Getting my crafty on :-)

Yesterday I had a bash at making jewellery. I love unusual jewellery, and inspired by my endless hours of trawling through my beloved etsy.com, I wondered if I might be able to make my own pretty things.


There is a wonderful crafty emporium nearby called Michael's which I discovered when I was looking for baking accessories, and they have a large selection of beads and stuff. I popped in for a quick browse and before I knew it, an hour had passed and I had a basket full of twinkly beads! After a quick reassessment (and reality check) I narrowed the basket down to the makings of two bracelets, and this is what I made .....
 

 
First up is this little beauty. Now, I know it's nothing fancy or complicated, but this is something I would pay real money for in a shop so I am very pleased with myself!! And I even have enough beads left to make some matching earrings at some point - win!!







I'm going to file my second piece under Work In Progress as i only had a loose plan in the shop and it didn't quite pan out. I love the little felt flowers, and I think they look very pretty on the lace, so my new plan is to go back and get some more flowers in different colours and have a continuous band all the way round. I'll let you know how that goes.




So, all in all, I am rather pleased with my first foray into jewellery making!! You never know - you might even see me selling on Etsy one day .......?!?!?!?!

smug.com

I am feeling rather pleased with myself tonight! Finally, after several months of negligence, I started my guitar practise again - hurrah!! Granted, I am back to square one again, but I have had a lovely afternoon plucking away and trying to make recognisable notes :-) Hopefully this time I can actually make some progress ....

My second reason for celebration is that I cooked myself dinner! Well, not so much that I cooked, but more because Hubby called last minute to say he was going out with some colleagues for dinner, and I still cooked!!

Anyone who knows me knows that when left to fend for myself I generally resort to takeaways, frozen pizza, or Crunchy Nut Cornflakes - yum! I did consider popping round to Chipotle after he phoned, but I had already defrosted the pork for the pesto and mozzarella stuffed chops I had been planning, so I decided to have a go anyway.

Well, after my last couple of fails (I didn't even bother reporting Thursday's chicken satay fail - so bland!) I am delighted to report that tonight was a success!!

A couple of tweaks to make for next time:

1. Use thicker chops as they were a bit tricky to slit open to stuff. One was fine but the other was less stuffed and more strategically packed to stop the filling escaping through the many holes ...
2. More seasoning required in the coating 

But all in all they were bloody delicious - so much so that I ate the second one too!!

Cooking win = diet fail! Whoops ....... :-)
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Curry Fail :-(

I'm a little disappointed with my dinner tonight. Ive been trying to get back in to my challenge of making two new things a week and had picked out a Bombay shrimp curry with coconut rice, but I'm afraid it turned out a bit crap :-(

Hubby likes a good curry and used to spend hours pottering in the kitchen, toasting spices, marinating meat and slowly bubbling it all together to perfection so I had a lot to live up to (and was quite possibly insane to even attempt it!)

I found the recipe in my favourite foodie magazine, Cooking Light, but it was part of a speedy cooking special and I guess there are no real shortcuts to a good curry! Hubby seemed quite horrified to hear that it called for a generic curry powder!

As usual, I asked Hubby what he would do to make it better, and he read off a whole list of things that basically meant "find another recipe"! Perhaps I will consult his copy of the Madhur Jaffrey Curry Bible next time ....

Unfortunately it was all there was for dinner and, like a good boy he ate it all up, but I think it goes without saying that it will not be gracing the Kavanagh dinner table again ....!!

Random Acts Of Loveliness

So I have a new addiction, and it's called etsy.com. For those who don't know about Etsy - where have you been?!?!?!?!?! It's a wonderful website where people from around the world can sell their handmade goods, and you can find just about anything on there.



I'm a sucker for unusual jewellery and have lost many an hour browsing through their endless pages of pretty things. I received one such parcel of prettiness this morning containing these lovely earrings.



But to my surprise and delight, the parcel also contained a little thank you note from the seller thanking me for being her first sale and a second pair of earrings which I had highlighted as favourites on her site!!!

One good turn deserves another, so if you have a spare five minutes please go and check out her shop - http://www.etsy.com/shop/CreativeThingsForU

She has some really nice stuff, but you'll have to get there fast before I buy it all ....!!

Back to the kitchen ...

So, my cooking challenge from the beginning of the year (to cook two new recipes a week) kinda fell by the wayside, but I have kicked it off again tonight with blackened salmon tacos topped with mango, avocado and corn, and a jalapeno lime slaw.

I'll be honest, i did somewhat over spice the salmon for my liking and my taste buds are still buzzing, but Hubby seemed to enjoy it so that is good enough for me!!

Definitely one to make again sometime ..... :-)

Mary, Mary, quite contrary ....

Yesterday Hubby and I finally decided it was time to clear away all the plants from the porch and garden that I managed to kill last year, and replace them with healthy new ones for me to (try not to) kill this year!


Some of our neighbours have very bright colourful displays in their little gardens, but we decided to keep ours small as I am generally fatal to all plant life, even when I try to be good!! Hubby once bought me a cactus and jokingly dared me to try and kill it. I did ........!

Anyway, I'm quite excited to now be the proud owner of a lavender plant! I love the smell of lavender and i'm hoping that the beautiful aroma will make its way up to our bedroom window.


I dont know what the other plants are, but I picked the one at the front because it has flowers that look like feathers! Sadly one the stems got broken on the way home though, so that's going to be the first one to make it the big garden centre in the sky :-(





I have also planted some more sunflowers and hopefully they will do better this year! I managed to grow two last year, but unfortunately one snapped, and some thieving little bastard stole the other one!!


Hubby was in his element choosing from the vast selection of chili pepper plants, so God knows what we have growing in the wooden box below. I'm hoping he has marked the one that claims to be extra hot, though, so I can keep away from it!!

I wish I could take responsibility for the beautiful birds of paradise, but they are looked after by the maintenance guys - probably just as well!! These are my favourite flowers and I was so happy when we moved in last year and discovered them in our front garden!


Well, on that note I suppose I had better go dig out the watering can - it would be a pretty poor show to forget to water them on day one!!


Laters ........ xxx

Recent Adventures

Hubby and I have had a few wee adventures over the last couple of weeks. I wont bore you with all the details, but here are a few photos for your viewing pleasure! :-)

 First up was a group trip to Tahoe. As you may know, I'm not much of an outdoors girl, but I was more than happy to hold down the fort while the others went skiing or gambling! Hubby took to the slopes for the first time in about 15 years and had a great weekend! Here's a photo of him looking all handsome in his ski gear :-)

And below is a shot of our group outside the cabin

Next up was a last minute trip to San Francisco. We travelled up last Thursday night and had an awesome meal at Puccini & Pinetti, on Ellis Street. If you ever find yourself hungry in that part of town it is seriously worth checking out. I had the braised short rib and it was one of the most delicious things I have ever had!!

We spent the next day just wandering around the city - one of my favourite things to do :-) Here are some of the highlights:

 This is me having a rest after climbing down then back up Lombard from Coit Tower (which you can see on the hill at the back)

This is beside the Exploratorium where we sat and had a picnic. It was so peaceful, you could easily forget you were in a city!













Here we are with Yoda outside George Lucas's offices :-)












Later on we went for curry and drinkies, and yes,
this really is a barman wearing a Radio Clyde t-shirt!! (FYI, Radio Clyde is our local radio station back in Glasgow)

 

 My new favourite bar is Blondie's on Valencia, where they serve margaritas by the pint *hic*

I'll be honest, neither of us have any idea what or where this is!! From the sequence of photos on the camera it was clearly taken somewhere between the last bar and the hotel, and appears to be a cupcake emporium so I would be very keen to find it again!!









Finally, we rounded off our Easter weekend adventures with a Sunday potluck lunch/dinner at our friends across the road. Hubby and I were on dessert, and we slaved for hours to produce this little rack of goodies

From top to bottom we have:

Miniature trifles



Caramel shortcake, and Oreo cookie truffles



Chocolate cake pops, and mini cupcakes





Our offerings went down well, and according to Hubby, the leftovers were well received at his work on Monday :-)

Well, that's all the excitement for now - tune in next time for ... well .... more mindless nonsense, I imagine!! xxx