It's a Creative World

Creative catering

For more than 25 years I've used a menu system to feed the family, adjusting it from
1)  Carefree couple choices, to
2)  Food you can eat with one hand whilst breastfeeding/jiggling baby, to
3)  Dishes adapted to toddler likes and dislikes, then back to
2)  plus 3), on to
4) Carefree family meals, then back to
2) plus 4), and so on.

The menus have more or less survived, and it's as simple as this:

1 week = 7 days =

1 x roast
1 x leftovers
1 x meat free
1 x minced beef
1 x chicken
1 x fish
1 x easy (easy is whatever you do with your eyes shut, like the toad in the hole above, for me).

Days do change, but I usually stick to it, as it makes shopping easier.

The hotpot above is a leftover dish.

A sample week will be:
Sun - Traditional roast lamb dinner
Mon - Cold leftover meat from roast with bubble and squeak and pickles.
Tues - Cheese omelette with crusty bread and salad.
Wed - Cottage pie and vegetables.
Thurs - Chicken curry and rice with naan and poppadums
Fri - Scampi and chips
Sat - Egg and bacon with panfried potatoes

And a second sample week will be:
Sun - Roast beef
Mon - Beef risotto
Tues - Cauliflower cheese with tomatoes
Wed - Chilli mince in tacos with salad
Thurs - Chicken stir fry
Fri - Chunky tuna sweetcorn stew with granary baguettes
Sat - Pizza, coleslaw and beans.

The plan centres around the basic 7 days, which can vary hugely, the same dish might not turn up more than once in several months.
Don't eat fish? Have 2 chicken days.
Don't like leftovers? (or maybe don't HAVE leftovers lol) Have 2 meatfree days.
The easy day includes things like pizza, burgers, take-aways, beans on toast - we all need an easy day once a week.

Here's another leftover dish, just because. It's a chicken and vegetable pie. Rustic looking. See 2 and 5 below. (number 7, me?)

rus⋅tic

 – adjective

1.	of, pertaining to, or living in the country, as distinguished from towns or cities; rural.

2.	simple, artless, or unsophisticated.

3.	uncouth, rude, or boorish.

4.	made of roughly dressed limbs or roots of trees, as garden seats.

5.	(of stonework) having the surfaces rough or irregular and the joints sunken or beveled.

– noun

6.	a country person.

7.	an unsophisticated country person.

Happy dinners.
Eleanor

Hi from Di in sunny and WARM Durban....

I really do not have anything particulary creative for you today so thought I would share with you where my life is taking me...

Woo Hoo I have escaped from the cold winter in Johannesburg to a beautifully warm Durban only 600km away from Johannesburg.

I drove to Durban on Sunday to start a short contract ( a few months) here on Monday. This is a big move for me as I retired over 2 years ago.

As you might guess I could not bring loads of stash with me so I will have to buy more hee hee. IThis is what I brought with me!

 

Apart from this I do have a cutting mat and a paper trimmer!

I have found a really cute cottage and am going to scrap it as my Durban home!

This is my living room and I also have a TV and DVD player.

 

Here is the kitchen - all the mod cons - well enough!

 

A little area for me to work on the computer scrap and eat!

 

I have a bedroom and bathroom:

 

and loads of cupboard space for my clothes...

 

Eat your hearts out - this is the view from my little verandah - I can see the SEA!!!:

 

The property is protected by Satchmo who is BIG and very friendly...

 

In my tiny supply of stash I found these prepared chipboard pages:

 

So next time I hope to share my finished mini album of my Durban home...

Thanks for visiting IACW and love from Di X

Guest Designer - Michelle Jackson-Mogford

Hi all! Well here I am with my last guest visit on this very inspiring blog. This time I’d like to share with you an inspirational piece of art.

Last week I turned the big 40 and it got me thinking about where I’ve been and where I’m going. I thought I would like to make a sort of new years resolution but on a grander scale, like a new start, well life begins now right??!! I wanted to have a secret place to keep my wishes, hopes and dreams…. You didn’t think I’d share them did you? Then

following a lovely afternoon spent with Mary Anne Walters last week, when she shared lots of her crafty books and magazines with me, I was reminded of my love of Mexican shrines (any of you who know me know I have a love of anything Mexican J) and knew it was the perfect way to create a piece of inspirational art that I will look at every day and a great place to keep my little secrets.

I love these little pieces of art, for their colour, their arty crudeness, and all the fascinating ways they are decorated (and all the little things they hold) This is another great way to recycle and use up all those little bits and bobs we all collect and stick in a drawer for ‘one day’

Inspirational shrine

 

For the shrine construction you will need some corrugated card, loo roll/kitchen towel, pva glue and strong glue, masking tape, acrylic paints, chipboard and some plain card. The décor and objects are up to you, and you can really go to town! I have used a scrap of polystyrene (all will be revealed) charms, shells, beads, sequins, art metal, a Mexican newspaper, gesso and some word stamps.

For the construction cut 12 strips of corrugated card 4cm wide x 8cm long and 4 strips 4cm wide x 3cm long. All the sides are doubled up strips of corrugated card. Bind them together with masking tape. This gives a good surface for the papier mache and also gets rid of the corrugated channels on the ends of the pieces.

 

Construct the 2 boxes using masking tape. The smaller box is for the drawer. Tip Make the tops and bottoms go across the ends of the sides. Don’t worry about perfect corners and the unevenness you will get from the materials, this will just lend to the finished authenticity of your piece.

 

Cut another rectangle of corrugated card for your drawer front by drawing round the drawer box and bind with masking tape. Also cut a square of chipboard for the back of your shrine by drawing around that box Tip cut it slightly smaller than your lines. I used chipboard as I have papier mached the back of the box and know it will retain its shape when it gets wet.

 

Next cut a shape to top off the shrine, I cut the base of mine in chipboard for stability and added some layers of card to add dimension.

 

Next get messy! (Well it is one of my projects J) Mix some pva with a little water and papier mache your box construction and shrine top. I used kitchen towel this time (not the usual loo roll!) It is a little stronger and gives a nice texture. You will find the lumps and bumps showing in your construction at this point, again don’t worry this adds to the authenticity. At this point I also papier mached little bits of Mexican newspaper to the inside of the top box. Put it aside to dry. Tip lay it down to dry and make it as square as possible.

I then papier mached the back of my shrine with some more of the Mexican newspaper and then the scrap of polystyrene came into play! It’s from a bit of packing and I drew a heart out to fit into the back of my box. I then carved it into shape with a craft knife. It’s a lot easier than you think why not have a play? You could also make a shape from fymo or similar (remember it may be heavy though) or use a picture or an embellishment you may have, remember it’s your shrine! I papier mached the heart in the same way and put it to one side to dry.

 

 

 

 

Next make a little box from plain card for your drawer Tip make it slightly smaller than the measurements from your box (I drew round the base and sides of the drawer section to get a rough measurement to start with)

 

 

Paint all the pieces with acrylic paint, I used traditional Mexican folk art colours, I love the bright colours together.

 

 

Then I further decorated the pieces. I cut wings for the heart from art metal and stuck both to my shrine back. I applied gesso to the heart and drawer front to stamp my word stamps. I doodled the drawer front with a white pen, adding a bead for the handle, glittered the top piece and added charms down the inside sides.

 

 

Once you’re happy with that stage of décor assemble the pieces together. Stick the drawer front on your little drawer box, stick the back of the shrine on and add the top.

 

 

Then you can decorate some more, the other great things with these shrines is more is better and bling is good J I added sequins. I then added in all the little bits that are personal to me and the story my shrine is telling, what you add is up to you, My bits are shells a little bottle charm of crystals and some little calla lilies.

 

 

 

 

 

Not only have I created an authentic piece of Mexican folk art but I now have a secret place to write myself little messages and keep little treasures! So what will you do with yours? Have fun playing and please share!

I hope you’ve all enjoyed the 3 projects I shared with you this month. I’ve had a great time creating and have really enjoyed my visit. Thanks to Caz for the invite and to all the creative girls for having me and making me feel so welcome. I hope to bump into you all in cyber space and will definitely be visiting IACW for inspiration! Until soon happy crafting

Love

Michelle x

www.mjm-thearttart.com

Crochet Throw

I wish I could be unveiling the throw today but alas this is a big project, and you know they say that Rome wasn't built in a day!

So it's been about 5 months since I started and I must tell you that as well as it being a big project it's also a pricey one. I estimate that you would get maybe 3 squares a ball, needing 196ish squares, plus yarn to stitch it together and maybe a few rounds finish it off nicely. You are looking at a cost of +/- £350!! And that doesn't include your time.

But when you buy the yarn slowly it doesn't seem like so much (actually it's Monday night as i'm typing this and having just worked this total out, I AM IN SHOCK!) Yikes, lol.

Having said all that though, it's a fab hobby and I am totally hooked on hooking ;) I love the satisfaction of completing a project and the pride when it's admired.

 

Here is my basket, having had a refill of yarn. And having had no yarn for about a month (oops), I am only on square 94. Kind of half way there :)

 

I am doing 6 squares from each 3 colour combination, which give me 168 squares (according to my list), and I doubt I have written down every colour combination that there is. So I need around 30 more, or i'll do some plain squares in the light blue, light brown and silver, just for something different.

I love to see what other hooky bods are up to, and these two ladies, Attic24 and Posy, are truely inspirational! If you're into crochet and would like to share your latest project, please don't forget to leave us a link in the comments box.

haPPy dAy!
Caz
xx

Taking a look at Sketch Blogs.

Having lost my mojo recently and to be honest I am not really sure if it's back for good or not,I thought I would trawl around the sketch blogs to see if that would inspire me.

I have to say there are loads of them around now so we are really spoilt for choice and I thought I would pick a couple for this months blog post.

Firstly I have picked a fairly new one that started a few weeks ago called Twisted Sketches and I just love this blog. The sketch comes with a little twist as you might have guessed by the title. LOL.

I have chosen the first sketch and the twist was to use ribbon on the layout.

 

This is my take on it.

 I used ribbons to make the centre of my die cut flowers as well as the flower ribbon.

 

Next I thought I would look at a blog that has been around for quite awhile now Pencil Lines but instead of doing the most recent ones I went way back and picked Sketch #11 by Kim Sonksen

I really like the simplicty of this one and thought I would do it as a 12 x12 and add my own take on it.

 

Well I hope I have inspired you to take a look at the sketch blogs and remember to look back at some of the older sketches too. I have to say it got my mojo working again.

Next month I will take a look at a couple more of the sketch blogs so I hope you will join me to see what I come up with.

Take care

Hugs Julia x

Sketch Time!!

Brackets are everywhere in scrapbooking at the moment. 

Here's a quick layout that uses a BIG Bracket as part of the design as well as for a journalling/title block!

I used a lovely big Woodgrain stamp from Hero Arts to create a custom background- I stamped it across my 12x12 Kraft paper lining it up (roughly!) as I went!

Here's my layout!

I used:-

Hero Arts Designer Wood Grain Stamp

Kraft Bazzill

October Afternoon Road Map Paper

Cosmo Cricket Early Bird Paper

Cosmo Cricket Mr. Campy

Distress Ink

Happy scrapping!

GlitteryKatie XxX

Yo-Yos!

I have recently discovered these delightful little contraptions.  If you don't know already, they are yo-yo makers. 

Yo-yos are an old way of making quilts out of scraps of fabric, and they look wonderfully attractive.  What you do is sandwich some fabric between the two pieces of plastic and then stitch around using the holes as a guide.  You then take out your fabric and pull it together with the stitches and you end up with a cute little gathered round.  I made a card using the green yo-yo maker here:

 

These are obviously very small yo-yos, about 3cm diameter, but you can get much bigger ones which look great stitched together and made into a bedspread or throw for your bed.  I think they would also look nice as jewellery - I may try that next!

There are also different shapes you can buy such as flowers and hearts.  Here's a card I made with the heart yo-yo maker:

You can cover the middles with buttons, as I have done here, for extra interest. 

Yo-yo makers are available from several fabric and quilting suppliers.  A quick Google search should bring up lots of stockists.  I got mine from Dungarees and Daisies, but they are also available from The Cotton Patch (there are some lovely examples of how to use yo-yos at The Cotton Patch) and Ebay.

Hope you like this idea and I'll see you again soon!

TFL! Joanne x

Stamp storage - Part 2

Following on from my previous stamp storage post  where I showed my storage for clear stamps I thought I'd show you my solution for keeping all my red rubber stamps.

  

I bought a number of plastic box files from a local shop for the grand sum of 99 pence each and found that they hold 2 layers of stamps beautifully. All my stamps are mounted on E-Z Mount (or similar) and so "stick" to the plastic.

 

I store the files upright and have had no problems with any stamps coming unstuck from the plastic files. My only problem is that I have yet to "catalogue" them as per my clear stamps in the previous post on storage!!

How do you all store yours? Any better ideas out there? We'd love to hear them or see examples.

Jo xx

Embroidered notecards

 

Hello, Eleanor here.
I still had several small offcuts of fabric on my desk, after my recent embroidering, so I decided to make some simple notecards as a gift, contained within a special envelope.
I stitched a thin vintage mother of pearl button onto a 2 by 2 inch scrap of plain fabric, added a few       straight stitches, and then stitched the square onto a plain white notecard (a quarter of an A4 sheet of good cardstock). I stitched about a quarter of an inch in from the edges, then pulled away the threads up to the stitching line.Wonkiness is good. Honestly it is.

To keep them tidy, I made a fabric envelope, attaching one final embroidered square to the 'flap', with room to fit the 6 notecards plus their envelopes inside .

An easy gift, and a nice one for a teacher, such as Karen,

(which reminds me...Happy Birthday to Dolly,)

and also useful for anyone who likes to write thank you notes/keep in touch with distant relatives.

(lol, edited as Sarah quite rightly told me off for assuming young people don't correspond)

See you soon folks.

haPPy homeMAking

Good day from Caz!

I've very much been bitten by the vintage look. I like anything with a 30s look and I love glass jars. Which is why I have chosen glass for my bedroom, more specifically to store my jewellery. Which you may notice also has a vintage look about it.

 

 

 

 

Car boot and charity stores are a great place to pick up some bargins :) And the more shapes and sizes that you have, the better.

Thanks for stopping by!
Caz
xx