University of Domesticity

There is a list in my head of things that I always thought that when I was a grown-up I would be able to do. Last year it suddenly hit me that at the age of 27 I am in all honesty a grown-up and that if I was going to learn to do these things I had better get a bit of a move on. They aren’t big things like nuclear physics or molecular biology just little sort of domesticy things.

Knitting, cooking, baking, gardening, sewing, being able to take a decent picture, being able to keep a home that I wasn’t ashamed of. All things that in my small person’s head were things that a grown-up should be able to do. Who knows why as my beloved Mother struggles at times to turn her hand to some of those things! But in my head the list stuck. So to that end it might seem to some of my nearest and dearest that I have spent the last year, eighteen months taking up "hobbies", how I hate that word, and casting them aside quickly only to begin on something else!

Scrapping was the first, something that wasn’t on the list but that appealed to me greatly once I discovered it! I’ve always loved looking at photos of when I was little and my parents were young and hearing the stories behind them. Then when my Father died it suddenly seemed that one day there might not be anyone to remember the stories. So, with the idea in mind that one day I too will hopefully have children with the same need I took up scrapping. The idea of endless albums of pictures with thoughtfully worded little stories next to them appealed to me. The idea of being able to document the big and small things in life for the future, well it seemed responsible somehow. So that was started and when I felt somewhat proficient at that I moved on to the next thing.

G was at University doing a PGCE, I was on a strict diet and we were on an extremely tight budget which meant that a degree of ability was needed in the kitchen. Something somewhat more tasty than marrow surprise! (Remember that one G and J?) So cookbooks were purchased containing healthy nutritious meals and I managed to feed my little family of two on a pittance for a year. Not always healthy meals though, that was where the baking came in! We also instituted the new tradition of mini Christmas. So that I could prove to myself that a Christmas dinner cooked by my own fair hands was a possibility! So now I can roast a chicken that is tasty and moist, roast potatoes, whip up healthy low fat muffins, delectable fattening cookies and I make a mean birthday chocolate cake if I do say so myself.

Then we moved out of the grotty small flat and into my, sorry our, beautiful maisonette with a garden! So this year we planted bulbs and plants all on our own. And we haven’t killed them all off and most of the bulbs came up! I pruned shrubs at the right time to encourage growth, dug a border and all is good and cared for. So, that was another thing ticked off the list.

Knitting, was taken up just before Christmas scarves and hats were knitted for Christmas for various people and myself, I can turn a heel of a sock so I am feeling fairly confident that that is something I am capable of now too. Which just leaves sewing.

Now I can turn up a pair of trousers with the best of them, cobble together seams that have come undone, but is that really sewing? Nay I cry, I want to create, cut cloth and stitch from scratch. To which end I began a quilt, well a small one, more of a throw really. And I have stitched most of it by hand. At which point, I decided that this was a mugs game and what I really needed was a sewing machine! I am going to buy one at the weekend! This one in fact

                   
Nothing flash, nothing expensive, just in case I don’t get on with it. But it should be enough for me to get a feel of it, for me to do a few things without getting frustrated with the machine as opposed to my lack of ability. Which I am sure I will do!

So once that is accomplished my little University course of domesticity will be over. So, what will be next? Do I attempt a masters in the art of pastry or sugar craft? Or will I embark on the long and ancient art of DIY?