I’m making these socks with the very first supply of yarn from DT Craft & Design (UK). It’s a beautiful blue, purple and green mixture of 90% alpaca and 10% nylon sock yarn which she hand dyed inspired by the colours of Wimbledon.

I’m writing down how I have made this sock, obviously so I can do the second sock to match, but also to add to here if anyone would like to make a similar one.

I’ve started to knit it from the toe up so that once I reach the leg I will start knitting the second sock and continue with both simultaneously to ensure that I use as much of the yarn as possible but don’t run out on one and have to unravel the other to match.

Tension:
Using 2.25mm needles approx 8 st and 12 rows to an inch.

I recently joined a sock club with DT Crafts and got into work this morning to find a lovely packet waiting for me on my desk. I was off work last week so it was a nice surprise for a Monday morning.

It is a lovely purple and green wool which I will take pictures of later – I don’t think my co-workers would quite understand if I were to start taking pictures now!

edit: pictures added

I think I have just the pattern to start knitting with, however I am in the middle of a jumper for my little girl and want to finish that first as I have completed the back and most of the front. Only another couple of evenings knitting and I should have it finished, probably by the end of the week I imagine.

As I mentioned earlier, I split my house into separate areas and I loosely aim to attack one area at a time over five nights. The split is actually over six areas but my son has been designated the responsibility of looking after the dining room and therefore this leaves me with five areas – one a day with Saturday and Sunday relatively clear of chores.

My areas are split as follows, but there are overlaps – for example, if I’m vaccuming, I’ll do all the downstairs at once as this saves time in the long run:

• Monday – kids room and bathroom
• Tuesday – kitchen
• Wednesday – shopping and hallway
• Thursday – master bedroom and landing
• Friday – lounge
• Saturday – dining room (son’s chore)

This layout works for me since it suits my plans for each night; Monday’s I like to be quite easy since it’s the first day at wor after the weekend and I don’t want to be too busy, Wednesday’s I go shopping so I don’t want to be up all night cleaning after getting the shopping, and Friday’s I like to clean the lounge so that it’s all tidy in case we have guests at the weekend (no point in doing it earlier in the week and then again just in case someone comes to visit!)

In Excel 2003 it was really easy to not only add your own custom macros to the toolbar but also to change the image on the button so it helped to identify the purpose of the button, however for some reason in Excel 2007, Microsoft have decided that it was too eay and now they want to make us work hard to customise Excel for our own purposes.

In order to customise the toolbar (either the ribbon or the quick access toolbar) you really need to know how to programme, instead of just being able to wing it. I tried the obvious and not-so-obvious options but just couldn’t find what I needed so I had to resort to the good old fashioned search engine.

The following site gave me a very quick and simple add-in which I needed to add a custom menu to the quick access toolbar which is very easy to change to suit my own purposes and is, as far as I’m concerned – idiot proof! rondebruin

I had a quick look at altering the ribbon but haven’t had time to browse on this properly yet, however the menu works fine for me and is really simple to attach my macros/code to

Meal plan for the coming week

• Wed – pizza: homemade pizza base with mozzarella cheese and pepperoni already in the fridge ready for the topping. No additional cost as no extras required
• Thu – potato & leek bake with sausages (about £3.50 in total)
• Fri – kedgeree (everything is in the freezer/storecupboard)
• Sat – At friends for a BBQ!
• Sun – Roast lamb, new potatoes and veg. I already have half a leg of lamb in the freezer as it was on offer over Easter so I don’t need to buy this. Obviously will need to buy fresh vegatables as an accompaniment and something to make for dessert.
• Mon – chicken with noodles (£4 in total)
• Tue – tortellini and garlic bread (everything in freezer)
• Wed – pizza again. Need the mozzerella cheese and some toppings (about £2.50)

Fortunately there are at least two days which I don’t really have to buy for. On Wednesday’s we always tend to have pizza (homemade!) since this is the night when I get my groceries delivered and it’s just a nice easy meal that takes no time to prepare (the breadmaker does all the hard work) and I also have the meat, which is the biggest cost, for the roast dinner on Sunday.

Shopping List

• new potatoes
• white potatoes
• leeks
• sausages
• chicken breasts
• mozzerella

Amazingly, all the ingredients that I need to make these dinners will only cost me around £10. On top of this I need to add my usual weekly items, like bread, milk, fruit and vegetables – this usually tends to increase the bill somewhat and this week is no exception – total bill now is just under £40 which is a whooping £30 of extras!

Having said that, the extras include cereals for breakfast, foodstuffs for lunches, a few storecupboard replacements (rice, spaghetti, port) and the whole lot was under £50 which was what I was aiming for so I’m impressed. I know that next week will be slightly more expensive as I need to stock up on washing powder and dishwasher tablets…

I don’t particularly like housework but I do like the feeling that all the housework is done (or enough is done) so that I can relax without thinking that I should be doing something more productive.

Ideally everyone in the house should have their own chores so that the load is distributed and there isn’t just one person doing the work for everyone else, although sometimes that’s just not possible.

I find that the easiest way to get everything done is to have a schedule and do a little every day – if I miss one day, it’s not the end of the world since it’s only about 20 minutes of work not done, but a little and often is my way of keeping on top of things instead of having to spend hours tackling a seemingly mammoth task.

In my householf my partner cooks and I clean (he also cleans, but just tends to do the bigger jobs!) The way I look at it, whilst he spends 30 minutes or more cooking dinner for the family, I spend the equivilent amount of time cleaning up for the family so it all evens out.

You need to find a schedule that suits your circumstances but I like to spend half an hour or so doing the chores after work so that it leaves my weekends free to do something much more interesting.

Below are my guides as to when I do certain tasks which I split into daily, weekly and monthly:

Daily:

I tend to do small tasks in the evenings just to keep on top of the chores

Weekly:

I split my house into “”areas”" and aim to tackle an area every week so that by the end of the month the slightly bigger tasks have been done (like cleaning windows – I don’t want to clean all my windows every week but I do want all of my windows cleaning every month so I do a couple a week and by the end of the month they are all done).

Monthly

There are then those tasks that just need to be tackled at some point during the year, either quarterly, twice a year or maybe just once a year. I have a schedule of these tasks and split them over the months of the year so I can plan to get them done without trying to get everyone done at once

I’m very annoyed at the moment. I had a twinge in my knee last week during my long run and cut it short to 17.5 miles. I rested it most of the week with just a 2.5 miles run on Wednesday and then had a 19m run planned today. I started out, everything felt fine, then about 2 miles into the run I felt the knee playing up again. I decided to cary on for another half mile and see if it went away (kind of knowing that it wouldn’t but you never know…) but obviously it didn’t subside, so I took a road off my planned route and came back on myself.

In the end I did just over 10km which was far short of the 19m that I had planned…..

Positives:
I was able to get home in time and watch the London Marathon, plus I gained a few hours extra in the day that would have been spent out running!

Negative:
This is the high mileage month befor my taper and I haven’t managed to complete any of the long runs as anticipated yet which doesn’t bode well. My other half has suggested that I get a sports massage, and he’s going to speak to one of his work colleagues tomorrow (who also runs) to find out where he get’s his so that I can get this done and hopefully be in full fitness ready for the real race!

I always try to plan my meals which means that I always tend to buy what I need in order to prepare the meals for the coming week. The problem is, that over the last month or so my food bills have really crept up, so that last week the bill was just over £100 for the weekly shop for four people (2 adults, 1 child and 1 toddler). I used to get away with a bill between £40-£50 a week although admittedly 1 week out of 4 it might reach £80 as that was the week that I would stock up on storecupboard items and the other weeks would tend to be the fresh product – meat, vegetables, fruit, etc. but still now I am averaging £80 a week instead of only once a month!

In an attempt to get back down to more usual levels (and also more affordable since my budget assumes the lower grocery cost) I have decided to go through my paperwork, through those recipes that I have torn out of magazines – you know the ones – the ones that not only look tasty but also state that they are cheap and good for budgets

The problem with my “paperwork” is that there is so much of it, spanning over far too many years, that it is taking some time to go through. Especially since I am working through them, scanning them so I still have the recipes, and so that they are much easier to search through, so this is taking some time. So much so, that this list is more of a work in progress – as it all is….. – and will be added to as I come across more recipes for a budget. However I do need enough for the week ahead. In this vein, I will also try and list my meal plan for the coming week.

This makes a normal 1lb loaf cake, which is about 10-12 slices depending on how thick the slices are

Ingredients

• 100g (4oz) butter, softened, plus extra for greasing (£0.39)
• 75g (3oz) light muscovado sugar (£0.14)
• 2 medium free range eggs, beaten (£0.49)
• 150g (5oz) dried figs, sliced (£1.19)
• 125g (4 1/2 oz) wholemeal self raising flour (£0.17)
• 1 tsp mlxed spice (£0.12)
• 1 tbsp golden syrup (£0.10)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 1 60″C /325′F / Gas Mark 3. Thoroughly grease and line the base of a 1 lb (19x10x5cm) loaf tin.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix together thoroughly.
3. Mix the figs into the flour to coat evenly. Fold this and all the remaining ingredients into the creamed mixture. Spoon into the prepared tin
   and level the surface.
4. Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a rack. Serve in thick
   slices just as it is, or toasted.

Generally all of these items are in my store cupboard, it’s only the figs that I need to buy in specially to make this. However I’ve just done a quick search and if I had to buy everything in from scratch this would cost an amazing £8.78 – however or course there would be quite a bit left over. The cost of the usuage is in brackets after the ingredients in the list above, for small amounts I have assuming that I used a tenth of the total weight, and the “real” cost is £2.60. If this is something that is to be made for a snack at lunch for the working week, it is really tasty and healthy – as far as cakes go – plus you know what has gone into it. THere are things that you can buy ready-make in the supermarket, but sometimes it’s nice to make things yourself

I have 5 weeks to go until the Edinburgh marathon and todays’ long run was supposed to be 19 miles. It all started off well, the first three miles were with Max the dog, but then I left him at home (the main reason being because he’s been dragging his heels recently when I’ve been out running so thought 19m might be too much for him!).

I could really feel the difference running without him, the last time I ran without him was for the Wilmslow half marathon – it just seems easlier because I am not holding his lead to one side, slightly altering my gait.

Everything was going really well, however at about 8.5 miles I felt a twinge in my left thigh and around 10 miles I had to slow down to give it a break. I walked for a couple of minutes and then ran again for another mile or so but realised that I couldn’t continue at the same pace. Obviously, as is always the case with these things, at this point I was pretty much at the furthest distance from home so I couldn’t even cut the run short! I managed for the next couple of miles a run/walk combination but to be honest I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep it up. For the last 4/5 miles I relinquished to the inevitable an did more running than walking, with the running being more ocassional and the walking being at a reasonable pace.

I managed to run/walk 17.5 miles in the end and in just over 3 hours 10 mins – despite being annoyed that I hadn’t been able to complete the full distance and the fact that I had pulled a muscle or something, I found some solace in fact that I had targeted myself to run the 19 miles in the same time, therefore overall I was only 1.5 miles short of my original target for the same period of time – which, all in all, gave me some hope for the marathon.

Next week, I think my plan has been running 22 miles, but I think that I will hedge my bets and aim to run 19 miles and then 22 miles, the week after that.