Homemaking Heaven Tips!

• Want to know a super effective nontoxic trick to clean the silverware is to fill an aluminum pan (or one lined with aluminum foil) with hot water, add salt and baking soda, and stir to dissolve. When you add the silver pieces, a chemical reaction occurs, removing tarnish!

• Fill up your freezer, since the fuller it is, the less energy it uses to keep food frozen.  I put plastic bottles of water into it so that they they are icy cold-this usually happens the closer we get to shopping day, but it works just the same.
• For greasy pots and pans try scouring with salt.  We all try to be great cooks, but every so often things go wrong, so just remember this trick..just in case.. Fill the pan half full with water, so that it covers up any grilled on spots, spoon in baking soda, let it soak overnight, and bring to a boil...then easy peasy lemon squeezy the stains come away!

• You know when the sink gets a bit clogged up with rubbish every so often, so matter how much you try to stay on top of it?  Well just pour 1 cup of baking soda down the drain, followed by 3 cups of boiling water, and let science take over. It's a much safer choice than commercial drain cleaners, which can harm skin, eyes, lungs, and the water supply.

You can get all of these tips and much more from Country Living mags.  I keep all of my old ones, but every so often i put together a scrap book of things i like.
I hope these have come in useful!
x

Thrifting

I have been rummaging around in the Thrift shop and have been rewarded generously with some lovely finds!

Brambly Hedge is a lovely little children's book...I am so lucky to have found such a beautifully kept copy of The Four Seasons.  

I cant wait to share some delicious recipes, I've already bookmarked a couple which will no doubt be as lovely on my tongue as they are in the book....no not my big head, they actually look like they were written by someone who knows that we all don't have all the time in the world, but want to eat well and things that taste good.  So i hope that what I've read will prove not too difficult in the pan and come out quite nice!

Another glorious weekend, another glorious find!

Weigh in weekly

Hello all, i hope your January's are going well and you haven't been pulled down into a funk....I'm thinking of Glee!!

I'm sorry that I've already broken my promise about posting every Thursday...things have been a bit rough here these past few weeks and I've really not had anything jolly to post.  It seemed to me like i could, but they wouldn't be particularly happy posts so i just hid under the duvet...  That leads on to the weight loss, um, em, eh?  Its stayed the same, no up no down.  However I'm hoping that my last couple of days eating giant bowls of hearty lentil soup made up for the fact that the first two days of this week i literally hid under the duvet and ate nothing but chocolate and crisps.

I promise to start posting and such again, even if it means trying my very very hardest to be happy and merry, fake it till you make it!

Have lovely magical weekends full of everything that makes you happy.  Be utterly kind to yourself and surround yourself with everyone you love.  You make my day just being here...you really do!

x

Weigh in Weekly

Firstly I want to thank you all, sometimes in ‘this world’ it can be easy to forget how naturally kind others can be, but I definitely reminded of it when I did my first weekly weigh in post last Thursday.

This sounds ridiculous but I was really embarrassed writing about being in the violent red category when checking out my weight. Only ten years ago I was a size six, albeit that was from doing hockey, netball and cross country running most weekends…oh and dancing the night away and only drinking water (never much liked the taste or the cost of alcohol!)
Yet you lovely lot made me feel OK about what I was doing, you kind and thoughtful bloggerettes only wanted to wish me luck and your sweet natures flowed right through your screens into my home!! So I thank you, it’s very easy to be (in my own and very silly way) courageous.

Now on to the other business…..the weigh in
-2lbs
Hooray!!  I'm sure because of my size i should actually manage a wee bit more than the average amount of weight at first, but to tell the truth i haven't been healthy all week, the snacks left over from Christmas were all a bit too tempting, but i don't normally put bad things in my shopping basket, its actually the portion sizes i need to combat and I'm working on that by now eating on a beautiful side plate which makes me a bit more dainty too!!  Thank you for letting me be accountable and use this space to speak freely about something that's important to me!
x

Its not the sales, but im still shopping!

I have been buying, but i have kept my promise....i didn't go near the sales!

I don't have them yet, that's the thing.  I don't carry them home from the shops, and it doesn't feel like I've been naughty.

Its that well known naughty Amazon...you start by innocently making a wish list, and the prices are so good you might as well add it to the basket, oh and just one more thing, and another, and another.....

Cant wait to get them and share how lovely they are.  Id love to hear what anyone else has found about them, even if its not good...I've got so many bargains from thrift shops i might as well give at least one book back...but only if i have to!!

I love....

I love.....

Lark Rise to Candleford

Sunday nights restored to how they should be

Getting back to normal

I am trying my hardest to get back to normal and keep up to date with all the lovely and exciting things going on in blogland, but i am terrible and haven't been able to do that much of late.  It was probably this time last year that i started to really write this blog and its odd to see how much it has come on!  I'm surprised, and really humbled to know that i have followers.  I know that there are a million and one other things for you all to do with your time, but yet you chose to be so kind as to come here and have a little read of what I've written.  I always do try to read other peoples blogs, and its always quite exciting to find a new one that you just 'get', you just know that you will read and read and never ever get bored...ever!
Lately i haven't been keeping up to date with as many people as id like to, but (and i know its a bit late) id like to make a New Years Resolution and say that i will try much harder, but this post isn't really about that so much.

It really is a massive thank you to all the lovely people out there that come on here, leaving comments or not, and really just being kind, being themselves and utterly sweet!
I hope to start getting some things together for a give away soon as a way, however small, of saying thank you.  Your comments genuinely make my day.  They bring me so much joy!  And i get very, very excited when i see another follower pop up on my screen....i always have a little investigate to see them and their lovely blogs, and more often than not i end up practically stalking their every bloggy move.

So thank you, i love you, i love your blogs and you make my day, have an utterly brilliant day yourself.....you totally deserve it!

New Years Resolution

I have, for much too long, been overweight. You know where this post is going now….don’t you? Like a lot of people I try to make New Years Resolutions. I understand that an awful lot of people say that they’d like to shed a few lbs, however my ‘journey’ is a wee bit harder than that.

I am in the obese category of any BMI and NEED to lose three stone to be in the green area of the indicator.

Seeing as I got to this point by myself you’d think I could get out of it by myself, but no, its been like this for a little while….actually since I’ve been with The Husband (yup, that old story).

So from now on I will post each week what, if any weight fluctuations there have been. This is entirely to keep me accountable, and hopefully I can keep this up. I'm hoping that I'm practically shamed into keeping this up. So, one week today I shall post to say what fluctuations there have been…I'm sure it’ll take some time before I think up some snappy name for the weigh in, but if and when I do I'm sure I will post that too!

*wish me luck*
x

Welcome to January

Welcome one and all to the month of January. The Christmas decorations have all come down-even though Twelfth night falls on Thursday-and although the house looks a tad empty I'm trying my best not to go out and fill right back up again!

This month is still quite full of warming food that need to be jam-packed with energy. Hot soup, juicy steaks and steamed puddings will all be playing a massive part in tea time planning this month, although salad has its place too. I love casseroles in Autumn, but by January I feel like it needs mixed up a teeny bit. Personally I love Greek food, and like to picture the summer holidays and have warming food that’s very Greek, I'm talking kleftiko and stifado…..yummy! Running around the sales could burn off any heavy food calories you have had, but it won’t do any good to those resolutions you only made a short while ago about being the Queen of Thrift.

Remember if you want to buy cheap food mackerel is great right now. We’re really lucky living by the sea and can easily get a whole bunch of fish if we want, I'm learning to be braver as when we moved here I had no idea how to prepare it…but I've slowly been learning and I urge you to try to prepare it yourself if you can! Crab would be a good place to start, so try it now as in January its perfect. Also try to get some seasonal Swede, make some delicious mash with it, it’s really scrummy with proper sausages. For pudding get some great forced rhubarb and make a pie or crumble with ‘lashings’ of cream…what was that resolution about being healthier?

Of course January ends with Burns Night on the 25th, so you have to get your haggis, neeps and tatties ready for your Burns Supper!

2010 has been.....

I'm so glad that I started to keep a blog, there are many reasons I can be grateful for this, and happy that I have it, but one of those reasons is that I can keep track of things we’ve done or things that happened to us.

In January I’d set my heart on becoming a Mother, can you believe the amount of stuff I thought I needed to fulfil that wish? Well, it obviously hasn’t happened, but the fact that I thought it would straight away took up the whole of January. Horrible cold January was made about one million times worse because of things so far out of my control its ridiculous!

February was the same, but I'm not about to go down the path of explaining all that again…however we had a lovely Valentines Day. Each and every Febrauary the 14th The Husband and I take it turn about cooking each others dinner. I had decided to go down the ‘everything should be heart shaped’ route and so a lovely pasta dish was created by yours truly!

March is the month of The Husbands Birthday and I had a wonderful time creating his Birthday tea. I’d hoped that I could take him away for his Birthday-much like the year before, but unfortunately the school holidays came too close to it and it all would have been much too expensive for a couple of days out of town!

April was lovely as The Husbands family from Edinburgh were up and we got to take them to Kincardine O’Neil to show off the beautiful Antiques shops that they harbour in that part of the world. Our beautiful niece Keira was getting healthier after being born quite underweight and she took up much of our time too!

Hooray for May the month of my Birthday and The Mother in Laws of course! Much celebration and more shopping-thrift of course.

In June we decided to move, we’d had quite enough of the town and decided to get out into the wilds! Busying myself about a new home helped to heal the ‘pain’ of January and earlier in the year and in general I think I started to feel a lot better! The sun was also shining and we opened the door to countless walks and adventures.

July was the moving month and one of the worst gout attacks The Husband has ever had….cue lots of stress and anguish on both our parts. However there are a whole range of amazing things that did happen that month! July was jam packed with sunshine and trips to the beach…never a bad thing.

August was also full of sunshine and something I was not used to at all, visitors. We had a spare room…why not fill it with people! A brand new way to feel happy and share all of the lovely things The Husband and I have built together.

September was a walking month…full of visitors and walking. The nephew came over quite a bit and I was already thinking of Christmas. We had trips away and met with family, life was good.

Our anniversary is in October and I think everything was geared towards that weekend off, my last holiday from work was a distant memory and spending time in the deeply golden autumnal sunshine of October was both refreshing and almost medicine for my soul! I love Autumn and the coming of one pot suppers…but winter was around the corner.

How did I know November was coming? But we sure as heck didn’t know that the snow was…the snow started and it hasn’t stopped since…well, its stopped, but then it just starts again, and again, and again! 

December…the years all gone, Christmas fills every space in the house and we feel refreshed. Healed by what has come and what we’ve accomplished.

Bring on 2011

I'm not too awful and a massive Thank You

Hello one and all, and may i also add HAPPY NEW YEAR.  I have been quite absent this last little while, and no...its not because i was at an amazing party to bring in the New Year.  I have been struck down with actual FLU!  I don't think I've had the flu for about 7 years, colds and sniffles, but i have been very lucky, no matter, I'm not one for big parties and especially the new year, so if it had to come, then good job it didn't come in Spring or Summer time.

There are a whole host of things i haven't been doing lately and some of those are on here, in blog land.  I haven't said thank you for my wonderful swap parcel.  So here i am, going a very short way towards saying a massive thank you to Purple Sparkle Crafts for way too many gorgeous things and thoughtful presents.  My camera is dead and the charger has gone walk about again so i don't know when i can even begin to take pictures of all the amazing things i received.  Once again I've not only been astonished, but utterly floored by the kindness of the lovely bloggers out there.  Not only did Purple Sparkle Crafts organise the Christmassy Secret Santa Swap, but she outdid herself!

The obligatory New Years Resolution post will follow shortly, but sadly i must take down the Christmas decorations now.

Wishing you all a happy healthy new year full of the realisation of dreams and the love of the ones you care for.

x

Are you wrapped up warm?

To all those party revellers out there...are you wrapped up warm?

Are you all in party frocks and best new outfits bought in the sales after Christmas time?

Are you hosting a party?  Getting the nibbles set out on the laden tables?

Where ever you are, whatever you are doing and no matter what you are wearing.......have a fabulous time!

Christmas Eve

Working on Christmas Eve when you work in a library is never bad, it’s really quite nice! It was a backbreaking shift….ok, I'm telling fibs, it was two hours! But that was the time the library opened, and that was the time the council said we has to close! I was awake by six in the morning and positively squealing with excitement, I waited until half past until I put the radio on in the bedroom and played Chris Evans loud! Bless him, I just adore him so much and he’s the only reason I listen to radio 2 in the morning.

To make it up to The Husband I made bacon butties breakfast as well as a giant pot of tea for myself and some of the Whittards of Chelsea herbal teas The Husband has gotten himself right into! Something in the air made this very humble breakfast a lot more delicious than it really should be considered. Everything at this time of the year is an absolute feast and occasion.

Poor Mother in Law is terribly ill at the moment and unfortunately just in time for our nieces first Christmas. The Husband went round to drop some necessities off and pick up our lovely Christmas presents. By the time he was done I was ready to go after picking up loads of lovely presents from all of the wonderful patrons of the library!

We headed into the bright lights of town and ate at the beautiful Caledonian Hotel and walked to the Panto by the fabulously magical twinkley fairy lights adorning the trees of the park in town. I half expected to see sugar plum fairies dancing about as the whole place was alive with lights and joyous revellers. The cold air whipped around us, but it means nothing to us now, not after having it for so long, and especially at this time of the year. We are much too used to it in this village.

The Panto was great fun and I shouted myself hoarse! I've always loved it and had it as a tradition, and I hope I always will, this was last years adventure at HMT!  Too many boos and screams! I especially enjoyed watching the two darling little girls that were dressed as Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Completely overwhelmed by something as silly and as simple as a panto, a relatively inexpensive night out, the day before Christmas, at the same time as Father Christmas is setting off from his home. Beautiful simple things I would like to share with my own children one day.

From there we headed home to sprinkle reindeer dust and get to bed so that we could sneak about filling each others stockings. The Husband made part of a video diary for my Mother who is holidaying in Cyprus at the moment, as she never got to see any of the house decorated for Christmas.

We could hardly sleep…we lay awake picturing the Christmas that was only a couple of hours away. The Christmases we hope to have in the future and the first Christmas in our home. We pictured the most beautiful images of white Christmases and fairy lights until we woke to one ourselves…

So...how was it for you?

I hope everyone had a truly magical Christmas time full of long days where no schedule in particular had to be adhered to, and you were allowed to eat cake-just like Mrs Bennet in the Keira Knightly version of P&P-off your reclined tummy!! Ok, I’ve been rumbled, that was my Christmas time! Over the next couple of days where I will be doing nothing especially important or fun-but relaxing, believe me, relaxing…..I will keep my little online diary up to date and fill it with stories of all the wonderful things that I’ve been doing, when I have been doing them. You see, it’s been a very long weekend full of eating, chatting, lazing around, dog walking and good old fashioned games.

I hope you have all been kept warm and cosy, that you all had a wonderful time over this Christmas period, I hope you are full of excitement for the coming year.

Ive got cabin fever!

Snow is falling….all around. Ok, its maybe not a prolific quote, its maybe not showing that I'm on the cusp of a zeitgeist, but by eck it IS snowing, and very heavily at that.


Giant flakes. In the distance it looks heavy and yet when they throw themselves upon the window pane they move slowly, they quiver thinking of their fate on the ground….will they make a snowman by an excited child? I haven’t seen many snowmen so far…where are the snowman building children? (I do hope they’re not playing with a games console!) I'm sure they are just snuggled up reading a book!

Stay safe everyone…its not really that important the vast majority of us get out. Think about it and then leave three hours early!! JUST STAY SAFE!
x

Have you succumbed yet?

Have you succumbed to it yet? Have you drooled over them yet? Have you been watching any of the TV chefs cooking up a storm? I have, I’ve been recording loads of them, and even though I'm not cooking Christmas dinner this year (not that I’ve ever done it actually), we’re going to my Aunt and Uncles, I can not help staring at those TV chefs-utterly transfixed by the ease they ensure us they rustle up nibbles/three course meals/Christmas dinner.

I've got the books, I love cook books, I love the books that are all about stories telling you why they like certain dishes, how they came to think these dishes up…I adore cook books, but still, I do know that they are all full of dishes a little bit out of my reach!

I hope everyone cooking dinner will do so calmly, and with the help of the diners. I hope everyone cooking dinner has been able to order up the ingredients and has a sense of calm I don’t think id be able to muster.

C’mon people, Chris Evens said it this morning-it’s the last Wednesday before Christmas!! Get excited!!

Is there life out there?

The snow has continued to fall and we’ve been making the most of our cosy snuggled down long weekend. The snow has been on for about a week now, but only recently has it been making a bit of a nuisance of itself! The big thaw didn’t get rid of most of it, so although the snow is gorgeous, it’s the black ice under it that’s been causing most of the difficulties. We were meant to be heading out to a carol concert last Wednesday, but what with the snow and road closures we decided not to attempt to stay in town any later than we had to.


On Thursday I headed out to a late shift at work, but had to get The Husband to collect me, a journey that normally takes half an hour took over two and let me tell you I was terrified. Two lorries jack knifed and caused a massive traffic jam on the only road north.

Friday was a snow day for us both and on Saturday we didn’t bother to head out to my work party. We could have gone round to a friend’s party in the village, but we’d been treading through the snow all day in town, and while taking Daisy out for her walks that we were exhausted. The Husbands friend didn’t make it out of his part of town, so I took a rather extended nap on the sofa whilst The Husband watched some films. Yup, it’s a real rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle we’ve got here!

We don’t know what’s going to happen over the next week, we don’t know if we’re getting out, but I know i’ve got a freezer full of food, a pantry full of tins, and several tins full of biscuits. I hope you’re all heading in the right direction, getting what you want done, and doing what makes you happy.

Will this help me keep calm?

I decided to copy the lovely The Happy Homemaker UK and do a post on 'colorstrology'. 

You can find out about your own one here, all you do is pick the month you were born in, and then the day and it can tell you all about your personality and the colour you should surround yourself in.  To tell the truth i only did it for a bit of fun, but i do like to read these things!

Unfortunately it said i should surround myself in burnt orange or green...em, no!  But these things always say May is the month for creative and chatty people-yes, I'd say that's true!!

Go on and have a go!  It could be better than my one.

Noel's Christmas Presents 2010

Watching Noel's Christmas Presents…weeping…I love it!