Floor plans...

...are my new bestest friends.

Now these aren't as amazing and all-singing-all-dancing as I would like them to be. In fact, they're not properly to scale in any way, shape, or form. But they're working, so that will do for now.

Living room before.

Living room afterwards (eventually)

(the radiator isn't new, it was just hidden behind the sofa and not heating the room at all, the sofa will now be in front of the fireplace we never use)

Now the scale is so very off because our living room is nowhere near that wide. But I sketched out its previous layout onto graph paper and gave everything approximate sizes. Then we measured the important bits.

Then I just made sure that everything that needed to be on the second plan was the same size as on the first one.

The sofa is not going to be flat against the wall, but coming out from it slightly at the right hand side, probably slightly in front of that bookcase. The left hand chair will be a lot tighter in against the bookcase there, and the right hand chair will end up somewhere near that position but it really depends on where it looks best!

My main plan isn't actually for furniture.

It's for the books. (but you guessed that)

Before, the bottom left bookcase had Pratchett on the top three shelves, then some cookery and craft books, then craft boxes. A real mix of stuff that mostly ended up there because that was the easiest one to change about.

Now I'm planning to move the Pratchett books to one of the bookcases on the right, and to fill the rest of it with the non-Discworld Pratchett (that had been on the other side of the room) and other fantasy fiction.

Instead of three different bookcases all having non-fiction on, I'm going to group it all together. Depending on where I'm most likely to sit to sew, the boxes of sewing stuff will be on the closest bookcase. The two bookcases on the top right will be filled with fiction books, and the bottom three or four shelves will all be double packed with paperbacks.

I know how I want it, kinda. But it really will take the actual moving things in for me be to be able to get it right.

The living room saga...

...continues.


As I was saying, we'd originally booked ourselves a weeks holiday that was supposed to be spent going away with Anthony's whole family to celebrate his parents 50th wedding anniversary later this year. It had to be that week because it was half term. Although since nobody could agree about where to go and how much it should cost, nothing happened.

I thought I'd get to spend a nice bit of time with Anthony and we could both unwind after the stress of the last few months.

Nope.

I went off to stay with my mother on the 13th, and Anthony came to stay for one night on the 18th and then drive me back on the 19th.

His dad came to stay for a week and they blitzed the living room. The old brown wall paper was pretty easy to remove, but the fact that the previous owner had removed, then added, then removed a succession of dado rails, and patched up any holes with concrete, made it not so straight forward after all.

But now I have a living room with walls painted in a lovely grey-white which makes it feel a million times bigger.

I also have a living room that contains the tv and its stand, the desk and computer, and the sofa.

It feels horribly big and empty. Pretty much like it has since work started on it over two months ago.

The next step is to get a new carpet. We've chosen it, and my lovely mother is contributing towards the cost (as A's parents paid for the floor renewal) (While I am grateful that they did, as we couldn't have afforded it, the fact that I am supposed to be grateful about something I had no choice about, makes it impossible to be grateful *enough*)

We just have to get it fitted. And my patience is rapidly vanishing.

After weeks of doing things based on other people making decisions, I suggested that we get the carpet fitted next week as otherwise it'll be another month before I can start getting any bookcases back in here. Of course, the timing isn't right for his dad to be able to pop over during the week for the hour that the carpet men will need. Even though we don't know which day they can do yet.

*head desk*

If the carpet goes down next week, then I can spend next weekend, when I'm not working, supervising people moving the bookcases in and refilling them. If it has to wait for my next weekday off work (the 9th of March), then either the bookcases will be moved and filled while I'm at work, (which I don't want, as I want to sort them out as they are moved), or the bookcases need to wait until the 17/18th March which is my next weekend off.

Oh, and the first Grand Prix of the year. Australia. 6am race start time Sunday morning.

Also the beginning of our last weeks holiday together before the baby arrives. Which is already filling up with eleventy-million things to do.

Also more than three months since the work in here started and 95% of my library became inaccessible.

Unsurprisingly, I'm a little itchy!

And ranty. But you hadn't spotted that, had you?

*NEWSFLASH*

After I got a little bit over emotional on Friday evening, we went to the carpet shop. They're fitting it between 9 and 12 on Monday. #happykate 

I may be messy...

...but I'm not disorganised. Yes, 99% of the time the computer desk will have piles of paper all round the keyboard, but 99% of that time I can find exactly what I'm looking for (the 1% being if Anthony has been hurling stuff around).

But at the moment I am both messy and disorganised. I hate it. It makes me itch.

There'd been a strange lumpy bit in our living room floor for a very long time. It wasn't a major problem, we just stuck a chair over it. But then one day I moved the chair and realised that the lumpiness had spread to the wall...

So when Anthony's folks came round the following Sunday bringing a builder with them to look at fixing up the utility room to make it more weatherproof and secure, we got him to have a look at the floor instead.

Turns out that the heating pipes that run the length of that wall had been bodged together by the previous owner, and so one of the joints had been very very slowly leaking.

Just a case of patching that bit of floor and wall, yes?
No.
The area where the pipe had leaked was also where the bodger had pulled up the old hearth area, so none of that area was any good.

So a case of patching the hearth area of floor?
No.
The way the rest of the floor surface was breaking up made the builder suggest that we needed the whole sub-floor ripping up and a new concrete floor laid.

Since this was two weeks before Christmas, and the weekend before my 12 week scan, I was hoping for "we'll get rid of all the loose stuff, then do it properly after Christmas."

Not my decision to make apparently. (Not Anthony's either)

So the work actually started on the day of my 12 week scan. A week and a half's worth of no heating, lots of dust and noise, just when I'd started to be less stressed.

They did the floor in three sections in the end.

Each section was done about three days apart, to allow for the concrete to go off enough so that they could then use that surface when working on the next chunk.

For most of the time I got to keep a couple of bookcases in there. The rest are all out in the conservatory. I get extra itchy when I can't get at my books.

The next decision taken was to get the room redecorated while it was empty. A quote was obtained and a decision taken. (again, not by either of us)

Which is why I spent the week I was supposed to be on holiday with Anthony, staying with my mother while he and his dad decorated.

To be continued...

PAD Week 5...

...30/01/11 to 05/02/11.

It is absolutely...

...persisting it down in Wolverhampton today (as it seems to be across most of the country) and my first thought (well, after the inevitable "who am I? where am I? what time is it?" thoughts) this morning was "yay, a home day!"

A rainy day outside when I can stay indoors with Anthony and we can putter about tidying, decorating or watching TV and playing computer games. (he's playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II as I type)

Then I remembered that last night he said he wanted to go to a local Ford dealership to have a look at some cars.

In the rain. Like we did a few weeks ago. Yuck.

So I got up and dressed and came downstairs to ask what time he wanted to go out.

He looked at me like I was INSANE and said: "What? In this weather?!"

Jeans off, comfy trousers & hair dye on.

Hurrah!

This recipe is for...

...the "Northern cupcake fairy".

Oh yes indeed.

Recipe taken straight from the book, notes by me in italics

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream icing from the Primrose Bakery.



Cupcakes

(makes 16 regular/48 mini cupcakes) I can get 20 regular ones out of this usually

• 115g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
• 85g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 175g soft brown sugar
• 2 large eggs (preferably free-range or organic), separated
• 185g plain flour, sifted
• ¾ of a teaspoon of baking powder
• ¾ of a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• Pinch of salt
• 250ml semi-skimmed milk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 170°C (fan) / 190°C / 375°F / gas mark 5. Put your cupcake cases into the cupcake tins.

Melt the chocolate. You can either use a microwave (30 secs on medium power, stir then repeat) or melt it in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. I use the water method because I've burnt chocolate far too many times in the microwave.

Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until pale and smooth. This should take about 3-5 minutes with an electric mixer. I actually do this by hand with a trusty wooden spoon as with a mixer I tend to coat the room with bits of mixture.

Beat the egg yolks in a separate bowl for several minutes. I use the electric mixer for this instead as you need clean beaters and otherwise I have to stop and wash up!
Slowly add the egg yolks to the creamed mixture and beat well. Then add the melted chocolate and beat well.

Combine the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate and salt in a separate bowl. Put the milk into a jug and add the vanilla extract.
Add a third of the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and beat well. Then add a third of the milk and beat well. Repeat until all combined. This is the point where I call Anthony to come and wash up the bowl that had the flour in it so I can use it for the icing.

In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form. Then carefully fold the egg whites into the batter using a metal spoon.

Fill the cupcake cases about two-thirds full. The batter may be very runny so you may need to put it into a jug to make this easier. I haven't needed to do this, but then I haven't baked for years so the batter didn't seem that runny to me.

Bake for 20-22 minutes (15 minutes for mini-size). Remove from oven and cool in the tins for 10 minutes before putting them on a wire rack or breadboard to finish cooling.

While the cakes are baking, I make the icing!

Icing

(makes enough to ice 15-20 regular or 60 mini cupcakes) Yes, you get more icing than cupcakes but it's all good. Mine goes in a plastic tub in the fridge to eat later ;-)

• 175g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
• 225g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon semi-skimmed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 250g icing sugar, sifted

Melt the chocolate as before. I just use the same bowl and same simmering saucepan.

Beat together the butter, milk, vanilla and icing sugar until smooth. I use a wooden spoon to start with and then use the electric mixer once all the icing sugar has mixed in. When smooth, add the melted chocolate and beat well.
If the icing looks too runny, just keep beating. Mine is usually thick enough for a spoon to stand upright in it.

Once your cupcakes are cool, ice them!

---------

The cupcakes apparently keep well for three days without icing. I can say with certainty that even with icing they still taste fine after 5 days. Airtight containers required of course.

Chocolate-wise, I've discovered the perfect stuff at Aldi. It comes in a bar of 150g and each bar is split into 6 25g bars. So I buy two and then just use 125g for the cakes. Cuts down on the faffy measuring!

The first time I made these it took me ALL DAY. This is because I was going very slowly and carefully and also because I didn't have enough bowls. I had to keep stopping to wash things up. Now I end up using a cereal bowl for the flour mixture and the separated eggs (and to beat the yolks in), this makes things a bajillion things easier and quicker. When I made the pictured cakes I actually made a double batch and it only took a couple of hours from start to finish (including doing the icing).

I'm sorry for the lack of photographs, but since the man who was supposed to be taking them got distracted by World of Warcraft I'll have to add them in next time I make a batch!

Has it really...

...been three months?!

Doesn't feel like it.

Anyways, I am here and I am fine (but since most of you follow me on Twitter anyway you all knew that...) I've just been busy and had nothing to blog about.

Well nothing to blog about is a bit of a fib, after all I have bought my first home and moved into it in the past few weeks, but I just had no urge to blog about anything, so I didn't.

About the only thing I did fancy blogging about were the AMAZING cupcakes that I baked a couple of weeks back. Since the last time I made a cupcake or anything that wasn't a packet mix was back before Miss Emily started school (19 years ago) it was a little scary.

Here are my beautiful tasty cupcakes:



Nom, nom, nom, nom...

Otherwise, the boxes are gradually getting unpacked, work is crazy (but will settle down after tomorrow), Esme has been not very well but is getting much better, Foley is a cute little Terror, Anthony is grumpy cos I keep coughing all night (stupid winter colds) but looks very nice in a tux...


...and I'm getting bookshelves for my birthday.

Have a truly lovely Christmas folks, I'm not going to promise to post more in the New Year, let's just see what happens.

xxx

I didn't cook...

...Cheese and Corn Pudding or Ragout of Venison with Wild Mushrooms or Creamy Tarragon Chicken this weekend. I didn't cook Beef Wellington either.

Instead we had roast pork with roast potatoes and parsnips. Lovely. Not photogenic though, sorry.

As well as that we also broke a world record - "Shortest Amount of Time Spent in Ikea and Actually Managing to Buy What You Wanted".

This is a picture of my old desk back when I'd just moved into this house (note hideous rental curtains and the evil pinkness of my uncovered armchair).



This was OK back when I first got it, but now it was just annoying. The top was all warped, the whole thing wobbled like hell whenever you typed and the chair wouldn't fit under it properly meaning that you couldn't actually get close in.

So I have been hunting for desks and failing to find one that I liked. Then some clever person posted a link to Ikea Hacker on Twitter and there I got a few ideas.

Then I went on the Ikea website and plotted and planned. I had to do lots of this so that Anthony would think a trip to Ikea was actually a good idea.

We went on Sunday morning and got there about 10.30...we left an hour later. (They open for browsing at 10 and for sales at 11, there were only about 20 cars in the car park when we got there and no dawdling people AT ALL).

That hour saw us locate the table top, table legs, shelf and kitchen cabinet legs that we needed. It also included the obligatory hot dog and trip to the food shop for pink mushrooms and a bag of Daim bars.

Sunday afternoon was spent creating a masterpiece (hence the no faff roast for dinner).

May I present for your viewing pleasure, my new desk.



(Note lovely cream curtains, throw disguised armchair and also new blue rug to try and protect the hideously cheap carpet from dying under the chair castors).

All solid pine which has made the living room smell absolutely lovely.

It's also made me much more confident about creating the desk space I will have one day when we actually own a place and can build proper fixed-to-the-wall things.

I have always been...

...domestically challenged.

My house is a mess, I loathe washing up and when I think about cooking properly I tend to come over a little faint.

I just don't have a very tidy life. When I do try to have a tidy life, or when someone tries to help me have a tidy life, things I need tend to vanish. (Like the sewing threads we spent 15 minutes looking for last night that had vanished after Anthony cleared up the living room) (they turned up behind the radiator...neither of us knows how they got there).

One of the things I am determined to do (apart from buy a dishwasher) is to cook actual proper meals. Not that I live on microwave rubbish, but it is mostly whack-it-in-the-oven-and-forget-about-it food.

So today (after drooling over it for four months) I finally bought this book.



I had intended to buy it post-Christmas (when it was half price) with some of my Christmas/Birthday vouchers (that I never got - wahhh!) but couldn't. But since with my discount it was only £16.75 I decided that I'd waited long enough. (and yes, it is still cheaper on Amazon and on Waterstones.com but buying it from my store helps to pay my wages).

So now I am trying to decide what I should cook on Sunday...

Cheese and Corn Pudding?
Ragout of Venison with Wild Mushrooms?
Creamy Tarragon Chicken?

Or I could always try the dish I talked about with Anthony during our first ever MSN chat...Beef Wellington.

Probably not

I love the fact it has all the basic dishes in, as well as some fancier ones that it makes sound easy. I love the DVD that comes with it containing step-by-step techniques on everything from chopping herbs, to cooking pasta, to making caramel, to gutting and boning fish. (and they're all in the back of the book too).

I especially love the shopping list book that comes with it. Pocket-sized and containing the ingredients and serving sizes for every single recipe. It's gone straight into my bag and will be perfect for the inevitable time when I haven't thought out what to cook and we're in the supermarket looking for something for dinner.

My grand plan (and it's cunning too) is to try and cook something every Sunday. It'll be for Sunday lunch on 3 of them, and then something quicker and easier on the Sunday that I work. This way I can still have a sense of achievement after one of those Sundays where we don't go out and just flake out and watch the Grand Prix/Numbers/CSI / play WoW / sew.

I shall even try and take a picture of my weekly dish, possibly even with Anthony's flash camera!

Tuesday's...

...To Do List
(red items are uncompleted)

• Clear off dining room table and polish


• Empty bins


• Empty cat litter trays


• Put black bags into wheelie-bin


• Descale kettle


• Sort bottles for recycling/Paul


• Take down Christmas/Birthday cards


• Change Ecological Wall Calendar to Winter/Spring


• Update Books Read in 2009 list


• Listen to some classical music (in an attempt to be able to name all the pieces I know by ear eg. Pachelbel's Canon or 'Pizzicata' from Sylvia)


• Play some Warcraft


• Watch some things from the V+ box (cos it's filling up!)


• Spend some time fussing the pussycats


• Work on my cross-stitch


• Do washing-up

Quite a productive day really...shame about the washing up though...just ran out of time...*whistles innocently*