Soledad's Journal

Well, actually the crap wasn't so much... or too bad. Just the same.

I went to the Savoy Park (mini) shopping centre in the morning. Visits to Pepco, Kik and Tedi were overdue. I also tried to get my hands on some peppermint essence, but neither the bio-shop nor the herb shop had it. They only had this oil you can burn to scent the air - not exactly suited for baking. I'll have to find some place where they sell baking ingredients, I guess, since online shopping is beyond my modest abilities.

In any case, Tedi had reduced the price of several items (mostly lace borders and the likes), so I bought a heap of them "for later". (I really need to sort my craft supplies; I'm fairly sure there are dozens of items I've bought twice or three times already.) But the big catch was at Kik. They had reduced kitchen utensils, and I found a wonderful, non-stick, expandable baking sheet for the equivalent of one Euro. Due to my Kik card I get a further bonus, so that it was actually very, very cheap. I hope it will work out well nonetheless when I start my baking commission next week.

Other than that, not much happened. I took a one-day break from crafting, we ate leftovers for lunch and I talked to H. and to my friend Evie on the phone. Stupid Paprika TV turned their programme upside down, so that the GBBO re-runs now come an hour later, fracturing my evenings even more. But that can't be helped.

Happy Birthday, sallymn!



I hope you had a fabulous time!

Not much happening over here. We're still freezing, at least in the mornings. The afternoons are somewhat more bearable, as we've got direct sunshine all afternoon, and that does help a bit, despite the constant wind. I did a bit more crafting - half the decorative stripes are done, six more to go. Otherwise, we had leftovers, watched TV, did the washing (well, Louise did) and generally lazed around. We are both terribly unmotivated due to this stupid weather.

I did the grocery shopping in the morning. Meaning that first I took down the bags to the selective bin, then took the empty plastic bottles to the recycling machine, then did the actual shopping. As a result, we had a very late brunch and skipped the midday meal in favour of an early afternoon coffee because we really wasn't hungry yet. On the up side that also meant that we had a healthy appetite for an early supper. *g*

After having our coffee Mum and I decided to put the nice and warm weather to good use and walked around our huge block of flats. Which was a good idea, since it's raining again now. Fingers are crossed that the water stays outside the balcony this time.

In the early evening, social life was had. First we had a video chat via Viber with H - poor woman had her pacemaker replaced today and apparently, it was neither a short procedure nor a pain-free one. Now Mum is worried what it will be like when her will be ripe for replacing. Since it won't happen in at least seven more years, I chose not to worry about it just yet. Especially as - unlike H - she doesn't even remember the original procedure; they'd probably sedated her quite heavily.

I also talked two friends/colleagues on the phone: Erna, our art teacher, and Elise, she of the five grandkids. I accepted a commission from Elise: to bake two sorts of biscuits for the upcoming birthday of her hubby (in early June). She provides the ingredients, I'll do the baking. It's a win-win situation, since she's permanently overworked and I love to bake.

And that was it, basically, save for a short nap. Originally, I had planned some minor crafting, but decided that tomorrow will be soon enough.

Happy birthday, dear mirasaui!



I hope it was a lovely, peaceful one, despite everything life has thrown at you recently. *hugs*

We had a quiet day. I hadn't slept well and was tired all day, so didn't get done much. Small household tasks, some telly, a bit of craft preps, some crossword puzzles. I even skipped choir practice - again. The odd fact is, I find it increasingly hard to leave the house in the afternoon. I have no problem hopping around the shops all morning, but the afternoon... that's a different cup of espresso. The afternoon is for naps, for telly - that sort of thing. I'll try to be less lazy next week. After all, choir practice is fun... most of the time.

... although today I was busy enough to keep myself warm. I've done the second half of the big cleaning - mostly hoovering and dusting, but for that, I needed to move the furniture around every five minutes, so it was really tiring. After that, I cooked lunch - Blumenkohlauflauf (sorry, noadvertising), which enabled me to switch the oven on, and we ate in the nice, warm kitchen.

I was accordingly tired in the afternoon, so we watched some telly, I took a nap, and used the chance to go online a bit earlier, to print out a few cookie recipes. Tomorrow will see my premiere with the piping bag (never used it before) on Mary Berry's Viennese whirls. Wish me luck.

Nothing creative got done today. But there's always tomorrow.

I got up in the morning, took a glance at my way-too-smart phone, which told me that it was 10 degrees outside. Thanks the insulation work (that killed my satellite TV a few years ago), twice as much was it inside, but still not enough for us to be really comfortable. So I switched on the oven right after taking a shower and made a Topfenstrudel. The kitchen got nice and toasty in the process, so we decided to have our breakfast there, instead of in front of the TV in the living room. Mum especially basked in the warmth.

Alas, it didn't last long. As soon as the oven was switched off, temperatures started dropping again. Currently, we have 21 degrees in the living room, which is nice as long as one is moving around constantly. Sitting in one place... not so much. Especially for old people whose circulation isn't the best to begin with. So, we are back to double layers of clothing and plaids over the knees... that sort of thing. In mid-Mai!

Anyway, we didn't do much afterwards. I made a Tütensuppe to go before the Topfenstrudel (after having a nap), and then continued processing my felt rests. Added small flower and leaf shapes to the geometric ones for more variety. This will take some time yet, considering how many felt rests they are, but I can do the cutting out in front of the telly, too, so I hope I'll have several boxes of such small parts eventually. After that, the actual decorating can begin.

Not having much else to do, I had an extra online session in the afternoon, catching up with the lined up YouTube videos I wanted to watch. That is success, too, right? *g*

Well, I didn't go to my craft shops today, after all. I fetched Mum's medicine (sans one, which they have to order and will be there tomorrow), fetched my altered clothes from the steamstress, bought us some yummy croissants from the corner café for a late breakfast - and then decided to stay at home and sleep for almost two hours.

This proved to be the right decision, as I felt almost human again afterwards and could bring up the energy and determination to do some prep work for my current craft project. I brought out my felt rests (the really tiny ones) and cut out dozens upon dozens of felt circles - in various sizes - that I intend to use later for decorating the little sewing kits. Well, some of them; the rest I'll put into a box for later use. It's always helpful when one has various shapes of felt or paper made in advance.

Not much else happened today. We had leftover soup and ate sandwiches with it; that way I won't have to cook tomorrow (leftover stir-fry from yesterday will make an appearance) and so can browse my shops in peace.

I did half of the big cleaning today: kitchen, bathroom, loo, balcony and anteroom. In times like this, when I don't have any help, it's particularly time-consuming, as I can't put things (we are speaking of furniture and sixpacks of 1.5l mineral water) back in their places in one room while someone else cleans the other one. It's a depressing routine: empty one room enough to actually reach the corners and the dirt, wait until the floor dries (we've got PVC floors in all the abovementioned rooms, so they need to be mopped), put things back in their places, move on to the next room, rinse and repeat.

Still, it is a relief to be done this far; only the living room and the two bedrooms (one of which is actually my study/craft room) are to do next week. Of course, those rooms are the worst, right after the balcony: so many things have to be moved for the cleaning to be properly done. But it can't be helped.

I also cooked lunch today: asparagus with ham and ready-made Sauce Hollandaise, bought in a box from Aldi. I'm not sure it's such a big thing (I mean the sauce) as I heard people talk about it. For me, a simple cheese bechamel sauce would do just as nicely and cost much less, not to mention I can put it together in under ten minutes or so. Lesson learned, I won't buy the stuff ever again.

Me-time was understandably limited today. But I did finish one small task on the sewing kit decoration (it basically means gluing together a smaller and a larger circle of felt with textile glue, 12 times), so that's progress.

And now I intend to continue typing up a short, smutty piece of very AU TNG fic that I wrote for my own amusement months ago. It might never be published anywhere else than on otherworlds_lib, but it was fun to write and I, dirty old lady as I am, like it. *g*

Happy Birthday, dear adafrog! To quote the Ninth Doctor, I hope it was a fantastic one!

Here, have an assorted choice of virtual calories:



As for us, we had a quiet day again. I did the grocery shopping in the morning, then we continued the kitchen project (mostly involving Mum washing up rarely used things and me putting them back in their places), watched some telly and rested a bit in-between the various tasks.

The weather is still a bit cold, so I heated up some Zwiebelkuchen from the freezer to create a more pleasant temperature. Other than that, not much happened. Nothing on the creative front in any case. I don't mind, though. I had worked really hard on the little sewing kits; taking a break before I start decorating the actual boxes will do me good.

My world class strawberries have arrived today. Take a look and prepare to be envious:



That about took care of supper; we might have sampled a bit too many of them. Fortunately, we won't go to bed before midnight (or way after, in my case), so hopefully they'll settle by then.

( Craftiness )

( Housework )

( Frigging Pinterest )

So, this was basically our day. Tomorrow I'll have to cook something again; considering how ripe the strawberries are, I might have to make a strawberry cheesecake or a trifle or whatnot. We'll see.