The Morning After The Prosecco

The photo above is of my breakfast today, it's hungarian pancake (with a piece of devolay) with salad and garlic sauce from one of our favourite places, Kuchnia in Hull which is a brilliant Polish restaurant.

However, it's particularly useful today because today is a special day.

Today is the day after the "bottle of prosecco" evening.

I don't drink huge amounts as a rule. Generally on a weekend evening I'll have a beer, or maybe a glass of amaretto and coke, but that's most of the alcohol I have. Last night however, there was no beer, and I thought "hey, I know, I'll open that prosecco we've got in the fridge".

It wasn't good prosecco.

It was dry, and nasty. I poured two glasses, one for me and one for my wife, she took a sip of hers and gave it back to me.

Dear reader, you'll be pleased to know that despite the taste I stepped up, and took care of matters, and was able to add an empty prosecco bottle to the recycling at the end of the night.

So now I need a large bottle of cordial and a hungarian pancake to clear my head! 😀

In other news, my computer chair has seen better days, it was a very nice gift from a friend several years ago because he didn't need it any more, and it was narrow enough to go up to our attic (which was our computer room at the time) without having to be dismantled. But as you'll see in the image below, it was pretty badly knackered.

Not brilliant.

Anyway, I got a huge pile of fabric samples a while back (see my video for more), and they've sat in a pile for about 6 months without me really doing anything with them. This week I went off a bought some upholstery needles and a thick black thread - which turned out to be elastic 😖 - and patched it up.

Ta da!!

The sewing is rough (and actual thread rather than elastic would have been far better!) but nevertheless it's still a vast improvement on the half-naked chair I had previously. I'm hoping to spend some more time completing the patchwork look as I've still got loads of samples left over.

Before I finish I must highlight my wife's current giveaways for cross stitch fans, basically she's got 3 special halloween giveaways open at the minute, all the details are in her latest flosstube update so do watch and take part! I believe entries are drawn on the 30th or 31st because we've got to do a special video announcing the results for Halloween so do get involved now :)

Right - I'm off to eat my pancake!

Online payments

So, I've been ordering some free fabric samples online.  These are for two purposes - firstly, I'd got a vague idea that it might be nice to get a load of samples and stitch them together into something or other. And secondly (and more importantly), my wife gets a lot of parcels all the time and it'd be nice to get a few deliveries for me.

Anyhow, one of the places I went to for samples, NEXT, decided that I had to pay.

That would be, of course, to pay £0.00.  I had the choice of using a credit or debit card, a NEXT gift card, or if I wanted I could take out their NEXT credit card, and get 0% interest for three months on my purchase.

I entered my debit card details, at least the card wasn't declined...

In other news, my wife is training me to help with her burgeoning needle minder hobby, wrapping up parcels being sent all over the world.

Totally natural photo...

The instructions for wrapping the needle minders are very specific, possibly from learning that I have a tendency to deviate from instructions as much as possible - for example, when shopping, my wife might give me a list, with items on such as "ketchup". Now, I know she wants Heinz Tomato Sauce, she doesn't like any other brand, but unless she writes Heinz on the list I'm going to go and buy some other type. So she's learned to give me as little room to maneuver as possible.

But I'm still looking for where I can create havoc.  One thing is that every parcel goes with a little card with a hand written note on it, something along the lines of "Thanks for ordering xxx". I've been advised that I'll need to write some notes myself, for when I package orders up.  I've come up with a few so far:

• Thank you for your order.  This card will self-destruct in five seconds.
• Thank you for your order.  There's a secret message hidden in this box in invisible ink, use a UV darklight to read it.
• Thank you for your order. Help, I'm being held captive in a box making factory.

But suggestions are welcomed!

Be Warned...

My wife, you may be aware, has started making and selling needleminders, which are magnets used in cross stitch for holding fabric and retaining needles.  As is the requirement for anything nowadays, various social media channels have to be employed to maximise the visibility of my wife's Etsy shop (well worth a visit at www.denkaidesigns.com).

I don't often query my wife's decisions, because she is unquestionably both smarter and scarier than me, but this is an exception, because she has asked me to look after her Facebook page, as she handles the Instagram, makes videos, actually makes and sells the needleminders, and so on.

After warning her many times of the questionable wisdom of letting me loose on her page, I have accepted the challenge, and I have scheduled several posts to appear on her page (https://www.facebook.com/DenkaiDesigns) over the upcoming days.  And I welcome all suggestions on things to write about on her page, as things stand I've used the loosest of loose links to tie factoids to her hobby, writing posts along the lines of "It's probably going to be cold today... Cold like a needleminder that has been accidentally left in the fridge. Check out my Etsy shop to buy a needleminder, but don't leave it in the fridge!" so if you can think of any topical yet tenuous links to needleminders then please let me know.

So, if you would like to keep an eye on the nonsense that I've prepared for her page, do go and Like her Facebook page.  You might regret it, but don't say I didn't warn you.

PS I am absolutely delighted to be in for the public vote of the UK Blog Awards 2017!  What this means is that I need as many people as possible (yes, that includes you reading this) to vote for me, if you have 30 seconds, a name, and an email address, your vote could be the one that gets my blog up into the top 8 which will then be looked at by judges.  So it'd wonderful if you'd head over to http://www.blogawardsuk.co.uk/ukba2017/entries/blog-thog and put a vote in for me.  I'm shortlisted for 2 categories, Lifestyle and Digital & Technology, you can vote for both categories in one go from the link above, I would really appreciate each and every reader taking a minute to vote for me.  Voting ends something like the 19th of December, so vote soon!  Thank you :)

Christmas Baking

This weekend we've decided to get cracking on the Christmas decorations.  The tree took a great deal longer than expected, as I couldn't find the lights from last year - reasoning that we'd had them a number of years and was due some new ones, I headed down to our local supermarket, and bought two packs of white lights for a reasonable amount of money (£6), returned home, and set them up.

Ready to decorate.

They weren't particularly impressive.  True, with the aid of a microscope, you could indeed identify a faint luminescence from within them, but otherwise they were pretty rubbish.  Fortunately my wife was out shopping, so I sent her a text message requesting that if she happened to be in the vicinity of a shop selling lights that she get some.

She returned later with the lights, we put them on the tree, decorated it, and it looks very impressive.

Then I found the old lights.

Anyway, to my main experience of the day - every year, I state that I am going to bake a Christmas cake.  And every year, I don't.  I don't do a great deal of cooking, and I do even less baking, generally restricting myself to turning out a few cupcakes once or twice a year.

This year, I decided, would be different.

After soaking a kilo of fruit in alcohol last night, I made the cake mix.  All went reasonably well, until I put in the flour.  Using scales, I measured the right amount of flour, sieved it in, and mixed it up, but it seemed like a bit too much.

Then I weighed the remaining flour, and discovered that I had somehow managed to put twice the required amount in.

I endeavoured to resolve this by putting in more of the other ingredients (butter, sugar, and eggs) to balance out the flour.  This resulted in an increased amount of cake mix (batter?) for cooking.

At this point I discovered from my wife that I actually needed proper cake tins to cook in, I couldn't just use any old metal tin I found lying around, so went to the supermarket to get some (this was the same visit as for the underpowered lights)

After baking for about an hour and a quarter, the cakes came out like this:

So, they appear edible, and, possibly with the exception of the one on the right, aren't overly burned.  They've had another douse of alcohol, and they're now wrapped in foil and resting in tins, awaiting further dousing over the forthcoming weeks, until they get iced a week or so before Christmas.  Whilst I'm clearly going to endeavour to eat all three of them myself, I should warn anyone who might be considering visiting our house over the festive period to think twice before accepting my offer of a slice of Christmas cake :)

Do let me know how your seasonal preparations are going, if you are indeed preparing for anything seasonal! And I should say that my wife has added some new lines to her selection of needleminders, do stop by www.denkaidesigns.com and check her things out :)

And if you want more Christmas stuff, my last post was all about Christmas cakes and puddings :)

www.denkaidesigns.com

 

Why am I looking so surprised at a blank computer screen, in this totally non-staged photograph?

It's because I've heard that my wife's Etsy shop is now online, and can be found at www.denkaidesigns.com, and my jaw has dropped simply in anticipation of the amazing things she's going to have on offer!

See how surprised I look when I actually get to the website!  My cup of coffee has even disappeared!

My wife Cherise is a keen flosstuber - if you're not familiar with the term, people who cross stitch, and vlog about their hobby, are called flosstubers.  She's been making videos for a few months now, over at youtube.com/denkai (I particularly recommend the bloopers at the end of most of her videos!)

However, she has very foolishly allowed me to edit her videos, so I make GIFs like this...

Cherise has recently started making needle minders, which cross stitchers use to hold their needles in place.  She's put a ton of work into the design of her needle minders and also into the packaging, so that they're like lovely little presents that arrive in the mail.  She's also looking at expanding her range so if there's something that you want which she doesn't have in her shop currently do get in touch with her.

Cherise's latest video, check it out here :)

For myself, I'm off to Sheffield tonight to act as quizmaster at the 2016 Student Challenge Quiz Night, which should be good fun!  One of the teams is coming with me in my car so I've had to ask that I don't get a copy of the questions until I reach the venue, so there can't be any question of favouritism :)

Summer 2016 call for guest bloggers!

We set up a swimming pool in the back garden - very nice, although I'm not too sure about the warning logos...

The one on the left appears to be "Look at people in water with big left arms" whilst the one on the right is "Don't walk away from people praying"?!?

Anyway, that's not what I wanted to write about today - I'm after a few guest blog posts to fill the gaps during an upcoming summer holiday, so if you might be interested, feel free to get in touch :)

In other news, we made a couple of videos today, one of me testing my wife on phrases from the Urban Dictionary, and one where she gets her own back, testing me on cross stitch trivia.  Please feel free to check both out!

Unashamedly promoting my wife's YouTube

So, my wife has started doing YouTube videos, about cross stitch (colloquially known as "flosstube" - I thought it was some sort of deviant activity but apparently not)

Anyhow, in the first 8 hours her first vlog has been live, its pulled more views than all of my 198 videos combined did in the last 2 weeks, more likes than my channel got in the last month, and more subscribers than I've gained in the last 2 years.  I'm reluctantly forced to conclude that she's worth watching.

So, I made a video about how great she is, so people will have to go through my channel to get to hers :)

However, if you just want to dive straight into twenty minutes of flosstube goodness, here's her video :)