Thursday 11 May 2023

Thursday 11th May - new skills, full to-do-list, chocolate o'clock,

The new skill I acquired today was how to unpick a whole line of my current cross stitching with scissors!!! I have avoided using scissors until now, but this time it was unavoidable. I did try to see if I could redo the chart for the remaining half - let me tell you it would have been far quicker to just accept the inevitable...

However, the various charts I tried did give me some more ideas so I am hoping that the result of exercising patience and self-control will result in a better finished piece. So far, so good, especially now I have removed the offending area!

Various things added themselves to the to-do list as the day went along; for example giving the back door mat a good clean. Why would one do that? Ah, therein lies a tale.

Personally, I always carry the entire compost caddy out to 'the worms' as we affectionately call the compost bin. We have switched to using brown paper bags for the kitchen waste as it decomposes better, and I don't trust them in the situation where the scraps and peelings are a bit soggy, just in case this


happens... which, as you can see, it DID happen. Those caddies hold a surprising amount of... gunk.

Another item added was the making of a cake; on Thursdays we now go to Waitrose armed with a shopping list provided by my father, and then take it round to his flat and sort through the fridge. This week there were two eggs left from the half dozen, but someone had put a plastic milk bottle on its side above the egg box which had almost disintegrated. We dealt the the puddle, and swapped the eggs over and took the two old ones home. Rather than have eggs which had been soaked in milk hanging around, we made a cake...

Air fryer sponge cake

Make an ordinary 2-egg victoria sponge type recipe (2 eggs, 4oz each sugar, butter, SR flour - maybe a little more flour, in which case add a little milk or coffee essence). Combine - I do 'all-in-one' method, and bake in a suitable container for 23mins at 160C - at least that's what our air fryer needs. Coffee cake for elevenses tomorrow.


Chocolate o'clock has got out of hand. It seems to be happening twice a day! But I have reduced the size of my potion from 4 squares back down to one. Mostly. Quite often. 

 

    

2 comments:

  1. I use a Stitch Unpicker(aka Seam Ripper) on the BACK of the canvas. I find it easier to manipulate than scissors. If I'm unpicking 3 or 4 stitches, I just do it "manually" fossicking about with my needle. But if I need to unpick more, then the resulting liberated thread is usually in no fit state to be stitched again, so I might as well remove it in small sections.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the advice! I do have a seam ripper somewhere, but the little pointy scissors were to hand and did the job this time. Phew. I'm always scared of going through the fabric.

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