Winter is coming

and it's time to think about fixing our curtains.  The ones we have at the moment have done us well in the lounge, but a combination of age, children and kittens has taken its toll.   The ones on the sliding door in particular are not feeling well.  Hooks have been ripped out due to the boys pulling on them, wrapping themselves in them and generally misbehaving with them.  There are cat marks from the kittens climbing up when they were smaller and the hems are coming undone too.
The tracks aren't the best either, they're not really long enough so the curtain is in the way when going through the door even when drawn open completely.  They're also attached to the door frame so the aforementioned misbehaving by boys has resulted in the screws opening up the wood.

You can't shut them properly now, so today I finished getting what I need to make new ones.   I already had the fabric from one of Millers sales a few years ago

It's the purply one in the middle, got the curtain tape a couple of weeks back, but couldn't get started until I got this:

This is an adjustable track 2.9-4m; we need it set to about 3m so it'll be good and once we install it this weekend then I can measure and start making the new ones.
I don't need to purchase anything new now to get these made, so it's just a matter of time now, want to try and get them done in the next week as school holidays start the following week.
Sometime in the next week or so I also need to get some new school tops, some surge protectors for our bigger appliances (washing machine, dishwasher etc) and maybe some more storage containers for the kitchen.  The storage isn't important though, I did pick up these 2 beauties yesterday

The top one will be for flour probably, the bottom also for flour, but the 5kg bags of Hi-grade so I'm not dealing with paper bags that tend to break open when the boys drag them out of the cupboard.   I'm doing a bit more baking at the moment and I want to keep that up so good storage is a must.
This is what the boys and I made yesterday

My Gran's chocolate cake, I've ammended the recipe to add more cocoa, but it's a lovely, simple chocolate cake that turns out well even when the oven is playing up

Ginger fudge slice, this is a biscuit based slice with chocolate icing, yummy!

I'll be doing more baking, but our oven is a little dodgy atm.  Since Feb 22nd it's had some issues, the elements are running hotter, one in particular is much much hotter, and it turns out that the actual oven part is also hotter.   We've put this in on our earthquake claim as well as the washing machine which is sometimes not starting properly, well it starts and then decides to go back to ready.   It's an intermittent fault, but it's post earthquake as is the noise it now makes and the occasional leak.   Earthquakes are not good for appliances!  The claim is in, just have to hope that it gets approved quickly so I can go out and get new ones.   I know what I want, but don't really want to get them until I know we have the funds.
I hope everyone else getting new appliances on insurance is looking at the star labels too, we want efficient appliances, or at least as efficient as can be managed on our budget.

Getting off the depressing earthquake appliance thing, I've been doing more work on my Diotima Shell

Just a teaser at this point I'm afraid, this is in Noro Silk Mountain which is now discontinued, it's a boucle which I love and is being knit in rib.   Haven't tried it on except to check that my head goes through the top, which it does.   Using all of 5 balls of yarn, so basically knitting till I run out; this is a stashbusting exercise.   I've 3 more colours in this yarn which will be used for a hat or two and hopefully a Liesl.  Hoping it'll look good in that.  In Rav it's down as a super bulky, but I think it's really more Aran weight, doesnt' knit up right for super bulky.  Won't be able to work on the hats just yet though, this should be finished tomorrow, just in time to start a shawl I'm test-knitting and then work on a jersey I'm knitting from Colourmart yarn as part of a summer KAL.
Gotta go, lots to do!