Soledad's Journal

Firstly, take a look at my spicy apple jam:
https://hu.pinterest.com/pin/341640321752906331/

That, unfortunately, ended up as a jar of jelly babies. I was worried that it might remain too liquid and have overdone the gelatine. But they have a fantastic flavour, and kids love fruit gums anyway, so I'll sell them as such, I think. *g*

Also, I made 16 more cellophane bags. 48 are done, 16 more to go, and then I can move on to filling the lavender sachets. I'm trying to get done as much as I can well in advance. Five months are left till the fair which, considering the amount of work before me, that's not much time. No, really, it isn't!

Otherwise, we had a quiet day. Temperatures skyrocketed unexpectedly, so I postponed the grocery shopping for tomorrow. In the early morning it will be less painful; and besides, they promise a mild cold(er) front for Friday. We'll see. Considering that we're going to have a visit from our talkative chiropodist lady, cooler weather would be welcome.

My friend Elise called today - she's coming over on Saturday, bringing dill and rosemary from her garden. I'll put them into the freezer, as they'll be used for the spiced oil and salad vinegar respectively, which I'm also planning to make for the fair. But those can't be made any sooner than a couple of weeks before selling, so the ingredients have to keep somehow.

Does anyone have an idea how to best freeze them? In boxes or in plastic bags?

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.

... with the basket weaving. I've used a different wet glue. The work itself went a tiny bit better, but the glue soaked through the cardboard and the weave ended up every bit as lopsided as at the first time. Next try: the glue stick. This promises to be a frustrating project, I'm afraid.

Otherwise it was a quiet day - quite warm, too, so we got up earlier than usual to go to our beloved corner café while temperatures were still bearable. The former student of mine who's a fruit vendor was out with his booth and sold excellent strawberries, so I went over and bought some. They weren't cheap, but they are delicious and ripe and Mum loved them.

We then came home and joined forces making lunch: I boiled and peeled the potatoes and the eggs and Mum put together the potato casserole. Then my friend Elise came to fetch her cookies, after which Mum and I both had a nice, long nap. Until it was time to watch re-runs of the GBBO. And now it's nighttime again... but still quite warm. Phew!

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. :)

I've finished and boxed everything; Elise can come and fetch her cookies any time she can. Our batches are boxed, too, although we sampled them to our afternoon coffee; just to check the quality, of course. ;)) I also made the cheesy scones, which we promptly had for lunch, since they are the best when they come fresh from the oven. That means two cooking-free days for me, as we still have a big heap of Shepherd's Pie in the fridge.

We also had laundry day, like every Saturday, and I took Mum out to the playground next to our building, where she amused herself with watching the toddlers while I hopped over to Lidl for a bit of shopping. After that, I discovered a woman selling local strawberries near the supermarket. They were quite price-y, but huge, ripe, and actually tasted like strawberries, so I bought half a kilo for twice the price they would have cost at Lidl. Mum judged that they were well worth the price, so I might do it again, should the woman still be there.

I've also done some preparations for tomorrow's (half)-cleaning frenzy that will include the bath, the loo, the kitchen, the anteroom and the balcony. Gah, I so hate cleaning! But it must be, especially after having liberally coated the kitchen in floor, icing sugar and other baking ingredients for three days in a row.

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.

It is still fairly cold. We had 13 degrees in the outside today, and very few sunlit hours: not enough to warm up the balcony through the big windows. So I baked potatoes in the oven and warmed up yesterday's Topfenstrudel there. Alas, the warming effect didn't last. Those insulation ads that state you can warm up your entire flat with one hot bath or one hour of ironing are definitely lying.

At least I got out to Lidl in the morning - moving around always helps. Raspberries were reduced in price, which is always a reason to go. We both love raspberries, and Mum can eat them as they are, without cutting up or pureeing, like with other fruits.

Cooking took care for the rest of the morning and the early afternoon. Then I cut out some more felt shapes for later use, solved a few crossword puzzles (wrapped into an extra warm plaid) and we watched the finals of The Great Canadian Baking show. With that, the day was basically over. I've tried to further catch up with my marked YouTube videos (almost done, but of course tomorrow there will be more of those snowing in) and still haven't given up on the possibility of transcribing a bit more of my private, smutty ST-TNG AU. We'll see if I'll succeed.

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.