THE SEASON OF MELLOW FRUITFULNESS.......

Ooh and a birthday.....

I hope you have all had a pleasant weekend. I have...manic but really good...

Friday it was my birthday and as usual I was very spoiled....jewellery, pottery, book and DVD from family, as well as shopping money from DH and wine and presents from a close friend. All of them were very thoughtful and completely me and I was thrilled with everything.
The book is 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Funnily this was a book recommended by my DIL, which I popped on my wish list and bought for me by my DD. If I hadn't been told a little of its content I think I would still have wanted to read it just by reading the title. I will let you know how it turns out!
I also received this.......

from DD, her partner and family. I am over the moon with it. The perfect finishing touch to my revamped room. Had it not been for  'Sewing Room' my DIL also Mrs B would have filched it there and then.....
In the evening we had a family meal at a local pub (the food was definitely not the best part) but it was lovely to all get together and I had a great evening.

On the Saturday I was treated out to dinner again this time with a friend and we went to The Royal Oak at Swayfield.
Wow! We have been to quite a few restaurants and hotels to eat over the past few years and I can honestly say that this was the best meal I have had in ages. Well cooked full of flavour, an absolute delight, as were mine hosts. They were really friendly and attentive and the whole place had such a lovely atmosphere. We shall certainly be returning. If you add to this the excellent value, 3 two course meals and drinks including a decent bottle of wine for under £70 you can understand how pleasantly surprised we were. If you live anywhere near and fancy a good night I do recommend it, and do tell them they have been mentioned here. They certainly deserve it.

And so to that mellow fruitfulness........

 ....apples loads of them, delivered very generously on Friday by my SIL. So you can guess what I was doing all Sunday afternoon.....

Apple pies and Apple crumble and the last few spoons frozen for apple sauce.

I beavered away while watching 'Hope and Glory' and then 'Ballet Shoes'. What better way of spending a damp dismal day than in a warm kitchen surrounded by lovely smells and watching two of your favourite films....apart perhaps from sampling the goods of course!!

Well I am off now to continue with my current task of real 'make do and mend'. I have for a long time been a fan of boot leg jeans, but having lost a little weight and being vertically challenged I now find them too full in the leg. Of course I am no spring chicken so I'm not talking 'skinnies' here, but I am now leaning much more towards straight leg jeans. So whats a girl to do when she has a wardrobe full of perfectly good jeans, many very little worn at all, but set to and alter them. and I have found that as most jeans have the tram line seam on the inside leg and a normal seam on the outside, I have been able to take them in at the outside leg only and it has worked brilliantly.......it may take the next 2 to 3 years to do them all but I am working my way through them......

I have also got a little tutorial to share with you next time for a fleece headband to wear to keep your ears snug when walking instead of wearing a pull on hat.

 If like me you are full of static the latter leaves your hair either stuck out all over as if you are plugged into the mains or so flat to your head you might as well be bald.  Not a good look either way........ These headbands are a great compromise, take no time and very little to make and can be plain or prettied (is that a word!!) up.  So hope you will be back next time to take a look.....

Have a good week

TTFN

Jenny xx

PASTA HEAVEN

I'm sure you've all done it, been out and shopped too long, played in the park with children or in my case grandchildren and simply forgotten the time, and suddenly lunchtime looms and you have nothing planned. Well a week before our schools reopened I was looking after my  two grandsons, got carried away and was then in a panic about what to feed two starving boys.
Of course pasta! Quick nutritious and fortunately for me loved by both.(Well done mummy and daddy for introducing them to all kinds of food including chilli, curries and pasta, it makes nanny's job so much easier!)
All I needed was pasta, tick, pasta sauce (OK for once a good organic one out of a jar will do!) Not so, the cupboard was bare! I had fresh tomatoes, tinned tomatoes and tomato paste but no ready made tomato sauce.
Now all the recipes I had used in the past called for fresh tomato sauce to be cooked slowly and at length, so I resorted to the trusty Internet to find 'the best, tastiest, quickest tomato sauce for pasta'.
Now this is where I am a bit embarrassed because here there should be a link to the recipe which I sort of followed with a few minor adjustments, but I can't find it now, so I apologise to whoever it was that helped me out and gave me the most perfect ( in my opinion, and for my taste) tomato sauce recipe.

Now the original recipe as I recall was made as follows

2 tablespoons oil
1 large onion

3 desertspoons of soft brown sugar
2 large tins chopped tomatoes
1 tsp each of oregano, marjoram and basil
salt and pepper to taste

The method
Heat the oil, chop onion finely and then throw everything in the pan and cook on a medium heat for 25 to 30 minutes

I read some of the reviews and whilst it generally got good reports, some thought it too sweet and some too runny.

Now I like my sauce hearty and with plenty of garlic so my version went something like this....

Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil
1 large finely red onion
1 finely chopped red pepper
4 plump cloves garlic crushed
1 desertspoon sugar
1 tin chopped tomatoes
2 good desertspoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon mixed herbs ( these latter two were what I had in the cupboard!)
1 bay leaf

Method

Heat the oil and gently cook the onion and garlic until soft but not browned (about 5 mins)
Add all the other ingredients and cook for a further 25 to 30mins stirring occasionally. Remove bay leaf.

Cook your choice of pasta and pour over the sauce and enjoy.....Pasta heaven...

and the boys didn't leave a bit...........

I have since done this with fresh vine tomatoes (home grown for flavour) in place of the tinned tomatoes, have added a teaspoon of chilli flakes and added chicken and both have been delicious.

Now I am sure many of you will have your favourite recipe and I would love to hear of them, especially if they are quick and easy.

Hope you have all had a good weekend, we made a bit more progress with the decorating, did a car boot and got rid of some rubbish treasure and I'm now off for a well earned glass of wine.

TTFN

Jenny xx

ME AND MY BIG MOUTH.....

Hi, remember me, the woman who always has too much to say in each post that I am always surprised when anyone gets to the end of one!! Well for once I have been silenced, and if you ever hear me utter the immortal words....'we are just going to'......again you have my permission to point me to this post immediately.

  'before'

We were just going to have a log burner installed in the dining room. One of only three rooms in the house without double glazing (we can't afford the £3000+ quoted for each of the 3 big bay windows), and we feel it would spoil the front elevation of the property anyway. We have been assured that the one we chose will be so efficient we will be wanting to open windows when it gets too warm .And make a mess having it installed. Oh no! they do it all the time.........

So what could go wrong!!

'After'... S@*t...isn't this supposed to look better?

Well....... nothing if you discount the fact that they couldn't get the lining down the chimney and were so convinced that the chimney was blocked that they planned to knock a hole through the wall in the attic to see where the problem was!!....The fact that the attic is 2 beautiful bedrooms and not a dark storage space did seem to make them rethink that one thank goodness.....And when they did manage to get the lining through, despite the fact that the chimney had been swept, they found the only deposit of soot still left and managed to cover the whole dining room in it. No more cream curtains, no more beige carpet and a fine layer of black in places I didn't know existed.  So of course it has all been a doddle!! ( and I'm still cleaning up soot!)

Four weeks later having stripped said dining room and repaired and repainted all the walls, had curtains cleaned, purchased new carpet and reorganised the whole thing I think we are on the home run....but at the moment I am keeping schtum!! I will do a reveal, but only when there is absolutely nothing left to do.

And of course there is still the small matter of the sewing room makeover which we were sure would 'just' take a week or so and which was so rudely interrupted........

watch this space .......

Of course in between all this there has been a weekend in Cheshire, a visit to a brilliant country show and the grandson's school holidays, so no reason at all not to have finished everything by now!! I'll tell you more about those another time.

Have a great week....and don't forget to start looking out those winter woollies, I fear our Indian summer is about to come to an abrupt end..........A wood burner would come in handy then!!

TTFN

Jenny xx

A LITTLE JAUNT...in the sunshine!!

Hi there
 I do hope you have all had a good weekend however you have spent it.
Yesterday I spent most of the day just catching up with housework (not very enthusiastically I have to say) whilst DH carried on with the room overhaul. This time he was tackling the electrics, lining up the sockets and lifting floorboards ready for the electrician to come and finally wire up. If there's one thing you need in a sewing room its plenty of power points so I am making sure these are all just where I will need them. I remember saying a couple of weeks ago, 'oh we only need to remove those cupboards and paint the walls', famous last words and you would think by my age I would have learnt my lesson. Any renovation job.. plan for two days and multiply that by 10!! Still we really are getting on now so hopefully it wont be too long before I am installed in my den once again.

Today though, in glorious sunshine (do you remember what that's like) we took a few hours off and went to a tiny car boot on part of the station car park. There couldn't have been more than a couple of dozen stalls and at first glance I wasn't very hopeful of finding any treasure. However  I was to be pleasantly surprised.

A great little tool box which has GPO carved into the top which I didn't spot until I handed over my £4 and saw the top of the lid properly. I was even more thrilled then as both DH and I worked  there when they were the GPO and have a few bits of old General Post Office memorabilia already. Of course we are now fighting over who should keep it!

A print of a Jason Partner water colour, a Lincolnshire artist whose work I love. His drawings are so precise, almost technical drawings and of course his main subjects the Suffolk and Norfolk coast are some of my favourite places. This now makes five in my collection..the bathroom walls are filling rapidly...

  This little cabbage leaf bowl has no markings but is the same colour and design as my Sylvac soup dishes and saucers, so will be used to hold my bread rolls. Don't ask me what is there appeal but I am always attracted to them .Quite a good haul already but there was more to come..

We then went on to Woodhall Spa to the Petwood Hotel and a small antique fair.

 
Such a beautiful building, the former Officers mess of 617 'the Dambusters' Squadron.

 We have been to many fairs held by Field Dog Fairs and always seem to find a little something and meet some really friendly traders who don't mind a bit of a haggle. Today, though the fair was a bit smaller than we had expected, it still produced a few things to keep me happy and to fill up yet more of my ever decreasing floor and wall space...

 
A sampler from 1950 with guess whose initials at the bottom....obviously waiting for me!

A coronation handkerchief which I think I will frame. If anyone has any great tips on how to do this without spoiling it I would be very pleased for some help. How should I attach it to its backing?

and finally a tiny side table whose flaps fold down and when lifted the whole top rotates in order to support it in the open position. I love it.

So as you can see I came home a very happy shopper indeed.

Before we left however we did have a walk around the village and I have to say it is quite impressive. Plenty of cafes and restaurants, the Kinema in the Woods, a lovely old style picture house, and family friendly park with a variety of activities and not forgetting a fitting memorial to the brave airmen of 617 Squadron who lost their lives....

 All in all a great day........

Hope you all have a good week, here it is the final week of school before the Summer break, so I think there will be lots of mums rushing to get things done while they have any time to themselves. I will be helping out with our two gorgeous boys, and I bet I know who will be worn out first! But I wouldn't change it for the world as I know how lucky we are to be so much of their growing up.....

TTFN

Jenny xx

DONT YOU JUST HATE......

.............The smell of paint being stripped with a hot air stripper!! I do and I should be used to it now. At least it wasn't me having to do this horrible job. No it was DH finishing stripping the window frame and door frame in my sewing room. It is coming on in leaps and bounds and I hope to show you the results very soon. He has already ripped out some awful cupboards in the alcoves and replaced them with thick shelves made from recycled scaffolding planks. The next job is many more power points behind my work bench and  better lighting with daylight bulbs above.
When we moved into this house 20 years ago stripped pine was all the rage and so every door, skirting board and even the stairs and 47 stair rails were stripped sanded to within an inch of their lives and left. Funny how our tastes change. Now  I look at the window frames and wonder if they should be white, well in my sewing room they will be but at least now they have a lovely clean base and the woodwork will look as it should !

 Note to self....I don't think all that stuff will fit on new shelves!!....

Of course all this renovation has meant access to my sewing machine has been sorely curtailed, but by no means stopped. So the other evening I set to and created a new cover for the Parker Knoll chair which my DH has in the dining room to watch 'his' big tele. It was perfectly OK covered in a large red and cream check, but being me and seeing it as slightly grubby I decided to wash the original and being a good fit to begin with it was a little like my clothes were a few weeks ago, not too small but certainly too snug a  fit for comfort (but that's a whole other story). So having seen these stunning patchwork sofas in many magazines lately,

 image c/o mydeco.com

 I thought I would be a bit more creative and make a patchwork cover for the seat cushion. Of course he is a 'bloke' and velvet and florals are not really his thing so the effect had to be a bit more subtle and voila..................

Amazingly he quite liked it!!

Well when the sewing machine was completely out of bounds I had to resort to the hexis and hand sewing!! My they do grow apace. Having found the new way of using the English paper piecing which does not involve sewing through the paper ( in my case card) templates, I am thrilled with the progress......

 If you haven't read my other posts check this site for hexi templates and links to easy piecing  here....it saves a lot of time and many sore fingers!

 Well yet again time has defeated me, why does it always take me a whole evening to write a post and edit a few pictures. Is it just me or does everyone go through this!
I have so many things to tell you but never seem to have enough time to do it. Never mind tomorrow is another day....and I will be back.....

TTFN

Jenny xx

WHAT I DID ON MY HOLIDAYS....(apologies Haven for pinching your lines)

It was the end of April and a spell of very unsettled weather when we set off on our journey to Lymington for the ferry to the Isle of Wight. A first for me and DH.

 It wasn't any better when we arrived but we weren't going to let a little thing like the weather spoil it for us.

And our super accommodation meant that at least we returned each day to comfort and warmth...

We were based near Brighstone and the scenery and walks were out of this world....

We had a couple of beautiful days and spent one walking about 20 miles!!...I know talk about doing things by halves...and the other visiting beautiful Osbourne House....

 As this is still a Royal household we were unable to take photographs inside, but it was amazing. Far too crowded for my taste, but the view from her sitting room window across the Solent, with all the boats was breathtaking. No wonder it was Queen Victoria's favourite retreat.

On the days when the weather was less kind we found all manner of things to amuse us, you would have thought we were in our second childhood....

Stunning displays in the butterfly park.........

...zooming down country lanes on bikes...trying to avoid the puddles....

...finding the prettiest places for a bit of lunch and retail therapy....... and even a ride on a steam train

.......with a falconry and owl display at the end of our journey

It was a shame we only got to walk on some of the pretty beaches....

....the only place we didn't visit was Black Gang Chine, as it I am sorry to say is a bit commercial now, but we did visit Shanklin Chine and was not disappointed

I bet you are totally underwhelmed by my photo of it....that's because my camera battery failed just as I was about to turn and take one of the waterfall, still there's a reason for you to go and see it for yourself....

It was a fabulous break and over far too quickly, and I am sure if we went again we would still find lots of things to keep us occupied. I would highly recommend it for  couples and families alike. The complex at 'The Needles' with restaurant, sweet factory, glass blowing and of course the chairlift has something for everyone. Again a bit commercial, but you couldn't come to the Isle of Wight without a trip here...now could you!!

Right well I don't know about you but having just read this through I am now gasping for a drink, and no not the alcoholic type.... I am being good at the moment and following the 'MyspecialK' plan to try to shift some of this extra padding I have acquired. I am pretty impressed so far and will let you know how I get on......

I hope you all have a good week, and that sometime soon we will  see an improvement in this unpredictable weather. Take care

TTFN

Jenny xx