Sugar and chocolate 2

It definitely is the chocolate that causes my headaches. I have found out that I can eat one cube of the biscuit cake I made and not end up with a headache. Any more and I wake up with a terrific headache the next morning. Must be the cocoa I used because I have not noticed this before with any other chocolate but I will definitely try to analyse what I have eaten the day before when I wake up again with a headache!
It is a nuisance, though, although, on the other side, it will keep my calorie intake down.

Sugar and chocolate

It will not be long before we are leaving Ireland again. If all goes well we will leave on February 8th (sorry Sheila it will not be February 1st) unless there is another gale storm warning. I will therefore make the booking as late as possible.

That leaves me with only 2 weeks, which is great because I am running out of bag making material. I have no interfacing left in any strength and there are a few other small things that need replenishing. I have finished two of my 'Tulip flap' bags and I will finish the outside of the third one but I do not have sufficient interfacing to finish off the lining and strap. 

Therefore, with still two weeks on my hands and not wanting to be bored I decided that I could do some baking. I am not keen on cooking but I do like to bake every now and again. I did a scrumptious apple and pineapple cake last week and looking for some other recipes I came across this 'Arretjes cake' (Dutch) which my mother used to make when I was young.

We do not keep much chocolate at home because I cannot resist eating it, so when I read this recipe my mouth was watering just thinking about how this used to taste. I knew we had cocoa and butter, sugar and biscuits were no problem either. I made it and keep it in the fridge. The problem, however, is, that every time I open the fridge I see this very yummy chocolate and have to have a bit (just a small bit but every so often). This has been going on for 2 days now.

I used to suffer a lot from headaches but since I retired they have become less and less except when I drink too much wine but that is also not too often. The last two mornings I woke up with a splitting headache and Alan made the remark 'I wonder if this has anything to do with chocolate'. I never thought of this before but I will test this and not have any chocolate today. If I wake up tomorrow morning without a headache, I will have some chocolate again and see how I wake up on Monday morning. 

Something else I did to fill the time - I washed one of Alan's working pullovers because it was full of plaster. Somehow, I must have pressed the wrong button on the washing machine but the temperature was only 30° (Celsius)! He now accuses me of wanting some felting material!

All set up again

Back in Ireland and after a few days of hard work and shopping I am all set up again to start my next project.

The house is cleaned and everything put back where it belongs. My small work space, which also doubles up as my office, is tidy and clean and with the sun shining through the sky light and the electric heater on low, it is also quite warm. I can't wait to start again.

High visibility

I bought a very special little vest for Aischa. She will wear it at dusk so that we can see where she is as she is very easily lost in the undergrowth. Of course she also had to pose at home. Contrary to her little raincoat, she does not mind wearing this! It says 'Little Grinch' on the back. Whatever that means!

Hiya Scotland

We have been back in Scotland now since Thursday September 13 and have been quite busy already.

Sheila - a dear neighbour who introduced me to the Kelso fair and who is going to help me selling - and I dressed the dummy, who we christened Astrid. We will use her at ‘Presents Galore, in Kelso on October 7 and 8. We have made lists of what we have to take with us, lists of the items we are going to sell etc. In addition to that I had to change the shipping details of every single item in my shop (I did not find a bulk changing tool for this particular task - I suppose not many shop owners take their whole shop to another country). The days seem to fly by now!

Because I wanted to make a few more bags for Presents Galore, I ordered some fabrics online in the UK. It probably is a language problem but I have not been able to find the right fabrics online in France. I would welcome any suggestions for links on this! I bought some fabrics in Switzerland but I have to be careful because the prices are terribly high and the shop I use does not really have the fabrics I want.

One of my best hunting grounds are two fabrics shops in Zwolle, the Netherlands. I never leave either shop without a stack of fabrics. As we always make a stopover in Zwolle before going to Scotland, I visited these shops this time as well and was very pleased to have Alan with me to carry the heavy bags.

But, as I was saying, I ordered some fabrics online in the UK ( http://www.the-millshop-online.co.uk/ ) and was very pleased to find that they had arrived when we got here. I was even more pleased when I opened the parcel and found the lovely fabrics. Sheila confiscated one of the fabrics immediately telling me that she wanted a bag of this particular fabric for her sister and probably one for herself as well. In addition, I can use either side of some of the fabrics. One side has beautiful bright colours and the other side has the more subdued tones, but both are very beautiful.

I have started the first bag!

 

Our Mad Summer Social Season

So, our Mad Summer Social Season ended last week with the wedding of our youngest son and we are now preparing for autumn and winter, when, for a while, life will take on a much slower pace.

Our Mad Summer Social Season starts at the end of April, when everybody seems to flock back to the Basel area or stays there all year round. During the summer time there seems to be a continuous round of dinner parties, late lunches, brunches, going out for meals (great to be retired!) and ends in Zermatt, where we have a fantastic weekend visiting places, walks, cable car rides, barbecues and last but not least, endless discussions and laughter. This is organized by our good friend Pauline Imboden of Zermatt Holidays: http://www.zermattholidays.ch/ and we have been enjoying this for the past 4 or 5 years.

This time, however, there was even something more special in Zermatt: Alphorns! There were 506 alphorn blowers on the Gornergrat: A huge amount of players and the organizers will apply for an entry into the Guinness Book of Records.

It was a terrific experience to hear this and we really enjoyed it even though it was very cold in the shade on over 3000 meters above sea level!

The next morning, when walking the dog, I thought I was hearing things! I heard alphorns again! Later, walking through Zermatt, we saw small groups of alphorn blowers at various street corners. A very special experience!

Try this link if you want to hear it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23744854

The next day we only took the train up halfway, for a short walk and a BBQ and enjoyed the sunshine.

This year our season was one week longer because our youngest son married last Friday and our eldest son came over from Australia and stayed with us for a week.

Now all we have to do is clean the house and prepare it for the winter season and our quiet time.

How good are you in emergencies?

Last week it was extremely hot. There was a thunderstorm on Sunday morning and the temperature went down a bit for the day. Monday it was hot again but yesterday it started changing and there were some black clouds building up in the late afternoon.

During the night, I woke up because Aischa, out Yorkshire terrier, crept up on us. She is not normally frightened of thunder but it was particularly bad at that moment. She was not overly frightened but she wanted some comforting. The lightening was quite something – it went from one side of the valley to the other and it seemed to go on forever. I also realized that the electricity had tripped again because my alarm clock, which is electric, did not work.

The next time I woke up it was to the sound of breaking glass, thunder, lightning and the hammering of heavy rain on the roof. I realized that Alan had gotten up to close all the windows and I decided to see what I could do and to use the toilet. As there was no light, I could not see what Alan was doing. He came into the bathroom and said he had trodden on some glass and had to stand on the bathroom tiles instead of the wooden floor on the landing. With the next flash of lightning, I got the shock of my life because I could see he was standing in a pool of blood.

I am not very good in emergencies. I either panic or my mind goes completely blank and somebody has to tell me what to do. Alan told me to give him a towel to put around his foot, which I did. I asked him if he could sit somewhere and hold his leg up to stop the bleeding. He somehow got to the landing to sit on the rug and told me to start cleaning the floor first. To do that, I had to go down to the cellar to get the bucket and floor cloth. When I came to the ground floor and pressed the light switch, I was pleased to find out that the ceiling lights at least on that floor worked. There was no electricity on the sockets because I could see a blank screen on the telephone and I could not hear the whirring of the fridge. The ceiling lights in the cellar worked as well so there was no problem getting to the consumer unit and push the only switch that was down, up again.

Coming back upstairs again, I saw Alan half-lying half sitting on a blood soaked rug, holding up his leg and Aischa next to him, licking alternatively Alan and the blood on the rug. I could also see what had happened. On Sunday we had 11 people around for late lunch/early dinner and  when we have more than 6 people we use cheap Ikea glasses which we keep in the attic and I had not yet put them where they should be but just at the bottom of the pull down stairs. Monday and yesterday, it was just too hot to go into the attic. In his hurry to get to the window, he did not see the glasses in the dark, stumbled into them, broke one and stood in a large piece of glass.

The landing and bathroom floor looked like a battlefield. I was pleased I could do something else before looking at his foot. After I cleaned the floors, I found some compresses and a bandage and took the towel of his foot. It was not bleeding any longer and after all the blood I cleared from the floor, I had expected a very large cut. In that, I was disappointed. It was only about one inch long. I disinfected the wound, put a compress on it and wound the bandage around the foot.

Then, Alan went to bed and I first put the blood soaked towels (in the meantime, there were two large towels) in cold water in the bathtub rinsed them as good as possible and put them in the washing machine.

After that, I took care of the rug. I do not know yet what it will look like when it is dry but it received the same treatment as the bath towels (except for the washing machine) – I hung it over the side of the bath, held the cold shower on it, and rinsed all the blood out. I cannot see any blood on it now but how good the rug will look afterwards, remains to be seen. Anyway, that is the least of our problems.

After breakfast this morning, we realised that the wound had been bleeding again so I took the bandage off and had a better look at the wound. It looks quite deep and I think it needs stitching. I suggested super glue but he did not go for that! Therefore, we will see the doctor a bit later today.

On a more optimistic note – I finished a bag last Friday and sold it on Monday morning. How about that!

What's your favorite color? I'll show you mine!

After the last few blogs with all the photographs it is probably easy to see what my favorite colors are - all in the turquoise range: aqua, teal, duck egg blue, etc.

Here a few more pictures with my favorite colors:

Even Aischa's blanket is in the same color scheme!

Decisions, decisions, decisions!!!

Looking for a bracelet to go with one of the bags I made for my son's wedding, I came across this one.

Years ago I made this bracelet because I wanted to find out how you transform a sheet of silver into a bangle while raising the sides. After a few nights of hammering and some muscle ache I managed to get the right shape. However, after that I was lost and did not quite know how to make it look pretty. I tried blackening the inside, soldering some studs and putting freshwater pearls on the studs - but it never was one of my favorite bangles.

You can still see the studs where the black spots are.

After reading up again on polymer clay, I got the idea of putting a layer of polymer clay on the inside and it turned out all right. I'm quite pleased with the result.

I also made a new necklace using polymer clay beads, polymer clay discs which I formed in the shape of a flower head, felt beads and swarovski crystals. I still had the polymer clay and silver necklace so I have two choices of what to wear with the turquoise bag.

How to create a great room and not spending much money

The obvious answer is diy and shop around.

First of all get a color scheme. Think of a main color, one that you really love and work around it. I love turquoise, mint and very pale blue - and the combination of all these colors.

Quilting was one of the crafts I tried before I started making handbags. I loved doing it as I was also working with fabrics. The only drawback for me, was the fact that it took so long before I finished one. Halfway through one quilt I had ideas about doing other ones and had to wait until I finished the one I was doing because otherwise it would never be finished.

But you can still get a great quilt when you use large squares and this does not take a lot of time.

Years ago, while visiting Singapore, I bought a stack of silk fabrics and I had the idea of using some of the fabrics to make a quilt for the guestroom. This turned out fine. It was machine sewn but I quilted it by hand in the evening while watching TV.

I also made the cushions on the bed using vintage doilies and vintage lace from charity/thrift shops, fake pearls from old pieces of jewellery, glass beads and embroidered celtic motives on some of them to pull them all together. I crocheted the valence around the bed and the curtains are made of an Indian sari. I think the overall effect is quite good.

In a charity shop, that is run by a friend of mine, I found this beautiful vintage handpainted Hungarian coffee service. Okay, some of the gold on the cups is rubbed off and I only have 5 cups but the colour and the painted flowers are beautiful. 

I have placed the service on a cane carrying tray (also from a charity/thrift shop), which I painted light blue and decoupaged the tray itself with roses.

Of course the lampshades complement this colour scheme and so do a few more bits and pieces like the vase I once got as a christmas present. I love this room!

Social networking

I think I have been lucky in that I just did not miss the internet age. I have always been interested in computers starting with the home PC and I introduced my children to PCs as soon as they became available and the children interested in them. The children are now both in their very late thirties and both know all about computers.  I am also very lucky in the sense that when I have any problems or want a new gadget, there is always somebody to advise and help me.

However, where I still have some problems is getting my head around the social media. It is no longer as alien any as it was in the beginning because at that time I could not imagine why I should ever need social media. Now I am quite familiar with Facebook and can see the advantages. I did not use it much in the beginning - it was just an easy tool to keep track of what my friends and sons were up to but since I started selling online and having my own fan page on Facebook I am slowly getting the hang of it. I can now read the 'insights' and know theoretically, what I should do to get more fans but I am not ready for that for the time being. At least I can see the direction I should take.

With Twitter, I have more problems. Of course I now have a Twitter account but I still cannot quite see the sense of 'following' somebody. Maybe somebody will explain some day. 

The same with Stumbleupon - I cannot see any advantages of using this. Maybe, as with Twitter, somebody will explain someday. Of course, I do use Flickr, which I think is easier to share than Picasa, but these two do not need any explanation. They are just photo sharing sites.

What I do like though, is Pinterest. Pinterest is a social network that I really love and it has saved me lots of money. I used to buy many magazines, from jewellery making, to crafts, to making your home nice and seeing, what other people do with their homes and houses, to gardening, etc. However, what do you do when you have been through the magazines? I still have piles of them lying around the house because there were some interesting pictures and articles that I wanted to keep. However, when you are looking for a specific article, you never find it again because there are too many magazines to go through. The alternative, of course, is to cut the articles or pictures out. Somehow, I never wanted to mutilate the magazines! So here I was with all my magazines and then came Pinterest. It is great! I can search for whatever I want or need and pin it to one of my boards! Additionally, I can delete them whenever I think I have grown tired of that particular item or do no longer need it. On top of that, other people do a lot of the work for me. They search the net for interesting things and all I have to do is PIN IT!

Yes, I love Pinterest. Facebook seems to be a necessity but Pinterest is a love affair!

First brilliant day of the season!

Before breakfast we take Aischa out for her morning walk on the hill above Oberlarg. This morning was particularly good - brilliant sunshine for the first time since we are back in France.