The "This is not my home" kitchen is on the move.
Hopefully normal service will be restored shortly, but currently the fridge is blocking the back door and the washing machine won't fit under the counter...
Showing posts with label Home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home. Show all posts
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Look what I got!
For which I am so very grateful and pleased.
The whole haul. That bright sunflower? From the Queen of Sheba.
Close up on the books - a wonderful collection of what my life is (and a bit of what I wish it only was) - God on top, some sewing, some cooking, some knitting and domestic organisation.
And this? This is an AMAZING halterneck apron, covered in Nasturtiums designed and made for me by the Kindred Spirit.
The whole haul. That bright sunflower? From the Queen of Sheba.
Close up on the books - a wonderful collection of what my life is (and a bit of what I wish it only was) - God on top, some sewing, some cooking, some knitting and domestic organisation.
And this? This is an AMAZING halterneck apron, covered in Nasturtiums designed and made for me by the Kindred Spirit.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
A Gerbera For The Queen Of Sheba
Because, sometimes, you need a little pink reminder of God's good creation.
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Relaxed Chatty Tea
"This is mainly a fantasy as, in the real world, all the people you would like to get together for tea and cakes and plenty of undisturbed talking one afternoon are all far too busy. You are probably far too busy yourself.
Anyway, in this fantasy, all your favourite friends are gathered together, without a care in the world, all chatting away and eating delicious cakes and drinking tea. You'll have all your best crockery out and there'll be flowers on the table. No one will be on a diet or have a food allergy and no one will have to rush off. If there are any children in the party, they will be sweet and funny and behave beautifully and any babies will sleep peacefully, waking up occasionally to gurgle adorably for a few moments before snoozing off again." From - Tea with Mrs Simkins
Photo credit to Papa
Monday, February 21, 2011
The Gift Hamper
A rather belated "House-Warming" present for a couple of my close friends from university. They rather like cheese, so it's a cheese based, and once again everything is made from Gifts from the Kitchen (definitely my favourite recipe book at the moment). I also added in a small wedge of a mature cheddar.
Contents: Oatmeal Biscuits For Cheese, Chilli, Tomato and Onion Marmalade, Tickler Mature Cheddar (not shown), Coloured Sugar Lumps (alright, not exactly cheese related, but very cute anyway)
Contents: Oatmeal Biscuits For Cheese, Chilli, Tomato and Onion Marmalade, Tickler Mature Cheddar (not shown), Coloured Sugar Lumps (alright, not exactly cheese related, but very cute anyway)
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Flowers on the Table
Bought for the Queen of Sheba by her young man. Making our living room look lovely in the vase that I possibly paid more for in a charity shop than it would have cost first time round in Ikea.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
The Return of the Queen of Sheba
My flatmate has returned from her two and a half week trip home, bringing back some of her sheet music.
Our flat has been filled with strains of Handel's "Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" and "Variations on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". An odd combination, but a thoroughly pleasing one too.
Our flat has been filled with strains of Handel's "Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" and "Variations on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". An odd combination, but a thoroughly pleasing one too.
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
One down, five to go
Yes, the stitching could have been much neater. No, the corners aren't mitred properly. Yes, the ruffle is completely uneven. No, I don't care, because I made a big squooshy cover for a cushion, that is just how I imagined it.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Time to Sew
All ready to make a new cushion cover for the sofa. Once I have time to sew that is. My friend managed to pick out a perfectly matching shade of thread despite not having the fabric with us, after only seeing it once. The advantage of a contour fashion degree I suppose!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
The Dream Kitchen
This hilarious little extract came from a recent (November 2010) copy of the Waitrose Kitchen Magazine that I picked up, it rather sums up my kitchen experience.
"In my mind's eye, I always imagined myself making jam and marmalade in a sunlit kitchen, surrounded by gleaming copper pans and gingham squares. In reality, the making of jam in our house is hot, heavy work; the great bubbling pail of sugar-stew liberally seasoned with swear words, and at least one finger or thumb being held under the cold tap for 20 minutes after a run-in with a scalding splodge of syrup. Which refuses to set. And turns the tea towels purple. But who cares? Rose-tinted spectacles come with the territory... Admiring the serried racks of just-made jams, with their wax-circle stoppers and hand-written labels, is one of life's great little pleasures. It's one of the few boxes I've actually ticked in the larder of my dreams, where I shall have trugs loaded with medlars and damsons, or perhaps sloes, quince and elderberries. There'll be demijohns of single-orchard cider, interestingly flavoured cordials and single-estate teas in fragrant wooden caddies. Ooh, and a truckle of cheddar, plus a wedge of varicose stilton and a salted hock of ham, studded with cloves.
None of this exists, mostly because I am not the chatelaine of an Edwardian mansion. My real larder, which is in fact a pull-out kitchen cupboard, boasts a multipack of Hula Hoops, a sorry tin of coconut milk, some desiccated herbs, a collection of lazily sprouting potatoes and an onion (deceased)" - Mimi Spencer, Waitrose Kitchen November 2010.
"In my mind's eye, I always imagined myself making jam and marmalade in a sunlit kitchen, surrounded by gleaming copper pans and gingham squares. In reality, the making of jam in our house is hot, heavy work; the great bubbling pail of sugar-stew liberally seasoned with swear words, and at least one finger or thumb being held under the cold tap for 20 minutes after a run-in with a scalding splodge of syrup. Which refuses to set. And turns the tea towels purple. But who cares? Rose-tinted spectacles come with the territory... Admiring the serried racks of just-made jams, with their wax-circle stoppers and hand-written labels, is one of life's great little pleasures. It's one of the few boxes I've actually ticked in the larder of my dreams, where I shall have trugs loaded with medlars and damsons, or perhaps sloes, quince and elderberries. There'll be demijohns of single-orchard cider, interestingly flavoured cordials and single-estate teas in fragrant wooden caddies. Ooh, and a truckle of cheddar, plus a wedge of varicose stilton and a salted hock of ham, studded with cloves.
None of this exists, mostly because I am not the chatelaine of an Edwardian mansion. My real larder, which is in fact a pull-out kitchen cupboard, boasts a multipack of Hula Hoops, a sorry tin of coconut milk, some desiccated herbs, a collection of lazily sprouting potatoes and an onion (deceased)" - Mimi Spencer, Waitrose Kitchen November 2010.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Deep Cleaning
Today was day 2 of the "deep clean". As a result of exams and end of year tiredness, the housework has been rather neglected, resulting in a shamefully untidy and rather unclean flat. Since exams are now over and a friend is coming to stay, it is now necessary to deal with the mess! As usual, the old adage of "little and often" would have been a better idea, but since that is no longer possible, the "all at once and really thorough" has begun. For those of you (like me) who tend to save up all the cleaning into one bout, here are some things I've realised (most efficient people will have realised these things already).
1) Open *all* the windows. In my flat this requires the removal of Bob (the spider plant who remains alive in spite of my efforts, rather than because of them) from the window ledge, as he is prone to jump off at the slightest breeze, making more mess rather than less. The opening of windows has two-fold benefits, firstly, that all the chemicals you're probably going to have to use to get rid of the dirt aren't going to asphyxiate you, secondly, it gives that nice "freshly aired" smell to the flat. Unfortunately in London it tends to also bring in lots of black London dust, and the smell of traffic, but the idea is nice in theory.
2) Put on old clothes or an overall, this could get messy. If you have long hair, tie it back, and consider the use of a protective scarf - blotchily accidentally bleached hair, or dusty hair - not a good look! A good pair of well-fitting rubber gloves are invaluable - if you ever read the ingredients of some household cleaners, you will not want them on your skin, even the "Eco-friendly" ones can be quite potent (think how much plain lemon juice stings when it goes in a cut), they will also protect against occasional abrasions from over-enthusiastic scrubbing (I prefer the ones *without* cotton flock lining, since they seem to give me a rash, but they tend to be harder to find). Also, you don't have to touch the icky dirt if you're wearing gloves!
3) Remove all clutter first - bin the rubbish, and remove all removable items to another room so that they will not get in the way of the deep cleaning. This can be an good time for hoarders to realise how much stuff they have and recycle lots of unnecessary bits of paper. Since today was the living room, and because "living" is literally what I do in there, this required shuffling piles of ironing that haven't quite been done into neat piles on the bed, and resolving to do them once the flat is tidy! If any of these items need cleaning or polishing, now is a good time to do them, so they don't bring dirt back in when returned.
4) Hoover... everything - sofas, tabletops (to prepare the way for dusting and polishing), the floor. Don't forget skirting boards and that 2 inches of carpet that no hoover seems to be able to reach with the ordinary floor hoovering head on.
5) Dust and polish furniture and other objects not previously removed, sweeping along with spray polish and a cloth, making sure that all remnants of polish are removed (they tend to accumulate at corners)
6) Remove fingerprints and dirty marks from walls, door handles, light switches, around light switches, anywhere else that they might appear. (I find spray polish and a cloth is the best way to tackle these marks!)
I like to combine 4)+5)+6) using a "divide and conquer" technique - dividing the room up into quadrants or thirds (depending on the size of the room), hoovering, dusting, polishing everything in that quadrant before moving on to the next.
7) Replace all previously removed items.
8) Admire the lovely clean room.
9)Realise you smell terrible, make a cup of tea and draw a lovely hot bath, retire to bath with tea and a good book.
If it all gets too much at any point, take a break, put your feet up, do something else for a few minutes and come back to it... No cleaning is worth that much stress!
Now this post has made me sound delightfully middle-aged, but there we go!
1) Open *all* the windows. In my flat this requires the removal of Bob (the spider plant who remains alive in spite of my efforts, rather than because of them) from the window ledge, as he is prone to jump off at the slightest breeze, making more mess rather than less. The opening of windows has two-fold benefits, firstly, that all the chemicals you're probably going to have to use to get rid of the dirt aren't going to asphyxiate you, secondly, it gives that nice "freshly aired" smell to the flat. Unfortunately in London it tends to also bring in lots of black London dust, and the smell of traffic, but the idea is nice in theory.
2) Put on old clothes or an overall, this could get messy. If you have long hair, tie it back, and consider the use of a protective scarf - blotchily accidentally bleached hair, or dusty hair - not a good look! A good pair of well-fitting rubber gloves are invaluable - if you ever read the ingredients of some household cleaners, you will not want them on your skin, even the "Eco-friendly" ones can be quite potent (think how much plain lemon juice stings when it goes in a cut), they will also protect against occasional abrasions from over-enthusiastic scrubbing (I prefer the ones *without* cotton flock lining, since they seem to give me a rash, but they tend to be harder to find). Also, you don't have to touch the icky dirt if you're wearing gloves!
3) Remove all clutter first - bin the rubbish, and remove all removable items to another room so that they will not get in the way of the deep cleaning. This can be an good time for hoarders to realise how much stuff they have and recycle lots of unnecessary bits of paper. Since today was the living room, and because "living" is literally what I do in there, this required shuffling piles of ironing that haven't quite been done into neat piles on the bed, and resolving to do them once the flat is tidy! If any of these items need cleaning or polishing, now is a good time to do them, so they don't bring dirt back in when returned.
4) Hoover... everything - sofas, tabletops (to prepare the way for dusting and polishing), the floor. Don't forget skirting boards and that 2 inches of carpet that no hoover seems to be able to reach with the ordinary floor hoovering head on.
5) Dust and polish furniture and other objects not previously removed, sweeping along with spray polish and a cloth, making sure that all remnants of polish are removed (they tend to accumulate at corners)
6) Remove fingerprints and dirty marks from walls, door handles, light switches, around light switches, anywhere else that they might appear. (I find spray polish and a cloth is the best way to tackle these marks!)
I like to combine 4)+5)+6) using a "divide and conquer" technique - dividing the room up into quadrants or thirds (depending on the size of the room), hoovering, dusting, polishing everything in that quadrant before moving on to the next.
7) Replace all previously removed items.
8) Admire the lovely clean room.
9)Realise you smell terrible, make a cup of tea and draw a lovely hot bath, retire to bath with tea and a good book.
If it all gets too much at any point, take a break, put your feet up, do something else for a few minutes and come back to it... No cleaning is worth that much stress!
Now this post has made me sound delightfully middle-aged, but there we go!
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