Sunday Pudding

There was no Saturday Pudding this week - it was Carnival day here yesterday and to be honest, everyone was very lucky to get anything to eat at all, let alone pudding! But today I made a creme caramel - did less caramel (in the very likely false assumption that it would be better for me!) and stuffed it full of fresh raspberries, loganberries and strawberries. Mr Stressy had lots of cream on his, I was good and didn't have any! (cream that is, not pudding!)

Glad to see the diets are going well everyone. I'm trying, but it's so difficult. People who say 'oh it's far too hot to eat chocolate' are either lying, insane or plain wierd. It is never too hot for chocolate - a mars bar straight from the fridge? Yummy, scrummy for my tummy!

I am starting to feel a bit bogged down by all the knitting I have got to do. There is just so much - loads of half finished stuff, the Golden Wedding Blanket is already falling behind schedule, oh so many single socks, the Soho wrap, the little bunny egg cosies promised as presents, a new pattern for a hedgehog which is just desperate to be cast on and of course the Mystery Blanket. I think it's time for another WIP week. I shall try very hard and get some stuff completed this week - will also try hard to blog every day so you can see what I'm up to. Have no cakes this week, husband is away, no visitors, I should manage tons of stuff. (But what's the betting I end up spending hours browsing through Ravelry instead?)

Irene and Nora (and diet news)

It's just too hot for me. Too much sun. Too much heat. Too many sweaty bodies. For the first time in quite a while I've had a cake to do - the icing does not like hot weather, it becomes very soft. Making models is really difficult - all the icing wants to do is make a big sticky shapeless blob on the board. This cake is for a work colleague of Mr Stressy - twins, and all she gave me was a very old black and white photo and said she wanted it 'pretty with the twins on the side'. Why do people do it to me? So I have been up until 1am every night this week trying to get this decorated in the cool of the evening.

And I am now rather tired.

But anyway, enough of all this, sorry it's a day late, but how are all the diets going? Dotty Cookie let me know straight away on Thursday (weigh day) that she has lost an amazing 4lb! Great stuff Dotty, I'm obviously up for competition with the raffle. Oh, and me? I've lost 3lb. What about everyone else?

It is not too late to join in with this. All you do is send me something fabulous and crafty that you really love, pledge to lose weight and for every pound you lose, you get one raffle ticket. Even if you put weight back on next time, it still doesn't alter the fact that you have your tickets. I will do a raffle draw sometime like New Year's Day and see who wins which goodies. But be warned, I'm a woman on a mission, I don't want to lose my Posh Yarn! (And I need to fit into some of my clothes rather than buying a bigger size - again)

Saturday (and Sunday) pudding

So keen am I to win back my hard-earned Posh Yarn that I have had fruit salad for pudding two days in a row. No chocolate, no cream, no fatty stuff. I have been good. But oh, what's that lurking at the side of my dish? Couldn't possibly be home-made summer fruit ice cream (yet another must have book!) could it? Well, come now, you didn't expect miracles straight away did you?

Too much!

While 'chatting' with WMK last night, we both decided that there was , how do I put this delicately, too much of us. We have both decided that enough is enough and drastic measures must be taken. Dare I mention the dreaded D word (diet) ? No, I thought not.

Anyway, we decided to start a club right here on this blog for us and anyone else who wants to join in and lose weight. Starting from now, we are trying to shed a few pounds. Well, maybe more than a few. OK then, lots and lots.

The incentive? Well, to join this club, you must send me a skein of yarn, some gorgeous fabric or anything crafty that you really like, that you would like to own. For every pound you shed, you win a raffle ticket and go into a draw to take place sometime in the future (New Year's Day possibly). If enough people join, there shall be a first, second and third prize. If no-one else joins us, then it's just a draw between the two of us!


I have started it all off with a skein of hand-spun yarn from the Felt Studio and a skein of Posh Yarn. Now I really, really want to keep these, so the only way to keep them is to lose loads of weight and then win the raffle.

What do you think? Anyone else up for this?

Send me something fabulous and crafty, lose weight (gain it or stay the same and no raffle tickets for you I'm afraid!) win tons of stuff back. Cheaper than weight watchers I think. I shall trust your honesty - anyone who says they've lost 14 pounds in one week will be pushing my good nature.

Weigh days are Thursdays - don't tell me your weight, just how much you've lost each week. Shall I put it in the side bar like a leader board? (Can someone very clever tell me how to do that?) (And is there anyone really clever who can do linky buttony thingy?)

Martha

I was bad - again. I succumbed to the Posh Yarn Sale on Sunday. But tell me - could you have passed this by? I have had many favourites over the years, but this one, oh my word, this one really has done it for me. Martha in Evanescent.

The pattern is already lined up - I fully intend casting on tonight. After the ironing, the cooking, the baking, the cake decorating, the taxiing and whatever else it is I have to do. But you know what? I'm not sure I'll be doing any of it. I'm swooning at the thought of knitting this up. (Startitis is still alive and tormenting me!)

I've never used Martha before, so in the interest of Market Research, I just had to do it didn't I?

Food for thought

Hugh would be proud. Saturday pudding was another leftover affair. Chocolate and banana ice cream (made with bananas that were brown and spotty and quite horrid to eat as a banana - but mighty fine in ice cream), some leftover (home made, she adds virtuously!) chocolate sauce, palmier butterflies (puff pastry trimmings from another pud), and in season English strawberries. It was clean dishes all round chez Stash Basket!

It seems almost flippant to talk about eldest son's trip now and I don't want to appear morbid, but I shall just tell you very briefly that he enjoyed the whole experience. I wonder if 'enjoyed' is the right word. He went to France to the Battlefields of the First World War and came back with a great many pictures - I shall just show you this one, my favourite of the whole lot.

I cried looking at the photos. Such a waste. So many young lives snuffed out. It affected him too. He had not wanted to go on this trip, but both Mr Stressy and I insisted that he should go.

It shocked him to see graves of soldiers who died at the same age he is now - remember that naive certainty that you're immortal? He even found the name of a soldier whose body had never been found with the same name as him. He has grown up a lot in the last 2 days.

I really do strongly believe that this sort of trip should be compulsory. But I also fully recognise that it is not a cheap trip. I also fully recognise that no way could I ever go there - I would cry all the time and would be a complete and utter wreck.

Suffice to say, Lest We Forget.