Sewing, stitching, baking, cooking, gardening, shopping and general homemaking.

Saturday 29 January 2011

Soup du Jour

My liquidiser broke a couple of weeks ago so it was imperative that I got another one.  I chose the Russell Hobbs one because of the glass jug.  My previous one was plastic and I think the hot soup I used it for caused the split in the collar near the blade.  Some days I plan to make soup and pre-soak any beans I might be using.  Some days I decide on the spur of the moment to make soup, that is when tins of beans come in handy.  I recently used black beans and I ended up with soup that was an interesting shade of purple!  Today I'm using borlotti beans...
This soup is very quick to make, onion; garlic, both roughly cut up; tin of beans; a squirt of tomato puree; a good glug of wine; pepper; and in this one, fish stock dissolved in about three quarters of a pint of hot water.  You can add any other veg you have on hand but for quickness these ingredients here are all you need.  Bring to the boil and simmer for about half an hour, let come off the boil then liquidise.  A very tasty, quick soup for two.  I can smell it now, ummmm, it amazes me how tasty bean soup is!

Friday 28 January 2011

January

I don't think I've ever felt so lethargic as I've felt this January.  I think it is because of the weather being so cold and dull.  It's time I made an effort to get myself going again.  Here are a couple of things I've made recently...
A heart for a Valentine swap I'm in, this was very easy to do and turned out quite pretty.  Because I wasn't sure who I'd be swapping with and I wanted to get the hearts made in plenty of time, I also made this pot holder...
It wasn't until I took the picture that I noticed one edge isn't lined up properly, good job my swap partner wanted the fancy one!  Here's a picture of the hearts I've received in previous swaps...

I also bought a new doll, this one is very dainty compared to my Gotz one...
When I sat them together I decided that they looked just like Bridgette and Marie, two of the daughters in Medium, starring Patricia Arquette.

I sent for another book from Amazon, it's called Prairie Children and Their Quilts, but I have a horrible feeling I won't get it.  Three times the delivery date has been changed, it's now due in February, something to do with waiting for new stock to come in.  Never mind, there are plenty of other choices.

Once again, I apologise for some comments not showing up, I don't know why they keep going into the moderation page, I don't moderate comments so this is a puzzle to me.  It's not like they are going to the spam folder either.

Tuesday 4 January 2011

A New Dress

No, not for me, for my doll.  This dress is from the Rosemarie Ionker book A Closet Full of Doll Clothes.

Things are still pretty slow around here.  We were away over Christmas and I haven't even downloaded the pictures from my camera.  We were in Yorkshire and my goodness it was cold!  It was so cold it got into my back and made it feel achy for days and felt cold but when I touched it, it was hot.  We had a nice time but wouldn't go away again for Christmas, I much prefer my Christmas day in my own house to in a hotel.