Looking back

What a lovely Christmas it's been! All of the hand-made gifts (and a small handful of store-bought ones) have been distributed, including the home-made jelly, left. All the gifts appeared to be gratefully received, which always helps! And the food...

Our Christmas lunch was almost exclusively done to recipes by Nigella Lawson, including our first attempt at the "Spiced and Super-Juicy Roast Turkey". Oh. My. Goodness! It was fabulous! Considering we got the cheapest, most basic frozen turkey (£8.99 for 4.5kg at Aldi; indeed a bargain!) the flavour was unbelievable. My husband gets full credit for actually cooking the turkey (and everything else!), and he had the brainwave to use the onions, etc from the soak inside the bird while roasting; and he also put beef fat under the skin of the breast for even more juiciness. However you may choose to adjust the recipe, I cannot recommend it enough!

At last I can now post a picture of the patchwork bag I stitched for my mother (right). It came out quite well, I believe! Considering that it's the first patch I've ever done I

was quite pleased with it! Granted, I could have been a bit less rough-and-ready attaching it to the bag, but I was working to a tight deadline! Mind, that's pretty much been the story of this Christmas, in that I've been frantically working to deadlines and only just getting it in under the wire. In one case I did a cross-stitch Doberman for my step-son & his family, but didn't finish & wrap it until after they'd actually come over for dinner! My husband had to keep them entertained for 20 minutes on his own while I finished it off upstairs! I really must consider a resolution to not procrastinate quite so much in future...

The other major project was making the cot-quilt for my expectant sister (left). I managed to finish that the evening before she came up to visit, so there was a little more breathing room! It is in the same theme as the bag I did for my mother; in fact, that was part of the idea, that my mother in Canada would have a piece of the quilt used for her first grandchild, born in the UK. Sentimental, I know. But my mother likes that sort of thing!

Overall it has been a wonderful and fun Christmas period, and I will hold many special memories from it. I will end with a line from one of my favourite Yuletide songs: "Hallelujah, Noel! Be it heaven or hell- the Christmas we get, we deserve!"

Baby, it's cold outside!

We've had another dusting of snow last night. There has been snow on the ground since Friday and it seems to maliciously refresh itself every time I get up the gumption to clear off the walk! Very frustrating and bone-chillingly cold (yes, I am Canadian but I feel the damp, British cold terribly!), it is also gut-wrenchingly pretty and highly festive!

Speaking of the C-word, my plans and preparations are coming on apace, which is heartening! I have larders full to bursting point, mostly thanks to Suma and Nectar! No these are not magical potions of some kind, but my two current favourite businesses (so please forgive the product placement- believe me, I wish I was getting reimbursed for it).

Suma is a wholesale co-operative which does all sorts of organic, fairtrade, ethical foodstuffs and sundries. They have recently opened their doors to individuals (previously they only supplied businesses) and I have managed, by my rough calculations, to save myself nearly £100 by buying things I would usually buy individually at the supermarket in bulk. They're excellent for anyone who is really into vegetarian/ vegan/ organic/ fairtrade/ green products. Just make sure you have space to put it all!

Nectar is high on my "good" list at the moment because they have made my Christmas that little bit more enjoyable. I'll explain: being a creature of habit I shop at the same supermarket week in and week out. I also tend to fuel up the car there. So a free rewards points card was not a huge leap to make, and I dutifully handed my husband a duplicate card. At the time he was working a job which involved a stupid amount of travelling, which meant that he was spending a lot of money filling up the car. Granted, the firm was paying for both the car and the fuel, but I thought it would be a great way to rack up some points. The downside? There were only two particular petrol station chains he could get the points from, and I politely asked him to a) only use those stations and, b) use the card. Well, needless to say, he found it a bit too much bother to do either while he was busy driving up and down the country, so it didn't exactly get a lot of use.

The turning point came last Christmastime. We were both doing the shopping for our big dinner, and predictably rang up a considerable total at the till. I asked if we could cash in our points to shave a bit of money off, and we were both pleasantly surprised when we ended up with a balance under £20 for the lot! The look on my husband's face was priceless, and as we exited the store he said quite firmly. "Right. I'm convinced now. I'm going to use that card!"

He very shortly had to change jobs so we no longer have the opportunity to rack up points on fuel, but his current place of employment has joined in the scheme so now we're gathering up points from there as well! On Monday we went to gather our Christmas feast for this year, asked to cash in what points we could... and cheerfully paid the outstanding princely sum of 67p. Merry Christmas, Nectar card!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Well it has been a while since my last posting-cum-ranting, so now that we are safely within December I can at last allow all my festivity to flow! The tree is up (see picture, left), the gifts for my relatives abroad are on their merry way (two whole days inside the posting deadline, no less!) and even my greetings cards have been sent. What a relief!

However, there is still much baking to do, and no- I still haven't done the jam I've been planning for about 3 months. The pressure is on to do it as well, as it has actually been requested as a gift from my one and only sister! Eek! I will simply have to put aside some time while His Lordship is doing extra hours at work.

One major-ish project that I have managed to complete is a patchwork shopping bag for my Mother. I would post a picture here, as she does not have t'internet, but it's being done in the same style as a certain cot quilt for an expectant one-and-only sister who does, so the photo will have to wait! In the meantime there is lots to be getting on with, and with enough deep breaths I might even manage to enjoy it!

Breaking my own rule

Well, after my smug little diatribe yesterday I am breaking my own rule and have been seriously thinking about Yule. The truth is that I am desperately behind on my gift projects, so I'm frantically trying to make up for it by getting parcels ready! I have now chosen my Grandfather's gift (philatelist pack from the Post Office), bought treats for my mother's, sister's and sister-in-law's pets (a cat doesn't know the Terrine of Chicken Liver you got it only cost 38p), and got my father's favourite "diabetic" chocolate (as he himself has often pointed out, the chocolates are in fact 'dietetic', as he is the diabetic!) with a cheery little bowl to put them in.

Now the reason why I got him a melamine bowl (apart from the fact it is less likely to break while in transit overseas and is bedecked with festive Santas) is simply that I saved about 50% by buying two bags of assorted chocs instead of a nice box of them. Offering two plastic bags from a well-known chocolatier chain is a little basic even for my father, so I felt I needed a little something to up the presentation. Even taking into account the cost of the bowl it still works out to around a quarter off what I would have paid for a standard cardboard box. Being currently a domestic engineer (i.e.- a housewife) funds are scarce and I need to economise!

I am normally generous with Christmas gifts. Actually it would likely be more exact to call me a bit of a spendthrift when I have a good excuse like "well it isn't for me"! However, even I must admit that it has been a good exercise for me to find a way to bestow my loved ones with gifts without shelling out hundreds of pounds (which, I fear, has been the case in Christmases past). There is a little frisson of anticipation when I think about my agreement with the other half that we can buy as many gifts as we wish for each other, but the total value must not exceed £5. (There are a few thoughts floating around my brain regarding this, but I will save that particular challenge for another day!) I have drawn on my old interests of self-sufficiency and home cooking to make every penny go a little further, and there is some sort of basic satisfaction to be had from it.

True the old post-war "make-do-and-mend" attitude is very en vogue at the moment, and if I won the lottery tomorrow my idea of "self-sufficiency" would be buying from the local farm shop rather than the supermarket. However, at this moment my stress levels are at their lowest in years, and I genuinely know that even if we can't have all the luxuries we used to, we'll be just fine. All I need now is the motivation to actually make the jam I've been planning to do for months, and I'll have that much less to worry about!

Playing Koi

Here's a picture of my latest project:

It is in cross-stitch, and I got the pattern from Issue 155 of The World Of Cross-Stitching. I amended it slightly; namely leaving out some of the "wave" details as I ran out of time! I think the dark blue Aida more than makes up the difference, though. I have also used the colour chart as more of a guideline than a Bible, as I have literally hundreds of skeins of thread that I wish to use before thinking of getting more. I had originally planned to do about 3 of these koi projects as gifts to family, but this one took so long I've had to have a rethink because the dreaded C-word looms large!

That is another one of my little self-imposed rules that I might as well explain. I love the Yuletide season. The festivity, generosity and warm-fuzzies that the season brings infects me as much, if not more, than the average bear. However- and this is very important- the Festive Season should not, under any circumstances, start before December 1st! I don't want to hear any carols, see any decorations displayed or hear a single "ho ho ho" until that date. Why? Because it become irritating after awhile!

It is true that this is a rule originally imposed by my father in my childhood, and now that I'm older I can appreciate the wisdom of it. My mother and I in particular had to be beaten back with a whip and chair from the stash of decorations come November. He stood firm and would not allow as much as a hint of tinsel before the turn of the month, at which point it would be like a starter pistol had fired!

One year, my Mother's sister put up her decorations in early or mid-November. We're talking tree, baubles, lights- the lot! Her motivation was to extend Christmas and revel in the spirit for as long as humanly possible... Unfortunately for her, and this is not a word of exaggeration, those festive trimmings were torn down with a vigour just short of violence that year! She told us she couldn't bear the look of them for a moment longer, and as soon as the Christmas lunch was eaten she called time on the season, and promptly packed up the offending items. A lesson, I think, well learned!

Begin at the beginning...

So I have entered the electronic age and started a web-log (which, rather revealingly, triggers the words "Captain's log" the voice of Patrick Stewart in my head).

What makes me so special, you may very well ask? Who are you that random web-surfers would wish to read your musings on life, the universe and everything; let alone what you had for breakfast this morning? (Pancakes and bacon with maple syrup, FYI.) The answer lies in the name of this page- on which I deliberated for some time. The "Peculiar" part comes from a variant dictionary definition of the word, namely "a property or privilege belonging exclusively or characteristically to a person" (courtesy of dictionary.com). The "exposition" bit comes from another secondary meaning of the word, in this case "the act of expounding, setting forth, or explaining" (ibid.). Basically, what I am attempting to do is find a place for my personal trials, tribulations and perhaps even the occasional triumph, and to have it all on display for anyone who might be interested.

Will this blogging project involve a daily entry, complete with quasi-professional accompanying photo? Not likely. Am I likely to get bored with it and quit after three posts? Very possibly! But I currently feel the need to have a place to share my deepest thoughts with the world at large instead of friends and family on Facebook (too many distracting games and applications on there, anyway!) so this is the result. I hope you enjoy it. Then again, I hope I do, too!

There is another reason why I am moving to a more public forum and that is I am in the embryonic stages of starting a little cottage-industry business, and have been inspired by other similar blogs. My idea involves patchwork quilting, which- I am the first to admit- is a new thing to me entirely! However I have done various crafts, in particular cross-stitching, for a number of years, and think that it would suit not only my own skills and talents but also (hopefully) make me a little living which I can fit in with everything else.

I suppose a little background is called for here. I was born in Canada and now live in the UK with my British husband. Poor health has resulted in me being home-based for the foreseeable future, hence the burgeoning business. I enjoy cooking, intelligent television and craftwork. Pet hates include bad spelling (so feel free to pick me up on any mistakes I make here), ignorance and anything to do with Christmas before December 1st (after then is fair game!). I welcome comments, critiques and healthy debate, but let's keep it civilised, and the first person to comment with "first" gets banned!