Diary and dairy....

Nothing much has happened worth an interesting blog post, mainly due to yucky weather, but here's an update anyway more to keep the momentum of my diary going I think.

Well given my choice to stay indoors in the warm has meant I finished the third handbag and that one is now my favourite.

I'm making my way through the ironing, which I have to admit to being the highest pile ever. Having painful knees and then the kidney op gave me the perfect excuse not to stand at the ironing board so the pile grew and grew and even when I finally got back to doing about an hours worth at a time it went down a bit but then up a bit with the next machine load. The good thing at least is I'm looking for alternatives to wear and either giving long forgotten favourites a night out or committing to the charity bag something that has obviously shrunk in the wardrobe!

Another job I've been tackling is sorting my "What Room". It has that name as it used to be my son's bedroom, then was just a guest room, then O had his daytime naps in there and starts in that bed on sleepovers, but we can't call it O's Room as I have my fitted desk in there and all my arts and crafts stuff......hence a name that covers it all :o)
Another job that will take forever as I'm far too easily distracted by arty-crafty ideas, which is how I came to make the denim bag.

In the kitchen I've made more plum jam tarts and a roast dinner yesterday for Daughter, M and the children followed by a plum upside down sponge.

I have actually ventured out a few times, Tuesday during the day I went to the ENT department at the hospital (yes I have tinnitus and no they don't know why my head feels uncomfortable so referring me for an MRI scan) at night was a meal out with friends and we went to the Beefeater as I had loyalty card points to use which gave us £20 off the bill plus a free bottle of wine, so a nice cheap night. Wednesday night I was out eating Italian with friends and Thursday was an art night followed by the truck stop of course, this time our men went bowling while we were at art and they got to the truck stop before us.

Now I'm going to note this here just for the record really, but it may turn out that I'm writing/thinking total nonsense! Last weekend I had that awful stomach bug that is doing the rounds just now, so didn't want to eat or drink much for Friday or Saturday but to save dehydration I was drinking weak hot blackcurrant.  By Sunday and feeling so much better I still couldn't fancy anything dairy, I would normally have at least two very white  coffees in the morning and a bowl of porridge or weetabix with lots of milk, because women of a certain age need calcium right? Anyway by Tuesday /Wednesday I realised that I didn't have quite so many aches and pains as normal and especially noticed less in my knees! It may be shear coincidence but my plan is to keep to a reduced dairy intake till the end of February then introduce it all back again and see what happens!
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The one with the boring title.....

Made me laugh that my last post with the ever-so-slightly ambiguous title got so many hits from all over the world. Shame the stats don't show how long they stayed to look at my revealing photos....of crochet lol

Well yesterday was a lovely day here with Daughter and children, however things are definitely changing. The girls are very much into Minecraft on their laotops and now build/play/communicate/bargain/swap and generally live in a minecraft home-ed server village (all totally beyond me) but although they are sat with laptops the whole time they are chatting away to each other and co-operating all the time which is lovely.

O is very much into games on the ipad (they are all beyond me too). And when Hubby wasn't popping out to fix a techy problem for a friend he was on his laptop too!

Meanwhile I was making a birthday card and chatting to Daughter who was doing her crochet,  then we made lunch and the children allowed themselves just enough time to stuff some food in before heading back to screens. E had to shoot out for a percussion lesson but was straight back to her screen the moment she got back. How lovely Daughter and I have each other to chat to or it could be quite lonely in a houseful of people!
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I'm a hooker.....

I've been a knitter for as long as I can remember but have never really got to grips with crochet......but this time I've done my own thing (no pattern) and kept it all to just single stitch and made a whole very useful item!

I had ordered some handbag pockets insert thingies to use as Christmas presents, but they never arrived in time. So when they finally did arrive I put two away for future birthday gifts and kept one for my self.

The idea is that you keep all your stuff in this permanent liner and can then change your handbag in an instant.......so I just had to order some more wool :-)

This is the colour scheme of the one I'm working on now.

And yesterday I quickly upcycled some jeans. Think I'll increase the fringing a bit on the front flap.

What's that lovely smell.....

Best compliment of all as Daughter arrived yesterday and O bounded through the front door shouting "Grandma, Grandma what's that lovely smell?" It was my first attempt at Banana Yeast Bread,(recipe here) and it was as lovely to eat as the smell.

There was some jigsaw puzzling while Daughter cooked us all lunch, now on boards as they are still on the go. And there was our very own internet café which lasted most of the afternoon till they were dragged off for baths and showers 

Then back to art group last night after the Christmas break and onto our favourite truck stop for a meet up with friends and a bit of a dance to live music, so a great day all round :o)
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Happy as a hermit.....

I know it probably isn't the healthiest way to live but it's so wild wet and windy outside that I'm only venturing out when necessary and the heating is on constant mmmm cosy :o)

We saw in the new year with our lovely friends and neighbours P&A. They were overnight babysitting their grandsons so we waited for a text to say they were settled in bed then we joined them (just had to pop next door). Chinese takeaway and Jools Holland on tv for midnight then over to ITV for the fireworks. We did open the front door to see if any of our neighbours were outside but there was nobody about (not like years ago when the various parties all spilled out for a giant conga line).

My next trip out was on Thursday 2nd for our annual Mother/Daughter day as it's Daughter's birthday and we hit the sales. This year all the trousers she tried on were no good, but she did get a cardigan that was in the sales and a really flattering dress and lovely red ankle boots that were not on sale. We also enjoyed our traditional long lunch. Home via her house to collect M and the children for a roast dinner that Hubby cooked followed by the birthday cake I'd made already.

Saturday we had O here all day and E here some of the time while R had her audition for a local theatre company and Daughter was back and forth playing taxi and returning goods in town and shopping for clothes with the girls and bringing yummy breads for lunch and collecting M and a fish and chips dinner for us all.

Today was of course the first Monday of the month so coffee morning here with our neighbours with everyone wishing each other a happy new year :-)

Hopefully I'll venture out tomorrow evening for my normal girls night with friends, meanwhile I think I'll just curl up here in the warm with my book.
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