Nine Long Days (but now I'm back).

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I have been trying to update my LSNED Page.  However, I'm having problems loading photos. Either they won't load, or they are distorted and squashed out of shape. I have updated Sept. 1-3rd, but will try to do the rest tomorrow, when the problems will hopefully be resolved.

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Well, it's been a looong 9 days. My poor mum was very poorly indeed. We won't go into mega-details about symptoms, but let's just say she spent a lot of time in the bathroom and the rest in her bed. The Dr. was out 4 times, as she couldn't go up there. She ended up with 3 lots of tablets (though she's only taking antibiotics now).  The antibiotics finish tomorrow and she seemed a lot better today. She even managed a short walk round the Close, without staggering about or looking likely to fall, so I feel encouraged that she's on the mend.  We see the GP at the surgery tomorrow; he can look her over and confirm that she's recovering!

I spent all day Wednesday to Friday, at my mum's, looking after her.  Then Friday night she called to ask for help, as she was very poorly and couldn't cope.  I had to pack up me & J. so we could stay the night.  In fact, we stayed 2 nights and only came home on Sunday evening.  J. was very good about it - I mean, his weekend plans were rather messed up, but he didn't complain at all.  I did manage to drop him in town on Saturday morning, so he could go to an event at the Games Workshop (the Warhammer shop!).  He stayed until 1:30, when I picked him up, while his Grandma was asleep. 

It's been quite exhausting and I haven't had much time to myself.  I managed to snatch the odd few minutes here and there, to think about LSNED, take a picture, make some notes, look at the occasional blog post. But I have been so exhausted that, even when I was at home, I wasn't really able to keep up with blogging, or do anything for my Etsy shop. 

I hope that I will get some days of peace and quiet next week, so I can get to work on a commission (the diary/planner for my friend) and some new work for my shop.  I also want to try and make a stock of small, inexpensive notebooks and diaries, for a local craft event on 6th November. 

I have managed to make some of my LSNED pages - up to 5th September so far, and part-way through 6th.  I've adopted the KISS Principle this time - "Keep It Simple, Stupid!".  So each page is very simple, with some patterned papers, one or two photos, the "What I Learned" sentence/statement and a hand-cut envelope, in which I have put a small note with my day's journalling.  I haven't put much about my mum's illness, other than mentioning it if it's relevant, as there have been other Lessons that I can record.

Take a look at my LSNED page soon - I will go and update it now, with a few "diary" blogs and page photos. 

Meanwhile, here are some other photos from my week:

I received a lovely red suede-covered journal in the post. I ordered it from LinenLaidFelt, an Etsy shop owned by Katie Gonzalez.  It's really lovely. Small, but beautifully made, with soft-beige hand-torn paper, section wraps made from old map pages and stiff art paper; and of course, the lovely soft suede, which was a re-purposed garment.  The binding is a variation on long-stitch, in a good creamy linen thread.  The book fastens with a sweet little wrap-round strip of the same suede, which tucks in at the front.  I love it to bits!

Yesterday we had an interesting little adventure here.  In the evening, me and J. were at home (Grandma being sufficiently recovered to manage to get the sandwich out of the fridge and make herself a cup of tea & slice of cake).  The power suddenly went off. Then on. Then off. Then on.... etc, etc, etc.  All the local burglar alarms went off.  Nobody had power (except when they did!).  The neighbour came round to check it wasn't just something weird about her house - lights flashing on and off are a bit disconcerting! 

In the end, to avoid damage to computers, tv etc, I switched our power off at the main switch.  We couldn't make anything for tea, as we're all-electric for cooking, so we decided to go out for tea.  We went to Pizza Hut and ate lovely pizza, potato wedges and naughty (mini) desserts.  It was great. 

By the time we had finished, it was still light, so we had a little stroll on our way back to the car.

Some lovely houses in Town.

We climbed to the top of the old Castle Mound.  J. was following the story of the Siege, which is carved into a circle of large stepping-stones round the top of the mound.

View from the Top. The spire in the distance is St.Paul's Church. The buildings in the foreground are some new appartments and shops.  Very posh!

View from the Top. 90 degrees left of the last view. Shows the river, from the Town Bridge (on the right), with the Hotel, along the Embankment and the riverside gardens. You can see the lights along the Embankment, as the sun was setting.

View from the Top.  Slightly left of the last view. The river continues along, past the Weir bridge.  J. in the foreground, standing on a mosaic representing a map of Bedford at the time of the Castle Seige, in the 12th Century.

A view along the river, from the Embankment.  The Town Bridge is just visible and the lovely riverside gardens.  We decided it was a bit late for a long walk though, so we went home after this.

It was a really nice evening. We've decided to go out for tea after school a little more often - perhaps every couple of months.

LSNED 2010 - The Bloggy Bit

A quick post about Learn Something New Every Day - for those who don't know, this is an online course, run every September, by the wonderful Shimelle.  I joined the course last September and got half-way through the month, before my mum fell ill, ended up in hospital and everything became too chaotic to continue with my little scrapbook!

So, I thought I'd have another go this year. I am making a mini-album again, but I decided to keep that fairly simple - just a quick page each day.  I have set up a separate Page on my blog here - look for the tab above - where I'm keeping a daily blog journal of my September, with its main events.

I decided to make my little album from another book.  A while ago, I made a journal with a hard cover and sketch paper pages. The boards were covered with some great paper I had found, printed with a design of various old-fashioned styles of handwriting and images of ink bottles, pens and nibs.  However, the binding was not very successful (this being a skill I was still learning, I didn't get it quite right) and the book began to collapse!  I had put it away on the shelf, meaning to "do something else with it".  So I have!

I detached the covers from the binding and stuck down the loose edges.

I used my "Big Bite" tool (it's fab!), to punch holes and set some eyelets in the covers.

then I created a collage on the front cover, with the Course Title and various images I like.

I'm quite pleased with these covers.  I will make a page each day and then bind them all together - perhaps with ribbon. 

I think it could be good...

Other News:

First of all, thanks to everyone who responded to Monday's post! It was great to get such supportive and encouraging messages - even offers of help. 

Just to update - I had a reply from Susan, the Organiser.  She's not going to run my workshop in the Autumn Term, but suggested we do it in the Spring Term instead.  I said that I thought we should do something other than "Christmas papercrafts", as I didn't think the children would want to do this in the Spring.  I offered some other ideas and she has told me to choose my favourite, come up with a course summary and send it to her.  If she thinks it will fly, they will offer it as a workshop in March (and assuming the kids agree with her, I will be teaching it!). 

So, I'm very glad I got organised and made myself send in that submission! Looks like I've got myself a job (even if only for 1 day so far!).

My mum's been ill, yesterday and today.  She called at breakfast time yesterday, asking for help. So, that's kept me busy (see also my LSNED blog page - tab above).  She was much better when I left her this afternoon, but I'll probably go over there again tomorrow, at least to make her some lunch (that's what she finds really hard when she's ill and obviously she needs to eat properly to recover). 

J. went back to school today - full of smiles as usual, keen to see his friends and find out what will happen this term.  He's home now, telling me about his day (the "boring" bits and the "cool" bits) and begging to use the computer to play games! 

And now I'm off to sort out the dinner... which we might eat in the garden, as it's so warm and sunny!

Scary...

Just a quick post about what I have been doing for the last couple of days.

This morning I took a box to the Post Office, containing this:

It's a paper mock-up of a Planner/Diary, which a friend asked me to make for her. 

It has space for a photo, a diary and a notebook.

I printed off some diary pages, just to give her an idea of the layout.  Once she's happy with it, I will complete the layout of the diary pages, print them and bind them into a book.

This is really just an example, made from paper, to give her an idea what it would be like and the chance to alter the design if she wants to.

I included this sheet of fabric and paper samples, so she can choose the materials she would like for the case and book covers. 

I hope she's pleased with this; then I will be busy making it!  I think I'll make some more diaries too, to put in my shop.  After all, once I've gone to the effort of making the diary layouts, I only have to print them off (double-sided, hem, hem...) and bind them inside some nice covers.  I might make one for myself too!

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As if that's not enough to keep me occupied... I also sent an e-mail today.  It contained a spec for a one-day workshop, teaching "Papercrafts for Christmas" to 9-16 year-olds at DS's Saturday "Frontiers Club".  This is a club set up by the local Education Business Partnership, to give extra activites and learning opportunities to children who are on their school's "Gifted and Talented" register (because they are gifted in one or more academic subject/area, or have a special talent in the arts, sport etc).  J. goes to this for 7 Saturdays in each term.  They offer 6-week morning courses, with an all-day workshop (in a different subject) on the 7th week.  He really enjoys going and has tried all kinds of stuff, from art to computing, ceramics to science, writing computer games to table-top war games, masked theatre to magic! 

So, I looked at the prospectus and thought "I could teach a course.  I could teach papercrafts and bookbinding.  Icould make courses for kids, to show them some simple stuff that I like to do."  Back in May, I approached the organisers, asking if they would be interested.  I heard nothing and was a bit fed up about it.  Eventually I asked the club supervisor about it one Saturday morning and she chased it up.  Then I had an e-mail, asking me to fill in a complicated form and send photos of the stuff I would do in a one-day workshop... Apparently they start new tutors with a workshop.  Great. Try to decide what to do in only 4 hours... 

I admit I left it sitting in my in-box for a while.  I couldn't get my head round the form, with its "what will you teach in each hour" boxes and its "Learning Outcome" box for each hour.  I also wasn't sure about the content for a four-hour course.  I'd been thinking of stuff to keep kids occupied for 6 mornings of 2 1/2 hours each.  

I then had a reminder e-mail... I left it for a few days...  

So, this morning I pulled myself together and sorted out what I would do.  I couldn't just let it go; either I had to e-mail back and say I wouldn't do only a workshop; or I had to say I wasn't ready to do any course this term after all (having said I could... hmmm...); or I just had to pull myself together, put my ideas down on paper and send that form back!  

I filled in the form.  I decided on Christmas Cards, made with embellishments that the kids could create using rubber stamping and colouring, peel-off outline stickers, pre-printed pictures (like santas, christmas trees, cute reindeers etc), matting and layering etc -

This sort of stuff, like I made last year.

I also thought they could try some simple Christmas Decorations

I made these last Christmas.

I found some instructions for making decorations with sparkly pipe-cleaners and beads too, so I included pictures of those.

I did an afternoon course in card-making, for some of the ladies who live in the sheltered-housing where my mum lives.  The cards we made were similar to those above.  They really enjoyed it.  I think the same techniques would be very easy for children to do and we could just add in extra bits, depending on how quickly they picked it up.  The cards are quick to make and look good, so they should be able to make at least a couple each.  The decorations are a little bit more tricky, but not impossibly hard - they're all bright kids and they have to have something to challenge them. 

I hope the Club are still interested, despite my prevarication... It's only one day after all.  It might give me the chance to do a course in the Spring term - perhaps simple book-binding, or scrapbook making.  

Time Will Tell... but it's a bit Scary just now.  Wish me luck!  

New Page, New Toys!

I've had a busy week, but today I had some fun and have made a new Scrap Page.  It was inspired by Shimelle's Challenge, to scrap with Aqua, Red and White:

I embellished it with hand-stencilled designs, using white Conte crayon.  I also made some embellishments with hand-cut lino stamps.  They all came out pretty well. 

I'm pleased with this one - another for my "Me" album, which has about 4 pages now... Time I actually put them in an album together, I think!

It was a good afternoon to be in my studio.  This was the weather outside (after a morning of bright sunshine, when I was stuck indoors!) -

Yes, that is a small flood you can see on the road!

Luckily it cleared up after a couple of hours and the sun came out again before bed-time!

While I was in my studio, watching the rain, I played with my new toys!! EEEEE.... I am excited to announce the arrival of....

A die-cutting/ embossing machine!

I got this today at a local scrapping shop called, Stamp Addicts.  They are a great shop and stock their own ranges of rubber stamps and crafting materials, along with a good selection of other stamps, papers, embellishments, inks, paints, tools etc, etc... They have an online shop where you can get a lot of their stuff. 

Anyway, they have had a special promotion during August and I got this today.  I'm really happy about it, as I already had this - 

- and needed a die-cutter/embossing machine to make it work.

I spent an hour or so experimenting.

The Cuttlebug included this little set of embossing dies, which I had fun trying out.  As you can see, they produce a really nice, crisp imprint.  I did another on a thinner paper though, which didn't come out well; so obviously a good quality paper is best. 

I also had this Sizzix embossing folder, which I got free with a magazine about 100 years ago.  The brass stencil is good for hand-embossing, but I wanted to see how it came out on the embossing machine.  After a bit of experimenting, and making my own packing sheet from a piece of medium-weight card, I got a really nice impression - as you can see.

Encouraged by the success of the Sizzix die, I tried out a rubber mat I had bought along with the Cuttlebug, which is designed to allow you to use the brass stencils you get for embossing by hand. 

I tried a couple of brass stencils and was really pleased with the results.  I think I ought to buy some Christmas stencils, for this year's cards!

Then I started to experiment a bit with the Letterpress kit.

There were nine plates provided with the kit, so I thought I'd try some embossing with this one.

A piece of grey paper on top and close the lid...

Not a very good result.  The paper is a bit thin.

This was the result with a piece of cardstock.  It's a "debossed" image, which means it goes in, rather than being raised out from the surface.  It doesn't produce an embossed image on the reverse though, so I can't emboss with these plates, only deboss.  Still, it looks nice (better in real life!).

The kit came with a tube of sticky black printing ink, a roller etc, but I didn't want to get all gooey today!  I tried inking up the plate with an ordinary little craft ink pad in a soft aqua colour.

This is the result.  I'm really pleased with it.  It's printed onto some soft sketch paper.  The hand-dabbed ink has given it a soft, blended effect and it really looks lovely.  I could do good stuff with this!

A closer view of the de-bossed and inked effect. 

So, that was today's experimenting.  I have lots to learn about these two bits of equipment, but it does mean I have my own teeny mini printing press!  I still need to find out what other kinds of stuff I can use as plates to print with.  The rollers do not adjust and I can't use anything that's too thick, or it will break the machine; but I hope I might be able to try some prints with the soft lino I have bought.  If the Letterpress won't allow it, I think the Cuttlebug plates are varied enough to accept some lino plates.  I'll report back when I have tried it out!

Yum, yum! Brownies, anyone?

Mmmm....

While I was on holiday, I came across this recipe for chocolate brownies, which was supposed to be very quick, easy and tasty. 

So, of course, I had to try it out!

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Quick Chocolate Brownies

230g Dark Chocolate - 140g broken up and smashed into chunks

125g butter

250g sugar

1tsp vanilla essence

90g plain flour

2 eggs, at room temperature

pinch salt (if using unsalted butter)

20cm/8" square tin, lined

Melt the butter and 90g chocolate (the bit you didn't smash up!) in a bowl over hot water, or in a microwave (heat for 10-15 seconds, then stir, repeat until chocolate is melting, then stir until it has completely melted. This avoids burning the chocolate by over-heating).

In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, flour and salt (if using). 

Blend this with the melted chocolate mixture, to a smooth batter. 

Add the chocolate chunks and stir well.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake at 180 degrees C for 10-12 mins, until a skewer or sharp knife comes out clean. 

Cool completely, then remove from tin and cut into pieces.

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The Verdict

The cakes seemed to take much longer to cook, than the 10-12 mins in the recipe.  This may have been the fault of my oven, which I suspect is not very good any more (other things have taken too long before, though they were big things).  It may also have been because I used chilled eggs... who knows? 

Anyway, once the brownies were obviously cooked, I left them in the tin on a rack, to cool down completely.

Even when cold, if you look at the photo above, you'll see that the chocolate was all runny.  They were really more like chocolate puddings, than chocolate brownies.  We did sample two, but ate them from a bowl, with custard!!

They tasted like brownies - in fact, they were really yummy - but we wanted Real Brownies, with that nice texture they have...

So, I put the whole tin into the fridge for an hour or two. 

Then I took them out and removed the paper:

They had the right sort of texture once chilled...

They had that lovely crackly top, like Real Brownies...

They looked and tasted just like Chocolate Brownies.

 

We tried a couple today, after storing them in a plastic box at room temperature.  They still taste like proper Chocolate Brownies, so I reckon they're okay!

I'm not sure why they took so long to cook - about 18-20 mins in the end - but if you try this recipe (and I really think you should!!), do follow the recipe time for your skewer test and only leave them longer if they're obviously not cooked yet.  However, I am pleased that, despite the minor hiccups and the necessary chilling time, these have come out wonderfully and taste great.

Definitely worth a try - the mixture was so quick to make and it was fun too!  I think I'll add some chopped walnuts (or similar) next time - I like brownies with nuts in.

Now then, where's the coffee, I need another Brownie!