Eyes on the Prize

Amidst the renovations and general chaos life rumbles on and we all settle further into our new roles and places, inching ever closer to autumn. The nights are drawing in visibly now, although it's still very mild. 

While Bella just sailed through the transition from primary to secondary school, I'm still getting to grips with it. Not a day goes by without some email from Parentmail telling me I have to do or sign or buy something. No matter that I spent an eye-watering amount of money on uniform back in August - there's still more. Black leggings and a plain black t-shirt are required for dance class apparently, and two different types of PE t-shirt along with sweatshirt and bottoms, and don't forget the scientific calculator, and while I'm at it would I like to put down a £100 non refundable deposit for a school trip to France next year too, while I'm at it? I need a PA just to manage school admin. It makes me nostalgic for primary school when all you needed was a Smiggle pencil case. Meanwhile, Bella and her precious new mobile phone have discovered youtube, Zoella, and cake decorating tutorials, which led to a Saturday afternoon during which both children showed me that they were far better at piping icing than I could ever hope to be, although I was permitted to do the washing up. The new phone and Facetime has also led to Bella picking up some old and dear friendships from Leeds which is absolutely lovely, with girls I knew since they were tiny. It's great hearing her giggle away while she talks to them. Technology, it has it's pros and cons. 

The house is an appalling muddle, with everything in completely the wrong place, and so I am constantly misplacing things like birthday cards I was supposed to post and my keys. The kitchen is the only undisrupted space, and I retreat there often. Soups and stews are starting to feature more now, and I am becoming great friends with my slow cooker. I also made a dress, completely taking over the whole kitchen for a day while I did it, and I will show you the results soon.

Work on the house has taken over any free time we have at the moment. We are doing everything ourselves and so it has to happen at weekends and during the evenings, which is slow going and tiring, but saving us a lot of money. We are, as ever, on a tight budget, but since I last posted about work on the house, we've been busy.

We pulled up that glossy dark laminate flooring in the hallway and found....more laminate. Only this was the really thin kind (the era of Changing Rooms, we thought) and glued to the original parquet floor.

Removing this laminate was one of the worst DIY jobs I have ever done in this house, it nearly broke me and my parents, who were helping me that weekend when John was at work. Each strip had to be softened with a heat gun then lifted with a scraper.

While the thick layer of glue left behind had to be softened again, scraped off, then scrubbed with wire wool and white spirit. It was the most unpleasant, toxic, sticky job ever. 

And the floor is still sticky, hence the attractive carpet stepping stones we are using until the new flooring is laid.

Other than that, we've been filling and levelling in the hallway, getting it ready for decorating. We still need to lay the floor, fit skirting, paint everywhere (walls, woodwork, ceiling, metalwork on the stairs), sand and varnish the wooden stair treads. Not much then.

Meanwhile, in the living room, we pulled up the laminate and found more of the same lovely parquet floor underneath.

Unfortunately, it only covered two thirds of the floor, the other third being concrete as it was a later addition. Also, quite a lot of the original floor is water damaged and with loose pieces of wood. 

Now, while restoring the original floors would, of course, have been wonderful, it would have meant digging out, lowering and levelling the concrete areas, then sourcing reclaimed parquet that matched ours, then paying a carpenter to lay the floor. Not something we had the budget or the stomach for, I'm afraid. 

Then we thought about engineered oak, for both the living room and the hallway, but at £2000 we quickly thought again and decided to go for this, which was less than half the price including underlay. 

Yes, it's laminate (which I feel has unfairly become a dirty word in floor coverings), and it's really nice. Thick and warm with bevelled edges and a matt, textured feel, it looks fantastic in the living room.

John and my brother in law Paul spent all weekend laying the living room floor themselves and I couldn't be more pleased. It lets so much more light into the darker corners, and the matt surface is infinitely more forgiving of dust and dog hair than the previous shiny flooring.

John has been busy fitting the skirting and this weekend we hope to decorate. I think we are just going to paint everything white. I like it that way, then all the wood and plants and little pops of colour can shine against it. It will be October, realistically, before we are anywhere near finished, perhaps by half term. But, eyes on the prize, I just need to keep thinking about how beautiful and airy it's going to look when it's finished, about how much more space we will have, how much more light bouncing around the house. I may need to buy some more houseplants!

All the crafting

Hello! Thanks for your tips and advice on housework. I am going to do a proper round up type post soon, because it's one of those funny subjects which seems really dull at first glance but which people (myself included) quite like talking about and especially finding out how other households tick and make it work. Thanks to those who recommended the TOMM method. I am familiar with it and have had a good look at her website and videos, and like a lot of what I see, although having said all that I don't know if it's for us as a family and household. 

It's suddenly turned a lot cooler here and there are WIPs everywhere, and I know that the seasons are definitely turning as I plan more and more projects for the colder months. But, if I'm honest, I'm just not feeling it. I'm too tired, too busy, too distracted. Between the new job and new routine and the chaos that is the downstairs of our house, I am not feeling remotely inspired. Please don't tell me that all crafting will stop until October half term, I will definitely go mad. Some nights even the thought of getting out my crochet basket is too exhausting to think about but, like exercise, I always feel better afterwards. My malaise is not helped by the fact that I spent all day yesterday sewing the Merchant and Mills Camber dress and while 90% of it is good, better than good actually, the darts around the bust are all wrong and I feel like screwing it up in a ball and throwing it into the spare room until I am calm enough to sort it out. 

Anyway. Moving on.

I don't know if I ever showed you a photo of this blanket I made for my friend and colleague Donna, who left us to move to New Zealand. She asked for grey and heather tones, and it was a pleasure to make something in colours that I wouldn't usually choose. Actually, this is the kind of project I feel like working on at the moment; something solid, cosy, easy. No decisions to make. 

For those who might like to know details, I used the standard ripple pattern in treble crochet and it measures 90 x 120 cm. The Yarn is Drops Eskimo (five balls of white #01, four of grey #53, four of dark grey #14, four of camel #13 and four of heather #65) and an 8mm hook. Using such chunky yarn, I discovered that it is - just - possible to crochet two colleagues blankets in three weeks right at the end of the summer term, but I wouldn't advise doing so in a heatwave.

The hexagons are growing nicely. I reckon I've done about a hundred and twenty by now, although nothing since the holidays.

I usually cut out three sheets of 3 inch hexagon templates at a time, and then choose the fabric and cut pieces roughly to size using a 4 inch hexagon. I try to cut my paper hexagon templates as carefully as possible, as the lady in the yarn shop said the accuracy was really important when sewing them all together. Then I hand baste in batches of ten or so, and iron them flat whenever I happen to have the ironing board out. I know that I will never use up all my fabric scraps with this quilt so I am prioritising the ones I like best, like the Liberty print and the Nani Iro, and choosing the colours and patterns which I really love. I want a lot of white in this quilt too to offset all that colour and pattern, so I am using plain white cotton for quite a lot of the hexies too. Those ones are really boring to make.

I started a new blanket on holiday. I found myself with a lot of aran weight cotton yarn (Drops Paris) left over from a project earlier in the year, a baby blanket for which I kept ordering pink yarn until I found the right shade, but couldn't face returning all the yarn. I have a very distinct picture in my head of how this blanket is going to look and I have to trust myself here as I don't have a pattern and it's join as you go, so no chance to lay out all those squares of colour before crocheting or sewing them together.

My squares are all on the diagonal, and there will be waves of colour that gradually move through the grid but not in a rainbow way, much more random than that. I know this corner is very pink but that's because that's all I had on holiday. The subsequent two rows are much more grey, white and beige, and I have all these colours here too:

I can't really tell how this blanket is going to turn out and go through phases of loving it and hating it. 

I also have plans to make this jumper, in time for the cooler weather hopefully. 

The pattern is from here and I decided to make it in the colour featured as I don't have anything in this rusty orange colour, and it seemed perfectly autumnal.

I bought this book from Foyles in London during the holidays and am now determined to get out the as-yet-unused loom I bought about a year ago. 

Part of the appeal is that is seems the perfect way to use up odd amounts of yarn which have long since lost their labels, and I am planning a small wall hanging for our hallway, when it is ever finished. October maybe?

In the meantime I am very inspired by the designs in the book and have lots of ideas about the colours I want. 

This is the autumn I finally get to grips with weaving! Oh, and juggling work and family life, sorting out the living room and hall (John is laying the flooring this weekend), working on all my WIPs, remembering to feed the children and dog, not fall asleep on the sofa every night at 9pm....not much then. 

Cookery Calendar Challenge: July

Yes, that's right, July's Cookery Calendar Challenge, which I did in August and am bringing you in September, on a chilly Thursday night which has more than a hint of autumn in the air.

I chose the book POLPO: A Venetian Cookbook (Of Sorts) by Russell Norman, which isn't the sort of thing I would normally buy so I think it may have been one that John bought or was given. Visually it's gorgeous with a striking cover and as many photos of Venice as of the food. It doesn't have that essential, a bookmark, but does have a clever spine which is missing it's central cardboard panel so that the book, when opened, stays completely flat and never needs propping open, very useful when you're cooking from it. It could be really pretentious, this book, but is actually very down to earth and seasonal without being too aspirational or calling for too many expensive ingredients, although I do get annoyed when British authors insists on chucking Italian (or any other language for that matter) words into a recipe title because, unless I use google translate or read down a long list of ingredients, I don't have any idea what I'm actually cooking. 

First was Risi e Bisi which means, simply Rice and Peas, or pea risotto. You need for this fresh peas, still in their pods, which I've never bothered with before, but was easily able to get in Waitrose. I wasn't really sure what the difference would be until I ate them and then I realised why you need them; they are sweeter, firmer in texture, fuller in flavour and the pods form the basis of your stock. 

The recipe suggested adding pancetta, which we did for the flavour, but I think it would be lovely with simply the peas too. 

I don't tend to add fresh herbs to my risottos usually, but this used parsley and mint and was so good, with a light summery flavour. Top marks all round for this one.

Next, also from the vegetables chapter, was Cavolo Nero, Gnocchi and Pecorino Romano; gnocchi in a kind of pesto sauce made from cavolo nero.

The sauce is easy; cook the greens briefly then blitz with olive oil, garlic and pecorino although I used parmesan because that's what was in the fridge. 

The gnocchi, however...you'll notice that this is when the photos stop. I was trying to do this late one night before John got in from work (no chance my kids were eating this!) and the dog was underfoot and it was all a bit stressful. You have to boil the potatoes and then, when they're cool, grate them into a bowl and add egg and flour, which you then knead into a dough. I've never made gnocchi before so wasn't really sure how wet the dough should be so just used my instincts and made it up. Then you roll the dough into strips, chop into chunks and boil. My chunks were messy and missapen but they did cook, rising to the top of the water in a minute or two, before being tossed with the sauce. What a palava.

Luckily they were delicious and totally different to the shop bought gnocci, less gluey and sticky and much lighter. John found the sauce overpoweringly garlicky and didn't like it as much as I did. I think it was a gnocchi/sauce mismatch for him, and he would've preferred those potato dumplings in a different sauce, perhaps a simple tomato marinara sauce. However, the leftover pesto we ate with shredded chicken breast, more cavolo nero, and pasta and it was actually much better that way. I'll definitely make gnocchi again but not with this sauce.

I also baked the Flourless Orange and Almond Cake but totally forgot photos. It's not a pretty cake at all, almost more of a dessert, but so SO good and one of my favourite things to make. It's lovely served warm with a runny orange syrup and a dollop or marscapone or creme fraiche. This recipe is almost identical, just without the syrup, if you fancy making it. 

I'll leave you with a picture of Millionaire's Shortbread, something I don't often make because it's quite time consuming but Angus, in a cafe one day on holiday while eating a slice, said wistfully "Mum, I really wish you knew how to make Millionaire's Shortbread." to which I replied "Err, I do" and he basically looked at me like I'd told him Christmas was coming early. Honestly, if I'd known that was all it would take to earn his respect and adoration, I'd have made it sooner. I like it although I find it a little too sweet, but it's a crowd pleaser and I took some into work to try to win over my new colleagues. Bella says's it's better than the one in Costa...such an accolade.

The new role is going well so far although I am tired. Being based in the classroom is so very different to being in the office, in more ways than one, and I'm missing those two hours alone in the house before I go to work. People who work all day Monday to Friday - when do you do your housework/washing/shopping etc? I need your tips! A little every day or all on a Saturday morning?

Last of all, my blog has been nominated again for an Amara Interior Blog Award in the Craft Category. Thank you, whoever that was - you have no idea how much that means to me. If you would like to vote for me the link is here.

Seasons Turning

I'm never so aware of the seasons turning as I am in early September. Every year it's the same; the combination of darkening evenings, cooler mornings and the return of the school routine all collectively remind me that we are making that shift from late summer into early autumn. Even when the days are still so warm it no longer feels like summer to me.

It's been a long week so far and it's only Tuesday. So much is happening here; DIY work on the house, a new job for me, a new school for Bella, a new school year for Angus. It's a little overwhelming and I deliberately took Sunday afternoon out when I should've been doing a million other things like the ironing or labelling school uniform, to go to the beach with the kids and the dog. The weather was beautiful over the weekend, like summer's last hurrah, and it was time very well spent.

The new job is going well. I'm still working in a primary school but now as a teaching assistant (Y3) rather than an admin officer. It's more hours and less money but I am much happier being in a classroom and am very excited for the first day with all the children tomorrow. Bella's first day at secondary school went better than we ever could have hoped for. She left smiling and greeted me smiling when I got home, full of things to tell me. She loves the small amounts of independence that our new routine have given her; walking to and from school with her friends, her first mobile phone, having a key and letting herself into the house before I get in twenty minute later. She also looks adorable in her uniform with her blazer and tie, so smart.

It was a good summer though, wasn't it? I always find it easier to go into autumn if I feel like I've had a decent amount of sun, fresh air, sea swims, beach time.  I was thinking about our Summer Holiday List, and how we fared. We managed the meal in the restaurant (quite a few times), lots of family walks, a visit to my friend Abigail's and beach trips. We also squeezed in a day trip to London where we visited the Imperial War Museum, had lunch out, browsed Foyles bookshop in Charring Cross and went to Chinatown.

At home we did colouring and crafting, lots of reading and made Freakshakes. I think the children felt they were actually more fun to create than to eat/drink, and that there is such a thing as too much sugar.

I didn't find time to make a miniature room in a suitcase for Angus (it's ok, he says he'll have one for Christmas instead...) or have a barbecue on the beach, but I'm trying to persuade the family that we should have a hot picnic down there one day, with baked potatoes or soup. 

As for my list, I didn't get that cream tea in Devon sadly although my mum did make a fabulous one for us all last week, with homemade scones and tea in a teapot. I did however start making a quilt, start a blanket, and go blackberry picking.

And with those blackberries, kilos and kilos of them, I did one of my most favourite things to do at this time of year: make jelly. This year was a bumper crop of blackberries, they were huge and so sweet and juicy, so I made ten jars of bramble jelly and six of hedgerow, and have enough bags of fruit in the freezer to keep us in blackberry and apple crumbles well into next year.