My Latest Make, and a Slimming World Dessert

The weather is horrible today and, as my throat still isn't completely better, I decided getting soaked while waiting for the bus to Deal for my volunteering would not be a good idea, so I played hookey. 

It's a good job I did because I'd forgeotten I had a man from the insurance broker's calling at 9.30 to find us a better life insurance deal. We took out our 15 year policies 10 years ago but have decided it would be wise to pay a little extra each month and have them extended by a few years to take us into our 70s. It's much better to pay extra now than have the policies expire in 5 years time and then have to pay through the nose for insurance because we're 5 years older, probably getting a lot less cover for the money. All is now being sorted and, as we're generally healthy folks who don't smoke and only drink very occasionally, we've hopefully negotiated a pretty good deal and might not even need medical checks. Having seen some of the adverts on TV for over 50s cover that pay out such paltry sums and often don't even give you full cover until you've been paying in for at least a year, I think we've made the best decision.

So, what did I do while waiting for yet another call back after I'd posed more questions to the nice man on the end of the phone? (Well, I like to make them work for their commission and we want to get it right first time so we don't find ourselves having to amend it again in a few years). 

I made another bag, of course. Although I did also nip out for 10 minutes to the post office to mail off Kay's bag. I do hope she likes it.

So this is what I made today. 

 
As it's so wet and windy outside I thought I'd make something bright and summery, hence the flip-flop fabric. I made a pocket for the inside with a remnant of that fabric instead of making a rosette which would have been lost amid the busy outer fabric design. A lovely vintage style white button and ribbon fastening finishes it off nicely. I think I'll be putting this one on Ebay too with a Buy It Now price.

The bag making was made easier with my new steam iron. My old iron that I've had for donkey's years had got so clogged up with our chalky water that it really doesn't steam any more. I hardly ever iron clothes, but do need a decent iron for pressing my sewing. Anyway, I got this beauty in Argos at a quarter of the RRP. 

It was already half price which reduced it to 24.99 and I had £12.50 on my Nectar card so I paid just £12.49 for a £50 iron. I used it for the first time today and it makes things so much easier than using a pressing cloth that has to keep being run under the tap and repositioned on the fabric. Don't tell anyone, but I almost enjoyed ironing with it.

Dinner tonight will be the fishcakes I made earlier in the week served with oven chips and peas. I've also stewed some Bramley apples I bought a week ago (4 apples for 99p in Morrisons). I added some blackberries to half the apple and made a small crumble for DH to have with custard. We picked pounds and pounds of blackberries last year and I thought we'd never eat them all but unfortunately I only have one bag left in the freezer now. 

The rest of the apple was made into a dessert with a sugar free orange jelly, 2 tablespoons of granulated sweetner, 250g of 0% fromage frais and 250g Quark soft cheese.  You simply cook the apples to a mush (I do this in the microwave), add the jelly to the cooked apple and stir to dissolve, then whisk in the fromage frais, quark and sweetner until the mixture is smooth. Either pour into a large bowl or divide into individual dishes and put in the fridge to set. This is 1/2 Syn a portion (for the jelly) on the Slimming World plan with the stewed apple being a 'B' choice. Or you could be really piggy and eat the whole thing during the day for just 2 syns (the whole of the apple would be be just 1 'B').

I think that's all I have for now. The weather's supposed to be horrible again tomorrow so it might be yet another sewing day.