Tag: homemade & crafts

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dear diary ~ an eventful weekend

We celebrated our family Easter get together early, because on Easter Sunday we will be going further north to see my mum, so this last weekend was our opportunity to see our daughters and the grandchildren. On Saturday they all descended on me, I had only a few hours notice and needed to find activities for them quickly, as well as some lunch.

DH did most of the washing and chopping of the salad items for the cold buffet lunch and we had boiled eggs, cheese and cold sliced chicken. Sweetie had persuaded her mum to buy some bunny paper plates, cups and serviettes in Aldi for the table. It is a squeeze now seating everyone as we have grown over time to ten of us. My younger daughter had to sit on the small folding steps as we are a stool short at the moment having lent it to goodness knows who.

After lunch I didn’t have time to make any biscuit dough but I did have a slab of plain cake in the freezer that I had made a while ago to use up some eggs. I found the Easter cutters (bunnies, chickens etc), made up some white icing and got the tray of sprinkles and pastel coloured tubes of icing that I had bought in readiness back in January for such an occasion.

I cut the cake into four pieces (one each) and the children had great fun cutting out shapes and icing and decorating them – even the off cuts were decorated…or eaten…mainly eaten, but nothing was wasted.

I displayed their ‘efforts’ in the cardboard trays I keep from the tomato packs, they do come in handy.

Whilst I was clearing the table the children had free reign to officially draw on my windows (which always excites them) with those white chalk paints. I had printed off some bunny pictures from the internet and DH went outside and stuck them to the window for them to use as a template.

Master Freddie decided his bunny was going to be hidden in long grass!!

The table was covered with the paper cloth and out came the felt tips so that they could decorate the Easter bunny cards I had found (from the Range or maybe the Works).

Sweetie decided she was going to turn hers into bunting.

Baby Chocolate drew a spaghetti bunny!

Master Freddie made some 5/8th bunnies as he is all into fractions at the moment.

We also covered kitchen rolls with pastel paper and decorated them to look like bunnies.

All bunnied out the children went home for their teas and DH and I had a lie down!

On Sunday it was throwing it down here, wet, wet, wet.

Of course it is the school holidays, it is bound to rain. Many an Easter Egg trail was hit hard by the weather this weekend. We met the grandchildren and their mums and took cover indoors in a local museum. The lady on reception gave the children a clipboard and a sheet of Easter egg shapes to hunt for and copy the pictures of eggs hidden throughout the museum to claim a prize.

The other exhibition event, advertised for last Saturday and Sunday and through the week in the Kirklees Museums brochure, and on their website and on social media was

‘Moving Pictures – From Magic Lanterns to Cinema’, a chance for the children to learn about how moving images became films with optical toys and making their own moving pictures‘ –

Sounded good…. but it turned out to be a non-starter because no-one at the museum knew anything about it!! There was no exhibition or optical toys or crafts available to make their own moving pictures. How can that be? How can they publicise something that they then forget to do. I have never known that happen before.

The museum is very much about the Huddersfield district and how it grew with the coming of the textile mills and they had displays with old weaving looms and factory looms.

I hadn’t realised that the women of Huddersfield had played such a large part in the women’s suffrage movement.

The journal of Florence Lockwood on display is especially noteable at the moment – she heads the page Signs of the Times and part way down is the entry on August 4th 1914 ‘England declares war on Germany’.

In our troubled times I might well be writing something similar soon in my journal.

This made me smile – how true back then.

The other noteable item on display was this rather beautiful patchwork quilt made up of varying pieces of scrap fabrics, probably cut from old garments and painstakingly embroidered. I will definitely be going back without the children for a good look around.

So now the playroom is deathly silent, the toys and crafts have been tidied away and all will be waiting for when the grandchildren descend on us again. Very soon I hope.

Have a lovely week, back soon with that recipe. I am making the mushroom soup today for lunch. x

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dear diary ~ just witterings and a ScrapHappy contribution

As usual we have had a full on week at our house and despite sitting down a few times to write this post – it hasn’t happened until today, and then with a few interuptions.

Last week I had a dental appointment where two of my molar teeth that were problematic needed attention – upper left and lower right molars.  The right hand one had almost lost all the surrounding tooth of a large amalgam filling I had when I was 12 years old – so the filling has lasted well, but not the tooth!  I opted for a repair and it was easy done not requiring any anaesthetic.  I always opt for no anaesthetic unless the dentist knows he might hit a nerve.

The other was a tooth that had become sensitive at some point last year and the previous work done had not cured the problem.  My new dentist at the practice took a different approach to his predecessor and drilled out the original filling and refilled – sadly this has still not cured the problem and eating has been difficult.  I went back on Wednesday and he has now coated the tooth with a liquid resin of some kind, but I am not sure this has even done anything.  I will see what happens tomorrow.

Last Saturday we had a trip up to see my mum.  Working out the best time to visit is proving a bit hard because my sister has just been away for 10 days and next Monday she is going away for 20 days.  Living so far away means I have to spread out our visits evenly to cover the time and I know she will want me to go on Easter Sunday.

It was a lovely day and we pushed her down to the park, she had her toasted teacake and a coffee, then a quick skirt around the perimeter of the park and back to her apartment just in time for the next carer’s visit. We said our goodbyes and then went down the road to Northallerton to have a bite to eat and then see my sister and her husband in their yearly village pantomime – ‘Ali Baba and the 40 thieves’. 

My sister was Ali and her husband a dame – they had borrowed a camel from a local theatre group, which was a hit with the children.  All our grandchildren went, Sweetie just couldn’t stop laughing- she loved it and would like to be part of it next year.  Like all good amateur village pantos, lines are forgotten, props fall apart and the actors can’t help laughing as things go unexpectedly wrong!  It was a good night but we didn’t get home until 1o’clock in the morning and I rarely go to bed so late these days.

So it was no surprise that it took me all day to recover – what a good job it was Mothering Sunday and I could take it easy.  I had some lovely cards and flowers and a visit from one daughter with Master Freddie and Baby Chocolate (who carried the large bouquet and ran with it to grandad); we had to persuade him it was intended for me.

I had a nice quiet day and got out my sewing machine to do some mending.  I felt very pleased with myself after I had mended a tiny hole in some underpants for DH, which although were not new, were not that old either.  I also had the hem to resew on a pair of pyjama shorts for him – annoyingly, the overlocking had started to unravel.

Whilst I had my machine out I decided to make the cushion that has been waiting since last year.  I had some leftover blue checked fabric (from making a long seat pad for the outdoor seat) and a cot pillow pad from a duvet set my daughter no longer needs.  I hate wasting things and it has made a very nice cushion. As it is all washable there was no need to make the cushion cover removable so after placing the pad inside and hand stitching the opening I ran a row of stitching all around the edge.   

My next project on the list is to cover the three round cushion pads from Ikea that fit the 3 of the round wooden Ikea stools. I bought 3 reduced soft grey cord square cushion covers in Sainsbury’s (which was cheaper than buying the fabric I needed from off the roll in the local fabric shop). The covers have zips on too so I will be able to reuse these on my altered version. We use the stools a lot when we have visitors, they are stackable but a bit hard to sit on for long periods without a cushion pad.

I am still on with the finances, whizzing through a load of shredding as I clear out old papers and scan the important items onto the computer. It is a long and boring job but will ultimately be worthwhile. On Tuesday we had a trip over the hill to Uppermill to the solicitors to have our wills updated. Another of those financial jobs that has been on the list for a while. It is amazing how so many things have changed since we made ours over 10 years ago and some of it is not relevant now. Once the draft arrives in my inbox it will be another task to check over.

The next financial job on the list is again with the solicitor to make an LPA for each of us for both finances and health and welfare. We know how important these documents are having dealt with both DH’s elderly mum and now mine. Unfortunately, mum doesn’t have a helath and welfare LPA so any decisions about her future care can be made for her by the council or the courts (and if the courts have to get involved it is at great expense – I know this as I dealt with the court bills at work for these type of clients). Mum’s future has still not been decided, the social worker did the assessment and has not got back to us yet.

We need to fit in our passport applications too as they are going up in price I believe in April, DH has just received the driving licence renewal form to complete and return and we are expecting our car back today and then it will need to go for a service and MOT. It was booked in for that last Monday but of course the garage couldn’t do it because it was having the clutch replaced.

DH actually wants to get the car back to check the tyres, lights and windscreen wipers before booking another MOT and sevicing slot at the garage. He can easily change the lights and windscreen wipers himself – we always keep spares – the tyres are cheaper to buy from ATS and are guaranteed.

So the bills are mounting up and we will have to be very careful with our spending for a few weeks and limit any unecessary purchases in other places.

After carefully saving all year to be able to use my pension contribution allowance that attracts tax relief until I am 75 I found out yesterday that my application form posted at the end of February, to make another contribution into my People’s Pension, has not been received by them. That in itself is worrying as the form I sent has my personal details, signature and bank details on it. I got in touch with them this morning and it turns out the information I was given a few times in earlier years that I had to submit this application form each time I make a contribution is incorrect. Someone gave me misinformation – even after I queried it in 2023 because I thought it was odd. I made the transfer of money straight away yesterday morning but I am told the deadline is today (earlier than previous years because of Easter) and it might not be allocated in time to be included in this tax year so I would lose £420 in the government’s tax relief contribution and in effect free money because of their incompetence. I have complained of course.

Once all these items have been dealt with I will give a huge sigh of relief.

Well I have bored everyone enough now and it is lunchtime. It has taken me all week to get this post done – I hope to be quicker next time.

Thank you for reading and I will be back soon. x

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creating Christmas * day 22

The Christmas tree

I can hardly believe it is day 22 today and I still have a few tasks left to do; just little things, but don’t little things always take the most time.

Thank you, for all the kind comments, any helpful suggestions always welcome here!

I couldn’t write each day about all the things that make a Christmas, without including the Christmas tree. I would think it is the one thing that most people have at Christmas even if they have no other decorations.

DH and I decided against a real one this year. It is only the second time in our 49 years of marriage (soon to be the big 50). The other time, was last year when we were so busy at home after spending so much of the year selling our cottage, we just didn’t have any energy left to go out and buy one, so we rummaged in the loft and found a very ancient IKEA one that my daughter left behind when she moved out.

It has made an appearance again this year. We will be away for Christmas so in a way it made sense. It has been patiently waiting in the corner of our living room for Master Freddie to come and decorate it, and I must say he made a fine job, though my heart was in my mouth a few times when I heard the chink of my delicate, glass vintage baubles (some of which must be as old, if not older, then me.

He insisted we had a star on top, and not one of the angels we usually have.

So we made a star from some gold glittery card. It might be the only thing I might swap out, when he is not looking, as I do like my little fluffy angel.

After the tree we attempted to put the marzipan and icing on the cake. I only do the top in a flat ready to roll fondant and then cheat a little round the sides, with one of those old fashioned paper frills.

With the left over scraps Freddie made a snowman. I think he did very well, and managed to get most of the black icing onto the snowman and not himself (though he did go home quite a shade of pink from a red felt tip pen he had used for doing some colouring)

The snowman will no doubt take his place amongst the rest of the cast when all the grandchildren get together on Christmas Eve to put the decorations in place on top of the cake. It has become quite a tradition over the years, and this year all four of them will be giving a helping hand. Each year, the same Christmas characters are placed on the cake, but all end up in different positons to the year before. They have great fun doing this and it saves me a job.

This picture below is one of the previous years – as you can see it gets a little crowded some years, but I just love their creativity. I have bought a new Santa this year as the old one is looking rather jaded now and I hope the snowmen aren’t too worried about the new snowman on the block.

Just as I had my hands on the rolling pin today I had a call…not from mum this time, but her main carer. It appears that mum has a crack in the toilet seat on her commode and although the carer had mentioned it to my sister two weeks ago, it had been overlooked. Not surprising as my sister has just been moving house. I had no idea which body provided the commode when she returned to her own home from the care home two years ago. A quick call to social services at Teeside and I was given a number for Community Equipment Services ( commode department) ….no just joking there!

They will send one out tomorrow – quite a Christmas present for mum – not sure who the lucky person will be though that has to fit the new seat – I rather think it could be DH on Boxing Day. I won’t tell him, might spoil his Christmas.

I spoke too soon about mum. I had a call at 4.45am . Like most people I was fast asleep and being rather disorientated at the rude awakening, I didn’t get to answer quick enough, so it went to voicemail and mum left a message. I thought something terrible had happened, and it had according to mum…firstly, she was irrate that it was ‘leave a message’ which she hates and then said perhaps I could tell her if Vera was on TV tonight. I rang her straight back and told her the time, she hadn’t realised it was the early hours and said she must have fallen asleep straight away when the carer put her to bed and left a 7 o’clock.

I am hoping for a better night tonight.

I will leave you all with another picture of the Advent calendar as most of the windows have now been opened and it is looking much more colourful.

Once again, I am just in time to post this before I fall exhausted into my bed. Tomorrow, is the last serious attempt to get everything done and ready, and will include some packing (something I have done very little of this year), so I might be a tad rusty.

With the Christmas tree in place, joyous carols singing away in the background, the cards made and in the post, the cake iced and the handmade gifts delivered, tomorrow, will also be the last of my creating Christmas posts – so what could go wrong so close to the finish….mum perhaps?

Back very soon x

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creating Christmas * day 21

The handmade gifts, part 2

It has been like Santa’s factory here today. I finally made the last of the gifts and today it was the gingerbread stars. It sounded quite easy, but in fact because my mind kept wandering I made a few mistakes here and there; nothing too drastic that couldn’t be fixed, but annoying all the same.

Instead of getting the ready roll gingerbread again I decided to make my own as I wanted it to be more gingery than the bought one….my first mistake – even though I added more ginger than the recipe, I still think I could have added more.

As always with my gifts I have a vision in my head of what I want the final result to be. I must say halfway through I thought it might all be going wrong but in the end I think they turned out close to what I had in mind. You will see the finished results below.

The first step was to cut out hundreds of small stars (well not quite, but it seemed like it at the time). Even this was tricky trying to keep their shape and stop them looking like starfish with wonky points.

I cooked the first batch to the times the recipe stated but I thought they were a bit too crisp and I wanted them a little softer. So I reduced the cooking time for the next batch to 8 minutes and that did the trick.

The next step, once cooled, was to dip in dark chocolate…

….then add some pretty gold sprinkles.

A second batch was dipped in white chocolate….

…..and a few had white chocolate laced over the top.

Once dry, I carefully filled one of the lovely Christmas glasses I had bought specially from Sainsbury’s.

…and repeated three times…

Packaged in cellophane, added a tag and voila!

So now my gifts to my friends are complete: one calendar of local scenes, and a glass filled with gingerbread stars.

Tomorrow, I will deliver them and I can turn my attentions, once again, to the final bits and pieces. Master Freddie will be coming Monday or Tuesday, so all the presents will have to be hidden from sight again.

Mum managed to ring a few times today when I had my hands full of sticky gingerbread dough. She times it well! She doesn’t seem to able to grasp the fact that it will be Christmas in a few days time and also asks over and over if we will be going up on Christmas Day. We have been round it all so many times, and not only me, but so have the carers, and I daresay my sister will have had the same questions.

On the whole though she has been remarkably good in the last few days and there have been minimal phone calls from her. The worst one being her call for help as she had lost the sound on the TV whilst watching Sense and Sensibility. She had obviously pressed the wrong button on the remote as it had changed programs and she had got Shrek on the screen suddenly. Even mum knew the difference! Trying to talk her through the steps to get it back took half and hour by which time Sense and Sensibility was almost at an end!

I expect when my sister says to take a jumper and a bucket on Christmas day in case of heating failure and roof leak in her new home (it is by all accounts a bit of a wreck), she may not be joking.

It won’t be the first strange Christmas…we have had some unusual Christmases in the past which are documented either on this blog or my previous one. When my daughter and her husband worked in a village pub near Masham we had our family Christmas dinner there whilst it was closed to the public. We had the whole pub and restaurant to ourselves and a room each for the night. Catering on such a large scale was much easier in the professional kitchen than it would have been trying to do it at home and, of course, as daughter was then married to a chef it was all prepared and on time.

It was a good Christmas and the men all loved it as they had a pool table and the bar all to themselves.

The other crazy Christmas day was when my MIL was in a care home in Shrewsbury and we went to spend Christmas day and Boxing day with her. We had decided this particular year not to have dinner in the care home with her (don’t ask me why as we usually did) so because all the cafes are closed on Christmas day DH and I had our Christmas dinner (actually cup a soup) in a car park somewhere in Shrewsbury, complete with a camping stove and some very funny looks!

Well that is me finished for the day…just time to press publish before day 21 is over and then time for bed I think. It was exceptionally dark this morning being the winter solstice. I was glad to be warm and cosy in bed and lingered far longer than I should have done, especially as those stars were calling out to be made.

So what is left to create for Christmas now…well I hope you might drop by and see.

I hope all your plans are going well, back soon x

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