Where did it all go Wong......

Perhaps it was the water not being the right temperature. Perhaps it was the 6 sachets of gelatine I used instead of the instructed 3. Perhaps it was James Wong, scientist and gardener, who has made "Growing Your Own Drugs" look so easy.

My horse chestnut tincture, which has been fermenting in rum (oops I forgot which bottle was vodka and which was rum) since October. The recipe called for crushing the horse chestnuts. Fat chance of that.....have you ever tried crushing one of them?! I decided the let them stew wholesale and it turned the booze a charming brown colour (apologies for the dark picture it was a dull day when I took these)

Heat the water, add gelatine and tincture and whisk, whisk, whisk. Yes that is a Nutella Jar, I am confident I won't have remembering that this is not edible. Seems to be an awful lot of foam......

To this. What looks like the dregs of a pint of bitter. Not to mention it is rock solid. That will be the extra gelatine I added. Oops. Not sure this is something I will attempt again, the tincture gave me the most horrendous headache. Didn't you know fermented horse chestnuts smell decidely awful.
So this foray into the world of home made beauty products (this was for varicose veins in case you were wondering) has been a total disaster. Perhaps I shall stick to what I know best, feeding my stomach rather than my skin.


Apologies for the lack of blogging lately. Time has been running away from me and if I am honest I haven't really done anything worth blogging about.
Future blogging may either be somewhat erratic as this coming Saturday heralds the arrival of one of these

This is not the acutal one.....what breeder has time for posing puppies in front of a white screen for photo shoots.
I am likely to turn into a puppy bore. You have been warned ;)

Work in Progress.

I really don't know where the time goes to each day but over this scorching weekend I tackled a couple of things soon to be deemed the dreaded "work in progress".

A trip to local park with the pups yielded a significant amount of horse chestnuts. I've been slowly collecting what I could of these in order to create a horse chestnut tincture.
What? you may ask. Well as much as I dearly love my beloved pups they have kind of left the body in a less than perfect condition, variocose veins rule. So having borrowed a copy of James Wong's Grow Your Own Drugs from local library I was intrigued to find a recipe for varicose veins. You can buy creams online which contain horse chestnut extract for this very thing but why pay when you can forage for free.

Horse chestnut vodka anyone? Not for internal use. I am soaking the horse chestnuts and will blitz them in the food processor in a couple of days. It won't be a cheaper remedy if it knackers my kitchen equipment in the process. Once blitzed it needs to be left for a month and then the final step of the process can be started.

If you ever wondered what happens when you park a hot scooter exhaust near a brand new, unused tent kept in the garage.....well this it it. Well actually it's not just it as there is another dinner plate sized hole in the ground sheet along with a number of smaller holes in outer fly sheet. So in the heat of the weekend I decided to take the plunge and wrestle the tent into it's upright position. I now have a long list of various sized holes which now need to be repaired. That calls for a trip to the not so local camping shop to buy the tools required. Here's hoping the repairs won't cost as much the tent did in the beginning.

 And finally (said in the style of Trevor MacDonald). It was Pup1's birthday a few days ago. Is this the perfect present? Galaxy Marble Run........contains everything a small pup could wish for.....marbles, a theme suited to his special interest of everything space, flashing lights, intricate twists and turns. Hubby and I spent ALL day (I kid you not) putting this hideous present together in our sweltering hot lounge. It didn't work properly once errected (the instructions required a degree in engineering to read....OK slight exaggeration but they were a pig to read) and appeared to be the biggest let down of all. So much so the following morning Pup1 dismantled the entire thing.
Disappointed? I was so gutted I could have cried. Next time I think something is the perfect present I shall think twice.

Mad dogs and Englishmen.......

......go out in the midday sun. And start knitting scarves in July!
I admit I think I am coming to the Rico CanCan wool hype a wee bit late but then again that's me half the time......10 steps behind everyone else. However in my defence mention anything "knitting" and my eyes glaze over and my body starts to shut down. It's to protect me after the horror that was learning to knit when I was a kid <shudders>
I can't remember what got me talking about this wool with my mum and she had no idea what I was waffling on about.
Then comes Youtube. It's one of my favourite places, where Pup1 can lose himself in oodles of space videos, where Hubby and I can take a trip down memory lane revisiting the excellent cartoons of our childhood. It was also where I found a really good video on how to knit with this wool.

I was amazed. It seemed so......easy! This is a big revelation to me considering how phobic I was about knitting. I mean it didn't require anything special other than a pair of needles and a ball of Can Can wool. No need for patterns, knit one, purl one etc.
So at the very next opportunity my mum managed to purchase a ball and so began my foray into the world of easy knitting.

Sorry the pic is a bit dark, it was taken in the evening. At least with bright coloured needles like that I should be able to see what I am doing at dusk!

WIP aka Work in Progress.

Good job it's not needed til Winter as at this rate it will take me that long to get it finished. I also have a ball of pink/maroon yarn to get started on too! Why oh why do I start more projects when I still have to get cracking on making my maxi dress and the high viz vests for the kids.......procrastinate much? Do any of you have any work in progress?

I am rather excited to have now 9 followers and to all of you who lurk and just look don't be shy :)

On a mission.....

So me and hubby have come to a conclusion that we've got too much stuff. Or too little proper storage space. Or plenty of storage space inefficiently organised. Anyway discussions started today about the dreaded C word. Yes I mean Clutter. I don't think we are ever going to be the type of people who would live in an Ikea, minimalist environment (we have the pups for a start and their stuff alone prevents minimalist living!) and besides I do like my nik naks.
So being the anally retentive type I've been looking on the web for best ways to declutter. They all pretty much say the same thing. Get started in one area. Don't try to do it all at once or you'll get disheartened. Not terribly inspiring. I was kinda hoping for a magic principle that would allow the clutter to vanish at the flick of Harry Potter's wand but apparantly this is going to have to sorted, room at a time, drawer by drawer. Depressing. I think along with the bin bags, boxes and marker pens I am going to need a masseuse on stand by and something very large and alcoholic.
One of my biggest problems is I like visual reminders. So for example all the clutter that sits on top of the bread bin is there to remind me to do something with it. Either a party invite that needs dealing with or some letter from school that requires some action or it's something I want to keep but have yet to find a home for. So it gets stuffed ontop of the bread bin and I rifle through the paperwork every other day. I'll admit it's a system that works but lets be honest, it makes the kitchen look a tip.
Then there is the thorny issue of recycling. A friend once said I was going to save the world via recycling as I am erm rather passionate about recycling everything. To my hubby its a PITA as the recycling hangs around the kitchen before being put in the appropriate box. The problem is my local council won't take everything. If I want to recycle things like Tetra packs I have to take them separately to a single recycling bank near my local town. This means these items have to be separated and put in the garage until there is enough to warrant a car trip. This means then the garage looks cluttered. It's a vicious circle. But then if I am honest some of the recycling hangs around because I haven't "got around" to putting it where it needs to be.

In an effort to show what I am talking about here is the latest pile of paper to go out in the recycling box. I mean I only have to go out the back door and walk round the back of the house but I am yet to do it. I've walked past this pile all day and still not moved it. I think sometimes this clutter becomes invisible as I see it so much and I forget how good the kitchen can look when it's not piled high with crap.

So a few things need to change. Not point adding more clutter to our existing clutter so our new mantra will be "If you get it out you put it back where you got it from".
Then I shall work on dealing with the paperwork as soon as it arrives. This means filing it if it's just for information, answering any necessary items promptly and then filing said items in the correct place. Anything else gets recycled. All this BEFORE we even get started on the clutter upstairs. This feels like firefighting.........no wonder Flylady refer to these clutter places as Hot Spots!

So if anyone has any helpful suggestions on how you deal with your clutter or indeed how to wade through a hovel full of stuff please let me know. In the meantime I shall endeavour to do battle with the monster that threatens to devour the house at times, one hot spot at a time.