as i said in the last post but one, i’ve been tagged by a couple of people, and i did promise to catch up, so while i’m here….

1) from arkonite babe, the a – z of homemaking:

2) from Sharon at Finding Simplicity, also the a-z of homemaking – and Sharon, i hope you feel better soon!

3) from Donna at A More Green and Simple life, the 6 things meme. She’s also having the most wonderful adventure with her children and Chipper Twinkletoes, the Christmas Elf who’s come to stay. I want children so i can do this with them!!!

both behind the cut, to save space…..

A to Z of homemaking:

A is for Aprons – yes/no? If yes, what’s your favourite?
Yes, but I’m not very good at wearing them! I have quite a few, but two main ones – a sort of unpleasant yellowy orange chefs apron (as in, covers from collarbone to knee, rather than the waist to knee kind, which is what i think of as a pinny) and which is stained and well used – i use it when i’m doing a mass baking session. The other was a gift from Michiel’s two adorable nieces when we visited last summer – a Dutch apron, with the Dutch colours and a couple of little china clogs at the bottom. I haven’t worn that for baking yet, i don’t want to get it dirty, but i will on 27th, to show my family what a pretty apron it is.

B is for Baking – favourite thing to bake?
ooooh. toughie. I love anything creative, but i hate making pastry. if only because pastry is a right b****** and can fail. But once the dough has been rolled out and I’m confident its going okay, i like making pies and things like that – I love doing mince pies for this reason. Same with biscuits. I have christmas cookie cutters, and lots of food colouring. Did you know you can mix them with egg yolk to make “inks” which you can then paint onto biscuits? Fun to do!!!

C is for Clothesline – do you have one?
yes we do. Its a rope stretched between 3 trees, although its broken on one side, its been raining so hard we’ve more or less gotten used to hanging clothes up inside instead. If we’re still here when spring rolls around we’ll replace it then. We have an old fashioned wooden rack above the bath on pulleys, so the clothes can be pulled up out of the way of the bath while they dry, and a couple of free standing clothes horses.

D is for Donuts – have you ever made them?
yes, but when i was a teenager at school. I’ve not made them as an adult. I don’t like working with boiling oil very much, although I will when i have to.

E is for Every Day – one homemaking task you do every day.
Cooking. Thats about the only thing that needs doing absolutely every day – Michiel handles the bulk of the washing up, thankfully.

F is for Freezer – do you have a separate deep freeze?
Yes i do. Its a large upright freezer that stands opposite my fridge.
G is for Garbage Disposal Unit – do you have one?
Not in the sense of having a unit built into the sink. we compost what we can – we have a dalek in the garden – and put the rest into the rubbish. We should recycle, really. *hangs head in shame*.

H is for Handbook – what’s your favourite homemaking resource?
I don’t think i really have one…. I have a number of cookery books (two shelves full, with other ones scattered around the place) and some other books on different subjects, like cleaning (How to clean just about everything!) and at least one self sufficiency guide (John Seymour, i think is the author). that and the ‘net. I do have a folder on the shelf above my computer which contains all the recipes i’ve copied out from the ‘net, and a garden diary, which sez gave me. I think they’re the closest things. That and my household management books (a large book which i use as a to-do, and two small books which are used as a price book and a book to detail what i spend, where i spend, menu planning and shopping lists).

I is for Ironing – love or hate it?
It doesn’t bother me. Not my favorite thing ever. I tend to either iron as i go, or let it build up to a huge mountain, get fed up with it hogging space, then decide to do it – i usually put a DVD on the box, and iron away to that. I find it quite relaxing.

J is for Junk Draw – yes/no? If yes, where is it?
A drawer? are you kidding? we have a whole walk in closet!!

K is for Kitchen – colour and decorating scheme?
oh now… we’re getting serious aren’t we? You know, when i fantasise about winning the lottery, its my kitchen I focus on!!! *cracks her fingers outwards in preparation for serious typing….* my kitchen would be a long room. At one end is an old cottage style fireplace, cast iron, with the ability to have either a wood or coal fire in it. there are windows either side of it, but the whole idea is that that end doubles as a sort of living room, with a couple of really old comfortable chairs in front of the fire, no TV, just the chairs, and maybe a knitting/sewing basket by one of them. And a rug for Jess to lie on. At the other end it opens out onto a large double glazed conservatory, with a dining table in the room. that’s the breakfast room. In the middle is the kitchen: an island with loads of space on top – marble worktops, beautifully arranged drawers so that most things are tucked away in storage. The washing up bowl is on the island as well. Off to one side, along the wall, is an aga type oven, which provides the hot water for the house as well. Either side of the Aga are two doors – one leads into a storage room where all the dry goods are kept, large boxes of rice, flour, etc., all the tins and so on. A pantry, I guess you’d call it. The other door leads to the laundry room. On the other side is a large range cooker with a seperate oven, for those days when you dont’ want the aga on (middle of summer!), and various other cupboards, and windows looking out over the garden. The back door is in this wall as well. There’s a small fridge tucked underneath the island, but that’s purely to hold a small supply of milk and whatever is needed for the day’s cooking. Out of the back door, is a small covered walkway leading off to the cold stores, a seperate building. There, there is a cheese room, a walk in freezer and a walk in fridge. looking out from the back door is a large herbal garden, which you walk through to get to get to the greenhouse, a very large greenhouse growing supplies of vegetables and fruit to last us all year. On the other side of the greenhouse is a large vegetable plot and orchard. Although not strictly the kitchen its so much a part of the whole thing, the whole dream, that it can’t be left out. The whole style is an ecletctic mix of country cottage and modern wood/marble, with steel where necessary (like in places like the cheese room where hygeine is paramount). Self Sufficiency is the word – and of course we compost and recycle as much as possible. I’d also like a farm, where we could have access to chickens, eggs, pigs, milk and beef. I’d employ someone to run that for me though. I’m not deluded enough to think i could rival Stonehead in that sense – I’m nowhere near as fit as he is!!

L is for Love – what’s your favourite part of homemaking?
cooking. silly question!

M is for Mop – do you have one?
yep. a cheap mophead type. Nothing fancy.

N is for Nylons – machine or hand wash?
I don’t wear them often, when i do, it tends to be either opaque tights or stockings. Now, stockings don’t usually last long enough for me to wash them, but when i do, the machine. tights go in the machine.

O is for Oven – do you use a window or open the oven door to check?
Open the door. the oven i have has the oven beneath the grill and cooker so its just too dark to see if stuff is done with any kind of accuracy.

P is for Pizza – what do you put on yours?
mmm. from the local takeout place? a meat feast, which is salami, tandoori chicken, and minced beef. It normally comes with chillis, but they’re too hot for me, so i get them to put mushrooms on instead. When at home though, its pepperoni or ham and mushroom. sometimes chicken.

Q is for quiet – what do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?
surf the net. sew. knit. read. watch the box. sometimes two or more at the same time.

R is for Recipe Card Box – yes/no? If yes, what does it look like?
An A5 size clip folder, covered with wrapping paper and stickybacked plastic to protect it. Most of the recipes are just tucked in the back of it, its part of a wider household management journal.

S is Style of House – what style is your house?
Groundfloor flat, part of a purpose built (1975) building with a communal hallway and front door leading to our own front door. we have a backdoor too leading onto a largeish garden.

T is for Tableclothes – do you use them?
the table i have is rather an old one, an antique given to me by my grandparents 15 odd years ago. its wood, of the kind that would stain if anything wet goes on it, so yes, i use a table cloth. Its rare that i take the protective cover off to expose the wood. usually only for christmas or very special meals.

U is for Under The Kitchen Sink – organised or toxic wasteland?
Organised. mixing bowls, stacked up, a few bottles of chemicals (washing up liquid, vinegar, stardrops, bleach and furniture polish) and a holder with rags, sponges and binliners.

V is for Vacuum – how many times a week?
Once a week. if that. We sweep more often, once a day, as we’ve laminate flooring throughout most of the flat (excepting the kitchen and bathroom which have lino, which is also swept).

W is for Wash – how many loads of washing do you do each week?
One. We alternate between clothes and towels/sheets, pretty much. I do a load when it needs doing, pretty much, but that works out to about once a week. sometimes more. *shrug*.

X’s – Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off?
Yep. I’ve tried various forms of it over the years, from putting it on the blog, on a seperate blog, to just making lists – i’ve been doing it in a proper book for a while now and that seems to work the best.

Y is for Yard – who does what?
well at the moment, nobody’s doing anything! Mostly its me. Michiel helps out with the heavy duty stuff.

Zzzz’s – what’s the last homemaking task you do before bed in the evening?
move Jess’s bed in to the bedroom and give her her nightly treats. That and make Michiel a pot of tea in the large teapot.

6 things meme:

  1. When i sleep, i sleep either curled up on my side, or on my front with my arms up and under my pillow with the head on my pillow. When i’m cold, i tuck the end of the duvet in between my neck and shoulder, then, with my feet, tuck the end of the duvet underneath itself, then put my feet in the space between the two layers of duvet. End up all snug as a bug in a rug. lovely!
  2. I dye my hair. red at the moment, although its been purple. its thinning though, its never been very thick, and its getting worse as i get older. 😦 its very long, which i do love. I don’t want to go back to short hair.
  3. I have a fixation with remembering what actors and actresses have been in. I’ll be watching a programme on the box and go.. “I’ve seen that actor before. where?”, and it’ll nag me to the point of insanity. Before i used to mutter and chew over it and get quite stressed. These days, wikipedia and IMDB are wonderful! I love making connections. Makes sense of the world. Drives Michiel nuts.
  4. If i’m not doing the lottery/kitchen fantasy (see above), i’m doing the lottery/craftroom fantasy. A large, well lit room, large glass windows, large tables, all the tools needed to do craft stuff, from a sewing machine, a computerised embroidery machine, an overlocker, machines for cardmaking, a really good printer, photocopier and scanner attached to a computer. very large supplies of paper, ribbon, card, etc., and material in different colours, inks, stamps, punches, stencils, powders, pens, pencils, paintbrushes… you got it. Its an OCD’s dream, the storage…! *feels weak*… the storage is a major part of it. I love Lakeland’s catalogue. Its required toilet reading in our house.
  5. at home, in summer: flipflops. in winter: socks and slippers.
  6. I love having my things around me. Granted, we have a storage problem here that doesn’t help matters, but even if we were somewhere that had plenty of storage, i would still feel most comfortable in a room that had plenty of books on shelves. I need my things around me. Its comforting in a way that i really can’t explain. The other thing i need is to keep the kitchen well stocked. Again, i can’t explain this, but i tend to get rather grumpy when the kitchen supplies run low, and because of money problems we can’t replace things. I feel all insecure and stuff. Drives Michiel nuts. (I do wonder sometimes that he loves me…)

I’m not tagging anyone with these because its just the wrong time of year for them for most people, but if anyone wants to do them, feel free! and make sure you tell me you’ve done them!