Thursday, 23 August 2018

Nayu's Craft Time #292 Why a coolbag isn't always cold enough

I've got all of these bags (not my photo) I use the wherever I go and I like them! The cool bag is the one I used later in this post.
Morning! It's a rainy day today, no heatwave either so it's mostly a rest day as my body doesn't take kindly to rain. I am positing this on my other blog, Nayu's Reading Corner simultaneously, and I get to the main title topic quite a bit further down in the post. 

I've been super quiet over this past week because last Thursday I had to go on an errand for something I'm not discussing yet in public. Where I went was within a shopping centre, so I did peek into a toy shop and picked up a new friend, who I showed on Twitter. 
She is really big, a great hugging size.

At first I wasn't sure whether Tulip was a llama or an alpaca, so now I think she is an alpaca. I got her in a bargain summer sale where I got this set of Disney Tsum Tsum toys for a crazy low price compared to the original. 

It must be noted this eraser set did include Pinoccio, who I absolutely hate so he went bye-bye in the bin. I dislike him that much! I didn't realise you can actually switch heads and bodies around, that's not something I enjoy as I like my Disney characters whole and in their own body thank you. 

Shared a moment similar when Stitch felt lost.
 Now I did almost lose my car in the shopping mall, I couldn't quite remember where it was, so I thought I'd start at one end of the several car parks and hope for the best. Went to the 5th floor, no joy. Thankfully the 4th floor was my stop as I was super tired by that point (that kind of going out even though I don't go far in the mall is an awful lot for my body). 

I knew I'd be resting for a few days after, but this was hampered a little bit by having younger family members to stay. It was fun but they are permanently on the go. I got to game several hours with them on Saturday morning when I wasn't feeling great to begin with. Being social that long is tiring, and add to the fact they couldn't sit still (as in constantly figiting (fi-git-ing (not fighting)) on the same sofa as me my body didn't take well to that either. 

My base! This is the 3rd level, one is a bedroom for a girl, another is a work room for a girl, and the blue and white structure is my room! Sadly the boys do wander around up here, but I like it as a girls only space!
I'm still playing Dragon Quest Builders, I'm on the 3rd chapter (still) which is hard but I'm starting to get better weapons and building materials so I'm hoping to get to chapter 4 soon. The honeymoon period was over for a little bit - I still love it but it's definitely not as easy as it was in the earlier chapters. 

This isn't my picture, and as far as I know I can't ride on the larger animals, but the character is similar to mine. I finally have a cute hairstyle (loopy braids) but I also just got a headscarf as an item and my character looks so cute! When I have more time I'll do a post on NRC about it - I'm trying to complete it before I write a review.
I've unexpectedly and happily got in Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles. My younger family members loved it, it was so much fun going around having them look for stuff for me including the 55 cats that need rescuing in the game. I'm now over 50% through the main story which makes me a bit sad. I heartily glad that I think I've built all the bridges I need to - getting enough stone was quite an issue! It involves making things with the materials that you collect around the world which is never dull, because the world feels quite large and for some reason I'm not able to remember where everything is so it always feels like a new area even when it isn't. 

That's all I've been gaming (mostly), although I must get back into Pokemon Sun because I want to finish the main story by the time the next Pokemon game comes out. 

Such a shame a pretty parasol can't make it easier to craft in heat.
Craft wise not much has happened because I haven't had the energy, and when I did it was too hot to handle metal: I hate the way metal feels in high temperatures, which is why it may be a few weeks before I can continue with my craft.

I have been reading a few good books that I'll be reviewing soon over on Nayu's Reading Corner, but I will link to a couple here in the right hand menu where I put my latest NRC post (when I can get online to do so). 

Thank you for being patient in my non-posting: I've some life stuff going on (nothing bad) which may affect my blogging from time to time over the next few months, but I'm doing my best to keep you updated when I can. My priority is to rest! 

the good white stuff! Which I get in a carton.
On that note I can finally get to this post's title topic. Usually when I go grocery shopping I'm able to put everything away straight away (the main storage fridge is in the garage which I can't access on my own). The last time I went I couldn't do that, so for some unknown reason I decided milk would be ok in a coolbag, with frozen food and a tray of ice cubes for a few hours. There wasn't  much room in the internal fridge so I thought it would be ok. 

While it was very cool, I don't think it was cool enough: every single pint of milk I'd bought then and used this week has gone off. I'm not sure why I realised it may be the cool bag thing (it's organic milk which my family pointed out may have shorter shelf life, I'm not sure) but that is the one thing I did differently to other milk. From now on no matter how tired I am I'm putting milk in the fridge as soon as I get home! Thankfully the flavoured milk is fine which suits me. Cool bags do keep food cool, but it's advisable to put perishables away promptly to avoid them spoiling and you temporarily being wary of using milk. 

Essential emails are almost done, this blog is ending and it's nearly time to go back to some gaming! I hope you have a good day whatever you are doing, and plan to put up the next post this weekend!
Searched for 'see you soon' picture, saw this one, thought it was adorable and then discovered I already had a copy ^u^



Sunday, 12 August 2018

Here but busy

Well, it feels that way with doing stuff & getting enough rest between the busy days.


All recovered from my mega meds but had a few busy days, and got a few coming up this week so I'll be blogging next weekend. Thank you for being patient!

Wednesday, 8 August 2018

Happy Wednesday!

Awww! So cute!!
This is a nice cute picture of my favourite cat, a Ragdoll, which I hope to have one day. It's a pedigree cat, so I'd be happy with a cross breed so long as it looked like this. I hope to be back blogging very soon (this is the last of the scheduled posts while I recover from my mega strong meds.

Monday, 6 August 2018

Nayu's Product Review #8 Yeo Valley's Limited Edition Baobab Yogurt

This is an amusing looking tree - looks a bit like broccoli

Before you think this is a repeat post from the other day (although it kind of is + it's the post before this one which I can't yet link back to because it's not yet published (this is me writing in the past (well present) but being published in the future...confused yet?), I wanted to do this as a separate post because including it in the last post would have made it rather long. Using the title I'm sure you can probably guess what type of tree this picture is of. You've guessed, it's a baobab tree! I've heard of baobab quite a bit over the past few years but have never tried it, so when Yeo Valley produced a limited edition flavour incorporating baobab I simply had to try it. 
Oh my word, it is AMAZING! I seriously love this flavour, it's like nothing I've ever tasted (apart from the vanilla part), and yes when I had it I immediately bought several more tubs. I don't know if I'll like it in other foods, but I most definitely like it in yogurt. 
 Baobab trees are super tall, live mostly in Madagascar and also in Africa, Australia, and Arabia. They can retain a lot of water in their trunk to help them survive droughts. The fruit reminds me a bit of both a coconut and a cacao bean. It has a range of nutrients and is often used as a powder (I'm guessing to put in smoothies and other food).  
Coconut

cacao pod with cacao beans
You can find more info online, but that's the basics of baobab. I'd love to know if you've ever tried, or if you will try it now! 
You never know what you'll discover!

Saturday, 4 August 2018

Nayu's Product Review #7 Yeo Valley Special Edition Yogurts

A favourite way of many to enjoy their yogurt
Regular readers know that I love all things dairy, especially yogurt, as seen in a previous post. Last week I bought 2 of Yeo Valley, an organic food company's limited edition yogurts because they were on sale. I only really buy this yogurt on sale because it's not the cheapest, but it is one of the most delicious of yogurts. Their normal range includes regular flavours like blackcurrant, strawberry, raspberry etc. I absolutely adore their banana and custard limited edition yogurt, which I buy whenever they sell it (not all the time, but more than once a year). 
The funny thing is I'm not overly fond of bananas...
Their limited edition yogurts seem to be more specialised flavours with not so regular ingredients. I saw Passion Fruit Curd, and picked up 2 because I felt I'd like it. 
Loving the pink packaging!

I did, even though I have no idea why they used curd in the title. I really liked it, and would happily buy it again. My family didn't think it was anything special. Then I tried the next one. 
I absolutely adore citrus fruit, I try to eat at least 1 piece a day. Sadly I'm not really supposed to have grapefruit much because of the medication that I'm on, so I stick with having it occasionally. I thought I'd love the St Clements because it has oranges and lemons in. I'm glad I only bought one tub because it tasted like marmelade. 

I can only have marmalade in small doses, I just don't like the flavour unless it's Roses' lime marmalade which I haven't had for years and absolutely adore. So I ate this yogurt less enthusiastically, only not throwing it away because I didn't hate it. 

Have you tried any of Yeo Valley's limited edition yogurts? I'd love to hear what you think of them! 
Frozen yogurt is as yummy as the non-frozen variety! Couldn't quite find a 'keep calm and yogurt on' slogan in my quick search for today's saying.


Thursday, 2 August 2018

Nayu's Craft Time #291 Hot weather + craft = ?

The heatwave continues!

If you follow me on Twitter (link in the side bar -> ) you'll know I've been having a quiet week resting as I wasn't well last week. I've mostly been gaming on Dragon Quest Builders, not only because I'm obsessed with it but certain crafts don't mix well in hot weather. I've a load of cute cross stitch projects but for some reason I absolutely hate how metal needs feel when it's hot. It makes me feel like a lot of people feel when fingernails are scratched on a chalk board: 
This was a common sight when I was little.
In case not everyone knows what a chalk board is, since these days schools use whiteboards, when I was at school whiteboards didn't exist. Chalkboards were used, they were usually black or a weird green colour, and chalk was used to write on them, not whiteboard markers There's a hideous sound that can be made by dragging fingernails or other material on a chalk board which irritates everyone. 
None of this for me at the moment
So (or should it be sew?!!) no sewing for me. Equally no crochet because while I use crochet hooks with rubber grippy material on the base the top part is metal. 
I love Clover crochet hooks and Clover butter!
That leaves me with 1 knitting project which I will do in a few days, once I'm over the worst of my mega strong meds that I'm having later today. I'm scheduling a couple of posts up during that time. 

Is there any craft/other activity you can't do when the weather is rather hot? 
You can insert your favourite colour with this saying!