A mixed bag of a week

It's been a week of opposites really....hot one moment, pouring down the next, garden beds looking weed free and back to being covered with unwanted green invaders the next day, ideas that turned out well and others that were not so great etc etc. Keeps things interesting I suppose!

Thursday evening was spent at the local C of E school, which is the meeting place for the "Poulton Pearls" WI group. I know that the WI still seem to carry this connotation of older ladies who make jam and bake cakes all day, but it really isn't like that! There are a real mixed group of people at the monthly meetings and interesting talks on all sorts of subjects. Well, on Thursday it was my turn to "entertain and inform" for the evening! 

I trolleyed a bag full of my card, canvas and tag samples as well as some of my paintings and jewellery and set up a display before everyone came into the hall. I hadn't really prepared my talk (some of the ladies may well have thought that was obvious!) so I just related a bit about how I came to be doing what I now do in my work as well as passing around some examples for closer perusal.

Then we set about making a card each - I chose the frame fold that I used on my Fluffy Owl card that I made for the demonstration at Coleman's Craft Warehouse a few weeks ago. Anything too messy or inky wasn't really an option! The ladies had great fun choosing brads, papers, ribbons and elements to pop on to the front of their cards.

  Busy planning and sticking....

 ....the evening was rounded off with an arty crafty quiz with a prize of one of my little folksy angel paintings.

A really fun evening!

I've been busy over the last couple of days getting my samples made up for my trip to Durham on Thursday where I'm teaching an evening workshop. I also had a bit of a tidy up (!) though everywhere still looks like a tornado has swept through the house!

I did, however, make an effort to sort and clean one of the kitchen cupboards that has been niggling away at me for a while now. You know what it's like when the pepper spills out a bit, the soy sauce bottle leaves little rings under it and the half used stock cubes spill out and go syrupy....no? Okay, just me then! Anyway, I made use of waiting time in the kitchen (more of that in a moment!) to give the cupboard a thorough blitz - threw out most of the contents that were well past their sell by dates and then cleaned everything else and cut up some cat food boxes to make trays to keep jars and bottles neatly organised. It's lovely - no more dreading opening that particular cupboard!

On Friday I decided to use the courgette that I'd somehow missed and had grown into a marrow!

 Yes, that is a full sized dinner plate that it's sitting on! It was one of those evenings where the fridge was almost bare, so I checked out a few recipes for vegetarian stuffed marrow and set about it. Split in half and scooped out this monster would only just fit into the roasting pan! After forty minutes it was just barely soft and I'd made a risotto type filling with onions, my last few green beans, some cherry tomatoes and rice - all flavoured with a hearty vegetable stock. Back into the oven (hence all the time to clean the cupboard!) and I grated the last of my cheese with some stale bread to make a gratin to top it with for the final baking period.

Here's how it looked after about two hours in total!

 I was quite chuffed and looking forward to getting a good few meals from it. I sat down with my first portion and......it was vile!!! Really unpleasant, dry and tasteless - the whole lot went into the bin I'm afraid, as it was so awful that it made me feel slightly queasy! I ended up having a bowl of muesli for dinner instead! Oh well, you can't win them all!

Once I post this I am heading to the kitchen to cook a veggie curry. Courgettes will be featuring again as I have quite a few ready for cutting. My neighbour popped over this afternoon though and gave me some butternut squash and sweet potatoes, so the squash will add a nice sweetness to tonight's concoction. Hopefully this meal will restore my faith in my cooking abilities!

All this veggie food has been helping with my healthy diet though, and I've lost about half a stone over the last five weeks, so am really pleased about that. I'm not "dieting", just eating healthily, and it is definitely paying benefits.

Well, I'd better go and get that curry sorted now as I am going to watch the Dr Who live special to see who the new incarnation will be. I haven't really watched much since Mr Tennant left, but it's always interesting to see the transformation to the new Doctor. If it's a woman I shan't bother watching again! I'm all for equality, but some things are meant to be male roles as far as I'm concerned!

I'll share some more Christmassy samples next time, but for now, cheerio and hope everyone had a great weekend. 
PS Just popped back to say the veggie curry was delicious!