Believe it or not there are actually some occasions when I make things. Quite a lot of things actually. The problem is I forget to take pictures, or they're sent off to another part of the world and by the time they get to their eventual destination the sense of achievement I felt about making them has been dulled by the fact the post office has taken 4 times longer to deliver them than they should have done, so I never get around to blogging about them.
So I will now do a bit of a catch up post.

Ages ago I took part in the Craftster "Foreign Exchange Swap". My parcel took the scenic 3 week route to Joanna in Germany, but at least it got there eventually.

Here's the group shot:

I would have been gutted had it got lost, not only because the crafted things marked a turning point in the relationship between my sewing machine and I, (we made friends while making those coasters.) But also because I had sent one of my precious bottles of Hendersons Relish which I have to import from Sheffield to Stalybridge.

As well as the Hendersons I sent some Yorkshire Tea, a CD of British music, a load of papers, tourist leaflets, takeout menu's. The crafted things were the little flower badge, also this fabric recipe box.

The recipes are all traditional and regional dishes, like Scouse, Black Pudding, Haggis, Eccles Cakes, Yorkshire Pudding (I did point out that unless she'd got some Yorkshire blood she's struggle with these), and also details on how to do a English Breakfast and a Sunday Lunch. I did a few cards on traditions like bonfire night too, with some Bonfire Night themed recipes, and a bit of information too on accents and dialects, as well as some other things.

Lastly I made these Union flag coasters which I have to admit I love! I was tempted to keep a couple and only send 4, but I was good and sent them all. I had to borrow a photo off Joanna, because I'm daft and forgot to take a photo of the reverse. I used blue fabric and different width ribbons for the flag, the reverse is some red, white and blue flowery fabric which in a previous life was a summer dress of mine. I only wore it briefly when I was 17 when for a few short weeks it was too hot to be a Goth, so I'm glad it's finally being used.

As usual this post has taken an age to write because I'm so easily distracted. I could use the extra hour I'll gain this evening by staying up late, but instead I'm going to use it by getting a much needed extra hour in bed. If I can avoid distractions I'll carry on catching up on Monday.

So this is one of the things which went wrong today.
The oven had been on for about 45 minutes 180C, there was a *pop*, not even a loud one, and the glass on the outside of the oven door had shattered.
It looks very pretty though, and I liked the crackling sound it made as it cooled and shattered more, it sounded a bit like Rice Crispies. It’s not very practical for an oven. There go any plans for nice biscuits for Porl’s birthday party, ad it’s a good job his Mum is buying a cake.
What confuses me most is that the glass inside is fine, it’s just the outside which is broken.

Other not-so-great news received today is that my Dad has an appointment at the hospital on Thursday. We knew this was coming as he has to have an operation on his heart soon so he’s going in for tests are in preparation. He'll be having a tube down his throat so they can put a camera down, it’s supposed to be routine, a 15 minute procedure. However last time he had it done it took an hour and a half, 4 nurses to hold him down, 2 consultants to get the tube in, and they even asked my Mum in, in the hope her voice would calm him. He fought them all the way, and this is all while he was sedated. He remembers none of it, Dad is as gentle as a pussy cat usually, he just really doesn’t like hospitals.
Hopefully Thursday will be better. I was going over to take them to the hospital, but the weather is due to be lousy and they've told me not to go.

After that news my neighbour phoned and asked if I’d go round. She's been sent to hospital tonight for some tests too, she's an old lady who I get on with really well, they're not sure what's wrong so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed. While she's in I'm looking after her psycho cat Frankie. This cat is unlike any I've ever met, certainly not the afore mentioned gentle pussy cat. He attacks anything & anyone, everyone leaves there covered in scratches and bite marks. When she first got him as a kitten I thought it would calm down but he hasn't. Even the vets refer to him as “Frankie the kitten from hell”.
My neighbour takes him out on a lead, with his temperament she daren’t let him out alone. Duke tries to befriend him, but Frankie just attacks him, Gonzo makes no pretence of friendship. I suspect a good thrashing from another cat would do Frankie good, but if I brought him round here I’m not sure who’d survive the fight.
I’ll be wearing my thick jumpers and gardening gloves when I go to feed him.

The last thing that happened today to cause problems occurred after an unsuccessful shopping trip to get Porl a birthday present. Somehow as I was getting back into the car I managed to thump the back of my head. I hit it so hard I actually felt my brain hit the front of my head and I wasn’t sure whether the front of back hurt most.
I spent a good couple of minutes sat in the car laughing/crying as the world span.
Several hours later and I’ve a lump on the back of my head, I’ve still got a headache, and my neck and back are really stiff.

So today hasn’t been the most successful day ever. I did manage to finish knitting a scarf though, I’ll take some photos of it tomorrow in daylight.
Right now I’m going to bed, there's not much of the day left, but I've had enough of this one anyway.

The bathroom has been painted... again.

I tried living with the colour for a week, I even put the cupboards back up, and put all the decorative things back, hoping that it might just be the bareness of the room that was putting me off the colour.

But no, it was the colour putting me off the colour.

I learnt my lesson and bought some tester pots on the way home last night, so the bathroom is now the pale bluey-grey colour that I had first imagined. Mum & Dad have been up for the day, so while Dad put some shelves up in our bedroom, Mum and I got the painting done, thankfully it only needed one coat. After dinner Dad "rested his eyes" for a couple of hours while we got the glossing done. I still need to do some touching up, and another coat of gloss, but I can now go in the bathroom without getting a horrible restless feeling.

Next weekend we paint the hall/stairs/landing.
It is going to be white.

We're quite proud of our Sunday Lunches at this house. We don't have them every Sunday as I'm often working, but they're certainly a treat to look forward to. We also know they're good because Porl's parents ask to come round to eat them.
One of the best things about a Sunday Lunch for us, is that it will also feed us for Monday teatime, and as I'm vegetarian Porl get's a whole chicken to himself, which means chicken butties until Wednesday. The cats also get the odd treat too. I like meals that last for a few days.

Our standard Sunday Lunch consists of; a roast chicken for Porl, roast potatoes, roast sweet potaotes, roast parsnips - which have been coated in parmesan, sprouts, 'special' mash - made up of normal potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and plenty of butter, stuffing, and Yorkshire puddings with sage and onion in. Also can't forget the gravy, I have Bisto onion gravy, Porl has his made with all the juices from the chicken. I also have mint sauce, the joy of being a veggie is you don't have to follow rules like mint with lamb etc etc.

It's a lot, but we don't have breakfast, we just eat this somewhere better 3 and 6 in the afternoon, then sometimes about 9pm we might be able to manage dessert.

We will always make a large saucepan full of 'special' mash, so that on Monday we can eat the leftovers. We often fry up the mash add some slices of fried aubergine and haloumi, then fry some red onion, baby tomatoes add lots of balsamic vinegar and serve with some salad. Porl will also have some of the chicken.
Another way of using the mash is to put it around some goats cheese before frying it up.
Whatever we do it's always delicious.

Yesterday however Porl cooked lamb.
Lamb is nicer for Sunday Lunch, but it isn't so good in sandwiches, and it's very expensive, so it's a treat he doesn't often have.
So he cooked the lamb and it was delicious (apparently).

I went to bed very early last night, as I was starting with a migraine, I woke at about 3am, couldn't get back to sleep, so laid there thinking of nice things to do with the lamb. I was still feeling ill, and craving comfort food, so I decided in the morning I would turn the rest of the lamb into a stew, I'd have a veggie stew and we could have dumplings.
Yum yum yum, fell back to sleep thinking happy thoughts.

This morning I woke up, came downstairs and noticed Porl had forgotten to put the lamb in the fridge. Now he might not have a Food Hygiene qualification, but experience of living with 2 cats has taught him to cover food that he wants to save. Our normally extremely well behaved cats know that the kitchen work surfaces are STRICTLY out of bounds. But the temptation of a juicey chicken, or joint of lamb has been known to tempt them so we ALWAYS cover the meat as soon as it comes out of the oven.

After making a brew and opening the door to let the cats out I went back upstairs to have a shower. I told Porl about my idea for stew which he thought was great, and we came downstairs to start making it.

I bet you can guess what we found...
The carefully covered piece of meat was no longer covered, in fact it was no longer there. Also mysteriously absent was Gonzo.
I couldn't help but laugh.
He had resisted the temptation all night until the door was opened and he was able to smuggle the meat out of the house. He returned several hours later without the meat, but looking as innocent as ever.

We still had stew and dumplings, but we had to go shopping for some more meat. Tomorrow we'll be having the remains of the stew in pancakes.

Both cats are being punished for Gonzo's behaviour, as we forgot to buy their tinned food when we were out. They're on rations of dry food and water.