A veritable feast

We had our best buds Charlie and Jaime round this weekend, along with their oh-so-cute baby Finley. As it was Sunday, we did roast chickens – yes, two of them! – with various trimmings. We started with dolcelatte mushrooms (I’ve mentioned these before, they’re the future!), but Fin turned his nose up at them. It was more than that actually, he threw them down his trousers.

We then had the roast dinner with half-homemade bread. Fin appeared to approve more of this dish, as he half mashed, half ate it.

It’s a bit of a cheat, but I used James Martin’s red onion and balsamic vinegar bread mix in the breadmaker, then made them into a tear ‘n’ share loaf and popped them in the oven to finish off. It was delicious, but a bit oily.

To finish, Barry made his current pudding du jour, strawberry pavlova. As we don’t have a mixer at the moment, he keeps beating the eggs by hand, which takes an age, but I’m sure it’s better than weight lifting at the gym.

A normal photograph was good, but Instagram makes you want it more. I don’t know why.

Cake

Nothing like sticking with a theme, but superheroes seem to be in at our house. I’ve promised my brother that I’ll have a go at making a Spiderman cake for my nephew Sonny’s 5th birthday in a couple of weeks’ time. Sonny absolutely loves Spiderman and dresses in his little Spiderman outfit whenever he can.

I had a search online and found a few different Spiderman cakes with various designs. I found one I liked, and even though I’ll be seriously stretching my icing skills, if I can pull it off, it will look brilliant! I think I’ve been bolstered by the boot tops – I’ve somehow got the impression that enthusiasm and will can overcome lack of skill or knowledge.

At least this one has a step-by-step on YouTube.  I’ve already bought the icing and the food colouring, just need to get a paintbrush and some toothpicks (seriously).

His birthday’s in a couple of weeks, so I’ll put up a photo of the result, whether it’s worthy or not.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baxoe8KYwcw]

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No, it’s me in a monster mood.

When I bought my Supergirl costume (eBay, of course), I was warned that the boot tops were small. In my opinion, childlike would have been an understatement. This photo does not show what the boot tops are like, and she must have been sewn into them – there’s no way even the hottie in the picture could have got these bad boys on. Yeah, that’s not me.

I took them into work for sewing advice from my colleague Katheryn. Everyone tried to get them on, but to no avail. Although I do have calves like a farmer’s wife, it made me feel better that nobody could get them on.

About a month ago, I bought a metre of matching shiny red material to sew a strip in the back of the boot tops. Turns out to be the worst type of material to sew – even piercing the material with a needle causes it to pull, and puts big holes in it. I’ve been putting it off a bit, and keeping an eye out on eBay etc. for boot tops. As no appropriate ones have popped up, I’m left with trying to fix this mess.

Katheryn advised that I strengthen the seams with wundaweb, which I think was a really good idea, except I’ve got a strong feeling the material will just rip somewhere else now. Up to this point, I did this all by hand and it took forever.

I’ve chosen some silver wedges because they’re a balance of my most flattering, yet most comfortable shoes. They’re a bit of an awkward shape to cover, but I know that I’ll be able to keep them on all night.

I had to make the actual foot of the boot, because the boot tops just stop at the ankle, and this would look a tad stupid with a silver peeptoe wedge. I’ve tried this several times, and began by handsewing them, and then gave in and used my ancient hand crank Singer sewing machine. I didn’t think it would save time as it takes a while for me to remember how to set it up, but it definitely did once I got going!

Then I sewed some elastic to the bottoms to hold them down. Not sure how that’s going to fare when I’m walking on it.

The boots do look very handmade, but never mind! It was a very difficult project to try and start with – the last thing I did with the sewing machine was hem some curtains!

Need to finish off tomorrow night, but Katheryn’s lent me some red boots in the meantime in case I need a backup!

Check! Check!

Although we didn’t do much this weekend, I did cross off a few tasks from the Depressing visual representation of all the jobs left to do: the living room, namely task 1, half of task 2 and task 3.

1. Sand and repaint wall and paint skirting boards
Barry was making a stand about not doing any DIY last weekend, so I did all this with my own fair hands. In the beginning, he wasn’t even willing to instruct me on how to do it, but he gave in in the end and gave me a bit of idea!

I had to cut away the cracked parts of the wall before I could sand. Very nervous with Stanley knives as in very clumsy! Then I had to caulk the wall (cue lots of jokes about loving caulk). I ended up caulking half the wall that was left to paint as it was so cracked from the flooring being put in.

2. Paint these skirting boards and cut and fit the beading
I painted all of the remaining skirts, but the beading still needs to be done.








3. Paint this door (both sides) and the doorframe on the other side

I did all of this, which took a few hours. I may have mentioned that we are going on a fancy dress pub crawl this weekend. On Sunday, I watched Supergirl (to get into character), and we watched the first three Indiana Jones films. I say watched, I was just listening because you can’t see the TV from the door/floor behind the sofa.

We were also prepared to have a good crack at tasks 7 and 8 (getting white frames, drawers and baskets), but who knew Ikea was closed on Easter Sunday?

Probably won’t get anything done this coming weekend – it’s Barry’s birthday and we have people staying over again, so may not have much to report.

Depressing visual representation of all the jobs left to do: the kitchen

This is part one of a two-part mini-series whereby I put all the work we’ve already done into perspective and think about just how much more time and money we still need to dedicate to these two rooms of the house that are taking over all of our free time and finances. This is part one: the kitchen. Tune in tomorrow for an exciting look at the long list of tasks still to do in the living room.

1. Sand and repaint the ceiling

2. Cut skirting boards to size and repaint

3. Fit skirting boards

4. Finish painting the kitchen walls

5. Finish sanding and fit the peninsula

6. Tile the kitchen walls

7. Paint the stairs wall, handrail and ceiling

8. Replace all of the switches with brushed silver ones

9. Get a condenser tumble dryer

Sunshine

I had my lunch in the sun three times last week. This is a record.

I work in Bradford city centre, and since the City Park was completed, I feel quite proud of Centenary Square (which is the square where the town hall and a few pubs and restaurants reside). I walk through it on my way to the bus stop, and because it was sunny last week, I thought I’d grab a meal deal from town and sit and have lunch. Clearly, everyone else in Bradford had the same cracking idea, because it was packed.

There was still space on some benches, so I sat down to eat, and watched some toddlers running in and out of the water (kids love fountains!) and read a book. It’s hard to go back to work after that, but it does feel like you’ve actually had a break, instead of just sitting at your desk for lunch.

Well, it only went and snowed yesterday, and I have to get my winter coat back out of commission already? What’s all that about?  Then today, it’s sunny!  I’m confused.  These photos are the view from our back bedroom window, yesterday and today.

Happy Easter weekend everyone!

Diamond Jubilee

Is anyone actually doing anything for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee? Does anyone do that sort of thing any more?

I love the idea of hanging bunting (this one’s from Lakeland), getting together with your neighbours, everyone bringing a dish, putting everyone’s tables together in a long row with matching tablecloths, and having a great old time. It is also probably the 60s in this dream.

I watched the Royal Wedding (capital R, capital W) last year with much more interest than I thought I would. I wished I’d invited people round so we could enjoy it together.

However, I’ve mentioned before how little I know my neighbours. Which makes the Jubilee dream even more ridiculous. Yes, even more ridiculous than spending £6.99 on four metres of floral bunting. And you know you’d need more than one.

I’m wishing we were a little more community-minded though (not just us, everyone on our street). This week, I’ve made friends with one side of neighbours on Facebook (howdy, neighbours!) – Family B for those of you paying attention. While I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction, isn’t it silly that we’re friends on Facebook before being friends in real life? I’m completely holding myself responsible here.

So, over to you. Do you get on with your neighbours? What broke the ice? Any plans for the Jubilee that involve your neighbours?

Slowly but surely

We had a busy weekend planned, so didn’t get much house stuff done. On the plus side, we got to play with Finley (Charlie and Jaime’s super-cute and ridiculously clever baby), saw The Hunger Games (the book’s better; knocked half a point off for shaky cam; 3/5), and had a delicious Sunday dinner at Charlie and Jaime’s. We even ate outside in the sunshine! Fly count: 1. It has been decreed, Barry can no longer use the fly excuse not to eat outside.

Anyway, between all that, Barry did a bit of painting. Not art. He painted the alcove (again, please watch In Bruges to find this funny!) and the windowsill is all glossy as well. A photo didn’t really do it justice, so I’ve scrapped the one just of the windowsill. Still got sanding and painting to do, but we are steadily getting there.



Very excited about the flooring coming on Saturday. We got it from a sale at www.infloor.co.uk, which was by far the cheapest we’ve seen it. No idea how long it’ll take to put in though.

As an aside, we also saw The Cabin In The Woods last night. Also 3/5. Would have given it more apart from the gaping plot holes, although it was funny and shocking at the same time.

Lottery

Do you ever think of the things you would change (house-wise) if you won the lottery? I do!

Win over a certain amount, and obviously you could move (which we would – why would you live in a semi-detached house?), but if you won a less life-changing amount, you could still make some dramatic changes. I like the thought of not having to wait to decorate rooms. We could have our bedroom painted at the same time as decking is being put into the garden. Built in wardrobes? Not a problem. Dressing table? I’ll take two.

Having said all that, as long as we’re in this house, the kitchen will always be the kitchen Barry put in with his own bare hands. We’ve agonised over flooring, and waited until payday to buy the next lot of paint. I’m not trying to say I would’t appreciate the money (I definitely would), but there’s pride to be had in working for it too.

Something for the weekend

Along with going to see The Hunger Games on Saturday and Sunday dinner on Sunday (both with our best buds Charlie and Jaime, hi guys!), we’ve got a few kitchen tasks for this weekend…

  • Paint the alcove. If you aren’t thinking quotes from In Bruges right now, I pity you.  This is the alcove (right).  Or do you say nooks and crannies?
  • Sand and paint the ceiling.
  • Cut the peninsula to the right size. Barry’s just bought a shiny new circular saw and is itching to try it out, despite the fact we can’t put it up until the flooring’s in.
  • List the radiator and butcher’s block trolley on eBay.  Because we all know how much I love my customers.
  • Order flooring. We’ve made the following mathematical calculation:

a + b = c

Where a = concrete flooring, b = £100 off online sale and c = credit card.

Barry put one of those pop up plugs into the worktop yesterday. Scary drilling a huge hole into our shiny new worktop, but it looks fine! A post for the peninsula is on its way. eBay is good for so many things!

We also bought one of those paint pads with the tiny wheel a few weeks ago. They’re supposed to create a straight line at the edges when you’re

painting, but Barry’s had another crack at the black paint and it doesn’t seem to have made a blind bit of difference.

Barry put the shiny new curtains up yesterday too.  They’re a lot thinner than our last ones, but they’re pretty!  I could always line them if it’s a problem.