Domesticali

Blown away

You guys are so funny - I was blown away by your comments about my Trinny and Susannah-ing day. Thank you so much for all your sweet words of support. You made me feel much bolder going into the lions den on Saturday.

So, I feel I'd be cheating you if I didn't let you in on how it all went. Please feel free to skip along to the next blog if you couldn't care less - I quite understand.

Well I enjoyed myself so much more than I was expecting to. I wore my crocs for extra courage and the first thing they said was 'wow, you've got a pair of those funky shoes'. Good start.

My friend Sarah and I were swathed in different coloured squares to determine 3 aspects of our best colour palettes; dark-light, cool-warm and bright-muted.

The beauty of this system is that it's not a 'red is not for you' judgement, it just lets you know if a tomato red is better than a pinky red or a plum. The dark-light relates to the intensity of the colour, cool-warm is blue based versus yellow based colours and bright-muted is colours with little or lots of grey in them. I am a dark, bright with cool tendencies. This means, in a nutshell these colours in my wardrobe get to stay...

and these have to go......

Yes, I was so taken by the whole thing that I turfed out all the no-no's from my wardrobe the moment I came in. Just on the basis of colour, not how much I paid for them, or I can't part with them for sentimental reasons. Actually, I haven't parted with any of them yet - just hung them in the guest wardrobe to see if I can do without them. It helped that I agreed totally with their advice and actually have many of the shades they advocated in my wardrobe already.

Weirdly, when I look at the no-no's all together, I have to say that they are the things I never get compliments on wearing and don't feel quite comfortable in.

Next, they did our make-up, the scariest bit for me as I am always bare faced by day. I did feel a bit like a child who has been rummaging in my Mum's make-up bag, but a comment from my friend Sarah 'Don't take this the wrong way, but I didn't know you were so pretty' has made me vow to try a little.

Then it was style time, where I was surprised at how kind they were. They didn't criticize anything we were wearing. In fact, their mantra was, if it makes you happy, wear it. But they did help us focus on our good points and give us tips on how to emphasize them. Mine are my collarbones (never really took much notice of them, just thought they gave my arms something to attach to) and a flat stomach (yes, sorry, even after 2 kids, don't hate me). So no focus on my gigantic arse, thunder thighs, chunky calves..... Their advice was, give people something nice to look at and they will gloss over the rest. Which is so true - how many times have folks failed to notice a new hairdo or glasses.

For the cheeky anonymous commenter who asked what it cost me - £125 and money VERY well spent in my opinion. But in the future, don't ask me anonymously or I won't tell you.

So for me, a definite confidence booster and a real help for future purchases. My friend Sarah had colours that are further from what she usually wears and seems less excited than me about the whole thing. But then, she was less hopeless than me in the first place.

Confessions from a clothing disaster zone

Shall I own up about what I am doing on Saturday? Don't mock me - I'm really shy about this, but I am going for a session with an Image Consultant and I am terrified.

I've always been a bit of a slob if the truth be told. I was an active child, prone to climbing things rather than fretting about my appearance and somehow I just never grew out of it. The whole grooming bandwagon seems to have passed me by. But I've decided, it's now or never. So I'm off for a colour analysis (where they show you which shades suit you) and an image consultation (where they ban me from wearing unflattering styles and things that don't fit properly).

I am steeling myself for a gentle telling off and hopefully lots of confidence boosting compliments too - after all, I am paying! I have been a very good student and filled in questions about what I hope to get from the day and what my problem areas are. I also made a mood board of folks whose style I like and, horror of horrors, taken a photo of what I've worn each day this month. No, I'm not showing you - if I felt good about showing you I wouldn't need the image consultation would I? I do wonder what they'll say when they see my crocs? Crocs with everything....

Part of me feels that the whole thing is vain and shallow and that my friends see me for who I am, not what I wear. But then it turns out that every second woman I speak to has had it done - outrageous - they never told me until I confessed.

So, anyway, here's a quick 'before' flash of the inside of my wardrobe. I hope they leave me with something to wear. And apologies of you hate this navel gazing post - part of me does too, but really, I think it needs to be done.

Gone fishing…

It's too hot to blog.

Mark had sports day today (35 degrees, hardly any shade) and when we got home, we were so whacked I couldn't even be bothered to get out the paddling pool. I filled the bath with cool water and we had an indoor paddle instead.

This is ENGLAND - we don't do hot. Air-conditioning anyone?

Oh, and the boy wonder won his race, not that I was a competitive parent or anything, no, no...

Favours and garden envy

We said goodbye to our furry visitors this weekend. Miffy and Lillefee belong to my neighbour and when she went away for a couple of weeks I jumped at the chance to give my boys a taste of small animal husbandry.

The bunnies were pretty good houseguests, but more work than I was expecting. They came with a little harness and leash and instructions for 15 mins exercise each per day. Not such a big deal, I thought, but I had underestimated the stress of putting a harness on an unwilling bunny whilst being *helped* by a toddler and an over-enthusiastic 5 year old. In the end I gave up on the walking lark and let them hop around the kitchen for their exercise period.

I think the bunnies were glad to see Ann (I know I was!) and no-body here has asked for a rabbit of their own, so all in all, a successful experiment I think.

Now I think I must have 'SUCKER' tattooed on my forehead, because this week we are on watering duty for some other neighbours, a couple in their late 40's, no kids. Watering duty, in the hottest week of this summer so far.

Their garden makes me spit. It's so manicured and tranquil, not a shred of plastic play equipment in it. Now I love my guys as much as the next parent, I just wish they came with less stuff and didn't leave a trail of havoc in their wake.

Feeling Sunday afternoonish

Had an uncharacteristically grown-up night last night, with a bunch of friends round to dinner. It gave me a good excuse to try out a new dessert recipe - gooey chocolate stack. It's from Nigella Lawson 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' - one of the finest book titles ever, in my opinion.

And watching over proceedings was Millie who arrived this week all the way from Australia. She was keen to dive in, but I managed to halt her by offering the beaters to lick.

I am always keen to use our dinner guests as guinea-pigs for new recipes (particularly dessert - because you usually know in advance if it hasn't worked out and can save the day by whipping out a bowl of artfully scooped ice-cream). But some folks are horrified at the thought of making something that is not tried and tested.

As luck would have it, it turned out delicious anyway - great mix of crunchy, gooey and chocolatey and amazingly, not sickeningly sweet (thanks to the 72% cocoa solids choccy which gives it a great bitter hit).

For once I find myself ahead of the game (in one tiny area anyway, never mind the ironing, cleaning, cooking...). My swap package for the kids cooking swap is ready to go to the Post Office in the morning.

The brief was for anything that would be helpful for kids cooking in the kitchen. Without giving too much away about my recipient family, here's a little apron I sewed up, modelled by my beautiful assistant Mark.

I haven't made an apron before so I thought I'd be all official and get a pattern. Holy cow - big mistake. I got one of those 'Sewing for Dummies' numbers, because I've never made anything with a pattern before and was looking for simple. Sadly I did not find it. Talk about making something complicated out of a straightforward job. I couldn't understand what on earth was going on, so I abandoned it and devised my own methods. I mean ... how hard does it have to be?

Perhaps it is me - I am congenitally unable to follow a recipe without meddling either. But the biggest difference is I can cook, not sure I am as confident about saying I can sew.

The boys were good as gold letting me get on with doing it. They were fully occupied perfecting their pigeon catching contraption. Yes, I know, it's a bucket. But it does have bird seed in and Johnny is calling enticingly "Pibin, kum n get oor bir sheee" which, as google translate will tell you, means "Pigeon, come and get your bird seed".

So much to read

Just a quick post tonight, because I am dying to leap into bed with hot tea and my new magazine stash and what a stash it is. I was lucky enough to get paired with Gina in the Magazine Swap and her parcel arrived today. Six ... count again, yes six lovely magazines, all new to me (apart from MS Kids, which I know I love).

Is this girl a compulsive over-swapper or what, because she also sent me fabric, origami paper, a cute notepad with my initial and pizza and hot dog candy. Thank you so much Gina.

And forgive me if I have nothing more to say, but I am very busy reading.

Raspberry Ice-cream

The boys and I have got sore throats and Mark is running a bit of a temperature, so to cheer us all up (and boost the vit-C intake) I hauled out the ice-cream machine and made a batch of raspberry from the fruit we picked on Saturday.

Our machine is just a cheap number, with a bowl you freeze before adding the mixture. It works fine though and I always feel more virtuous feeding the kids homemade stuff with no additives. The raspberry recipe couldn't be simpler - make custard, chill, add raspberries squished with a fork with a little extra sugar. Churn and eat.

We only have a weenie freezer inside and a dinky one in the garage, but I usually manage to have the bowl frozen and ready to go. Part of me envies people with huge freezers, but I know I'm not organised enough to use one effectively. I NEVER remember to get stuff out to defrost in time.

Creative Little Daisy's flashing her freezer today. Feel free to join her! I'm too ashamed... the only items in regular use from mine are peas, ice cubes and ice cream. The rest is just in transit to the bin - I have such good intentions when I put stuff in there, but I forget it and then chuck it out when I next defrost, because it's so old.

Baby shower

My neighbour Jennifer's baby shower was yesterday. I think it went well, but given that none of us had ever attended one before, we didn't really have a benchmark. If the measure of success is everyone having a good time, it hit the spot.

And I had such fun creating along a baby theme, shamelessly stealing ideas from all over the place. Big thanks to Tasha for sharing her shower plans with me and Cathy Gaubert for the secrets of her nappy cake which I had to copy (complete with minimoopy topping).

Apologies for the dodgy photo - I actually forgot to take one and had to go round to Jennifer's after the party and ask sheepishly to take a picture. I didn't dare ask for styling privileges too!
Much to my husband's amusement I made gingerbread babies, complete with sex-appropriate nappies. He made a LOT of politically incorrect and insensitive jokes - I'll leave those to your imagination. We used these in a predict the gender test on Jennifer and the gingerbread says girl, but personally I'm plumping for boy.

This might explain why the gifts I made her aren't overly feminine. Another go at the bitty booties using my hand dyed blanket and a freezer paper all-in-one with a bug. Freezer paper courtesy of my swap with Melissa.

My friend (in real life !) Sarah made these gorgeous nappy favours filled with soap for all the guests and was very soothing as I panicked about getting it all together.

Jennifer had some really lovely presents and it was such fun to coo over them. It's much more civilized than the usual British thing of waiting till the baby is born. I found gifts straight after the births of my boys totally overwhelming at a time when I didn't have any capacity to enjoy them. The shower idea could really catch on here I think.

And you guys, thank you for all the lovely comments on the latch board and Robbie Robot. You gave me the warm fuzzies and I really appreciate it. You're the best.

Robbie Robot

Over the summer I am going to have to do a bit of re-adjusting. If I can't integrate the children into my crafting episodes they are either going to be watching a LOT of TV (which I hate) or I am going to be irritable with them because I would really rather they let me get on with doing something or other.

This must be a common dilemma among the legions of crafting mummies out there. The obvious solution seems to be to integrate them into what I am doing. With gardening this works brilliantly - Mark is a willing and increasingly able labourer and Johnny loves to potter. With cooking it's also fine but with crafting - I just can't seem to do it. I think the problem is that I am still such a beginner in so much of what I am trying to do, that I find it hard to accomplish it while supervising and helping little ones in the meantime. But I am really really trying.

I enjoyed making the series of minimoopies I did recently and I learned that it's not so impossible to sew a softie. Feeling quite bold, I asked Mark to help me design something we could make together and he drew a really great robot picture. I have annoyingly mis-placed it or I'd scan it for posterity.

He helped me choose the fabric and buttons and arrange the paper pattern and then, when they were safely tucked up in bed, I sewed and stuffed him.

Mark loves him in a really gratifying way and shows him to anyone who comes to the house. And I am trying to think of some other ways I can let them share this stuff with me. I surprised myself - it was fun.

Today is a bad mood day - it's a billion degrees and I'm grumpy having wasted precious time making a failed batch of chocolate banana muffins. The recipe had an error in the ingredients measurement and they came out oily and inedible.

I'm also doing some frantic housework and clearing for the baby shower tomorrow and I've decided that some of the kids toys have got to go. (I am so much better at throwing out other peoples' stuff!)

Andy and I made this when Mark was 1. He was a strange child as far as toys went. He never used them in the way they were designed to be used and if truth be told, he wasn't really into most of them at all. We tried endless types, but all he really wanted to get his mits on was REAL stuff. So in the end we gave up. He spent many a happy hour emptying my kitchen cupboards, pulling all the CDs out of the rack and washing up (including the floor). It wasn't very relaxing play for the supervising parent though, so we came up with the latch board by raiding Andy's toolbox and ransacking the hardware shop. Mark adored it, particularly the 'twangers' which are springs designed to go on the skirting board so doors don't bump into them when opened.

Our friends were half fascinated, half appalled at the new toy - 'What IS that thing?'. But in our house it was the bees knees. Johnny is much more conventional in his toy tastes (and easier to please), so it's gathered dust recently. I'm feeling quite sad about it going off to the dump though - with a little more refinement, I think they could have caught on.

Chaos in progress

I'm astounded at how many beautiful Work in Progress pictures appear in blogs each Friday. Lovely fabrics, neat piles, orderliness. Reality here is somewhat more chaotic. So in the spirit of honesty, here's what our dining table looked like late on Friday night (hence the bad lighting).

Crafting carnage.

Scattered about are:
Kids cooking swap recipe cards
Half completed stuffed robot
Bitty Booties for baby shower
Leftover template and fabrics from butterfly mobile

Amazingly, we ate lunch at the very same table today (but it did take me half an hour to clear it). I'm one of those people who likes to have what they want to use to hand. I'm terrible about putting things back in their proper places (if they are lucky enough to HAVE proper places).

I so envy folks with 'studios', but the truth is if I had one it would also be messy. It drives me nuts having to spend precious time locating the scissors, glue, thing I had in my hand a second ago but has now disappeared. I would give good money for a tidy and organized gene. If anyone has a spare please let me know.

Flutter by

Frustration - trying to get a decent photo of a mobile outside on a windy day. I made this butterfly one for the babe-in-waiting next door. Making it was much easier than photographing it I can tell you - hopefully the blurriness signifies motion and not just photographic ineptitude!

The 'memory' of the wire also caused me a few headaches. Any hints on how to get wire to straighten evenly? I wound it round a broom handle, my watering can and a flowerpot to try and even the curves out, but it's far from perfect.

In fact, the whole thing looks very home made, which is either a good thing, or a bad thing, and I'm not sure which. Fun to make anyway.

Getting stuff done

My work in progress has progressed this week - managed to get the pieces of blanket dyed.

The whole thing was really interesting. I used Dylon multipurpose, Madonna Blue and Jungle Green. The blue was a much less strong pigment than the green, but dyed more evenly. I mixed the two dye baths together for the final bit of blanket, but the green was so fierce that adding the blue to it didn't seem to make much difference.

I plan to use some of this for another pair of booties and maybe a softie or two.

The breadmaker is being put through its paces. I've done a sunflower seed loaf and a standard white so far. Oh, and this one, we call it alien life form bread.

Baby toes

Little feet will soon be pattering in the house next door and in my madness, I decided to throw my neighbour a baby shower. Don't take that wrong, she's lovely, our kids are similar ages, we have coffee frequently, she buys me bread and milk for when I return from a trip, she's the neighbour from heaven. But baby shower? These are not common in the UK. In fact, I have never been to a baby shower, so what possessed me?

A diaper cake. Yes, never before has the humble nappy set off such a chain of events. I was browsing the minimoopys on flickr when I came across this. I had to make one. That lead to invitations.

So then I needed a gift. Perfect excuse to try out the bitty bootie pattern. These little green numbers were my trial run. I'm not 100% happy with them, but they were fine for a first go and I've learned a lot from my mistakes with these. I still can't master blanket stitch though.

Yummy, yummy in my tummy

I found a fun swap via Larissa (my Back Tack 3 swap partner) today. It's a kids cooking swap and I think my boys are going to have fun helping to put this one together. By weird interconnected karma, one of the things I put in Larissa's swap package was a babyfood recipe for her little one. Ideas for the swap are recipes, kids cookbooks, kiddie sized utensils, aprons.... the possibilities are huge.


I swap with Swap-bot!

Mark loves helping in the kitchen and is getting to an age where 'help' really does mean assist rather than 'distract the main cook and make a huge mess'. Here he is concentrating very hard on chopping apricots for our favourite flapjack recipe. That's one that is certain to make it into our swap package.

There's a bit of a foodie theme to today as yesterday I found I was expecting a houseguest from Australia. Yes, Millie is on her way from the Sweet Little Treat girls to sample some British goodies. Thanks guys!

And I'm hoping to have some new yummies in my repertoire because my breadmaker arrived this morning. It was a little me treat after finding out that hubby's job is safe (he's been on a redundancy danger list for the past few weeks). So anyone with cool breadmaker recipes or hints, I'm all ears.

Work in progress Friday

When I say Molly Chicken's post about blanket dyeing I really wanted a go. Mainly because of the difficulty in finding wool felt in the UK. But I was thwarted in my plans by the inability to get my hands on a blanket at the charity shop.

But I have a secret weapon, my mother works in a charity shop and has friends with amazing lofts full of stuff waiting to be re-homed, so it was only a matter of time before she came up with the goods. And here they are (in a dodgy photo - sorry), complete with giant pan, just waiting to be turned into luscious felt. That's my work in progress for this Friday.

Actually, my blog and crafty endeavors have turned into a bit of a family affair. My father returned from his snooker club with a huge piece of green baize for me too. I predict much green crafting in the not too distant future.

Move over Bank of England

Recently I got carried away late at night and purchased a mailorder kit from Angry Chicken. When it came a few weeks back I was intrigued by the reference to spending the funny money that one could collect with each mailorder purchase. I'm a bit of a sucker for collecting tokens. They used to print them on Huggies nappies (little hippos) and I cut them all out and saved them, but I never did find out what they were for.

I think it was the phrase 'funny money' that really tickled me. So, it's Summer Fete time at Marks school, and the PTA have planned a list of stalls and activities as long as your arm, but there's the question of prizes. And it came to me, like a Bloglines entry, 'Funny Money'! So last night I designed, cut, pasted and laminated a whole wad and hopefully some happy kiddies will get to spend it at the fete. Thanks for the idea Amy.

Finished the advent calendar

Five and a half years after I got the stuff to make it, it's done. The advent calendar. It needs some quilting to stabilize the layers a bit, but in general I'm happy with how it turned out. It's not clear from the photo, but each little square is a pocket to put your gift into.

Unfortunately it is now firmly linked to feelings of guilt in my head so I can't possible keep it. Think I'll try to sell it at the craft fair in October. How do you craft sale veterans decide how to price your pieces?

I was supposed to be stockpiling crafty goodness to sell, but I've realized that with 2 kids home all over the summer and no help with childcare, I am highly unlikely to get anything much done. Also, I found out today that Johnny has not got a preschool place in September, so my 2 mornings off a week will also not be happening. Feeling a bit bogged down by it to be truthful. I like my kids so much more when I have a little bit of breathing space away from them and that's just not happening at the moment.

Father’s day belated tribute

Why oh why didn't I discover this before Father's Day?

I defy you to watch it and not cry laughing.

Strawberries juicy

Oh no, I've accidentally left too long between posts and now have loads of stuff to catch up on, which probably doesn't make for the best reading. I flakily failed to complete colour week, but I did enjoy what I did. I managed to freak out a lot of people with that photo of the power station didn't I? No, it's not nuclear, and yes, we really do live that close to it!

This weekend went in a flash - we went strawberry picking for the first time this year.


The strawberries were put to good use by making a trifle (hubby's favourite, in honour of Fathers Day) and smoothie ice pops in the amazing moulds that Maxine sent to us.

This blogging community is so amazing - I had admired the moulds over at Noodles and Doodles, and out of the blue Maxine offered to send me some. Thank you Maxine for the bunnypops and the other goodies (fabric, a windmill, amazing card and choccy) you tucked in there too. I'm doing my best with your overdue thank you parcel.

I don't know if it sounds harsh, but in real life the acts of random kindness I witness seem far outnumbered by the stupid, thoughtless and just plain mean things people do to each other. Two things that regularly restore my faith in human goodness - watching my children and this community.

Thursday - Blue

There are so many beautiful blue eyes on show all over blogland today. But we're a 100% brown eyed bunch, so this is our version.

Mark did have his first at-school swimming lesson today which he loved. I was somewhat nervous as he is a cold water wuss and it's an outdoor pool - in the UK?! I have to fill the paddling pool from the hot tap or they won't go in it. But he had a ball.

Wednesday: Grey

We live right under this power station.

When we moved here there was a big old willow which screened the view of it from our house. Sadly the tree died last winter and was removed. I've come to find the power station weirdly beautiful. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Smiles all round

The wonderful Tasha from Babybug wanted a swap a while back and I was one of the lucky candidates. Her package arrived this morning packed full of goodies from Honolulu. Sea-themed goodie bags for the boys, sea urchin skeletons, macadamia nut chocolate, tea towels, and of course, the much coveted bag, which is even better in the flesh than in pictures.

I may just have to plan my entire wardrobe so I can carry it every day.

Thank you Tasha - for your generosity and for the big smiles you put on all our faces today.

Brown Tuesday

Forgive me if you've seen these before, but brown? It's got to be chocolate really hasn't it?

White Monday

My current favourite white item:

Hayfever, I curse you.

Part of Colour Week.

The object bites back

Now I had every intention of finishing the mystery item over the weekend, but it was sunny, we had visitors (loads of them), had to take Mark shoe shopping blah blah blah. I was down to the wire, Sunday night - had to get it done. D'you know what I did - sewed it together with the wadding on the outside. Aaaargh. So I had a wonderful evening of unpicking in bad light and nothing to show for it.

But well done Joanna, it was/is an advent calendar (yup - with pockets) and sadly still a work in progress. Do you think it's trying to tell me something?

So here's a random photo of Johnny with a goat - I have nothing better to show okay - give me a break!

New dangerous sport

Is it possible to jump on two bandwagons at once or does that sound like the recipe for a nasty accident?

In honour of Fiona's work in progress and Vicki's finish what you have initiatives, here's a little picture of what I'm in the middle of trying to finish.

I began it when Mark was a baby and he'll be 6 in a few months, so it's been hanging around for quite a bit. It's my effort at a teaser shot so you can guess what it is... if you're really bored ... like me..... Perhaps I should just go and finish it ... naaah.

In need of a boost?

I was up early yesterday morning, feeling sorry for myself (because my hayfever is appalling and I'm getting next to no sleep) when I found this over at Megan's blog. She always makes me feel better. Have a look.

And other cheer inducing goodness - is anyone else into magazines? Run on over to Cotton Strudel's place and sign up for the international magazine swap. I think anyone (particularly those from outside the USA) will be greeted with fanfares and open arms. Since I discovered blogland my magazine consumption has gone right down and I feel sorry for my local newsagent - his profit margins must have dipped big time.

Bills - zero, parcels - one, contents - perfection!

Today was a GOOD mail day - the much awaited back tack parcel arrived from Melissa!

And here she is, a shy little thing (I stalked Melissa's blog, looked at the Portland back tack party pictures in detail but she never showed even the merest hint of herself). She's soft white babycord, with a stylish reversible dress and matching messenger bag. And she brought a couple of aprons too - a workwear one and a lacy Sunday number.

The parcel was themed 'the best of Portland' and had some other goodies that you might recognise. Robot stencils from Laurie at Liquid Paper, a flower pin from Posie Gets Cozy, a postcard from Amy at Angry Chicken. And also freezer paper - yippee and chocolate bars.

How lucky am I? Thank you so much Melissa for a wonderful first swap experience. What an enchanting assortment of loveliness - even your shredded paper was pretty! We're settling new bunny into her home and Johnny is making sure she doesn't go short of hugs. Sending a few of them your way too.