Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Hello diary friends,
A useful trip to town this morning, & quite festive too, as there were lots of craft & artisan food stalls on the market. I bought a lovely big chunky wreath for the front door. I always used to make my own, & I would still like to do so, but we no longer have the shrubs in our garden which I used to use......a bay spotted laurel which took up way too much room, a juniper (ditto) & a conifer which had to be felled as it was taller than the house & much too close to it. I used to wind the wire wreath frame with plenty of bits of those as a base, then add in sprigs of holly & ivy, as well as a selection of pound shop red shiny baubles & a big bow tied from that wide wired ribbon. As I haven't seen anyone from whom I might scrounge some greenery or indeed been out anywhere I might forage a modest basketful, I was happy to buy one this year. The stallholder said the person who makes them for her had only cut the holly yesterday, so it was lovely & fresh. I got everything on my list (which did NOT include big red velvet cookie & white chocolate blondie ......what a pair of gut-lords we are at the moment!) & was pleased to find my foundation & mascara both on a '2 for £12' in B**ts, which was a decent saving. We also bought our Christmas wine & beer & a few other things from the festive grocery list using our C**p dividend points, which was good for the budget as it instantly more than halved the bill.
I've been perusing various baking books looking for inspiration for Mr F's birthday cake. It has to be easily portable as we are meeting our best friends for a walk at a local park where we can get a takeaway coffee & I thought it would be lovely to share a home baked cake. Well, I decided I will do cupcakes instead as they will be much more portable, will be in paper cases, so I shan't need to take plates & won't require a cake knife. I've been thinking of all sorts of different ones I could bake, but I am going for something quite simple, but festive. I shall bake plain cupcakes, then swirl the tops with vanilla buttercream, roll the edges in sprinkles (already have some in the pantry), then I am going to top each one with a Qu*lity Str**t chocolate. I am going to leave those in their shiny wrappers so that the cupcakes can emerge looking joyfully bright (sorry if that sounded like I was channelling my 'inner Nigella'.....I promise not to finish them off by flinging pomegranate seeds all over them!). I bought some proper cupcake cases this morning - I do have some in my baking cupboard but they are awful. I bought a big pack from a pound shop & you wouldn't think something so simple could be so useless. I will use them up, as I hate wasting things, but I didn't want to let my birthday cupcakes down by using those. I bought some shiny pale blue metallic ones, so they should look quite festive with the contrasting shiny wrappers from the chocs & they weren't expensive as there will be plenty left for other occasions.
Mr F's cooking night tonight. The stove is lit, the tree lights also & my weird lamp made from a vintage coffee pot. I'm going to read some more of the creepy-sounding book I started yesterday. Looking forward to watching the last two episodes of 'The Vallalla Murders' tonight plus some comedy. We are re-watching 'Green Wing' for the umpteenth time, but it still really makes us laugh, so why not?!
Take care all. 
F x

Baileys_Babe

The cupcakes sound like a good plan, both celebratory and easier to transport.

HairyHandofDartmoor

The cupcakes sound lovely for your get together. I hope you have dry weather for your picnic and it's not too cold.

Your homemade wreaths sound lovely, although your purchased one is supporting a small business which is good. 

Blackcats

Cupcakes are a great idea.  If you were truly a Nigella wannabe you would be able to walk into the enormous pantry in your enormous kitchen and get your tub of edible gold leaf to adorn the cakes with.  Obviously every cook has a tub of edible gold leaf .... 

Honeysucklelou2

Great idea for cupcakes. I made some once for a birthday picnic for my dad. I was so concerned about them getting bashed en route that I took the icing with me and iced on the spot! Made for a memorable picnic!

foxgloves

Blackcats - Well, I do now have a walk-in pantry, lol, but I haven't yet started filling it with edible gold leaf or small cantilever boxes containing personal artisan licorice collection.

Honeysucklelou - I'd love to have seen someone doing that on a picnic! I have seen fab cupcake carry boxes with a little hole to hold each individual cupcake, but I am not yet at a stage where I want to pay out for one. I'm sure mine will be fine on the day. I shall only need to transport a few as we are Tier 3 & not allowed to get up to much at all socially.
F x

foxgloves

HHoD - Yes, we are trying hard to support small local shops & the market, though I went in one shop the weekend after Lockdown #2 ended & I don't think he actually wanted any customers! He put so many barriers both physical & verbal in the way of me actually accessing any of his stock, I said that this wasn't going to be viable for me as a customer & I'd wait until things were a little more normal. Even as I was going out of the door, he was saying I'd be 'looking at a very long time before that happens'. Yet I went in with my mask, handgel, alone, & prepared to follow any reasonable covid safety measure. All the other local small business owners have been just so pleased to welcome their customers back. Ah well, every corner of life has its own resident Mr or Mrs Grumpy.
F x

Humdinger1

foxgloves said:

Blackcats - Well, I do now have a walk-in pantry, lol, but I haven't yet started filling it with edible gold leaf or small cantilever boxes containing personal artisan licorice collection.

Honeysucklelou - I'd love to have seen someone doing that on a picnic! I have seen fab cupcake carry boxes with a little hole to hold each individual cupcake, but I am not yet at a stage where I want to pay out for one. I'm sure mine will be fine on the day. I shall only need to transport a few as we are Tier 3 & not allowed to get up to much at all socially.
F x

Foxgloves 

I'm shocked - shocked and disappointed- to hear about the absence of gold leaf and cantilever boxes for artisan liquorice! I hope this is on your getting ready for Christmas list? Mind you, which of us will ever keep up with Nigella? I remember reading about her quest to fly to Prague for half an ounce of an ingredient unobtainable elsewhere,  to ensure the authentic creation of a pudding, all to the backdrop of live child viola accompaniment when back in the kitchen.  It might have been a satirical description but quite possibly not.

Back here, authentic counts as defrosting the freezer for locally sourced and home made treats.  Please keep it coming, I don't post anything like as much as I read but do massively appreciate your diary and all the comments.   Love Humdinger x 

DawnW

foxgloves said:

HHoD - Yes, we are trying hard to support small local shops & the market, though I went in one shop the weekend after Lockdown #2 ended & I don't think he actually wanted any customers! He put so many barriers both physical & verbal in the way of me actually accessing any of his stock, I said that this wasn't going to be viable for me as a customer & I'd wait until things were a little more normal. Even as I was going out of the door, he was saying I'd be 'looking at a very long time before that happens'. Yet I went in with my mask, handgel, alone, & prepared to follow any reasonable covid safety measure. All the other local small business owners have been just so pleased to welcome their customers back. Ah well, every corner of life has its own resident Mr or Mrs Grumpy.
F x

Sounds as though this shop owner ought to try a different occupation. I have come across a couple like this. Won't be going back. I try to support local businesses, but won't go to absurd lengths to do so.

HairyHandofDartmoor

DawnW said:

foxgloves said:

HHoD - Yes, we are trying hard to support small local shops & the market, though I went in one shop the weekend after Lockdown #2 ended & I don't think he actually wanted any customers! He put so many barriers both physical & verbal in the way of me actually accessing any of his stock, I said that this wasn't going to be viable for me as a customer & I'd wait until things were a little more normal. Even as I was going out of the door, he was saying I'd be 'looking at a very long time before that happens'. Yet I went in with my mask, handgel, alone, & prepared to follow any reasonable covid safety measure. All the other local small business owners have been just so pleased to welcome their customers back. Ah well, every corner of life has its own resident Mr or Mrs Grumpy.
F x

Sounds as though this shop owner ought to try a different occupation. I have come across a couple like this. Won't be going back. I try to support local businesses, but won't go to absurd lengths to do so.

I've come across a few like that too and decided never to go back to those particular shops. Some people dont' seem to have the right temperament for customer facing work.