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.