Bits of this and that

I love this time of year when there's a chill in the air and you can wrap yourself up in layers and layers of clothing and snuggle up on the sofa under lots of blankets.  The unfortunate thing is that it's really difficult to get the washing dry, especially my little boys nappies.  At the moment we use some indoor airers and a dehumidifier and that works ok but it makes my house look very messy.  So we're getting a 2nd hand condenser dryer.  We use pocket nappies so we'll be able to tumble the inners but not the PUL outer layers.

The slow cooker is coming out ready to make lots of nourishing stews and soups.  I've had some lovely fluffy post recently from Greencycle cloth pads and Beau Bespoke and I must say they are both of exceptional quality and very comfortable.  I'll be doing some reviews very soon.

Go Sober

This year I've decided to participate in the Macmillan "go sober for October"  challenge.  I'm doing this for a number of different reasons.

1)  The Macmillan nurses are excellent and provide much needed support and care for people with cancer, especially in end of life care. 

2)  I know several people affected by cancer and have seen that this charity does help people face life and manage money etc.

3)  I enjoy a couple of drinks in the evening and it'll benefit my health if I cut them out.

I'll let you know how I'm getting on with it as we go.  I start in two days.  If you can it'd be lovely to have some sponsors as I know it'll be difficult at times.  My page is at http://www.gosober.org.uk/profile/charliroberts 

Custard of loveliness

Sorry about the lack of posts of late, I've been quite poorly.  Today I made proper custard for the first time (successfully) and it was well worth the effort.  It's about 100% better than shop bought (apart from the fresh stuff next to the milk). 

I have had very little time or energy to do anything other than what I normally do lately but I have started to go to the gym. My GP prescribed this for me a little while ago so I thought I'd give it a try.  I'm taking baby steps and it hurts but if I can increase my level of fitness and stamina it should lessen my fibro symptoms. 

Courgette cake

My husband suggested that I should make some courgette cake with our glut of courgettes.  I chose to bake a lemon and courgette one with cream cheese frosting that I found on BBC good food.  The first time I made it it was too wet  so it collapsed and was more like pancakes.  The second time I strained the courgette through a clean tea towel and the end result was a lot nicer.  I was really impressed with the cake as it turned out lovely and moist, you can't taste the courgette either.  I just wish I had a picture!  In the future I'd like to try baking with other vegetables, beetroot sounds good.

Tie dying with friends.

A couple of weeks ago some friends and I did some tie dying, it was soo much fun.  I'd looked up a few different techniques a while ago and tried a couple out.  I think it was pretty successful.  We used a selection of different dylon hand dyes which took a lot of stirring to dissolve and Lucy laid them out in rainbow order. 

I wrapped my dress up in a spiral then spooned the dye over the top of it, making sure I got the other side too.

 

Then I wrapped it up in a plastic bag overnight to let the dye soak in.  In the morning I rinsed then washed it and it looked like this.

 

I really enjoyed making my own unique clothes and will definitely do this again with some of my little boys' vests and my socks etc.  My friend Diana made a knicker monster.

 

 

We used lots of take away trays for the detailing, they're really useful for this activity.

Rosehip Syrup

It's cold season in my household, which means it's time to make rosehip syrup.  Rosehips are known to be high in vitamin C. This afternoon my husband and I and our 2 year old boy went out to get some.  We came back with plenty.

Here's how I do it.

I top and tail the rosehips then boil them in lots of water and the same amount of sugar as rosehips.  I keep boiling til they're soft then blend the mixture.  I tend to let it sit a while at this point and add some water so it's not so thick, let it cool then strain it through muslin into a sterilised container.  It should keep about a month in the fridge or you can freeze in an ice cube try and take one out whenever you need it. 

Rosehips can also be ground up to make itching power.

Zero Waste week

This week is zero waste week.  I have pledged to stop using plastic bags and use reusable ones instead.  I have changed a lot of my wasteful habits over the past few years.  I cloth nappy my toddler and use CSP rather than disposables.  These reduce what I put in landfill and reduce the chemicals that are next to our skin.  I also make my own soaps and reuse the packaging as much as possible. 

There are loads of things you can do to reduce the amount you put into landfill.  I personally use freecycle a lot.  Recently I got a loft bed for free and I'll be passing the old bed onto someone else to use.  My husband is a skip rat.  He comes home with various finds that others have thrown out.  Big wire reels make the most amazing tables!  I have two boxes of clothes that were going to be thrown out that I'm going to mend/ up cycle into something different.  I've seen some really funky earrings and necklaces made of ring pulls and I just love how inventive people can be with 'waste'