Hannah's coming home

Hannah comes home Wednesday night. We have rearranged the house, found her a wonderful old table and chair for her room and there are lots of flowers in the garden to put in vases.

It is such a strange day today. I am really happy that Hannah is coming home and also Aaron will be home between flats for 2 weeks.

But but but-there are always buts in life the husband is working in Dublin now and the transition when he goes back to Ireland is always weird. I get into the flow of my week but it takes some time to get there.

I am busy working on a commission for a set of circus figures. The embroidery, stuffing and sewing together requires a calm neatness which is I feel good for the soul.

Simple things that make life easier and Husband's taste

This is the jumper I made for my husband in the colours of his choice. He loves it, enough said.

Life has been a challenge. The Husband has been job hunting for 8 weeks. He now has work but it really has not been easy. I have also have friends with a range of serious challenges and a daughter waiting to leave the Army in 3 weeks who is yet to have her leaving date confirmed.

I realised that simple things make life so much nicer. So here is my ideas for stress relief-

1. Make a breakfast tray. Tea in a small teapot and nice china. It is seriously worth getting up a little earlier for.

2. Sort the washing as you take it off the line by putting items for each room together in the basket . This means sorting the washing out side in the sun rather than indoors.

3. When trying to knit from a difficult pattern I have taken to writing it out one row per line. This makes it so much easier and makes 'reverse all shaping' a doddle.

4. I plan my meals then do the on line grocery order. It is great to go to make dinner and know what to make and to have all the ingredients available.

5. Have phone free time at least once a day.

6. I do not keep to do lists in my head-I put them into my diary-less to think about.

7. As I go to sleep I try to think of a good thing I have done that day. If I cannot think of anything I plan something for the next day.

8. Walk

I hope this helps

New computer blues

My aged computer finally lost it-it needed a signal booster, camera and headphones for Skype (vital if your child lives overseas) . This is fine until the USB ports in the computer dies.

I now have my husbands notebook mini computer. It works. It does not take 20 minutes to start. But, of course, there are teething problems. Namely with photos. I will get there but in the meantime this blog will not have as many photos as I planned.

We live in a London Terrace house. We have a small back yard-no lawn but 2 big garden beds. Nonetheless we have some lovely plants. For me it is about food-so I take great delight in the plums, figs, grapes, and herbs.

I have also managed tomatoes, beans and mange tout in pots. But my great delight is a small daisy plant. We broke a piece of our daisy off moving the pot and I put the broken piece in soil in another small pot. Nothing happened for weeks. Nothing. It would seem the plant had to build roots first. Suddenly this small plant is blooming with endless flowers. It is a symbol of optimism. A friend is recovering from surgery to remove a brain tumour. I am going to give her this plant this week.

Hopefully photos next time.

Time management

I thought about what to write about this week and realised this is on my mind. I have been lucky enough to get 3 commissions in the past week.

I have agreed to make a set of 9 circus figures in 4 weeks and then a cuckoo clock followed by a Princess Diana sheep jumper.

The thing is my time is my own and without the high pressure of a Social work office it is so easy to waste.

The rules are

Keep smart phone out of reach.

Go on computer once a day

Plan my week

Have specific breaks for limited time

Have weekly goals of what I need to do.

This is really working. I got up really early (for me on a Sunday) as I know what I want to achieve today. It does feel good.

Costa does not care

This is the email I sent to Costa 10 days ago that they have not bothered to reply to.

My knitting group meets every Wednesday in Costa Golders Green. Last night two young men were trying to sell us flowers. We had difficulty getting them to leave. I went to the counter to get some help and whilst I was explaining the situation I heard my friend yell at these men, they left and I went back to our table.

We soon realised they had taken my friend's I phone. She is self employed and her phone is an important business tool. We told the staff what had happened. I was told that these things happen and that they tell customers to be careful. I found this strange; no Costa staff member has ever had anything resembling a conversation with me.The manager said they would have film. I suggested the police needed to be called.

Some of my friends went up and down the street to see if they could find these young men. I saw the manager outside smoking and talking on the phone. I assumed he was talking to the police. Sometime later I went again to the counter to ask was was happening and found the police had not been called.

This incident raises many concerns.

1.Until they changed their opening hours we met for many years in Starbucks Golders Green where the staff were consistently warm and welcoming. We have never in any way been acknowledged by your staff. Remember we come every week. There is also a church group who met on Wednesdays in this store. I doubt they have been made to feel welcome either.

2. No staff member at any point bothered to walk over to see how we were. This was a very distressing incident, but hey I guess cleaning up and packing up the store early is far more important.

3. What is happening in the store should be monitored much more carefully. As soon as hawkers walk in they should be asked to leave.

4. What is the procedure when a crime occurs in a Costa store? Have those procedures been followed as a consequence of this incident.

I have no idea what Costa spends on advertising but I imagine it is a significant amount. Yet manners, smiles and a concern for customers is free and incredibly effective and sadly not to be found in Costa Golders Green.

Sue Margolis

easy cooking

Every now and again I play with an old favourite recipe and come up with something really good.

This may take 45 minutes but the preparation can be done in under 10 minutes. Tasty and easy.

Leek baseless quiche with jacket potatoes

Turn oven to 200 and put potatoes in oven.

Grease a quiche dish or any old dish

Scatter 1 cup grated cheese and 2 leeks washed and chopped up in dish.

Mix (I use the small bowl attachment that came with my hand blender) half cup flour, half teaspoon baking powder, one and half cups of milk, 3 eggs, and 1 tablespoon of oil.

Pour into dish and place in oven with potatoes.

Turn oven down to 170 and bake for 40 minutes.

Make a salad or microwave peas to go with it.

Graphic design and The Science Museum.

This is the horribly un photogenic me with the very photogenic Abigail Lee. I did some knitting for her graduate show-she studied Graphic design at Kingston. Her work was based around OCD and used missed stitches in knitting to symbolise OCD around numbers. It was simple and powerful work. She also did a piece where she made a book of her fellow students with photos and contact details. However the photos she used were downloaded from Facebook and did not reflect well on the students concerned. She was able to get such photos of the vast majority of students. As she pointed out over 30% of employers now check Facebook before employing someone. Just telling my daughter about this was enough to make change her Facebook security. Another example of a simple but very effective piece of work.

Please please see her work-www.steptripstep.co.uk/projects/abigaail-lee
This is the husband who actually learnt to knit at the Knitted Universe Installation at the Science Museum on Sunday. He was taught by a lovely and incredibly patient neuroscientist. We have been married 22 years. I never had a chance in hell of teaching him to knit.