A few things to share....

It is Katie's birthday next week & she will be 12. Have always liked buying Katie presents - she is quite easy to buy for, but not so sure of her taste lately so have decided to make her pressies. Have made this:
And am halfway through this:

And will make earrings to match. Finished my bracelet too, here it is:

Looks a bit of a mess like this to tell you the truth, but I like the way it clicks and rattles on my wrist and the colours are really very pretty in real life.

And - news flash - am up to 14 minutes on the cross trainer, AND - where did this come from??!!!!

I do refer, of course, to the bruise from hell, not the fat lardy arse cheeks surrounding it ha ha. Oh - and those lines on my legs are jeans creases, not some serious circulation problem. I woke up feeling a bit sore and asked Mark did I have a bruise or something and lo - the purple patch of power! Bit concerning that.... I reckon he pokes me in the buttocks with a sharp stick out of spite throughout the night....

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.

Been playing around with a new blog look. This will do for now. I am no computer genius by any stretch of the imagination so it is always a bit of a surprise when it turns out looking anything like one imagines a blog to look.....

Got the old cross-trainer assembled single-handedly I might add. Took a fair old while, but I am no expert with nuts and bolts. (beginning to wonder what I am an expert in to be fair). I have been on it every day since last Thursday - it's hard. So far I have only managed a maximum of 6 minutes!! Wimp. Have found that it is marginally easier with the tension taken down from 8 to 3 though ha ha.

Finished this for the week 14 SLYMI -

The challenge this week is to scrap something hidden, so have done this layout with hidden journalling detailing my 'hidden desire' that my Mum had felt more able as I was growing up to be a little more interested in my femininity, so I could have been more of a 'girl'.

No blame there - just a bit sad things could have been a bit different for me and her.

Off beading tomorrow night with niece Georgie - I have a box of beading 'stuff' which I dip into sporadically, but I would love to do more. What lets me down (in all aspects of my life I have realised) is my lack of attention to detail. Hopefully having realised this failing, I can make a few tweaks and achieve more.

Who I am trying to kid - I am forty years old already.....

cross-training (well, maybe a bit-annoyed-training)

Got my cross-trainer! I have been thinking about this for ages - I used to exercise big-style - first with athletics/running and then latterly netball and competitive badminton and therefore have never really had weight 'issues'. Then I had a serious knee injury a couple of years ago at a netball match, and then took up an evening job and - gradually, weight has gathered nicely around my midriff, thighs and arse cheeks. And chin.




Over the last couple of years I have bought and sold every piece of sports equipment known to the western world (and a few hailing from the old Eastern Bloc too) and have failed spectacularly to keep any of them up regularly for more than embarrassingly short periods of time. The most successful was a dead posh running machine (endorsed by the lovely Roger Black) which, because of my knee, I could only use for walking in the end, but still it was a pain in the arse because I had it out in the 'sun-lounge' (draughty glass area attached to the house) and unless I got up at stupid o'clock to exercise (bloody freezing outside of the height of summer) I was in full view of any interested allotment holder or next-door neighbour. Not nice for either party really.


The least successful was the Kettlebell (endorsed by the airhead Geri Halliwell) which was so unbelievably shite it beggars belief - it was basically an extraordinarily heavy lump of metal with an inbuilt handle which you grasped firmly and then performed impossible exercises with. One of them involved almost flinging it through the TV, and another almost putting myself in traction. That one went straight to ebay without passing Go.


soooo - the cross-trainer, after tentative negotiations and passionate pleas, is going into our bedroom where I am convinced I will be hugely motivated to flop out of bed, into my trainers and puff my way into the day. I have visions of bringing in a DVD player and a radio to assist with things, but we'll have to see. Then I'll set up a minibar and jacuzzi and I'll be well sorted ha ha.

A bit of culture

The weather last week was perfectly lovely - warm, springlike (as I remember Spring should be) and uplifting. On Sunday (Mother's Day) we took a trip to a National Trust property - Greenway. Greenway was Agatha Christie's summer home which she bought before the war for the princely sum of £6k. (massive home overlooking the river Dart with 33 acres). My how we all did spit with envy. It was all very beautiful:

Naturally, the weather took a turn back to it's Global Warming norm on Monday and it is bloody freezing again.

Made muesli the other day - have done this a few times from Nigella's 'Feast' book - very readable book this is. It tastes lovely and I do feel very wholesome eating it.

Talking of food..... horror of all horrors, I had a phonecall from Masterchef. Instead of hanging up immediately when the chappie introduced himself, I heard myself feebly muttering 'ooh, hello...' anyway, I must have come across as a real drip as I went blank on the question 'what would be a typical 3 course meal you would cook for friends?' I toyed with the idea of telling him that I didn't have any friends but he was pretty determined. He also asked me if I had ever worked in a pro kitchen to which I spat out (with some venom it has to be said) 'Good God no'. Barely managed to refrain from adding that I would rather pull my own teeth out but he had moved on to the next interrogation. Apparently if I am 'lucky' enough to be selected for an audition I will hear pretty soon. Oh dear. I have never really been a 'lucky' person so the odds are I may yet get the dreaded summons. Really have got to knock this on the head.....

Oh - and a bit of scrapping. Unusually not for any challenge or Design Team, but just for me.

Having 'fun'

Got some layouts up on the SBS blog at the mo, so can pop them on here now:

Also finished my SLYMI week 11 - scrap with fabric, which scared me a bit. Didn't think I was that interested in fabric on a layout, but found some bits I like the look of and (not very imaginatively) used it like paper. Like the effect, and the richness of fabrics so would def do again.

Took Oliver to the Rainbow Fun House yesterday with a friend, which turned out to be a massive indoor soft play area in a converted church - it was a bit surreal, but what a fab idea. Surely God would approve..?

Oliver has been 'off colour' this week and after a day of stuffing sweets (bought by my friend incidentally) and running around, he was writhing in agony clutching his stomach making me panic a bit and rush him up to A&E where it was established he did NOT have the onset of peritonitis, but trapped wind. He is so his mother's son.

Bees DO only have six legs actually....

Yesterday morning I was awoken with the words that every crafty parent dreads; 'can we do some stamping and glittering today?' Obviously the extra half hour doze I'd had worked because I heard myself answering 'yes' in a very reasonable tone. In the event, it wasn't too hideous, but we did embossing instead of glittering (the cat is still wearing a fine coat of it from Christmas) and I even let Oliver use the heatgun without screaming 'mind your bloody fingers!' every two seconds. He seemed happy enough, so felt fully justified in laying down on the sofa afterwards for a little doze in the sun. Fell asleep and awoke with a bright red face and a bad temper. Think I have catnap syndrome.

I have finally finished my 'Spring Cottage' for the swap on UKS. I don't know why I insist on trying to be an altered art diva - it 'ain't happening. Here is the finished thing:

Oliver handed this drawing to me earlier:

It is wonderful and whilst explaining what is happening in the picture (as kids do) he told me that the big stripey insect is a bee coming down to the flower. I asked (with some incredulity it has to be said) how many legs this particular bee had, and he replied, with patience as if talking to a simpleton 'bees do have alot of legs you know'. To which I threw my head back and roared with laughter. He laughed too, especially when I told him that they only have 6, although I think he will spend the summer trying to prove me wrong. I didn't dare question why the person he has drawn has such knobbly knees and no arms at all.