Let's all Stay Home

 Well here we go, another half term of staying put.  We had just booked  little weekend on a site at Whitby to try out the new caravan before winter kicks in but of course we have had to cancel that.  I am disappointed but it can't be helped, my colleagues all had  late holidays planned too.  It has been a long half term  and I know the children were really ready for this rest.  We have just been sat outside in the caravan with the heater on!  The weather is pretty bleak today but tomorrow it is supposed to be a little brighter so maybe we can have a better walk at least then, we got caught in the rain coming back today.

My outing of the day was a walk in the park and a trip to the charity shop down the road which is now open finally.  I bought two books and a top from the pound rail, I have no idea why it was only a pound and can't understand why no  one else wanted it.   One of the books I have already read twice, but don't own a copy as it was a library book and that is The Handmaids Tale and at 75p for a like new copy I couldn't pass it up.  The other is When God was a Rabbit, an intriguing title so I thought I would give it a go.

It feels really good quality and was originally from White Stuff.

So that is about as much shopping as you will find me doing! I won't be starting the book just yet as I am currently reading Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik and I also have a couple more on my shelf that I have collected while the libraries have been closed.  Our local one is now open to collect or drop off, so you have to have ordered over the phone and only from their stock.  It is a bit hard to know what to ask for when you can't go in  and look, you could be asking for book after book and them saying no we haven't got that.

I have a few more dress makes that need I need images of, I have worn a few of them but not got around to taking the pictures.  If it is dry tomorrow my husband is going to take a few for me while we are out, I get a bit fed up of taking them in the same place in the garden or house.  I'm after a few autumn leaves to show off the autumn makes.

Here is a bag I made last week, there is another with the same girl fabric but not the same bag and that one is for my sister in law, it was on the shop briefly but she admired it so it is going in the post as a gift for her.  This one has red faux leather, the other has a wool mix background.

The other one I made was this...

 

This week has seen a bit of baking, first a very successful gf vegan chocolate cake but alas no image again, it was cut into rather sharpish.  I used the basis of my banana loaf to make it but added lots of cocoa and adjusted the flour, it worked well.   Then some oat cookies that I did remember to photograph

Now I didn't even wait for these to cool down and as you can see there is one missing already.  The recipe was again modified but this time from the BBC food website.  I changed the flour to GF, only used half the sugar, added a tablespoon of applesauce and added extra oil and soya milk as the mixture looked far too dry and would never have held otherwise.

Lots of leftover bits from the fridge have been used up to make this lentil and veg soup 3 servings.

Then today a Shepherdess pie four servings.

So I have lots of things to keep me busy over the coming week even if we can't go far including the kitchen cupboards to paint.  Take care everyone, bye for now.

Busy Week

 Hello I hope everyone is having a good day, it has been a bit manic at work today I have to say it was just one of those days where you feel like you are rushing to catch up all day long. Home now and looking forward to my dinner! 

This week I have made a couple of bags and the first sold within minutes to one of my colleagues who is just flamingo crazy, it is this one here...

To be honest I did have her in mind when I saw the fabric in the shop, she just loves anything with flamingos on.  This is a  new faux leather that I have tried out and it is very soft, it comes in a few different shades so I think I will be be trying more of them in the future.  

The next bag I finished yesterday afternoon and it has a unicorn on each side, it is a Tula Pink fabric so a gorgeous vibrant print.  I really love this pattern but I think I need to be able to let them go when I make them!  This one has been listed on my Etsy shop.

It was a b it rubbish weather wise this weekend so we didn't manage to get out on the bikes but we have some exciting news...We are caravan owners once more, we had wanted a van conversion but after weeks of my husband going the through ideas, costs to run and the build cost it did not seem practical for us.  We went to the caravan show earlier   in the year and saw these amazing little tab caravans, so when one came up at the right price this weekend we snapped it up.   Here it is...

They are amazingly spacious inside, this one is a two berth.

We look forward to being able to get around in it and hopefully the restrictions will not last forever!

Well that is a quick round up of my week, I'm off now to  have my dinner and recharge ready for tomorrow, take care everyone.

 

Poppy Skirt

 This week I made a skirt from the burda September magazine  with a frill and a high/ low hem line.  I have had the fabric a couple of weeks and wanted to find just the right pattern for it.  The fabric is from Minerva and it is John Kaldor microfibre, when I first saw this pattern it looked on the layout instructions to be be cut on the bias.  It is not, just confusing diagrams! I never use the layout instructions anyway but had it been on the bias it would not have worked as the poppies would have been slanting.  On cutting the pattern pieces it became clear that they were on the straight grain so I could go ahead with this fabric.

I am very happy with it and feel that it can be worn summer or winter.

A summer look

An Autumn look

The fabric has a nice flow to it so it worked well with the frill, I also like the fact that after I had washed the fabric it didn't need ironing.  I have just washed some more fabric ready for my next projects I am trying to be more organised with this and not make up garments with unwashed fabric, sometimes my impatience has got the better of me. 

Earlier this week I started reading The Foundling by Stacey Halls, I bought this because I really enjoyed The Familiars last year.  So far I am struggling to get into it but I think that is because I enjoyed the Elena Ferante series so much everything I pick up now is being compared.   I finished Wakekenhyrst last week but I was not fully engaged with that either.

Yesterday my husband had booked a holiday day so we went out for lunch at a vegetarian cafe I have wanted to try for years, the food was tasty but on very small plates and for some reason my pot of tea was only luke warm (how do you get tea wrong??  Boiling water at least!)  As soon as we left my stomach was griping a little then I felt a bit odd later, in the middle of the night I was up and being sick! An awful feeling, I am a bit weak this morning and feeling robbed.  We went out for a treat and it made me sick and also ruined my day today, my husband has gone out on the bike and I felt too rough to join him. I don't want to leave a negative review as I don't want to affect someone's business in that way but I know it was a result of the food.  It sort of puts you off going out to eat.

My burda magazine for October came yesterday and I have to say there isn't really anything I want to make from this one.  It is an anniversary edition and all the clothes appear to be vintage and I am sorry to say quite ugly.  There is one skirt that I would say is modern but it of a style that I already make so I would not trace off a pattern I already know how to do, too much faffing.

I have still been busy collecting seeds I have picked up a couple of seed heads off a plant I passed in the street in town yesterday and just pooped them in my bag, I labelled it up unknown purple plant.  I will find out what it is if it takes next year by taking a picture and putting it on plant net.  I could have done that  yesterday but my husband was  already walking off in front and saying what are you doing?  Ha! They would have only blown on the concrete path so best I saved them I think. 

I am trying to avoid the news while at the same time I need to be aware what the latest rules are, I feel increasingly frustrated that while people are being told once more not to visit other households or meet in gardens, School staff such as myself and others are expected to be in close contact with a class full of children all day who all come from different households.  Meeting your own family from a different house and that is irresponsible is it??  But those twenty four families from the class, not to mention all the staff couldn't possibly pass it on could they?? It really doesn't make sense, yes I do follow the rules but it doesn't mean they are rational.

I'll stop ranting now,  take care everyone and have a good week.