5 OS Pleasures in your Day Today part 2

Kitchenbunny

It's been a while since I posted here, but here I am

Five pleasures for me lately:

1) Having a bit of a clear out. It's quite therapeutic, going through old clothes, make up, etc and pledging to either use them up, give them away or if they're in a state (as a last resort) throw them away. My dressing table is a lot clearer now, and that makes me smile.
2) Getting the Christmas food sorted (at least on paper, anyway). We'll be having nice roast dinners, which we don't usually do, and then for snacking on there will be the cold cuts, with pickled onions, cheese, etc. It just seems a bit nicer than constant crisps and peanuts that I've eaten in years gone by
3) Nearing the end of my cross-stitch project. It has gone from something unlikely to ever be finished to being completed by the end of the year, all being well. Now to pick a new one...
4) Baking. Breakfast bars, cakes, biscuits and cookies . . . I took a few batches of homemade cookies to the office after my birthday last week, and they were very gratefully received. I've got to make some more breakfast bars (sort of flapjacks made with condensed milk, oats and dried fruit) as they're probably the only thing I can manage as breakfast. And it gives me a sense of satisfaction to be in the kitchen, creating something from base ingredients with such a lovely smell filling the house!
5) Meal-planning is going well, and I've managed to convince a friend to read the OS board and have a go at meal-planning herself. Which reminds me I must drop her an email

I've got a bit of a to-do list, but I'm feeling kinda relaxed at the moment (all things subject to change though and they probably will ) so we'll take things as they go. I've the fridge to sort out, some baking to do and a bit of ironing, but we'll see how it goes. Might get the Christmas decorations down from the loft this weekend to see what we've got and then put them up next weekend. DH believes that as we're at home so infrequently it's nice to see them for as much as we can when we are at home. Normally I wouldn't agree, but this year I do.

Have a great day everyone (((hugs)))

Kitchenbunny xx

ampersand

My Le Creuset book, no. 4 above, sold already! - been on what, an hour?

Olliebeak

:wave: afternoon all - 'oh what a beautiful morning .........!' I hope the sun is shining for everybody else too .

Broomstick - aww sorry to hear you'd lost your knitting - have you asked around at the places you visited - hope it returns to you. :T on the reduced Gas Bill and fingers crossed for the next quarter.
piglet - wtg on the Thames Water refund - just in time for Christmas too :j.
scotrae - wd on your drawer sort-out - amazing what we find when we do that - and hope the Bookstall goes well.
ACEY - sounds like appetites (and energy) are returning slowly - can you send them outdoors to run off some energy in the back garden or something similar . I'm sorry but tough luck to your sister - she needs to phone a neighbour who lives close by to feed her cat - hopefully she just doesn't understand how bad you and the boys have been or she wouldn't have asked you. Hope your 'get up and go' returns quickly before the boys are completely back to normal .
bunny too - looks like you and ds had a lovely evening and that toffee sauce sounds :drool:.
ampersand - 5.00am this morning :eek: - omg I thought I got up early for a saturday at 7.30 . congrats on the book sale :T. loving 'freezer ufo' comment - used to have loads of them until I became quite 'ocd' about marking everything before freezing. I'll join you in the 'wave' for sparrer too.
Kitchenbunny - well done on getting so organised with your Christmas meal planning/cooking, wardrobe/drawer sorting and almost completing your cross-stitch project :j - you've been a busy bunny .

Mine for today:

1. Last night - a real treat of a Queen Concert from 1975 on BBC2 - wonderful to see Freddie in action so young .

2. Managed to read about three pages of my book before eyes closed involuntarily - vague memories of OH turning my light off but awoke this morning with my face on the page of my book :rolleyes:.

3. Lovely Dorset Cereal (Light Flakes) for brekkie (OH gets it in HomeBargains for silly prices) - absolutely :drool:.

4. Decided that the mountain of carrots in the fridge needed using up. Made a big pan of carrot and swede mash (saved the cooking water) and have now chilled and frozen it for Christmas Day Lunch.

5. Used some more carrots, leek, small swede, couple of potatoes, bendy celery, lentils, quarter of a cabbage sliced, chopped onion and a parsnip to make a pressure cooker of soup - added the c&s cooking water for extra flavour, a kallo veg stock cube, white pepper, mixed herbs, dried coriander and coriander leaf. It's now cooling and will get partly 'whizzied' later. I've had a sneaky taste and it's absolutely delicious.

6. Have taken 8 chicken thighs out of the freezer for tomorrow's meal. Making a HUGE chicken casserole in the SC and some can be frozen for future use. Need to put some dried butterbeans and soup & broth mix to soak to go in it as well as the remaining carrots, leeks, onions and some parsnips.

7. Found a Banana and Walnut cake hiding in the freezer :j - that can come out for the cake tin to save baking tomorrow morning .

8. My lovely tin-opener died on me last night so now I just HAVE to do a trip to Asda - oh dear what a pity :rolleyes: - please God, stop me from going near the SmartPrice carrots - only just got rid of the last lot from 3wks ago .

Now I just need to shift my rear (can somebody give it a kick please!) - still sitting here in my nightie . Hope everybody is having a good os/mse day - love Ollie xxxx

Hope Caterina and her DH are having a good weekend in Cambridge .

to ACEY, Muppet, newlywed and everybody else who needs them.

And a special to sparrer, kiwiblue and any others who've been missing in action recently. Hope you're all well and just very busy with life.

angeltreats

Mine for today:

1. Found a Jamie Oliver cookbook and the Dairy Book of Family Cookery (which I have been trying to get hold of for ages) for 75p each in a charity shop! My cookbook collection is heaving but I love them all.

2. Just over a year ago I lost a very treasured diamond necklace that my husband bought me and was absolutely devastated. Today in H Samuel I found a very similar version, except in silver with cubic zirconia, reduced to £9.99 and it even came with matching earrings. I am so pleased with it.

3. Went for a drive with DH and listened to cheesy dance music in the car with both of us singing along, great fun! :dance:

4. Went to Bicester Village out of curiosity and managed not to spend any money at all.

5. This is really for yesterday but after tons of rejections and disappointment, I got called back to a second interview for a job I really, really want. In fact I think they have 'found' a vacancy for me and it is looking very hopeful that I'll be back at work soon and earning more money than I expected to so fingers crossed!

Oh and one more...

6. Watching five episodes of Come Dine With Me back to back - bit sad but I'm addicted!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend

Edit: Sorry, have to add another one for yesterday!

7. Found exactly the two (rather trashy!) books I wanted in our local library and ordered another couple about watercolour that I fancied - hopefully it will kick me up the backside and make me start painting again.

SunnyGirl

Good evening :D

Been very busy with clearing out MIL's flat, parents evenings (2 this week), the children being on the computer when I do want to post and general stuff so I haven't had much chance to post for the last few days Still here and still counting though.

My five for the last few days:

1. Saw a beautiful yellow breasted bird in the garden this afternoon. I don't know what it was (I should have paid more attention to Dad when I was younger when he was talking) It had a stripy tail and was bigger than the more usual yellow tit I see.

2. DH saw a rainbow whilst sweeping up leaves in the garden the other day & called me out to see it as he knows I love them :A

3. Lovely snuggled up afternoon doing cross stitch while watching Santa Claus 3 on dvd with DS2 & DS3. Highly sentimental but enjoyable Christmas film.

4. I finally got round to using the home leg waxing kit that I bought in July :rotfl: I was slightly put off after I tested one strip & it hurt more than I thought it would :eek::D Very smooth legs now though!

5. Very pleased to be able to share my Nanna's recipe for yorkshire puddings the other day on a thread about the same. The recipe is foolproof & I was pleased to see that others had found so too.

I hope that everyone is well & hugs to those who need them. You are all in my thoughts even when I don't post.

mineallmine

Broomstick, what a good idea about ice lollies if you're suffering the flu.

Ollie, there are loads of cats in rescues looking for homes. Have you thought of giving a home to a 3 legged cat called lucky?

Sorry to hear about that scare ampersand, lucky you had quick reactions.

HI everyone else, newsbies and lurkers,

1. Sitting here, post-bath, catching up.
2. A simple dinner of baked gammon steaks, jacket potato and baked tomatoes (I'd addicted to slicing and baking (not really roasting as no oil) tomatoes).
3. Got our electricity bill today and realising we've turned a corner and are starting to get it under control. Nothing silly like sitting here cold just constantly turning things off at the plug and not being wasteful.

Definitely not a OS pleasure in that our boiler is playing up but at least we have a roof over our heads and food in the cupboards.

:A

Muppet81

Hi all :A

Popped in for a really quick visit ... will read posts in the morning.

Today:

1) Woke to see a covering of snow. Everywhere looked lovely.
2) Made porridge with cream and brown sugar for breakfast and enjoyed it looking at the garden looking all white and pretty.
3) A woodpecker appeared on the bird table, right in front of our window. Only the 2nd I have ever seen.
4) Mr Muppet spening an hour chopping up a good supply of kindling and firewood to keep us going for a few weeks.
5) Capitalising on the snow (long gone by this time but hey!) by having a winter sports night and trouncing Mr Muppet on the Wii skiing, snowboarding and ski jump events.

Time for bed.
Night all and hugs to those who are pporly or down at the moment.
xx

Broomstick

Big healing (((hugs))) to the continuing poorly people.

My five pleasures for today started when I eventally got to bed in the early hours:

1. Lying in the dark and listening to the owls hooting - they were extremely noisy and were obviously very busy.

2. Waking up really toasty this morning next to a hottie that was still warm.

3. Bought some BOGOF crumpets in the Co-op and we had them at teatime. Haven't had crumpets in ages.

4. Meal planning somehow didn't happen this week and I didn't order a veg box because I knew we had too much left over from the last one so it's all been a bit chaotic on the food front. That meant that supper was baked spuds with cheese and left-overs which turned out to be a rather nice meal.

5. Still haven't located my lost knitting but I have made one fingerless mitt with my remaining ball of wool today. It's stunning, random multicolours. I'll try to get it's other half done tomorrow.

Sleep well everyone.

B xxx

Frith

Thanks for all the get well messages. I can say, after SIX DAYS, we are over the worst! Boys have had 2 bowls of cocoa pops today.

5 for today:

1) Feeling better!

2) Going on the Wii to find, since Monday when I last had a go, I have lost 5 lbs. Bigger son has lost 2 lbs :-( I haven't dared put little son on as he was pencil thin before becoming ill...

3) Watching the Empire Strikes Back.

4) More Christmas presents coming via Amaz0n.

5) Watching Celeb sitting in front of the fire with cat 2.

Best wishes to all.

L

alisong_2

Here are mine for the last couple of days-
1.Saw fox running across the road last night, it always seems special.
2.Made a banana cake using a recipe which I think was on this thread. It had golden syrup in and is absolutely lovely, much better than the other recipe I was using.
3.Taking the dog to the vets! This is a strange one I agree but there is a really lovely new surgery near us which has special offers on boosters etc and include a full health check and nail clip in the price. The pooch had lost half a stone since last year and the vet was very complimentary about how fit he looks and what a good job we'd done with him :j. And all for quite a bit less than any of the other vets near us.
4.Listening to my new Will Young cd that I bought 1. because I love Will Young and 2. for the 500 tesco points!
5.I owe Ollie for reminding me of this one, it was watching the Queen concert last night and, as she says, seeing Freddie looking so well and happy.
Sleep well all Ali x.