monday

sadly had to go to work. I love BST but its so much hassle with the body clock 1st few days. Anyway went to work and absolutely everyone was asking if we finally put the fence up.Good weather at the weekend etc. Must just talk about nothing else. Sad eh! There is actually a small bit more to my life. Tho probably not much really. Its all ongoing kitchens and gardens and just life.............Anyway.What I did do yesterday, was cut down the front garden Munsters/Addams familly style hedge. ( very attractive to keep but makes the front room very dark and my cockateils need more light.) Well I cut down half of one side of hedge. Then I found birds nests. Not just one either. It just seemed wrong to cut it down further and I am sorry really to do it at all. The front room is much much lighter tho and we actually get some early morning sunshine. Couldnt handle making them homeless. They are not currently nesting in them but could be roosting at night so still making them homeless, which is no fun lets face it. So I stopped. Also was very knackered. Sat down and recovered for a few minutes. Then dogs barking cos M is home. Then M decided to finish what I have started. Cut off other side. We have a mountain of dying branches in front garden. Still difficult to PDPA you for inert stuff. Will get rid when have time. Should have done fence maybe. Trouble was had cupboards in boxes all over house from Ikea adventure last week so needed to get them up in kitchen. They are looking good. Been told by friend ( who also hated Coventry Ikea) that Milton Keynes Ikea is much better so intend to go there next time. Infact not just better but very nice!

Dont buy online from Dorothy Perkins.

Well have to attend a trade fair next week in Germany for the company I work for. Director has decided everyone is to wear white shirts. Shouldnt be a problem really but I dont own a white shirt. Went online shopping for company and found great white shirts for all female staff so we all match and only £3 each from Dorothy Perkins. Useless shop!!!! They only cancelled the order cos I sent it to work instead of the address my card is registered to. Didnt even send me an email to let me know. I actually ordered on 18th March but tried tracking the order today to see when we can expect delivery and there isnt one. So I rang their customer services and got told for security reasons they had cancelled. I mean why couldnt they send me an email? Anyway cant order now since good value white shirts all sold out and that means I will have to spend my Saturday and possibly Sunday looking for a white shirt for work. Useless or what! AND they didnt even offer me free delivery but instead said to get them on time now I will need to pay extra for express delivery! Cheek! I am not happy and have decided will boycott DP from now on since never rated them much anyway and havent had this problem from anyone else. Also regularly send stuff to other address other than where card is registered cos rarely in when they want to deliver and dogs so far not learned to answer door to postman - (thank goodness for that at least!!!) and no one else has had a problem with it. Dont believe card provider cancelled either cos have just sent several things to my Mums and they havent even queried. Dont buy online from Dorothy Perkins. Be warned!

A Lazy Easter Weekend and nothing achieved

Thursday before Easter got home to a parcel from Animal Aid which was my easter eggs. Vegan fondant cream eggs - banana and blackcurrant centres and only ordered on Wednesday so have to say very impressed with the fast delivery. Didnt expect to get them till after Easter since left it so late ordering! They must have sent them straight out.
Easter Friday:
Well finding it hard to get time to post right now. Spending most of spare time making soap and cosmetics. Been reading Tatty`s blog more than posting on my own. Should really inspire me to get round to it but have had a series of disasters recently. Went to Ikea to finally buy rest of kitchen cupboards and even tho we had all codes etc so they didnt have to do anything except give me the order they gave me the wrong ones and had to go back to the kitchen section when we had finally got to the end of the market place. We also bought a new worktop to replace the existing one and go over the new base unit. My soap making has meant I have damaged the original worktop with Sodium Hydroxide solution. I could sand it down and re-oil it but it still will not fit over the new cupboard so really we need a new one anyway to go where the new cupboards are going to go since they are filling in the gap left by the disasterous black glass freezer incident when it broke and scattered black glass everywhere. That was certainly one prize not worth winning. I will not bother entering any more competitions like that one in future. Its the newly opened Ikea in Coventry we went to and I have to say its rubbish next to the one we usually go to in Wednesbury. The staff are ignorant, they do not have a clue when ordering kitchen cupboards despite working in the kitchens area, they try to sell you things you dont want and get you to pay for the kitchen to be fitted and they do not know as much as me about what they should be doing! And I am certainly no expert. I thought the whole idea of Ikea kitchens is you can buy a few cupboards at a time and build up your kitchen as you can afford to do it. Not apparently at the Coventry branch although the Wednesbury branch actively encourage this. Have decided whole incident was sooooo frustrating I am not ever going to use that particular branch again. Shall try out Milton Keynes next time since it is half the distance as Wednesbury although still a bit further than Coventry.
Saturday:
Got up and ordered lots of stuff for cosmetics making and waiting excitedly for it to arrive. The project continues. Didnt get to Incredible Veggie Roadshow. Well we set off but weather was so horrible we ended up going to Tescos and buying some alcohol (brandy - an Easter treat!) and a Harry Potter DVD then home to light the woodburner and put some shelves up. One set of 4 shelves for some CDs and books and also a shelf above the bird cages for the cockateils to roost on. The birds are much happier now they feel they have a real home. Amazing how a simple shelf can make a small animal feel at home really. Then we settled down to watch TV curled up with a brandy and cuddling the dogs. Then watched Sharp for the rest of the day. Hadnt seen most of the episodes tho so not a complete waste of time and I do like Sharpe. Tho why its on the History channel I really do not know. Anyway could have been a worse saturday.
Easter Sunday:
Woke at 5:45am by annoying dogs jumping up and down ontop of me and licking my face. It was snowing. Not that I am suggesting annoying dogs knew that. I think it had just started since just a few flakes were falling but by 7am was about 3 inches deep. Took dogs very long walk over fields and they came off leads since no dogs or people (tho not surprising really considering weather! Only Mad people were out in that!) They played with each other and wrestled in the snow which was lovely for them and very unusual cos normally wouldnt trust them to be loose. I love the way snow makes dogs act like puppies. Then we heard sheep. Luckilly dogs didnt. Narrow escape since in next field. Farmers do shoot dogs where we live if they get into sheep fields too. Lots of the neighbours have been warning us. They went back on leads and home and they had eggs on toast and we had toasted hot cross buns for breakfast. Well twas Easter after all. Tho both dogs are fat and should really be dieting. Have to be vaccinated soon and have no waists. Last year I was in trouble with vets cos they couldnt see their ribs but they did still have waists then. This year they are even fatter. They had best go on a diet after Easter. Lots of coffee and more TV and then another afternoon of Sharpe! We ate some of the cream eggs which were very good. By lunchtime the snow had melted. Trouble was by then neither of us felt at all like putting kitchens together so we didnt. We need to cut teh worktop outside in the garden and really it was not the weather for that at all. Good excuse. I suppose it wasnt a bad Easter but we were not at all productive. We still havent got a fence round half of the garden ( it was not at all fencing or gardening weather) and we have still only got half a kitchen. The cream eggs were well worth the money tho.
Monday:
We put the kitchen base unit into the gap where it will eventually be fixed and realised we had not bought the wall fixings anyway so maybe yesterday wasnt such a waste of time cos we are so disorganised we couldnt have done it anyway. If we had put the wall cupboard together it would have needed to be stored somewhere and might have got damaged. Luckily the shops were open again on Monday so we went on an outing to Wickes and bought some wall fixings. They had some work benches on offer and we were considering buying one for M`s workshop - if it ever happens, but the one in the shop was so rickety he decided against it and said he would be better off with a normal kitchen worktop. So much for expensive workbenches. Probably for the best anyway cos it would have ended up on the credit card and we are supposed to be trying to pay it off. Also we would need to put it somewhere while we reorganise the shed and we have no space for storage. Still didnt get round to putting up the second cupboard which is a corner wall cabinet or cutting the work top to fit.
Tuesday - back at work. Starting to really want to make a go of this self employed soapmaker idea. I hate working for someone else. I am sure it is going to be very hard work and long hours but it will be worth all the hassle. I think the self employed way is ultimately the way to become free. As much as anyone in this industrialised world can be free.
Wednesday - whilst sciving at work and browsing the internet remembered you can make a pH indicator from red cabbage. Did it in my University days as a lab but forgot all about it till found this blog on soap making. I will have to remember to add it to interesting places infact. Sent text to M to buy one ( red cabbage) on way home from work. Going to try it out on home made soap and see if it works. Well they used it in 19th Century and it is better than not having a pH meter of any kind. Will post results later. How exciting all this experimenting is. Tho will have to buy pH meter by next January if really want to go into business cos dont think Trading Standards will like my Red cabbage idea much even if it does work. Apparently you can also use it to colour lip gloss. A natural colourant. Now thats worth an experiment! I will try making lip gloss next.

mad weekend

Well had a mad weekend. It rained torrentially so still didnt get the fence up. M put some laminate down in our minute hall which looks loads better than the old manky white carpet. Took great pleasure in fact in ripping manky old carpet up and throwing out into rain in back garden. Then thought about PDPA and didnt want a Notice to get served on us by local council so went out and got wet and put into bin. Best not to upset neighbours anyway!!. Got round to planting some seed potatoes as well ( in the rain) in a large plastic bin. We possibly planted too many layers tho since on previous years have only done 3 layers and did 4. Well only had about 5 spuds left so decided to just go for it rather than use another large pot. Really we could do with buying some more seed potatoes since i bought 3 large sacks for growing on balconies and we now have none left to plant in them!. Have about a month to get em planted tho. Broad beans coming up well too and had to take lid of propogater since they have reached it and dont want to stunt their growth. Went to Northampton to Incredible Veggie roadshow and got there to find out it is not on till next week! Felt a right wally!! Anyway will go next week instead. Good thing was bought some lovely baseball boots with embroidered sides and espadrille soles. No good in rain but hopefully at some point this summer it will be hot and I will get to wear em. Also Northampton market very good for curtain material. Found some for £2:50 a metre which will buy next week after Veggie Roadshow. Have to measure bedroom windows first tho! Sunday drank far too much very nice cider ( bought from sunday times wine club for same price as nice cider in tesco!). Horrible hangover this morning. Think we drank 4 bottles and also half a bottle of Glenfiddich. Not very clever night before work!. Must have been getting ready for St Paddys!!!! Woke at 5am this morning feeling very sick and ill. M was really nice to me and made a rasher sarnie. A bit like a BLT but with fake bacon. Didnt help much but the thought was there. Then he must have had good Karma cos his car sailed thru MOT. Realised its best friend in Brightons daughters birthday in less than a month so arranging to visit sometime soon. That should be fun. Managed to get thru day at work feeling awful and need to go home and drink gallons of fruit juice. No alcohol tonight! Need to recover.

more fencing, Dover to Calais-not, and starting my own business

Well had a very busy week hence no blogging! Saturday went shopping all day so not much to write about that. Sunday put up the rest of the fence posts and concreted round em. Managed to do all 10 on the one side so it made last weeks effort look really pathetic. Found out next door nosey woman goes to church Sunday morning so we got up very early and had finished in our garden by the time old nosey was back and ready to attack her own garden. Great way to do the garden. Cant wait for fence to be up so we can just hide when shes around in our numerous huge sheds and pretend we cant hear her. Anyway looks like we may actually finally succeed in getting one side of garden fenced by end of this weekend. Next week is Easter too so long weekend. Wouldnt like to guarentee we are committed enough to really do the whole of other side then but like to hope. Once fence was up we could ignore the rest of the world and relax into getting drunk. Well it was a sunday!! Anyway went to bed very early cos we were off to Calais next morning. Got up at 3:30am!!!! set off at 4:30 armed with loads of sarnies and coffee in flask. Also chocolate, fruit etc and all usual picnic stuff. Weather was awful. Traffic terrible on M1. Torrential rain. Took 5 hours and loads of traffic jams to get to Dover so we missed intended ferry. Didnt matter we though get next one. Got to Dover after driving 160 miles and they cancelled the ferries. All ferries. Also telling us not to do a day trip since probably wouldnt be able to get back and thats if any ferries even run that day. Well apparently they did but not till about 2pm. By that time we had driven all the way back home. Have to say tho sea was impressive. Waves were about 20 feet high and it was a sight to see if you like the seaside and water. The car was actually picked up and blown accross the road. It was really weird tho cos you could actually see the wind coming towards you. I have never seen anything quite like it. We then decided cos M1 was such a nightmare at the moment to go back via M40. Took ages to get there on M25. I didnt realise how far it was to the M40 till then. We used to go that way before we moved house since it was then the shortest route but not any more. Got on M40 and still torrential rain but eventually got back. Everything seemed to be against us cos we came off M40 at Banbury but had to do a huge diversion to get to Daventry and then home. Anyway called in at Tesco in Banbury which was different to buy some margerine since we knew we needed some and we were going right past it. Anyway so we drove to Dover and back and wasted fuel but got no alcohol at all!!. It was great to finally get home. Very high winds had brought down the gate next to the house but that was easily sorted since gate is just a fence panel leaned against the gap and secured by digging copper pipes into soil and leaning against fence panel! Another job to do to house eh!. Made a nice dinner tho and had a good night in and found a kennels to put hounds in next time we go to Dover incase we really do get stranded in France which I had never even considered till now but it would be exciting if it happened! Also would be cruel and wrong to leave them the time it took. I didnt expect it to take so long to get there. The aim was a quick trip to buy alcohol and be back in a few hours. In theory and according to RAC route planner no problem but the reality was somewhat different. Got a refund on tickets but am still trying to get money back for the breakdown insurance I paid out through P&O. Will post results of that when I know them!

Back at work Tuesday and had so many quotes to get out work has become a complete nightmare. Hopefully will get on top of them by the end of the week. Starting to get really frustrated with the boredom of working for someone else. Infact starting to get info sorted about the business start up which will hopefully one day give me and M freedom. Been intouch with West Midlands Woman business start up program and am waiting to get onto a free course which is meant to help you eg do your business plan and deal with tax issues. I have already started my business plan. Its the Tax issues I am really worrying about since I have never run my own business before. I have been reading up on the legislation that accompanies my type of business. Its organic hand made soap and cosmetics by the way. Am not too sure what to call it yet. Already been making soap to perfect the techniques etc and to test it out on myself and friends before selling. Aiming to start up officially on 1st January 2009. We will see how it goes. Might end up having to put that date off if necessary depending on whether we have products that are saleable. Anyway to be legal have loads to do before I can sell including official lab testing of products and talking to Trading Standards and the Environment Agency. Sounds pretty straightforward. Also its a brilliant way to finally manage to not only set up my own company but also to combine my chemistry skills with my artistic leanings. Tho have to say the strange blue coloured soap I made on Sunday that is currently curing is a bit unusual to say the least. Also if I am going to be competitive in pricing with people like eg. LUSH I really need to use much less essential oils. I used 20 mls which is probably about £4 and made 2 bath bombs. Tho they were much larger than any I have ever seen for sale. Very good tho and very encouraging cos I hadnt made bath bombs before this. Intend to make some bubble bars this weekend and possibly more soap of a different scent. The main thing thats wrong right now is I only bought blue colouring! Ah well I will just have to buy some other colour asap. Until then all my products will just have to be either white or blue. I want to play around with glitter this week too. Well if it doesnt make for a viable company at least I shall save loads on LUSH cosmetics. have to say till I started making cosmetics I didnt realise just how much that is not organic or natural went into LUSH products! Intend for mine to be truly natural.

Fencing and annoying neighbours

Finally we started to do the garden fence. We have now been in this house for 7 months so its about time we did it!. Anyway had great fun playing with the concrete mixer. I love concrete mixers. I just love watching the sand and cement mix with the gravel and water. Maybe I should get out more. Anyway we now have 3 new bits of angle iron firmly cemented in place waiting for the rest to go in so we can put up this chain link that is currenly lying on the ground killing the lawn. Well what there is of lawn which isnt much. Not as many as I had hoped to get in but it takes longer than I expected to dig holes, hammer them in and then concrete around them. With a bit of luck in a couple of weekends time we will finally be able to watch the dogs run in the whole garden. Anyway annoying interfering next door neighbour struck again. She was actually standing hiding behind one of our sheds so we couldnt see her but checking what we were doing yesterday. You know when you get that feeling someone is watching you. Well I got it and went to have a look and there she was. She was quite embarassed to be caught out but I found it really funny. Trouble was she then had to start gardening! As soon as she sees us go into the garden she has to come along and see what we are up to. Then she starts cutting down OUR trees!!. She actually had the gall to stop us from making cement so we had to listen to her so she could get permission to cut back the trees. M copped out and said for me to go and have a look at what she was on about. In then end I said OK cut off the tops of our trees since they are next to her fence-line although on our land and not over hanging her garden at all. Then ofcourse M gets really wound up by the fact she is again interfering with our garden. Tho has to be said she has only done what I was intending to do when I have time and really has saved me a job! She does interfere tho. She actually said she hates Hawthorn and when I explained its an indeginous species and great for garden birds she just didnt get it. I think ( looking at her garden) she has moved from a city (like us) but instead of embracing nature and loving greenery she is rapidly changing her own garden into a grey, concrete wasteland! Not at all what we want. What I really cant get over is she loves the other bit of our hedge which is completely Leylandii!! very weird. I wish she would cut that back. Infact sounds like she is going to hate me when eventually I get round to obliterating all the leylandii and replacing them with Hawthorn which if we stay there long is what I shall do!. Some people really are a bit weird. Well anyway I think really she is checking we are not encroaching on her land which we wouldnt do but she is not going to like at all when her side has a 6 foot fence between our gardens. It has to go up tho and we are paying for it and intend to put it directly next to her existing fence which is falling down. She doesnt want it replaced apparently even if she isnt paying but wants to see the "vista" over all the gardens. Well with chain link she will still be able to see the "vista" but we are still having our 6 foot fence. Sadly I cant seem to get thru to her that she really would not want my 2 unruly dogs running all over her garden, fouling and generally destroying the grass which is what will happen if we dont put a fence up. We will actually lose a few inches of our own garden to do it but if the dogs get to run it will be worth it. M is now threatening to put up wooden fencing next to her garden if she carries on being annoying and hassling us. It would be a great shame to cause our green countrified garden to turn into a city thing with high fencing all down one side but I can see his point! At least then she might stop harrassing us. Luckilly the neighbour the other side is lovely.