Away from the Packing

Not technically mine, but Big One was busy with what we found in the bottom of a box- and made a farm with fencing and animals and people. She was busy for ages with it, and understandably upset when Little One walked in and kicked it. These things happen...

At some point, just after Christmas I think, I made some rather brittle flour tortillas. They didn't work too well, so the left overs got fried and turned into very yummy home made crisps. Much better than throwing them away!
I had a go ( from handmade loaf ) at picklets, one day when I woke up about 4 hours early. Plenty of time to have the batter rise for a couple of hours and have something fresh and hot at 8 am, before work...

 I hoped for something like crumpets, but they had quite a delicious bread taste instead.

I read The Mother Magazine (makes me feel very mainstream!), and there used to be a column by Star in it.Its not often I'm tempted to have a go, but her column really interested me, so when I realised she had a book I bought it ( after debating about it for about 6 months!). Its taken me another 6 months to invest in ingredients, but we've had a go at a few recipes so far.

We first made some 'hair soap'- shampoo to me. Big One chopped the black soap, and Little One loves shaking the bottle whenever she sees it- not necessary but fun because of all the bubbles. I like the feel of my hair after using it, but I have a suspicion its not ideal for daily use. Not much to look at either!

We (the girls actually did most of it) also made 'lipstick', highly technical involving vegetable glycerine and brambles from the freezer. Little One wasn't allowed to eat all the berries- Big One was definite we were going to make this! It has a definite flavour, which isn't sickly sweet for once. I'm not sure of how best to keep it, so its just in this plastic pot with fingers getting dipped in, which isn't ideal.

I've been wanting to try this since I got the book, making my own body spray. I've adapted it, using some jasmine oil as I haven't any infused flower water, and only making a small quantity to try out. My rose water is rather old, and I think it'll be worth investing in some fresh- but I think it smells quite good :-)

Not a very interesting spray bottle, but it does the job.I must remember that this has black specks in from the vanilla, otherwise I'll worry its past its best!

A few weeks back Little One was Very Poorly with a vomiting bug-the first 12 hours had me very tempted to take her to the hospital for dehydration, but she gradually stopped puking twice an hour and slowly improved. This of course coincided with having no hot water for the weekend, making handwashing painfully cold, let alone getting all over clean. We had to improvise, which thankfully worked well.

The following weekend we were away, Big One was slightly ill, but it was great that Someone was having fun with the marble run! DH's brother's girlfriend's son made some brilliant runs.

I'm sure I'll have mentioned getting a crochet book for Christmas, here it is:

 I have managed to make a fairly square 'square' ( Big One told me to make this).

 And our weekend away with family and poorly girl meant I had chance to really work on doing a few of the little flowers mentioned before. I like how quick they are, and how little girls just love them!

 I must confess to not doing as I was told with this one. Big One told me to make a square, but I enjoyed the rhythm of this pattern and decided to keep going and make a scarf. I obviously cannot count ( well, its remembering to bother to count that's my problem) so this one is definitely staying with me. I've considered unravelling it all to make the edges straight, but I like to be able to show progress. So when I can make a scarf with parallel sides it will be worth shouting about!

Now, I actually should be getting everything ready for camping for 7 months, starting in 4 weeks time ( head in sand moment).We had some foam mats made up to our size specification when we had a 4 m bell tent with a half circle as our sleeping space, which didn't fit in a double airbed terribly well. Our sleeping space is now huge with our 5 m tent, but we still have the same foam mats which we use however we need to.

I hope to add some Velcro so we don't slip down any gaps, but they work really well for us- especially once we bought a transit van to haul them around with us. They definitely take a lot more space than an airbed! They're quite dense, and should last us many years. Very kind and talented MIL made the first covers for some of the mats- the two largest and one of the little squares, which have been brilliant. Its a slippy water resistant fabric, which makes them a little hard to carry. My project has been covering the remainder of the mats, and sewing handles onto them all so they're easier to move. Luckily I went to a sewing class where the teacher really recommended Fabworks. I went in the summer, found loads of fabric for various projects ( enough for a couple of dresses for the girls, 3 doll slings, covering all the mats plus plenty left over for anything else, and a huge stash of fabrics that I have yet to think up uses for...) for only £10. the pricing was vague- I hadn't any real idea how much it would all be, but I really hoped it would be less than £40, just to give you a rough idea. They have many fabrics on the roll ( that's more clearly priced) but they also have different bins of remnants. Absolutely amazing place and somewhere, when I'm able to keep learning to sew, I'll definitely head back to.

 My hand sewing isn't great, but I was pleased to spend one evening making the cover for a small square (I had MIL's to copy from) and get a handle sewn onto it.

And, thanks to the generosity of friends we have plenty of cardboard boxes for the last few weeks packing.

Which means the girls have a den for the time being as well!

Nearly forgot to mention meeting 10 day old Harry yesterday as well :) No pictures (his dad's pics are bloomin marvellous, so even if I had taken a camera it wouldn't do him justice), but one gorgeous little man with very chilled and happy parents!

We managed to go play in the woods today as well. We were only 2 hours late, so most people were a bit chilled, even with the lovely fire going but it was so nice just to see some friends again, even just to say hi and bye- I've felt too stressed to make time to see people and its made me realise I have to prioritise. There's no point counting down to going if I'm not seeing anyone while we're local!

One Step Nearer!

Ok, this is quite a lot of blogging for me, but we've had three days of packing with children, and I'm really quite proud of what we've done. We've moved nearly all the huge things that aren't currently in use into the storage unit- one wardrobe still to dismantle but we had another first today instead.
Big One doesn't 'do' films. She enjoys the Peppa Pig DVD we have ( she doesn't know there's more than one, and have no interest in getting more just yet) and we also have several Wiggles Live shows on DVD ( thanks to DH's sister for starting that one- we all enjoy it!), so up until today the longest item she's watched has been a Wiggles show. We've started a few films, but anything not completely friendly ( Monsters Inc was NOT good) has not lasted long, we had a real struggle ( because DH and I wanted to watch it!) with Muppets Christmas Carol. Anyway, today we watched The Sound of Music. I forgot how long it was, but at least I could remember enough of the story to tell Big One what was going to happen next, so Maria did come back, and they did all get away safely. Trying to think of an explanation for the Nazis that wouldn't scare her more was more tricky... But she watched it all, enjoyed most of it and was only a bit upset when it finished, a bit late in the day and very tired out. A couple of hours in front of a screen is suprising tiring- I've not watched anything longer than, say Edwardian Farm for a while and I felt 'out of sorts' as well. We went for a little walk for fresh air, and I feel happy that TV isn't a regular part of our day anymore.
I bought a copy of Set Free Childhood once I was ready to do something about how stressful bedtimes had become in our house. I felt the 20 mins- 1 hr of TV in the evenings while we tidied up and got ready for bedtime was really making things worse. When we moved into the rented house we left the TV behind, and really noticed the difference. Recently we've had vomiting bugs, and I thought the TV would be our safety net- but we didn't put one iplayer programme or DVD  on to distract the children. Though ultimately, although the children benefit, going without the TV was to push us into using our time better. We'd both sit in front of the TV and laptop all evening after getting the girls to bed, not notice the time passing, skipping from channel to channel finding something else to watch instead of switching off, feeling 'out of sorts', tired but not quite sleepy after finally managing to turn it off....and I realised if we as adults have a problem, how much harder must it be for a child to deal with- no wonder the girls were acting up! I can really recommend Set Free Childhood, just as an interesting read about something that is in most homes, a major source of 'relaxation' or 'information' for so many people.

I was a bit worried about the van full of rubbish yesterday- but I really didn't need to. Less than 2 hours of sifting through it- and filling more rubbish bins- it seems a lot more managable. We have a small store of wood ( hope my parents don't want to grow anything in their greenhouse too soon!), a couple more boxes have been put away and  that just leaves a small pile of rubbish for when the wheely bins have been emptied again.
A few random boxes of junk were sorted through this evening, and I was finally ruthless and have only kept 2 boxes of glass jars- all with lids- and the rest have gone in recycling. I'd had a few left in the old house, so trying to get those together with my stash at the rented house has been one of those things that have taken such an annoyingly long time to happen- but the satisfaction in another little task completed is nice.
I wish we'd been able to sort through enough things together to empty another book case, but that requires  happy, well children and the two of us to both be awake at the same time, with brains still functioning. Hasn't happened yet but I live in hope!
I've been able to use my brand new Camping Mug this evening, that DH got me as a Christmas present a couple of days ago(its the thought, not the date that counts). I had to, he wants to borrow it tomorrow and I wanted to try it out first!
Hmm, I've not got pictures to add to this- I'm not wanting to photograph the rubbish in the van, and the half full storage or very full attics don't photo well..
Big One figured out what she was doing wrong when trying to tie a bow yesterday- and has got the hang of it, and even wore clogs today so she could tie her own shoes. I do have a photo of that first bow, but that's on my phone and requires more brain power to remember where the cable is to download it.
Oh well, I feel some crochet coming on instead. Photos can wait another day/week/month.

Slowly Does It

Packing,moving, packing, moving, even throw things out. That's how I assess each room I go into at the moment. I even managed to get Big One to sort through 3 of her various piles of 'important papers' and treasures- we've got a box of things packed away! The pile earmarked for travelling ( just her important things, not the shared resources of paper, crayons, pencils, pens, scissors, paint, paintbrushes!) is rather huge, but its a start.
Our van is full at the moment- mostly rubbish. I wish we could just take it to the tip. However, our van is tall. Our van is, well, a van. So, we've got take our council tax bill, get a peice of paper to allow us to take rubbish to the tip, and then, once we're allowed to do it- ask the man nicely to let us in as there is a height barrier and our van is too tall. Funnily enough I can understand the temptation of fly-tipping now we have a van- I can't believe its so hard to take rubbish and recycling in! Instead we've filled the bins at both houses, and will fill my parents bins as well. The folk who help themselves to anything not fastened down helped us out- we left scrap metal in the back yard at the old house and they obliged within a day!
I had hoped to get more boxes packed, the wardrobe dismantled and in storage- but the van is full of rubbish so we need to dispose of that before we can get another load shifted.
We've put a fair bit into the shiny new storage unit- the bed frames have gone, several book shelves, the filing cabinet, a coffee table....and that was just yesterday :-)
The other house is on the market To Let, and there's just cleaning and a few things left to move ( the van was full of rubbish, remember), so I hope we can get it finished very soon. Tomorrow we should at least get the van empty, but I don't know what else we'll get done.
5 or so weeks till we need to have this house empty. I think I'll go find a drink.

The Plan moves on

We're well and truly working on getting ready for the Big Trip.
Its hard to forget, each time I walk from room to room in this house I hear the clock ticking- 6 weeks to being 'homeless', 10 weeks and we're on our way...
Today feels like we've achieved a lot. No more boxes filled unfortunately- need to find another source or even, gulp, have to buy some. However I finally signed the paperwork for getting the house marketed 'to let' instead of 'for sale'. We did have another viewing last week but the third bedroom was too small for them (dimensions are on the website, but go figure). It is annoying that the house next door is sold,  about to exchange contracts- and we're having to give up.
We have a few more van trips of stuff to sort out at that house ( need boxes!) and we've capitulated and asked a local handyman to do a couple of jobs we'd be annoyed with ourselves for taking too long over and not doing well enough, even if we had the time. So that house is just about sorted. Everyone tells us the rental market is going really well, and three bedroom houses are in demand, its a great rental location....so fingers crossed.
This house is still rather full, only 6 weeks to empty it, but I'm hoping now we've sorted and paid for storage for 6 months that'll keep moving.
I want to get things moved because we still have to arrange how we're going to store  all our camping equipment and personal stuff in the back of the van. We've taken out some racks, and will need to put something else in instead ( currently looking at theIkea trofast storage we have in the living room), but can't fit anything until we've moved bulky things like bed divans.
I'd also really like to build something along the lines of this but I certainly won't have time, and despite DH's best intensions, seriously doubt he'll get chance either.

On a completely different note, I had chance, with a weekend away with DH's family (and one daughter- not the one from last week- puking and slightly ill), to keep crocheting. I was able to make loads of the flowers without constantly having to refer to the pattern- as I have less memory than a goldfish this is a major achievement! DH also let me in the Fent Shop in Skipton on the way to our weekend away, I'm so jealous that M-I-L has this as her local shop! I was only allowed a very quick look, Big One wanted a crochet hook to learn with, so I picked up some yarn as well...my first yarn purchase, but I don't think it'll be my last.
Our weekend away was in Arncliffe, at a beautiful house we keep going back to. We like how well equipped it is, always warm (but we light the open fire anyway) and how there's enough space for the 10 or so of us to enjoy each others company but not be on top of each other, especially when its not been quite the weather for playing out. Of course, its not far for us to travel, but with various folk travelling after work and school, we don't want to go far. With our girls any overnight trip is major upheaval, so being quite local is fabulous for us as well!

Germs

We've got germs. Little One has been sick since yesterday morning. I thought she was on the mend so moved to the more -comfy-but-but-harder-to-de-vomit armchair an hour or so ago. Thankfully her aim is quite good and got the bucket.
I'm not actually joining her at the bucket, but definately not feeling well...
The plus side is a day with Little One sat on me means I've finished my first ever crochet square. Big One wants me to do another square, so that's the next plan. However, can't move from the chair and can't reach the yarn....
More photos another day, perhaps another week depending how we all go!

Festive Season Photos

Big One as Mary at her Nativity- Wellies essential for all the walking Mary had to do!

The Girls were so happy Santa had some of his mince pie ( made by Grandma) and warm  milk:

And left presents! Little One with some of her stocking presents-Big One was really into presents this year.



As mentioned in a previous post, Mother- In- Law gave me crochet things in a lovely homemade bag and scissor case:

First attempts at crochet- they might not look like much but its been interesting to learn so far, and even the girls can recognise the flowers as, well, flowers. I even figured out what I was doing wrong without help!

Thanks to Lucy at Attic24 for the pattern.



 

A quick picture of a gift I made to give: we have a Secret Santa thing at work, so I gave my first attempt at a spoontula- I prefer the spatula, but I just need more practice at a spoontula. The handle on the spatula works well, and I like the colours in the wood. I hope they liked them- I had a wobble at the last moment, so gave a jar of homemade mincemeat as well. The value of the gift is meant to be £10, so I feel my recipient got a bargain!

 The snow melted, but the ice stayed behind. the plastic bucket was ok, but the metal bucket split :(

The girls enjoyed playing with the watery bit in this one!

I've been able to get in the kitchen a bit over the last few days:

Some bread from The Handmade Loaf which is really called 'cucumber pickle juice rye loaf'! Well, we'd finished a jar of pickled cucumbers so I had to give it a try. The taste is much milder than a sourdough rye bread, and it rises more ( in this cold weather!) so I think its a pleasant change.

 DH normally makes the tortillas in this house- but we'd run out and he'd gone to try out his chainsaw on a tree that has fallen, so I had a go- no idea where he got the recipe from, he keeps it on his phone. Mostly slightly over-cooked, so not great as wraps but lovely dipped in home-made hummous. Again, something we had run out of, had the ingredients in so I had a go. This was from Delia's Complete Cookery Course (Vol 1-3), but next time I make it I'll omit the cooking liquid at the beginning, and only add a little if needed. I like my hummous scoop-able, and this came out too runny. Oh, and I use tinned chickpeas, much quicker when everyone's hungry!

Finally, some crackers, also from The Handmade Loaf . They puffed up a bit, so I guess I didn't stab them hard enough with a fork, but I'm happy they're edible for another first attempt.

We made some butter yesterday. We had a large tub of cream Grandma asked us to buy that didn't get used for Christmas.We don't usually use cream, and if we did  it would be for something that'd last a few days- not great for cream already passed its use by date.Anyway, lots of vigourous shaking later, it turned into butter and buttermilk. The buttermilk works fabulously in scones according to Delia's Complete How To Cook, and I left the butter unsalted. I'd share a pic but, as we finished the shaking at Grandma and Grandad's, the scones were made there ( and eaten up!) and we managed to forget to bring the butter home. We used some of the butter in the scones, and lovely on baked potatoes.
  One or two of us will go to get it later, so we can make our own batch of Delia buttermilk scones.

Some friends need an Egg Donor

We're friends with a lovely couple who have had sad news about their own chances of conceiving a sibling for their son. They'd like the egg donor to be a known part of their family rather than anonymous, so have set up the following website.
If you think you, or someone you know may be willing to help, please contact them through their website.

http://eggdonorneeded.weebly.com/

Seasons Greetings

Short days and long nights- brings pictures in my mind of curling up by the fire (carving spatulas of course, they're a little more house friendly than bowl carving in my experience) after playing out in the snow.

Only our snow has melted, leaving us with buckets full of ice but thankfully the van can get around again. We haven't found snow/mud friendly tires yet, so skid and skate with it if there is even the slightest coating of snow on the roads. Unfortunately we made the decision to get better tires after the snow started, and everywhere has sold out. I was looking rather enviously at a truck on our road with brand new snow tires!

I've been able to book onto a spoon carving course at the end of March. As we will be homeless then (our landlord wants the house for a family member as soon as possible, and our contract ends the beginning of March so we've been given notice) I luckily can use some holiday before my career break starts 1st April- travelling to work when having to live in a tent with two small children just doesn't sound fun. And that's without logistic issues like washing uniforms! We're looking on the bright side and will have a couple of weeks 'settling in' whilst being handy for where we're storing the 'living in a house' junk to rescue what has been packed or ( hopefully) store non-essentials we planned to travel with. DH is convinced we'll need a trailer as well as our long wheel based crew cab transit, and I think he might be right.
I am just hoping we'll keep warm enough in the tent with woodburner in March- we've done overnight in the snow in the smaller tent last Christmas, but that's not living in  it full time! I know we're planning on travelling in the tent all summer, but April was when I planned to start, and we might have even found somewhere with housespace for us to start off with!
I've sadly put away the sewing machine as the next 10 weeks or so will be far too busy packing up to start new projects...though I have just remembered some of our sleeping foams need covering, and the machine would hurry that up..anyway, apart from that my mother-in-law has got me onto something new.

For Christmas she has given me a crochet hook, some wool (yarn I believe may be the technical term), a patchwork bag (expertly made by herself) to keep it all in, and a book to get me started!
I've had approximately 2 dismal attempts at knitting, when I was much younger and that is the grand total of my experience of 'that sort of thing'.
Growing up in Canada meant I had options at Junior High like Hunter Education that caught my attention, with plans on Driver Ed for grade 9 had I stayed there -I think you could learn to drive at 14, back when I was there, anyway. Secondary school here didn't include much in the home crafts or cooking. I seem to recall about a school-terms worth of cooking but there being a horrible amount of writing for what I expected to be practical classes.
To avoid too much PE I did Latin GCSE- the teacher came from the 6th form next door, but the only place in the schedule meant missing out on an hour of Games and some other (non-GCSE) lessons a week. The Latin class was fairly evenly split between really brainy folk and the rest of us doing anything to avoid running around outside in just pants . That was something that really shocked me moving to England, uniform for school I could cope with,quite liked even,  but having a see-through top and big pants to wear for PE- and not being allowed to wear anything on top? Winter classes in a freezing gym 'if you're cold you need to run about more' being a repetitive strain and the classes in 'summer' (I use the term loosely, it wasn't warm most of the time by any stretch of the imagination) being outside where even more people could see you  half dressed?! I gladly scraped through Latin to avoid it, but quite possible missed finding out about fun crafting stuff (this might have been in the other lessons grouped with it on the timetable) for another decade or so.

Anyway, M-I-L has kindly given me the crochet things as something to keep me learning, and quite importantly with our travel plans, doesn't need a lot of equipment or space to work on. She's shown me how to get started, and I think she's taught me how to do doubles or something. I'm getting to grips with the row bit, but I seem to have a problem at each end of a row. I'm hunting on utube for tutorials I can follow -the first one I got showed you how to do a slip knot so quickly that, seeing as I watched it about a dozen times and still didn't see what she did, I gave up on her.
If anyone can point me to somewhere good to start online I'd be grateful!

Hope you've had a happy, healthy (sounds like half my friends have had 'flu this Christmas so hope you've escaped) and warm Christmas, and hope 2011 brings dreams to life, or at least one step nearer, for you.

The Grand Plan

I recently posted out our Christmas cards mentioning our blogs on them, but haven't actually got around to putting brain in gear to spell out what we're up to, not the least why we haven't our own address for long!

Short version- we're going travelling around the UK for 6 months in 2011.

Long version:
We started discussing travelling around the UK about a year ago, and at some point on the One Show WWOOFing was mentioned. This is World wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, the detail in on their website but basically it means for doing some work on a farm, with no prior knowledge required, and you have somewhere to sleep and food to eat. There are many different permutations, varying from living with a family to having a tent and raw ingredients to cook yourself, and finally on to our variation where we hope for somewhere to stay and the odd shared meal- as our two are so young we can't both do full work hours. We both realise there is so much of this country we haven't seen, and with our young family weekend trips are just exhausting to fit in with a working week as well. We've vaguely discussed emigrating, but feel we really will find somewhere to suit us in this country without going to the other side of the world.
We do know we don't want to stay in our mid-terrace house in Halifax -though no one else seems to want to buy it, so we're working on getting tenants in it instead. Between us we have a dream of land to grow veg, trees for Alex and space for the children to grow up and play. Housing isn't a huge priority, though a vomiting bug earlier in the year has made somewhere to wash and dry lots of bedding more important. We'd like to have space to invite friends to- the limits of our little rented house has made it evident that we need some space for families to come and play.

We're about to become official in home-educating as Big One is 'school age' after Christmas. Home educating gradually crept in for us. It started out realising that DH worked in a school that wanted him to only take time off in school holidays, and I work in a department where school holidays are booked about a year in advance, if not longer, and my chances of getting when would suit me was quite limited. Then the realisation of the costs of peak time holidays, plus the cost of childcare for the other weeks...when we'd rather be with our children- home educating started to sound nice. We also happen to feel formal education starts too young at age 4 , when many places don't start until aged 7.
Meeting other home ed families in real life has been a wonderful experience. Just about everyone has a completely different reason for getting into it, but the main aim of doing what is best for their child is the common thread.

So DH quit his job last month, from next month he'll have Big One at home full time, and come April we're going on a grand tour of mainland UK on the cheap for 6 months. I haven't jacked in my job -yet-so have 6 months leave for our adventures. We hope to see places we've missed before, learn new skills, find out what aspects of a small holding really appeal -or we really detest, and hopefully come up with a plan for what and where our next, more permanent home will be.
We've been raising anxiety levels with my parents at least, discussing a yurt in a field (English planning laws alas are not helpful in this respect).
Our immediate family seem to hide their anxieties about our plans well- so far, anyway.

My current dream home would be a short commute to a hospital or clinic so I can earn a conventional wage a day or two a week as needed, but have woods for DH, a stream for hydro power, a big garden for the girls, lots of growing space for the veggies and polytunnel, a small house we can adapt to our needs with lots of verandas, insulation, something like a ceramic stove,a composting loo or two, solar panels and a wind turbine, and a busy home ed community nearby.
I think we'll need to win the lottery and compromise!

Festive Family Doings

We spent an evening and a morning making Christmas cards from various left overs, stickers and a bumper pack of cards. Big One especially had a wonderful time, reduced to tears for having to stop for bedtime, and she's still offering now to make more if I find I need more. Most were posted before I even thought of the camera, but these are three she has chosen who they are for. Though there were four, so I wonder if one has been posted to someone else by accident....

I have started to put things together for the hampers we intend as our Christmas gifts this year- this is one destined for someone highly unlikely to look here, so I think I'm alright showing it!

I'm copying Robin Woods line of using wood chips as packing material- these aren't being posted anywhere, so even though our wood shavings aren't as fancy, they'll still be functional.

I grew up in Canada, and one essential ( along with ice skates and skis- snow shoes were only tried out once at school that I can remember!) was the toboggan. Mine came back with me when we moved, and has been sat in my parents garage for about 20 years.Its in need of some TLC and another cross-brace, but is functional enough for my two. It was quickly located for the first time on Christmas Day last year, when Big One and DH had spent Christmas Eve in our tent with woodburner listening for Santa, and funnily enough noone else was on the sledging hill Christmas Day Afternoon ( Little One was too little to enjoy it, but Big One had a fab time!). We're keeping it handy in the van for further snow adventures, as the van has been snowed in and my parents garage isn't that handy for us to walk to.

 We had a go at making mince pies. I have limited imagination, so I follow recipes. So, this was mince pies courtesy of Delia. With mincemeat courtesy of her too. Usually my pastry is fairly uninspiring, but something- no idea what- went incredibly well.

So this is as close as you get to seeing a baked one! Oh, the mix made 3 dozen plus 2, plus a small amount of pastry for Little One to make 'biscuits' with. They were baked in the oven for a few minutes around the last 2 mince pies, and both girls loved scoffing them and want to make more. Little One won't eat the mince pies- well, after seeing me and Big One scoff so many, she graduated from eating the points off the stars to poking through and finding the raisins in the mincemeat- she spat out the orange zest in it. I do enjoy how different in taste the girls are!

This weekend we also found an excuse for DH to try out the chainsaw he bought last week ( he got all the protective gear straight after his course, but decided to wait a bit for the saw) but I suspect he'll have blogged about that.

As a result, I've started work on a spoon-tula, but thought I'd blog instead of being dangerous with a knife tonight.

From a couple of months ago- a great use of an Ikea cheap wok and a few curtain brackets. I was most impressed!

Bah Humbug

To the Agenda For Change. For those of you who haven't heard my tirade, Agenda for Change was something the last government came up with, to equalise hours and working practices across the NHS. The out of hours system they came up with -actually, I don't think they ever did come up with something workable. But the changes they did come up with have affected me ( and my colleagues).
This all started 5 years ago, and from a pay point of view, it was good for me. Our trust had a local agreement, with one rate of pay for newly qualified sonographers, another for experienced, and a third teir for those who did specialist scans or put drains in. AfC did away with all that, so that as long as I kept working, I worked up the pay band. Now I'm at the top of my band, with no financial incentive to do further training, and incidentally on the same pay point as my colleagues who do put drains in or do specialist scans.
They've been on pay protection for the last 5 years, so no pay rise now is no different for them.
Why am I grumbling about this now?
Well, today I start having to work 10 minutes later to maintain my pay. Last time this happened I was returning from maternity leave,so it wasn't quite as obvious. But from today I'm working longer days.
So, on top of a pay freeze for my colleagues for the last 5 years, they've also had to increase their working week- we were all originally working a 35 hour week, and working up to 37.5hrs. Of course, for other folk in the NHS this has been an improvement for them, as their working week was previously much longer- but I'm not talking about them!
So, its advent calendar time ( which I have still to get out of the Christmas box and put something in the pockets!) and I'm working longer days. I just wish we could win the lottery!

A competition entry

A blog I follow is having a competition, giving folk chance to win a doll. As Little One, Big One and I had a rather random conversation about willies earlier, the chance to have an anatomically correct one around is rather appealing (yes, another doll would have to go to the charity shop if we were lucky enough to be chosen!), and I can believe they are nicer to look and feel in real life than what they look like on the web.
Merry's blog is listed down on the right, but here's the link to the particular entry:
http://www.patchofpuddles.co.uk/archives/3876/public-announcement-and-a-giveaway/comment-page-3#comment-272052

Christmas is starting!

So last week it was the tree, this week its gifts. Robin over at the HCA posed a question on facebook, which prompted me to finally decide what we might be giving, and put together a photo :

a bought basket ( next year I hope at least one of us can learn to make a basic basket) my horse-chestnut bowl, a few jars of preserves and possibly a spatula, spoon-tula or maybe even a spoon. Our first Christmas gifts are finally wrapped! I've only got as far as carving my own spatula though, DH learned the rest and when we get chance he's sharing his learning.
He's only one more week until he 'retires' and becomes fully devoted to home life and home educating.

He managed to fit in some baking this week- all I did was eat the results! Fabulous cheese scones, but he wants to improve on them. I'll look forward to another batch, these were definately good enough for me.

Last week there was a very important birthday. I won't share the resulting mess, despite asking for no 'Things' we'd have to consider packing. It could have been much worse, but I feel children just don't Need Things- hugs and time with family and friends are more important right now.
A very talented friend made and decorated a wonderful cake as gift- the cake didn't last long but the figures were worth an extra photo, even once the cake had gone.

I was rushing to finish this, and nearly forgot the Elderberry liqueur! Its been regularly agitated- I'm sure I've found new muscles for hefting that huge jar from the top shelf- but apparently its now ready for bottling. I have a suspicion its meant to be left now until next year, but we'll be giving it away this Christmas and then its up to the recipients. I tried a small sample now, and its alright, certainly more drinkable than the tincture, though I don't enjoy alcohol particularly so I'm not the best judge of these things.

A Lovely Day

For once we didn't have appointments or social obligations  on my day off work, and I didn't have a huge list of tasks I felt I had to drag the girls through.
So, we painted pictures. We made bread dough - its sourdough so DH will get to bake it tomorrow. Our house temperature means it takes about 24 hrs to prove. We made a huge den. We did lots of washing up and a couple of loads of washing-even had some washing pegged out. We did lots of colouring in, trying out various birthday gifts that Big One recieved . We tried asking for nothing, but that didn't go down so well, so we asked that Big One was given painting/colouring things, thankfully these things pack down small, but we still haven't found places for everything to go. We visited a neighbour to loan a book ( The The Politics of Breastfeeding: When Breasts are Bad for Business) and the girls were amazingly silent until the protests about time to leave started.
We walked to the park and played in the mist. It's been a lovely autumn day today, though not good for drying washing!  Little One seems to be dropping her nap on family days, but she did ask for the Slinga-licious mei tai sling to carry her home from the park.
We managed fairly well without tantrums ( that's the major achievement) to tidy up each activity before getting too involved with the next. We just haven't the space to leave everything out.
We even had a proper tea- roast  organic lamb ( from friends farm just along the valley), gravy, rice and carrots and squash. The sweet potato might be cooked now, it wasn't ready at teatime!
I thought a few times throughout the day about getting some photos, but we were far too busy living today to break the flow and find the camera to record some of it.

Christmas landed in our house last weekend- we have our tree up. Historically I used to decorate for Hallowe'en, then Christmas started the 1st November. But then babies came along! Big One asked one year to decorate the tree on her birthday, but now it just normally happens after her birthday. I really enjoy the build up to Christmas. Thankfully we don't have a TV so the adverts don't drive us mad, and Christmas shopping normally happens in the January sales (apart from this year) so we've just gift making and card making to do. DH is completely bah humbug about it all- he might get me a gift Christmas Eve, or perhaps not!
We haven't yet decided where we'll do Christmas Day, but I don't think we've the space to invite family over. The lack of TV and comfortable chairs is also an effective deterrant... I wonder if we might have Christmas just us. We've not tried that yet.

I have finally started to learn some new carving techniques from DH, after his spoon carving course. I have made a couple of spatulas, but I really would like to get some more practice.
I've nearly finished a willow bowl I started a month or two ago. A forum I'm on has a spoon knife set being passed around, and its got to my turn. Duncan has made some really nice knives, and I'm really enjoying using one of them in particular. Its working well for improving the shape and depth I get to the bowl, especially as I'm not really using my carving horse, and learning to hold my bowls without slicing chunks off my fingers.

I'm slowly working on contacting potential WWOOF hosts for our Big Trip next year. Suddenly April seems very close, and I need to also book the various camps and festivals we've decided to fit into our 6 month expedition around the UK.

Coughs, colds and various bugs seem to multiply in our house, so we've turned the heating on to see if being less damp and more warm might avoid some bugs, and with help from the plumber we even have heat in the bedroom, as of yesterday.
I think that's about it, really. After we've got them to bed I'll see about some photos.