Wonderful Wednesday

Thankfully Wednesday is here – we are half way through the week!  This week seems to be dragging its heels…  And also seems to be rather short on time for crafting – last night we went to a talk about the churches around our area, tonight I’m going for coffee and Friday we’re going to the pub.  So all I have is Thursday which I’m hoping to use to draw and cut out a pattern for a fabric box.  My partner has requested some way of putting badges on display so I thought a fabric box would be a good idea – he can pin the badges to the side and use it to put stuff in!

Despite having very little time last night I managed to finish off the craft projects I had on the go:

A ladybird magnet:

A sock penguin:

And a hungry caterpillar:

I was thinking about the hungry caterpillar and I think you could make a really nice mobile out of it by making all the things that he eats along the way.  I might try that one day but this caterpillar is fated to join my sister.

Foodwise today is a bit of a write-off.  Lunch is gorgeous herby bread with lactofree cream cheese but dinner will likely end up being something really quick and easy.  At the moment I’m thinking that might be toast followed by chocolate porridge so a really nice comforting quick meal.  Don’t you just love toast?  It’s so flexible – you can have it sweet or savoury and it’s ready in minutes, for me it’s the ultimate in comfort food.  The chocolate porridge is a relatively new idea for me, in fact I’m only a recent convert to porridge but again it’s so comforting.

Chocolate Porridge

Oats
Milk or water
Cocoa powder

• In a saucepan mix half a cup of oats with a tablespoon of cocoa powder.
• Add about 2 cups of water or milk and bring to the boil.
• Simmer for about 8 minutes and serve.

For added chocolate yummyness add chocolate chips once served!

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!

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.