A bad workman always blames his tools...?

I think this saying is absolute tripe when in the kitchen. My Mum hated cooking, and so, as a consequence, there was a distinct lack of equipment (let alone ingredients) at home to cook with when the urge struck. I had to 'make do', and it is only of later years that I have realised that you cannot make do when cooking if you expect your food to vaguely resemble the picture in the recipe. (And taste remotely edible).

Of course you can get away with some things: measuring in rough tablespoons, using a medium egg when a large one is specified etc etc, but you canNOT - NOT - I have found to my huge detriment get away with skimping on equipment. And here is the proof:

In the recipe, the top of this cake is supposed to be 'flawlessly smooth.' I am tempted to call Nigella Lawson a lying bitch, but, this is Saint Nigella of the giant fridge we are talking about, so I have looked back over my method and found that she prepared her chocolate in a food processor - and I hand chopped mine with a big knife. I don't have a food processor. Herein lies my point. With a food processor, my choc would have been in tiny pieces. With the big knife method I had large lumps which showed no inclination to melt in the hot cream. I cannot even print what Mark said when he clapped eyes on it and I casually mentioned the term 'flawlessly smooth'.

Gotta laugh.

So, on to scrapping where I do have the right equipment lol. Week 15 of SLYMI - living on the edge. I had originally wanted to scrap this photo:

Cropped deliberately to be 'on the edge' by the way, but when I got it printed out I liked it so much that I decided I wanted it bigger to scrap at a later date.

This is what I did in the end:

Oliver took this photo of me and Mark at Lands End in May 2007. It is probably the only decent one of the two of us with less than four chins apiece. I have formed a frame around it by ripping back double sided paper and stapled back the corner for added 'interest' (!) I am pleased with the result.

Oh, and beading. It was good - went over some pretty dull basics, but very, very valuable to me taking into account my attention to detail problem. I am awaiting a delivery of some findings to finish off a bracelet, so will post pics when I have finished it.