Simple living in the country - back to basics

badmemory

My line was - it wasn't my fault you were closed & I had to do something & you know you love a challenge!

Cheery_Daff

Ha, I've been CUTTING, let alone dyeing, my own hair for most of my adult life, so no chance of getting told off here, thank goodness 😂😂 Actually had a proper hair cut at the college for the first time last year which was quite exciting, but I probably won't repeat it for a couple of years. An advantage of having long hair (and mostly wearing it up!)

I never thought I'd mind going grey, and in principle I don't - but in my case it's starting with grey tufts just over my ears 🙄 Mostly I can tuck them behind my ears, but they're quite noticeable now. Some days I care, some days not. I think I've only dyed it once since we moved 4 years ago so clearly I don't care that much...

More blinds investigation, and I think I'm going to start by doing the most simple thing and then getting more expensive if it's rubbish. Have got a plan - will report back with pictures (although probably not til next weekend).

Tomorrow's dinner is out of the freezer so I'm slowly getting ready...

greenbee

I used to make blinds using a rectangle of fabric the size I needed to cover the window with an extra bit at the top to fold over (hopefully that makes sense) plus seam allowance. Then the same in a contrasting/complementary fabric as a lining to give it some weight. It also meant that the 'flap' at the top added some interest.The top and bottom had a channel for a length of dowel each, and I made ties the length of the blind to hang down back and front (you need two pairs, one about 6" from each end) and stitched the front ones under the flap. You can then hang cut slits in the back of the top channel and hang the dowel on cup hooks either directly into the window frame (if wooden) or onto a batten. 

They're incredibly simple to make, don't use much fabric, and are a great way of using up odds and ends to give you interesting lining or ties. Or you can use old sheets/curtain lining to line them. For small windows I've used curtain wire at the top instead of dowel. 

As for the hairdresser - previous roles have been high-profile client-facing/conference keynotes etc so the haircut was important. Now I'm in an operational role I'm not getting my hair done nearly as often  

Baileys_Babe

greenbee said:

Baileys_Babe said:

greenbee said:

Baileys_Babe said:

Cheery_Daff said:

Hmm. Spaghetti pie not a resounding success - tasteless mush in fact 😂😂 I think it would have been better to actually follow the Jack Monroe recipe I found and do it on the stove top - I think the oven has reduced both spaghetti and beans to mush.

Won't be throwing it away, but also won't be putting it in the freezer - can't be doing with disappointing freezer meals, and I know I'll just pick round it for months so might as well just eat it now and be done with it 🙄

I think this is an important lesson we need to learn, currently, we have 1 portion of turkey pasta bake in the freeze which has been being ignored by the 4 of us for months now as it wasn't very tasty when it was first made. I pledge here that I will eat it before Easter. I will think I will add liberal amounts of harissa paste and it will be fine.

Take it out of the freezer now and have it tomorrow. Then it's gone. 

That will not work with the family meal plan. One day a week is planned for each person to choose from the selection of frozen HM single portions, I will have it then 😊

We expect you to report back!

And cheery needs to make spaghetti bake once a week until her stockpile is gone!

Reporting turkey pasta bake has been eaten, it was better than I remembered and it went well with the harissa paste.

Suffolk_lass

I cut my hair with number 7 clippers (bit brutal) during lockdown and the barber I used to go to has stopped working at that location. Fortunately we had exchanged numbers at some point and I now go to the old school house in the next village and he does both of us every 7 weeks. He likes cutting my hear as (thanks to the HRT) it remains a good thick head of hair

Cheery_Daff

Well done BB, glad the bake was tasty! 

I am very fortunate that I've never been required to be anything other than 'generally not that scruffy' for work  

Glad you've made blinds too greenbee - were they roller blinds? Did you use some kind of special mechanism, or just manually wind them up each morning? 

Not much to report here. Went into the office, not really because I needed to, but because I'd arranged to meet my friend for a cuppa before I came home. Took lunch from the freezer, and friend's daughters had made some cake so I had a piece of that, and then just had a small mushroom omelette for tea instead of a full freezer meal. Friend and I did some weeding in their local community wildflower patch which was nice - fortunately I still had my wellies in the car else I'd have been doing it in my work boots with heels  

Not much happening financially tonight. Some annoying nonsense on the Happy Wheel tonight, ended up £8.72 down, so have adjusted signature to reflect that - April's extra dosh standing at £118.60. Did an 80p Prolific study - that's now standing at £8.49 + £1.22 pending. Qmee was VERY annoying, entered my date of birth about 27 times and got screened out of literally everything I tried, so still standing at £2.98. Will see how long it takes me to get to £10 then possibly abandon ship. 

Not decided about tomorrow yet. Mr Cheery has a dentist appointment at 9am near my work, and is staying for a band rehearsal early evening. I could go with him, but then I'd be in the office for probably 12 hours... (I was only there for 6 today so could do with staying a little bit late!) I could pop out to see a friend once I was done/ There's an appeal to it - there was literally nobody there today and I got LOADs done without any distractions... but if I stayed here I'd be at home on my own, and could have a nice bath in the evening... 

As yet undecided... Might see how I feel in the morning...  

greenbee

Not roller blinds or any special mechanism Cheery. Literally just dowel and cuphooks for larger ones, curtain wire and hooks for small ones. Rolled up and tied with fabric ties in the morning. 

Cheery_Daff

greenbee said:

Not roller blinds or any special mechanism Cheery. Literally just dowel and cuphooks for larger ones, curtain wire and hooks for small ones. Rolled up and tied with fabric ties in the morning. 

That's likely what we'll end up with greenbee, at least for the first ones I do. Although Mr Cheery did spot some bargainous roller blinds the other day that we could dismantle and change the fabric in. We'll see...

Cheery_Daff

Well, good evening MSE chums! How are we all? 

I did indeed decide to accompany Mr Cheery on his travels today and spent 12 hours in the office 😮 I also had 6 zoom meetings 😮 Head has felt full of cotton wool. However, some successes:

* I took a smoothie in the car for breakfast, and TWO homemade freezer meals, and two bits of flapjack - we were out from 7.30am til 9.30pm so definitely needed. I avoided the vending machine and cafe and spent nothing myself 😁 (can't say the same for Mr Cheery, who came home with an excellent fancy lamp for the new bedroom from a charity shop 😂 He'd also not taken food, so we had to get him some quorn sausages on the way home)

* In an effort to stand up and stretch my legs a bit, I did a load of clearing out of my desk drawers, shelves etc. Not done that properly since well before the pandemic 😮 I evicted all sorts - gym schedules and student timetables from 2017 (still pinned to the wall 😂), notes from student feedback for students who left in 2019, a packet of oatcakes with a best before date of June 2016 (!!!), a dented tin of peaches, two years out of date. Goodness me. I even got rid of an ancient grotty handbag that was under the desk. All drawers now clean, all stationery accessible, sundry toiletries and food items (salt, plastic forks, spare sandwich bags in case of cake going spare 😂) all stored nicely. Still need to do bookshelves but at least that's just books and paper, not all other stuff.

I think that's it on successes 😂 Oh, and I met my steps goal for the 6th day in a row 😁 The smart watch thing sets me a goal just slightly higher than the day before - today's was 6290 - hardly excessive and in the old days I would have done that before lunch... It would have helped if I'd gone for a walk at lunchtime, but no, I didn't, so when we got back after 9 and I still had 2000 steps to go, I had to do a lot of marching round the living room 😂

Happy Wheel done - lost £17! Pah! Extra money total for April reduced to £101, grrr. Prolific standing at £9.29 though with 42p pending, so nearly ready to cash out.

Payday on Thursday, so looking forward to shuffling. I've lost track of which strike deductions will be taken when, so not sure whether it will be a full wage or not 🙄

Had an email today to say work is starting again on the drainage project at the top of our drive 🙄 Bit annoying but there we are, it is what it is. At least it stopped over the winter (because of the vile weather up here), but now we'll be back to having to wait for large machinery to move if we want to get out of the house. How tiresome. Poor Mr Cheery hates them and is already gnashing his teeth. I just end up embarrassed at how often I pop out! 😮

Right, I am past my self imposed bed time so best get to sleep...

Suffolk_lass

Just loving the supply of spare sandwich bags in case of cake...😂😂😂