I <3 my iPhone and other stuff

I’m on afternoon release, ok I’m getting the bread and milk, it’s always nice to have a wander round town though without a pushchair or small children trailing after you, I walk taller and feel about ten years younger and I got wolf whistled, at my age I don’t mind that.

So I’ve had a little window shop, after seasons of not particularly liking the stuff in Gap (which used to be my favourite store pre-kids), their new range is lovely, or maybe I’m just desperate to wear check. What I fell seriously in love with though was a skirt someone was wearing in Waitrose, I tried not to stare but it looked lovely, long, tiered, with a vintage Paisley print, what was really lovely though was that in a few places the print was slightly different, a little more vivid, it made the skirt look like it was handmade and whoever made it had run out of fabric.

I also had a little pop upstairs to say hello to the wool and fabric, as September draws closer my knitting fingers are itching and I really want to make the Skully jumper from Stitch n’ Bitch but I’m having trouble finding the right wool replacement that’s not too expensive yet not so cheap it’s horrible.

Finally I had to pop into Wilkinsons for a mouse trap, after about 18 months absence they’re back, under my bed and keeping me awake at night. We won’t poison or in any other way kill them, we’re a bit soft (read – squeamish about disposing of dead bodies), so we’ve used humane traps in the past and honestly our mice laugh at our humane traps, they steal the bait anyway and if they manage to trip the trap whilst not being conviently (for us) in it, they’ll literally knaw the hard plastic of the trap instead, in contempt. So I was looking for a new trap today and whilst staring at the vast array of mouse removal products (mice are a big problem round here I think), I spotted an electromagnetic / ultrasonic repeller, for £19.99, it looked good but my guillible alert was going, would this really work? So I whipped out my iPhone and googled it and no it doesn’t, so that’s nearly twenty quid saved, thank you phone! So, I’ve brought another design of humane trap instead, it looks less likely to trip without a mouse in it, so please may it work so I can get some sleep! If it doesn’t a cat is severely tempting, because as much as I’m a softy and don’t like the idea of killing them myself, I’ll happily home an animal to do the job for me and yes I know I may come across some mangled ‘presents’ going down that route but I’m running out of options!

Shortbread

My kitchen has defeated me lately and I’ve been doing only minimal ‘proper’ cooking and *shock* even been buying stuff in jars, but much as I may moan about Economy Gastronomy as being not very relevant, as the budgets they set the families are actually more than what I spend normally (I worked it out, total spend on all food over the summer holidays, where we’ve been eating out more than normal, so the figure is going to be a bit higher than normal, is £101, I suspect it’s normally £80 – £90). Anyway, lately my horrible, small kitchen would have forced me running to the corner shop for some shortbread if I wanted some, but I guess Economy Gastronomy has rubbed off on me a little and instead I had to run to the corner shop for some caster sugar, which is shocking in it’s own way, that I’ve obviously spent months with no caster sugar in the house and not even noticed.

Anyway, shortbread has to be the easiest and cheapest thing to make ever, I used an old BBC Good Food recipe (had a quick look just now, it’s not on their site, the one that is there, honestly, you really don’t need a food processor). And the result was nicer than anything out of a packet.