Domestic Goddess or Stepford Blogger?

This weekend, to keep up with the nutritional needs of my growing - almost teenage (!) son, I decided to make some "power muesli". We don't eat meat, and as his energy levels fall, I realise that he probably needs more protein than he has done in the past. So I remembered a recipe I acquired some years ago, amended it to his requirements, and set to work. As I assembled the ingredients, I thought I'd photograph the process for my readers, because this truly is a delicious recipe. But as I photographed, i realised that I was placing individual cornflakes or oats or even sesame seeds, to make what I thought would be a good enough picture of absolute cereal perfection ... Oh dear ... I should get out more I think! So here are the raw ingredients:

3 cups oats
1.5 cups sugar free corn flakes
1.5 cups plain puffed rice
1 cup sunflower/pumpkin seeds (combined)
.5 cup sesame seeds
.25 cup linseeds
1 cup chopped almonds/cashews (combined)
.5 cup sunflower oil
.5 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup soft dried fruit (i use raisins/sultanas)

Mix all of the dry ingredients together but NOT the fruit. Warm the oil, honey, vanilla extract, combine, then pour over the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Place in the oven at 100C for one hour, stirring every 20 minutes. When golden brown right through, the mixture is done. Remove from the oven, add the dried fruits, leave to cool, stirring frequently to stop it all from sticking together. Store in an airtight container and serve with milk or yoghurt as a breakfast cereal or snack. Oh, it's wheat gluten free and if the honey is substituted with Agave Nectar, vegan.

To complete my domestically crazed weekend, under the influence of yet another Moda Moment (part 3), I made a tea cosy. I used special "oven glove" wadding which I found at my usual fabric store (and which was cheaper than any other wadding!) and am amazed at its insulating properties - It has kept the tea warm for 2 hours! I tested!!

And the winner is ....

Number 6! Would Ms Marmadaisy please step forward and send her mailing address to me? I used this random number generator for the eyepillow draw.

Moda Moments - part 2

As my new job is literally only a hop skip and jump from my own front door I just need a little bag to take my essentials to work ... phone, lipgloss, inhalor (I have asthma) and money ...

A perfect opportunity to use some of my new Swell jelly roll.

I hardly need tell you where I learned how to use a purse frame now do I? No .. didn't think so ..

The black bits of the bag are wool. So, I interfaced the cotton with heavy iron on, then sewed it all together with some additional heavy sew in to give it guts.

And this ...


Is my first zip pouch pocket ... yes .. you know where I learned that too!

Have a dry weekend!

Last chance

Today and most of tomorrow, is your last chance to enter for my giveaway! Don't delay, enter today!

What a Swell Party this Is

I started a new job today, after a 6 month break, so arrived home with a headache and a brain filled with a muddle of "new job information". On the doorstep waiting for me was an excitedly anticipated package from Buttonberry (thanks for the tip Florence). Inside, was a Swell Jelly Roll, by Moda, (and a random fat quarter which I did order, but I can't remember why) ...

It didn't last long in it's tidy roll. As much as I tried to make the moment last, after approximately 40 seconds, the 40 strips of fabric had been unravelled. That's one strip per second. It was a bit of a frenzy I have to admit...

I have since been simultaneously arranging them and staring at them catatonically. Like a rabbit trapped in the glare of headlights, such a dazzling array of beauty before me yet such a tired mind ...

Ideas are starting to creep in after some brain refueling with several cups of tea and several mini eggs.

I'm trying with all my might to ignore my tired and confused little brain, and get a handbag together for tomorrow, but that might also involve painting my nails red to match. Would that be Swellegant or Elegant?

My New Best Friend

Imagine the scene ... You're at friends for dinner ... you've had a glass of wine or three, and a takeaway curry ... It's time to visit the bathroom. You've been there hundreds of times over the years, but this time is different ...

You open the door, step inside, close the door behind you, turn around. And with no prior warning, you come eyeball to chest with .......

A life sized Storm Trooper (ofcourse!) - an exact replica of the ones in the film ... Yes a StormTrooper from Star Wars.

What do you do when you need a wee and there's a very tall stormtrooper in the very small room with you??

I turned his head to the wall (Why??) and carried on with my business.

By the way, his is name is Harry - the storm trooper that is .. the little boy is Reggie.

The Green Green Glass of Home

In America, they call it Thrifting ... I'm not sure we could call it that in the UK, most certainly not in Oxford, where charity shops seem to be nearly as expensive as "new" shops. But I still love to rummage around in search of bargains which seem to exist mainly on the "homewares" shelves. This weekend, I was pleased to find these lovely green stemmed wine glasses at £1.50 for the pair. I got them home, gleefully unwrapped them, gave them a nice wash, and as I dried them, hypnotically watching the green glass sparkle in the sunlight streaming through the window, it slowly dawned on me that these are not my first green loves ...

It started with a 23rd birthday gift now one of my treasures, held together by wax and given to me by my oldest friend who had sureptitiously noticed my admiration of it, every time we walked past the shop where it used to live ...



Then there was a "coming back from holiday gift" (Hungary I think) from my Mother in Law:

I love this collection of vintage bottles collected over time from here and there:



And another, from a "bottles we have dug up" stall at Oxford Craft Market on Thursdays ...


Another bottle, another room ...



My oldest friend (Oh .. by oldest friend, i mean, the person I have been friends with for the longest time .. she is not the oldest of my friends ... oh .. you know what i mean!) now lives in Italy, where I came across this, not technically glass .. but I have many of these too .. all different shades of green .. i shan't bore you with the details!

A Good Friday

I've been so foccussed on the Spring Equinox, which happened today at 5.48pm precisely, that I completely forgot that it is infact also Easter weekend. This means that all of the children in my life, had also been forgotton as far as eggs or treats go. Eeeek! Today therefore, I have been mostly making egg cosies, which I will fill with Divine (fair trade) Mini Eggs. I have to thank Christine for being my saviour in this with her fantastic tutorial. Thank you!

So here are the results of my day of hard labour:

For my 3 nieces, Niamh (5), Tuala (3), Connie (1). I know these look a bit dark, but they know me. If I gave them something more "girly" it would disturb them. A bit like when Wednesday Addams smiles. They are my favourite cosy's and had me squealing with delight and love as each one was "born".

These are for 2 little boys, Reggie (3) and Finn (4). They are quite boyish as you can see, trucks, planes, cars ... easy really:

And these two are for Lily (3) and Indigo (1), who don't know me as well as my neices, and therefore will not be disturbed at the sight of all this pinkness coming from me. Well I had to use up my one pink fat quarter. I thought they looked a bit like cupcakes when I designed them, but now I think they look like circus tents.

It's the equinox all over the world, where day and night are exactly the same length for 3 days. It's a point of balance. Afterwards, for nearly 3 months, the days will get longer, until the solstice when we have the longest day and the shortest night. From there, night will start to creep back in until the next equinox when again light and dark will be equal. The equinox's are my favourite time of year, both filled with the promise of the next season.

And so I leave you now, just at the precise moment the moon becomes full here (6.40pm if you could see past the HUGE black cloud on the horizon), and wish you all a happy holiday weekend!

Magic Bags and a Giveaway

Have you seen in the shops, those pads filled with assorted beneficial stuffings, such as wheat grains, or ground up cherry stones, which you put in the microwave or the freezer, and then when suitably hot or cold, you apply these pads to the part of your body which needs soothing or invigorating? They cost a fortune. I bought one a while ago only because it was on sale, but at half price it still cost £8.00!

I run a Suma food group - which means that a group of us order bulk amounts of wholefood at wholesale prices. On my last leaf through the catalogue, i noticed a 3kg bag of organic wheat grain, costing £2.85. Wheat is the filling in my very expensive, aforementioned hot pad from Culpepper, but it is not organic, and the covering is plain corduroy, not - as the price would suggest - fine linen or silk woven by scottish fairies, and breathed upon by lucky leprichauns with a lottery ticket for the pot at the end of the rainbow. So why the ridiculously high pricetag when you could make enough healing pads for your entire extended family with a few scraps of fabric and a 3kg bag of wheat grain - or rice for that matter! Here's how:

Determine the size of your pads, my square one is 6"x6" and the eye pad is 6" measuring accross the bottom. I cut patterns from paper which included a 1cm seam allowance.

The fabric is cashmere, left over from a cloak I made years ago, and Heather Baily Freshcut fabric scraps in pink for the hot pad, and green (like cucumbers) for the cold eye pad. I put each right sides together, sewed right round, leaving about a 2" gap for turning out and stuffing. If you leave a long tail of thread at one end, it will aid hand sewing the gap shut for a neat finish:

Trim the seams, clip the corners, and then when turned out, finger press carefully and you should have these:

You can then fill the bags with the wheat grain (or rice) and add other things, in this case, I have added dried lavender flowers with about 10 drops lavender oil, and mixed it altogether in a bowl.


I used a funnel to aid stuffing - otherwise it tends to go all over the place even if you are very careful!


When the bags are about 3/4 full, you can sew them shut either by hand, or by machine if you don't mind a top stitch effect on one side.


You could ofcourse, top stitch all the way round before stuffing, to make it even and give extra strength. You could also add embellisments before sewing or stuffing or add extra detail such as a seam or two down the middle.

I added a seam on this one which somehow gives more "weight" to each eye. The plastic case I made to go with it, so that you can store it in the fridge without it getting damp or spilled on. I since realised that a foodbag would do just as well.



This little set could be YOURS. All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning it, is leave a comment on this post telling me what makes a good craft blog. I will use a random number picker (when I find one) to pick the winner 10 days from today, 28 March.

To use these bags hot (i would not recommend hot use for the eye pad), put in the microwave along with a glass of water, for 2 minutes on high. I find the lavender bags particularly good for those nasty times of the month when all you want is a hot water bottle, a comfy chair and a mug of cocoa.

Playing Tag .. you're It ...

I have been tagged by Anna with the "four things meme" (what is a meme??)... so here are my responses..

Four Movies I'd watch over and over

• Grease
• The Lost Boys
  
• What's Love Got to Do with It?
  
• Pirates of the Carribean (for the Johnny Depp factor only)
  

Four places I have lived

• Capetown
• Edinburgh
  
• Bournemouth
• Oxford

Four Shows I Watch

• I don't watch tv...
  

Four Places I have been

• Cuba
• Canada
• Turkey
• Italy
  

Four people who email me

• Richard
  
• Paula
• Carey
  
• Facebook
  

Four things I love to eat

• lemon drizzle cake
  
• peanut butter (from a spoon)
  
• mashed potato
  
• proper chocolate (esp. Booja Booja)
  

Four places I'd rather be

• in the woods
  
• in my allotment
  
• at home
  
• in Italy
  

Four things to look forward to this year

• my holiday in Italy (can't wait!)
  
• clubbing nights in London
  
• making a cut flower garden
  
• harvesting my veg
  

And the four people I tag are:

Joleo

Lisa

Kathi

Christine

Recipie of the Week

Its been a very stormy, windy, dark and damp week weatherwise where I am ... very wintery indeed, and the type of weather which calls for extremely comforting and warming food, like lentil casserole with mash. This stew is an easy peasy French dish which both my mother and grandfather would make regularly, sometimes with lamb necks in it. Well ... it doesn't need the lamb necks but if you are a carnivore, it's very nice with them. The mash is made using those new potaotes you can get which taste as if they have butter built into them. Creamy and delicious. So for my vegan version of this traditional french dish, here's how:

Lentil Stew:

Sweat 1 large onion in a tablespoon olive oil and when translucent, add a chopped carrot or two. You can also at this point add any other veg you might have hanging around, like celery or celeriac, swede - anything. Toss that around the pan, then add some crushed garlic to taste, I would add about two cloves. Add the lentils, then one glass of white wine. Let the wine sizzle down a little, then cover the whole lot with water - about 2 pints. Do NOT add salt at this point as it will make the lentil skins tough. I add copious amounts of freshly ground black pepper as this gives the dish a spicy taste. Cover, bring to the boil, then simmer, adding more water if it looks like the pan will go dry, until the lentils are tender and the liquid has reduced. What you should have is a thick "soupy" sort of texture. At this point, you can add seasoning, either salt, bouillion powder, stock cubes, herbs etc., I use 2 tbs vegan bouillon powder (of the marigold brand variety), a dash or two of tamari (to taste), some fresh parsley.

For the potatoes, I use Jersey Royals and leave the skin on. Boil them until tender, then crush them with a fork. Add a little salt, some pepper to taste and a glug of olive oil. Use extra virgin olive oil if you like a strong taste, or normal if you want the potato taste to be prominent. Add freshly chopped parsley - some cooked cabbage if you like, then combine so that the mash is lumpy but holds together well.

Serve and enjoy!

Vintage or Retro?

I confess that I am obsessed with 1940's style glamour. I think it's something to do with the eyebrows and the shoes. Don't ask me why but I've always had a thing about eyebrows. The shoe thing is just a female default. I was given this lovely book for my last birthday ....

I took it with me when I visited my grandmother on Sunday. She's 89 now, but may as well still be 19, as she was in 1938 when this picture was taken.

She was trying to escape back to France, disgusted with her parents for having had the audacity to move to London when she was too young to have a say in the matter. They didn't want her to travel because war was about to be declared, but in the end she ran away for the love of a man, and his country, along with her gas mask which she was allowed to take with her, but which she said she would rather die for than wear. Here is the dashing fellow she was after, he was 26 at the time and working as a chef in Paris. My grandfather.


My Nana and I leafed through the book together on Sunday with the usual "cooo'ing" and "corrr'ing" noises you would expect while she was reminiscing and I was listening with wonder, and then we arrived at the shoe page ...

Shoes?????? she suddenly bellowed with extreme indignation! "SHOES!? We didn't have SHOES!!!" she said with as much disbelief as if somebody had told her that Hitler was really a woman. I looked confused having never heard her talking about the part of the war where women were forced to have bare feet due to lack of supplies. She saw my horrified and concerned look and explained that in German occupied Paris, if you wanted shoes, especially nice ones, you had to make them. Apparently, you would buy your pre-sized wooden wedges at the market. Then you would take them home and make covers and straps from whatever you had handy; Coat material for winter shoes; and dress material for summer shoes. Luckily, my Grandfather was pretty good with a hammer, and made some nifty ones for her. I saw pictures of them. OK .. they made her dainty legs look a little bit like golf clubs, but they were beautiful shoes, very cool, and I'm sure they would have the likes of Vivien Westwood turning green with envy, and wishing she had designed them herself, had she been alive then. Unfortuntely, I don't have a picture of them to show you, so you will have to settle for a picture of the latest acquisition to my own shoe department.


I love them with all of my heart.

And while we are on the subject of vintage, I would like to say Thank you to Caroline of Bag the Jewels (and her lovely daughter Lauren) for adding a link to my blog from her dangerously tempting website. I have to say that I have seen alot of this stuff in person where it is displayed in Oxford, and I wouldn't be selling ANY of it .. oh no .. it would be mine ... All mine ...

Carpet Bag Mk II

Oooh, i have discovered a new way to upload pics from Flickr ... so here is my delicious new bag which I am calling "Black Cherry Pie". Because it's predominantly black, has cherries on it, and is as nice as pie!

Storm in Cyberspace

Despite trying all day, in all sorts of different ways, Blogger will simply not let me upload any pics today, which is a shame as I wanted to write all about Sunday with my grandmother and her home made shoes. Humph. So here instead is a link to Carpet Bag MkII which I made on Saturday and which turned out much better than the first one. It was all in the seam allowance (pattern said quarter of an inch which is too generous. I reverted back to 1cm)! Now my channels are the right size for the frame and all is well with the world. Phew.

Who lives in a house like this?

This week I have been mostly decorating the lounge ... While I was re-stocking my bookshelves I thought "what a bizarre collection" and wondered what Lloyd Grossman would have thought if I was famous and he was doing a "Through the keyhole" on me. This is only a small selection! ...

When is a carpet bag, not a carpet bag?

Over the weekend, I was delighted to receive my latest consignment of U-Handbag contraband. A long wished for Indygo Junction Carpet bag pattern.

I immediately set to work, and came up with this ....


I didn't think it looked much like this ....


And I think i like it better without the frame like this ....

I found the pattern a bit involved and so added some Lam'isms which I have learned from Lisa's lovely tutorials, ie: For the straps, they would have you sew them down one side inside out, turn them through (difficult with anything heavier than cotton) and then insert fused interfacing afterwards!!! This seemed a bit daft, so I just made a strap as per this tutorial, which was much easier, but I made them too fat. My frame channel was a bit too long for the frame too, but I think that must have been my measuring/seam allowance ratios.

But not all is lost, because this bag will fit a Hex frame I think, so I'm going to try that instead, and start again with the carpet bag.

Over Stimulated ..

Oh! I am soooooo excited that I have been awarded my first blogging award!! I just can't believe it! THANKYOU Christine!! I nearly fell of my chair when I read your blog today! I am very glad you like my Gluten Free recipies. I have quite strong views on food sharing, but I will save those for another blog and another day.

In the meantime ... well, I'm sure I don't really have enough readers for this, but I will pass on the award as follows:

French Knots, because she was the very first craft blogger to comment on my blog. Thank you for the encouragement!
Anna Marmadaisy, because I love her stuff, and we also both have marmalady names! She was also the first on my list of favourite blogs to read.
Jo at Today We Are, because she has a different crafty thing every day - variety is the spice of life after all and also, her cat is ridiculously cute and deserves an award all on her own.
Florence, because she writes so well and her stuff is sooooo pretty
Lisa because without her, I wouldn't be here ... (thank you for the zillionth time)
Amy because she has so many good ideas and I love to read her blog, look at her pics and read her book.
Ali because of her "where to get american bakers twine" tip (it's really uk butchers twine)
howaboutorange for good ideas
Melanie - fabric lust, fabric envy .. need I say more?
Christine - you made my day by nominating me for the award in the first place, and I love reading your blog. Thank you!

I think that's enough excitement for one day!