I love it that people pick up the painted pebbles I put out from time to time. Last week I saw a family photograph one – much joy to me the anonymous ‘artist’.
Some are glittered, others have greetings and the latest batch have cuttings from a dictionary of proverbs mod podged in place. I used outdoor mod podge so they can stay outdoors awhile.
New menus and cooking methods have flooded into our kitchen recently. Many discovered when browsing digital magazines courtesy of our library card. So here are the tastiest (we think) so far …
1.Savoury bread and butter pudding: basically fried leeks instead of jam on the bread and cheese in the ‘custard’ rather than sugar
2. broccoli pasta – cooking broccoli in with the pasta for the last 3 minutes makes it a lighter, tastier dish, even for the broccoli hater in the household. Top with your usual pasta sauce
3. Frozen bananas found lurking at the back of the freezer work brilliantly in banana bread. Made more mix than fits your loaf tin? Dig out the mince pie tray to make Muffins
4. Ingredients intended for stuffing that never made it to the Christmas table combine to make great meatball replacements. Why these hid behind the frozen bananas is a mystery.
5. Jamie Oliver is an inspiration. His no frills gnocchi (mashed potato leftovers with just enough flour mixed in) are lighter and lovelier than bought
6. Dredging steaming hot, par-boiled parsnips in flavoured flour means the flour sticks without need for egg wash. You can roast them immediately or freeze them ready floured so they can be roasted at a later date
A new routine in lockdown life is trying my hand at doodling and drawing. I am following the weekday uploads by claritystamp on you tube (rather than the 10am lives, I catch up in the afternoon.
This doodling, drawing stuff is outside my confirm zone but hugely enjoyable. Pick up your pens and have a go.
I love the daily ‘one good thing by Jillee’ blog post. Lots of practical tips to make daily life a little better. Her recent post for diy fly paper got me thinking.
We usually buy plastic window stick ons in France to deter kitchen invaders but as that isn’t feasible at present wanted to make a pretty version of Jillee’s paper strips. So I die cut pieces from brown paper before dipping them in a sugar/honey syrup and hanging the dried sticky piece near the fruit bowl ready for open window weather.
Tip: thread string through the paper before dipping, it is messy to do it afterwards.
I wear a different brooch each day – I have a collection – but wanted some extras right for the times, so made some quick pin ons for all those upcoming virtual get-togethers.
These involve clippings from salvaged thesauruses (thesauri?), quotations and discarded dictionaries that have been glued (mod podge) onto card and then stuck (glue dots) on to pins.
Sellotape and safety pins will also work as these badges will have a short, indoor life. I might also embellish with buttons or sequins at some point. Depends how much time I can find in my busy schedule!
Well, my vinyl isn’t quite up to regular bag usage being a bit flimsy, but I am glad I tried this tutorial, if only to finally master the zip tabs.
My current use it or lose it challenge is to wear perfume every day and finish some of the less loved scents . But now I reckon I only have enough to last me until October!!! So a little scented craftiness is today’s project.
I will be refilling some of the tiny bottles I have recently emptied with essential oil blends using a recipe ‘collaged’ from various sites
Apparently it takes a few weeks for the blend to meld so I will report back later.
A properly edited version this time… click to watch in You Tube
I cut tag shapes (with the scan n cut) from scraps of card and tried to use up embellishments as part of a ‘Use What You Have’ drive. This was so successful that I have batched and bagged sets to give away.
A ‘use what you have’ project as I couldn’t bear to throw out some wadding scraps when decluttering.
I made a rough pattern of an oval about 9 inches tall and 6 inches wide. (That is big enough to grab a small log or oven dish.) I cut out four ovals of fabric and one piece of wadding. Two ovals of fabric were cut in half widthways to make the pockets.
Each of the pairs of halves was pinned right sides facing and stitched along the straight edge to make two shapes like this…
Then the pieces were stacked in the following order : wadding, complete piece face up, pocket pieces face up, complete piece face down. Carefully pinned together I stitched around the edge leaving a big turning gap towards the bottom of the oval.
After turning right sides out, flip the pockets inside out and stitch closed the turning gap, then flip them back the right way and you are done.
janecrafts 