Obsession #2 - my sewing machine

I've always felt as though I've had an inner arty/crafty side, although as yet it has rather disappointingly failed to show its face.  This has not, however, stopped me from attempting crafty hobbies, although these have tended towards the practical rather than arty types. I was taught to knit by my nan when I was little and have periodically taken it up, although only knitted scarves (or rather "lengths" as they never materialised into actual garments!) until a year or so ago when I branched out into hats, gloves and jumpers. I even knitted a jumper for my dads birthday present! Now has come the time for me to embrace sewing. My mum has loaned me her ancient Singer machine and I've been getting involved!!

Like most things I do, I read tutorials and advice and see that there are patterns to follow and "ways" of doing things... And then I ignore it all and jump straight in! Sewing has been no different. I started with some zipper cushion covers, then by refashioning an old long black apron (the ones bar waiters often wear) into a pleated skirt. Then I decided to make a large beanbag and after that a dress to wear to my friends wedding.

And now I'm making more zipper cushion covers for my parents and I'm attempting a blouse for work, in sheer material. In at the deep end then! I'm pleased to say that nothing so far has been a disaster (after ignoring patterns and tutorials I often go back to them when I find a tricky bit) and I'm hoping that continues. 

So, the sheer blouse is what I'm currently working on and I've cut my pieces - no pattern followed, just used an existing blouse as a sort of outline and added a bit of a longer 'tail' bit at the back which seems to be in fashion right now and I think it's really pretty. 

Now, I found this wonderful tutorial which I am actually going to follow from the beginning rather than get stuck and find myself thinking "there must be an easier way!" when I'm in the middle of creating my own bizarre processes! The link is here The Habygoddess - Tutorial how to hem chiffon... and I'm off to give it a go now!

My latest obsession (#1)

Some months ago Ian returned from a trip to the local supermarket with a previously undiscovered chilli sauce. It was completely new to us, but we have since found that it has quite the worldwide following. Now we too are added to its unfalteringly enraptured consumers. "But its just chilli sauce", I hear you say, "What can be so special?"  Well, ladies and gentlemen, behold..... Sriracha sauce!!!

The ingredients claim only to be chilli and garlic, but I swear down there is some kind of class A drug in there because man, it is ADDICTIVE!! 

Due to either the fact that Sriracha goes with EVERYTHING, or just our addictions making us believe so, we use it quite often. In all fairness, the bottle has lasted a while due to only needing a small amount - it is quite potent! - but I thought I'd have a bash at making my own.

There's plenty of recipes and people's own interpretations/how-to's online so rather than unnecessarily repeating here, I'll just link to the one I used. After looking at a few I went quite simply with the one that looked the easiest!

It really was very simple and the end result is definitely worth a go. I only made a small amount in case it was a disaster, but I'm already planning a second, bigger, batch - with some adjustments...

The recipe I used specified a particular type of chilli, which I couldn't get hold of. I just used regular red chillies from the local Asian store and they have it a really fresh zingy taste, but no real depth. For my next batch I'm going to oven roast half the chillies and see if that achieves the delicious smokiness of the Flying Goose. 

Our half jar is already almost gone, so I'd better get a move on!

One year to the day

Ok, so it's actually the 18th June today so not quite one year to the day, but forgive me a little creative licence in order to make it sound better!

What have we done in our year? We decided not to return to La Plagne to do our third winter season (just as well, as the chalet sold!) because other than having a generally fabulous time and earning a bit of cash, it wouldn't really offer any new experiences - something which we were really looking for (click here to read about our previous seasons as chalet hosts). So we planned instead to go and teach English in Asia, as we both have TEFL certificates. First we though Taiwan, then South Korea, then Japan. Finally we settled on 'any of the above'! We made headway into our applications and were even offered one or two Skype interviews. Quickly, however, we were realising that the TEFL jobs market in Asia was highly competitive and the majority of people ended up working in big companies, whilst we would prefer to work in smaller schools. Anyway, we cracked on with our research/applications as it was still worth a shot. 

Meanwhile, we both managed to secure part time jobs in Heswall which was handy as it meant we could both walk to work rather than drive Agatha (she'd quickly become a nuisance in a staff car park, I think!). Ian went back to work in a restaurant where he'd worked when he was younger and I worked in the local Boots store. Perfect little jobs, for the time being, as we planned to be away again at the end of the summer. 

As the summer weeks ticked by, we somehow had a change of heart and decided that going away to Asia was also not the right thing for us to do. It all started with a conversation about where we saw ourselves in the next few years and we agreed that we'd both like a family and that we'd both like to make a permanent move to France (this part was something we'd already discussed, not as out-of-the-blue as it sounds!). We discussed this over dinner - and wine - with my parents who confessed that they too would love to retire to France but wouldn't feel comfortable/equipped to make the move themselves. And so a new beginning was born...

After several further discussions - without wine - it was agreed between the four of us that moving to France was a viable plan for us all. As my mum has just reached retirement age, she was the one really keen to make the move soon (yesterday, if she could!) but at that point we still had plans to work in Asia and earn a decent bit of cash that we could then take with us, and my dad was a bit hesitant too as he is six or seven years away from retirement and still has a lot of "earning potential". Plus the fact that we had huge amounts of research to do, and finding/buying a place can take as age too, so a rough timescale of "a couple of years" was decided upon. 

We continued to plod on with our (increasingly dissatisfying) jobs and our (increasingly fruitless) TEFL job search and I slowly came to the realisation that Asia is an awfully long way from France, which would make research trips quite a challenge, plus how much brain-space could we spare for research when starting a new job in a completely different country? That put the final nail in the Asia coffin and we started on making a new, closer-to-home plan. We sound awfully fickle, don't we?!?!

Because we now intended to be back in the UK for considerably longer than the summer we knew that we had to find somewhere new to live, as Ian's mum had kindly put us up in her house as a temporary measure. Lovely as it was, and it certainly helped us financially over the summer, it wasn't a long term solution. We started to look for "proper jobs" and a new place to live, settling - quite randomly - on Manchester. When people asked "why there" our answer was "why not?", for want of any more truthful a reply!

So this is where we are now... We have ourselves a nice apartment that we've slowly made our own, just a few miles from Manchester city centre. We have nice little jobs - I am temping in offices, and Ian is a part time Mad Scientist doing after school clubs for kids, and also has several irons in the Sports Science fire. 

Couldn't be further away from our previous plans, but we're happy!

As we now have our own space, I can start to get back into/start new hobbies and so I'll be posting all about my crafty/culinary successes (or otherwise!) very soon!