It isn't often that I get a Sunday morning to myself, and my afternoon had already been hijacked because we were off to Duffy's Circus later, but on Sunday I woke early, made a pot of coffee (I'm finally working my way up to real coffee instead of instant) and settled down for a morning of reading, or perhaps more accurately, page flicking.I can't imagine a world without books, old and new, filled with real pages. Books have a smell and a feel that I just couldn't be without. I love blogs too, don't be worrying but those handheld digital readers which come preloaded with the classics make me very sad.Sunday morning was spent flicking through these two books.
I've been through Beeton's Book of Household Management from cover to cover, time and time again, but it's still a favourite of mine.
It isn't really a cookery book, it's more of a guide book and was probably a necessity for new housewifes in it's day, giving advice on how to buy, cook, hire staff (yes please), stain removal, the raising of children and just about everything else you could think of. If you remember a program which was on tv years ago called "The Great British Picnic", this is the book they followed to get it right. The picnic was intended to feed 40 and if I had wrote the book it would have included about four loaves of sandwichs, bowlfuls of chicken wings and enough cake and fizzy drinks to top everyone off, but Mrs Beeton's list includes 14 full roasts of meat, 4 pies, 6 lobsters 18 lettuce and 6 baskets of salad......inhale...... stewed fruit, 4 dozen biscuits, 2 dozen fruit turnovers, 4 dozen cheesecakes, 11 puddings and cakes, 13 loaves of bread and 6lb of butter, not forgeting the champagne, wine, juice and 1/2lb of tea along with cups and saucers, with coffee apparently being too much faff for a picnic.And believe it or not, people are fatter today!
But it's still a brilliant book to flick through and I have tried many of the recipes. I always have a giggle at the inscription. Clearly Jack had no problems in giving his wife hints:) Even with the mouthful above it does have some great information, most of which is based on frugal living and it also includes a fully seasonal bill of fare to feed anything from 6 to 80 people for each month of the year.
The book was first published as 24 monthly installments starting in 1858 and then as a bound book in 1861. This is a facsimile reprinted in 1968.I do love new books too and one that has had my attention for a while is The Rowan Story Book of Little Knits. It's a couple of years old now, but Rowan's knits and patterns are very classic styles and don't date with the passing of a year the way some patterns do.The first portion of the book is written as a story book with the patterns for each piece at the back.
And I've already bookmarked a few things to make for Chloe.
Now I just need a few more lazy Sunday mornings to make a start.
What on earth was I thinking?I needed to get all of my thoughts together on the things that I need to accomplish before the end of the year, a lot of them need to be done much sooner than that.Its a frightening prospect all written down like that!- The Tax Return - I've made a start and because its my first and I was only self employed for less than 3 months of the year it will be my easiest one (next year's will be a different story altogether). It needs to be submitted by the middle of November but because I start work on the 2nd I want it out of the way before then, I'm hoping to sit down and get it knocked out on Monday & Tuesday of next week.
- The Workstation Makeover - Robert went to ikea today and bought me a new desk (a change from his original plan to build one for me). It was only £17 and will be perfect for what I need PC wise. I need to spend this weekend sorting the PC out.
- The Great Stash Sort - I have a new unit (which I think was originally a wardrobe. I've cleaned it, sanded it, painted it, made new doors, and now just need to put all of my (1/4ish) stash into it. By hook or by crook that will happen tomorrow. Its taller but narrower than my current set up and I've painted it white so it shouldn't look too dominant in the room and will free up some floor space.
- I want to put together a submission for the UK Handmade Christmas Magazine and that's another thing I'll have to knock out in the next few days, over the weekend maybe.
- Submissions which have already been accepted for the Shop Handmade UK launch of their Sample Boxes. I'll put the finishing touches to those tonight.
- More Christmas Stock - I can't even think about that at the minute, I'll come back to it.
- GO Handmade - My own little UK magazine, now open to submissions from sellers on Misi and Coriandr as well as Folksy. I've made a great start on the next issue and it needs to be ready in ten days. I can do it, but of course, just as I did last time I've forgotten to set aside a new recipe which means that at some stage I need to go to the kitchen, bang my forehead against the Welsh Dresser and hope something falls out!
- The GO Handmade Christmas Gift Guide - Wee buns son, bring it on! This should roll out no later than two weeks after the Winter edition of GO Handmade.
- I'm volunteering for Chloe's first school trip on Tuesday next week to the fruit shop (yes the same fruit shop she goes to every week with me, shhh) so I have to keep that in mind although it will take an hour at the most giving me two hours to work before collecting her.
- I now have, wait for it...... 18 custom orders to finish before Christmas. I had a fair few more. but they're done and dusted and the rest are on their way so this should be ok.
- I need to knock up a costume for the PTA Halloween party and fireworks display for Chloe on 22 October (I believe, need to check the form on that date again).
- Gifts - I'll need two teacher's gifts and a bunch of little gifts for any of Chloe's new friends in class before Christmas. Plus we'll need to sit down at some stage closer to the end of term and make cards for school.
- I still need to take up a pair of jeans for my mum, dammit how did I manage to forget those trousers again!
- Christmas Stock - ................ nope still not ready!
- I should have written a piece for Mamapedia by now, they think I rock, I have the badge to prove it and so far I've given them jack in return. I should really bump this one up the list somewhat.
- I want to knit another two cardigans so see Chloe over the Winter. I already have one knitted and it just needs to be made up. Its in a bag for crying out loud, I've no excuse for that one at all. At this stage in the year I'll just knit the next two in the round and steek them, there's nothing else for it. I can knock the two of them out in a week, although whether I do or not will just be down to pure laziness on my part.
- I need to knit a coat or something for the cat to stop her from licking herself bald and freezing to death seeing as she still insists on being outside at night.
- I have to stop there, I've more but the longer I spend typing this never ending list the less time I have to actually do these things.
If I've promised something and I've left it off the list, please let me know. Its likely that I haven't forgot though.
I'm paying lip service to the old menu plan this week. The temperature is to reach 29C by Wednesday so this week I will be mostly eating salads. Apart from tonight when we had burgers and onions rings followed by big slices of gingerbread with lemon icing. I'll post the recipe for that later in the week (the cake not the burgers).Right, that's that out of the way.I'm feeling very good about myself today because I had a very productive weekend. Do you ever get like that, if you take it easy over the weekend and relax you end up a bit depressed and feeling like you wasted all that time come Monday but if you manage to get a couple of things done and dusted you feel great about yourself? Maybe that's just me.I checked the weather during the week and on seeing that it was to rain cats and dogs over the weekend I rented a big heavy duty steam cleaner for Saturday to tackle my carpets (happy in the knowledge that Chloe no longer spills). On Saturday morning the weather was, as predicted, rubbish so the husband popped out and collected the steam cleaner. The plan was to set to work as soon as my mum collected Chloe in the afternoon. It rained all morning and the wind blew a gale and then my mum arrived and the clouds parted and the sun shone and the birdies sang their little hearts out. Murphy's out to kick my ass for getting one over on him (Bring. It. On).So I spent my Saturday afternoon in the sweltering heat, cleaning carpets and sweating like a mad woman. Do you ever remember that advert years ago for women's antiperspirant "They say women don't sweat, they glow. Well I glow buckets"? Yep, that was me on Saturday. It wasn't a pretty sight, clothes glued to my back, hair plastered to my forehead. Meanwhile, Murphy's wet himself laughing, he's on the floor by this stage tears streaming down his face, fists pounding the floor with the hilarity of it all. Don't worry I clipped him round the back of the head with the cleaner just to remind who's boss round here.I lost roughly a stone that afternoon, but later found it again at the bottom of a tube of Pringles. Balance restored.Still I sit here now surround by lovely clean carpets. The windows have been open full all weekend and the smell has all but disappeared. Have you ever cleaned your carpets with an industrial steamer because let me tell you, the smell is atrocious. They smelt perfectly fine before I started, but if anyone has ever knocked over a pint in your living room and you spent a good ten minutes and countless towels making sure you mopped up every last drop, you may have even got down on your knees with that silly Scrubber carpet cleaner thingy the husband thought would be a good idea let me assure you now, you missed a bit.Because when that scalding hot steam hits that particular spot on the carpet all of a sudden your home will smell like a brewery. And before you go running off to buy some Shake n Vac, it won't work. Even doing the wee dance won't help either.On Sunday (shattered and a bit light headed) I decided to take it easy. Sort through a few things, filing, post, tidy up my crafty bits and make sure everything could be easily found. At the bottom of one of my tuff crates I came across a few things I'd started with xmas in mind but hadn't got round to finishing. A couple of knitted things and it was really only the making up that needed doing so I settled myself down to those and once they were finished I was able to wrap and label them using one of Lupin's wrapping paper tutes:)I hauled out the huge tuff crate which is stashed on top of my wardrobe in the bedroom and went through it, checking the gifts off the list I keep inside and do you know what. Apart from Chloe and the husband (Bob, might as well get that one out of the way while I'm at it) I'm all done.Sweet or what? I'll admit now that I'm in the middle of a macrame scarflette for my aunt which wasn't on the original list but which she's asked for and I'm planning a couple of pieces of macrame jewellery for stocking fillers as such but apart from that all of my presents for people outside the house are finished. Not only finished but they wrapped and labeled and its only the middle of August.Now I'll just get myself comfy here against this rather tall concrete wall, pop the blindfold on, light a cigarette, burn tip of nose, lift blindfold slightly, light cigarette and wait for the firing squad................You done!Good!Cause so am I. Neener, neener, neener.
