saddle because their skimpy clothing wouldn’t permit them to hoist themselves across the saddle! John came with me because we had a last minute cancellation and it seemed a shame to waste the ticket – at least that meant he had a Christmas do this year! I have to report that I stupidly drank a tad too much and felt really awful all day on Wednesday – plus the alcohol managed to make me relax enough to have a boogie on the dance floor resulting in my back aching like crazy as well! I need to remember that I just can’t do that anymore – at least it’s only once a year!

I meandered through Wednesday in my zombie-like state looking forward to the evening with Son1 and FDIL coming round for pizza takeaway and to ice the Christmas cakes. I supervised this year in the hope that perhaps next year I can pass the job over to FDIL entirely! When I say ‘ice’ the cakes, what I really mean is to open the packs of ready rolled almond paste and fondant icing and lay them neatly across the cakes – the days are long gone when I’d make my own fondant! There is a skill required though in smoothing the fondant in to place, removing pleats and creases that happen as you plonk it on the cake and she did a very good job! They just need finishing off now with the cut out snowflakes that we’ll add from the trimmings of the fondant.

I was so glad to see the end of Wednesday and took to my bed really early in an attempt to regain my feeling of well being!

The sausage rolls I made on Sunday found themselves the centre of attention at work yesterday lunchtime which means that I need more for home – I also need more for work because they were so popular people want them today as well! We have a mini tradition of eating all day on Christmas Eve at work, being the loving person that I am I let most people go home early and stay behind myself to cover what needs to be done so this means we start eating about 11 o’clock if not sooner! So last night I made another 24 sausage rolls which I am about to put in the oven and take to work (back now – egg glazed and in the oven (the sausage rolls not me!!)).

I was thinking last night as I rolled out the pastry at 8 o’clock that only at Christmas would I ever do such a thing! I mean, most evenings I struggle to decide which easy dinner we’ll have – minimal effort is my general theme – and here I am after a day at work and a trip to Sainsburys, up to my elbows in flour – I must be mad!

So, as I sit here 6.10 AM on Christmas Eve, I’m thinking that, apart from cooking tomorrow, I’m all done. A full day at work beckons but I’m optimistic that it will be a fairly quiet day – strangely people don’t seem to want to come to hospital on Christmas Eve – can’t think why! I quite like this time of year work wise because it gives me a chance to tidy up, sort out the stuff that’s been neglected and to clear the decks for the New Year – and plus most colleagues seem to be less stressed as well which makes a nice change!

Tomorrow the boys and FDIL will be coming for dinner – it will be the first Christmas morning that we’ve woken up without a child in the house for 23 years – how weird will that be? I’ll let you know…

 

Merry Christmas everybody and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

A Mad Week!

What a week! Time just flew last week with one thing and another which left me with very little time to think about anything! Son2 spent the first night in his new home on Sunday after a day spent ferrying bits and pieces around. I’ll confess to feeling a tad wobbly on Monday and Tuesday but that feeling soon passed. Of course I miss him but, as with Son1 when he moved out, not in the way I thought I would!

I had yet another birthday on Wednesday, they just keep on coming, and the boys both came round for dinner – that in itself was a weird experience – quite tiring! Now that neither have a bedroom to disappear to after dinner we had to entertain them! Yes we all sat around talking as if we had real visitors! When they went I sank into my chair as if I’d been entertaining all day! I had some lovely presents as well – a Radley umbrella, two quilting books, a crochet/knitting book, a lovely bundle of fat quarters in a batik fabric – very pretty – and some lovely quilt label fabric. Unusually no smellies or chocolates!

Oh nearly forgot to tell you – I bought a new food processor! A couple of weeks ago I saw a man at the checkout in Sainsbury’s with a huge box containing a processor. At the time I nudged John and said ‘oooh look at that – think I might treat myself next time I come in!’ I sneaked a peak and saw that it was £99 which I thought was OK as I’d got quite a lot of loyalty points that would help reduce the cost. Anyway, I went in the other evening to find that it was now reduced to £79!! With £67.50 in points I got an absolute bargain! I don’t feel too bad about my treat as my old mixer was 27 years old – John bought it for me on our first Christmas together, it’s certainly earnt its retirement!

Day off on Friday saw me meeting up with Janet in town. We had planned to be a little more daring and go out to a local village but as we had snow the previous evening we decided not to risk country roads and played safe instead. I also finally bought John’s Christmas present – the way I was going he would have had an IOU on Saturday morning!!

On Friday evening we went out for our traditional birthday family meal (Son1 & moi!), sadly Son2 had a prior commitment and couldn’t join us so it was just John, Son1, FDIL & I. We went to Zizis  - I had the tastiest duck I can ever remember having, it was divine and the meat just fell off of the bone.

Haircut Saturday – I’ve gone a bit shorter than usual! I hope when I wash it I can make it look as good as my hairdresser did! Oh and a near disaaaaaster! The shower wouldn’t work on Saturday morning – plenty of pump type noise but no water – John went in to the loft to find that the lagging hadn’t been replaced by the engineer a couple of weeks ago. The pipes were frozen in our well insulated loft! I had the bright idea of leaving the loft open for a while to let some heat waft up and by mid afternoon they had thawed – happily without bursting. What a mess that would have made! (edited – hair came out OK this morning!!)

Being the very kind and loving mother that I am, I offered my ticket for football to Son2 on Saturday – and to the sceptics amongst you, no it wasn’t because a) they’ve been playing very badly lately or b) the weather forecast was not too good! Well, it turned out I missed probably the best match of the season so far! Played in a blizzard and with the ground staff coming out at half time and just into the second half to clear the lines we actually won 3-0 – can you believe it? I watched on the TV and it looked a fantastic game – I’m just glad I was in the warm watching it!

Nearly finished – don’t give up reading now, you’ve come so far! Sunday arrived with a really chilly 9 degrees Fahrenheit (-3 centigrade) and, as the Sunday before Christmas is usually my baking day, I set about making sausage rolls and mince pies – using the new food processor for the latter and a really easy quick flaky pastry a la Delia Smith for the former. John graciously informed me that they were the best sausage rolls I’ve ever made – not bad after 27 years of baking for him!!!

It was Son1’s birthday yesterday – he was 23, how did that happen?? He and FDIL came for dinner along with Son2 and his laundry (!) we had a lovely roast dinner – good practice for doing it all again on Christmas day!

So that was my last week – sorry it’s so long – and here’s my Christmas tree, sadly the most decoration the Ramblings will see this year!!

Merry Christmas to you all and I hope you have a happy and prosperous New Year!

My first Christmas bit!

Finally finished my latest quilty project – apart from the actual quilting that is!

I used an idea in this book which had been made by my friend Nicola and tweaked it a little. I’m quite pleased with how it’s come out but I still have issues with the finer touches, mustn’t beat myself up though as it still is really early days!

This will adorn my dining room table over the Christmas period, I don’t think it’s too twee and I have been careful to use patterns that don’t clash with anything else!

 

 

In other news…I’ve only gone and ordered myself a new sewing machine! I can’t quite believe it myself but I now know that I can’t achieve all that I want to with the one I bought just a couple of months ago. Big gulps now – hope I can use it when it arrives!!

That’s Christmas done...

... New Year here we come!

I hope you all enjoyed the Christmas season, whatever your way of celebrating. You won't be surprised to hear that I woke up ridiculously early and sat all alone for a couple of hours, channel hopping until I came across that teen phenomenon 'Twilight' which I started to watch – I think I can see what gets those teenage girls excited! I just now need to find time to watch the other half on Sky+!

Traditionally Christmas Day is the one day each year when we all sit down for breakfast together which we normally eat around 10am, I gently woke the boys about 9.30 to give them the early warning they needed and proceeded to cook breakfast. Nothing to fancy – sausages, bacon, eggs & toast. John took over after he'd noticed that I was banging around trying to prepare the veggies for dinner at the same time – apologies to any men who read this but why did he have to wait until I was getting grumpy about it? Anyway, row averted but we had very crispy fried eggs – pan was far too hot but I mustn't interfere!!

After breakfast we progressed to our exchange of gifts – not so many this year, although I seemed to have more because I brought all of my work things home unopened. My present from John was a ring. An eternity ring, with rubies and diamonds to match my engagement ring. I knew I was getting it because I had pointed it out in the jewellers – I'd even had my finger measured in anticipation. You know what's coming don't you – it didn't fit! My ever gallant husband said "You must have put more weight on" note the use of the word 'More'. Son 2 immediately chipped in with 'It must have been labelled wrong in the shop'. I know I've put weight on. My wedding ring no longer fits and needs enlarging. I'm sure though that my finger has not grown a whole ring size in two months. It must have been labelled wrong.

Moving on we opened the rest of our gifts. I bought John one of those massage things that you attach to a chair. Purely for selfish reasons. Son2 and I had sat in the department store for over half-an-hour 'testing the merchandise'. I needed one. No doubt in my mind. I couldn't justify buying myself one. So I bought it for John. He loved it. Result.

FDIL arrived shortly afterwards and we gave our gifts to her. I love having girls to buy for, I can buy silly things like stripy socks, cuddly toys, smellies, PJs – so much more fun than buying for young men! Sadly Son2's GF wasn't with us – they're 'having a break' to sort things out, but she still had her gifts a few days earlier and sent a lovely text in thanks – we do miss her, I hope things get sorted between them. Son2 is sad and I don't like to see him like that.

If I say so myself, Christmas dinner was probably the best I've ever cooked. We had a turkey crown as nobody is really keen on eating turkey for a week after Christmas, served with home-roasted potatoes (I normally cheat and use frozen!), peas, carrots, parsnips, butter nut squash (which I grew myself from seed!!), mini sausages wrapped in bacon and the most delicious stuffing mix I have ever had. Followed by Christmas pudding and mince pies.

The rest of the day seems to have passed in a blur – Son1 disappeared to FDIL's parents, Son2 retreated to his bedroom with his TV and laptop, I dozed (no change there!) and John watched TV.

I decided to do something different for Boxing Day as the football was an away game and I bought tickets for the Cinema – we went to see Nine which you can read about here I'm not sure I was getting the plot but as we left and started to talk about, I think both John and I got the same idea – an interesting film.

Amongst all of this seasonal frivolity, my friend Grethic thought it would be a good idea to host a seasonal brain teaser and other challenges – take a look and scroll down to see what gems she has come up with! The first challenge was to elicit gifts from Santa, the next to work out how many legs she would have in her house after delivery of the 12 Days of Christmas gifts – let me tell you the fun that was had chez Sparkle with that one! And latterly the challenge to draw a 'miximal'. She suggested a cross between an ostrich and a tortoise. I am no artist. Below is my result. Please be gentle with your comments. I know it looks more like a penguin. Or an emu. Like I say – I'm no artist.

Long time no blog

It's been a mad week! Preparations for the boss leaving and actually saying goodbye on Wednesday took up the first half of the week and getting down to work took up the second half!

Although it's been mad it's also been good – I know that the next couple of months are probably going to be the most intense work-wise that I have ever encountered because it's budget setting and business planning time (bad timing, huh?) but saying that if I can get through that I can probably get through anything. I have been hampered because the plans I put in place to take my old job have fallen to pieces due to sad unforeseen circumstances, the mother of one of my right hand people has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and understandably, V needs to be with her Mum at this difficult time. The best laid plans and all that...

On the home front son 1 and FDIL are close to finalising their move – completion takes place this coming Friday so it's a hive of activity at the moment. Trouble is he can't have any time off work between now and Christmas and is working nights the week leading up to Christmas so we're not sure when they will be able to move in. I think it will probably be piecemeal – one box at a time!

Another busy week ahead as well for all sorts of reasons, work diary is bursting, I haven't even started writing Christmas cards or wrapping presents, I need to make my mince pies (one tradition I can't swap for shop bought) and ice the Christmas cakes (minimal effort required for this one – ready rolled marzipan and fondant icing just need popping in place and trimming!!) – I'm already exhausted just thinking about it!

Before I forget, some of you know that I was feeling a bit under the weather and had blood tests last week – good news is that they all came back well within normal range, bad news is I guess I have to resign myself to the fact that I'm just getting old!

I'll leave you with a picture of our Christmas tree – we went very minimal this year and haven't put anything from the ceiling but I think the tree looks good! I even managed to get some peppermint candy canes!