Tales from The Shire

Staffordia

Cheery_Daff said:

Fingers crossed for your blinds (damn it, I'll need to think about those at some point! Not now though. .). Glad the mince pie event was a cheerful one!

@Cheery_Daff with regards to blinds there are companies online where you send them the dimensions of your windows and they will make the blind to fit.  Important if your windows are not standard size!  You then have to put it up yourself, but with your DIY skills, that shouldn't be an issue.  The company we used would send out a sample for you to have a look at first.  We were quoted over £3000 for our house from a local firm, these were much cheaper and good quality. 

Cheery_Daff

Thanks Fortune. I think the amount we've spent already I'm probably going to be making blinds myself at this rate! 🙄😂 Certainly won't be sorting them before Christmas, but it's good that there are places you can just send measurements online, will investigate.

rtandon27

ooooo - thanks for the tidbit about online blind companies - we have at least two that need to be replaced & the prices of the local places were staggering!

Fortune_Smiles

Just occasionally a day goes to plan...

...and today was one of those days.  I managed to get through almost all of my chores list and cooked Halloumi & Mushroom Burgers for lunch.  The fitter came in the afternoon and put up the blinds and that was straight forward and drama free.

I tweaked the budget to accommodate the extra macerator cost.  The last three months' usual savings payments and OPs have been re-directed to cover all the home improvements.  However, OPs should be reinstated at the end of this month and we may be able to put something back into savings, depends how Christmas costs go.

I even managed to research and send out our next Book Club read.  We're skipping January's meeting as it would fall too soon after Christmas for everyone so I'm all set for February 😆

Just cooking Paneer Korma for our supper and then I'm going to retire to a long, hot bubble bath and some D0wt0n @bb£y 😁  Might even have a little tipple - it is the weekend after all 😁

Happy Friday everyone.

Fortune x

savingholmes

Glad you're making time to relax. 

Fortune_Smiles

Fa La La La La

The Christmas decs are up! 🎄  I cleaned the living room yesterday and the dining room this morning so I had a clear space to work and got everything done by supper time.  I would have finished sooner but the Christmas lights put up a fight this year 😆  I'm feeling a bit more festive now.  Still got the Annex tree to put up though.  I haven't had one in there before but some of our guests will be staying in there so I wanted to at least have a tree up for them.  All the empty boxes are still in the dining room because we've had torrential rain here and didn't want to risk them getting soaked on the journey to the barn.  Mr F can put them away tomorrow if it's dry.

We had Mushroom & Bacon burgers for lunch as there were brioche rolls leftover from yesterday.  Also leftover korma for supper.

Mr F has gone up for a bath so I might wrap up his presents while he's occupied.  Our Christmas present to each other is the staddle stone we found in an antiques centre a month or so ago but we've agreed to spend a little more so we have something to open on the day.  I've almost finished my Christmas present shopping now - just one to go.  Not that we buy for many anyway.

My challenge is going to be getting the annex cleaned up and the rest of the Christmas cooking done in the time left.  My energy has returned and Mr F is away with work all next week so that should give me a chance to catch up.  Getting the decs up is a big step forward anyway.

Tomorrow I have ironing to catch up on so a far duller day.  I'm hoping to get the time to bake some mince pies though.  Oh - and musn't forget to feed the cake!

Hope you're all having a great Saturday.

Fortune x

savingholmes

Sounding very festive. I have one lone wall sticker up so far... I am sure I will get there soon. 

Glad your xmas gift list is nearly sorted. 

Fortune_Smiles

Slow Progress

It's been a busy week and I've made some progress even if it is slow:

• the annex kitchen is now clean except for the floor which I'm leaving until last - otherwise it will get grubby again whilst I'm in and out cleaning the other rooms.  It's taking about 3.5 hours to do each room 😲 And they are only small rooms 😲 Curse you Uncle F!
• we have a new macerator in the en-suite which appears to be working well and quietly 🙂  The shower still drains slowly but that is due to our rubbish plumbing and there's not much we can do about that until we have a new bathroom.  I now have a huge plumber's bill to pay although I think I may have been charged VAT twice on the macerator itself so just need to query that
• there was quite a lot of cleaning up to do in the en-suite afterward and I also managed to clean a couple of other rooms in the house
• I made some mince pies 🎄 and also two of the four curries I'm planning for our Boxing Day lunch - Pea & Paneer Curry and Coconut & Tomato Lentil Curry.  I doubled the spices in the Pea & Paneer Curry as I thought it needed more.
• the annex fridge went kaput 🙄 And took about £40 worth of Christmas food with it 😥 So a new fridge has been ordered and is, hopefully, arriving tomorrow
• went to the shops to replace the ruined Christmas food and tick some further things off the list.

Mr F is on his way back from his business event so I'm off to start supper soon.  I picked the last of the Chard from the veg patch this week so some of that will be going into a Chard Carbonara - I'll use J@mi£ Oliv£r$ Courgette Carbonara recipe and just swop the veg.

I have my booster tomorrow morning.  Really hoping I don't have any side effects as I don't want to lose any more time.  Only sixteen more sleeps 'til Christmas 😲

Fortune x

savingholmes

Ouch to the fridge going kaput.
Double ouch to all the cleaning... 
My booster gave me a slight sore arm - but wasn't as bad as the previous jabs. Hope you get off as lightly.

Fortune_Smiles

savingholmes said:

Ouch to the fridge going kaput.
Double ouch to all the cleaning... 
My booster gave me a slight sore arm - but wasn't as bad as the previous jabs. Hope you get off as lightly.

I'm ok so far SH.  I had the AZ vaccine first time round and the nurse told me it's a greater volume and needs a bigger needle 😲  This time I had the Pz which has a smaller volume and needs a smaller needle.  I hardly felt it at the time and my arm's only a little sore now.  The nurse also said that the first Pz vaccine doesn't usually have any side-effects so fingers crossed 🤞

Fortune x