Texas Cornbread

Well we've gone American - not quite back to my roots (my are from up north I believe - Yorkshire) with a large dollop of South African in but decided to do something different for dinner.  The children are always complaining 'same-old, same-old' so decided to resort to an alternative to putting a sock in it and make something different (that's not to say I don't experiment in the kitchen just perhaps not as much as I'd like to).  Anyway, sourced this recipe in one of my numerous cookbooks - I LOVE COOKBOOKS - and decided to give it a go.  Bought the cornmeal, buttermilk and searched high and low for creamed corn (couldn't find the stuff so resorted to normal corn) and whipped it up in two stages.  Cooked the mince and onions last night in preparation and when I came home today completed and compiled the dish.  Served it with a mixed leaf and tomato salad and even if I say so myself, it's not bad at all.  So I'm really quite pleased I've found an alternative to my usual fail safe weekday meals, especially as I nearly always try to ensure that I have at least 1 frozen portion of mince and onions in the freezer in case of pure chaos and lack of time.

My knitting nancy endeavour with the beads has temporarily gone out the window.  The knitting nancy seems to have a dip in it at every peg and seeing as the wire is quite fine it falls quite close to the dip so I need to source another knitting nancy.  In the meantime seeing as I took all the time to thread the beads onto the wire I am currently crocheting a thin beaded bracelet and I must say, I quite like the colours.

Anyway, more later as need to take 4 legged friend for a walk. 
Love jayjay

JayJay's Jewels: The benefits of those jewellery tools

JayJay's Jewels: The benefits of those jewellery tools: "I knew they would come in handy on more than one occassion - son of 15 years has just come downstairs with his automatic light timer for our..."

The benefits of those jewellery tools

I knew they would come in handy on more than one occassion - son of 15 years has just come downstairs with his automatic light timer for our resident gecko - Joey.  For lvoe nor money the pin to set the timer could not be removed by hand.  However, clever mum (ME!!) thought of those nifty jewellery pliers and equipped with spectacles to aid vision and an array of tools before you could blink I had removed the pin from the automatic timer.  'Oh, that was a good idea' son of 15 years announces.  'I knew you could do it mum'  Ahhh, you've got to love them.
more later jayjay

Charm bracelet

Well charm bracelet (or more to the point should I say bracelets) have turned out really well.  Sorted out the beads having decided I would go with a green and pink combination and placed them onto the headpins as per instructions.  Using the tools and I must say the tools are necessary, I cut each headpin to an approximate size with the wire ends pinging everywhere in the living room before I perfected a way to stop them shooting all over the place.  Then having twisted and placed jump rings onto the now curled headpins I could then attach them to the bracelet.  But in the process daughter of 12 having seen my endeavour then decided that she needed one too so I suddenly found myself making 2 charm bracelets.  Lucky I bought more beads in the beginning - I think I was slightly over zealous in the shop.  I really think charm bracelets are the way to go, a sort of instant pleasure at the finished product and perhaps, having always had a charm bracelet, a special sterling silver one when I was younger, maybe I have a soft spot for them.  But there is so much you can do and add on to make a charm bracelet individual and unique, the colour scheme and themes are endless and with a little tweeking perhaps I can incorporate a little wire curling and twisting to make those beads look just a little more special.  I think I need to master the various tools first - so one step at a time. 

Homemade ice-cream consumed almost before it had a chance to freeze.  Really is a fail safe recipe for homemade ice-cream though the calorie content must be absolutely horrific.  Still, pure indulgence is often called for and after a hard slog of twisting head pins and attaching jump rings it was definitely called for.  In some ways I might as well have eaten a whole carton of double cream and a tin of condensed milk but somehow it doesn't have the same appeal.  Joey (our resident gecko) has just had a new supply of crickets brought into the house.  I nearly forgot I had them in the car when I went to fetch 12 year old from her theatre club and tossed handbag onto the backseat where crickets in tub were residing.  Luckily chaos didn't reign as tub remained intact even though I think both the crickets and myself got a shock from the action.  Phew!!  The thought of 50 or more loose crickets hopping around my little green mobile doesn't appeal somehow, especially as dusk was falling at the time and trying to spot them would have been more than challenging.

Next jewellery challenge is to attempt something with what I refer to as a knitting nancy.  I have seen a article showing how you can incorporate the beads while knitting using this mechanism so sounds like fun and relatively easy to manage.  New dinner attempt is going to be texan cornbread.  A recipe I have seen using mince beef, cornmeal and sweetcorn..... who knows what it will turn out like but the children are permanently requesting something new.  Maybe this is the way to make them stop.

More later once I have my knitting nancy up and running.  I think I will do a dummy run with that old favourite (rather disgustingly coloured) ball of wool which I used in my previous knitting attempt.  I must not, however, forget that I have a book to read for the up and coming book club.  Time must not be allowed to run away with me!!
Love jayjay

Blueberries

Well knitted bangle finally completed, lobster clasp and all even though 15 year old son responded "What real one!!??" when I mentioned I was using a lobster clasp.  It was a bit tricky to fit but with a little manipulation achieved result.  In the meantime following a visit to the dump (to get rid of old barbeque that had completely disintegrated - a complaint to the manufacturer warranted I feel), 15 year old son returned bearing gift of 2 blueberry plants to put in the garden.  Now more research is needed as to the best positioning for the plant, want soil and other additional products needed in order to ensure blueberry plants grow.  Picture to follow once planted in garden. 

In the meantime while 12 year old daughter makes biscuits in the kitchen, 15 year old enters living room with favourite lunchtime meal - pasta with baked beans (just doesn't have the right ring to me).  He earlier entered the house having had a water balloon backfire and soak himself rather than his target - supposedly he's not very good at tying knots.  I don't think I'll enlist him to help me with my craft projects then.

I now need to contemplate what my next creative endeavour will be.  More knitting? An attempt at crochet (and that really will be an attempt), using the old fashioned knitting nancy, or do I get my newly purchased jewellery toolkit out and try something more wire based.  Regardless will think about it while I get my paperwork done for work tomorrow - not necessarily the best mother's day pasttime but it's got to be done.

Cricket is on the telly, Arsenal let the supporters down and surely, surely things can only get better.  Anyway, daughter of 12 wants me to check out her bread crumb consistency for the biscuits because she says it's just not coming together.  More later.  Love jayjay

Beaded Bracelet - It's finished

Well mad or not I stayed up until 1.30am determined to finish knitting this bracelet (which turns out to be a bangle) - I should have read the instructions more clearly in the beginning.  Really pleased to say that the finished bangle does look like a bangle (so that's a result in itself) but I think I would probably choose a different colour scheme next time as the brown beads don't really seem to show up on the brown wire.

Anyway, today is Mother's Day and I was woken up by 12 year old daughter giving me breakfast in bed (cold toast I might add) but it's amazing how good cold toast can taste depending on the circumstances and trust it it tasted really GOOD.  Lovely Mother's Day card too written in by daughter and son though when I asked 15 year old son whether he wrote in the card he looked at me completely blank and had to run upstairs to verify that it was his hand-writing in the card.  It was PHEW - I wasn't going mad I thought I could recognise my son's handwriting.

Anyway back to the bangle.  Have now got the challenge of fitting jump rings and lobster clasp to the bangle.  Really quite logical as it wouldn't stay on my wrist otherwise.  I think I will take my large 4 legged friend for a walk and then attempt that challenge.  More later.  love jayjay

Beaded Bracelet cont'd

Disaster, trying to juggle more than one thing.  Daughter was wanting to get me to read out ingredients for brownie and then later macaron recipe while I was ambitiously trying to knit.  I know we women can multi-task but sometimes just a little too much too soon.  Anyway, all my stitches fell off my knitting needle and try as I might I couldn't get 7 stitches back on, regardless of how many times I tried to pick them up.  I also ended up with 6.  Where did that 7th stitch go I wonder.  Anyway, I decided, in pure frustration, to pull the whole lot out and start again.  Which I have now done so it's pretty much back to the beginning.  I will say however that the second attempt at knitting looks more uniform and perhaps it is 2nd time lucky.  Having said that I have only knitted two rows so far.  But on the plus side brownies look good, oh so good so trip to corner shop well worthwhile.  Just wish I could say the same for the macarons.  They look more than slightly peculiar.  Still, tey were a first attempt so will put those on the back burner and try again.  Daughter is now making speedy home-made ice-cream with verbal supervision from me.  I am going to try and upload a few photographs on my blog page....Help!! and then go back to trying to finish knitting my bracelet.  In the meantime, just hope Arsenal manage to pull a win out of their hats.  More soon.  Love jayjay