Sewing Bee

I was watching the final of the Great British Sewing Bee last night.  I was entranced.  Interestingly so was DH.  He loves watching experts using arcane techniques.  To us, the techniques seemed pretty arcane.  

One thing that struck me was how expensive it could be.  Just to equip the shelves with fabric must have cost thousands, even at trade rates.  I don't want to put anything about the final in case anyone reading hasn't seen it but wants to, but in earlier episodes there were dresses and outfits using things like silk that would have cost a fortune just for a metre.  I've haunted a few fabric stalls and shops for stuff for soft furnishings and I don't think much that they used was less than £10 a metre.  

I watched the stuff with awe, but while I am tempted by the pretty colours, I know my limitations.  First of all, I am scared of sewing machines.  I never in the few terms I had sewing lessons managed to thread the thing right, then it would shoot away from me.  There was also the stand up screaming match between my mother and the sewing teacher about the correct way to interpret a pattern, it didn't really help.

Then neither bear, DH or father would ever wear anything I made.  When you can get some reasonable t-shirts for bear for less than I would pay for the cloth it seems silly to try and sew for him.  As for me, I have an interesting figure which would need all sorts of alterations to patterns and I can still pick up clothes cheaper.  I love knitting myself sweaters, but I can't usually find the ones I like for a reasonable price anyway, so it is not so bad.  

I still fancy having a go though.  

Janet - I never thought of doing that!  And it is a great way of storing half used tins as well.  I never remember to save the tops.It sounds like a great opportunity for me to do my stripey jellies.  I haven't done those for a long time.  Thank you!

Morgan - It was a huge stock of AF loo rolls that have now run down.  I've noted some on Amazon - pack of 48 for £11.33 + £2.83 but they don't get good reviews for quality.  Then again (talk about weighing things up!) I daren't get the thicker stuff as there is a funny bend in the toilet waste pipe and I am not in a hurry to get it blocked.  Some of the reviews made me wonder what people expect from loo roll.  Personally I have a seven year old son and I am not using anything except thin for the foreseeable future.

Not Stopping the Shopping

I'm down to my last 36 rolls of toilet paper.  I am irrationally twitchy.

Bear has demolished a whole punnet of grapes, a satsuma and a pear as well as making a determined effort to eat his own body weight in sugar.  I am so glad that he's eating he is getting any food into him that he's getting away with murder.  Well, he's getting away with chews, lollipops and cake bars.  Mind you, he insisted on having mashed swede and carrot tonight.  It's his new favourite dish and he prefers it to chips.  So tomorrow I will be getting a delivery that includes swedes, carrots, pears, grapes and nutella.

I hadn't bought any nutella for ages then I stumbled across this recipe here and needed some nutella.  I haven't made the nutella mug cakes yet, but it's only a matter of time and keeping bear occupied with something.  However the nutella jar/glasses have a lovely new shape.  I am wondering how bad I would be to get lots of jars of nutella that doesn't go off that quickly, and that wouldn't have much chance to anyway, just so I could get a large quantity of lovely new glasses.  All our smaller tumblers are old nutella jars.  They are brilliant - they are a nice size, do not break easily and look stylish.  The new ones look even more stylish.

I got the image from the official nutella site.  They didn't have any recipes.  Perhaps it is just as well.

Regardless, I am off to research toilet paper.

A Quiet Sunday

Thank you for hugs.  DH is now suffering from the D&V.

My ironing board cover has lots of tiny pin prick holes all over it and looks like it has woodworm.  I have absolutely no idea where that came from but I am going to have to allocate the evenings next week to getting back on top of the ironing.  At the moment I can't actually reach the tumble drier for heaps of ironing.

I have found a linky for home made tumble drier sheets.  This is untested.  I use white vinegar for fabric conditioner and it does us fine but I have to tumble dry DH's gym kit due to time constraints and the clothes were feeling quite scratchy so I bought some comparatively inexpensive tumble drier sheets.  Then I found that you can cut up a household sponge or use a J-cloth or face flannel and leave them to soak in fabric conditioner and when you actually tumble dry something you just squeeze the sponge/cloth and bung it in with the clothes.  When you pull the clothes out you put the sponge/cloth back in the tub of fabric conditioner.  Some recipes suggest diluting the fabric conditioner, but I am not sure about that.  I will only be using it for DH's gym kit as everything else is either line dried, dried on the clothes airer, dried on the heated airer or tumble dried without the benefit of scented chemicals and they are fine.  It will be a while before the small pack of drier sheets run out, so I thought I would share now.

Not finding a bright side.

Father has just had a fall.  He went out to get the paper to pick his winners for the Grand National (just because he goes to a Methodist Church which forbids alcohol and gambling doesn't mean he won't drink and gamble) and as he crossed the road a motorbike came out of nowhere (and this road is notorious for it).  Father stepped back and fell over the curb.  He says he is fine.  I am worried sick.

Bear is visiting B&Q with DH to buy his own screwdriver as he still wants to unscrew things.  I am nervously looking at our furniture and I think we'll be safe.

I didn't want to blog until I could put something positive down.  Finding it tough.  Bear has been off school for a full week with D&V.  After the tonsilitis school are going to be writing letters about attendance.  I am more stressed by trying to get the street clear enough so that when Asda delivery three litre bottles of whisky and nothing else (the driver gave me a Look) then they can at least reach the house.  Nice Mrs Next Door has been having words with her husband who is lovely and I think the count of cars being mended is down to nearly single figures.  It was so tough when DH wanted to give me a lift to uncle last weekend when he was so poorly and we couldn't get out as cars had filled the street so much, including one that was just left in the middle of the road.  It took twenty minutes to get out.

Bear challenged me to several rounds of Snap! and I was happy to be a bit slower than expected.  I then found out from DH that he had been teaching bear how to palm cards.  He has also taught him out to play brag.  I may be getting other letters from school.

Posting may be a bit hit and miss.  I am determined to be positively posting.  I apologise for gaps because I am always grateful and thankful that people read my witterings and that so many kind, supportive and lovely people comment.  However a fortnight of bear on holiday will surely provide something positive to post.

We have spent £180 on whisky in the last two days.  It is a good deal.  It had better last until June.

Sometimes I want to hide under a table and whimper at how much this sort of rubbish costs us.

Apologies

I'm going to have to pause blogging for a few weeks.  Normal service will be resumed shortly.  Hopefully popping in to see your blogs in the meantime.