It’s
beautiful outside this morning, the sun’s shining brightly and the birds are
singing and there’s definitely a feeling of early spring in the air. It’s the
sort of morning that makes you feel alive and like there’s hope in the world.
Fortunately I’ve also woken up once again with a clear head, that’s four days
in a row now so maybe those nasty headaches have finally gone for good.
Today’s
Shrove Tuesday, and being a traditional sort of family that means that today’s
main meal consists of pancakes. Lots of them, which means I have to stand at
the cooker cooking them for about two hours. For the first time in years it is
also the half term holiday from school, so for once I can cook at lunchtime,
instead of long into my evening. Mike, who is working from home for most of the
week has caused a problem though, by announcing that today is the one day he has
to go into the office. Our eldest daughter, who also is due to be home for most
of the week, also has an extremely long shift- working from eight in the morning
till six this evening. Oh well, so much for a good plan…
Before its
time to move into the kitchen though I check up on my emails, website and
Facebook page. Several years ago I realised that children’s clothes shops start
selling their summer school uniform around now, so to keep in line with them I
always now add my school summer dresses during this half term holiday. I began
putting the dresses on the website last night, so as everything else is looking
good on the site I finish that task first. With all four colours of the dress
newly ready for sale I then make a note of them on the homepage, tomorrow I
must remember to update the Facebook page to show them too.
Next job is
to delete my Valentine’s dress, after printing out the orders for them in case
these vanish when the dress does. I hid the dress from showing on the website
yesterday, but didn’t have the time to print the invoices, so having done that
I copy the dress description onto a word document ready for use next year, and
then get rid of it from the store. I can’t really believe it’s already time to
finish one of my new ideas from Christmas- where’s all the time gone in
between?
With a bit
of help from my younger girls, I spend the next couple of hours in the kitchen,
churning out pancakes enough to feed the five thousand, or at least a small
army! I’ve decided that rather than have two epic cooking sessions, or only
cooking this evening, I’m going to make the other two’s pancakes now and keep
them aside to warm through later. Last year was the first time I had even kept
any warm in the oven- I found that by layering them with baking parchment they
kept well and I could then distribute them in batches rather than constantly
having a queue of empty plates awaiting their next one! I’m assuming therefore
that I can do similar whilst letting them grow cold, and I’ll try warming them
through in fours or fives and see if it works. Once my children are stuffed,
and the evening pancakes are cooked and ready I then allow myself to stop and eat
my own. Needless to say, with my current lack of appetite even my nine year old
beats my attempts to eat more, by two pancakes!!
I’m hot and
tired by the end, but as I clear the kitchen I’m feeling nicely satisfied- it’s
only three o’clock in the afternoon and I’m done with cooking for the day. I therefore
have the time at last, and the inclination, to get the sewing machine back out.
Although I’ve got a few orders outstanding, I’m going to begin with some of the
demo dresses I need to get made up and photographed. One reason for this is
because I just never seem to find the right time otherwise, but without a good
photo the dresses never sell anywhere near as well as with one. My St. David’s
Day dress only has another two weeks on sale, so I really do need to get a move
on with it. The other reason for sewing these dresses first is simply that if I
find my concentration isn’t fully back yet, I’d rather make mistakes with
something that doesn’t have a customer waiting for it!
It’s easy to
get back into the swing of sewing though, and I don’t really know why I was
concerned. Firstly I make up my Red Nose Charity dress, as I’m really hopeful
that it will appeal to people and raise some funds for Comic Relief, as with
all my outfits it needs a good photo and plenty of time to sell itself. Once
that’s made I start on my St. David’s Day dress. After all my issues
surrounding the trimmings colours on this dress, I’m really pleased how it’s
looking as I make it up. Unfortunately time runs away with me, and I don’t quite
manage to finish the job but, as I really need better daylight to photograph
it, I’ll leave the last bit until tomorrow. For now I’ve got washing to fold
and airers to load…
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