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.