Scared of the Jersey? Crochet instead!

Ok so if i'm gonna make all my clothes this year i really need to get a handle on jersey, that easy to wear t shirt material.  But i'm scared!  I have no overlocker and no idea how to sew it on a regular machine.  I bought an overlocking foot off ebay that i discovered i didn't need, and then had to order special needles.  They came so quickly i was almost disappointed since i was trying to avoid sewing the thing!  What am i sewing? Well i purchased some beautiful gold and grey jersey and the plan is to make a super drapey kimono with it.

 

Its absolutely gorgeous but i came un stuck  from the get go.  Who knew cutting jersey with fabric scissors was so hard?  Anyway i have a semblance of a kimono cut out.  I have the needles, and the correct foot.  So what to do now?  Ignore it all and crochet!

Spring cleaning time

It's that time again.  January rolls around, and i promise myself i will do better in a million different ways.  There is one area in particular though, that causes me stress and angst the whole year through.  That is keeping house.  I am a brilliant mother in many ways, i home educate my kids and give alot of my time to them, i have seemingly endless patience (except when i don't), i can cook pretty good, but keep a tidy house?  Its like i was born with something missing or lacking.  I collect stuff.  I have so much stuff.  My partner is a collector too.  He inherited a ton of 'stuff' when his parents sadly passed away.  On top of that, i cannot seem to fathom how to tidy it all, keep it tidy and keep a clean home.  I find myself making excuses to visitors and warning them before they arrive that we are not tidy.  I find myself wanting to go out all the time because i can't relax at home surrounded by 'stuff'.  I can't do this anymore.  It needs to end.  This year will be the year i learn how to tidy.  

So i bought myself "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying" by Marie Kondo (Konmari).  There's been alot of buzz around this book and people are saying its changed their lives.  Ok let me be honest, i bought the book last summer but promptly lost it under a pile of 'Stuff'. Oh the irony.  So i dug out my copy a few days ago and began to read.  I put it down again several times though, because frankly i'm scared!  I am actually scared that if i read this book i will have to start actually doing this whole tidying thing.  I am scared to chuck stuff out, i am scared of being organised and being in control.  I think this is because of my mother.

My mother is a brilliant house keeper to the point of obsession.  Our house was so clean you could eat off the floor, and that was with several pets around.  Growing up, i would often experience her tidying up around me.  If i left the butter knife and turned my back, it was gone!  I grew to resent the cleaning.  I have very few memories of actually playing with mum because she was always tidying.  Always.  I spent alot of time in my bedroom reading alone.  I loved it but i also resented the tidying.  I'm sure if she reads this, she'll beg to differ.  I'm confident she did do stuff with us but all i remember is the tidying, washing, house cleaning, and decorating.  I think now that part of my aversion to keeping house stems from this.  I don't want anything to do with house keeping.  I hate it.  So what now?

With that in mind i am plowing through the book.  Actually forcing myself to read.  I want control of my house back and i'm ready to do just about anything to get it.  I am determined.  Maybe i wasn't ready to examine my root issues with tidying last summer but now is the time.  I am geared up and ready to go.  Her philosophy is to take every item in your house of a certain catagory and pile it all in one place starting with clothes.  So every item of clothing in your entire house goes on the living room floor.  There are reasons for doing it this way which are explained in the book, but the core idea is you only keep the items that spark joy.  So you take each item individually and ask yourself if it sparks joy in you.  If not its got to go.  You move on to different catagories around your house right down to books, toys and furniture.  Konmari promises that by the end of it, you will only need to tidy twice a year!  Twice a year!!!!!  

As i said before i am a collector.  Myself and my partner both have quite alot of sentimental items, and i mean alot.  These will be the most difficult to apply the method to.  I think i will find books particularly challenging.  We have a small library worth of books and that is no exaggeration.  I have tried to cull the books before and usually manage one or two. But i'm going to be brave.  Using the Konmari method i will not think about what i want to get rid of but rather what really makes me happy, and if they don't make the cut, they don't stay.  

Already i'm also starting to think about applying the Konmari method to others areas in my life as well.  What am i doing and where am i in my life right now that sparks joy?  The house i live in was bought as the most functional place we could afford at the time for our needs.  But does it spark joy?  Does my hobbies and free time activities spark joy? Does my life as i live it right now spark joy in me?  These are big questions that i can't answer fully just yet but i think aiming to spark joy inside yourself in everything you do is possibly the best and most fulfilling way to live.  Why would anyone settle for anything less?

Homemade Pizza time.....

I'm really keen to start using up all my food and not to waste any.  If i think of how much i was throwing away, it probably comes to hundreds of pounds a year.  So from now on i will be looking at clever ways to use food up. Tonight was my first attempt.
 We love pizza.  Well me and the kids do.  Mr A not so much because he cannot bear (bare?) cheese.  This can be problematic as i make almost exclusively vegetarian food (I don't like meat).  I figured  he really needs to get with the joys of pizza and decided to make my own dough.  I do like to decide these things on the spur of the moment!
 I used:  1 L of warm water
              4 tbs of granulated sugar (I never have caster in when i need it)
              25g of dry active yeast
              a really good grinding of salt
              nearly 3 1/2 lb of plain flour
              4 oz butter (melted)

I mixed the yeast and sugar with some of the warm water to dilute it and left it to froth up.
I added the reast of the water to 3lb of the flour, salt and butter and mixed like mad.
Then i added in the yeast mixture.  It was super runny and gloopy so i added more flour till it was a soft dough.  I actually ran out of plain flour and ended up using a little self raising! Doughy pizza crust is fine by me.

Next i kneaded till my arms dropped off.  Roughly about ten minutes or so.  By this time it had grown loads (like a big dough monster) so i popped it back in the bowl to rise and left it alone.  I have a little trick to rising dough.  I have one of those wheat bags and it happens to be a long sausage shape.  I get it super hot in the microwave then wrap it round the outside of the bowl.  Keeps the dough nice and warm.  

Apparently the way to tell if your Dough is ready is to press a finger in.  If the indent remains, it's ready. This dough makes enough for 4 pizzas so i cut off what i needed and portioned and froze the rest.

I needed a tomato paste for the base.  I really wanted to use up a slimy old leek i found.  It was pretty grim looking but i peeled off the outer layers and it happened to be perfect inside.  I chopped it up really small, and did the same with a couple of garlic cloves.  Popped them in the wok with water and a can of chopped tomatoes.  I really like Aldi's chopped toms with herbs.  It was really watery so i boiled it up and reduced it to a yummy paste (keep stirring so it doesn't burn).  When it was cool-ish, i blasted it in the blender in to a paste. 

Time to construct the pizza.  Not only does Mr A hate cheese but he wouldn't be able to eat any food 'contaminated' with or touching cheese.  So i had an idea to create a dough barrier down the middle of the pizza.

I then added each persons favourite toppings.  In my case, some mushrooms that needed using, red peppers and cheese, in his case, peppers, a dried chilli chopped really fine and some corned beef.  What i loved was that i could manage the amount i added.  I made the pizza healthier on my side by adding a few cheese slices rather than a whole pile of grated cheese.  Fewer calories but the same cheesy taste. 

The result was delicious!  Oh my word homemade dough tastes amazing! I normally can't stand the crusts on a shop bought pizza but this crust was so delish i ate it dipped in left over tomato sauce.  Divine!  I now have slightly sore wrists but the hard work is done.  For future pizzas I'll just grab some dough ready made from the freezer.

First sewing project of the year!

 I really wanted to take small steps to reduce my impact on the earth in achievable ways.  So this year i have pledged to make as much of my clothes as i can.  I want to challenge myself and see what i can achieve.  I should say i am a very novice seamstress.  I went on two one day courses years back to make a simple skirt and a simple dress and thats it!  After that i used youtube and books for help.  I have always knitted and mastered crochet too, but never sewing. 
  Why do i want to buy less clothes?  Firstly i want to be less of a consumer.  I'm looking for a more wholesome life full of experience.  I can save the money i waste on clothes and use it in more meaningful ways, like travel, books, art equipment, really enriching stuff that feeds my soul.  I don't want to support cheap clothing producers that pollute the planet and pay their workers next to nothing for what is virtually modern day slavery.  I want no part in people having to leave their babies in the care of others while they live in shoe boxes in the cities and work 18 hours a day for a meagre wage to send home. 
  From and environmental point of view, the figures from www.wrap.org.uk tell us that extending the lives of clothes by just 3 months leads to a 5-10% reduction in the carbon, water and waste footprints, and more than that, 350,000 tons of clothing goes to landfill in the uk every year! 
  So this year i will mend first, make second and thirdly buy from ethical sources if i can.
Here is my first offering of the year (my photo skills leave much to be desired):

A little A line skirt.  I am actually more proud of this than i should be as its pretty crappy sewn but it was supposed to be a smock top from a beautiful japanese sewing book i own.  Thing is, the patterns don't come with seam allowance. I  forgot that bit of information of course.so the size 14 i cut out, when basted together was a small size 12! eek!  No way were my boobs fitting in there.  I either had to chop it to make a skirt or chuck it all together.  So chop it i did.  Of course i then had no pattern to follow.  So the reason i'm so proud of the skirt is that i managed, through the power of google, to work out how to add a waist band and how to add a button band:

This skirt will never win any competitions except maybe the wonky stitching award, but it fits and that, in my book, is a great start!

Why am i writing a blog? This is the 4th blog i've started and the first one i intend to actually write! I have no clue yet how to add pictures, make it look nice or do anything other than type, but that much i can do.  I have experienced a real shift and an urge to journal and record my thoughts. 
  So a bit about me.  I am a mother to two lovely children whom i home educate and devote most of my time to.  I live in Yorkshire which is, in my biased opinion, a truly beautiful corner of the planet.  I had a hard few years where i lost myself and my identity then through a series of synchronicities i met some wonderful people and had some wonderful experiences in 2015 which led me to find myself and who i want to be.  I remembered that the dreams i had before motherhood, are still my dreams and i can still reach for them.  You're never too old! So i guess this is the start of my journey in 2016, and what will it bring?
   Well things certainly change, but i hope to re train for my Reiki level 2 with the lovely Jo at Moonlodge  in Leeds.  I am also meeting with Jo and a bunch of lovely women 8 times this year as part of the way of the wild witch course which has so far been amazing! 
  I want to construct some sort of a therapy space in my garden to do treatments and womens circles in as well as aiming for a more outdoor life for us too!  I'm dreaming of owning that yurt, so we can camp out and fall asleep watching the bats fly in the starry sky.
  I am also pledging to tread a little lighter on the earth this year.  I want to make more of my clothes, recycle more, walk and take the bus more.  Little steps and i already started!  I made my first ever A line skirt!
  Most of all, now my birthing days are over and my youngest is now 5, i feel its time to reconnect with the wild woman inside me, find my spirit, become that mysterious, dynamic, exciting, courageous woman that i used to be, once again.