Social Distancing – May Positivity

May 28, 2020

Social Distancing – May Positivity

I thought rather than bore you with a whole post about one single loaf of bread or other mediocre effort, I’d try and practice restraint and sum things up a smidge. I’m not sure if I like this format though, we shall see.

Starting off in crafting news – I made these dinky little things. Hubby referred to them as ‘the world’s smallest rainbow’ and the only other person who knew about them before this blog said it was ‘sweet’.

Back in the Yule time I watched Kirstie Allsop and the crafting show. Someone made an advent calendar out of mini cross stitch embroidery hoops and I squealed a great deal through the show at how amazing they were. I glossed over the fact I’d not cross stitched for ten years. Thankfully Hobbycraft had a January sale (other retailers are available blah blah) and I ordered a pack of these frames – without any idea how big 1.5 inches was.

You’ve read about my ugly cake efforts, you know I have NO CONCEPT of size.

So I dug these hoops out the other week, ignored the suggested designs and made these up myself. Yes people, you read correctly – I did art stuff! I did design them and then sew them and I love them, don’t want to give them away, want to do millions more. Hubby says they’re unnecessary clutter, I think they’re gorgeous. What does he know?! They took a day and a half each but I don’t care, they’re so lush.

I also decided (whilst making puffin number forty-seven) that I needed a pin cushion. It turns out that using my dressing gown is actually not sensible. Especially as I’m always wearing it. So I went onto a certain internet auction website (actually, is there anything other than eBay?) and was searching for pin cushions when I stumbled upon a cactus pin cushion. Ohmydays it was brilliant. It was also twelve quid and that was probably ten quid more than my brain said was sensible. One youtube tutorial later and an argument with the photocopier and tah dah! Look what I made!!!

If you are confused about how these don’t really look like cacti unless you squint and look at it upside down then I’ll confess, I didn’t follow the instructions entirely. Yeah I know, you’re surprised at that.

The tutorial said make the cactus from just one colour felt. Yawn! Boring. Especially when you have glittered green felt. It also said use the same coloured thread to see them together and then hand sew prickles on in a contrast colour. Hmmm. Why am I sewing twice? Nope! So I made this one (above) first because that was the template and it’s flipping massive! How many pins do other people actually have? I also didn’t like the plain green felt finish so added brads as buds and prickles. But it is crazy big so after another photocopier session I reduced it again and made the ickle one (below) which is far more suitable for me. Then the next challenge – finding terracotta clay pots small enough for these things to force a sense of reality. If BHGS were open I’d be fine. Cue a bit of faceache begging and some wood disc padding with quite a bit of hot glue and they’re quite fabby.

This wouldn’t be a blog of mine if I didn’t mention one kitchen disaster or three. This time I attempted lemon muffins but I foolishly asked himself to help. Gently stab the muffins with a cocktail stick I said, there then followed a scene from the remake of psycho and some very badly punctured cakes. It was so the drizzle would go inside, it didn’t, it just went all over the paper cases making them very sticky and soggy. Delicious but dangerously gooey.

In May I’ve made these lemon muffins, four loaves, a batch of breakfast muffins and rolls, a rhubarb cheesecake and a batch of black forest muffins. No-one believes me when I say I hate cooking. I really do! It’s so precise and science like and I’m not supposed to eat any of it. Lockdown is boring though.

In fabulous shopping news I found 16kg of bread flour. I didn’t actually *find* it, I did purchase it with money like a proper person! So all future bread making plans are good – I   If you want or need bread flour, you know where to come!  Also have other flour and eggs <grin>

Happy news now – I joined a book group on faceache. I was invited by a fellow M.E. warrior on M.E. Awareness Day and so it felt like was meant to be. Basically it’s a bunch of strangers sharing their Amazon wishlists and you pick one list or twelve or whatever and play secret squirrel! You can gift proper books or kindle books or a gift voucher and the basis of it all is to share the joy of reading with random acts of kindness. I have many 99p kindle books on my list so it’s not like anyone has to spend much to make me smile. So far I’ve bought nine proper books, two kindle books and one gift voucher for six different people and not spent very much, honestly. It’s been such fun and I’ve been sent three kindle books and one proper book so far. So exciting. So very, very exciting. And controlled surprises for those of us who can’t pretend with off-list items. I honestly did not know you could send kindle books as gifts but you can and it’s very easy.  If you want to give it a try, here’s my wishlist link although you might need to copy-paste it

https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/14LTNBJXY76G9?ref_=wl_share

I hope this will be a long term thing because books are precious. Even at my lowest, books in my duvet palace with a mug of tea is my go to medicine of choice.

And then on Friday 15th, there was a very loud knock at the door. I reluctantly answered it because himself was down the garage and there was a (strange/unknown) man (at a safe distance) who said ‘Are you Michelle?’ I nodded and he said ‘That’s for you, there’s an explanation in the box.’ On my doorstep was an enormous cardboard fruit and veg hamper. Turns out, I’d been nominated for a local community hero thing with our local farm shop and they’d decided I was worthy.  They gave out six of these boxes out of all the nominations and I was one of them!

I was gobsmacked. Totally shocked. But I didn’t keep it all, I have shared it with three lots of neighbours and feel so lucky to have been a recipient of this. I don’t consider myself a hero, I’m just checking in with my neighbours because I’m bored and lonely. The strawberries were amazing, I was fighting himself for them. He was less bothered about the spinach unsurprisingly even if it was covered in rump steak.  Diesel cat is also benefiting even if Albie is rather jealous!

I wanted to finish off with a rather braggish photo of our veg patch but the frost the other night/week ruined everything and I have nothing to show you veg wise. So instead you can have some arty flower shots of water droplets on lupin leaves and my gorgeous sea thrift plant. Then a photo from the bottom of the garden in chickenville – please ignore the awful hair and classy outfit! Our newbies are bonkers, Reg certainly thinks he’s a parrot not a chicken. They’re lovely but their toes are especially sharp and my neck and chest was absolutely ruined by Nigel one evening, not fun.

 

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