Are what you get when you have one bikini that’s a bit too big, and another that’s a bit too small

Since both bikinis were in a similar colour palette, I decided a bit of surgery wouldn’t look too obvious. Unpicking the stitches did take a while and it wasn’t my neatest bit of sewing, but then I was also watching Husband John play XCOM and offering helpful advice like “Reload, Reload!!”

It’s pretty obvious that the position of the clips on the green bikini will not be symmetrical, but I needed that extra bit of fabric for the paisley’s add on. It isn’t a very elegant solution, but they both fit much better and I never intend to let anyone take a photo of my back view in a bikini so I’m cool with number 8.

After my successful shoe refresh, I thought I’d give fabric dye a shot as Project 6. Since my wardrobe had spilled its bounty all over the guest bed as part of spring cleaning efforts, I picked out 2 well-worn denim skirts to act as my guinea pigs, and a packet of Dylon powdered Indigo Blue.

The before pictures are a little washed out, but the difference was quite marked.

The instructions on the packet were pretty straightforward, all you really need is something to dye, 250g of salt, rubber gloves and a stirring stick ( I used an old paintbrush).

It felt a bit of a shame not to use the rest of the dye bath, since it doesn’t really lose its pigment after dyeing a few garments, so I looked around the flat with a hawkish eye, and came up with 2 bathmats. They were quite a faded gray, and are now a more pleasing blue:

I washed all the items in the sink a few times before popping them on a quick wash in the washing machine. I must admit I’m not sure how colourfast they are (don’t think I should be sitting on any white leather sofas yet..) so I may do another salt bath. The whole dyeing and rinsing process does seem to use quite a lot of water so I’m a bit wary of repeating the experiment. I’ve since rinsed out the washing machine with the added protection of baking soda and run a dark wash so I think laundry is safe, but must confess to some curiosity about placing dye directly into the machine – wouldn’t that be a recipe for pink socks/uniformly gray shirts??

This past weekend also involved another mammoth painting session (post to come) and I felt I was justified in making Project 7 a sewing medley of removing belt loops from a dress; taking a pair of pajama trousers in for Husband John, and taking in the lining to “de-poof” a dress. More smoothies were made and dinners  cooked so it was a pretty good week!

I had this weekend to myself as Husband John was out of town, and it was quite a satisfying Get’er Done weekend. In addition to boring stuff like 3 loads of laundry and loo scrubbing, I manage to go for morning yoga and start the first Great Wardrobe Cull of 2014! Trying on all the clothes you have not worn in the last 12 months is a highly effective (and visual..) reality check if you have the niggly feeling you are a teeny tiny bit heavier than you should be :p But I digress..  I still need to work blogging into my weekly schedule, but I feel I’m getting better at not over-thinking the whole process. Stream-of-consciousness writing works fine for now!

In reverse order : The cheeky five was a berry smoothie. I added some muesli (sidenote: I always feel like it should be spelt meusli..) as a trial, but I don’t think I’ll be doing it again as it detracts from the sharp tang of the berries.

 

Four was proper cooking – A few weeks ago Husband John invented what he calls Meatestrone soup – basically it’s like minestrone but with beef mince and mixed pulses. Soup is such a good way of using up the good intentions veggies that are languishing in the fridge and we usually get at least 3-4 freezer meals out of our beloved Le Creuset.

Ingredients this time were :  Some garlic, onions and 1 chilli, 2 carrots, 1 fresh tomato and 1 tin of plum tomatoes,  1 beef stock cube and 1 veggie stock cubes, some dried mixed Italian herbs and extra rosemary, 150 grams of mixed pulses (pre-soaked) and 300g beef mince.

Despite pre-soaking the mixed pulses for almost 18 hours, some of the larger grains were still a little crunchy after an hour of cooking. Note to self  – look up name of the crunchy grains to see if they are actually meant to be crunchy.. Hmm, also look up side effects of eating partially cooked pulses..