Rice krispie cakes

I made some rice krispie cakes today. Very very simple to make and quite nice to eat!

Melt some chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water.

Stir in the krispies. 


Put spoonfuls into paper cases. Place a smartie or M&M on top to decorate and put into the fridge to set! 

Easier than that? I learnt to make them as a small child.

Try making some and enjoy!

Decluttering time!

Decluttering paper clutter! I have so many old magazines I have accumulated over the years....nearly 40 years of knitting, sewing and craft magazines. I have spent many hours looking through them and have made many things. 

Now with so much available online in English I tend to prefer those so am drastically reducing the Italian ones I have here. Decluttering so that I will have more space and hopefully will be able to find the things I want to! 

So now you know why I haven't been updating here! I am in full spring cleaning and decluttering mood. I want my craft room to be a haven not a clutter filled space where I can't move or find what I want.

I have already emptied 4 shelves and there are more to sort through. I have pulled out a few pages where there are designs I want to save but so much was just useless to me now. 

DH commented that I could list some on Ebay. I just don't feel up to even trying that and I also know that if I did I would be stuck with piles of magazines waiting for some improbable sale! Lol! 

So while I am in the mood I will continue my decluttering in my own way! 

Tomorrow the paper will be collected so it will be bye bye to at least these piles of magazines! 

Some I have also given away but I want more out of the house and out of my life! 

Wish me luck with it!

Poor Shadow!

Emergency trip to the vet's clinic on a Sunday afternoon. 

Shadow probably was stung by one of our huge calabrone wasps and it touched the salivary gland. The old saying here is that 7 of those wasps would kill a horse. She is only about 10 kilos weight!

Poor doggy was all swollen. Fortunately I had some Bentelan and gave it to her immediately. 

I sent a photo to our vet and he told us to bring her in straight away. The time for both to get to the clinic from home. She had a temperature of 39.5°c by the time we got there. The poison was working quickly. 

He did blood work and gave her injections of antibiotic and another stronger cortisone. She has to take medicine for 6 days and then check back. He said to call him any time if she got worse during the night but it wasn't necessary.

This morning she is still swollen but seems better than yesterday. Not her usual energetic self but has drunk some water. She is snuggled under a blanket feeling sorry for herself.

Had we not taken her straight away she would have swollen even more by this morning....if she was still alive. 

Poor doggie! Doesn't look like herself at all!

Spring flowers and March projects

This month so far has been very expensive. Necessary car parts and other unexpected stuff as usual! 

 The full snow moon was lovely but I don't have a good camera unfortunately. At least I can remember it!

Just as I expect it to be a better month financially reality laughs at me.

Fortunately I have a well stocked pantry right now so for next month I am going to try to do no spending for groceries as far as it is possible. 

It should be interesting to see how well I can do it! Some things will be inevitable....fruit and vegetables to some extent. This is not the time of year when we have things growing. We do have a shop nearby in the piazza with excellent produce fortunately. 

 I can make pasta with porcini mushrooms. I still have plenty frozen from when DH gathered them this autumn. 

Hopefully I can avoid spending money for fuel if I don't have to go to town. 

One of the local tradesmen came around today with his load of potatoes, dry beans and other things. I bought a 10 kilo sack of potatoes as they are usually good quality and they are delivered right to my steps....he would even bring them up to the house for me if I wanted as he does for many older clients.

I use a lot of potatoes. 

There are several vendors who still come round almost daily with products. 
My fishman for example comes on Wednesdays and Fridays with the fresh fish in his car! I always order the fresh fish for the traditional Christmas Eve meal from him. He has never sold me anything that wasn't really good value and freshness. 

DD used to make me laugh when she was small as she wouldn't eat fishfingers or similar frozen things. She would say she wanted "real" fish! The sort she was brought up on and my DH used to catch himself when he went fishing. 

Oranges abound at this time of year. Ours are totally untreat. The best sort! 

DH must pick some to eat and for fresh fruit juice. I may make some marmalade. I must find the recipe my Mum sent me years ago.

My tiny daffodils are blooming. At least those are free!

Silk scarf hem

Square silk scarves are back in fashion here. 

Recently I bought DD one. Cheap at 25 euro but to me right now that is a lot of money. 

So I went stash hunting...yes I have a fabric stash not just a yarn stash! 😄

I found some beautiful handpainted silk organza fabric. Enough for two scarves. I even found thread that was just the right shade of blue!

How to hem the stuff? I asked friends on Ravelry. Quickly they answered telling me how to do a narrow hem on slippery fabric. 

First sew a straight line where the first fold will be. (After I had straightened the fabric by pulling a thread and cutting along the pulled thread line)

Fold at that, iron, and sew again near fabric edge. Then using a very sharp pair of scissors trim close to the second row of stitches.

 Fold again, iron and sew final hem. 
I pulled the other two rows of stitches out leaving just the final one. 

Easy yes?  Sure if it wasn't for the fact that it took me ages to trim that edge without cutting where I wasn't supposed to! Lol! 

So after a few hours work I had a beautifully finished 50" square scarf. Pat on the back for myself! 

Please note that the other one still isn't sewn! Well, no use making two identical ones is there? 

Just as well I don't have to pay myself an hourly wage. 😂 It would be one expensive scarf!

Now DD has a new scarf for when she goes back to university at zero cost!

Make do and mend.

I have been doing a little bit of sewing recently.

When I went to see DD my DGD sadly told me her cushion cover had threads coming from it! It had been washed for the first time. 

A bought one especially sewn for her the quality was very poor when I looked at the inside. A simple zigzag badly done. So Grandma to the rescue! 

While sewing I decided to make her doll quilt bigger as I had found some more squares. These were cut from two pairs of leggings Elizabeth had when small and her sister wanted a quilt made from them. 

A new backing and cushions and one little girl should be happy. 

With some old flannelette I decided to make some face wipes. A quick overlock around and they are done...if you catch all the edges properly! Lol! 

I suffer from rosacea and have to be careful what I use on my skin. These seem to be ideal.

I was brave and changed the thread on my overlocker. Looks like some engineer's nightmare when it comes to threading it! I don't use it enough to have learnt to do it quickly but when I actually do it sews like a dream. 
I need more hours in a day.

I love being able to create new things from old!

Water, water...

What do you drink? Mineral water or tapwater?

Remember the Rime of the Ancient Mariner? 

"Water, water, every where, 

Nor any drop to drink. "

We used to spend a small fortune in buying plastic bottles of mineral water. Then one day we happened to buy a pack which smelt! Same shop, same brand as usual.

After that I started researching it. Google is my friend! No more plastic bottles of mineral water in this house! 
I wonder how many microplastic particles we have drunk over the years!

The tap water here is actually 100% drinkable! Our water comes down from the mountains and is also constantly monitered. In fact it seems that most water is Italy is perfectly ok to drink. 

What I am using now however is a filter jug. Probably totally unecessary but it claims to remove other elements and makes my family happy about drinking tap water! 

As our water is turned off at nights, I fill big glass jars in the morning when it is running well. Then I filter some water and put into glass bottles in the fridge. 

The water which is left from the day before I use for other purposes, I don't throw it. 

Filtered water usually doesn't remain but if there is, it is used for the iron or for watering plants. 

We do have a big storage tank for household purposes. However for cooking and drinking purposes I prefer not to use that. 

In the summer we tend to have less water available as soon as the turist villages down on the coast open. Coincidence? Lol! 

I have also started storing odds and ends in the glass jars I always wash and save. I have found they are excellent for storing dry beans and lentils with no risk off them deteriorating. I sometimes tape a label saying what they are. 

I now avoid plastic whenever possible.

What do you do?

Spring

Finally it seems that Spring is in the air today.

I had promised to write the local limoncello recipe. Other sorts can also be made.

In the autumn I collected some licorice roots...or should I say DH did. 

Cleaned and put into alcool I have made licorice liquor. 

Here were the fresh roots.

 Lemoncello recipe:

Thin peel from about 10 fresh untreated lemons.
500ml alcool.
500g sugar.
700ml water.

Put the lemon peel into a jar with the alcool. Close tightly and leave for 10 days. 

Boil water with sugar. Bring to a rolling boil.
Leave to cool. 
When completely cold mix with the lemon. Filter and pour into bottles. Leave for about 10 days or more. 

The licorice has the same procedure using short lengths of clean root.

This is an old recipe used here for many years. Very strong! 

Goodbye for now with our first flowers!!