Regretting Place Mats

Jean - it is really helpful to get a sensible size for the place mats.   I've cut some out around that size.  My friend eBay was less than helpful.  Some were as small as 9 inches wide.  I've gone for bigger, around 20 inches by 14, but I am allowing for a fringe.  I'll post pics when I get further on.

I'm regretting the placemats a little.  There are some pleasant placemats on eBay for a reasonable price.  However I can't find any that are as right as how I hope mine become.  They need to be big, washable, and I want a particular colour.  We are fond of sauces containing tomatoes here, so that means a lot of soaking in biotex and hanging out in sunlight.  However it would have been so much easier to just get cheap ones and keep replacing them - but that seems so wasteful and so ecologically damaging.  It seems wrong.

I haven't had a chance to do much today.  Bear got some grit in his eye.  He needed vast quantities of cuddles and I ended up taking him to the doctor.  His eye is sore, but he has drops and it is picking up.  I suspect the grit got washed out by natural tears fairly early on, as the doctor (who is an awesome GP) couldn't find anything, and the eye will settle down normally.  As I am a fail on an epic scale when it comes to eyes I am hoping I will not have to administer many - DH was heroic and coaxed bear to take the drops.  Poor bear.  He could barely manage his maths lesson.

May Have to Do Difficult Things

I have no confidence with my ability to measure and cut accurately.  This is not a good thing if you are planning on sewing something.  If anyone remembers I did a sort of raggy thing that hangs in the bathroom with some drops of rosemary oil on it.  I quite like it.

I plan to do similar place mats with a raggy edge, but no button in the centre or hanging loop.  The idea is that they save the tablecloth and protect the (rather nice and old) table.  I have this material.  The photo is taken with the white sheet with felt tip pen on in the background which should do fine for a few layers of filling.

I rather hoped that I could just sort of fold and cut, not doing any fancy measuring or anything, just going with the flow and using them as a sort of template for the sheet.  Except I can't fold it into any sensible size.  Darn.  I'm going to have to look at placemats online for measurements, have a guess, allow for the fringe (which I really like), think about the sort of area food is likely to be dropped in .  Drat.  I'm going to have to measure the table and think about sensible places to put the placemats and how big the plates are.  Poot.  I'm going to have to measure properly - and do I include the fringe or not? !)*(£("£&**!!!

I also need to clear a space to do the measuring and cutting.  Darn it completely to Heck.

Almost Productive

I've taken the recommendation to keep all the stuff re father in one place.  That has been a lifeline.  I've managed to get quite a few letters written and sent.  There is still washing up, tidying, cleaning, etc etc etc but the letters are done.  I've even put a note in the to-do list on Google calendar.  I need to work on checking that daily.

I am aiming to get a decent load for the car tomorrow for DH to take to the tip.  In fact, I aim to do that daily.  That is on the mental map.  So is making a decent dinner tonight, I fancy shepherd's pie with spiralised carrots (new gadget).

The other target is to catch up on tv while handsewing some placemats.  I want them done soon as then not only will they be off the list but there will be less stuff in the house and more useful things.  I'm aiming to do that over two days.  That may be wildly optimistic, but it's something.

As bear has a small boy round I can safely leave them to entertain themselves.  It would have been father's 84th birthday today.  I'm taking today as it comes.

Yellow Sticker Epic Fail

Yesterday I bought two packs of reduced green beans for a total of 58p.  As I was prepping them for dinner tonight I did some thinking and checked the label.  I paid 58p for 160g of green beans.  This works out at a £3.65 per kilo (roughly, I am a fail at maths).

If I had bought the frozen green beans from Tesco, which bear finds completely acceptable then I would have paid £1.12 per kilo (a bag is just under at £1 for 900g).  Even allowing for any extra weight of ice, it still looks like the yellow sticker green beans were still twice the price of the frozen ones.

I can understand seriously preferring fresh if you are going to eat your veggies raw.  However I was always going to cook the green beans, and frozen food is usually a lot fresher than 'fresh'.  The I know peas are frozen within an hour or two from being picked and I don't expect the green beans are much different.  As veggies start to deteriorate as soon as they are picked and can take a day or two to reach the supermarket, especially if they come from Kenya, then frozen is better when it comes to nutrition, unless you grow your own.

So I paid twice the price for less fresh produce even after it was reduced!  I was bamboozled by the yellow sticker.

I must remember always do the sums!

DH Thinks Quickly

Bear lost another tooth.  He carefully placed it in a tissue on the table and I promised to email the tooth fairy.

Then we all forgot about it completely - including bear!  

I am not a good housekeeper, but I suspect I absentmindedly swept up the tissues lying around and disposed of it.  This morning when DH remembered we couldn't find the tooth.

DH quickly crumpled a tissue, slid a £1 inside it and then called to bear to ask where his tooth was.  I wish I could have captured bear's expression.  When he frantically searched the tissue and found the coin his face lit up with the magic of it.

DH is awesome.

Random Continues

Another Amazon parcel has arrived.  The driver pulled up and asked for Lisa (Lyssa Medana has her own Amazon account and I'm often too lazy to switch between them) and handed over the parcel.  It was scything down and there was thunder but there was also the most amazing, dazzling rainbow.  'Look at the rainbow!' I said without thinking.
'I can't if I want to get finished before midnight.' the driver finished typing in the details.  'Happy Christmas!' and then he drove off.

As father is no longer watching our tv, I cancelled all our sports channels.  Father used to watch BT Sport and Sky Sports on his ipad, using Sky Go.  Right until the end he was enjoying the cricket.  However I could see no point in laying out @ £30 a month on Sky Sports and the extra BT Sports.  I enjoy football, but I don't get to watch it, and the world cup next year will be on terrestrial.  DH has never followed football.  Bear has suddenly found an interest in football.  I should be used to it now.

I might possibly, possibly convince myself it is worth spending the extra £5 per month for BT Sport if bear's interest in football lasts longer than the bananas in the fruit bowl.  I will definitely not be re-subscribing to Sky Sports.

More Random Than Normal

I missed a call from my brother earlier today and bear and his pal didn't bring the phone up in time for me to answer it.  I rang my brother back and explained that I had been stuck on the upstairs landing with a fridge.  'So it's a normal day there for you.' he said.

The fridge was father's but hasn't been used for a year.  I know someone who may want it for a barbecue, so I was wondering if I could get the fridge down the stairs by myself.  It is only a mini fridge, but eventually I decided someone stronger than me needed to carry it down.

There are four large bags of pink sheets in the middle of my kitchen floor.  Father must have smuggled them in.  I only really like white for sheets and I don't really do pink at all, so I am unimpressed.  I don't think I could use them for dusters.  However Nice Mr Next Door can use them for rags.  Apparently he is coming round 'soon'.

I'm starting to go under a little and so is DH who is badly in need of a break that doesn't involve a crisis.  Witch Hazel gave some good ideas about selling cds and dvds but I've talked with DH and we decided that we don't have the head space to do that.  The local tip has a bank for unwanted cds and dvds to be donated to charity/recycled so we can take stuff there.  Check out Witch Hazel's comments for the ideas though, as it is a really useful suggestion.

In fact our local tip has places where clothes and books can be donated as well.  There was no way we could get anything for father's clothes that would make it worth the trouble, and father would really have wanted things to go to good causes.  It's like the issue of the collection at church at the funeral.  They asked if he had a charity he supported.  I would be harder pressed to find a charity he didn't support.

But I did get a load of yellow sticker stuff in town, so I am happy about that.