A quiet week

  Hello everyone, I have been intending to write a post for the last couple of days but then I get doing something else and another days has passed.  We came away from the storms unscathed I hope you are all ok wherever you are, it was mainly just noisy and there are lots of fallen branches in the local park. A few roads were closed briefly  near by but nothing too disruptive.  These bigger weather events do appear to be happening more often in the UK it is not something we are used to here, I know other parts of the world have these extremes a lot and have a lot to cope with weather wise.  I do have to say other than being a bit wet most of the time we do have it quite pleasant mostly.

As I write this I am watching the birds on the feeders, we have so many, there are currently a couple of long tailed tits (I think that is right) a great tit, a  few sparrows and three pigeons keep coming and landing near by trying to figure out how to get on!  We have feeders all over the garden and  pigeons nearby that have been eating all the food in one sitting so my husband has taken the large trays off the bottom so they can't land as they were stopping the smaller birds from getting anything. I have told him he is getting grumpy as he keeps going to the window and shooing the pigeons off, they have to eat too but they are very greedy. 

The garden is coming alive which I love to see, the alliums are all popping up and I didn't realise I would get these returning I thought I had to buy more but didn't get around to it. So that is a nice bonus, I do garden but I am not knowledgable about it I just plant, nurture and know the names of what I grow and enjoy it.

A favourite make of this last week has been this skirt...

It is in chambray and the buttons down the front are the ones that pop and you use a tool to press them on.  Well I am not very good at applying these  so have hit my fingers many times and lots of cursing but I do love the finished skirt.  Art gallery fabrics chambray from Minerva.  The pattern was not lines but I always line any skirts that I know I will wear a lot.

I have been trying my best to take care of my stomach this week, I think I always do but sometimes slip amd eat things I shouldn't so I printed off the LOWFODMAP list and I have stuck to it. I have had a much better week with my stomach and it pains me to say that maybe it is onions and garlic😢. As a Gf vegan I need flavour in my food so I use these a lot but if it means being miserable with stomach ache it is not worth the taste. I may eat a little when next we go out as it is so hard to eat out as it is, we do this very rarely so that can be my gentle reintroduction.  It does say you should try small amounts to test once you have reached a comfortable point, so we will see. If anyone knows of any alternatives in the way of herbs that I can use that would be great.  I already eat cumin, tumeric, italian herbs with no isuues and ginger. Also I have read you can eat the green of spring onions but not the whites but I have not tried that.

Well that is all for now I hope you are having a good week. Take care. 

A couple of Sweatshirts

 Hello, I have been doing a bit of warm sewing this last few days in the shape of a couple of sweatshirts.  The first is Burda 6315 in this super fleeceback sweatshirting from minerva...

The shades of the fabric  are ochre, navy and melangre grey, it has come out a really good fit and will be a pattern I return to again.

The second make was using up scraps so I have returned to my Tilly Stretch book and have made another short video on how to make this one if anyone wants a watch.  It is the Frankie baseall T-shirt and it is a really quick make and super for using up all those leftover bits of fabric.  I have had this bit of fabric hanging around for a while with stars on that a friend gave me, super fabric bit what to do with it?  I actually had just enough for the sleeves of this top so that was meant to be.  The video link is below if you want to watch.

                                                                              Video here

For a while now I have been saying it is sweaters I need more of and then I go and make all the dresses, well I am getting around to it now.

We have just spent the afternoon watching more Lord of the Rings, we are working our way throught em again and it is raining here too so a good way to spend a wet afternoon.  Once the sewing was done of course😃

Well I hope you are having a relaxing weekend, back soon, Take care. 

February...ing

 Hello everyone I hope you are all keeping well I thought I would do a little 'ing' post to get me back into things for February.

Making so many things recently that I am losing track of it all here I will add a few things below, this last week I also made a dress for a friend as her daughter graduates this week in York and she wanted something special.  She ordered a pattern I have made recently and I cahnged the style of the sleeves as she wanted a longer sleeve.  She was very happy and has promised to send photos when she is all dressed up.  She did try it on wearing socks and we both had to agree that was not a good look. 

                       As you can imagine it looks much better with the correct fitting body in the dress. 

A favourite make of mine from last week that I did remember to take an image of is this dress below, it is a bit of a vintage feel I think and I can't wait for warmer months to wear it.

These are cute...

I am struggling to find some of the the things here on my laptop and also finding it very lacking now that I use it for video making etc. I have to clean up daily and put videos on external storage as it it can't do the the most simple of tasks if it has even one video stored. It just crashes, so not great and it is only just over a year old. 

This sweater has been a good one for the cold, made with this fur back sweatshirting...

                    There is much more I will have to share them in future as they are worn I think.

Reading  I finished the Dutch House and while it was very well put together it didn't really excite me, I have read reviews that say it is her best work yet and if that is the case I am not encouraged to rush out and read more just purely because it never really went anywhere.  If you disagree I apologise as i know books can be a very personal thing.  I then read The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker and I felt that one was dreadful! Boring the whole way through and I had not connection to any of the characters, at leats with the Dutch House the characters were real and alive in my mind but his last book was very dull.  Currently I am reading The Seal Womans Gift, I have only just started so I hope it is a good one.

Enjoying some incredible skies just recently, I do keep trying to capture them on my phone but they never look the same through a screen do they?

Planning I am still writing everyhting down every day and this has served me well so far this year, I am clearly a slave to a list but hey it gets things done so why not.  I have a number of notebooks in fact I think I may have a notebook problem,  I even asked for some for Christmas 😃 but the book I am using every day is this Alice diary that I bought myself from Asda at the beginning of the year.

Cooking new things, now some are from my many books and some I just make up, and don't you just always find that they never have half of the ingredients that are in these recipes anyway. Or that may be just that I shop at my local Asda and it is pretty basic when it comes to supplies.  Sunday I made a sort of tart thing that I made up and I was so pleased with it, only got an image when it was half finished but very tasty.  I made my gf scone recipe for the base but savoury with herbs, covered it in tomato puree, cooked lentils, spinach, vegan feta, tomatoes, olives and more herbs and cooked in the oven.  It came out a treat!

I also made a chocolate and ginger cake last week another expreiment that came out very well, all GF and vegan. It does look dark but it is the Black treacle.

Today I am going to have a go at buckwheat bread, my husband managed to source some from the big supermarket near his work as they do not have buckwheat in ASDA along with the many other things that they don't have!

Trying a new routine morning and evening for digestion, I found it  on youtube it does say yoga but from what I have done they are just the same moves as I use in Pilates but done in a certain sequence for your gut.  It has a lot of people saying good things so I am trying it morning and evening for a time to see how I go.  I did used to do my pilates daily and have to say I have been poor at it this year so maybe that could part of the problem? I don't know but I am up for trying it to sooth my constant griping stomach. 

Eating out and being shocked, we went for a vegan meal at a new to us restaurant with family and while we enjoyed the company and being out the food was barely there. You know when you watch a fancy restaurant on TV and they bring tiny portions that will not feed anyone well that is what it was like. We ordered lots of dishes too, but there was till not enough to make up a plate.  It tasted nice but we all left hungry despite a heafty bill, we will not be going there again it had incredible reviews too which makes me think people must just have money to burn.  Here is a picture of me and my Step mother in law, happy but hungry😂

Well that is all for today I hope you enjoy the coming weekend and get lots of making done. Take care.