Morecambe

2010-02-07T02:05:45+00:00

I've decided to bead and backstitch as I go, otherwise I might finish the stitching and then put off the beading for ten years like I did on Sleeping Beauty

This is a close up of her face. The little square gaps are where some larger beads will go. I haven't added the background beads, I will do those at the end (or not!). It's annoying that the camera isn't taking a true colour picture. The fabric is actually quite blue, but looks green or grey on the moniter.

This evening I rolled the fabric and did a load of gridding and am looking forward to starting on her dress.

Mirabilia's Christmas Flourishes

2010-01-25T07:42:22+00:00

Since I set my magnifying lamp up, stitching has progressed considerably.

Before, and then about a five year gap.

Present day.

What she will eventually look like

Snow in the garden

2010-01-10T02:04:07+00:00

We had a white Christmas and I got some stitching done.

Transferring photos to a digital photo frame

2009-12-30T02:01:45+00:00

Have you come across the problem of photos that will not transfer onto your memory card, so that you can put them into your digital photo frame? How infuriating is that error message? Well, I have done battle with my daughter’s digital photo frame and arrived at a solution, which worked for me. I re-formatted the memory card from “FAT” to “FAT32” and the photos trundled onto it in their thousands. I offer this solution to those of you who may have been tearing their hair out over similar Christmas gifts. You may also wonder why you can’t get your own music to play on the digital frame, it is because you may need to convert it to mp3, if it is from your itunes it will be in mpeg4. I didn’t bother downloading a converter tool, just changed the settings on itunes to import as mp3, ripped a cd and put the songs on the memory card and thus the frame. If you follow these tips, one, remember that re-formatting a memory card erases anything already on it and two, remember to put your itunes importing option back to your preference. My Daughter thinks I am a genius, though she's not too chuffed with my choice of test music.

Eeyore Bookmark

2009-11-02T02:59:49+00:00

Finished this a few days ago and sent it to my Goodreads friend in Sweden.

Nintendo DS 100 classic book collection

2009-10-03T15:22:51+01:00

I recently purchased the Nintendo DS 100 classic book collection, mainly for reading at the hairdressers and such like. There is a hilarious article about it at EuroGamer.

For anyone that's interested, there is a list of books included, at Wikipedia, and I have added them all to my Goodreads "nintendo" shelf. I discovered that I had already read about 26 of them. Only 74 to go.

Jane Austen Quiz

2009-07-30T16:55:25+01:00

Take the Quiz here!

The Mist

2009-05-26T00:19:43+01:00

We watched The Mist on Sky and enjoyed scaring each other and larking about pretending to be pulled out of the room by an unseen monster etc. Unfortunately, during the early hours of this morning, a local factory caught fire and a helicopter swooped over the houses telling everyone to close windows and doors and remain inside. Of course, at the time, we did not know about the factory fire, only the scary helicopter. On looking out of the window we could see a dark patch in the night sky which of course we now know was smoke; even at the time we knew, logically, that it was smoke really but with the film fresh in our minds our eyes were on stalks. My Daughter was convinced that we should plug any little cracks in case "whatever it was" should seep in, her imagination heightened by the film. Whenever I went near the window to hear the helicopter message better she would shriek "don't open it, it might be toxic". A sensible assumption, but I had no intention of flinging open all the windows in the middle of the night. At one point she suggested we go and look for a gas mask that she has seen in the attic. Where the hec she spotted that and why the hec it is up there I don't know but she was quite hopeful that I would go and look for it. How we would have shared it between three if us if by some fluke of luck I had found it, who knows. Her Dad had long since gone back to bed by that point so maybe he would have dipped out on his turn at the gas mask. She had to content herself with holding her dressing gown across her face as if it was made of some special filtering material. To try and allay her fears I turned on the news which was a big mistake as it was all about Korea and nuclear testing and as her geographical knowledge extends about as far as Preston she put two and two together and made 8000, aka the approximate distance between here and Seoul. I suggested that they wouldn't be chatting about football,healthy eating and Susan Boyle if we were in any danger but she declared that Morecambe would take second place to any of that as they were "all Southern". As daylight came and a sweep of the internet produced no local news she then decided that the birds were not singing and this was a sure sign that the air was toxic. Fortunately a cat could be seen strolling unconcernedly across the road, and she couldn't hear any birds because she was as far away from any windows as possible. Daylight also brought some sanity and we eventually went to bed at 6.30, vowing not to watch any horror films for a long time, and the odd grumble that the helicopter should come back and say if you can go out or not! When she got up at lunch time and found me digging in the garden she demanded "how do you know it's safe to go out!" as the smells of various neighbours barbecues wafted across the garden and the bowling green announcements punctuated the whir of flymos.

Speed Cleaning

2009-04-09T09:32:57+01:00

I recently picked up a copy of Speed Cleaning by Shannon Lush and Jennifer Fleming.Some good tips in here but as I have read a few housekeeping type books and organising books, there was nothing new, to me, about the routines. There are lots of tips on what to get things clean with and how and general advice, and it’s not just the same advice as in other books. For example, I had not come across the advice to spray door frames with lavender oil to deter flies, which, should the cat ever stop earning her keep and catching them, I will keep in mind. The two sponge technique was a revelation. Lots of books and recommend bicarb and vinegar for environmentally friendly cleaning and many supermarket products now tout bicarb as an ingredient but I knew that for the best effectiveness they needed to be brought together at the same time to fizz and the two sponge technique accomplishes this. I hadn’t really given much thought before I ordered it to the fact that it was published in Australia and thus the heavy emphasis on insects and pests. I was quite startled to read about some of the “common” kitchen pests, bugs in the linen and putting snake poo in the corners of your rooms to deter mice. I now feel very lucky that I don’t have to cope with cockroaches and armies of ants as a matter of routine, and spiders webs that can short out your light bulb, crikey. As a bit of an aside, I notice that in this and just about every household management book I’ve read they say “wash your towels once a week”. Now, does this mean save them up and do a massive towel wash or, and I think this is the true meaning, are they implying that a towel can last a week without washing. I come across this again and again and have even heard the argument that a towel doesn’t really get dirty, just wet but surely a wet towel attracts bacteria. I can’t imagine my family drying themselves on day seven with towels that have been wet and air dried over and over for a week. Maybe it’s just our family and excessive towel use but I do a towel wash at least every other day. I intend to publish this review on my blog, not just Goodreads, hence the harping on about towels in the hope it provokes a few comments and thus an insight into other people’s towel habits.

Coupon Clipping

2009-02-22T00:41:46+00:00

My goodness, Jamie is organized about her money off vouchers. We have a little space behind a storage jar where we tuck the odd voucher for £1.50 off at Tesco, which can be redeemed as long as you spend £50 on apples on the second day of the seventh month between 10am and 10.30am wearing odd socks and a rose behind your ear. Naturally by the time we come to use the coupon it is out of date. Recently, and guiltily, I have been circumvening the incubation phase behind the storage jar and just throwing them straight into the recycle box. Occasionally I actually put them in my purse, thus giving them a little tour of Morecambe and surrounding districts for a couple of months before finding them to be out of date and throwing them into the recycle box.

This is a part of Jamie's system. My storage jars are chortling at the idea of me squeezing that lot behind them.