Oh dear...

...I've been a very lapse poster of late.  Life has been hurtling past at an amazing rate and time just seems to run away from me.   The classes in Scotch Hall are going well and it's a nice challenge to try to find something different every week to show them - especially as there are some very savvy crafters in the bunch!

The first class with the retired group went very well - almost all men which was a bit of a surprise but they all seemed to really enjoy it so hopefully they'll all be back this week for the next class.  It's a hugely different challenge working with this group who would have no previous crafting experience and need a lot more guidance and practical help that other groups I've worked with (even down to simple things like needing help cutting out stuff due to arthritis etc...).  The trick is to encourage them to decide for themselves which colour combos/shapes/papers to use as they were all inclined to say "Whatever you think yourself" when I'd ask them which they wanted.  Some of them got so into it that it was hilarious - they were churning out the cards at a rate of knots and I was quite impressed by some of them.

First Class!

Today I had my first "trial" class in the Art & Hobby shop in Scotch Hall shopping center.  I had absolutely no chance to prepare anything before hand and had hoped by arriving early I would get a chance to put a few bits together and decide what to do - no such luck!  There were some early birds patiently waiting for me to get set up so I was thrown in at the deep end.  Such fun though and the small but interested crowd (including one brave gentleman!) seemed very happy with the cards I demo'd and we've arranged for another class same time next week!  Then this afternoon I got a call from a friend who is organising activities for the seniors in the care home she works in and wanted to know if I'd maybe be interested in doing some classes for them!  Happy days - not quite craftin' for a living but certainly it's a few extra unexpected crafting hours!

Fruits of our Labours

Well, the blackberry jam worked well (although you don't end up with an awful lot for what seems like a lot of berries), so I decided to try some more Blackberry recipes - mainly looking for something that would keep for a while so we can enjoy them for some time to come.  I came across a recipe for Blackberry Curd which sounded intriguing as I love Lemon Curd and I love blackberries - combine the two and how could it fail?  So even as I type I have a big pot of it bubbling away in a pot and a batch of fresh baked mini-brown bread scones with honey and raisins cooling and awaiting anointing with a thich slather of this delicious concoction.  The kids have had a couple of sneaky tastes (as have I for that matter) and are VERY impressed so for anyone who wants to give it a try here's the recipe:

Blackberry & Apple Curd

4lbs Blackberries
1.5lbs Apples
1/2 pint water
8oz butter
6 fresh eggs
4lb sugar
Juice of 3 lemons

1. Wash blackberries and make sure there's no leaves/stalks/insects mixed in.  Peel, core and slice the apples and place both in a large saucepan with the water.  Bring to the boil over a high heat.  Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes until the fruit is soft.  
2. Pour the fruit mixture through a sieve and push the fruit through using a wooden spoon into a mixing bowl, press well to get as much fruit as possible through.  Discard the remainder.
3. Melt the butter in a heatproof dish over a pan of simmering water.  Lightly beat the eggs and stir into the bowl with the lemon juice, sugar, and fruit puree.
4. Cook the mixture, stirring frequently until it thickens - about 25 to 30 mins.
5. Remove the bowl from the heat and pour the Curd into clean, dry, warm, steralized jars (wash them well in hot soapy water, dry them and put them in a hot oven while you're making the curd).
6. Seal and cover.  When the jars are cool label them with the contents and the date.
7. Store in a cool, dry place. 

These make a lovely gift if you cover them with a pretty circle of fabric over the lid, tie with a ribbon and make a decorative label for the jar.  Maybe put the recipe on there too!

Next I'm going to make a chutney from Rachel Allen's recipe with some of Grandma's windfall!
Spicy Tomato and Apple Chutney
Makes 4 jars

1kg ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
200g chopped onions
100g raisins or sultanas
250g cooking apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
300g sugar
225ml vinegar
2tsp salt
1/2tsp all spice
1/2tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp ground black pepper
1/2tsp cayenne pepper

Place all ingredients in a stainless steel saucepan and bring up to the boil, stirring. Continue to simmer on a low heat, stirring regularly to make sure it does not burn in the bottom of the pot, for about 1 hour or until it is thick and pulpy. Pour into sterilised hot jars and cover.
This is best left to mature for 1 to 2 week before eating if possible.

Note:- To peel tomatoes, cut and 'x' in the skin and drop them into boiling water for 10-15 seconds, removed and peel.

I "felt" hungry...

...geddit??  Ah okay, maybe not.  Anyway I've become a big fan of making felt food - there's lots of it online if you do a quick google search you'll get millions of results.  It looks great, it's not too hard to make and the kids love having it to play with.  I managed to bag a massive bargain in a local charity shop with a fairly solid wooden toy kitchen for just €5 that my 3 year old (and now my 17month old) love playing with.  The addition of felt food has really brought this toy into it's own.
I'll try and post up some patterns for things but most of it was made without one.  Carrots are two long thin triangles sewn together or one wider triangle stitched up one side, I've tried both ways and both turned out well. 

The Fried eggs were especially simple - cut out two wonky circles of white and one regular circle of yellow, stitch the yellow on top of one piece of white and put a little batting  in if you like, stick a little bit of batting  between them, whip stitch, blanket stitch or plain ole running stitch, around the edges, and voila - a fried egg.  

For the strawberries - cut out a semi-circle of red felt, fold it in half and stitch the two straight edges together, turn inside out and run a row of stitches around the top of the circle, stuff with batting and pull tight.  Fasten off and sew a piece of green felt over the opening - a cicle cut with a saw tooth edge works well.  For an authentic look, embroider french knots in black or brown around the strawberry to mimic the seeds.

I'll try and create some simple templates for the banana, the peas in a pod and the mushroom as they were definitely a little more involved!

And here's the food all packed away nicely in my Daughter's plastic shopping basket:

Blackberrying for Beginners

Yesterday we had one of those oh-so-rare sunny afternoons so I decided to take advantage of it with the kids by picking blackberries.  It's a great way to spend an hour or so - the kids LOVE it and you have the added bonus of a stash of fruit to freeze/eat/make jam with.

Be prepared though - they will be covered in purple stains by the time they're finished as they desperately try to eat as many berries as possible in as short a time as possible!  Old clothes all the way.  Give them each something to put the berries in too - it makes it slightly more likely that they will return with berries and not eat them all as they pick them.



Teach them to recognise ripe, fresh berries that are not inhabited by any little creepie crawlies, this isn't hard - even my 3 year old knows now to inspect the bottom of the berry and make sure the "green circle" is intact and there are no holes (she will tell me - "s'okay Mammy there's no buggie wuggies in this one").  I've posted a photo of what I mean as it can be hard to explain.  Similarly when pulling the fruit from the bush if it comes away too easily without any resistance it may be that the fruit is overripe, or if it won't come without taking the stem with it then it's probably not ripe enough. 

I'm going to make yummy blackberry jam with some of them using this very simple recipe:


1 kg, Blackberries
1 kg. Jam making Sugar
Juice of 1/2 Lemon

• Put the blackberries into the pan with the sugar and lemon juice.
• Put it on the heat and then bring it to a rolling boil.
• Once it is boiling time it accurately and let it boil for exactly 4 minutes.
• Have ready 4 X 1lb. Jam pots which you have washed well and dried in a hot oven to sterilize.
• Once the 4 minutes are up take the jam off the heat and ladle it into the jam jars and cover in the usual way.   (Some people prefer to sieve the jam first to remove the "bits" but it's not necessary.)

Back to School!

Whew!  Well after a manic day yesterday (where I mistakenly thought that my 5 year old was back to school) today went off without a hitch (so far!).  My biggest help was a Morning Routine Chart that I introduced in the hope that it would help get the two older ones motivated to check off each item on the list in exchange for a star if they did everything - well it worked wonderfully and for the first time (possibly ever), they were both dressed, fed, washed and ready to go by about 8:30 giving them a wonderful 30 mins of play time before school so everyone was in the car happy and relaxed without Mammy having to loose her patience half a dozen times before hand.  I'll put a copy of the charts on here (one for a boy and one for a girl) so you can print them and laminate them for yourself and see how they work for you!

A hard day's work...

Well yesterday was our first forray into the world of selling our cards.  It was wet, cold, muddy, smelly and noisy, our pitch (which was inside a marquee thank God!) was right in front of a massive generator which was so loud we could barely hear ourselves think.  We had managed to position ourselves RIGHT in front of the whole pig on a spit which was giving us the evil eye every time it rotated - not for the faint hearted.  In spite of all that we managed to sell some cards (YAY!) and have a great day - I even managed to make a few cards which is nothing short of miraculous given how crowded the whole area was.  Nobody bought my Bum card (pic to follow) but it did get a few smiles. 

It's a sloe day

I recently noticed that the hedge beside the house is hanging with millions of Sloes, not being one that likes to see things going to waste I decided to look online for recipes to use them.  I came back with hundreds of results for Sloe Gin (bit wasted on me) and one that looks quite interesting called "Sloe Cheese" - it's repeated on several sites in various combinations but the basic one looks like this:

• 4lb 6oz/2kg sloes
• 1.5 pt/750ml water
• .5 pt/250ml port (or more water)
• 4lb 6oz/2kg granulated sugar

Rinse the sloes and put them in a pan with the water and port. Simmer gently until soft and mushy. Sieve the pulp and return it to the pan. Cook gently until no liquid appears when you draw a spoon through the puree.
Meanwhile warm the sugar in a low oven. Tip the sugar into the pan and stir to dissolve. Turn up the heat and cook, stirring constantly, until very thick.
Brush some wide-mouthed pots (ramekins or teacups are fine) with glycerine, fill them, and seal with cellophane circles.

It turns into a solid jelly type confection that is traditionally served sliced with cheese and is meant to be good with Stilton. Mmmmmmm....cheese!

On a completely different note, today the National Archives published the full 1911 Census of Ireland online for all 32 counties.  Happy days for this Geneology nut!

Last days of the holidays - visit to W5 in Belfast

Today we decided to make the most of the last days of the school holidays and take a trip to Belfast to visit W5.  We'd been there before a couple of years ago and enjoyed it but had heard some good reviews lately and decided to revisit.  Well worth the trip (despite a few unexpected detours en-route!).   The kids enjoyed the first section we visited - the Go exhibition but it was when we went to Start that they really lit up.  A fantastic world created for kids, with a mini-supermarket full to the brim of toy foods, a play cafe with tables, chairs and an abundance of play food, a waterplay area (BIG hit with our mess loving 3 year old), a play house with foam pieces that could be used to "build" the walls and roof, a HUGE train set which caused a paroxism of excitement in our train and car mad 16 month old, a customiseable dolls house and dozens of other little interactive exhibits that really caught their imagination.  Definitely worth a visit - something for all ages and abilities and really got the questions coming from our information addict 5 year old (not that that takes much!).

This morning we attended the monthly Open Coffee Morning in the D Hotel in Drogheda.  Great to see the same faces reappearing and getting a chance to talk to new people.  The only quibble we had this month was that the restaurant was so busy serving breakfasts that we couldn't get a cup of tea or coffee!  Still it was another productive morning and I definitely learned something new from chatting with Denise Fay of Achieve Marketing   and also some new and interesting uses for Polystyrene...so there you go ;o)

Craftin' for a living....

This coming Sunday (30th August), I will have a stand at the Wee County Vintage show selling my handmade cards.  I'm a bit nervous about this as I've never tried to sell my work on this scale before.  Now on the other hand I have my two buddies and fellow craft-a-holics Jess & Niamh with me so if nothing else we can be guaranteed a great laugh.