Recycling (Rant)

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Renee

This weekend I did my recycling. Now, this shouldn’t really be that much effort – for most of us it means chucking it all in a special bin and putting this bin outside. Not if you live in a low rise flat in Wolverhampton though – as it happens kerbside recycling isn’t available for these households. Why do you not just take it to the tip, you ask? Well, to enter the recycling centre, one must be in a motorised vehicle. And I, like a quarter of English households, do not have a car…

I have contacted the council about this a few times. Usually, the reply is that recycling in flats will be introduced soon. And that I can use the recycling centres and recycling banks throughout the city. I’ve even been offered, after a lengthy email exchange about where I take my cardboard and plastics, a set of bins for glass, paper and cans to put in our car park. Only… where does the plastic and cardboard go?

* I have a very exciting update *

I got a message from the council this morning!

I am pleased to tell you that we have put a request on to the system for 1 x 1100 litre red recycling bin to placed at the property for you and the other neighbours serviced by those bins, to be able to recycle paper, glass bottles and jars, drinks cans, food tins, household plastic containers (plastic bottles, margarine tubs, yoghurt pots, food trays) and cardboard.

Needless to say I did a little victory dance around the office.

Rant over!

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Brave

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Renee

Every evening when I get to my bike at the station, I feel a sense of pride. I’m proud of my beautiful bike, and I’m proud to ride it.

One night last week when I strode to my bike, a white haired chap who was unlocking his bike said to me: “you must be a brave young lady to be cycling around these parts”. I replied “I grew up riding my bike and I couldn’t do without it!” He then realised mine was a Dutch bike and put 2 and 2 together.

For some reason, a week on I’m still thinking about this conversation. If existing cyclists think cycling is not safe for a “young lady”like me, is there any hope of convincing those who don’t currently cycle?

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Appeltaart bakken

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Renee

Taart!
I’ve recently joined the Sunday Baking Club, which is basically a collective of folk who bake on Sunday and then admire each others work on social media. This week is Old Skool’ week – cook your Granny’s favourite. My gran would always bring an ‘appeltaart’ to any celebration, together with a jam jar of lightly sweetened whipped cream. Apple pie must be the nation’s favourite pie, so OF COURSE I’d make one. Any excuse to make one!

I posted a recipe here before, so I’m just going to post an illustration here. I apologise for the rubbish pictures – I got butter all over my phone, including the camera lens…

Chopped Apples

First up: peel, core and chop 1kg of apples. Add 1tbsp cinnamon, =2 tbsp sugar and lemon juice

Starting the pastry

Rub 200g of cold butter into 300g self raising flour.

Ready to roll

Add 160g sugar and 1 egg and knead into a ball.

Sizing the dough

Roll 2/3 of the pastry out to about 5mm thick. Press the tin down as a guide to cut the bottom circle.

Ready for the filling

Cover the bottom (I patched a few thin spots!) and sides of the tin, and tip the apples in.

Prepare to bake

Use the rest of the pastry to cover the top. Egg wash and bake!

 

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Happy holidays!

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Renee

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Oh, will I ever learn?

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Renee

Well here I am, sat once more at a little table on a Cross Country train. It’s been an interesting weekend, in which I learnt several things. The most important lesson of the weekend is that, although I’m supposedly older and wiser than last time I was at university, I haven’t learnt a thing. I left my coursework right to the last few days and ended up producing that may or may not be good enough, and that could have been so much better had I given myself more time.

Other valuable lessons learnt:

  • The first day of a new time table – particularly a Sunday evening – is possibly the WORST time to travel.
  • Writing a case study is easier if you choose one from the country that is discussed at length during lectures.
  • The promise of poached eggs on toast is an effective method of getting me out of bed after 4 hours of sleep.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an urgent appointment with my pillow.

 

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Oh Christmas Tree

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Renee

Hurrah! My coursework is finished, which can only mean one thing: it’s time for Christmas preparations! You probably know that I live in a flat. It’s a nice flat, and quite spacious as far as flats go, but it’s still a flat. We had a proper Christmas tree last year. We bought one in a pot from the Forestry Commission, with the intention of planting it out at the allotment after Christmas. Somehow that never happened so it stood in the spare room for months, slowly dying.

This year I don’t have an allotment anymore, so a potted Christmas tree isn’t an option. So what to do instead?

I spotted a brilliant idea in a magazine – a fabric panel from Ikea. It’s massive and you can add decorations and lights, but it won’t take up any room. Genius! Unfortunately it has sold out in my nearest stores and can’t be ordered online. It did make me think about flat pack Christmas tree ideas though…

  • I could make my own fabric tree – I have a metre of green felt that could become the tree. Add a white or printed piece of a fabric as a background and it’s ready to receive decorations
  • I could decorate some evergreen branches complete with lights and hang them on the wall.
  • I could make a table piece like I used to make with my mum, with fresh greenery, pretty decorations and lights and place it on the window sill or on the coffee table.
  • I could make a frame from wooden slats and add evergreen branches to create a tree.

What do you think? Do you have any compact tree ideas? Where would I get the branches from?

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My place.

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Renee

This weekend, my boyfriend and I visited my folks to celebrate Sinterklaas. Cycling around the village where I grew up, I pointed at things that I had a connection with. “This used to be the post office where I worked on Saturdays and in the summer, this used to be a baker/butcher/photographer. This is where I learned to swim. Here is where I learned to skate. In this house I was born.”

I realised that the longer (and further) I’m away from it, the more I love the place.

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First glimpse of the Christmas dress

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Renee

After a little nudge from someone on Twitter I had another look at my dress bodice and decided it gaped too much on the top so I took the patter and folded it in the middle so would be narrower on the top. This created a bodice that I’m largely happy with, so come Saturday afternoon I took a deep breath and cut my dress fabric.

Here’s a picture of what it might look like. I really worried whether the fabric and the shape would suit each other and whether them combined would suit me, but I think it will be okay. Mind you, it’s far too long, and held together with pins…

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Christmas dress update

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Renee

I’m sure you’re all dying to know what happened to my Christmas dressmaking.

Bodice take IIWell, I made another bodice, one size up but using another size up’s length so the arm holes are slightly bigger and the fit is looser, which solves most of the problems I had. It still gapes a little at the top and I’m in two minds whether I’ll tweak it more and make another muslin or go for it now (picture on the right – please ignore the tummy! That’ll be covered by the skirt. Obviously.)

I went to the market last weekend and got fabric for not one, but two dresses. Some blue/grey fabric with a flower woven into it, and a sheer teal flowy fabric, and linings for both. For £17.50 I have enough fabric to make two dresses!

The fabric maketh the cushion I also made this pretty cushion as a gift. The fabric is absolutely gorgeous. I never realised zips were so tricky. It took me a long while to get that right. The other thing I noted is that it’s good for me to make stuff for others every once in a while, because it has to be right, rather than ‘good enough’ and I learn a lot from doing things properly…

 

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Christmas dressing 3: Back to earth. Now what?

Posted on November 10, 2012 by Renee

Last week I took the first steps towards making my own Christmas party dress – and then I got side tracked. Writing about it helped me realise this. The party is in 4 weeks or so and I have other things to do, so I need to focus. I looked again at my pins and put my thinking cap on.

I really liked the yellow lace dress I saw, it’s made of beautiful lace (which would be too expensive), but it also has pretty bright accents (the ribbon, little butterflies) and it stands out slightly because of its various layers.

I like the clean lines of the black quilted dress. It’s like the shift dress I tried on, but has more of an hourglass shape. This navy number stands out fabulously (although I do wonder if this limits movement ie would I worry about people seeing my pants??)

I decided to use the Burda Swing Dress pattern. I like the general shape although I might make the skirt fuller / add a petticoat. No idea what fabric I’ll use though. I’m hoping I’ll look at all sorts of fabrics and one will just ‘jump out at me’. Fingers crossed.

First I traced the pattern onto baking paper. It’s perfect really: transparent enough to copy from the pattern sheet,  it’s quite sturdy (doesn’t tear) and it comes on a roll so your pieces can be as long as you want. Only don’t try to cello-tape it.

Top tip: always measure the the pattern pieces to see how big they’d be. I did and as it turns out I needed 2 sizes smaller at the bust than at the waist. So I copied the pattern lines for all three sizes and adjusted the pattern from the smaller one at the bust, widening it to the larger one at the waist. I used the very helpful Colette Sewing Handbook as a guide. I recommend signing up to their weekly sewing tips (Snippets) too.

First muslin- dress bodice

First attempt – click on the image for a larger version.

I had some calico cotton so I copied the pieces onto that (I love it when you can actually draw the lines onto the fabric!), cut out and assembled as per the instructions in the magazine. This didn’t take very long at all so that was a good start :) Trying it on I could see it needed some adjustments but I can’t decide what they should be.

  • It gapes above the bust – too wide on the front shoulders?
  • I think the front needs to be a bit longer.
  • Some loose diagonal creasing on the side, in the opposite direction to what I expected: from the middle of the side seam to the bottom of the front.
I think I’ll start making the top half a bit longer, maybe use the length from a larger size but keep it the same width as now. 

Tomorrow we shop.

 

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