Shirts

Old Shirts

A dozen shirts, some of my L&M's old ones, some from friends & some from the local charity shops, all stripped down & ready to cut and lots of lovely buttons.

Trouble at mill

Irene, it does read as though my L&M was being selfish, but I could have put anything I wanted in the trolley, I didn't as the freezer is stuffed full of non-pork items.

I went to bed last night anticipating a good nights sleep, unfortunately Network Rail had other ideas, there were repairs being carried out on the railway line so lots of noise for a few hours during the night.

And now another moan about the ex, my DD's hubby went into business with the ex a while back, I knew it would all end in tears & it has!
He has buggered around trying to screw SIL over with his wages, but SIL has found another job, it just remains to be seen what the ex try's next to regain control.

Tag team twins

We've had the twins to stay, DD & SIL had a night in a nice hotel to celebrate SIL's birthday, I bought him a couple of books about Muhammad Ali. The twins arrived yesterday about lunchtime & left at lunchtime today. They were very good, but very tiring, yesterday I had toast for breakfast & all I managed after that was a few mouthfuls of cold baked beans & a twix. They went to bed about 8ish, my L&M & I went to bed minutes afterwards, they woke at 2am briefly but didn't want feeding, one twin went back to sleep almost immediately the other one decided the only place to sleep was beside Nana, in the crook of her arm so she could be rocked periodically..
Today, we had toast again for breakfast & once the twins had gone home I cooked brunch & then had a power nap.

Co-pilot perils

The new car is not proving to be a economical as my L&M had hoped, this is, of course, all to do with me 'giving it too much welly', driving too slowly, not reading the manual, putting fuel in too often. It has nothing to do with the fact that hubby wants to go out & about as often as possible, wants to visit his Mum more frequently (understandable), wants to go for a drive most days during his holiday.
Today was a case in point, I usually get up around 6 or 7 o'clock, my L&M gets up around 8. This morning he brought me a cup of tea in bed before 7, I took the hint & got up, we had breakfast & my L&M announced we should do a shop in Aldi & save some money. I do sometimes shop in Lidl & Aldi, but as my L&M is a label queen I have been singularly unable to persuade him to try any brand that he doesn't recognise. 
Recently though a family friend has been extolling the benefits of Aldi shopping & so suddenly we have to go there. I agree but say I don't want to leave home until 10ish as my stomach was a bit uncomfortable, we set off just before 9, in torrential rain, I have a rough idea where we are going, my L&M knows exactly where Aldi is so we drive past it, turn around & find it on the return journey!
I need only milk, mushrooms & onions, so I let my L&M choose what he wants to put in the trolley & I added just the few items I needed. He bought pork chops, belly pork, pork sausages & pork ribs (dunno what I'm eating for the rest of the week, I can't eat pork, lol)  he also bought some biscuits, crisps & bread, so far he's quite happy with what he's bought, so maybe he'll be prepared to eat more unbranded stuff from now on.
Anyway, I digress, back to the co-pilot perils, as I said we drove to Aldi in torrential rain, being lazy, I drive with my lights & wipers on auto, it's all I can do to keep up with the co-pilots questions/complaints without having to manage anything else.
'Have you got lights on?'
'Yes'
'How can you tell?'
'There's a light on, on the dash'
'Where, what light, I can't see it'
I point to the light.
'Where's the temperature gauge?'
'On the dash'
'I can't see it'
'Well it only lights up if there is a problem'
'That can't be right, what does it say in the manual?'
'That the gauge will only light up if there's a problem'
'Why are the wipers going so fast?'
'They are on auto, I'm not sure why they are going so fast'
'Well they'll break, turn them down'
'I'm trying'
'Well try again, if you'd read the manual you'd know what to do'

The manual is about 2 inches thick & I've read the bits I need. All the while my L&M is playing with the heating controls and is misting up the windscreen, fortunately I'm stopped at traffic lights & by the time they turn green he has managed to clear the windscreen but my feet are getting blasted with cold air & then hot air.
Tomorrow we have visitors, DD & the twins, so hopefully we won't have to drive anywhere!

Ever tried scraping raw egg out of a shoe?

We have DGD Eileen staying with us, we picked her up yesterday morning so mummy could go to work & daddy could take the other two to Reading Festival, she is being collected this morning sometime.
It's the first time she has stayed on her own, last time she stayed her older sister stayed too. DD & I waited until Eileen was old enough to ask to stay overnight with us , until now she has just visited for a few hours at a time. After listening to her siblings conversations about staying here Eileen had a list of things to do at Nana's house. This list included going to the shop with Grandpa and being bought sweeties & a magazine, gardening with Grandpa, baking, playing schools, crafts & reading stories with Nana.
We had a friend of ours turn up unexpectedly & he was hungry so I made him a fried egg sandwich, I then made sprinkle cakes with Eileen,

she managed to crack one of the eggs in to Grandpa's work shoe, this took some cleaning up! We also ended up with most of the kitchen floor covered with flour & sugar. After the cakes were cooked, iced & covered in sprinkles I cleaned up. I made leek & potato soup for lunch with HM bread. Our friend went home with a jar of HM marmalade & a tee-shirt covered in Peppa-Pig stickers!
I also made a batch of apple & chili jelly & some hot sauce. My SIL gave me the recipe originally & he called it Shit Hot Sauce, but after his friend overindulged on it & was off work the following day as he couldn't leave the bathroom we now call it Hot Shit Sauce!

Wot, no dressmaking?

I've not been able to get on with my sewing, I have been offered a new sewing table, my current one is/was very narrow and had a very rough, damaged top. I gratefully accepted the new one & even though I knew I wouldn't be receiving it until 6th September, when my SIL did a tip run for us last Sunday he took my old table along with the other rubbish. I realised that this would leave me tableless, but the alternative meant having both tables for the foreseeable future & there isn't room in the spare room for two tables. 
Normally this wouldn't be a problem & I'd set my sewing machine up on the kitchen table, but of course the kitchen is currently 'Foraging Central' and is awash with maslin pans, kilner jars and suchlike.

Today I made 4 x 4 portion apple & blackberry crumbles.

More kitchen stuff

Five jars of blackberry jam

On the left damson gin, on the right blackberry vodka.