Dreaming Spirals

I don’t know why I don’t seem to get any textile stuff done in the holidays but I certainly get lots of other things done. We had about 4 pints of milk which needed to be drunk by yesterday so I did a lot of cooking this morning to use them up. One of them had definitely gone off so I put them in these scones, as sour milk helps scones rise. These are Norfolk Scones, recipe from the Milk Marketing Board Dairy Cookbook (a sure favourite for using up milk) - they are normal scones top and bottom with a filling of raisins, nutmeg and brown sugar (should have been currants but I hadn’t got any)

I made egg custard and rice pudding, and also this pudding which I had been thinking looked nice from the photo in the cookbook but never got round to making it till today. It is cherry batter pudding, and it is very nice. I think it is the most successful of today’s cooking spree. The photo has gone rather strange actually - that dish is actually oval (weighs a ton, too - it’s Le Creuset! not for the weak-wristed…).

The only fibre related thing I’ve done this holidays apart from a couple of odd sketches of the cat is to wind some hanks of Colinette wool. But I’ve done loads on the computer. Probably because the kids are sitting here on the computer too and they don’t reply when I speak to them, so if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! I’ve now got right through to July uploading the photos for the archives and recategorizing them, and am ready to reload August too (an easy month since I was on holiday for half of it!).

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Because the kids are still on holiday from school, I don’t seem to get any useful sewing/painting/dyeing etc done. As soon as I try to escape to my studio, world war 3 breaks out downstairs and I have to save one or more of them from losing life or limb. So, in an attempt to keep Barnabas occupied this afternoon, I got him to do some sketching.

I asked him to design me a few quilts. Here’s what he came up with:

He sketches better than I do!

We went to see my Mum and Dad in Stoke yesterday, hence my silence on the blog. We had lunch at a local restaurant and I don’t know if it was the food or a bug, but Anselm, Barnabas and I have been rather ill today, Anselm worse than me and Barnabas. I think we’re recovering now though - grated apple is wonderful for the runs!

I managed to sort out the driver for my scanner today too and have been scanning in some old photos. Some VERY old photos of my grandmother and her family and also this not quite so old one of me as a teenager in my Nan’s garden in the 70s…..

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I’ve decided to try and integrate my blog and website a bit better. I’m going to set up a couple more categories to put posts into. There will be a new section for For Sale things, which I will link to on my website, so that anything finished and for sale can go into it. I will also make a new ‘Tutorials/Notable Posts’ category where I can cross reference anything which people might want to reference in the future. This must be my ‘getting ready for New Year - organise and improve everything in sight’ day!

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Well, I’ve had one of those frustrating try-to-solve-computer-problems-and-make-things-worse sort of a day today. Thank goodness for System Restore! We were having problems with our wireless network adaptor (including conflicts with Windows Media Player and Windows Update) so I decided to try and upgrade the software. Bad idea. I spent the morning uninstalling software, removing drivers, adding more drivers, installing more software (Windows 98 computer threw wobblies several times)…. and at the end of it all it didn’t work. So I did the wonderful system restore on 2 of them and now at least I can access the internet on my laptop, even though the 98 computer is now out of the wireless link. When I’m feeling geeky again I’ll try and put that one’s settings back to the way it was this morning!

Meanwhile Anselm cycled to Chepstow and a few miles back before giving up and ringing to ask his Dad to rescue him! He had a new bike for Christmas…

This is the trifle I made on Saturday, with custard and bananas added.

Here it is, finished! The kids like the sweets best…

This is one of my presents, some yummy Moleskine sketchbooks.

This is my present from Zachary. I have lots of wire and one of those wire winding gizmos which I bought from a quilt show a couple of years ago. He spent several happy hours making these - brilliant!

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Happy Christmas everyone, or Happy Whatever you celebrate!!

Photos tomorrow, I’m stuffed…. and reading all the instructions for my kids Nintendo DS and MP3 players has finished me!

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I saw this over on Art Biz Blog and couldn’t resist it!

So why is my old blog worth $7,903.56? When all the archives (okay, minus the pictures) are here?

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Well, everything is now in train for Christmas Day. Excited kids, presents under the tree. We have a quiet family Christmas here - just the five of us. The kids come downstairs and open their stockings first thing, we get up when we have to (when the noise level get too intolerable), have breakfast and get the lunch ready. Then we all open our presents and go to church. Then lunch and a lazy afternoon only punctuated by more eating …

This was our lunch today. Lancashire hot pot. We call it ‘lobby’ in Stoke-on-Trent, where I was brought up and where my family still live. I don’t know why.

Our fridge is extremely full now. I can take a photo of it because Barnabas cleaned it in return for extra computer time on Monday. Note the duck down the bottom - our roast for tomorrow.

I made the first bit of the trifle this morning. This will be for tea tomorrow (not that we’ll want tea tomorrow but we will force ourselves, no doubt). Trifle sponge, lots of sherry, tinned strawberries, jelly, tinned raspberries. (I was going to use frozen but the freezer is so full I couldn’t find them). Doesn’t look very attractive at the moment but wait till tomorrow! It now has a layer of custard on top of this. Then a layer of sliced bananas and a layer of whipped cream and some jelly sweets (the kids’ favourite part!).

Anyway, A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS to all of you in Australia and New Zealand reading this! I’ll say it to everyone else tomorrow…

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My kids spend far too long on the tv and computers in the holidays so this year I decided to limit it - to 2 hours a day when I was around to see them. (So if I lie in and they get up early they still get several hours more!!). I hit on the idea of getting them to do housework for extra hours on the computer/tv. And it has been a success! They’ll do chores for computer time but not for money… So I have a cleaner house - so far they’ve cleaned several kitchen cupboards, washed the windows, hoovered, cleaned the shower and even the loos! And changed their sheets… Amazing.

Yesterday Anselm even iced the Christmas cake (bought uniced at Sainsburys and laced with brandy before marzipanning and icing). Voluntarily. I made the royal icing and I think it was a bit soft because the ‘Merry Christmas’ plaque sank into it, and Father Christmas looks as though he is wading through deep snow!

Today he decided to make some scones to earn some more computer time. Unfortunately, in the process something seems to have fallen out of the cupboard and landed on the not-quite-dry icing so now it looks as though someone has been playing in the snow!

I did a quick repair job with a bit of water icing. I think we need a few more cake decorations though….

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