What a wonderful weekend!

I hope everyone was able to  enjoy the sunshine we’ve been having!  On Saturday we popped over to Leeds where I found an exciting fabric stall on the market.  Luckily I only had £4 with me so I was limited to two metres of polycotton; one green and one purple to make the cushion covers with.  We also had a really yummy lunch at Wagamama’s; their way of thinking really works for me – they assume that you’ll be taking out ingredients which means I can be fussy without feeling a nuisance!  On Sunday we went to Tescos (:() then enjoyed the sunshine.  There is a lovely spot at the end of our road with a small wall so we sat on that and played our Viking game and drank homemade lemonade.  I had visions of people doing much the same back in Viking times but the boy assures me that the Viking city was further down river…  Sunday food was steamed salmon, new potatoes and green beans which was perfect for the hot evening.  I also managed to get started, and almost finished, on one of the cushion covers which is quite exciting!

The week ahead will hopefully see one completed cushion and one half completed cushion (I need more fabric to finish the other!).  It will also involve lots of washing machine loads and packing…

Tonight’s food is sweet potato open ravioli, tomorrow is toad in the hole and then I’m done cooking for the week!  Wednesday I’m out for a meal, Thursday is eating on the run before my final sign language exam (EEK!) and Friday I think we’re having  takeaway to reduce the washing up before we head off on our HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!!! (Can you tell I’m excited?)

Sweet potato open ravioli

Three sweet potatoes

Soft cheese

Ground nutmeg

Chilli powder

Salt

Pepper

Oil

Lasagna sheets

Butter

Chopped sage

Pinenuts

• Peel the sweet potato then cut into 1″ chunks.  Toss in a bit of oil, salt and pepper then roast for 20 minutes or until soft.
• Mash the sweet potato with the soft cheese, ground nutmeg and the chilli powder.
• Cook the lasagna sheets as per instructions.
• Melt the butter in a small frying pan.  Add the pinenuts and the sage.
• To serve, lay one sheet of lasagna on the plate, spoon on some of the sweet potato mix, add another layer of lasagna and repeat.  Then drizzle the sage and pinenut butter over the top.

Back to school

A really good friend of mine is about to embark on a TEFL course so I’ve made her a pencil case and am going to get a few pens and bits to pop in it.

I always loved getting everything together for my first day at school/uni.  I would always convince myself that this was going to be a new start – all my work would be really neat, all done way before the deadline and I would put all the time in that I needed to excel.  Sometimes this would even last all of a couple of weeks but invariably by the end of term my notes would be scribbled, my assignments would be done as quickly as possible and I would never do the extra (but unmarked) assignments designed to help you understand…  I guess this happens to most people but in my vain attempt for some order and neatness I think I need to invest in some storage for my crafting.  Like the new start at school this may not last long but at least I have the option to use it rather than just chucking fabric and threads on the floor of the office.  So I’m thinking…

a few of these:

one of these:

and maybe a couple of these:

I do love storage…!

This weekend we went to stay with my partners family (the death was on their side).  This involves a couple of hours on a train either way so I thought I might try sewing the time away.  Meaning that hurriedly on Friday I made this bag so that I could take my sewing with me one the train.  I absolutely adore the fabric it’s made from!  Whilst I was at the station and embroidering away I did get a few strange looks…

I also squeezed in time to make a pins and needle case (my first project with a press stud!):

Then over the weekend I managed to buy a zip so I could make this purse using a tutorial from the lovely paper-and-string (my first project with a zip!):

It was really easy to make and the tutorial was wonderfully clear and straightforward!  I’ve got lots of ideas running round my head for ways to develop and modify the idea – I just need to buy some more zips!!

Then when we finally arrived back to our lovely home this was waiting for me:

Containing this beautiful necklace from this etsy shop which unfortunately is currently not selling things (I think the seller is moving house!) but should be up and running in May!

So overall the weekend was productive but tiring.

Foodwise:

Friday was pizza

Saturday was meal out

Sunday was steamed potatoes with steamed salmon and parsley sauce

Tonight is beanburgers and chilli garlic roast potatoes using the left over potatoes from yesterday

Tomorrow night is sweet potato curry (do you sense we get stuck in a rut with our food?)

Shopping, crafting and pasta making!

This weekend I discovered a fantastic little craft shop – Craft Basics – in York.  From the outside it doesn’t look that exciting or that big but when you get through the door it’s packed to the ceiling with supplies for every sort of craft you can think of and lots of gorgeous colours.  There was glass paint, mosaic tiles, ribbons, beads, wool, stamps, beautiful paper… It was so inspiring!  I managed to restrain myself and only came away with one pot of ceramic paint (in an almost petrol green), some christmassy ribbons, a ribbon to complete my partners fabric box and some purple ribbon because it was cheap and pretty.

I’ve made a break from the cute little felt animals I’ve been making as keyrings and fridge magnets.  I embroidered this to make into a card at some point:

I finished off my partners fabric box so he has somewhere to pin his badges:

And I made my very own fabric box to put my make up in.  The fabric I used to line this is so beautiful.  It’s batik style butterflies and part of a range of similar fabrics which I’m lusting after:

We also made ravioli this weekend.  It took us a while to get the hang of making the pasta but we got there in the end!  My ravioli was filled with lactose free cheese and spinach (my partners was goats cheese and spinach) and served with a basil and rosemary oil dressing.  It was really nice although I think I sealed them a bit too cautiously (I built up the edges a bit much and they were quite thick…) and we should have been better about squeezing the air out of them but there were no major disastors!  I think it’s something we’d definetely try again particularly as they can be frozen:  Freeze before cooking and initally freeze them laid out on a baking tray then transfer to a tub or bag as this way they won’t stick together.

I don’t think we’re trying much new food this week:

Monday – sweet potato thai curry (we seem to have curry at least once a week!)

Tuesday – Fish pie (yummy!!)

Wednesday – I’m off to ASK

Thursday – quick food on the go before college

Friday – beanburgers with curly fries

Saturday – steamed salmon with steamed potatoes

Choosing a craft project

As always, when I can’t think, I google!

And whilst the google results were not up to their usual standard they did ask me to consider a few things:

Audience – I think I might be close to exhausting the list of people I can palm things off on so maybe me?

Cost – must be fairly cheap

Supplies – preferably using alot of cupboard supplies

Purpose – to fill my desire to craft

Space - nothing too huge!

Time - something that will take a few weeks

So my current thoughts are maybe a bag:

Shoulder bag

Bag

Bag

Another bag!

“It’s nice to meet you ladybird…”

Me (having just made a ladybird magnet) to my partner: Meet ladybird

Him: Nice to meet you… I seem to be meeting alot of little creatures at the moment.  It’s hard to keep track of them all…

Me: Oops…

Him: I think you need a bigger project to work on!

So that’s what I need.

…

But where do you start?

How do you choose?

So that’s my task for the next few days… finding a more sustainable/long term project…

In the meantime:

Ladybird magnet - finished

Sock penguin – needs some feet and wings

Hungry Caterpiller – needs a mouth

Fabric box – not started

The week ahead

Food for the week

(Recipes where relevant will appear throughout the week)

Dinner

Tonight will be homemade pizza (dough made in the breadmaker) with homemade chips.

Tuesday is Thai prawn curry.

Wednesday is eating on the run so will probably be herby bread with lacto-free cream cheese.

Thursday I’m only cooking for me and it will depend on energy levels although right now the idea of homemade gnocci in a garlic chilli dressing sounds divine.

Friday, hmm… I can’t remember what we have planned for Friday!

Lunch

Today lunch is gorgeous crunchy homemade bread with salmon and lacto-free cream cheese.

Tomorrow it will be left over pizza.

Wednesday I’m currently thinking will be more homemade bread.

Thursday, herby bread with lacto-free cheese.

Friday will very much depend on what’s left and looks interesting in our kitchen!

Craft for the week

Craft is currently keeping me sane.  My day job is temping and isn’t engaging me at all so I end up dreaming about craft projects to do when I get home.  This week I’d like to finish off the hungry caterpillar (he’s almost there, just needs a few finishing touches like a mouth otherwise he’ll be even hungrier!) as well as the sock penguin.  And I’d like to make a ladybird keyring.  There’s so many other things I want to do but I think I need to try and maintain some focus…!

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!

“I saw this and thought of you…”

“I saw this and thought of you…”

Don’t you think it’s nice when people think of you, I do.

Tuesday night a variety of lovely little felt creations were sent off in the post to friends and family, partly because I think it’s nice to recieve something handmade through the post – it shows someone is thinking of you – but also because the house was becoming overrun with little felt flowers and creatures!  The quilt I’m working on will hopefully be finished by the weekend – it’s only a little one (about 1mx1m) but it was mostly for getting used to the new sewing machine.  It’s looking good except I made a major mistake and the pattern is wrong but it’s still fun to create things.

Foodwise, this week is a bit of a write off really on account of having very little food in the house and me and the other half being out various nights this week.  However tonight we are both in so we’re going to try some steamed seabass (not from the back of the cupboard but from the shop on the way home!) with ginger and spring onions served with rice.  Or at least I think that’s the recipe the other half settled on!  We bought an asian cook book a couple of weeks ago which has a few really good looking steamed seabass recipes in.  I’m quite excited about tomorrow night as the other half is out so I get to cook things he doesn’t like, although it’s proving a challenge to decide what I want – all ideas welcome!

Sock Owl from Whimsy Loft

In terms of new ideas I’m loving this sock owl from Whimsy Loft and I have so many odd socks that I could start my own little owl army if I wanted!

A crafty weekend!

As mentioned previously we spent Easter weekend with my partners family where, amongst other things, we had a trip to town and found a lovely little craft shop.  This resulted in lots of felt, cotton and craft accessories being bought and obviously from there it was only a matter of time before I got sewing!

Creations included…

A hedgehog magnet

A Finding Nemo Keyring

A Penguin Bookmark

An Owl Bookmark

See here for the owl tutorial.