Ruby and Rosti

Sounds like a comedy duo doesn't it?

DB was lying on the floor the other day and Ruby decided to join him:

When we lived in Germany, although I found market rosti a little greasy, we enjoyed eating proper ones. We bought this in Lidl last week and had it for lunch today, lovely it was and bought back memories:

Creating a dry emboss item

Using the scraps from my magnetic sheets, (which hold my metal dies in place), I decided to use my embossing machine to cut out lots of shapes. These are the negative spaces left behind, aren't they lovely:

I haven't yet got the rest of the shim sheets I need to use the cut outs but at least they are created now.

On my cardmaking tab, I have added my attempt at a collar card.

Evolving workspace wall

These are the items I bought from Ikea when we were visiting, a new version of the good old pegboard:

I hope to buy at least one more, probably two, some shelving to fit on them and some open topped holders rather than the style of the capped ones at the top. That way, I can utilise them for sewing items as well.

Ruby decided she wanted a cuddle with her dad whilst they were sat in the warmth of the sun:

Under the weather

I am not ill but below par. Travelling home on Tuesday was when it started coming on. Feel sick generally but worse after eating. Feel sore in my bones, needing the loo etc. Finally had a sleep through last night, it was most welcome. Can’t be anything I have eaten as we all ate the same.

Mind you, seeing how many people, at service stations, don’t wash their hands after toileting, probably picked a bug up from something similar. No dog training this week, can’t bend over without feeling yuk and may need the toilet quickly:(

Yet again.

Our parliament is making us a worldwide laughing stock! A bunch of bullies, idiots and some NIMBY people or not on my watch mate.

For goodness sake, get your acts together.

After believing I couldn’t watch Andy on tv, just found the Huajin tournament on Amazon.

Driving home yesterday.....

Was hard work for DB who kindly did it all, 5 hours worth. I was as much use as a chocolate teapot, being so tired. I managed to stay awake to keep him company. We did take a tea break, then a longer dinner break. Ruby was reluctant to get out of her warm crate to toilet, but we got her out anyway.

The weather was atrocious to say the least. Absolutely pouring down. It didn’t matter that roadworks restricted us to 50 mph as it was too dangerous to travel faster. We stopped at a shop to buy a few food items to keep us going until shopping day.

Congratulations to Andy Murray for winning his first proper ATP match against Tennys Sandgren, who beat him last time around at Winston Salem. Couldn’t watch it but followed it live online. He was pooped! They wanted him to sign tennis balls the second he sat down, but he waved them away until he had gotten his breath back. One game took 25 minutes!

Can’t sleep....

I got up to go to the loo, I thought my watch said 04:10. Couldn’t get back to sleep. After tossing for what feels like hours, just checked my watch again, 03:40! Goodness knows what time I actually got up as I felt like I had had a good sleep.

We are visiting family, so I can’t get up and wander around or even make a nice cup of tea, as I’ll wake everyone else up, including all the dogs. Can’t have a small glass of anything as we are driving home in a few hours. Don’t think I will be much help, helping DB drive. I have got water and biscuits up here so that helps.

I hate being awake when everyone else is asleep. It makes me frustrated, mentally telling them off for being asleep. Sometimes I feel like banging around just to wake everyone up. Anyone who suffers from insomnia will understand!

I’m now going to find something to watch on the internet!

It’s a good job....

We don’t live too close to an Ikea...

We popped in for a late lunch, a vegan chilli non carne, which was very good. A walk around revealed several things we didn’t know we needed:) We rarely buy on a whim so each purchase was discussed and considered before purchasing.

Some things were for my workroom, some for the house, some for others.

Walking and lifting

YesterdayI chose a 3 mile walk for us. I didn’t read what it entailed. Pooped was how we felt afterwards. It involved deceptively flat parts followed by steep climbs and steeply sloped returns. Ruby enjoyed herself but as she never stopped running, she must have covered 8 or more miles.

Today we have shifted a load of hardwood logs. I loaded them gradually into a wheelie bin, then wheeled them around to DB. We both had to lift the bin to roll them out for him to stack. Rinse and repeat 15 - 20 times before the job was done. Then swept up everywhere. Phew!

Another load can wait for another day!

Outdoor tomatoes

Don't really appreciate these cold nights and dewy mornings, which might set them up for disease. With that in mind, I harvested most of the ripe tomatoes I could:

To the left are just two apples and two pears from our collection currently chilling in the bottom of the fridge.

I cleared all the rest of the tomatoes from the plants. They can ripen in the conservatory:

I'm sure DS and DDiL will enjoy sharing them!

Inlay and die cut topped cards

I used a die to cut out snowflakes and a greeting on one half sheet of kraft card. The process was then repeated on hand painted cardstock. Once all the fiddly bits were removed from both, the coloured version was laid inside the kraft card and stuck into place. You can see this process on the right hand card, which also had a thin line of matching colour placed around the edge before it was stuck onto a whole card:

The left hand card was a whole card which had a hand painted die cut snowflake cut out and stuck into place on top of the card. It was way too fiddly and although I used tiny blogs of glue to stick both bits of the snowflake and greeting into place, it would have been better to use a sheet of double sided adhesive to cut out the snowflake and stick it into place.

These next cards were die topped cards, using hand painted, die cut card as toppers. The bell on the left was done as a separate half sheet, gold put around the edge before being placed on a whole card. The blue snowflake was worked on as a whole card:

You might be able to make out on the snowflake cards that the center of each one was swapped over and placed inside its counterpart.

For me, I think less is more.

Cooking in advance

I was busy this morning making cauliflower and pasta cheese bake. We shall soon be seeing DS and DDiL and I like to do my mummy thing and prepare nice things for them. We all love these meals so I made extra for DB and myself to have for tea.

The pale cheese topping is strong cheddar, the orange Mexican chilli cheese:

Once cold they will have their lids put on and go into the freezer.

After messing up one card I liked

I had another go and created these two card toppers:

The word dies are new so I wanted to try them out, very fiddly to attach but I like them. The glue I have seems to dry clear but shiny so shall need to change that, hence the snow flurry on the front of everything. The Father Christmas sleigh and trees are another die with embossed white card behind the cutout.

Visiting Hunstanton

As we hadn't been over there for a long while, this was where we took Ruby yesterday. She had a lovely run and paddle. We had chips and curry sauce, followed by an ice cream, whilst she has her dried chew.  We were looking for a bakery and finally found one on the high street called Mr. Bun.

They sell a wide variety of savoury and sweet items, alongside bread. The Viennese whirl (or finger in this case), cost £1.50 and was huge. It is shown alongside kitchen scissors.

Below is a rock bun/cake for £2.00

Although we didn't buy one, they also sold lots of fresh cream cakes. A chocolate eclair, the same size as the finger above, was £2.50. Iced buns were the same size and just £1.00!

Only one thing marred our visit and that was a lady who walked behind us and said "you ought to be kinder to your dog", loud enough for me to hear. I turned and gave her a long stare. We had just pulled Ruby into heel as she was generally pulling and messing about. Not roughly but firmly. Her tail was still firmly wagging but obviously, she didn't notice that.

It was all I could do to not march up to her and give her what for. An autumn postcard has been added to my cardmaking tab.

Going to the beach

Somewhere along the line, we are taking Ruby to the beach. She hasn't really done much swimming as she rarely goes in far enough to get her feet off the sand. Ah well, maybe it will happen one day.

Last time we visited, she wouldn't retrieve her toy and eventually it sank. Never did find it. She adores running around though and paddling. She also gets a good wash even if she then gets covered in sand going back to the car.

We try to go at least once a month and finish off with chips and curry sauce, followed by an ice cream.

She has grasped some new words, back, garden and blanket. Every morning we tell her to go find blanket, which she does, coming back, parading around the room with it. Also, if we say garden, she goes to the back door and waits. She is getting better at waiting for us to go out first without being asked. If she does step forward, we say back and she gets behind us. Coming along nicely she is.

So far this month....

We have caught and put out two large 'carpet runner' spiders and 4 small bodied little leg torpedo style spiders. Guess we can 'look' forward to those now for a few months. I hate them.

Having wrapped my tomato plants up the other night against a predicted cold night, it didn't arrive so today I unwrapped them and harvested a couple of bowlfuls. A big bowlful of runner beans was also harvested although about 1/4 of them were no good, too stringy.

We drove to Norwich the other day for me to have a good look around a large hobbycraft store. Interesting even though there wasn't too much for me, I still managed to get things that were needed in the next few months. Amazing place.

I have put in a final small order to Amazon and an even smaller one to The Works for my final few things. Other things for future use, have gone/will be going on, my Christmas wish list

A set of cards....

Taking one A4 sheet of card, I coloured it using my cosmic shimmer paints. A Christmas tree die was used to cut out 5 trees. A sentiment and snowflakes were added and there you have it, 5 cards:

Its hard to see on the photo but everything shimmers in the light. I have decided to use white inserts inside the cards as the colour and texture is not the same as the outside. These are recycled cardstock and I love them but the inside is a bit too rough on some.

I bought 3 normal cosmic shimmers yesterday, these stay the same colour no matter what card stock is used. I love these things, I can paint or stamp with them, colour backgrounds etc, very versatile.

Our neighbour R...

Came round the other night to give us about 2lb of brambles (blackberries). He sometimes gives us things when he has them to spare from his allotment.

Anyhow, I used them, along with windfall eating apples and pears, about 6oz of elderberries from last autumn, sugar, lemon juice, a little water and 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice, to make some windfall/hedgerow jam. I shall give him a jar as a thankyou.


Herewith the jam although it will probably look just black in the jars:

I know it will taste delicious, especially in the depths of winter and he loves jam or anything homemade for that matter.

Although the bed still has its summer quilt on, it now also needs the addition of a little thin topper just to stave off the night time chill. Flannelette sheets have been bought ready for the colder nights and I think they might be getting put on sooner rather than later.

Spam blog appearing on my reading list

When I clicked on my reading list yesterday to read new blog posts from those I follow, there were loads of posts from a blog I am not following. Turns out it is spam (in a way). If this happens anytime to you, and you want rid, here is what to do.

Select reading list. Click on each of your blogs and when you recognise the spam blog, go to your little edit pen top right of list (RHS of your screen) it says manage blogs. Now find the same blog that you were on and click the dustbin to get rid of it.

In this case, Mortgage Free in Three is the blog that has been hacked/had its address taken. I was a follower and that was where this spam blog was originating from. Gone now thank goodness.

I cannot reiterate strongly enough to download your blog every few weeks at the very least. If this happens to you, you at least can put your blog back on somewhere else rather than lose it forever.

Go to settings, click other. Top right of main page click "back up content", then when the next screen come up, click save to your computer. On my computer I get another screen that asks me to either open or save file. I click save file. A file with the extension .xml arrives in my download folder.

Its back...

My Jackonary window that is:

Ain't that sweet.

I'm beginning to lose faith in our weather forecast. On our coastal walk this week, a light shower was forecast at 10am so we took just lightweight clothing and shoes. Nope, it poured down, twice. We all got soaked to the skin. Once it stopped, I took off my coat and held it out in the strong wind to dry it. Once dry, I put it on and took my blouse off. Just as I was getting it dry enough to put back on, down came another heavy downpour, soaked us all again so I didn't bother.

It was also an exceptionally high tide and parts of the path was obscured by sea water. I stepped onto what I thought was grass only to sink up to my knees in the sea. I walked the rest of the way, squishing water out my shoes as I went. E. found it hilarious!

I have just wrapped up my tomatoes as low temperatures are forecast for tonight. Wonder if they will happen!

Harvesting Pears and a new card

Having had too many pears fall over the past few days, we decided to harvest them all. Some can go into the fridge to ripen very slowly, others, especially the damaged ones, will be put on a sunny windowsill.

Herewith a bucket (a few missing as they were damaged) of Comice off our very small trained tree:

Herewith a half bucket of red pears. We have already had as many again of windfalls:

My new card, playing with a tree die and cosmic shimmer paints:

I was asked....

By Catherine, what magazine the idea came from for one of my Christmas cards. I'm afraid I don't know, but bought it late August. These are the stamps that were inside:

I rarely buy magazines and when I do, only those that I really want or like. I found this one rather disappointing, only liking the card idea that I created and keeping that bit, the rest was thrown away!

If anyone can help Catherine, I'm sure she would be pleased.

Some cards finished some still in practise mode...

Copying one card from a craft magazine as a trial, the blue one, I quite liked it and decided it would be good enough to give, as is the pink and gold one from my own head:

I also used Cosmic Shimmer paints on black card, cut out with a die, to create a topper for a card:

Quorn

We normally use Quorn chunks, mince or strips as a substitute for meat, in higly flavoured meals such as chilli or curry. Last night, I had some leftover chicken soup stock and decided to try frying it to see if it fried okay, which it did. The manufacturers recommend just adding it to the meal towards the end:

 Courgette and tomatoes were added along with the stock, black pepper and dried thyme:

In this dish, frying it didn't seem to add any extra flavour. We had the above with lovely mashed potatoes:

Dies

I didn't have any dies so rectified that today. Here are my practise pieces. The tree lost part of itself when I peeled off some backing paper. I was trying to protect my embossing plate but it didn't make any difference other than to make that particular bit fall off!:

This one is meant to be a snow globe but if I used all of it, it wouldn't fit my card. The outside of the globe would have cut a circle for me but again, that element of it will have to wait as I don't currently own circle dies:

A pretty label die, like this one:

Finally, a dragonfly on some watermark background:

Enjoying myself immensely!

Two more practise card fronts...

This one above hasn't had any extra things on it.

The one above I would consider finished. How I achieved them can be found on my card making tag above.