Baking Cupboard of shame

How do folks! Happy Saturday! 

I've been out to a vair posh garden centre emporium today and mentally spent £43000 on plants, trees, statues and a new companion seat; I'm now saving up for said seat.  I want it. 

I did actually keep the localish economy afloat by buying a wee little wire mesh cage in the shape of a bunny. I'm going to try my hand at a bit more topiary! I say a bit more. My bay tree I did by myself - it's a huge ball standard now. We got it when the uni one was still in the pram. It was barely as tall as a Sindy doll.  I pulled all the lower branches off systematically till I was satisfied! A similar sized one today was on sale for FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS! I should sell it - then I could afford the new seat!! However, where would next doors effing cat hide when it's stalking my garden pet birds? 

Well HA! I have thought of a solution. I have a holly tree which I will prune and then staple the prunings to the top of my fence where it jumps up into the tree from. I don't think the sparrows will mind.

 

 So the baking cupboard of shame. I keep my dried food stuffs in here. I tidied it out properly at Christmas but since then I've shoved stuff in willy nilly. I've this double cupboard for drieds. A double wall cupboard for my cake things and two more base doubles where I keep my baking tins. I've so much stuff I've accumulated through the years but it's all tidied away and I've no plans to get rid! 

But before.... Note the floor - I dropped a bag of bread crusts meant for the freezer and they went everywhere! 

 

And after - fully emptied and wiped out 

I can now see where everything is! That stainless bowl is new and I've not found it a permanent home yet. It doesn't stack neatly in my crockery bowls! 

My favourite thing though is this spice rack we bought from Amazon and the HG screwed it into the cupboard door. I'm a bit addicted to sprinkles. Or the buying of!  I keep my flavourings and other cakey bits n bobs here too! 

What you having for tea? We are having 

Chicken curry served with chips which will be made in the Actifry my BOSS lent me to try before I buy. WHAT IF I BREAK IT?!!! Keep your fingers crossed it survives! I didn't ask my boss to borrow it. We were simply chatting about kitchen gadgets and the Actifry came up. The next day she found me and told me she'd brought it in!! 

It's lovely and sunny here today. Hoping for warm sun tomorrow for my rabbity trimming antics! Before and after photos will be taken!! 

Love from

Rachel *scissor hands* Radiostar

Xxx

Ps 

Tea photos! 

CHIPS HAPPENING! - they were delicious. Think I may invest! I'd not buy oven chips ever again. 

One of the best Coconut Chicken Curries I've ever made. Utterly Scrumdiddlyumptuous! 

Quick recipe 

I used half a jar of SAINSBURY's Thai red curry paste. 

I sizzled this in a spoon of hot oil for two

Minutes. Added a tin of full fat coconut milk ( so slightly deviating away from the Hairy Bikers' Dieters' recipe I normally use ) then added two chopped chicken breasts, then a sliced onion and pepper is fried earlier and simmered for ten mi Utes. I added a good glug of fish sauce ( napalm I calls it - though I think that's an explosive?!! ) and a handful of torn coriander leaves before serving. Yum yum! 

Slightly less lazy......tackling the grime one lunchtime at a time!

Well, I did come home and change my bed on Monday lunchtime. Instead of just sitting on my backside doing nothing! I was at work till 7.30pm being trained. Trained to deal with the cherubs I work with. So when I got home, after having something to eat and drink, it was very blissful getting into a nice clean bed. The bonus being enclosed/encased/snuggled in flannelette. I call them my 'fluffy' sheets. I got them from the old Mill of Dunhelm last year. If pushed, I'd go as far to say this purchase was my. Best. One. Ever. In. The. Whole. Wide. World. I do not have a working radiator in my bedroom and it does get a tad chilly. I do have a fully operational beautiful coal fire, however it's stuffed full of teddies right now and it's alarmingly close to the bed!  There's also an old pillow stuffed up it to try and eliminate draughts! ( I'd take a photo to show you but it needs de cluttering! ) Oh bugger it, here's my beautiful original fireplace ( LOOK AT THE DUST ) - there was an even nicer one downstairs, but the HG's Gran had it ripped out in the 1930s to replace it with a highly fashionable beige tiled fire surround! The teddies you see are what I've been bought through the years by my Children. BC ( Before Children ) I'd matched the flowers and colours in the tiles with dried flowers  shoved into oasis - what??? Don't judge me. It was the early 1990s....EVERYONE had dried flower arrangements. But then the Uni one arrived. Started crawling. And systematically ripped out my lovely arrangement. It would seem she had better taste than me!! The empty box just needs moving for recycling. I've been taking it downstairs everyday for a week... ( lazy ) and the carrier bags are full of wool! 

 

On the bed is my fully Flannelette duvet cover. It is just to die for. I do not care about what things look like- it's pale blue, my room is pale blue. However, im sure there is a market for a beautiful Duvet cover on the top.......but with a flannelette underside! Sliding into flannelette is like climbing onto your Nanna's lap for a cuddle, when you were about five. It envelops you with warmth and comfort! You do not get that 'OMG it's chuffing cold' feeling when you park your body on a normal cotton sheet that's freezing! 

This post was not originally going to be about my Fluffy Sheet Fetish, it just evolved! 

Here, have a closer look at a 110ish year old tile! 

Yesterday, before work, I emptied the dishwasher and set off another load of washing. At lunchtime ( my lunch break is 12.10 -1.00pm I came home ( arriving about 12.15 ), I peeled the spuds for the Sausage, Mash and Beans tea and I swept the floor. ( I set off back to work at 12.55, I can make the bell if it's as late as 12.57 ). 

Last night I finished work at 5.30 like normal, although we did get an 'early' finish as the last Night Owl was collected at 5.20pm. 

There was no Karate run with the Teen, but the HG did need to put fuel in his workvan ( how cheap is the fuel these days!!! £50 certainly fills the tank a bit more ) 

So....the real thing I was actually going to post about ....( finally ) 

I called at The Burys of Sains supermarket for milk - Yes I know, how did I use the £90 quids worth I bought last time - and I got these bargain cherries! I loves cherries. I bought two punnets. With hindsight I should have bought them all and made Cherry Jam. But I didn't. Healthy snacks for me for the next few days. Such luxury!! 

Today, at lunchtime, I will hoover the stairs. Tackling my laziness and filthy house one lunchtime at a time! I have just dusted that fireplace by the way. Best try and prize myself out of my fluffy sheets and into my work clothes now, else I'll be late!! 

Again a waffley old post of nothingness- I do claim to write about my none adventures! I can not be done under Trades Descriptions! 

What do you get up to in your lunch break? 

Love From 

Rachel *flannelette* Radiostar xxx

Recovering Lazeaholic

Well, yesterday as you may know, it took me an age to get my wriggle into gear. However I did ' TV Tidying' which is a distant relation to my favourite pre Sky plus box activity of Advert Tidying. 

My kitchen floor was decidedly grotty. The 'Bags for Life' corner was getting out of hand. Yes, they do have their own corner of the kitchen, there's that many of them. Seriously, I'm never going to live long enough to even use them all.  

They were evicted. The Hoover tools came out and removed possible Spider activity. The grout was actifizzed and then an episode of Lost was watched. 

Then more actifizz was applied and the whole area scrubbed with a brush! I then mopped with scalding hot water. Came up like new. Of course I had to go watch some more Lost, as I couldn't get to the washer or dryer because the floor was wet! 

The lounge was cleaned and dusted. Barry the budgie, here for the weekend was cleaned. Barry and me had some bonding time. 

Then I had an energy burst. A brief one. 

The Fire was cleaned and laid. Hall, Lounge  AND Dining room hoovered. Kitchen was still a midden but I deserved a rest with a Victoria Wood documentary and a packet of plain hula hoops. 

Then, as I actually had the house to myself for the first time in forever, I could actually watch 

CHRISTMAS Downton. 

Oh it was just perfect. I had a big soppy grin on my face at the proposal and was devastated when it finished. It's toooo long to wait for the next series. 

Dragging my backside off the sofa, I returned to the kitchen. Folded the bagillion BFL and stood and admired the clean! 

The rest of the evening was spent perfecting my couch potatodom.  

I did download the 'The Voice'App. I watched, listenened, pressed my red button and filled up my team with the opera singing ice cream seller girl, theAlison  Hammond lookalike, the cute podgy ginger Scottish kid and a fire fighter. Can't wait for next week!! 

Today, I was up with the larks. More kitchen floor was tackled. The wash basket was emptied. Pork chops, roast potatoes, veg and mushroom gravy was made and eaten by 2pm. 

The newly laid fire has been lit. I'm knitting another Teddy as the first one was given to Harry for his 4th Birthday! 

Back to work tomorrow so I'm off for a nice long bath with one of my Christmas Bath Bombs. 

How have you spent your weekend? 

Love from 

Rachel *finally has a clean house* ( well downstairs at least ) Radiostar xx 

The big pre Christmas clean starts here...

..... Here on the sofa with a cup of tea!

I do the big clean because my Mum did it, probably because my Beloved Nanna did it. Also, I've heard that Father Christmas has standards and will not call at a house where the oven racks are less than sparkly.  So far today ( 7:21am ) the dishwasher and  the washer are on and the oven cleaner is working. This is not a person, by the way, but highly dangerous chemical stuff that's a bit scary!

I'm going to give one of my kitchen cupboards a good scrubbing - you know the one, the baking tin cupboard. The stupid, goes round a corner and it's not fancy enough to have a revolving thingy like what they have these days, that's got all the stuff in you don't use yet don't throw away type of kitchen cupboard.( I have mentioned the fact I might be on Hoarders Extreme one day soon.... )

I'm sure ( I damn well know for a FACT )  in there is my old Turkey tray, which I once bought because the HG HGed the world's biggest turkey ( our children were teeny with bird like appetites). We had turkey coming out of our ears. I did my yearly 'boil the carcass to get the goodness out, use the skimmed stock and the stripped meat to make ten ton of Turkey stew that no one really wants to eat, put it carefully in containers and freeze then throw away the following Christmas in that strange 'must clear the freezer before Christmas' ritual that also happens.  I'm not even sure if the tray fits in this oven! Throw (me ) or keep ( HG)  Let's look at the evidence.

a) this tells you how old the tray is because my new oven is two now and
b) we've just had a turkey crown for the last four years and
c) we are never going to use it on the BBQ ( a HG suggestion, probably to secure its place in the cupboard that no one goes in )
d) it's too good to bin ( HG )
e) I think we could use it as a bird bath ( me )

So there you have it, birds need a shallow tray to drink from. Feeding the birds at my house is costing us more than tuppence a flipping bag. 

Our starlings and sparrows and now sodding pigeons feast on the finest the RSPB have to offer! We ( ok, the HG ) made a bird bath out of an old ikea lamp, it lasted a few winters, but they need a new bath. I have a turkey tray. I hope to them, it doesn't scream TURKEY COFFIN at them. We have a new bird watering station. Oh yes we do HG! He will probably read this later, shake his head at me and tell me how it cost a fortune and it's like new!!

Right, tea drunk. The house is still quiet. I'm off to boil the kettle again and make a start!
Here is a photo of my classroom, well the outside. There are another four windows along side too. Look closely, there's fascia boards too!! 

I'd done the blackout Blitz windows for our WW2 last Friday. Our Christmas theme is Winter Wonderland. So yesterday I added a roof, complete with PVA glue and glitter frosty snow! We are going all WW2 theme so yesterday the children made paper chains and snowflakes from old newspapers. My Nanna told me how my Grandad decorated their window in the war. He used fishing line at different lengths and attached wispy bits of cotton wool and put up so many it looked like snow fall. So that's what I'm going to do at work too. Hopefully it'll look a teeny bit magical :-)

Have a Super Saturday everyone! Do you do a big clean?