It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new year...

... and I'm feeling good*

 I'm not one for new year's resolutions, I know all too well that I never keep them up beyond the first week or two of January, but a tweet from fellow cycling fan @_Pigeons_ got me thinking about how I'd like to begin 2011

I love the Spanish tradition of not making Resolutions, but doing a little bit of everything you want to happen in the coming year on NY Day

So far today has seen a long lie in (complete with breakfast in bed, natch), a little bike-tinkering and dancing around the kitchen to this:



Coming next, an hour or two on the bike and some baking.



*No, internet, that song ISN'T by Muse, or, God help us all, Michael Buble, but the great Nina Simone (well, technically Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse)

The Far Land of Spare Oom

Before

A little over a year and a half ago, when we moved into this house, the box room at the back was exactly that - filled with the boxes and furniture that we didn't immediately need (and given how much work was required to make the house habitable there was an awful lot of stuff we didn't immediately need.) The rewiring had left the walls in a pretty horrible state - the old plaster held together with the backing-layer of the (mostly stripped off) hideous vinyl wallpaper, and badly-applied daubs of new plaster over the new cable conduits.

Even with regular doses of design blogs & interiors magazines I struggled for inspiration - until one weekend in September the whole room came to me in a flash, from colour scheme & furniture to window treatments & accessories!

A quick sketch after my flash of inspiration

The plan - to create a grown-up boudoir, using, as far as possible, furniture and accessories we already owned. The inspiration - a room I'd read about months earlier, probably in LivingEtc. I can't remember if it was a dining room, a bedroom, or even a hall - just that it was painted aubergine-purple & the whole ceiling was covered with gold leaf, and it was utterly beautiful. I didn't feel that our little room (and little budget) could handle quite that level of bold, deep colour, so I settled on one wall of aubergine set off by plenty of cream, our walnut furniture and splashes of gold.

Choosing the perfect purple

Having had that blinding flash of inspiration, life yet again got in the way of progress, and it wasn't until a friend asked, in mid-November, if he & his girlfriend could visit in December that we finally began shifting boxes & making preparations.

Yes, we have hardwood-framed double-glazing, but by God the frames are a particularly nasty shade of fake mahogany!

Tatty as the floorboards were, staining them such a dark colour was nerve-wracking. I needn't have worried though, as soon as I started I knew it would work - in fact, I did the whole floor with a big silly grin on my face, feeling certain that the result would be even better than I had imagined!

I think I was right - the dark floor pulls the rest of the room together so well - not to mention making an asset out of the battered, stained boards, which now look aged rather than scruffy.


Furniture-wise, the only thing we were lacking was a bed. Now, this isn't a large room - about 12ft x 9ft, at a guess, so a double was out of the question, yet most of the people likely to stay with us are couples, so a double was essential! Ikea to the rescue with the really rather nice Hemnes daybed - a couch or single bed by day, it rolls out quickly & simply into a double by night.

Our trusty old desk & glass-fronted bookcase combine to make a nicely functional dressing table & display unit

A sheepskin rug, a standard lamp & a curtain warm up the space

Several items remain on the to-do list for the room, but they could all be classed as "dressing" - there's a stack of pictures to be framed & hung, the lamp needs a new shade, the window treatment needs more work and we need to buy a new mattress topper & a set of sheets as, being Ikea, the bed is a non-standard size(grr!) Luckily, dressing a room is my favourite part of the process!

• walls, ceiling, woodwork, radiator: Homebase matt emulsion & satinwood in Classic Cream
• feature wall: Dulux matt emulsion in Mulberry Burst
• floor: Ronseal Quick-drying Woodstain in Dark Oak
• curtain: Ikea Bomull unbleached cotton
  

Getting off on the good foot

It's nearly new year's eve, I've worked my last shift of 2010 but at home the Christmas celebrations have left many things undone... It's a whopper of a to-do list, but the plan is to have it all ticked off by the end of January.

• schedule some bike time - I've not ridden nearly enough over the last few weeks, as a result of which both my body & my mind are getting sluggish.
• catch up on the laundry, take inventory of my wardrobe & look to fill any gaps in the sales
• write a workable chores schedule - and actually use it!
• finish up the final bits of the guest room - frame & hang pictures, make the sheer curtains & swag, buy some new bedlinen - & share the results here.
• sort out & tidy our bedroom, which became the dumping-ground for all the stuff that was in the spare room
• wallpaper the stair risers, make curtains for the hall, hang pictures & buy lampshades. Again, a project to be photographed & shared!
• make the second curtain for the bedroom (I'm ashamed to say that we've had one curtain & a blanket clothes-pegged to the rail for over a year now!)
• tidy away all the Christmas decorations, wrapping paper etc; find homes for the presents we received & dispose of anything that a new item is replacing
• count the small change in the "penny jar" & bank it
• take inventory of the pantry & freezer, write a shopping list to fill any gaps and plan meals for as far ahead as possible - can I do a month's worth of menus in one go?
• prep for a work project & contact the people I need to speak to about it.

There, easy!

Christmas on the Moors

Some photos of our lovely snowy Christmas at my dad's place on the North York Moors

Feeding the birds is a full-time job

Had a sunset yomp across the snowy moors - knee-deep in places.

The nicest thing about going home for Christmas - my old lady cat (she'll be 20 in May!) snuggling up on my feet at bedtime

Curry night - part three

The side dishes

Cheesy peas - almost certainly more properly known as matar paneer, but always cheesy peas in our house!

Ingredients

1 tbsp each butter & oil
1 clove of garlic
2 -3 small shallots (or an onion, leek, whatever...)
1/2 tsp each ground cumin, ground coriander, ground turmeric, garam masala & ground ginger (or an inch-long chunk of fresh, finely chopped)
chilli to taste
2-3 cups frozen peas
1-2 cups passata or canned tomatoes
cheese - ideally paneer, but wensleydale, feta or halloumi work too. Cut into bite-size chunks. This time out, I'm going with fresh mozzarella, just because it's what I've got in the fridge and it's piddling down out there!

Method

Crush & chop garlic & shallots and sweat in half of the oil/ butter mix. Once softened, stir in the spices the add the peas & passata. Simmer gently for at least 15 minutes (but it won't come to any harm if it's left longer.)

In a separate pan, heat the remaining oil & butter and quickly fry the chunks of cheese - when ready to serve, stir these into the peas.

Cucumber raita

Mix chopped cucumber, finely chopped mint and a little salt into plain yoghurt to make a cooling relish.

Curry night - part two

The house curry

Ingredients

1/2 tbsp each oil & butter
1 onion (or leek, or a few spring onions)
1 tsp each black mustard seed, coriander seed, cumin seed
1 tsp each ground coriander, ground cumin, ground turmeric
chilli (fresh, dried or powder) to taste
any combination of veg, meat or fish that are to hand & take your fancy (tonight I'm using courgette, chickpeas & a handful of swiss chard), prepared & cut into bite-size chunks
a little water
1 cup passata or canned tomatoes
2 oz creamed coconut
plain yoghurt or creme fraiche, to taste

Method

Sweat onions in the oil & butter mix, & when softened add the whole spices. Once whole spices are toasted, add ground spices then meat/ veg (though leave any leafy stuff until later) and a splash of water, and give the whole lot a good stir to ensure the spice mix coats everything evenly.

Mix in the passata and crumble over the creamed coconut, add a little more water if necessary to give a reasonably fluid sauce, cover the pan & leave to simmer gently.

A couple of minutes before you're ready to dish up, stir in any leafy veg you're using, then the yoghurt*

Serve with any combination of rice, naan, chapatis, poppadoms...

* A top tip I read in one of Nigel Slater's wonderful Observer columns is to whisk in a teaspoon or so of gram (chickpea) flour per 1/2 cup of yoghurt or low-fat creme fraiche before using it in a hot dish - this helps to prevent curdling.

Curry night - part one

Hello, it's been a while...

A house update will follow, but for now, while this is fresh in my mind, I must get it down - my pseudo-naan bread recipe.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 cups strong white (bread) flour
1 tsp easy-blend yeast
1 tsp muscovado sugar
1 tsp kalonji (black onion seed)
a generous pinch of salt
2 fl oz cold water
4 fl oz boiling water
6 fl oz plain yoghurt

Method

Pre-heat oven to its highest setting with a pizza stone in it (or a sturdy baking sheet.)
Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, and wet ingredients in a jug, then mix the two together.

Knead well until the dough is elastic & not too sticky, cover with a cloth & leave in a warm place to rise while you make your curry. I'm not especially fussy about how long this stage lasts - if I'm organised enough to start the dough a couple of hours in advance, that's great, but as little as half an hour seems to work ok, too.

When ready to cook, split the dough into 4-6 pieces and roll, pull & stretch into flat ovals. Dust with a little flour if they're sticky, then slap straight onto the stone or baking tray. Bake for about 10 minutes - they'll look puffy & golden & browned in patches when they're ready. Wrap in a clean cloth to keep warm at the table!

Curry recipe to follow...

Itch to pitch

Toni over at The Happy Housewife has come up with a great little piece of motivation - the Itch to Pitch challenge. With before & after decluttering pictures to be posted every Monday, there's nowhere to hide! I've already posted a few pre- and post-move photos, but check back next Monday for a bit more of a proper project.

And the mess goes on...

That big jagged line is where the plaster has come away from the wall

A month ago today I wrote my last post, in the midst of panic attacks and not-yet-packed boxes. Today, with my broadband up & running (thanks Sky - for all Mr Murdoch's faults, your customer service is marvellous!) I'm sitting in the midst of plaster dust and not-yet-unpacked boxes!

There has been progress - the bathroom has been decorated, in very pleasing shades of mocha & duck egg

the outside loo has been converted into a utility room (though the loo is still sitting in the yard and the top of the washing machine is stacked with boxes); the exterior doors have been painted Oxford blue; one of the outhouses has been transformed from dumping ground to bike shed;
the pantry has its extra shelves and is well-stocked

and dinky spice shelves, too

the bedroom is a beautiful & usable space

if still curtain-less and rather cluttered, and check out the wardrobe!

On the down side, this is the current state of the kitchen, complete with this week's to-do list on the fridge (I do love my dry-wipe markers!)

and as for the spare room...

Surviving

It's now three weeks since we picked up the keys to the house, the re-wiring was completed yesterday afternoon and the pantry, wardrobe and master bedroom have been painted. There has been (and continues to be) much mess, stress, cussing, shopping (mostly for paint & power tools), and tomorrow we move in.

I am by no means ready to do so - only half of our possessions are packed, and the house is still, fundamentally, a wreck (the kitchen is far from usable and there's no plaster on some of the living room walls, never mind paint, wallpaper, curtains...) I start hyperventilating every time I think about it, so I'm going to stop doing so, head on up there & re-lay the bedroom carpet, so we'll have just one room that we can say is done.

There's unlikely to be any blogging for the next four weeks - for apparently that's how long it takes to get broadband set up these days (surely it should just be a matter of flipping a switch by now??)