With a little help from Ferguson

He obviously felt that I was struggling to get his size right, so got into the bag while I was still finishing it off to make sure it was the correct fit.

He is just too cute for words and definitely my cat, choosing to sit on my lap, purr with me and give my hair a good cleaning whether I think it needs it or not. Not to be recommended mind you, it hurts when he digs his teeth in to pull the knots out and certainly not likely to be issued as a Laboratoire Garnier product as modeled by Eva Longoria any time soon.

Even with his help I did manage to get my bag finished, without having to unpick everything.  I worked from a basic idea having seen this style of recycled/upcycled bag on the internet, but must write it up on a bit of scrap paper and count it out before publishing it here.

So having finished a project on Saturday, Sunday was the day for starting new ones.

I packed the kitchen sampler back into the project box, I just don't fancy it, but rummaged around and found another one, a prettier cat counted cross stitch, in addition I got out some lovely thick oatmeal coloured wool ready to start knitting some more hats.

dawn photos

the harrow on the trailer

dawn photos

up before dawn

so took my camera for a stroll and watched the sun rise over the Puy De Dome.

Feeling a bit unpicked

Not feeling hugely motivated at the moment mostly because I need to unpick some crochet that has gone wrong, either that or adapt the pattern to suit the error I have made, but I need to crochet at least another 10 rounds to see if I can fix it, which is another 10 rounds of crochet time wasted it I can't fix it and have to unravel it.

In addition having really enjoyed my robin cross stitch, I have pulled out of my unfinished project box another cross stitch, but can not sit down to enjoy it, and I don't know if it is the pattern I don't like or just the bit I have decided to start with that is getting on my nerves.

What a bleurgh type of day.

So dumped all that in favour of fitting a new light in the hall - it is a good job you can't see the out the oh so in line with regulations load of wiring.

In actual fact I think that the problem is, I went to the big city yesterday with a friend to visit the shops for her birthday, and the no buying new clothes rule for this year got me down.  All those really pretty things for sale, all those really nicely dressed people around me while I was schlepping around in my flat work shoes and old trousers (it was straight after I had finished work).  Feeling I am letting myself down again in my drab leggings and baggy work jumpers only enlivened by my very fetching blue and white striped tabards and latex gloves.  I need an injection of glamour, and I need one every day.  Or at least someone to kick me up the backside everyday to make the effort.

Quite pleased...

... with the way my robin cross stitch has come out.

It has been a while since I did one of these counted chart kits, but have actually quite enjoyed it, although I had genuinely forgotten just how long they do take to do.  

How funny to watch Kirstie Allsopp last night battling with cross stitch - therein lies the danger of wearing a dress on TV to present a show, do it once and producers automatically assume that you have the monopoly on craft abilities and are really a girlie at heart - no wonder we only ever see Sarah Beeny in jeans - albeit maternity ones!

To my chagrin I have found another unfinished kit - a kitchen sampler, in the box of left over silks, I have dragged it out into the light of day and hope to get some bits of that done now.

Today's quickie was to mount the birdie.

I bought a set of three pictures at a summer boot sale, but only liked two of them

so tucked the third one away for a rainy day. 

 It happens to be the perfect size for the cross stitch.

Iron out the aida on the reverse side.  I do my cross stitch without a ring and roll the aida to get to the bits I am working on, I find it pulls out of shape less this way.  

Turn your aida right side down onto a clean surface and position the frame.  You will need a staple gun and possibly a small hammer depending on the wood your frame is made of.

Staple once on the top edge to hold the correct position of the picture to the frame, then pull the aida into position gently but making sure the material is taut along the bottom edge of the frame, staple along the edge, if the staples stand a bit proud, give them a tap with the hammer.

Tuck the corners in neatly along the edge of the frame and staple the folded material into position, tap again gently if needed to bed the staples flat.

And there you go - done.

Finished my finishing touches

Yesterday I finally finished off the bags I made recently with the hand stitching required, and this afternoon I finished my little robin red breast cross stitch, in time for him to feature - somewhere - in my natural Christmas decoration theme this year.

I think on the whole I prefer starting projects to finishing them.

Got some good news today and applied for a new job, now just have to make a cake ready for some new friends visiting tomorrow.

Loving leftovers and plumbing finished

The best thing about making enough food to feed an army you get lots of left overs, and then you get to eat them instead of cooking a meal from scratch.

Which is a good job really because I had to feed the starving hero today - the heat exchanger works! We have a warm bathroom!

First of all he had to drill holes in the new fire - a bit stressful this, buying an expensive new fire then making holes in it.

Then the heat coils were installed inside and the copper pipes pushed through then attached to flexible hoses to feed through the living room wall to the bathroom to be connected to the pump.

To fix the coils securely a bar has been run horizontally across them.

Here they are inside the top of the fire box.











Complete with flames!

In an attempt to make the whole system automatic, another of the scrapyard finds comes into play, a thermal switch, which should activate the pump at 35°C with another on the return as a safety backup which trips in at 60°C.

But that should mean that we can throw a couple of logs into the fire and safely leave it overnight knowing that the pump is going to kick in and not just leave the water boiling in the heat exchanger.

Here is the very technical test to see that the switches work - one hot mug, one cold mug.  James May and his man lab have nothing on this!

There is also a mains powered override switch to turn the pump on and off should the thermal automatic switches not work.

So we are all watching the thermometer with eagle eyes - how many degrees difference is this new system going to make.

Here is the new bathroom layout, fire removed, radiator, and towel rail fitted.

Bargain hunting as a hangover cure.

After last night's dinner party and a late night, we got up this morning and rushed off to a garage sale.

I spent a grand total of 2€, and got three bags of books, a tabtop curtain, a circular tablecloth, a lurid purple bedspread, an enamel bowl, a small wicker basket and a strange orange glass decanter thing.

Bargain hunting is the best hangover cure I can think of.

Hopefully that should see us through winter.

Back home now to (fingers crossed) finish the plumbing and have a celebratory fire that heats the bathroom and the living room at the same time.

Another Friday night dinner party

We had friends over for dinner on Friday, and a good time was had by all, so here are some of the recipes from the dinner party.

Starter: Deep fried crab balls with Thai pea dip

Take one tin of drained crab meat, to it add 2 tablespoons of soft butter, 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs, 2 egg yolks, a splash of tobasco and season.  Form into little balls by rubbing in floured hands, then coat each ball in flour, refridgerate for at least 30 minutes to firm up before frying in some vegetable oil.

For the pea dip, boil a cup of fresh or frozen petit pois peas until soft and tender, then drain and whizz up in a blender until they form a puree, add a teaspoon of green thai chili paste and a teaspoon of yoghurt, serve either immediately while warm or refridgerate until needed.

Main: Asian Salmon with spicy noodles

Next time I buy the salmon steaks, because it took me over an hour to pin bone the fish.

I cannot take any credit for the recipe because it is Jamie Oliver's from his 30 minute meals.

Into a food processor, add 1 medium onion peeled and quartered, 2 cloves of garlic, a 2 cm piece of peeled ginger root, half a large fresh green chili, a teaspoon of soy sauce and the juice of two limes, whizz together to create a slurry mix.

Into a shallow oven proof dish, drizzle a little olive oil, spoon in the spicy mix, and add the salmon skin side up, sprinkle over a tablespoon of chinese 5 spice.

This will need to cook for about 20 minutes at 180°C.

For the noodles, start by making a spicy broth base.  Fry 1 onion finely chopped, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 cm of peeled and grated fresh ginger and half a finely chopped chili, add a teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice, and 3 teaspoons of cornflour, then pour in about a litre of chicken stock to a 250g packet of dried egg noodles.

Just as a digression here, I hang my ginger root from a piece of kitchen string in a dark corner and after about a week it starts to sprout.  I have successfully cultivated ginger for the garden from these sprouting corms, leave until the green tips are at least 10 centimetres long, then plant a 5 cm by 5 cm section of the root in the ground until just the top 1 cm of the green tip is showing.  The first year you will just get some green foliage but by year 2 you should have enough root to either harvest or split into other plants.

Dessert:  Lemony cheesey titchy puds

OK - I admit this recipe is the biggest cheat around (thank you Nigella for the idea) but it is very quick, very easy, and very very very yummy.

Take a packet of biscuits, for us the ones normally left at the bottom of the biscuit barrel unloved and uneaten are custard creams, and whizz them up in a blender.

The joy of this is that you don't need to add any butter, the cream sticks the base together.

Stir together a 125g tub of ricotta or the like, 4 tablespoons of lemon curd, and the juice of one lemon to form a rich lemony cheesey cream.

Press the biscuit base into individual little pots, I used some glass tealight holders, then spoon over some of the creamy mixture and leave to refridgerate for a couple of hours before eating.

The final touches for our evening were - 4 bottles of faux champagne fizz, and 3 bottles of red wine.