Soledad's Journal

I had to get up an hour earlier, so that I could prepare everything (including Mum's breakfast) before the chiropodist lady would arrive. It turned out, I could have slept in - she didn't arrive before 10.30am; by then I've made 9 more cellophane bags. She then worked on us for two and a half hours and talked us to death in the process. Especially Mum, as I escaped as soon as she was done with me to do the second half of the weekly shopping.

When I came home she was gone, but then I had to rearrange the living room to its usual configuration. Then I made the remaining little bags; now they are done and I've run out of cellophane. But I think 64 bags ought to be enough. *g*

No cooking was done today; we ate leftover soup and some sandwiches. Temperatures have dropped a few degrees - for now, tomorrow they'll start climbing again - but the invasion of the flying dinosaurs continues. When I went out today, the scenery reminded me of that Hitchcock movie with the birds - only with oversized insects instead.

Considering that the frigging beasts are supposed to be night-active, they were certainly swarming - literally swarming - all over the place the whole morning. They're still around, but since we keep the windows closed at this time of the day they can't get in now. A couple of them are still inside the flat; when I can I chase them out of the window, but last night I managed to kill two of them... that was very satisfactory. I don't know what happened. I've never seen so many of them, especially during the day, since we moved here almost fifty years ago.

Today, I was busy again. First, Mum and I made our weekly trip to the corner café. It took longer than usual because her knee was acting up, but we managed it nonetheless. We wouldn't miss this for the world, as long as the weather cooperates.

After that, I made some more cellophane bags. 16 pieces in just under two hours, to be accurate. I'm really getting the hang on this. 32 done, the other 32 to go - then I'll run out of cellophane. *g*

I didn't need to cook today (bought some goodies at the café and only made a Tütensuppe to go before them), so I gave one of the spicy apple jam with raisins recipes noadvertising suggested a try. Well, it was a bastardized version of the recipe by someone called Marion, as I replaced the orangeat with aromatised orange zests and left out the almonds completely, but so far the little jars look great. I just hope the lids will remain sealed after they have cooled down. *fingers crossed*

That about took care of the rest of the day. We also watched some telly, and are now lazing around - with all windows closed, unfortunately, to wear off an unexpected attack of huge Nachtfalter - no idea what they are called in English and why have they suddenly decided to invade our home, but I don't want the disgusting creatures around us. Annoying, though; it is the evening hours when we can actually air the flat, as we get direct sunshine all afternoon. *sigh*

I've found a YouTube video (see here about a quick and easy method to make paper gift bags. I'll need an ungodly amount of cellophane bags for my Christmas fair wares, so I gave it a try. Admittedly, cellophane is a lot harder to handle this way than wrapping paper, but I managed 9 bags nonetheless. 7 more are due tomorrow. All in all, I have the raw materials for 64 bags - that ought to be enough, I think. At least it's faster than weaving those little paper baskets... of which I'll also have to make a lot yet. And there are only five and a half months left till the fair. *sigh*

Other than that, I did the first half of the weekly shopping today. Aside from the groceries, I also bought myself two long, lightweight summer blouses and some underwear at Kik, since they had a 30% reduction in clothing prices, assuming one had a customer card. Which I have. So, that was really a bargain.

Temperatures were up to 30°C when I came home, sweating like a pig. As soon as I finally was at home, the wind started blowing and temperatures dropped eight degrees. Speak of lousy timing, eh? They promise rain for tomorrow - let's hope the balcony can withstand it. *fingers crossed* Otherwise, I don't mind the rain; it cools down the weather a bit and besides, I'm not planning to leave the house tomorrow. I'm still very, very tired from yesterday and from today's activities, plus the heat, so staying indoors sounds nice.

Now I'm up to 5 and have nearly run out of the 1 cm wide paper strips. I'll give the slightly wider - and delightfully patterned - ones a try next. Hopefully the design will work with them, too. *fingers crossed*

I skipped choir practice today (again). Had it been a regular one I'd have gone, considering that we have our term-closing concert on Sunday. But there was planned the good-bye "party" of our little diva, the soprano solist who presumably won't join us next term anymore and I just didn't have the time to waste for that. We'll have an extra practice on Friday, so I'll take part on that one. Yeah, I know I'm petty, so what's new?

Not much else happened. We ate leftovers, I fetched my alarm clock from the horologist and made a quick trip to Lidl for milk, yogurt and ice cream. As usual, they didn't have our favourite, the salted caramel one. From the brand we favour they only had walnut ice - huge staples of it. Their freezer is always full with walnut ice, I don't know why they keep ordering it as nobody seems to buy it. I bought strawberry flavoured Vienetta instead, but caramel ice would have been so much better. Or the coffee one. Ah, well.

The weather is warming up again. It was 27 degrees today but it felt more as the wind has stopped. I mean, I'm glad we can open the windows again without having to nail down everything first, but the heat is so not mine.

Not a very good one, admittedly, but at least a finished one. See here!

It started with throwing out the parts of the toilet roll one. I tried to make the fourth side but it went awry halfway into it and I just got really annoyed and tore up the whole thing and threw it into the recycling bin. It was a relief.

Then I haunted YouTube and found this video:



And suddenly I remembered all that quilling paper I had once taken over from a colleague for some still unfathomable reason, as it was clear that quilling would always be waaaaay beyond my modest skills. So I dug out and gave the simple design a try. I used the least decorative papers, just in case I'd have to throw it out, too; as you can see the colours are rather unspectacular. But I've managed the basket, and now I'll perhaps try it again, with the prettier paper stripes. Yay!

Other than that, I made lunch, we prepared a bit for tomorrow's cleaning and were dead for the rest of the day. It was 32 degrees again, and that's definitely more than one can bear without lots of ice cream and resting.

Note: I've just rewatched the vid and realized what was the mistake I made that caused my basket turn out differently. Well, I have plenty of paper left, I can give it several other tries.

... at the basket weaving. This time with the glue stick, which was slightly less frustrating. Not being wet, it certainly sped up the actual process (although the fact that I've finally figured out the pattern might have helped), but the result is every bit as lopsided as the first two attempts. Ah, well, I'll just continue and see how it turns out at the end.

Not much else happened. It was very hot - it's still 33 degrees outside and 26 degrees inside - so we lay as low as we could. Didn't cook. Postponed the leftovers for tomorrow, so that we didn't even have to switch on the kitchen hearth. Napped a lot. That sort of thing.

At least I managed to write down a few ideas for a future story that have been ghosting around inside my head for weeks. No idea if I'll ever use them, but at least I have them on paper. That's progress... sort of.

I've got up to 24 degrees in the morning. By the time Mum and I made our morning excursion (she admiring the toddlers on the playground, me hopping over to Lidl), it was 28 degrees - at half past ten in the morning, mind you! Currently, it's 31 degrees. We are sitting in the flat with blinds down and all windows firmly closed to keep the heat out. Ah, well, at least I didn't have to cook today!

Crafting-wise I've made one side of the little cardboard baskets. It was harder than I imagined. Part of the problem was that I can't for my life, cut things (even paper) in a straight line, so the individual strangs didn't fit as they should have. Another part of the problem was probably the wet glue that I used. I do own a hot glue gun, but... well, let's just say that the piping bag isn't the only thing I'm fairly hopeless with.

I'll try a different kind of wet glue tomorrow... and when that doesn't work, either, I'll switch to the glue stick - and to double-sided tape if nothing else helps. Those all have their own nasty tricks, so this promises to be a really interesting project (in the Chinese curse sense of "interesting"), and the four sides of the poor basket will probably turn out all different. But we all learn through pain, right? *g*

Lidl is having Greek days right now, so I've bought some frozen spinach and feta satchets, which we'll bake up in the oven as soon as temperatures go down a little. I've also bought halva with pistachios in it. I hope it will be better than the supposedly pistachio-flavoured ice-cream I bought on Friday and that tastes very artificially, almost like perfume. Grrrr. We had to pour eggnog over it, which is a waste of good alcohol, but what else could we have done?

Oh, and before I forget: congratulations, adafrog, to the 20th birthday of your journal! It seems we've all been on LJ for a considerable time. :)

at my little sewing kits, shall we?

This is what they look in the outside, with the lids closed.

And this is the inside, with the little pincushions and the reserve buttons.

I think they turned out cute enough. Not very professional but cute. I'm content with the outcome.

Not much else got done today. I cooked lunch, solved some crossword puzzles, we watched some TV and took our respective naps. My way-too-smart phone tried to make me believe that there were 23 degrees in the outside - well, it definitely didn't feel like that when I opened the windows. That stupid wind we've had for about two weeks by now makes even lifting the flat complicated. When I open the window, things start flying across the room! *Grrrrrrrrrr!*

Weather forecast promises rain for tomorrow. If the wind keeps this level, I see dark about the balcony. :(

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.

We had lovely sunshine, no wind and nice,warm-ish weather in the morning, so Mum and I decided to brave the great outdoors and have breakfast at our corner coffee. It went so well that I even bought some (yummy but overpriced) stuff for supper and tomorrow morning. The old homeless gentleman was sunbathing on his customary bench and greeted us in a friendly manner as always when he's not too drunk to recognize us. On our way back, when we rested a bit on our customary bench, an old student of mine showed up, and we chatted amiably for half an hour or so. It was really nice.

Coming home, we both had a lie-down (Mum did get a bit tired, since this was the first time she left the house ever since the weather turned so windy and cold), then a light lunch, then watched a bit of telly. By that time, it was raining in the outside. Fortunately, there wasn't any wind accompanying the rain, so it stayed outside where it was supposed to stay.

Mum then declared that it was time for the long overdue task of rearranging the lowest shelf of her wardrobe. So I took all the clothes out, placed them on my bed, where she could make new piles of them at her heart's desire. Then I put the new piles back onto the shelf. She was happy with the outcome, although she didn't find the things she was looking for. *g*

In the meantime I worked a bit more on my felt rest processing project. Finished all the blues and the greens - only the browns, greys and blacks are left, but I might postpone them for later and start decorating the little sewing kit boxes. We'll see.