Crafty me

Hello and good morning on this dull and windy Monday morning. I will plan my day around the weather today. The front lawn needs mowing, thought about leaving it to develop into a wild flower meadow, but maybe not. I might fit a walk in if it doesn't rain. Otherwise I will carry on playing with rope and wool. And I need to make some videos. 

Trying different materials and different ideas is proving to be quite enjoyable. I've had this roll of fine mesh for absolutely donkey's years, there ought to be something I can do with it. Some orange cord left, so let's get crafting.  

It was going to be a bowl, but ended up as a coaster. I thought I would give it a frilly edge. The orange colour looks kind of lost, too much of the luminous green, when I do this again I will look for something a bit finer to blend in with the base colour, and not blot it out all together. I've done this in a blanket stitch by the way. 

The bowl I made with the green cord and white wool. I have given it a pink edge. When making these you can always add a bit more on with crochet. 

Here is a photo of the pan of veggie stew I have on the go at the moment. I put some Quorn chunks in it, and the salsa sauce came from a sachet of ready made sauce, which was a year out of date. I don't care, it tastes lovely. A portion left for lunch today, and if I add some ready cooked rice I can spin it out for a dinner later on. 

I did an Aldi shop yesterday afternoon, I thought 3pm on a Sunday would be a good time to do it, an hour before they close. It wasn't very busy, and I didn't need much so it was hassle free. I still think after 7pm at night is better, so I will stick to that. Must make sure I don't run out of anything and have to go during the daytime in a panic. 

Another shock this morning when I logged on here. The post, Getting ready for Camping, has had over 9,100 page views, which takes it to the top of the list for the most page views of all times, beating the previous winner by 500 views. I am gobsmacked. 

Anyway, I'm going to get off, just remembered I need to go to the Post Office in the church this morning. Toodle pip..ilona

Five a day, nah, more like ten a day.

I've eaten well today. Started with porridge and soft fruit, frozen cherries, blueberries, and raspberries, and a banana. 

Lunch was two slices of seeded bread, toasted and spread with butter, and cream cheese with garlic. On top an avocado and cucumber, underneath iceberg lettuce. It was fabulous.

Dinner tonight was, steamed vegetables, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, onions, Brussels sprouts, and spinach. Served with a cheese and onion crispy bake, from Aldi. With a dollop of mayo. It was chuffin great.

Ooops, I made too much veg, there's some left for tomorrows lunch. This is why I don't eat out, can't get meals like this at a reasonable price. You can't beat food from your own kitchen. Toodle pip.  ilona

Life is good

I did my walk as the sun was going down last night. Luckily I put my camera in my pocket. Caught some stunning views.  

I zoomed in on this one so it's a bit grainy.

Just as I thought the sun had disappeared over the horizon, I turned round and saw this. I always walk away too soon, thinking it's gone.

Breakfast this morning. The last portion of macaroni cheese, with butter beans, green beans, peas, and an egg on top. On a slice of seeded bread. I get the macaroni cheese from Aldi, about 39p a packet, then bulk it out with frozen veg and a tin of butter beans, all cooked in the same pan. There is enough for four portions.

I've been mulling over the idea of doing a series of videos looking back at my lorry driving career. As I am approaching my 70th birthday it seems an appropriate time to do it. Get it all down on record. I don't want to write a book, so videos will be the easier option I think. It will take me a few weeks to prepare this. I want to release the videos consecutively, so the story will unfold over a period of a week or more, possibly around the middle of next month.

They will take the form of a chatty style video, with some pictures, and maybe a slide show. Don't expect them to be polished and perfect, as I am not familiar with editing packages. I project for me to work on, alongside all the other projects I have got floating around in my head, ha ha.

The sun is back, thankfully it rained yesterday so the garden got a good drenching. I am going to an embroidery class tonight, need to do my walk, and some arty stuff this afternoon. Toodle pip.  ilona

My early birthday present.

Mission accomplished. I've been to Lincoln and bought a sewing machine from Couling Sewing Machines, situated in the High Street, there is parking outside the door. A nice young lady served me, she was very helpful, and demonstrated my chosen model. It's a smallish shop but they have a large selection of most makes of machines in stock. They also have a Facebook page. 

And this is the young lady who served me today.



I got a bit lost coming out of Lincoln. I was going to go back on the same road that I came in on, because there's a Tesco and I thought I might as well get some food shopping done. Never mind, I hit the ring road at a different junction and missed Tesco, so I carried on back to Scunthorpe. I pass my usual store anyway so I might as well pop in there.

It was 4.30pm, too early for the final markdown of the yellow stickers so I didn't expect much, I had a look in the veg department to see what there was. I was amazed, there were tons of food, they must have over stocked by such a lot, and although it only had two stickers on, not three, they had knocked 90% off.
I was in heaven. Plenty for everyone. This pile cost £5.04p, and even then, I got a further reduction of 38p, because there was a, buy 3 and pay for 2, offer. 

Prepared fruit, mushrooms, salad leaves, mixed veg, vegetable bake, baby potatoes, baby sweetcorn, broccoli, diced onion, spinach, Italian pasta salad, fine green beans, salad bowl. This will keep me going, some will be frozen, some will be given away. I hit the jackpot.  ilona

Dinner in a pan, 15 minutes.

Jumping for joy, my lovely Ford Focus passed the MOT test, no advisories, all is good. This is the fifth Ford car I have had now, two Cortina's, one Escort, and two Focus, and they have all been good, I'm definitely a Ford girl. 

It was a thrown together sort of meal tonight. A chopped up Quorn fillet, an onion, in a pan with a splash of olive oil. Whole grain mustard, vegetable granules, and half a packet of frozen cooked rice with vegetables. When nearly done, add an egg, mix it in. Serve on a bed of watercress with cucumber. It was bloomin lovely. 

It's been a miserable day outside, dull, cold, drizzly, damp, cloudy, and horrible. Only did my two mile walk. Helping my friend deliver some newsletters tomorrow, let's hope it's a bit better.  ilona

Being polite has it's downsides.

Oh dear, I have eaten too much. I was presented with a massive cooked dinner on Sunday, someone had gone to a lot of trouble to lay on the feast, five of us sat round a table and scoffed. I am very appreciative of the kindness of others, so I had to be kind back and eat almost the whole plateful. It's rude not to eat what is put in front of you, and I hate wasting food, so I soldiered on. I did my best, didn't want to leave half of it, even though I was bursting at the seams. I had to stop short of clearing the whole lot, some cabbage and peas were left on the edge of the plate.

I do have big platefuls of food sometimes at home, but it is always vegetables or salad. If I can't manage all of it I put it in the fridge to be added to lunch the next day. The feeling of fullness never lasts long, because salad and veg passes through the body quite quickly. It's not a good idea to eat tons of heavy food which will linger a while longer. The stomach stretches to compensate for over indulgence, then you get the feeling that there is a blockage as some of it gets stuck half way down. Not good.

I was still full when I got to the hotel, the Holiday Inn, by the way, very nice hotel, so I was able to collapse on the bed and watch tele. I was still full the next morning when I went down for breakfast. I rationed myself to a bowl of cornflakes, and beans and scrambled egg on a slice of bread. I could have gone the whole hog and ordered a full veggie breakfast, but the though of it made me feel sick. I had to eat something though, not good to binge eat and later starve yourself.

I rang my Auntie to see if she was in for a visit. The first thing she said was, I haven't got anything vegetarian in. People always thing vegetarians have a completely different diet than everyone else. I never expect people to prepare special food for me, I will eat what they eat, except for the meat, fish, and gravy. I said, Auntie, I don't need to eat, I am still stuffed from last night, and I have just had breakfast. She is so kind. So I had a cup of coffee with her and a catch up natter.

Next onto sisters in the afternoon. Starting to feel like I ought to eat something so she made me a cheese sandwich, that was just right, will keep me going till I get home. I drove past Tesco, couldn't be bothered to call in, the thought of buying more food, yuk, can't face it. At 7pm I had a small bowl of soup.

This morning I had porridge with a few frozen fruits. I hope to get my stomach back to normal today, smaller portions to give it chance to shrink back to it's normal size. So sorry stomach, I have abused you, because I was too polite to leave food that someone had prepared specially for me.

Eating is seen as a social activity, go out for a meal with friends, getting a take away with friends, going to someone's house for a party. There's going to be a lot of this going on between now and Christmas. There's going to be a lot of stretched stomachs, over indulgence, and eating too much. I might get an invite to one more family do, it will be nice to see them, but I'm going to have to limit myself about what goes into my mouth. Feeling bloated and sick isn't my idea of enjoyment.

How will you cope, will you be partying, will you be stuffing your face, just because it's all laid out on a table?   ilona

Inspiration from an art teacher

Hello. I went to town today, needed to pay a bill into the bank and pick up a few essentials from Aldi. I also had a bimble around a couple of charity shops, looking for a canvas or two, found one, 50p. I also found these items which looked interesting. This wire thing was 50p, not sure what it was in it's previous life, but I have an idea what it could be in it's next life. 

In the Scope shop I found a set of 12 chrome coasters, for just £1. There is something pleasing to the eye about a spiral. I have an idea for these as well.

My inspiration for these two projects comes from one of the bloggers on my side bar, so not strictly my idea. Cassie Stephens is an art teacher, she is just amazing, the kids must love her. This is her blog post which inspired me to find something I could yarn bomb. In fact if you love art have a look at her blog she has some great ideas. Here is the video she has put on her blog post.


I've just managed to eat this massive dinner, all good stuff. The carrots, peas, broccoli, potatoes, baby sweetcorn, and parsnips, all yellow sticker, with two eggs scrambled into it. A fabulous dinner and I'm stuffed.

Time to go and do my walk and check on Tina. She was ok when I popped in this afternoon but I think she is missing her mummy. I will take some sewing and sit with her for a while.

Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Eating well for less

Hello. It is one week since I did my last yellow sticker shop, and I still haven't eaten all the food I bought, even after giving some away. I thought I would post a picture of my lunch today, everything on the plate was 7 days out of date, and as you can see some of it was 'best before' and some was 'use by'. The rice with mushrooms was a salad pot, it went in the pan with the chopped up large mushroom and a drop of oil. I cooked it for five minutes on the hob. 

This is a mayo and garlic dip, it's all gone now, just finished it on my evening meal.

Avocado's, I did have one which I had to cut out the black bits, but one out of eight isn't bad when the rest were perfectly fine, and only 19p for a pack of two.

Unwashed salad leaves always last longer than the ready washed ones. I still have a bag of these left for tomorrow.

There was four large flat mushrooms in this pack, one left for tomorrow.

My out of date tasty veggie meal.

Yesterday I had an even cheaper lunch. It came in a plastic microwaveable pot, and only took two minutes to warm up, and only cost 20p. Beans, peas, and broccoli. I didn't need to add anything to it, this was plenty to fill me up.

I've been playing with the tissue paper again, this time I used a piece of white cotton fabric. It is laid on a metal grill rack to dry. First I put the background pieces on, blues and greens, then added the sun, and the stalks and flowers. The colours soon seep through. When I lifted the tissues I didn't think the colours of the flowers were dense enough, so I got small pieces of the same colour, screwed it up, wet it, and dabbed more colour on. A bit like painting with my fingers. My intention is to embroider onto it. I will think about what to do with it next, might add some paint first. 

My regular dog walking job has come to an end, Ken is walking Bailey now and he is getting on fine with it. I shall be filling in for him if he needs to take a day off for some reason. I now have a new job, Tina the puss cat is on her own, her owner had to go into care. Someone calls in once a day, and someone else twice a week, and I have a key to go and check on her every day. We are hoping to find her a new home through the rescue. It's snowing here at the moment, I shall pop and see her in an hour or so, it isn't far, across the road and down a street, only five minutes away.

Anyway, I'll cut you loose, thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Mystery artwork

Hello. This is typical of the food I am eating at the moment, munching my way through the yellow stickers. Three days past the sell by date, and still some more left in the fridge. The strawberries, bread, and hot cross buns are in the freezer, the butternut squash, chopped onions and mushrooms have gone in a stew, four portions in the freezer for 40p. 

This is my latest artwork, can you guess what it is. I had some pieces from the inside of an old computer I smashed up a long time ago, must be something I can do with them.

 I had a bimble locally today, and came across a load of bathroom fittings on a footpath. I've just been on the council web site and reported it. This area is targeted quite often because it's wide enough to get a van or car down there. Compared to some areas I don't think we suffer too much from fly tipping, I've seen some horrendous sights in inner city areas. I blame the council for putting a charge on getting rid of waste. This will come from a small builder who doesn't have a licence from the council to take it to the tip.

I've had a letter today from Ebico my utilities supplier, asking for meter readings. It was dated 5th Jan and I have only just received it. I wish they would get their act together, they don't need to send me a reminder, I posted the readings on their web site on the 2nd. Why don't they check that first. I've just done another reading and posted them.

Bailey has a new dog walker, Ken is doing it now. Hope all is going well with that. I saw Joanna the 1940's lady, in the shop the other day, she invited me to call in for a coffee. I might do that

That's all for now, not a lot happening here. Thanks for popping in, enjoy your weekend, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Shopping at night for bargains.

Good morning. I finally went shopping last night. Arriving just before 7pm, and leaving two hours later with a trolley load of yellow stickers, plus a few other things which are never reduced. Look at this amazing haul, my best ever I think.

The shop wasn't busy, with about half a dozen people hanging around the back door waiting for the freshly yellow stickered fruit and veg to appear. Another small group of people were waiting around the chiller cabinet where the ready meals/convenience food, dairy and meat are usually stacked. I had a quick look there and picked up some dairy, but most of it has meat in it, so no good for me. I leave them to it and head back to the fruit and veg and wait for the next lot to be wheeled out.

A few close ups so you can see the savings to be made by shopping at the end of the day when things are about to go out of date and have to leave the store. Thankfully by the front door in customers bags, and not by the back door in skips. At least my Tesco does offer it to us patient shoppers who wait around for it to be priced up.

These pots are not out of date until the end of the month. The six pack has come apart and the wrapper is torn, so all they do is bag them up and reduced them.

Shopping this way gives me chance to try things I wouldn't otherwise pay full price for. It means I can vary my diet rather than keep eating the same basic cheaper foods. This will not be baked, my oven doesn't work, I will empty the contents into a pan and cook it on the hob. I have two of these, the label says not suitable for home freezing, I need to eat them in the next couple of days.

Rice and vegetables with a coconut curry dressing. Microwave in the bag. I will open it and split it into two portions and cook on the hob.

There were a lot of potatoes going cheap, I will give some away.

Once again I have avocados. I'm not surprised they don't sell very well at that price. Lucky for me to spot these. I have four packs of 2.

The total value of my yellow stickers is £76.31, I paid just £9.09 for them. Probably my best saving ever.  Even better than when I went shopping for Rip off Britain. I bought a few other things which brought the total up to £28.86. Two bags of dry cat food at £3.50 each, they were on offer £1 cheaper than normal price. I also got eggs, cheese, milk shake, soya and rice milk, and fruit juice.

We have a new dog walker starting this morning, Ken is going to take over walking Bailey for a while to give me and Brenda a breather. I am going to go with him on his first walk to explain Bailey's little quirky habits. Later on I need to cook some of that food up for the freezer. I'll sign off for now, need to get ready. The weather looks awful, dull, overcast, and drizzly.

Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Simply spirals.

Hello. It's been a bit warmer today, I went outside for a while to clean up some driftwood. Not needed any heating on, the house has been warm enough without it. 

Do you remember that spiralizer thingy  I bought, which was pretty hopeless. I took it back to the store and got my money back. Well I've now got this gadget which is a lot simpler and actually works fine. Put your vegetable in it and twist. Dead easy, and simple to wash after. 

 Dinner tonight. Chopped onion, soften in oil. I defrosted a couple of Quorn fillets in the microwave, cut them into small pieces and added them to the onions. Throw in a handful of frozen mushrooms. Then add carrot and parsnip, and chopped Brussels Sprouts, and a tin of chick peas, and chopped spinach. Add water and orange juice, season with vegetable granules and half a packet of Korma curry sauce mix. Simmer on a low heat for 15 minutes.

It tastes bloomin lovely. Plenty left for tomorrow. Can be eaten with rice, pasta, couscous, bread, or a jacket potato. I ate it on it's own. A filling meal cooked in one pan.

One email with three rejections came through today from Ferens Art Gallery. It seems they didn't think my pictures were good enough to hang in their Open Exhibition.

Thank you for your submission to this year’s Open Exhibition.

Unfortunately on this occasion your submission has not been selected for this year's exhibition - Octopuses Garden

Unfortunately on this occasion your submission has not been selected for this year's exhibition - Shapes

Unfortunately on this occasion your submission has not been selected for this year's exhibition - Beach Huts

Oh well, bit disappointed, never mind. They obviously have no idea what a work of art looks like, and wouldn't recognize a talented artist even if they fell over one in the street. My work is too good for that place anyway. They needn't come begging me to apply next year  :o)

Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Food, cats, and sewing

Hello. It's been another at home sewing day today. There's so many projects that I want to do, too many ideas and not enough time to do them all. The days are short, I sit by my back window where the daylight is best, but it doesn't last very long, and it is not so good on the eyes sewing by artificial light. That's why I like to get up early and start sewing. 

I'm still eating tons of veg, this was my dinner yesterday. I deliberately make more than I need, then save some in the fridge for the following days lunch. 

Today's lunch. Mushrooms, beetroot, spinach, left over steamed veg, and a scrambled egg, piled on a slice of toast. Very nice, and filling too. 

Heidi was helping me out today, 

The Crafty Club is entering our home made tree in the Christmas Tree Festival again this year, so we are all making decorations for it. Here are mine. The theme is Winter Wonderland, so I thought white and silver would be a good combination. White felt, and silver pipe cleaners twisted into spirals, embellished with red, green, and gold beads.

I saw these colourful pipe cleaners in the £1 shop ages ago. Could be quite useful I thought, can be twisted into any shape.

We had about twenty minutes of fireworks tonight, lots of bangs, don't know where it was coming from but not too far away, the bangs were quite loud. Spose we will get more tomorrow and Sunday. Guy Fawkes night isn't just the 5th any more, it's any night that you fancy, several nights if you like. Don't forget to keep your pets indoors over the next few days.

The weekend is here, have a good one. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip.

Add colour to your food

Hello. I love colour in my meals as well as in my surroundings. Colour is cheerful and uplifting, as opposed to dark and dull, which is miserable and gloomy. My lunch yesterday  was mushrooms cooked in a little oil. Added to this was herbs from the garden, and a simple cheap veggie burger, (6 for £1 at Tesco). I defrosted it for a few seconds in the microwave, then cut it into six pieces and added it to the mushrooms. Left it on the gas for a few minutes to ensure it was cooked through, then broke an egg into it. Mix it together so the egg is cooked. Serve on a slice of wholemeal toast, with lettuce and tomato. It was lovely. 

This morning I thought I would do something different for breakfast. I have two avocados which were £1.85 to begin with, but I got them on a yellow sticker for 74p. Avocados are very expensive here, I only buy them when reduced. I made my usual mix of seeds and nuts, (linseeds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, walnuts, almonds, and cashews), in the mini chopper, and added those to the mashed avocados in a bowl. A splash of toasted sesame seed oil gave it a lovely flavour. Spread it on a slice of wholemeal toast and top with a boiled egg. I struggled to eat all that, I'm sure it's going to make me feel fuller for longer. I think it will be a late lunch today.

My friend came round yesterday morning, she has exactly the same sewing machine as I rescued from the tip. Sadly I don't have a lead for it, but she has, so she brought it to see if the machine works. And yes it does, yipeeee. She also has the manual. I am now going to have a play with it, it hums like a dream. Then I will make enquiries to find a lead, starting with the sewing machine shop in town.

I got caught out in the rain last night on my walk, it hammered it down so I cut it short to two miles. That Joe is a fit bod, isn't he. Nice to look at, but I would find it difficult to keep up with him. I'm glad he is doing a lot of work with children, they need a role model like him to get them moving. I'll stick with the fast paced walking, and a bit of dancing around the room to sixties music.

Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Eat plenty of veggies

Hello. Howz ya didlin. Are you all scoffing enough vegetables? I hope you are. Tons of veggies are good for you. If you need some inspiration, here's a little video I made today about the delishusness of veg, and how I cook them. Plain and simple, steaming takes five minutes in a pan on the hob.



Prices are good at the moment, not too expensive, so it costs very little to make a meal. To those who say healthy eating is expensive, I say bunkum. Junk food is expensive, just veggies is cheap.

Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Heidi learning keyboard skills.

Hello. It's goodbye summer and hello autumn here today. Damp and drizzly all day, now chucking it down with rain. Blow that for a game of soldiers, I'm not going out for a walk today, no sireeee. Twas a bit quiet at Crafty Club this morning, just the two of us, made a change because I could actually get a word in edgeways instead of battling against the banter going backwards and forwards across the table. Last night I machined a few pieces of fabric together to make a book cover to take with me. I added some cross stitch to it. 

This afternoon I made some more shopping bags, now I have 14 to sell on the cat stall next month. Owain the Welsh weather man kept me company, he is now a presenter on BBC Radio York, and his lively chat keeps me entertained.

My lunch today was a big fat sandwich. I am really getting into them now, and they are getting fatter and fatter as I stuff more filling into them. For dinner tonight I made a pan of this whatever you like to call it. A chopped onion, three mushrooms, handful of frozen peas, and broad beans, two pieces of frozen spinach, and some Quorn mince. It's sort of mild curryish with turmeric and vegetable granules for seasoning. Instead of water I gave it a slosh of cranberry juice. Served on a bed of tagliatelle. There is enough for two more meals which I will eat tomorrow and the next day. It's very tasty, and filling.  

Now I am being interrupted, Heidi's nose is two inches away from this keyboard, she is demanding my attention. I'm not going to get much more done tonight so I might as well give up. Perhaps I can get her to write the blog posts in future.

Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip.

A bimble around the Horseshoe Falls

Hello, and goodbye to Squirrels Guest House in Llangollen. Lilian Speake is the perfect host and her house is lovely. We chatted for ages, I think I have a new friend, and she has a ginger cat just like Bugsy. If anyone needs accommodation in Llangollen give her a call, number on the web site.

So, after breakfast I checked out and drove the short distance to Horseshoe Falls to have a look around. The river flows pretty rapidly at this point.

I took a short walk down the canal and came to the Chain Bridge Hotel, named after the river crossing just there. 

It looks very posh, probably very expensive to stay there. I was chatting to some people who said it is a favourite wedding venue.

On the other side of the river is the train station, and as luck would have it the train arrived from Llangollen, so another chance to snap this beauty.

I had a little bimble around the area and took a few snaps.

Howzabout that for a venue. It has absolutely no gardens with it, sandwiched between the canal tow path and the river, with the constant noise of the water rushing by.

I like arch bridges.

This is the station taken from the lower bridge.

After a couple of hours here, I went on to Port Meirion, about an hour and a half drive away. I took loads of pictures there, it was a brilliantly amazing place. I'm going to save them till I get home. Something to look forward to, but worth waiting for. Dead lucky with the weather today, sunny, blue skies, and warm. perfect.

It's late now and time for bed. I am in a B & B at Caernarfon, had a quick look round the town,  tomorrow the Menai bridge to Anglessey. Oooh, all excited.

Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip