Saturday, January 15, 2011

A day off.

Wednesday I gave myself a day off, a day to myself. I took the bus and tootled up to Spotlight and then to the Salvos. I bought some light mauve pure wool 8ply, a gadget for turning my bag handles right way round and a spiky wheel thing for transferring paper patterns on to the fabric. 3mts of 8mm black elastic, some extra long sewing needles to do sashico and some white thread. Two crochet hooks and a packet of snap fasteners, another bag notion. Not very exciting you say, well quite the opposite for me.





With the mauve 8ply I am going to knit myself a cardigan. I've never knitted myself anything as big as a cardigan before and I am looking forward to starting.
The gadget for turning bag handles will be very well used as will the snap fasteners. I have an obsession with making bags, tote bags, handbags, book bags, useful little bags and useful big bags, I'll have a go at any and all.
The spiky wheel thingy and the sashico needles will be used for, sashico ( a Japanese form of embroidery, using a stitch similar to a running stitch, to form patterns, often white thread on blue background). I've wanted to have a try at this after seeing some beautiful examples at the Knit and Stitch Show, in London, in October. The crochet hooks, well a girl can't have enough hooks, can she!





Black elastic and white thread, to finish my ironingboard cover. Bex got me an ironing board from freecycle, all it needed was a new cover. I love doing the ironing but it has to be on a board, can't iron on the table, so awkward. Now I have a board I am happy, nothing nicer than a pile of clean, fresh washing, newly ironed.






The ironing board minus cover. I have a couple of old beach towels as the padding and a lovely piece of red gingham for the cover. I'm going to machine this up when I go to see Rose, on Sunday, as I don't have my machine with me. Slightly heavy for carry on baggage. 


No, not for me a day at the Mall but I do like shopping. Yarn shops, fabric shops and op shops are my idea of heaven. By the way I found two more pillowcases for my patchwork vintage cotton picnic quilt. I think I have enough to make a fair sized one, now. All ready to start when I go home. Only hope I don't get stopped at customs, " Why madam have you fifteen odd pillowcases in your suitcase." 

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Temptation.


Now what's this all about? How is a body supposed to lose a few extra kgs with this sort of temptation. Benjy's honeycomb from Gary and George's 'Your place or mine'. 




Benjy has been experimenting with various concoctions for this scrummy, crispy confectionary for the last few days. Of course as chief tester I've had my work cut out. The first attempt was unusual to say the least. Benjy didn't read the label on the honey jar and we had 'CHILLI' flavoured honeycomb. The next lot set like lead but not to be beaten he tried another recipe and hey presto honeycomb.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Corporate Report for 2010.

2010 is gone and we are into 2011, now is the time to take stock, evaluate and plan for the year to come. Sounds like something from a big business end of year report. Thinking about it I suppose we are a business.

The Ibbotson Family Home. 
CEO and domestic director, Grandma. 
Financial and maintenance director, Pampa.
Culinary and horticultural support, Benjy.
Domestic grounds person and general fixer, Paddy.

All the team work well together and I can rely on my workforce 100%. Production has risen this year and I am happy to say costs have been driven down. From our Chyenhall plant (allotment) we have harvested an increased range including potatoes, carrots, cabbage, sprouts, broad, runner and french beans, onions, shallots, squash, marrow, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, chillies, lettuce, melon and strawberries. These have been processed into a vast range of home cooked meals, pickles, chutneys and jams in our Kitchen plant. This plant has worked overtime to produce all the bread, cake and biscuit requirements as well as adequate supplies of tea.
The textile plant has also produced an increased range of goods including knitwear and fabric items mostly in the our nursery range but also some Christmas goods.
The janitorial department has manufactured almost all of the laundry and cleaning products consumed this year.
Power usage has been cut and we hope to continue this in the new year.

In the next financial year we plan to increase production at our Chyenhall plant, expand with a new freezer unit and manufacture a greater range of preserved goods. The textile plant needs to up production on socks, sweaters and dishcloths. 

Personal.
The workforce has increased this year with a new member of the International team, who excels at gooing and gurgling, but is inclined to demand a great deal of the CEO's attention.

All in all a very good year.