Bit of this & that

On the bread making, I borrowed a library book on breadmakers this week & so far what I have produced tastes (& feels) heavy compared with the hand kneaded product.  I'll persevere with other recipes, having produced passable results before but I think know where my preferences lie! 
More yoghurt made & strained for cheese, my daughter wanted to polish off the last lot, it was so good.  Have to drive to Barrow in rush hour traffic & road works tomorrow morning to take her for a final appt with the knee specialist.  Hopefully he'll sign her off, 12 months after rebuilding part of her knee.  Still we're going to make a day of it, bit of shopping (window only for me)  & lunch out, my friend is coming too so I won't get to go ogle caravans at Bardsea Leisure to dream about later.  I want a caravan but it's still so out of our budget. 
My tame & friendly manager told me today that my course is a go for after April.  Yea!  Just need to make a decision about tailoring or corsetry.  Hmmm, I really can't decide.

Following on ....

.......... from bread making in the last post.  I am hooked, I've made more baguettes using a starter dough & they turned out well, even the 50% wholemeal ones.  So there's another starter fermenting tonight ready for tomorrow!  I've made more yoghurt, this time for topping with fruit or whatever takes our fancy -it's nearly all gone & I think I'll have to buy another pot as a starter I don't think Joe has left me enough to start the next batch, I'll also need to stock up on long life milk as well.  Relevant to this post is one I just read over at Simple Green Frugal Co-op about making from scratch.  I've a long way to go but I'll get there, well as far as the Anorak's lack of interest in the process will let me.  While we make just about every meal from scratch, he's as happy to buy some things that I'd rather make.  Time will tell.

Bread

I borrowed a book about bread making from the library last week & have been busy trying some of the recipes.  The family is just about full up now!  Some of the recipes contain more salt than I would have expected so will alter them for next time, & yes there will be lots more next times.  You can make the dough & leave it overnight in the fridge to rise as long as you allow it to fully reach room temperature before using it.  I did, & it was a tasty loaf.  In fact I can see that it is fully possible to make bread by hand during a busy week, just needs a bit of forethought, ie planning!  The Anorak is a committed supermarket white sliced type but even he conceded that tonights baguette was quite good!  Not as "heavy" as previous attempts but he still likes the one I make the dough for in the bread maker.  Oh dear.  That baguette is good but not as light as tonights offering.  Partly because it contains porridge oats & partly because a breadmaker can only mix ,not knead, the dough!!
We used tonights bread to mop up the gravy from a chicken cassoulet based on a good old M & S recipe from the 1980's not in any particular order: Chicken breasts, chopped sausage, tin of baked beans, onion, garlic, dry white wine, chicken stock.  The sausage happened to be an Asda special from last summer found in the freezer, pork & sweet chilli, I thought I'd get it by the Anorak in a casserole but he decided it was too spicy for him.  Yet he'll eat prawns dipped in  sweet chilli sauce?
I made another pair of baguettes tonight from half wholemeal, half white bread flour & they too have risen nicely, having used the remainder of the starter dough from earlier.  Tomorrows lunch.   I also dug out the yoghurt maker yesterday & made some using semi skimmed long life milk.  I've never had much success using anything less than full fat before & this didn't look like it was going to be any better but I decided to strain it & make cream cheese.  8 hours later & the cat is demanding the cheese (no chance) it is gorgeous on this fresh bread, & I just used some of the whey to make up fruit scones & they are nice & light.  Morning break me thinks tomorrow!  Soon I'll be back to overweight if I'm not careful!!

Progress, backwards or forwards?

I have managed to find a helpful manager at work to assist me move up the career ladder.  He doesn't know it yet though!!  He is willing to push some funding my way.
Simply I need to earn more.  Not so simply - it isn't that easy to do.  So I decided I need to further my skills with a useful qualification.  Then I can offer a wider service to clients at work as well as privately.
Now my dream is to be able to make bespoke bras.  Hopefully the new area cancer centre is going to be based where I work.  Masectomy patients, bras ........... you get my drift?  BUT while it isn't easy getting suitable bras (you have to travel, Windermere seems to be the nearest so not that far) or buy mail order, choice is a bit limiting, talking to patients, it is obviously possible & a bespoke bra is going to cost far more than the dearest RTW bra & are these vulnerable women going to be able to afford or even want what would be a luxury purchase?  I'm not sure.  It is a plausable argument in my favour for the funding to be made available to me.  IMHO. 
I suspect though that it may be more beneficial to get some funding, to do a tailoring course.  Now I have always wanted to do this too & I'm quite sure that asking for funding for both won't result in a positive outcome!!  So do I venture down the tailoriing route, knowing I will be vastly undercharging at work to keep a steady supply of work coming in, which I know will infuriate me, my work is of a standard that demands a higher price, but will keep the bosses happy that we are providing an income generating,  non profit making  business, or what?  Currently I do lots of alterations that I hate doing & a fair amount of curtain making that I am qualified to do.  What a waste of my C & G level 3 cert, in soft furnishings.  OTH work funded that course & seem happy enough with the outcome so why should I worry?  I worry because I feel my sewing work at the hospital is way under valued & it gives a false impression of true price to joe public who will then expect our prices to be the norm when they are SO not.  I do have a few clients there who appreciate the value of my work & compensate me accordingly but this is stricly off the record.  You didn't read it here!
Actually what I need is a change of direction altogether into management but I'm not sure about wanting to be so involved in the politics at our place, having just seen at first hand how bad it is!  Oh decisions, decisions.  Now what would make it all so easy would be a nice little BIG win on the lottery instead. 
The other drawback to doing another course is that this time it would have to be distance learning & right now I'm having a hard time getting motivated to do anything much.  I need to be getting on with the ironing right now but here I am sat at the computer, then it's TV for an hour, first, The Lakes, followed by Raymond Blanc with a programme on chocolate.  Wish I had some chocolate, I feel a need.  It helps you know.

Dillon my favourite animal!! And that cat!

Dillon charms the socks off everyone he meets.The anorak & I  love him to bits.Dillon loves chasing a ball.  Other dogs mug him for it!!  And he lets them!!

Sooty the cat.  Why Sooty?  Who knows, blame the previous owners.  He's just cost me £41 at the vets, he's developed an allergy to ..............fleas!!  Now I've just got to gut the house all over again.  he meanwhile is quite content to taunt the dog.

Confusion reigns.

Talk about confusing.  I had the bright (?) idea of knitting up some yarn to give me some knit yardage to play with for the SWAP, but of course the colours are all DRAB.  Olive green, some beige, lots of grey - OK grey I can use - some navy but not enough for a top.  Bright pink cotton, & maybe enough white for a simple top.  I've twisted different colours together to see what they look like & they still look bleh to me.  I'm going to have to experiment with tuck & slip stitches to see how they look.  The problem stems from having a little stash left over from when I knit my Dad jumpers, he looked good in drab colours, & the stuff that came with the freecycled knitting machines I collected.  Obviously colours that no one else wants either!  Oh & I can't wear acrylic which is what the remainder of the yarn is.  Better go & set up a machine I suppose & see if it will work.  That'll be the next problem.

Thoughts on SWAP

I've got my pants base pattern sorted.  I will need to rehash it for jeans & make some changes for dog walking pants but the base is good.  I was inspired by David Page Coffins "Making Trousers" book that  my DD gave me for Xmas.  I haven't put it down - well apart from when I was drafting & amending muslins that is.  It re-enforced the need to get the fit right before I began on the details of construction that this book is all about. 
Now what to do about the plans?  I've been given a LBD by my daughter that I really need to shift the last 7lbs to look better than OK in, but will it fit in with the SWAP plans?  My lifestyle doesn't really involve getting dressed up but as we all know a LBD can look good in the right place / occasion as long as black is a good colour on you.  It is on me fortunately.  And should I ever need to go someplace all dressed up then it fits the bill perfectly.  So do I include it?  Or not?  Or do I start a second SWAP?  Or even another for all the other possibilities that keep entering my head? 
The current loose plans are based around the Smarties jacket which is a black, but looks dk grey, denim with pink & purple buttons.
The 4 bottoms will be :
black(ish) jeans
dog walking pants - probably lined for the cold weather as I have a lighter weight pair (though as they are currently being used with thermals under they may need replacing sooner rather than later)  Not sure on colour though something that goes with my pink or red fleece jackets might be a good idea.  I don't fancy black though.  Grey perhaps?
Smarter pants - probably black pinstripe Marlene style for going out & teaching (if I get the required student numbers next term), & all my black pants are too large & don't appear to be that straight forward to take in.  When they fit I wore them a lot.  The only hiccup is that I'll need to buy fabric as all I have suitable in the stash is navy wool & that don't fit with the rest of the plans!
Do I go with a skirt for the 4th piece?  I've stuck with pants as I've not had a suitable pair of shoes/boots for skirts the last few years but my DD gave me some Ugg lookalike boots for Xmas & I could get away with a longish skirt now.  Black seems likely but that means I have a lot of black,  then again I wear black as a base colour a lot if I'm  not in denim jeans.  Hmmmm, maybe a denim skirt?  Not sure on this one.
6 Tops:
Possibly a number of variations on basic long sleeve tees.
A couple of shirts - I fancy a couple of stripe ones, & maybe a warm western style check one to go with the dog walking pants. 
I do have a bought long sleeve tee that I could substitute in place of a sewn one if I get stuck, in purple, tha would go with the jacket that is my own choice garment.
But of course I could base my SWAP around the navy wool pants I plan on making now (as I already have it) to test the pants draft properly, then I'd need to rethink a few things.  I know I don't need to make it all matchy matchy but if I have random colours then I run into the snag of pairing up what with what?  And it won't look like it all came out of the same woman's wardrobe (closet).  Of course whatever I decide will involve buying more fabric as I have little if anything suitable in the meagre stash & money is in short supply right now.  May even mean I have to pull out of SWAP altogether but I do need clothes that fit me now.  Oh bugger. Decisions will have to be made somehow.  Maybe I'll just have to go with whatever I can find in the cheap shop & make it work.
Now I've hit a snag - these constitute two separate clothing needs I think & may not fit into the SWAP rules so I'll have to await confirmation of possible solutions to this.  I don't need a full SWAP for either casual (dog walking) or smart casual (ie teaching) so I'm stuck.  Better just get on with the navy pants I guess.