New Job, Cheeky Mince Pies and Crochet Triangles

After a good three long months of being in York I have finally secured a form of employment up here! Admittedly it's only a part time job, but it feels really nice to have finally been given a chance to show that I am capable of doing things. It's been very frustrating going to interviews or trial shifts where I don't actually do anything and then being turned down due to a lack of experience, when they've not given me an opportunity to show that it actually doesn't matter that I've not been doing certain jobs for very long. </rant>

Anyway.... So now on top of my seamstressing, I work in a lovely food shop, one with a delightful deli and all those interesting foods you can never seem to find anywhere else and all sorts of organic and local produce. The only problem with it is is the cheese counter. I want it all! All of the cheese. In my tummy. And the shop is only round the corner from the flat on our wonderful local high street, with it's two greengrocers, proper butcher, fish and chips shop and proper hardware shop. So right now I'm fairly chuffed at that, and the extra income's a plus too, of course!

Shhh don't tell anyone but I may have made a naughty batch of mince pies last night. I know it's not Christmas any more but I did have some homemade mincemeat left over *and* left over mince pie pastry (admittedly safe in the freezer, but no-one needs to know that.) So yeah, here's the very last of Christmas, hidden away in a sweetie box with our last bit of my Ma's Christmas cake.

It's now my secret Christmas stash. As much as I love my Ma's Christmas cake, I'm finding it hard to eat the last piece, as there's such a wonderful festive smell when you open the box. I'm sure I'll have a weak day and nom it all soon. But until then, I'll just poke my nose in the box and inhale deeply.

And finally, on a slightly more sane note, the crocheted triangle bunting's coming along nicely. I've been obsessively playing a game called Eufloria and making them in the evenings recently. Not quite enough to fill the house with lovely colours yet, but I've got plenty of time.

TTFN Christmas

*Sadface*

The flat's now back to it's empty self. The bunting's coming along slowly, hopefully it'll be up for Spring. I'm also planning on sampling a few more patterns from this wonderful book

So the flat should be bright and beautiful again in no time. (fingers crossed)


It's now been three months since le Boof and I moved up to York. He's attending uni up here and after six and a half years of being together, it made sense for me to tag along and for us to start the next stage of our relationship living together in our own little flat!
My part to play is earning the money at the moment, however, as far as full time jobs are concerned, the outlook is still fairly bleak. The radio news reports keep telling me that unemployment is at an all time high and fewer companies are hiring full time staff due to the economic situation (blah blah blah, cheers radio news). Fortunately for me though, the people I worked for before the big move have kept me on their books part time, and send me up boxes of jackets to put new zips in. Which brings me, far more importantly, to the wonderful new bit of furniture I got my hands on last month.

 

I received it from a very nice lady on our local Freecycle (if you've not discovered it yet, check out your local group, it's fantastic and ours has a wonderful community spirit to it).  It's specifically a sewing table, with two small drawers on one side and the other side has a bit cut away so you can get right up close to your machine. Dead good. It's definitely made me far more focussed and productive, having a specific working area. (when I can drag myself away from the internet....) Having spent a while on craft blogs today, I'm wondering whether I should do this to it eventually? It is a very nice bit of furniture as it is, but it's also fairly set in it's own decade, so could do with a bit of personalisation and sprucing I think. Something to mull over whilst getting to work! (Tomorrow.)


Current projects on the go:

• Getting everything set up to do a run of screen printed T-shirts for the university's knitting society that I'm a member of
• Spring bunting

What's for dinner?:
Shepherd's Pie Potatoes

And finally:
Lissie - When I'm Alone

P.S. I've now added a links page, which you will find in the tabs at the top of this page. Plenty there to get your crafty teeth into!

Bunting, Tortillas and Chutney

Not so much of a New Year’s resolution as something I’ve been meaning to do for quite a while now, but I’m planning to get this blog going again. I’ve got lots of things I was up to over Christmas - all outgoing gifts were entirely hand made, I’ll pop up pics and recipes/tutorials eventually.

For now this was what I was up to today:

First off, there’s a batch of spiced apple chutney on the hob as we speak, the far more attractive before shot is what you see above. It’s a big pot of vinegar-y smelling brown goop at the moment, however, I know from experience it will taste very nice when finished!

We had home made tortillas for lunch, which were incredibly easy to make, I don’t know why I had it stuck in my head that they might take a long time or not be worth the hassle. I used this recipe - Flour Tortilla Wraps. I didn’t really fancy 60 wraps at the time, so I divided all quantities by four. That made more than enough for le Boof and myself for lunch (there’s still five of them in the fridge, waiting for when Boof gets the nibbles).

Faced with the threat of having a naked flat again when the Christmas decorations have to come down later in the week (sadface), I’ve decided I shall crochet some jolly spring bunting. I’ll update with pics in a later post, as there are only two currently. The pattern I’m using for them is here, I’ve been changing colours for every new round. If you’ve never tried crochet, it’s definitely worth giving a go. Apparently it’s easier than knitting, although I’ve been knitting for much longer than I’ve crocheted for, so it’s hard for me to tell!

So there we are, that was nice and painless. I just have to remember to take lots and lots of pictures of everything I do. Le Boof will be pleased!


Cheeky extras:

Currently playing - Eufloria
Currently listening - Gotye - Somebody I Used To Know ft. Kimbra