5 Good Things.........

1. A glimpse of Spring - Snowdrops under the plum tree at the top of our garden.

2. We've ordered flooring for The Shed so I'll be able to move my stuff in very soon!!
3. I've got some new shoes!!! Apologies for the off-black socks. I was actually standing by my front door with my trousers rolled up taking this!! They are actually a dark green colour and nicer in 'real-life'.

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4. I'm so excited because I've won my first giveaway, from Online Quilting, who's going to get some lovely goodies especially for me from New Zealand. I'll post all about it when it arrives!!

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5. My lovely OH and son are taking me out for lunch tomorrow to a special St David's Day meal (the patron St of Wales. Actual date is 1st March) at a local hotel. I happened to look at the menu sample on display a couple of weeks ago and commented that it looked nice. I wasn't dropping hints so it was a big surprise when they told me they'd booked it! Can't wait!!!
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Bye for now

Teresa x

How the Librarian Felt!

During our Saturday Singer's session the leader asked for a volunteer to be a 'librarian' for the group because he himself is so disorganised. No-one spoke up so I asked what was involved. Silly mistake!! That was tant amount to voluneering so here is all the music laid out ready to sort. It wasn't too daunting a task though and I had it done within half an hour, all neatly sorted in a folder. I took it with me to the concert in the evening thinking I could hand it back, but no such luck. Looks like I've got to find room for another music folder at home. It made me look ultra organised though when a couple of singers forgot their music and I handed out spare copies - my position as libarian is now well and truly confirmed! By the way - the concert went well and £600 was raised for the Haiti fund which was a marvellous result.
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This Friday is our concert generated from singing lessons. I'm looking forward to it which I think is a bad omen because I've been much too nervous before past concerts and things have gone quite well.

This is the result of the felt project. It's a scarf for my sister's birthday. I cut sections out of 3 different felted jumpers and machine sewed them together with a wide zig-zag. The ribs of the one jumper finish off each end. (sorry for photo above being the wrong way up)
I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and am almost reluctant to give it away.
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Computer time is more limited these days but hopefully I will be back soon.
Bye for now.
Teresa x

Thrifting, Winning and Singing

I had to pop into town from work one lunch time last week and, as usual, couldn't pass a charity shop without going in for a browse in case I missed out on the find of the century! Well I did find a few lovely little items that came home with me. As usual I haven't any firm ideas for them but couldn't leave them there. The truth is I'm reluctant to commit to what I'll do with them in case it doesn't come to fruition. The set of crocheted doilies above are about 6" in diameter and could do with a little blocking. The set of 2 below are much finer and also need blocking. One has slight damage but I'm sure I can still make use of it. I would describe the colour of them all as ecru.

On the same hanger was the little embroidered cloth below. It's about 7" square with very fine cross stitches and stem stitch that is so fine I had to take the close up photo to see it clearly.

I dug out these felted jumpers yesterday with an idea for a present in mind. I'll show the results if it's successful.
Just before Christmas I won a set of toiletries from this site and blogged about it, so I was surprised and excited to get another email from them yesterday telling me I'd won a copy of Live More, Spend Less! It sounds like my sort of book and I'm very much looking forward to reading it.
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I'm going to be doing a lot of singing this weekend. First of all is a rehearsal of The Saturday Singers followed by a concert in the evening in aid of the Haiti earthquake relief effort. Then on Sunday we have the normal morning service followed by a special service for Lent in the evening. Headlining the Haiti concert will be Geoff Downes who happens to live locally.
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If I manage to fit any stitching in between singing I'll post about it next week. These are two of my very favourite things: stitching and singing. Talking of which, it's only 2 weeks until my residential singing weekend away. I'm very much looking forward to it, and hope it lives up to expectations.
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Bye for now
Teresa x

Another Weekend is Over...........

.............but I was quite lucky to have most of Sunday afternoon/evening to make some progress with a few stitchy things. Before I get to that though I must thank all you lovely ladies who left comments on my last post and especially for the suggestions for the offending ingredient in my salad. It looks to me that the most likely culprit was horseradish which I have never tried before (and never want to again!!)
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Now onto stitchy progress: This is the layout I'm trying for my second version of the interfacing method block. I find I can see the design clearer in a photograph so this is quite useful. About half of the fabrics here are reclaimed/thrifted and the rest are new from my stash.

I finished the cushion that I gave a preview of a couple of posts ago. It's made entirely with thirfted/left over curtain or furnishing fabrics and the backing is an envelope style made from the blue fabric. Once again I forgot to photograph the back but, honestly, you're not missing anything!

As you can see from this next pic, I made it for the seat in my porch. I intend to make 3 more in different designs to cover it and make the porch look a little more welcoming. Other things on my mental list to do in the porch are to get some kind of container (pot or basket) to put umbrellas in by the door and make a wall hanging to brighten it up. I'm still undecided about whether to put up curtains or blinds but I suppose we've got used to it without now and it would only be for decorative purposes because I can't see us going in there to draw them every morning/evening!

I resisted the urge again to buy ready-made shop cake for convenience this week and didn't want to spend too much time baking so whipped up this chocolate sponge to cook while the dinner was on. Finishing off was made extra quick because I thawed some leftover buttercream I had frozen before Christmas. I intend to make more use of my freezer in this way - especially where vegetable are concerned. I don't know why I never thought before to cook onions while the oven is on and then freeze or keep in the fridge. It saves time, fuel and wasting food, so I am going to try and use the same mindset when considering all my cooking. The suggestion came from a post on My Zero Waste by the way.

I don't think it's going to last long!

One more little thing - I've recently been using butter instead of margerine, because I think it's more natural and creates less plastic waste, and was fed up of using an unattractive plastic tub for it so I bought this butter dish from ebay (that reminds me - I must leave some feedback). It looks so much better on the table or when left out to soften.

Got to run now. Just noticed the time (any glaring typos, I'll correct tomorrow).

Bye for now

Teresa x

Lunchtime at the Office

This is the view I have for 5-6 hours out of every working day! Not very inspiring is it? I do quite a bit of dreaming at this desk about what I could be doing if were at home - then at 5.30pm I drive home and try to fit it all into a few hours (which is quite impossible!). I don't share the office any more (hence the empty chair opposite) but I don't mind that - people pop in and out during the day and I don't sit here continually. There's a friendly atmosphere here (most of the time) and I'm not under any undue pressure so it could be worse! It will also be sad when the contract finishes as I probably won't see many of my colleagues again (some of whom I've worked with for 10 years).

We have no canteen here, just a small kitchen to prepare drinks, wash-up or heat food so all my lunches are eaten at this desk (I know....I know - the 'experts' say there are more germs on an average office desk than a toilet seat!!). But I'm still here to tell the tale so it can't be that bad...... and they're only my germs (except for the time my boss's nose dripped onto it - Yeurck!). 99 times out of 100 my lunches are brought in from home (probably more like 999 out of 1000 when I think about it) but today I went into town and bought a salad from a lovely little deli as a treat. I was going to get one before Christmas but didn't get around to it. This is how I eat my lunch. In front of a book propped open with my stapler. It's a much-looked-forward-to time of the day and the only regular time I get for reading.

I've had salads from this deli before and they are always delicious with lots of different flavours and ingredients. As I was eating this one, I tasted something a little like mustard in one of the sauces, then suddenly, I knew what people mean when they say 'it blew the top of my head off'. A strong feeling (something similar to PAIN) shot from my mouth behind my nose and eyes and out through the top of my head!!! It only lasted a couple of seconds but I couldn't have endured it for much longer. What on earth was it?!!! I have never eaten anything before that did that to me! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I must remember to ask next time I visit the deli...........but as it may not be for another 6 months, I might forget by then.

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This weekend my OH is off to Cardiff to watch the rugby with some friends (not at the match but in a pub - apparently the atmosphere and excitement are increased with near proximity).

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(This is a temporary break in blog-mission to say I think I must be an idiot. I've just noticed a tab at the top of the screen saying Edit Pages. How come I didn't notice it during previous browsing sessions? Has it been there all the time? Only last week I added a list at the bottom of the blog to list books I read during 2010 when I really wanted to add a new page for it!!)

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Anyway - where was I. Oh yes...........I on the other hand, am going to Saturday Singers and a hair appointment on the weekend (chop it off?...........keep it long?...........chop it off?..........keep it long?..........Oh just a trim please). I also hope to get a bit of stitching done so I have something to show here (well not only to have something to show here - it's because I love, love, love to stitch!!)

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Bye for now

Teresa x

Tea Strainers and Neat Corners.

I saw loose tea being served for the first time in a long while last year when a friend and I met up for afternoon tea at hotel in a nearby town. We were seated at a little table in the dining room at about 4pm on a Sunday afternoon and enjoyed a 3-tier tray piled with many kinds of dainty sandwiches and cakes. If I remember correctly, there were almost 10 different cakes and as we both like our food and couldn't decide which ones to NOT have, we even cut a few in half so we could have a little taste of each one!!
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Anyway, I degress, my point being that you don't see loose tea around much these days. This lovely tea set that I had for Christmas included 4 little tins of tea which on closer inpection contained celophane bags of loose tea. As it's been a little while since we owned a tea strainer I haven't been able to use the tea.............until now! I had a browse on ebay the last week and saved a few tea strainers to 'watch'. The ones I liked the look of most were designed with two little handles to sit on the rim of the cup but my cup is huge so they weren't suitable. I ended up winning this one, which encloses the tea in the spoon part and says 'Southsea' on the handle, for 99p plus postage. I was disapointed in the dirty condition when it arrived but a soak in an aluminium foil 'bowl' with hot water and soda crystals fizzed off most of the dirt and it came up nice and shiny.

The squares I had cut out ready for my quilting day on Saturday have now become the block below.

Not a very interesting design I admit but the method of construction was a revelation to many of the ladies present. Although I've seen the method described I hadn't tried it until now. Do you see how neat the whole thing is and how well the corners meet.............well that is nothing really to do with my skill and everything to do with the method used. I think this post by the lovely Posie gets Cozy is where I saw it first. I'm sure there were more comprehensive instructions somewhere but quite frankly I was lucky to remember seeing it there. I'm not sure how this will affect trying to hand quilt but I'll give it a go.

And here's a picture of the back if you need any more clues as to how it's done.

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Bye for now

Teresa x

A Ripping Good Yarn!

I've had these 2 jumpers lying around for a couple of weeks after a bit of a sort out. Do you have items of clothing that you don't really like but wear now and again out of guilt when you see them lying unused in the drawers? These jumpers are like that. They were still in good condition and on closer inspection I could see that they were knitted in separate pieces, and not cut out of larger knitted pieces, before being sewn together. Consequently, I was able to do this with them!! I now have some yarn to make into something that will get used.

It was a lucky coincidence then when checking my reader that there was this post from My Zero Waste showing a very good use that it could be put towards.

Last month, we missed our Quilting Club day due to the bad weather (snow!) so we didn't get to find out what we were to do with the squares we were asked to prepare for it. The little pile above has been waiting for over a month for our February meeting tomorrow to find out what's to be done with it. I will also be taking some of my daughter's posters, business cards and flyers with me to pass out to members because a lot of them live in the area her business covers. I've added a link to it in the sidebar too.
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Will also be watching a little of this with friends on the weekend. Come on Wales!!!

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Have a great weekend

Bye for now

Teresa x

A New Business, A Giveaway and An Update

As it's the first of a new month and my DD's birthday, it seems a good time to mention the new business she started this year. DD loves working with animals and has worked in a variety of postions for other people but it was always her dream to work for herself so when she was made redundant last year she took the plunge and started researching. I'm very proud of all the hard work she's put in so far and her efforts are now being rewarded as she's beginning to get customers calling. I've done all I can to help and advise and many other relatives and friends are spreading the word for her. She's got a van and all the equipment she needs and has even set herself up a website. I doubt very much if there's anyone visiting this blog from her area (Pontypool/Cwmbran - Wales) but just in case why not click here and take a look.

The lovely Lis over at Online Quilting is hosting a giveaway to celebrate her 100th post, which I know from experience is quite an acheivement, so pop on over and enter if you fancy winning some lovely quilty things from New Zealand.

Well, my DD is following her dream but it looks like it may be a little while before I can slow down and begin living the way I want to. I've just negotiated a new contract at work for 2010 so I need to update my profile to reflect that (it says my contract was supposed to finish Oct 2009). It may also mean travelling a further 20 minutes from home each day in a few months time.

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It's time for an update on my simple living efforts so here's just a quick summary for December/January:

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Spending on groceries seems to have reached a plateau and I don't think it will reduce any futher until I can find time to plan my menus. Overall spending for December was not very different from other months despite the inevitable Christmas expenses and January was very low (about half of normal) which I'm very pleased about.

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A lot of home cooking/baking and sewing was done during December (mostly for presents) and the usual cakes and bread were made during January.

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Passive/low cost earnings was £30.31 for the two months but I'm sorry to say that none of the books I listed on Green Metropolis has been sold. I'm hoping to put some items on ebay soon so that will hopefully increase this fund.

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Oh, and in case you're interested - the first photo is a little something I'm working on and the other one is one of the blocks for my quilt-as-you-go quilt that I finished yesterday.

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Bye for now

Teresa x

Method in my Matness

It must be well over a year since I finished this bath mat and it has looked a bit odd paired with a pale blue toilet mat. But now the matching one is finished and here they are, an almost-matching set, being put to good use. When they get a bit grubby I just throw them in the washing machine. Mary at Sewing as Therapy is hoping to make a similar mat for her kitchen and Monica at Quilt While You're Ahead is interested in how they're made.

The method I used for cutting up the t-shirts is the one used here by Laughing Purple Goldfish Designs (after cutting off the hem and across under the arms) although the t-shirts obviously do need to be joined so I used the method explained here at Craftstylish. I cut the strips one and a half inches wide but I think I would try a bit narrower next time as they are quite chunky. It helps if the t-shirts are all similar weights too. All the t-shirts belonged to the family except an orange one that I bought from a charity shop for £1.99 so that there was a bit of orange in both mats to coordinate a little.

Counting up from this picture I can see that about 12 t-shirts were used here so you need quite a lot!

I just added a little extra photo here for anyone not interested in mats crocheted out of t-shirts.
That would be most of you then!! This wholemeal loaf was made with the addition of the Bread Improver from Lakeland and is certainly lighter with a more even 'holeyness' than usual.

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My OH is back from his week in France tomorrow evening. I thought I'd get so much done while he was away. One thing I did manage was to watch a couple of DVD's, that he wouldn't be interested in, while doing some hand sewing and quilting. Last night I watched Last of the Mohicans which I love most of all for the music, and the night before it was Meet Me in St. Louis. The opening scenes in this are so sweet and the whole film is just so 'twee'.

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I also chose some fabrics for a new project for the home. I've come to the conclusion that my current favourite parts of making something are deciding what to make and picking fabrics. I don't know why that is except that maybe the finished results are not what I had in my head at the start!! Anyway, I've got a WONDERFUL idea so lets see what comes of it this time.

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Bye for now

Teresa x

Look At What They Gave Me!!

Our Ladies Group meeting for January, last week, was our annual dinner held at the local golf club and also happened to be my last meeting as leader. Thirty-one of us (the highest turnout so far I think!) tucked into a delicious meal and enjoyed a welcome catch-up. At the end of the evening I was given this fantastic clock, to go in my shed, as a thank you gift. I didn't expect anything quite so lovely...........they made a very good choice! I understand that 4 ladies went together to choose it from the local garden centre and in order to make a decision, took the clocks they liked the look of and held them up against the wall of a shed at the centre to see the effect.
They also gave me this sweet little mug set to enjoy a hot cuppa while I'm out there too.
I think some friends have higher expectations than I do of what's going to be happening in the 'shed' and refer to it as a studio.The jute rug I ordered from Natural Collection to go in front of the woodburner came last week too so things are coming together. Thank you to the commenters who showed an interest in the T-shirt crochet project. It's almost finished but I had to search the charity shops on the weekend for an orange T-shirt so that the colours matched the bath mat I made a while ago and, consequently, it's not quite finished. While T-shirt hunting I found this lovely hexagon drawstring bag and couldn't resist it. I'd love to know how it came to be in a charity shop after all the hard work put into making it. The hexagons are hand sewn and it's lined with a lovely stripey fabric. It's been added to my stash to get a makeover as I think it will get more use as a shopper.
Until next time, bye for now.
Teresa x

Cakes and Crochet

Due to the fact that I had only wholemeal bread flour I decided against making a loaf last weekend in case it ended up like cardboard. I like to mix a little white flour in to make it a bit lighter. I'm also waiting for some 'Bread Improver' to be delivered from Lakeland so I'll make the next loaf when it arrives. It's listed in all the recipes in my bread-maker manual but I didn't know where to get it from until recently.
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So, wanting to make use of the machine, I made ginger cake in it instead! The recipe stated to bake for 1hr 10mins but I can't programme my simple machine to do anything but an hour so I took the plunge and went ahead.

Apart from sinking in the middle, it turned out really well.

I couldn't resist a slice with an afternoon cup of tea.

And here's a preview of a little chunky something I started on Sunday. It's made of cast-off T-shirts cut into strips and crocheted. It should grow quite quickly (the sort of project I like); look at the size of the hook!! More on this next time.........

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Bye for now

Teresa x

Snow and Show

I want to start off today by stating the obvious; which is 'that it's great to get comments' on my blog posts. Many bloggers before me have known this for a long time but I didn't realise how great it was until it started happening to me!! Therefore, I want to thank all you lovely ladies who've been commenting and say that I appreciate every one. Anyone who is just lurking is also very welcome, and maybe one day you will introduce yourself.


A couple of people have said they love the snow pictures and want to see more so here are a few I took on Wednesday (another snow day off work). This is my 'shed' in the garden.

The garden gate outlined in snow! The road is behind it so you can see why I didn't get to work. Only 4x4's managed the hill!!
A snowman built on the garden wall by my son. He added a bit more detail after this but it began to snow heavily so I went back inside to the warm. He also removed the lump on the side of the head! By the morning it was leaning back against the wall of the house. By this morning it was just a pair of trousers on the wall and a head on the road!!!
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I had a comment from Knot Garden the other day about my hexagons being 'smooth and evenly joined'. So I'd just like to add a little tip here to explain how this might be. You may already do this, but I press each separate hex before starting to sew together. This gives them a sharper edge and flattens them out so the middle isn't bunched up. I have to confess though that I didn't press the dark blue hexes in my haste to get going with it.
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Knot Garden showed a lovely fair-isle hot water bottle cover she was knitting on her blog and it reminded me about this one that I knitted last year. Despite the freezing temperatures we've only used it once this year so far. I may be making more use of it when my OH goes skiing in a couple of weeks!

I mentioned in my last post that I had no idea what my quilt-as-you-go quilt is going to look like so, when I was sorting out what still had to be done with the blocks, I thought I'd lay them out to get some idea of what the overall effect will be. Here are many of them laid out on the bed. They won't be in this arrangement but I'm quite pleased with the effect. One thing I'm not sure of yet is whether to use a light or dark sashing between the blocks. This is what it will look like with a light colour because the wadding is showing around the edges.

It looks like it's going to be a wet weekend ahead here in the UK but much milder. There's not too much planned as yet except for a meal out to celebrate a friend's birthday on Saturday evening. Hope you have a good one!

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Bye for now

Teresa x

Lovely Stitching Time!!

Getting the housework out of the way last week on the 2 unexpected 'snow days' off, has meant that I was able to get a little more stitching than usual done on the weekend. It's nowhere near as much as some people seem to get done in blogland (I don't know how they do it!) but it's quite a lot for me. I finished these 2 blocks for my quilt-as-you-go quilt. You may remember that I'm trying to do 2 versions of each design that we are given at the monthly quilting club. This design is a variation on the 'drunkard's path'. They'll now be added to the pile that is waiting to be quilted. I had no specific plan for the quilt that will result from these blocks so it's anybody's guess as to what it will turn out like. I've tried to keep to the same sort of colours but, as I'm trying to only use thrifted fabric, it hasn't been easy. I may have to buy some new for sashings and backing but I'm not sure yet.

I recently had a session to prepare more hexagons for my handstitched quilt. I wanted to add the dark blue border to see what the overall effect would be. I have plenty prepared now so I can pick it up any time I have a spare moment. This is also a random see-what-it turns-out-like method. I think it's exciting to muddle along and then be pleasantly surprised at the result. If you have no great expectations you won't be disappointed!

Now that I have a quilting hoop I can get on with quilting the blocks that are already prepared, when I have a spare half hour or more. I also need to go back over the ones that are quilted and add more if I don't think it's enough. I was a complete beginner when I started these and, now that I have more idea of what I'm doing, I need to take another look at them.

I'm happy now that I have a couple of tasks I can pick up when I feel like it (which is most of the time!). If I have any bigger chunks of time available I want to try and use some of my stash for any one of the ideas occupying my head. It would be good to start and finish a project all in one session. I can't remember having ever done that!

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Bye for now

Teresa x

Are You Sick of Snow Yet?

I may as well join the bandwagon and show the latest snow dump in my lane since it's the reason for me being off work today and Wednesday and resulted in a couple of the photos in this post.

Most of the snow has fallen off this tree now but it looked quite dramatic for a while.
This is the skin care set I won in an online competition and said a few posts ago that I would show. When it turned up in the post I'd forgotton about it so it was like having an extra surprise Christmas present!
Talking of which, here are some of my actual presents. A Country Living tea set that a friend bought for me to go in my 'shed', a lovely After the Rain toiletry set and a pair of pyjamas that I am going to save for when I go away for my singing weekend in March.

I used some of the bonus time off work to do some baking. I had a couple of bananas that were too ripe to eat so made a cake with them. I've made banana cake before but not been very happy with it so I went searching my son's cook books and found a recipe in this one which turned out lovely and tasty. I enjoyed a slice spread with butter for an afternoon snack with peppermint tea in my new pot/cup.

While the cake was baking I whipped up a quick batch of Breakfast Bars for my OH and DS's lunch boxes. Here they are on my new spotty cake stand.

The time off work also meant I was able to do some cleaning, decluttering and ironing and will now leave me more time at the weekend to DO SOME STITCHING!!!! Hopefully, there'll be something to show after this weekend.
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Singing lesson and quilting day were both cancelled this week because of the weather so I've not really had a chance to get back into a normal routine following the Christmas break yet. We now have only 3 singing lessons left before our concert at the end of January which is slightly worrying, especially considering the mess I made of my last performance in December.
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I haven't mentioned how I did before because I cringe every time I think about it. I was soooooooooo nervous I could hear my voice shaking and you'd think I would remember to breathe after 46 years!!! So, as you can imagine, I have mixed feelings about the next time!
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Bye for now.
Teresa x