Flying High

I know I must be feeling brighter today, as I found time to make half a dozen cards, including these:-

and I'm still in the mood for making a few more this evening. Although, I am also keen to finish Crochet Blanket No. 2 which seems to have been on the go for absolutely ages now!!

I also had a 'mouch' through a couple of Charity Shops today and found these goodies:-

A Double Duvet cover and pillowcases for £4.00, loads of fabric in these

 

A plain navy curtain for £3.00, nice as a highlight fabric.

And a bracelet £3.00 and matching necklace £1.00, ideal for a birthday pressie.

The two fabrics will hopefully go with the green and yellow offcuts from an earlier post in my first quilt, if I ever manage to get a sewing machine. I was looking at the Tesco Ej09 for £60.00 here, as I have £31.00 in Clubcard vouchers. I could consider these just a bonus, as I would have been buying my shopping anyway, even though I would only get face value for them. What do you guys think?

I am also in need of advice regarding airplane flights. I know folks will think we are slightly mad, given our financial situation, but we are thinking of saving for a special holiday next year around May. However, the cheapest price I can see for flights so far is £1800. This seems astronomical. Does anyone know a way to get cheaper flights?

Lots of Love Arwedd xx

Best of British plus a touch of Italy

Now I know not every one is interested in all the "hype" over the Jubilee or the Olympics and I can totally understand why. However, I am trying to get into the spirit for the boys sake. No. 1 Son is desperately keen for the GB Hockey team to do well, as it is his No. 1 passion. I doubt it will feature highly in the BBC coverage, but we will be following it. No. 2 Son is interested because they are using it as a learning tool at School.

I've been enough of a misery in general over the last 10 months, so I am trying not to get too jaded about this aswell. Our Church is taking advantage of all the festivities to hold a Jubilee fair fundraiser and aswell as being roped in to Face Painting on the day itself, I promised to make some cards for one of the stalls.

So here are my first few efforts, made today:-

Hopefully a lot more to come before June.

Also today I made my own attempt at the lovely Frugal Queen's lasagne, after my recent cookery lessons and if I say so myself it didn't come out half bad. At least it smells fabulous, it is actually going in the freezer for next week.

It doesn't look as dark in real life as it does in the photo, so it's not actually burnt.

For tea I did homemade Carbonara:-

Blitzed some leftover bacon and left over cooked ham (as I didn't have enough of either on their own) in the food processor with an onion, fried them off with some mushrooms. Made my own **HOMEMADE** cheese sauce, with Froogs microwave method. It used 2/3 rds of a block of mature cheddar and was very cheesy. Cooked the spaghetti and added that and the sauce to the frying pan, gave it all a good stir around and served with some crusty bread. I would have done salad as well but we are nearly out of food this week. My DH said it tasted much better than the normal packet stuff. I am doing a little dance as I type this. Hurrah!!

Lots of Love Arwedd xxx

The Big Thaw

Main job for today was defrosting the big freezer in the garage. It's not romantic or sexy, but hey, it's my life, give me a break!

While I shuffled back and forth with buckets of icy water, my DH & No.1 Son tried to turn the wilderness of our back garden into something a bit more dignified. I'm not entirely sure why it is, that all I can manage to grow is Dandelions, but our rabbits never complain. They just love them.

Before

After

The rabbits hutch has moved place in the garden temporarily, in preparation for work to take place on the fence. Previously they were right next to the fence and now they live right over the garden steps! This should give them a chance to ruin a completely different part of the garden. Hey ho!

After I finished scraping the plastic off until my oven racks were gleaming again 

and so as not to disappoint No.2 Son, I did attempt another cake today. This one was a bit of a cheat as it was out of a packet. It's been in the cupboard quite a while but I haven't had the courage to give it a go. Just one more stupid question, perhaps all you lovely ladies can help me with. When I cracked one of the eggs it had lots of red blobs in it. It wasn't egg shell, as the break on the shell was quite clean, so is this Ok?

The mixture was quite runny when it went into the tray 

and although it was quite level when it went in the oven, it didn't seem to rise evenly. Is this something I did or do they always go like that?

It seemed to taste Ok, although DH & No.2 Son gave me some tips for "improvement". I don't know whether they think I am actually looking for constructive criticism - I'm NOT! It didn't look so bad though once I put the topping on.

Having made one card already, I wonder if you can guess who for, I am now planning to dedicate myself to an evening of cardmaking, while I look out and admire the mess that is my back lawn.  

Have a good one, lots of love Arwedd xx

Saturday Creations

The morning started in the most mundane of ways with a couple of hours spent at this contraption!

What does your ironing spot look like? (Please don't look at the state of my ironing board cover, I really need a new one!) However, once that and a couple of other chores were done, the creativity could start. 

Today's activities included work on Crochet Blanket No. 1. At the moment all I have is lots of squares!

The beautiful colours in these squares are all from one yarn and I'm loving the combinations. I just hope that Fostermummy will be able to give me a couple more lessons when I need to learn how to put these altogether.

Next on the Programme was some work on Crochet Blanket No. 2 project. With this one, all I have so far is a very long thin strip.

However, I also love this ecru and cream colour, for totally different reasons.

Later in the afternoon was the next attempt at finding biscuits all three boys like - Vanilla Cookies.

No. 2 Son cut them all out, so we have stars, hearts and teddy bears. What do you think? They are not finished yet as they will be dipped in chocolate by tomorrow - Cadbury's Dairy Milk, what else?

Then a couple more cards made :-

And for tea, my last creation of the day, was Fish Pie:-

I made two, not exactly bulk cooking but certainly a small step in Frugal Queen's direction which is something new to me, so I was quite pleased with myself. I only photographed one, but the other has gone in the fridge for tomorrow's tea.

Tell me which of my creations do you like the best? and what's your latest creation?

Lots of Love Arwedd xx

After the Rain ...

Thank You

Thank you for the beautiful words and kind comments and most of all the hugs. Welcome to my new follower.

For Debbie

I am up and I have washed my hair, which always makes me feel fresher, and I have put all my clothes on the right way round. However, I am doing as Fostermummy always advises and treating myself gently. I am taking things slowly today and have been indulging in my comfort activity - making cards!! What's your comfort activity to do?

 

When a Black Dog day hits you, it's not rational, it's not reasonable and it's not something that can be controlled. It's very hard to change your thinking, when it's your thinking that's at fault. I guess the real battle is one of reasoning – but it’s an internal process working out that you are not bad, unworthy, evil and worthless or whatever evidence your mind is feeding you with. It is very hard to be open minded with the thoughts that constantly pop into your head and give the ‘good’ ones equal space too. Sometimes you find that even the ‘good’ thoughts still lead to the conclusion that your cr*p, but like many of you in your comments, I too, do believe it's possible and if you can just once come to a more positive conclusion, a crack can appear in your wall.  

While I am a Christian, (as you've probably noticed if you've read any of my Blog), one of the worst things for me to hear someone say is, “Just pray” or quote the bible out of context, e.g. “God gives those He loves peace” Psalm 127:2. God is not so glib. The ‘Man of sorrows’ was “aquainted with grief”. Read Ps 88 and you'll know what I mean, however I also know that:-

Whatever your cross, whatever your pain,
There will always be sunshine after the rain
Perhaps you may stumble, perhaps even fall,
But God's always ready to answer your call

He knows every heartache, sees every tear,
A word from His lips can calm every fear
Your sorrows may linger throughout the night,
But suddenly vanish at dawn's early light

The Savior is waiting somewhere above,
To give you His grace and send you His love
Whatever your cross, whatever your pain,
God always sends rainbows after the rain

Moving Forwards

I am still determined to find some biscuits I can cook that all three 'boys' will like. I know this is something that will make me happy in future. To hear "Mum will you make us some of those X bisuits that we like" would be just grand, but even to know that I can whip up somehing they like will be good too, despite the ups and downs that are going to come to get there. So my new plan of attack?.... I'm going to aim for their soft spot, (figuratively speaking)....... chocolate. Browsing the web for a nice recipe for chocolate biscuits, any suggestions give me a shout.

Until next time.

(((Hugs)))

Lots of Love Arwedd xx