I Love my Geek!

Quite handy really since this week I have broken:-

A mobile phone battery

A phone charger

The cupboard drawer

The bathroom light switch.
And i still have 2 days to go.
*keeps fingers crossed that I don't break anything else*

Crochet Journal Cover

I decided to join the UK Shared Journal Experiment on Swapbot. Another one out of my comfort zone but I figured it was worth a gamble.

Basically you write a journal entry, then post it to the next person, who writes and entry and posts it on again until the book is full or the experiment stops.

But to do this I needed to send a covered journal.

I decidede to crochet a cover. Basically a front sheet to a spiral bound notepad.

Free Foccacia Recipe - And a Review for Dummies

Gosh! I seem to have lost my mojo there! Until this weekend I seem to have come to a full stop on making things. Maybe I overdosed with blog hos, or maybe I'd just come to rely on the next blog ho telling me what I should make?

Either way, here's oping the dry spell is over!

I felt like doing a little baking. I'm not that good at it, but I do enjoy it. Especially making bread. Tips always welcome. Especially for helping me tell when I should take it out of the oven. I can't seem to tell when it makes a hollow sound when I tap the cooked loaf.

I went a bit more out of my comfort zone this time and decided to make foccacia.

I used a free recipe I found at Allrecipes. I'm not very good at sticking to recipes, so I substituted some freekah flour in with the strong white flour (only 100g out of the 500g). I also used easy yeast instead of fresh yeast too and these things made the dough very wet. I added more flour to try and get it into a lump but was worried about the amount of flour I was adding so it was still a little wet when I left it rise for the first time.

Then I fell asleep and gave it an hour too much rising time and was greeted with this.

It had risen to the top of the bowl and had started to overflow. and it had risen up through the open weave of the tea towel I had put on top of it. The tea towel was written off as collatteral damage.

It didn't get much better when I tipped it out on the worktop to give it a knead as it just started to spread.

Later on came the real crisis though! I tipped it on the baking tray and it carried on spreading! I had to shout for help from G giving him a 10 second time scale for immenent bread related spillage. The tray I was using was just too small. I didn't have enough hands and the dough wouldn't stop growing and was about to go over he edge of the tray and the worktop onto the floor.

But he saved me like he always does.

I took this photo with my hand in shot to show the scale of the monster I had created.

But in the end all was ok (ish)

I'd welded it to the baking parchment! It tasted nice though :)

Skyes Creative Challenge #2 - Reveal Day!

Well, Skye really challenged me with this one!

The rules are basically to make something using a piece from each baggie.

And here are the different pieces I received group by baggie.

I was really stumped and worked down to the wire, but finally finished my last item this morning!

First the feathers brought a hair fascinator to mind. I hadn't got any gold combs to hand so used a black one instead.

I would never have made this with out the challenge and I'm really happy with how it turned out too!

First I wrapped wire around the end of individual feathers and attached them to the comb. Next was the Preciosa glass pearls, then the brown and gold cord from the pack, and last of all some golden glass rondelles with toning brown seed beads as spacers.

Next thing I wanted to work with was the wooden pieces. The remind me of coconut shell or bark.

I've been meaning to try out the new coloured wire from Beads Direct for a while now and this gave me ideal opportunity to do so as the wire is totally on show with the design. I added more Preciosa glass in between the wood and then attached it to some nice thick cord.

I was just left with one baggie to use up, so I chose one of the pretty cream buttons to use as a closure on a bracelet.

Thanks for the challenge Skye! I've been putting off and putting it off as I really hadn't a clue what to make but in the end I'm so happy with what I've made. A great experience :)

And here's everyone else who joined it. Why not see what they made from the same ingredients?

Sandra of Skye's Creative Chaos - http://skyescreativechaos.blogspot.ca/
Marge Beebe of RockCreekCreations - http://www.rockcreekcreations.blogspot.com/
Kristi J of CuriositiesbyK - http://curiositiesbyk.blogspot.com/
Tammie Everly of TTE Designs - http://ttedesigns.blogspot.ca/

You are here >>>>>> Sarah Goode of Pookledo - http://pookledo.blogspot.co.uk/
Sherri Stokey of KnotJustMacrame - www.knotjustmacrame.com
Paula Hisel of SimplyBeadiful - http://www.simplybeadiful.weebly.com/
Shawn Mills of Bent Wire Boutique - http://shawnmariedesignsatbentwire.blogspot.ca/

Funny Road Signs

Anyone else a sucker for funny road signs?

This one made me giggle while we were at a wedding last weekend.

Dreamland, Margate - Abandoned Fairground

Since I am quite obsessed by "fally-down buildings" I just had to take photos of a fally-down fairground!

This is Dreamland in Margate. There was a fire there a good few years ago which was quite disastrous.

 It looks like something from real life Scooby Do plot at the moment!

I checked out what is happening with the site online when we got home and it looks like it is to become a vintage style theme park. A heritage park with old fashioned rides and side shows. I think it might be worth a look when it is finished.

And I just love the house on the hill overlooking the plot too!

The Obligatory Holiday Photo Post

You know it was coming :)


So, one of the most relaxing things ever is watching the ferries come in and go out again in Dover.

And looking at pretty beach huts all in a row...

And we saw a derelict fair ground too! I'll sort those photos out for tomorrow :)

Finished Project! - And my Secret Santa Present

A while back I started another blanket in my usual style but this time decided to go for a smaller version.

I usually make them double bed sized in one piece so they are a pain in the bum when they start to get heavy in summer as they are very warm! But here's a smaller lapghan sized one that I finished on Sunday.

I took the photo last night in the garden.

A closeup of the detail. I love to use up scraps with one of these style blankets :)

And yesterday was also the "Back to school Secret Santa Swap" on Bookcrossing UK yahoogroup mailing list. Quite appropriate for me really since yesterday was my first day back at work after my holiday.

What a cool gift! As well as a wishlist book for G (I add books he wants to read to my wishlist so occasionally he gets a present as well as me) there is the Kitchen Garden which has the history of the English Kitchen garden and details of 130 different vegetables.

And also:
Some bookcrossing labels
A purple pen
A bookcrossing stamp
Some card blanks
A 2013 diary
An ink pad
And some stickers!

Smile!

I may have been having fun with my camera in the garden :)

You can't really see my necklace properly but I'll have to blog about it soon. It's my new favourite which I bought at the weekend from Chloe at http://www.lifesbigcanvas.co.uk/ in Leeds.

Home from Holidays

Print by blockpartyprints on Etsy

Why is there always so much to do when you get back from holiday?

I had 600 blog entries to read in my google reader (I'm down to 450 now)
53 programmes I recorded on the freeview box (Now down to 27)
A bottle of wine to drink due to a salsa dip related accident (Woe is me *laughs*)
And no food in the house (We went shopping. Phew!)

Normal service (Whatever that is!) to be resumed ASAP :)