Five on Friday

Another very busy week, busy doing and learning lots of different things - but I can honestly say that this week has been "life changing". Apologies in advance, I'm a bit excitable this morning and using too many capital letters...

1. On Saturday, I took a workshop with Carole Waddle, "anything weaves". And so it does. These are her samples:

But this is mine. I didn't get very far (as is the way with workshops)

but I learnt all about HALF HITCHES and BUTTERFLIES. I had to shout that, as I'm so EXCITED about this! We warped up our frames and used a lot of half-hitch knots. Excellent, nothing ground breaking there. Until we started to talk about the weaving itself - and to stop your threads trailing, you can use a bobbin - not really like these beautiful ones I found in France at Easter, a bit more pointy:

And (this is the life changing bit) to stop your thread falling off the bobbin, you use - you guessed it - a half-hitch knot. The thread still unravels, but the knot keeps it from falling off. That is so clever!

Then we talked about what to do if you don't have any fancy schmancy bobbins - so apparently you can make thread butterflies. WHO KNEW?? Well, lots of people probably - every needlewoman and man out there but me, it seems. Not everyone on the course could actually do them, but they all knew about them. Apart from me.

GENIUS!

When I stitch braids and cords on the machine, I can only do them in 3m lengths because I have to drape the thread around my shoulders and across the furniture - any longer, and I get in a huge muddle. NO MORE!

So now my loose threads in my thread basket are all going to be in little butterflies, and when I put a bobbin or loose spool of thread aside - something without a notch to anchor the thread - I'm going to put in a half-hitch and be very very smug.

2. I've been reading "59 Seconds: Think a little, change a lot" by Richard Wiseman (love that, when someone's name describes their occupation, in this case Professor) and I've just got to the bit about motivating children...and finally, I think I understand why my beautiful, talented daughter finds it such a struggle to get going a lot of the time, and  why we feel like banging our heads against the wall with frustration. We struggle to see any self-motivation for playing her musical instruments (even though she loves them), with homework, with so many things - and these are all things she enjoys and is good at...yes, yes, we've a teenager on our hands, but still. Something wasn't right.

According to the research, trying to motivate people by saying they are talented and clever, is a complete no-no. It leads to perfectionism, a lack of perseverance, an avoidance of challenge, and a feeling of hopelessness when something goes wrong. WHY DON'T THEY TELL PARENTS THIS STUFF? For 13 years, we've been doing it all WRONG!

You are supposed to praise EFFORT, as well as concentration and organisational skills. This leads to a willingness to face challenges, put in the hard work, a feeling of achievement with success and an ability to shrug off and rationalise more disappointing results. Gah!

3. I continue to stitch my teaching samples for the coming year, and I'm loving every minute.

I'm not working for the Local Authority any more, just me - so instead of sitting in front of a computer writing out pages of planning documents, I'm STITCHING my scheme of work! Hooray!

4. Our EG chairman gave me a marrow. Here it is, lurking ominously in the fridge:

I successfully dodged one after the committee meeting, but she got me in the end. Cake? Three of the darn things, baking right now.

I'm going to freeze a lot, but we'll be eating this for months. I've only used a third of the torpedo! There was no call for baked stuffed marrow this week, and we don't really eat that much chutney...

5. I've been very good so far this term. I've been using my pomodoro to get my work done, and I've been able to shut up my cupboard at the end of the day. So we go from this (see the whippet? Bin lorry outside...scary, but must look to check...no brain...)

to this:

No heaps of stuff on the end of the table! We've turned the table around, so I lost my corner for stacking stuff* - and I have to shut my desk cupboard so that the Girl can eat her dinner in her place at the table. My head feels so much clearer, because I start each day fresh, and don't work in the detritus of the day before. Ha! Let's see how long it lasts...

* confession: since drafting this post, there seems to be a bit of a mini heap at the far end of the table...it's started

Five on Friday

1. We had a cake crisis last weekend i.e. there wasn't any, so I invented a quick scoffable teatime cake:

I scaled down the lemon polenta cake recipe from here by only using one egg, and added blackberries instead of blueberries. I managed to get six cupcakes out of the mix, which cooked in about 25 minutes. Oh yes, I also picked my first kilo of blackberries - at last! 

2. The Girl succeeded in her audition for the South Downs Youth Orchestra, and so now Mr G and I have to find something to do for 2½ hours in Lewes, with all its wine bars and eateries, every Friday evening. Shucks, life is hard.

3. I had the notion to do an "imagery survey" of my house. Something to do with finding my visual language. I took an empty sketchbook (well, it was almost empty, so I ripped out the two pages of chicken sketches from 6 years ago) and wandered around the house drawing whatever caught my eye.

I tried to make a record of colours, as well as shapes and details.

Then I painted the pages.

I haven't finished yet! More another time.

4. I faced my sketchbook fear, and used some of my discoveries from my survey to draw a couple of pages, just off the top of my head, no planning:

I'm very pleased with them. I can see these becoming stitched panels, without any further ado. In fact, I said to Mr G "this is easy - why do I make it so hard for myself?" to which there was no answer...

5. I've started work on sampling ideas for the teaching year ahead. This half term we are concentrating on free machining. Hopefully we will progress smoothly from appliqued owls and such, to thread painting - which sounds terrifying to those who say they can't draw or paint, but I've found that if you just keep stitching like a mad woman, all will be well:

There's probably a little bit more to it than that, but let's not scare the troops before we've even started!

Cup cake

How to win a huge silver cup in two hours, door to door: 
Get driven to Eastbourne; parents fleeced for car parking even on a Sunday; play a spot of Schumann to audience of parents, piano teacher, adjudicator, one other child and parent from previous class, and clerk or general paper-shuffler; listen to general praise and constructive comments from adjudicator; collect enormous silver cup; giggle a lot but dodge photos; scoff even bigger ice cream from Italian place over the road; get driven home. Job done.

It's been half term since then and it's taken 5 days for the Girl to recover from her moment of glory and do anything else! She didn't even want to weave a CD, so I had to go it alone...

(First "draft" for Project with Tight Deadline....)

But I eventually got her out of the house on Saturday for some bonding-with-Mother at Sevenoaks Embroiderers' Guild, and we had a lovely day making Fimo beads, with only one heart-stopping "Mummy I've just cut myself" moment (on a Stanley knife blade!! She's ok, just a nick...)

Here they all are at home waiting to be baked

And my finished beads are here

 

Girl has squirreled hers away.  We liked some better than others, and found that even though we chose our colours carefully, we preferred the "friendship" beads made with slices from other people's canes.

And then here's this weekend's cake: a carrot cake with cinnamon icing. We had to take huge slices with us yesterday to (a) sustain us in our bead making (b) prevent Someone eating it all while we were out.

Finally, today, more colour with more CD recycling. I've Googled and can't find anyone else who's done this. I am a CD felting pioneer!

One of these (or one of the other three currently drying in the radiator, and probably better as I got my felting mojo after these first attempts) is for a little project, tight deadline, typical me. But they're fun, no?!

Hot off the griddle

and there I was wondering what sort of cake to make this weekend...

Happy St David's Day!



We did a Bad Thing...

I made a cake for the cake stall at the summer "fayre".

I used all the really naughty ingredients, like white flour and white sugar...

No vegetables were harmed in the making of said cake,

not a wholegrain to be seen.

I even sandwiched the cake with butter cream and blueberry jam.

Let's face it, this cake looked good. 

Naughty but good, a cake enigma.

Reader, we ate it:

There were some mumblings about maybe taking it to school with a "sold" label on it, giving them the money and bringing it straight back home....

But why go to all the trouble? 

Just have a few rounds of tombola and lucky dip, buy an icecream,

and let's just keep this very fine cake at home where it clearly belongs...

threadnoodLENT

There's been a bit too much of this lately:

and so Threadnoodle is giving up added sugar for Lent...two days in, and we're doing OK.  I can get round the knotty problem of what to feed the cake-monsters at the weekend, by making fruit cake as it's not really my "bag", I'm more a lemon drizzle/apple&almond cake/anything with icing kinda gal!

So to take my mind off the deprivation, there's been a little bit of creating:

And I mean little, this tiny book is only 5cm square!  It was a little exercise to have a go at stitching a spine and making a "proper" book, and it worked!  It's filled with random papers that were littering my desk, and covered with a picture I cut out of a newsletter at the weekend.

(I've finished my bag as well, and road-tested it today with a trip to the library.  Photos next time, if I remember - it's too busy being used to stand around for photos!).

NB I'm not alone in my Lenten deprivation: the Girl has given up Nutella, and Mr Gonecycling has given up beer&crisps. 

The dog, unfortunately, hasn't given up being stupid.  Here he is finding all the sunny spots:

and here is a particularly favourite spot, between the armchair and radiator - just right for a narrow dog!

he just stands there for hours, looking vacant....



Flurries

of creativity, not MORE snow! 

(I have to keep checking the view of the streetlight from my kitchen window, to check it isn't SNOWING again!)

The random pile of metal strips and bits from last Saturday refused to be tidied up, so I made a sort of pot/vessel/crusty bag:

Here it is mid-stitch:

Ann said that some of the copper looked a bit thick to stitch

and she wasn't wrong. 

Hence the big stitches on some of the pieces!  It all got a bit "clonky" (technical term).

I cut away the corners, stitched them together to draw it up into a pot/bag/vessel/container, then went at it with the heat gun.  It wasn't pulling in enough at the top, so I thought that I could try and thread a thick copper wire through the strips and pull it up, a bit like a drawstring bag.  So I did.

I then realised that I could attach dingledangles (another technical term) to the copper wire with thinner copper wires:

And here is the underneath, showing the weaving:

I'm not normally a burny-melty sort of gal, but I was quite pleased with this. 

I try and avoid using man-made/oil-based fabrics (nylon sheers etc) due to my (selective) ecowarrier ethics, so I was pleased to rediscover metal as a material. 

(Not sure about the acrylic felt though...I think that's what I mean by selective ethics.  And to be honest if I continued in this line of thinking I'd have to question the origin of the copper shim...and the beads...)

Moving on, another flurry of activity, from something I've never made before, to something I make all the time:

I can't remember if I've posted THE definitive no-knead recipe and technique, but I reckon I've absolutely perfected this!  I usually start the recipe at about 6pm in the evening and bake the loaves before school (if I'm organised) or after first dog walk (if I'm running late).

480g bread flour (I use half and half wholemeal and white)

1/4 teaspoon dried yeast (Doves Farm)

1 teaspoon salt

360ml water (room temperature, from the filter jug)

Mix the yeast and salt into the flour with a knife.  Add the water and mix it all together with the knife until there are no dry floury bits left - I do a sort of slice and flip motion with the knife.  There is absolutely no need to knead....Put a cover over the bowl eg. shower cap, clingfilm, dinner plate, and leave at room temperature for 12 hours plus.  Last week it was incredibly cold in the kitchen, so I put it in the airing cupboard.

Flour your worktop, and scrape the dough out of the bowl.  Flop it over once or twice using a stiff spatula or dough scraper, to form a big ball of dough - be careful with it, it is soft and squidgy and beautiful.  Cut it into two equal pieces, then turn each one around with both hands on the floured surface, gently bringing the rough edges underneath to form a soft, smooth ball of dough.  Place each ball on a teflon baking sheet, at diagonals to each other (so they both fit on one baking sheet).  Sprinkle each ball with flour.

Put the timer on for 20 minutes (30 if your room is cold).

When it pings, put a baking tray in the oven and turn it on to max ie. 230C and set the timer again for 20.

After it pings, use a serrated knife to score a cross about 2cm deep in the top of each loaf.  I use my bread knife.  Carefully slide the teflon sheet of loaves onto the hot baking sheet, return to the oven and bake for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, turn down heat to 200C and bake for another 20 minutes. 

When loaves come out, I usually tap the excess flour off the tops.

Leave to cool for at least an hour.

Yum.

I also made a cake:

A partially invented apple & almond cake recipe. 

It sank in the middle, but there doesn't seem to be any left now...

I have also started on yet another mammoth procrastination exercise (but this one does at least involve stitch).  To be revealed another time!

Creative courgettes

First up, cake.  Obviously

Same recipe I use for carrot cake traybake, but with courgettes....it was squared off and the end bit cut into pieces to freeze for the Girl's lunchbox this week...she was most upset when she realised the icing doesn't freeze...

Next in line, courgette muffins

Yuk.  They are a bit spongy.  Think I'll try courgette scones instead next time.  These are now in the freezer for the Whippet's teatimes this week (thanks Mum!)

And then for lunch on Saturday (and Sunday and Monday and just about squeaking into Tuesday...it seems to keep well....) courgette cluster bread, which had bigger clusters than I thought...



We even had stuffed courgettes for dinner on Friday.  Girl was sceptical, but decided it was quite nice actually.  Oh yes, and I sneaked a tiny one into last night's dinner - but as I'd already confessed to the fennel I thought I'd keep quite about the courgette....

And I've been creative on other fronts too

Preparing a year's worth of samples for teaching - deadline in 12 days.  Yes I can.