It's Here ....

It's here ... one of favourite magazines of the year, it dropped through my letterbox yesterday.

I'm not ashamed to say I sit down and read it from cover to cover, as I do every week.  And then I get out my pen and put a circle round everything we want to watch or record on our Freesat box, as I do every week.

The Christmas one is somehow special though isn't it.

And did you know you can now browse the back catalogue on BBC Genome, so you can find out what television programmes were on when you were born, what you watched on your tenth birthday or even just see what you sat down to watch after Christmas dinner last year.  What a fantastic service.

Click HERE to go to BBC Genome.

The only thing I don't like about getting my subscription through the post is that I can't get rid of all the leaflets that clutter magazines up these day.  First I always pull out whatever supplement is stapled into the middle, sometimes it's an advert but this time of course it's the usual travel brochure.  Nope ... I don't want to be tempted.

Then into the recycling box go the catalogues of clothes, Stannah stair-lift leaflets, weird, wonderful and wacky gifts catalgues and the charity begging leaflets.  If they are going to waste money printing leaflets I'm afraid they are NOT going to get any of my money, the same if they send me a pen or Christmas cards or even, as I got last year, letters with 5p coins attached, I got four of those in one week, that's four lots of postage, four lots of paper and 20p in cash. 

Advent Challenge - Day 14

A magazine, this months edition of Vogue.   I used to buy it every month back in the day.  Helps plan a shop if you know what in the 'in Vogue' fashions are.  Now it's a very occasional treat.

Sue xx

Having a Grate Day

Yesterday I had a grate day!!

I was sorting through the fridge to make room for any Christmassy foods I might be buying in the next week or so.  Checking dates and seeing exactly what we had, so I don't duplicate unnecessarily.

I found I had an large open pack of Cheddar and a pack of Red Leicester nearing it's date so I grated them in the food processor, first the Cheddar and then without washing it out the Red Leicester, I don't mind a bit of multi-coloured cheese in a tub and it tastes wonderful all mixed together.

I had Parmesan style cheese already grated in the freezer, but there was a pack in the fridge way past it's sell by date so I grated that using the same grating disc (I broke my Parmesan disc ages ago), and then to make it finer I simply took out the disc and put in the blade and whizzed it all up.  Adding it to the freezer box and giving it a good shake mixed the frozen and the freshly grated together nicely, and then it was popped back into the freezer, where it now sits waiting to be used whenever it is needed, as is all the grated cheese except for the little multi-coloured box which went on my sandwich for lunch :-)

If you think about it using your food processor for a mammoth grating session means you only have to wash it out the once instead of over and over again, and I'm all for that.  I'm the same if I make a big batch of crumble mix, I will use the food processor to knock up some pastry mix afterwards.  Doing like with like is always good in my book.

Advent Challenge - Day 13

A new picture frame, that was going to be a gift for someone, but then the moment passed.  It will still make a nice gift, it's just that now the charity shop will make a pound or so out of it too.

Sue xx

What a Difference a Day Makes

What a difference a day makes when it comes to three men trapped inside a conservatory, by the weather I hasten to add ...not by me!!

The last remaining gaps were all filled with insulation boards and then work started on plaster-boarding the ceiling. 

Looking better all the time.

And apart from the hole where the Velux will fit it is now almost weatherproof and getting warmer by the day.

Although to look at the dogs snuggled up in the bed by the Aga you would think the temperatures were in the minus figures.

Rosy prefers to be a little cooler but to have more room for herself.

And before anyone complains .... other dogs beds are available ;-)

Advent Challenge - Day 12

A brand new IPod.  Lovely Hubby treated himself and then gave up on it.  It's gone to the charity shop, perhaps it will be a good Christmas pressie for someone.  Better it gone than it sat here making Lovely Hubby feel guilty for buying it in the first place.

Sometimes freeing yourself from the guilt of a bad purchase by passing it on, feels as good as the space your former clutter took up.

Sue xx

Waiting for the Weather

The Velux window can't go in until the weather is less windy and less wet, so all the roof up to the hole where it will fit and it's immediate surroundings has been done and now we are, as the title of this post suggests .... waiting for the weather.

Inside we now have first fix electrics done, we are having four new lights to replace the one set of lights on a strip that used to be in there on the wall.  Two will be up-lighters on the solid wall, you can just about see in the photo above where I drew round them to show the builder where to put in the wires. 

Luckily we can use the same light switch as there was a 'spare' switch on the socket that we could never find out what it did.

The other two lights will hang slightly lower from the ceiling, (can you just about make out the trailing wires in this photo?), hopefully over the dining table.  For this we put two tape crosses on the floor for the builder to wire above.  I hope we have our calculations right or the table will just have to sit off centre!!

As you can see there is now lots more 'cut to size' insulation in place in the roof space.

Advent Challenge - Day 11

A lovely little pudding bowl, that I think I picked up from a car boot sale.  I just have other bowls that I can make puddings in so this is surplus to requirements, and could be very useful for someone at this time of year.

Sue xx

Opening the Sealed Pot

Better late than never, everyone else with Sealed Pots seemed to open theirs last week, but events caught up with us and it just didn't get done.  So yesterday after I got back from a couple of days with Mum, Lovely Hubby and me decided to go and do a bit of Christmas shopping, so just before we set off was the perfect time to open the pot.

I'm afraid my lovely shiny tin sustained some damage getting it open, who knew double sided sticky tape was that strong!!  We had to prise the lid off with the end of the can opener to get at our pennies.

  But it was worth it .... what a lot of pennies there were!

I'm afraid we cheated and used the cash counting machine at the supermarket, (I know it cost us money, but it was easy and we chose this option), and this is the grand total after all the tinkling and re-feeding the stubborn coins back through the machine was done.

We didn't spend it on Christmas things, instead we used our £35 of Nectar points and £12 of money off coupons on wines and two bottles of Port .... and brought the money home with us.

Where I set to and minimised the damage to the lid the best I could, and then re sealed the pot for next years saving.

Sorry for the rough treatment Mr Tin but at least you are once again sealed up, as every good Sealed Pot should be.

In other news (as they say) the fascia boards and guttering have gone up on two sides of the conservatory and what a difference it makes.  We're suddenly looking a whole lot smarter.

Really smart!!

There's still the Velux and that side of the roof to do, but we have to wait for a dry and relatively wind free day for that.  Meanwhile work is cracking on a pace inside with nearly all the roof insulation now in place.

Advent Challenge - Day 10

A Christmassy magazine, discovered in the Christmas decorations box.  I remember putting it in there last year to hopefully dissuade me from buying too many Christmas magazines this year.  I have been quite good .... I have only bought two (not counting the magazines that I get on subscription), which is a VAST improvement on the many, many I used to be tempted into getting.

Sue xx.

A Gift for Us

We bought our first Christmas gift last week ..... it was a gift for us.

A delivery of four builders bags of hardwood to burn in the wood burner.  We have used up most of our own chopped wood that was seasoned enough to burn.  It went so much faster than we could have imagined with the central heating not being available for so long, so it seemed like a very good idea to splash out on some ready chopped and fully seasoned wood.

I see a warm and cosy Christmas coming up, and Lovely Hubby's back will have a rest from all the chopping and sawing.  Even if he did hurt it a bit moving all the delivered logs from the other side of the house barrow full after barrow full, and then chopping half of them in half to make for easier burning.Now we just have to set to and chop another pallet into kindling and we will be sorted.

The conservatory has come on in leaps and bounds since the last photos.  We are waiting for a dry and relatively wind free day for the Velux window to be put into position and then the roof can be finished off, but at the moment it's blowing a gale out there.

So the guys are all working inside, filling all the gaps with the thick layer of insulation that the roof needs.  It's like a giant game of Tetris, sawing all the panels to fit into each of the gaps and then fixing them in place.  But it's already starting to feeling cosier.

Lots more to do, but it's coming on.

Advent Challenge - Day 9

A glass candle stick that is surplus to requirements, I have one other candlestick that seems to hold a candle firmer and now we mainly burn nightlights in holders, much safer with dogs around.  So this one is being popped into the charity shop bag.

The lady that said she wanted the wardrobe didn't turn up so we are still left with it, I think I will need to go and ask at the charity that takes furniture if they would like it, if she hasn't been in touch by the end of the week.

Sue xx

Bagels and Vegetables

Our favourite bagels were on special offer in T*sco the other day so I got us a couple of packs.  They were sliced in half and then re-bagged and frozen as is my way,  I was going to save them for Christmas week breakfasts, but this morning we succumbed to temptation and had a couple each.

I'm being naughty at the moment and not eating enough veggies, I have phases like that, with me it tends to be either all or nothing.  I really must do better, but sometimes it's just so easy to have fish and chips and miss off the peas, or have pie and mash and miss off the cabbage or the carrots.  How lazy is that!!

As I said I must do better, perhaps a veggie curry tonight will get me back on the straight and narrow.

Advent Challenge - Day 8

Just a small red heart shaped bowl.  I love heart shaped bowls but I have a set of three white ones and white is our preferred choice for all crockery now.  So this red one is off to the charity shop in the next carrier bag full of donations.

Sue xx