The camera is back in action! (and a weekend roundup!)

Sadly it’s still broken and won’t connect to the computer via a cable but we’ve managed to find a memory card reader on the boys laptop so at least we can access the photos so here’s a few of the previously referred to photos:

pjs!

Father's Day card

And perhaps something I forgot to mention – I subscribed to Sew Hip recently and as a joining up offer I got a back issue and some fabric:

I haven’t got any more photos yet; I stopped taking them when I realised the camera was sick as I didn’t want to end up with lots of inaccessible photos!

The Weekend!

The weekend kicked off in style with the etsy craft party.  It was really good and more people were there than I think anyone had expected!  Attendees included Emma from the handmade amoeba and her daughter, another Emma, Nadine from Quilted Bliss, Cat and Kat, Helen, Kim, Portia, Louise and I’m sure some others!  Emma has included photos so head over there and check them out!  We made matchboxes (more difficult than you’d think!) and decorated them before they were filled with sweets and crafty bits.  They were then swapped – mine went to Kat and I was given one made by an Emma!  I really enjoyed myself and I’m sure the others did too.  It was hosted at Pulse who hold crafty Sunday afternoons which I am going to try and get to in the future!

Saturday I headed off to a sign language BBQ which was fun, although signing whilst you’re holding a drink and a plate gets interesting!  The boy was left in charge of Saturday night food, which unfortunately wasn’t very nice…  We were having a spicy prawn dish but the prawns weren’t the best and the dish didn’t have much flavour…  So we headed out and bought some crumpets instead!

Sunday we were taken to Strada for lunch which was, as always, very yummy   I was about to say that I should get something for all this Strada advertising I seem to be doing then I remembered that on Saturday morning a parcel came for me and it was filled with little sample portions of lactofree milk and four vouchers for their products and all because I blogged about them a few weeks back!

And the week ahead…

Food

Tonight we are eating pasties*, new potatoes and green beans.  We will also be waiting in for a freecycler to collect a collection of cutlery that we no longer need.  I love freecycle!

Tomorrow I’m home alone and am going to be trying out a new recipe – Mexican lentil pie.

Wednesday the boy is making me macaroni cheese as I will be late home.

Thursday is eating on the run before sign language.

Friday is pizzas!

Craft

I’m currently making a little drawstring bag out of faux suede (obtained from a sofa company as a sample…) which will hold the Viking game we bought when we went to the Jorvik centre.

I’m finishing off a rainbow which is the start of a collection of weather related fridge magnets.

I have a skirt to finish off (I’m at a stage which requires ironing…)

I shall put the finishing touches to my stitched postcard and then send it off on its way to America!

*Pasties (makes 3-4)

1 sheet of puff pastry

Grated lactofree cheese

Chopped peppers

Mixed herbs

Salt

Pepper

1 egg, beaten

• Preheat the oven to 180C.  Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
• Cut your pastry into four strips about 4×8″.
• For each strip, sprinkle half with cheese, peppers, mixed herbs and seasoning.  Fold the remaining half over and carefully pinch the edges together.  Brush with the beaten egg and cook for about 20 mins.

A nice alternative to peppers is to use spinach.

A bank holiday all of our own!

Because of all the goings on over the bank holiday we didn’t feel especially rested.  Add to that a hectic weekend for me and a new job starting next week and you reach the conclusion that a day off might be in order.  So we had yesterday off work and made it our very own bank holiday!

We had coffee in town at Coffee Culture which is a lovely little place.  There aren’t alot of seats but it’s in a fantastic old building with really steep narrow stairs and it’s been furnished to feel really cosy.  The staff are really friendly and if you decide to order tea you’ll get a pot big enough for four people!

Then we headed off to the Jorvik Centre!

This has recently been refurbished and was well worth a visit.  It’s one of these places where you sit in a car type thing and get taken round Viking York!  Everything was really life-like (possibly too life like… there was one person and I was really struggling to tell if he was a member of staff or a model!) and the ‘guide’ or voice over person had a variety of options including a separate child option which I thought was a good idea.  We came away having enjoyed ourselves and having bought a viking game.  The game is kind of a cross between chess and draughts!

Then in the evening we went to Strada which was, as always, lovely.

The only dampener to the day (other than the rain!) was discovering a crack in the car windscreen which had appeared overnight and is about 7 inches long…!  We’re blaming the torrential rain we had to drive in on Sunday!

And talking of Sunday, we went to a Diamond Wedding Anniversary meal in a rather posh hotel.  Being married for 60 years is quite something!  This is the card I made for them:

And I’ve also been making pj shorts!  The first pair I made were from a pillowcase:

Can you spot the mistake?!

I made the legs too small (nothing like underestimating the size of your thighs…) so I had to use an extra piece of the pillow case to join the legs up.  And then I went and made the same mistake on the second pair I’m making…

A wordless post (because it won’t let me type…!)

A birthday card...

...and a birthday present

A sneaky peak at an unrevealed project!

Weekend roundup

Fuel for body

Saturday we had Thai takeaway – instead of going down the route of a Thai curry we decided to get a few starters and bulk  them out with rice.  I quite enjoy doing that – it means the meal isn’t as heavy and you get more variety as well.

On Sunday we went for roast potatoes, steamed salmon and parsley sauce.  It’s the first time we’ve steamed salmon and I don’t think we’re ever likely to cook it a different way again.  It was cooked so perfectly, it was beautifully tender and it’s much healthier than frying it!

The weekend also saw me bake a lovely Yorkshire Parkin:

Parkin

7oz self raising flour

3-4oz oatmeal

3oz caster sugar

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 egg

200ml oat milk

2oz sunflower butter

4 1/2 oz golden syrup

• Preheat the oven to 150C and line a tin.
• Mix flour, oats, sugar, ginger and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.
• In a small pan gently heat the butter and syrup until melted.
• Beat the egg into the milk.
• Gradually pour the butter and syrup into the flour and stir. The mixture will be thick.
• Pour in the egg and milk and stir until smooth and pour into the tin.
• Bake for 40mins to an hour

Fuel for soul

A very exciting trip to town resulted in many more craft related items being bought including some gorgeous blue fabric with purple butterflies on.  I’m hoping I can find a really nice project to make use of it.  I also, out of necessity, bought a box to store some of my craft bits in (at the moment they are all over the floor!).

The main priority of the weekend was to make a thank you card which didn’t turn out as well as hoped, partly I think, due to a lack of sharp knife.  But as it’s for a relative it’s the thought that counts!

I finally finished of my (somewhat incorrect) quilt.  But it was nice to finish it and the main point of the quilt was to get used to the new sewing machine.

I also finished off a few magnets:

Finished a cat keyring:

Got round to photographing my rose keyring (tutorial from The Purl Bee)

I also made a stripy sock owl, mentioned in my previous post and have started a sock penguin for my partner who loves penguins!

With some of the fabric I bought I’m making a hungry caterpillar although the sewing machine keeps jamming making this much harder than it should be!