New Year - New start, New Challenges

Well here we are, a New Year and, for me, a new mindset.. I have decided this is going to be the year I set myself challenges - push myself out of my comfort zone. I've been resting on my laurels for two years and I've become fat and lazy so ~ here's to 2018 and my self imposed challenges! 

Challenge 1 = A square a day for blankets the homeless, I'm currently reckoning it'll take about 91 squares (6"x 6") to make a blanket, so I should end up with four blankets for the homeless by the end of the year. This teaches me patience and gives me an objective to meet. 

Challenge 2 = embark on CALS, this stretches my skills and teaches me, not only new stitches, but teaches me patience (as I struggle with elements of them) but will also give me confidence as the CALS are very beautiful and are something I've never considered doing before. I have cheated a little on this one as I've already started one, but that just means I'm ahead of myself ~ always a good place to be.

Challenge 3  = this one's a bit of a double whammy because it's not only about me making sellable products, but it's also pushing me out of my comfort zone because I'm putting my work out into the world, open for criticism, I'm going to be sellng my products online and (more importantly,  at craft fairs throughout the year. 

So, there you have it. My three challenges this year ~ I'm determined to pull myself out of my rut and come back kicking and fighting. If I meet these challenges easily - I might up the ante and increase the challenges, if I struggle, well, that's the whole point of a challenge isn't it? 

New beginnings

I decided I needed to do something about my weight. I am not going to diet, that is absolutely and definitely not going to happen.
I met up with an old friend and, while it was lovely to finally meet up with him, I felt so ashamed - ashamed at my dire financial state, ashamed of my weight, ashamed of being so unconfident, ashamed of my nails, whatever! I was ashamed of every aspect of my life and that blighted our few hours together.
At the weekend I sat and thought through the situation and, I think for the first time, started to plan my future.
The plan so far is for me to:
- up the promotion of all of my retail avenues.
- improve Network Marketing.
- attend regular Car boot Sales
- photograph items for sale online
- attend Craft Fairs
- Take on Avon catalogues
- increase Craft sales.
- cut down on food consumption

It's not going to be easy, just putting myself out there is taking myself out of my comfort zone, but I'm going to do it - things have got to change and I just have to face my fears.
Sunday I attended my first Craft Fair - was a nervous wreck upon arrival, convinced everyone else's work was better than my own but, with costs covered, I came away with the grand total of £3.50 profit - better than nothing! Confidence boosted, I'm now making a blanket for a bespoke order that I recieved from posting news of the fair online (YES!)
Yesterday I started with my new eating plan. As I've mentioned before, I refuse to diet - I need an eating programme so, with that in mind, I ate nothing throughout the day, drinking just tea, coffee and warm water. Come the evening, I cooked a quorn curry - plating up with rice for Neil, and saving a bowl of curry (without rice) aside for me. I had a cheese and red pepper sandwich and two stuffing balls with a small bowl of apple & blackberry crumble.

Day 2 has just gone ~ Started my day with a mug of warm water. I had the bowl of Quorn curry I cooked last night for a sort of brunch. I couldn't be bothered to cook any rice. I have allowed myself a latte from McDonalds (because it's free) Dinner was a Tuna, mayo and sweetcorn sandwich with a mini magnum. I'm looking forward to seeing if my efforts make a difference and, if they do, how soon it'll start showing. 

Breaking out into the Craft Fair World

I'm so thrilled, I've just attended my very first Craft fair. There were 8 tables set up - so pleased there was one free as I just turned up unannounced, I bet they were pleased as well. The process took me right out of my comfort zone because I've never put my work out for public perusal. The fair was as important for me to get my face and name known, and to boost my confidence as much as making money.
The attendees were all kind and approachable which was lovely as the nerves had kicked in quite drastically. However, two young ladies were busy looking through my products as I was tipping them out of my bags, I made my first sale quickly - a Snowman phone sock for £1.50

They had picked out a baby hat, but they decided they'd not enough pennies and walked off to the other stalls.
Suddenly remembering I'd abandoned my candles in the back of the car, I disappeared off to fetch them. As I placed them on the table, the two girls returned and chose a candle depicting Father Christmas selling for £2.
Several people meandered past, lots of lovely compliments but very quiet after that, giving me chance to interact with all the crafters there. One lady was of particular interest having just invested in half a dozen Merino sheep with fleece to buy. Of course I'm now desperate to invest in a spinning wheel and carding set up. Neil's going to be impressed lol
Having made another sale of a pair of earrings, I felt justified in allowing myself a cup of tea.
At the end of two hours we all packed up, after table costs and my cup of tea - amounting to £3.50 - I went home having made £3.50 profit. Not the greatest earnings, but it was a start and a successful venture in confidence for me.
Roll on the next fair. 

Desperately seeking that elusive pot of gold

Gosh things have got tough! It seems that our lives are contuously blighted by debt, debt and more debt on top of a huge STINKING pile of debt. Neil has been shopping for the last few weeks with just £13 in his pocket. This week however, It's been different - Neil's car went back to the garage in what is very quickly becoming it's  bi-weekly and very expensive  problem. So we've been reduced to buying just cat food, bread and margarine this week. Ohhh woopiedoo!
However, It's not all doom and gloom, I met up with a friend on Thursday. I've watched his meteoric rise from poverty to huge wealth, just as my personal wealth declines. I am so thrilled to have met him, It's given me the impetus to get going, he gave me the proverbial kick up the backside.
I've come home with a plan to improve my situation. This includes pushing my crafting sales, promoting Bodyshop, increasing my blogging and attending regular carbooting events. I want to raise the funds to enable me to embark on extra training, which in turn will lead to employment.
I'm determined to do it, I need to be more organised if I am to succeed, and I'm determined to succeed because we're so far down - the only way is up!  Signing off for now but I will say to you - watch this space. 

Yes!! It could be me!

Yesterday was incredible not because Neil, DaPlonka (Leila) and I went to the Hilton Hotel (junc 24 on the M1 - ok, so we got a bit lost and came off at Junc 24A and ended up in a quarry - but that's just another story) It wasn't special because Neil and I were being recognised for achieving our 10% in sales (still trying to figure that one out) well it was - I'm not trying to down play the importance of that achievement - a lot of hard work went into it - a LOT! But the thing that made it special for me was the incredible list of speakers, six in total - they were all excellent and incredibly inspiring (and I took notes from all of them on my phone until my alarm, rather embarrasingly, went off at 4.30pm and everyone thought I'd not listened to the "switch off your phone message" at the beginning! It was in FLIGHT MODE!!!honest! It WAS my alarm) anyway, two speakers stood out in my mind, two that I could relate to 100% they were Jennifer Synnott who started in Kleeneze at the beginning of 2015 working it part time around her Executive PA job ( we all know how time consuming PA jobs are!) Who is now Gold Executive!! In just what?! 18 months?! Jennifer took us through her story of redundancy and debt, she told us about ladies she'd got on board, mothers with 3 young children, a young lady who was homeless who is now debbt free and moving into a house of her own soon. Then came Gill Nicholson, now she really inspired me, Kleeneze has been part of her entire life because her father who was working as a fireman at the time - needed extra pennies, so he took up door to door selling (brushes as per Kleeneze beginings) he did ok, was happy but as always, circumstances change. At some point her father decided to work Full time at Kleeneze during a week's holiday, just as an experiment to see what the earning potential was, he made DOUBLE in 1 week what he was earning in 1 month as a fire fighter! No brainer, he ended up running his own Kleeneze business, making Gill a partner later on. Now Gill has literally travelled the world (which is what I find so inspiring) on her Kleeneze income. She's even found lost family members, it was such a beautiful and heart warming story.
I sat in awe, completely inspired thinking - I WISHED I could do that, but also thinking I could never aspire to that, I'll never make it that high. However, it's tomorrow now and the euphoria has worn off, I'm sat here in my lounge in my dressing gown and slippers drinking a cup of coffee and I'm thinking "why NOT me?!" Why can't I expect to be the same? Why is my story going to be any LESS inspirational some day? It's these little negatives that are the enemy - ALL the speakers went through hardship, debt, job loss, despair, negative thinking. At some point in time THEY sat where I was sitting, thinking what I was thinking - so WHY not me?? OF COURSE I'm going to get there and I'm dragging whoever wants to come for the ride with me because MY story, MY life, MY dreams are just as important, just as needed and just as inspirational as the next! Role on to the challenge! I'm up for it! 

My First peruse into the world of Free form Crochet (Scrumbling)

Well! I can hardly be called an exemplary Blogger can I? It's been nigh on  8 months since I last wrote on here - I will endeavour to do better.
I didn't take many photos of my latest project, but I'm very proud of it none the less, I'm currently in to making phone socks, mainly because they're relatively quick and easy to make (well, for the average crafter, not me, because I keep getting side tracked!) I'm absolutely determined to get myself a shelf in the crafter's shop on Burton Road at the top of town. It only costs £25 a month, but when you have no  job and no money, that's a lot of money to find. However, I keep working on it and thought to make the phone socks as a quick fill for the shelf whilst I'm working on larger and more time consuming projects. Seemed like a good idea anyway. I've made a variety of socks and am relatively pleased with the result but, as always, they're none of them actually 100% complete and ready for sale yet. I really must work on my attention span!

Anyway, I was particularly proud of my latest phone sock because I've started tying in different skills that I've been teaching myself - and this particular phone sock was done entirely by SCRUMBLING, or Free form Crochet. I really enjoy this kind of crochet, not least because I have a massive problem with following patterns, I tend to start off reasonably okish and get sidetracked along the way and the next thing I know, I'm completely fobbing it! So free form suits because there are no rules to follow, absolutely perfect for me - but I don't have much imagination, so it's still a pretty hard process for me.

Unfortunately there are no photos to show - other than the end result because I didn't think to write a blog about it, however, I shall try to do better next time.

I started off with a small piece of green wool from  my oddments bag and started practising with the Bullion Stitch, I love it - but haven't really ever got the hang of it, now this is where scrumbling really comes into it's own, because you're not following a pattern, so you can just do as many or as few stitches as you like. My practice piece was 13 bullion stitches long and curved off to the left slightly - that was as far as my attention span took me, so then I got bored and started to add several stitches into one stitch, kept this up for a while to develop a nice little wave. I then moved onto scarlet wool and double (UK triple) stitch except I was doing the chainless double foundation stitch, did enough of those to have a nice curve that allowed me to make a full circle and tail which, rather fantastically seemed to flow nicely from the green Bullion curve - at that point I decided I had to do something with it, and ended up drawing around my phone to get a  rectangular base to put my scrumbled pieces on. From that moment forward - I was making a phone case.  Grabbing a lilac, I did yet more Bullion stitches, was back on track with my practice by then, (but only briefly, 13 stitches seems to be my limit) did a bit of a chain and made some shell like curves and moved onto dark purple. Tried a bit of lattice stitch and a rectangle of (US) treble (UK) double. Another frilly effort around the base and corner of the phone sock, with a smidgen of scarlet on the top side. Then I had a go at making little puffs, I just stitched in a round from a base of two chains, and kept going round until it was big enough for me (about three rounds) then I started pulling it in by missing a couple of stitches - and the next thing I knew, I had three beautiful puffs!

I played around with my scrumbled pieces and chose the best fit for them, and crochet them together in what I considered the best pattern. However, it still looked pretty bland, I wanted more, so I sewed on some beads to bling up the center of the puffs, and crochet in embroidery thread (which is incredibly hard to do I found!) over the top of the green frilly bit and then did a slip stitch chain to highlight the swirl of the lilac bullion stitch.

I'm pretty pleased with the result, especially for a first attempt.

I do enjoy scrumbling and am in the middle of another set now - I haven't decided on what I'm going to make from it, but I figured, if I just did my own thing and then kept them all in a bag, at some point, they might come in useful. In the meantime, I have a rather interesting phone case to complete and sell. I intend to line it with some kind of matching/complimentary lining, if I said it was mainly because there are so many loose ends for me and my gnat's attention span to concentrate on, would that be a bad thing to say? If it is - then I'm going to line it with a complimentary material because I think it's a necessary addition :p

Ramadan Mubarak

Alhamdulillah (thanks be to God) we made it to Ramadan 2016 or as my trusty Ramadan App tells me - 1 Ramadan 1437.

Ramadan Mubarak (Blessed Ramadan) to all of my wonderful sisters in Islam, we made it, not everyone has, there have been some who were taken before this time, Alhamdulillah the rest of us have another chance to try to win brownie points before we're carted off to our deathly abode - InshAllah (God willing) we shall make it to the end and manage to reap the greatest rewards we can.

I've been waiting for Ramadan this year, with my Imaan (faith) at an all time low, I've been living in dread of becoming one of the Hypocrites as mentioned in the Qur'an many times. I don't want to be left behind, for all my wappy ways, I do have a deep rooted belief. I CANNOT believe there is nothing after this life. To me, a caterpillar has it's life as an egg, then as a caterpillar, a pupa and finally (or maybe not) as a Butterfly. Well, if they can do it - why not us - who's to say there isn't life after death, who's to say, there isn't more after this? I believe there is, and I believe the answers, for me at least, are within the preachings of Islam. Therefore, it's been deeply distressing for me to find that my imaan and my practice have been slipping, and I have struggled daily with myself and my feelings of desolation.

Things aren't easy at the moment in my life, it's just the way it is. In Islam we believe we are tested,

And surely We shall try you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives and crops; but give glad tidings to the patient, Who says, when afflicted with calamity: “To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return”: They are those on whom (descend) Blessings from Allah, and Mercy, and they are the ones that receive guidance. (Al-Baqarah 2:155-157)

He Who created Death and Life, that He may try which of you is best in deed: and He is the Exalted in Might, Oft-Forgiving. (Al-Mulk 67:2)

Whatever misfortune happens to you, is because of the things your hands have wrought, and for many (of them) He grants forgiveness. (Ash-Shura 42:30)

On no soul doth Allah Place a burden greater than it can bear. It gets every good that it earns, and it suffers every ill that it earns. (Pray:) "Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget or fall into error; our Lord! Lay not on us a burden Like that which Thou didst lay on those before us; Our Lord! Lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Blot out our sins, and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. Thou art our Protector; Help us against those who stand against faith." - 2:286

Sometimes I wonder if I'm strong enough to carry my burdon. I find it terribly difficult to practice as a Muslim when I'm on my own, and then I look at all the other sisters around who are in the same situation as myself - who seem to have few if no problems. My conclusion always swings back to my being weak and I must try harder.

So I've been praying, BEGGING to live long enough to be given the chance to slightly redress the balance inshAllah (God willing) and Alhamdulilah, I have been..
I nearly didn't though. I had promised my son and his partner that I'd visit them on Monday. For some idiotic reason, I had convinced myself that Ramadan MUST be on Tuesday, I was praying for Tuesday, but no, the moon was sighted a few hours ago in Mekka, so Ramadan (for us in the UK) is on Monday - tomorrow, the day I'm driving all the way to Nottingham and back, having been up until 2.30 am trying to ensure I've drunk enough water to carry me through the 19 hour fast. 

I'm happy, because my belief that I'm in a sorry state as far as my Islamic strength is - it's true, I am in a sorry state, but, perhaps not as sorry a state as I believed (alhamdulillah) because the moment, the MOMENT, I heard that the moon had been sighted - I burst into tears, I was absolutely devastated because I'd promised to go to Nottingham and I DESPERATELY didn't want to fail in my Islamic practice. This tells me that my believe is VERY strong, my practice might be lacking, but my believe is strong, so strong that I was completely torn over what to do - fortunately (alhamdulilah) we've sorted out the Nottingham business, and I am free to start my fast alongside all the other fasting Muslims in the world alhamdulilah. 

I know I'm not the best, I know I'm a long long way from being even remotely good as a muslima (lady muslim) , but I AM happy it's Ramadan, I am happy that I burst into tears, and felt so desolate when I heard, it gave me a feeling of strength because it showed me that I am still muslim in my heart and soul, I'm a bit lost at the moment, but my belief is SO strong, I'm praying that I manage to build up my strength again this Ramadan. My soul needs this, I need this, I pray that I will manage to get through this inshAllah (God willing) 

Ramadan Mubarak to all my Brothers and Sisters in Islam, may our efforts be rewarded and our prayers accepted throughout this auspicious month. Ameen <3 

The funny little Octopus craze

I was posted the same picture, by three different friends, living in three very different parts of the world the other day,

This was the picture, it's very cute, (the pattern can be found at: Pattern...http://www.1dogwoof.com/2016/05/crochet-jellyfish.html ) I couldn't get the idea that it was more a jelly fish than an Octopus, but I think that was half my problem when making it - I couldn't differentiate between the two (you'll see why in a moment. )

Anyway, I set to, crocheting this little cutie, I was worried I wasn't up to the challenge, because I'm really not good at following patterns, but somehow, this is a fantastic pattern, I found it incredibly easy to follow before too long, I'd the top and a few tentacles completed, I finished there for the night, I wanted to add a few more tentacles in the morning, and just complete it (I'd forgotten at this stage what it was, and I had visions of different coloured tentacles)

Morning came and I set too to complete my project, I decided the beautiful teal green I'd got in my stash from Aldies not so long ago would be the perfect colour to add to the lilac I'd done the main body in. Continued with the tentacles - which I was finding quite therapeutic to do.

Face embroidered on - just about the one thing I do not have in my stash are safety eyes. Googly - yes, safety - no! Tied all the tentacles together and shoved them through the main hole in the centre of the underbelly, tied them off, filled the body with toy stuffing, and single crochet (UK double) around the edge. I did take a photo of it as it was in it's finished state, but I was a bit too flippant with the editing and found I'd deleted the photos I wanted.
Continuing on, I thought it would look nice with a frilly edging , just to make it look a little more authentic - at this point,I was thinking it looked more like a jelly fish than an octopus, infact, I'd completely forgotten I had started making an octopus! So I went around the entire body section making a little wavy pattern all around the edge - and VOILA! A Jelly fish!

At that exact point, I remembered I was making an Octopus and mine had 9 tentacles, so I had to cut one off! And Voila!! an Octopus! <3
I posted the pictures of my efforts onto a crochet page on FB only to find, EVERYONE had been sent the same photos that I had, and that everyone was making them. Amazing really, to think how these funny little crazes happen. However, on a happy note, the world is now full of funny, furry, and beautiful Octopusi :) 

Woolly Nutella

I've been getting some stick recently for being just about the only person in the world that hasn't tried Nutella - I can't say it's one of those things that has appealed to me - ever! Anyway, I decided to get a jar and add my own twist.

I decided to Knit my own jar of Nutella so people can stop feeling like I'm missing out all the time :p
Officially, the jar belongs to a friend of mine, and it will be dutifully returned to her (she, incidentally thought I'd crocheted around the jar of Nutella in it's entirety, she wasn't impressed until I showed her the real Nutella jar in all it's unopened glory!)

I crocheted around the jar using UK double stitch (US single) changing colours as I saw appropriate, once I'd decided the white was enough around the main body of the jar, I then did the top (mainly because I was still using the white) I kept increasing until I thought it looked about right. Once I was happy with the fit around the top of the lid, I then crocheted one round through the back of the loop, thereby giving the lid a clear cut "fold" down, then I continued down the side of the lid without increasing until I got to the edge, I then did a round of decrease stitches to give the jar that separated lid look. 

Picking up on the base again, I did another couple of rounds of white, then finished it off with about 4 lines of brown, again decreasing on the last row to about the same number of stitches as the lid. 

I cut out cardboard for the side and a circle for the lid to give the "jar" a stable look, then filled it with toy stuffing until it was firm. 

The fun part was all the embroidery for the label, I crochet embroidered the writing on but used a needle for the knife (which unfortunately doesn't look at all authentic, but was the best I could do given the space confines) The bread was a challenge, I had no bread coloured wool, so had to improvise with two different colours of yellow, ok, so it ended up looking a little like a sunflower, I think, in the main, it was ok. I did a few squirly bits to try to make the chocolate spread on the bread look a little more authentic, then moved onto the flower which I did separately and then sewed on. The hazel nuts were crochet embroidered on, and the leaves done separately and, again, sewed on. 

I then sewed the lid onto the base with a simple running stitch that was hidden in the lid. 

All in all, I'm quite pleased with it, it's not as authentic as I had hoped, but, considering I've never done this kind of thing before, and I am still a novice at crochet, AND, as usual, I'd no pattern to go buy, I just did my "thing" and kept going until I was happy with it. I think it turned out ok really :) 

Cutting costs on a Birthday card and present.

It was my friend's birthday yesterday (Sunday) I've known her nigh on 30 years, which is quite incredible, as I've known her longer than I've known my husband, and he's been in my life since FOREVER!
I'm incredibly short of cash at the moment so I was struggling with ideas of what I should do. I desperately wanted to send a card, but I don't "do" cards, so I was uncertain of where to start.
In the end, I just got out my pens and some stamps and stamped out a butterfly and roses. I played around colouring the butterfly in, and then went over many of the lines in silver, and then did the same with the roses.

 This was the basic design I came up with, but it looked a little bland, I wanted a bit more - but didn't know what. My trusty FB friends came to my rescue and suggested a little glitter and some wording. I was always going to add the Happy Birthday on the front anyway, but wasn't sure about the rest.

 In the end, I came up with this, I think it's quite cute, especially for a non card crafter :p

 I hope she liked it too, the whole lost cost me no more than a first class stamp, I certainly appreciate the value of the whole project <3

I "kinder" like this little Amigurumi milarky

I apologise for my little play on words - I was trying to think of something to do with owls - I found out that the Latin for Owl is BUBONEM - don't say I don't teach you something new :p Talking of something new - I did something different yesterday, I came across some lovely little Amigurumi crochet "beings" on Pintrest (yes, sorry - back on there again!) they were crochet around the Kinder Surprise toy pods - they Yolk part of the egg. I instantly fell in love with them and (of course) I just HAD to have a go :p

I'm so pleased with the result, I wished I'd done some kind of tutorial/pattern to remind me of what I did - but I've now set all my friends on Kinder Egg eating excercise (you know that prayer? "Please God, if you can't make me skinny, then please make my friends fat" - I think someone might have been listening because I'm still not skinny, and the opportunity to make my friends fat has arisen)
Anyway, I started with a magic circle and just kept going round increasing the stitches until I'd got to a suitable size that would enable me to start circling around the sides. From then on, I just kept checking the crochet fit the egg. When I came to the top of the bottom piece, I crochet backwards (Crab stitch) until I got to the last 4 stitches, for which I resumed ordinary crochet I then continued going round, decreasing until I was left with one stitch.
I then crochet a circle for the stomach and one for each eye. At this point, Neil laughed and said it was rubbish and didn't look much like anything - so I scrapped the stomach and used felt for the wings and tail, the eyes and beak were still crochet. A small square for the top of the head and ears completed my owl for the night.

the following morning I'd set my heart on giving it some character, so I continued to play around and fiddle until I was happy enough to glue the crochet on to the "yolk"

Tadaa! The end result.

I love him, can't for the life of me think of a name, but he's gorgeous, and I'm pretty pleased with my efforts. 

I'm Inspired!

I have so many friends who tell me I'm so artistic and creative - I'd like to agree, but usually I'm stuck with making the same things that everyone else makes - well, with the difference that I can't actually follow patterns - I'm much better with pictures. So everything I make is, generally speaking, marginally different to what was intended - ah but hey ho, life would be boring if everything looked the same, so what if mine's a bit crooked and wonky, it all adds spice to life.
This morning, as I was doing my usual heavy duty peruse through Pintrest,  I was inspired by these little cat book marks, they're so cute, and perfect for me to make and build up supplies for my car-boot table (ANYTHING to build up funds until I find a job)

Aren't they just SOO cute? I'd love to receive one as a gift, however, usual problem - I can't, for the life of me, follow the darn pattern, so (as usual) I've done my own thing.

I don't quite know what went wrong, but it's still kinda cute. I'll have to figure out a longer tail, I thought 50 stitches would be long enough, but then I decided to be clever and ended up with a curly tail. It still looks FELINE which is the main idea, so I'm quite happy with it :) Ah well, onwards and upwards as they say <3 

A Change of Name

I fancied a change of name this morning. My old name was far too long. I LOVE my crafts, and I think I'm quite an amenable character (in the main) so I thought it was quite fitting. Besides, I opened up an online shop in Etsy last week, in a mad dash hope to set myself up as a crafter, my shop name is AmenableCrafts so I've linked the two together (mainly because I prefer Amenably Crafty as a name, but thought about it a bit too late :p ) I also have my items on my Facebook selling page - Amenable Crafts.

I have decided I'm too old and decrepit to continue with Maternity Nursing, I've been so poorly recently on jobs, I did take myself to the GP (practically unheard of) and had an all singing all dancing blood test - turns out my Vit D is absolutely rock bottom and I'm possibly on the cusp of Diabetes 2 - certainly it would explain why I was always so poorly after a few weeks in the job - I'd just work myself into a frazzle and my body would react by forcing me to stop.

So the decision has kind of been forced on me as well, certainly, I can't take it up again until I'm back to full health, so in the meantime, I'm looking for some work that will give me some pennies, that will still enable me to pick myself up as a serious crafter. 

Now, typically for me (being Dipsy and all that) I cannot possibly stick to just one craft, that would be just too darn easy!!!! No! I have to try all and sundry, my craft room (was playroom, and previous bedroom) is stocked up to the hilt with beads, wool, material, sewing machines, embroidery machines, glue, wire, pliers, scissors - you name it - I've probably got it stashed somewhere! 

I hope to start blogging about my crafting experiences, some will be successful, and probably several won't, but that isn't going to stop me - at least you'll know where I went wrong and you won't be making the same mistake as me! 

Rambling to Rawdom

Recently I've become interested in eating more of a raw diet - no I'm not talking salad, although technically it's all more or less salad, I'm talking the REAL raw foods, nut butters, seeds etc. I have a variety of books on the subject of raw foods and juices. I've always had a bit of an interest in this kind of thing despite being hugely overweight, I know what I want to do - I just haven't quite got the impetus of my mind behind me. Anyway - I've started experimenting with raw foods and have been leaning quite heavily on this book.

It's lovely, has many beautiful recipes - backed up with gorgeous pictures - I would love to just dive into some of them and have a taste - but no - I have to prepare them and being on an extremely tight budget, I have to take it slowly and surely.
Two weeks ago I made the Warming Green Porridge, For a first taste, it was a good choice, colour was fantastic but not quite what I was expecting first thing in the morning.

Eating the porridge with Raspberries was really something beautiful - I tried the following day with banana and for me, it tasted like banana on sludge - but with Raspberries it works.
Having gained a bit of courage, I tallied forth and tried Banana and maple "bacon" . I needed to finely slice my Aubergine on a mandolin - unfortunately, mine broke, so I had to guess at half cm slices and gave up halfway through and went for rounds.

 Having sliced, dunked and dried the aubergine I placed it strategically on the plate with sliced banana and poured maple syrup over the top - it wasn't bad, not as nice as the porridge with raspberries but MUCH nicer than the porridge with banana - all I can say for it was it's VERY chewy, now that could have been down to my inability to cut 1/2cm slices - I don't know, it's not necessarily something I'd go to the effort of making again, but certainly, it wasn't too bad.

Third attempt was at the Muesli Bread, well, things went pretty pear-shaped with this one, mainly down to human error I guess - but it's all a learning curve - someone's gotta make the mistakes I guess.

 The bowl of soaked seeds and nuts is on the bottom left - the dates and seeds on the upper left are for tomorrow's efforts.

Patiently peeled and chopped the fruits and courgette and span it through my food processor - in two lots because I've only got a small processor and this is a lot of fruit and nut for my poor little processor to work through.

After mixing the two lots together I had the great task of mushing it all onto my dehydrator trays. The recipe says to put it on the Teflon sheets - well, I haven't got any so I put the mix on some parchment paper - BIG mistake, my mix stuck to the paper - so that was mistake 1. Note to self - INVEST IN SOME TEFLON SHEETS!

So, having spread the mixture out over two trays, and dehydrated it over night - I turn it over and discover mistake 1. I also realise that I should have perhaps left it in a thicker layer, perhaps only covering one tray. With the paper sticking to the mix and me struggling to turn it over, the mixture collapsed in several places.

I have an end product resembling more granola than bread - but I have managed to get some reasonably sized and shaped pieces - I don't think I'll spread almond butter on it - I haven't got as far as making any of that yet anyway - but I think I'll probably use it as a snack cracker and the little pieces I'll probably crumble over my greek yogurt in the morning with maybe some maple syrup.
It DOES taste delicious - it just looks a little disappointing - oh well, onward and upward. 

Please take pity on the fast food delivery drivers - they're only doing their job

Oh boy,
What can I say? About a month ago, I started working as a delivery driver for an Indian Takeaway. Well, I know it's a bit odd, I'm 50 (something) and racing around town with bags of curry in my car. I quite enjoy it - it's not a bad little job, and it pays just enough to get me enough petrol to give me the two trips into town that I need to keep my sanity.

HOWEVER.........

When it's good, it's quite a nice job, but when things don't go so smoothly!!! Oh my goodness!!! Well, I had a bit of a melt down last night, the job IS stressful, you are given a bag full of food, and a delivery note - sometimes the note is legible, other times - it's not. Sometimes the Sat nav. will give you a route and estimated arrival time, SOMETIMES, it doesn't recognise the place at all, and wants to send you via the moon! I know I certainly do my best to deliver my bags of food as quickly and efficiently as possible .....but I am human!!! And there are happenings out of my control like - TRAFFIC! ROAD WORKS! PEOPLE!!

Today was good, I managed to make most of my deliveries quickly, one was a bit of a disaster (and consequently the second afterwards) because I drove about three miles down a road to find it had been closed just at the point I had to turn off - I know it said road closed, but I didn't know where it was closed, so I had to turn round and find a different route, which I did, but it took me back to the other side of the road works - the road I wanted was slap bang in the middle of the works and completely inaccessible. I ended up driving miles out of my way to drive back and eventually deliver the goods. I then had to find a different way to my next drop off point - a road that the SATNAV refused to acknowledge! Fortunately, I had a suspicion of where it was, alhamduliah I was right! So all was good in the end, and nobody complained.

The reason for the melt down last night (outside factors aside) I went to deliver to a house outside of Lincoln, no, admittedly, my boss had said to do that delivery second, but I was so stuck on the notices that I didn't hear him say do this one second. So I did it first - which meant the second delivery (which should have been my first) was late, and boy did they let me know it, when I finally turned up. "WE'VE BEEN WAITING 2 HOURS FOR THIS!!!!!!" I felt a bit hurt, because I'd not been driving two hours, I'd not even been working two hours! However, I gave them the food, and the bloke flung his £20 note at me, I offered him the change (£1) but he just slammed the door in my face. I wasn't best amused!

I am 100% unconfrontational, and  get hugely stressed if I find myself in a confrontational situation. I drove back and was instantly met by my boss asking me what had gone wrong, and why had I not delivered the first delivery first? (the client had had a go at them too) I just lost it, I thought, I just don't get paid enough for this, I don't need to do this, I can find something else, I really didn't need the aggravation, I was absolutely devastated, and completely lost the plot - I think my boss was more than a bit shocked, he wasn't expecting the tirade of tears, and frustrated out burst from me. I was fully expecting to be sacked, it didn't happen, so I guess it's ok.

I was speaking to the other driver today - he said he'd had a bad shift, wasn't happy, a client had complained, and been very rude to him, he had to go back with a refreshed order and got them to apologise - after all, he's just doing his job - it's not our fault if there's something wrong with the meal, or if there's traffic - what else can we do?

So please, next time you order a meal, and it takes a bit longer than you want to arrive - please don't "shoot" the messenger - or in this case, the delivery driver - he's probably tried really hard to get your food to you safely, and quickly . 

Raw Baby Steps

I've recently been developing an interest in RAWFOODISM, three years ago, I had my very first raw meal, yes, I know salad is raw, and who hasn't had a taste of salad by the grand age of 52? However, I'm talking RAW, raw food, not just limp ice-burg lettuce, a couple of slices of tomato and some cucumber (although, in this house, we rarely have cucumber because my husband hates the stuff - I love it) No, I'm talking lettuce, tomato, cucumber, beetroot (not strictly raw, but still salady) nut butters, hand made tahini, seeded sprouts, and anything that is well, just not cooked!

The experience I had three years ago, has been holding me to my "one day I'm going to become a raw foodist" pledge, well, I'm nowhere near there yet, but I have had a bit of an escapade with a dehydrator that my husband very kindly bought for me as an Eid gift! (shocking, because he doesn't "do" Eid, or anything to that matter, infact, he doesn't really "do" gifts either, however, he does make cakes for Christmas and Easter - and his birthday lol) however, I tried dehydrating carrot, apple and tomato.........the only really successful thing was the apple, tomato was ok(ish) the carrot was given to, and rejected by  Montymoos - my giant lop eared rabbit, and eventually  got tossed out into the garden and disappeared somewhere, somehow.

Three years ago I was working for a family as a Maternity Nurse (an exhausting job, the only healthy maternity nurse you'll find is a retired one! We work THAT hard!) Anyway, I turned up at a friend's house for a weekend break, and she just so happened to have been tucking into a big raw meal by another friend of hers, having been handed a small plate of - well, just about everything, little piles of neatly grated carrot, (raw) beetroot, tomato, swirled somethings, sprinkled bits, a couple of balls of something and some kind of paste, that was, I was informed later, some kind of seed butter (although I can't remember what now) I ate it, because I DO rather enjoy my food, (rather too much, but there you go - we're all different) It was lovely, and I enjoyed it, but I was exhausted and really just wanted to sleep.

You may or may not believe this, but I had a bit of an epiphany moment 20 minutes later, I was BUZZING, absolutely full of energy (which was a tad annoying, because I was trying to sleep!) but I was high, and bouncing off the walls, that one, small plateful of raw food was enough to provide me with an Elephant load of energy! I was stunned, and stayed up all night talking! (haven't been offered a meal there since, I suspect that might be the reason why :p )

Dehydrator aside (I've only used it the once so far) I bought a box of mixed sprouting seeds last week, it's taken me several days to get around to it - but I have managed to sprout my first seedlings, and I'm very proud of myself.

Having done a bit of research, and asked a few friends on trusty old Facebook, I have been informed that these are ready to be eaten. I feel a bit guilty that these baby plants have, in their innocence, sprouted themselves for my pleasure, and I will be scoffing them post haste. After a moment's thought and sympathy for these poor little plantlets that had burst forth with high hopes of life, only to be scuppered by a monster of a human being wanting to scoff them, I tossed them all over my lunch. 

Now lunch was interesting - I DID say I'm only just embarking on this raw route. Having looked in the fridge all I saw was two minuscule cherry tomatoes, half a red pepper and beetroot. Some Salad eh?! Having not eaten all day, my stomach was beginning to rumble quite dramatically, so I popped  some potatoes and sweet potatoes into the oven and vowed to buy salad stuff tomorrow. 

Baked potatoes later, I roughly chopped up some cheese, lathered said potatoes with butter (it's getting worse!) I stared forlornly at my poor attempt at lunch whilst my son pulled out a half eaten kebab from last night's escapades (PAH!!!!)  he dunked the meat and bread on his butter and cheese laden potatoes, followed by a smidge of lettuce and tomato, I scraped the rest of the salad off the polystyrene container onto my plate, dunked on my tomatoes, pepper and beetroot, a hand full of my newly sprouted alfafa sprouts, tipped some lemon on (was going to be mayonnaise until I remembered I was supposed to be trying to be healthy) 

Three pickled green chillies, two baked potatoes and one green(ish) salad later, I was stuffed and feeling good - I haven't got the same buzz as I had when I went raw that meal several years ago - but then again, who would after a Donner laden salad ? Ah well - Onwards and Upwards eh?! :D