Beckermet Sports Day

Beckermet Sports Day took place today.  It started with a Fancy Dress Parade through the village, from the garage to the school.  There are various stalls where you can byu cakes and drinks etc, plus plants and bric-a-brac etc.  There is races later on in the afternoon for the children and a cross country event, as well as a Moby demonstration, bouncy castles, climbing wall etc.

I'm not quite sure how long the Sports Day has been happening.  The Fancy Dress Parade is for the children.  This years theme was 'Kings and Queens', surprisingly.  Mary-Jane was dressed as The Queen of Hearts.  Mum made her cape late last night.  She has strawberry jam tarts in her pot.  I was so proud of Mary-Jane.  We were the last to arrive for the Parade, so walked at the back with the younger children.  There was only perhaps ten or twelve children dressed up.  At the front of the parade was a small van playing rousing classical music.  It was quite exciting.  A few people came out of the houses to watch, as well as everyone else who was parading with the children.

Mary-Jane at the start of the Parade

Mary-Jane paraded really well.  She walked half way through the village.  By this point we were well behind everyone else.  It was gently advised that I put her in her buggy and push her the rest of the way as the judging would happen as soon as the parade arrived on the field.  I put Mary-Jane in her buggy and we caught up on the last stretch of the parade. 

Once at the school, I got Mary-Jane out and got her in place for the judging.  She was in the Pre-school group.  Two of the other girls were dressed at the queen of hearts also.

My beautiful little girl was awarded First Place.  I was so proud of her.  I did shed a tear. She had a medal and a certificate for taking part.

Here she is with her medal, eating her jam tarts and watching the activity on the playing field.

Mary-Jane thoroughly enjoyed herself.  We had a quick look in the school at the stalls, then we went outside.  It was a warm day in the end, despite the weather people saying it would rain.  Then again to say that it might rain is a safe bet around here.  MJ called the school rooms the kitchen.  At first she was happy to sit in the wooden playhouse and look out.  When the Moby demo started (Moby is a dance excercise, which is supposed to be very popular at the moment), MJ was very interested.  She walked to where the demo was and watched.  She didn't like standing near the speakers so moved her self closer to the dancers and started doing a dance and giggling. At one point she ran right through the middle of the demonstation then stopped at the other side to have a dance there.  After that she was running around the field, wanting to sit on some of the play equipment.  She found a football and carried that around a bit and gave it a little kick about.

By 3pm, she was geting tired.  She was so excited and taken with everything around her that she didn't want a drink.  With protest, I picked her up, got her in her buggy and bought her back to the house.  She was one tired and happy little girl. And I was so so proud of her

Disasterous Cupcakes

Today.  What can I tell you about Today?!  This afternoon I set to to make some cupcakes - dalmation cupcakes from Betty Crockers 'The Big book of cupcakes'.  They were a disaster.  Not a complete disaster as they tasted nice and the texture was lovely and light.  I have sat and super-anyalysed what went wrong with them.  The recipe said it made 24.  I got to 24 without scraping the bowl out.  I think US cupcake papers are slightly bigger than what I used.  My papers were cupcake rather than fairy.  The main thing I believe what happened was that the recipe was in 'American' and I translated it wrong.  The measurements were in cups.  This did not phase me as I had looked up the metric equivalents before I started.  Afterwards I carried on looking up conversions, only to find that leading baking books give slightly different quantities.  For example, I have found 35g difference in flour, 25ml difference in liquid.  These quantities may seem small, but they make a difference with cupcakes.

Until I get some more clarity on these measurements, such recipes and books will only be used for inspiration and not exact recipes, which is a great shame.  I shall persevere once I've picked myself up and dusted myself down.  I have never had to throw out 24 cupcakes in one go!  What I do like about the US cupcake recipes is that they are so vastly different and the ideas and decoration is so far removed from the traditional fairy cake 'fancies'.

I had originally planned to do another batch of cakes, maybe two and if they went really well, then perhaps a batch of biscuits.  I threw the towel in after the one and only batch.  I was a bit disheatened.  All the other recipes that I had chosen were from the same book.

On top of that, when I was mulling over the cupcakes just after they had come out of the oven, I had a phone call.  A friend of mine (a brief old flame friend) had died.  I have not seen him for about 22 or 23 years, other friends had stayed in touch.  He had died in a Hopsice on Wednesday of bowel cancer.  I shall be taking some time to remember him.

this evening I have kept to 'safe' knitting.  Yes the ASJ has had a few more ridges added to it - I'm now on ridge 71.  There is no overall number of ridges I need to do, planned or worked out to do.  I just like to count them.

Pasta, Craft & Yarn

I bought a pasta making machine this morning.  I have been after one of these for quite some time.  I saw an ad for some and hot footed it into Whitehaven.  I hope I can get on with it okay.

This afternoon was our Craft and Natter at Beckermet.  It was well attended - 12 people altogether.  I forgot to take my camera.  It was good to see people doing various crafts - knitting, crochet, sewing - machine and hand, and cross stitch.  We were talking of making the session for three hours instead of two.  We were also thinking about whether to put on a day long C&N, perhaps in September or October.  I think it would be wuite fun.  We have enough time to spread the word and if it is successful then we can have them quarterly, or something like that.  I will post more about this on the C&N blog.

I took my ASJ to do.  I was also very kindly gifted someone's knitting needles and crochet hooks.  J does not knit anymore, so has passed her needles onto me.  I was quite honoured.  Again more on the C&N blog.

My lace weight Bluefaced Leicester arrived this morning.  I have not long since opened the package.  The yarn smells, well, as you think it would, woolly.  I am soooo looking forward to dyeing it.  I think the first skein may just be shades of purple, followed by a pinky one, then maybe a red.  I'm quite tempted to do an orangey one as well.

The sinusitus symptoms are still knocking around, although are being kept at bay with regular paracetamol.

Inspiration

I have been reading another blog - Roobeedoo - and have been inspired.  Roobeedoo makes her own clothes, and features 'Me Made' Months.  I have been toying with starting dress making again.  The thought has been lurking in the deeper darker recesses of my mind for a long time.  It is not the first time recently that I have gone surfing for dressmaking patterns, only the second.  I would like to have a go at sewing again.  All the knowledge is in my brain waiting to be unlocked.  What goes against me at the moment is time (to sew and do), space (to sew and do) and money to buy patterns and fabric (to sew and do).  I shall keep my eye out for bargain patterns and fabric.  If I can find a basic block pattern, then I can revise and de-rust my memories of pattern cutting and grading, which once upon a time, were very good.  Following on from this, I could design my own patterns.  Something else that I am capable of doing, just have not done for many, many years.  A long term project in the making.  But I am inspired.

I think I have got a bout of sinusitus.  All the symptoms are there, and are currently being kept at bay with paracetamol.  I did take one co-codamol when I went to bed last night and that did the trick then, although I did wake up with a very dry mouth.  I have spent most of the day mentally trying not to go into 'monging mood' where I am vague and feel distant, a good indicator that I am not feeling well.

I did plan to go to St Bridgets church, as part of the Viking Trail after HK signed on this afternoon.  I even put the guide book and camera in my bag.  Once we had done the recycling, I thought it was best that I went back to the house and not for a small sojourn, in case that tired me out completely and made me feel worse.  I did think to make some biscuits, I had decided on the custard creams, for the craft group tomorrow, but was beaten to the kitchen again. 

Talking of biscuits, I have been googling banana biscuits and have found about three recipes which I wouldn't mind trying.  The ones I looked at in the main had either oats or walnuts in.  I have oats in the cupboard and walnuts are on the shopping list for Friday.

Last night Mary-Jane was awake for about an hour before she settled back to bed.  She got quite distraught at one point.  Tonight she has been awake and crying, we bought her through to our room, for nearly an hour.  She has spent the last half hour playing and chattering on her bed.  Fingers crossed she will settle to sleep soon.

ASJ - just started ridge 61

Banana Biscuits

I nearly got as far as blogging last night, I got as far as cheicking emails etc, then Mary-Jane woke up crying.  I wonder if she had had a bad dream.  I heard her draw a deep breath, shout out 'Mommy', then cry and cry.  Luckily she was back in her bed about an hour later and stayed settled for the rest of the night.  Lets see what tonight holds.

I am changing my evenings around a little, to accomodate laptop time more effectively.  Hopefully.  When HK goes up to listen to the radio and read, instead of watching the TV for an hour or two, I'm going to do laptop time.  This way around I might get more time to do what I need to do, then knit and watch TV.  It may also encourage me not to waste so much time surfing around the t'internet.  A trial run is what is needed!

I made some banana biscuits today.  They are not quite what I wanted.  They are soft, like thin slices of cake.  I was looking for something more crunchier.  They taste okay, they will not go to waste!  Her is the recipe -

Banana & Walnut Cookies

225g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
125g butter cut into cubes
175g soft light brown sugar
100g walnuts, roughly chopped
1 large banana
1 egg
50ml milk

1. Preheat oven to 180c/350f/gm4.  Lightly grease 2 baking sheets
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl.  Add the butter and mix with flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.  Stir in sugar and walnuts
3. Mash banana, beat in the egg, stir in milk.  Add to bowl and mix unitl well combined
4. Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto the baking sheet.  Bake until golden, about 15 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.  Can be stored for upto 3 days.  Suitabel for freezing up to 2 months.

I omitted the walnuts as I didn't have any and I don't want Mary-Jane to have nuts just yet.  If you know a different banana biscuit/cookie recipe, please let me know?!

My Kool Aid has arrived today from AuntieAnnInAmerica.  I'm excited.  A step closer to having a play with dyeing yarn again. MJ is crying now, catch you laters!

Another Quiet, Rainy Sunday

This morning was very sunny and bright, at around 7am.  The weather has got steadily worse throughout the day, ending with lots of rain and even more wind.  No playing out in the garden for us.  However we did go to Tesco after brekkie and managed to get Mary-Jane four pairs of pj's.  I got her aged 2-3.  My little girl is growing fast.  I was looking at some of her baby photos just, from when she was only a few weeks old.  It seems another life time ago.

I have been lucky enough to look on ebay again today.  Mary-Jane usually protests very loudly if I am on the laptop when she is around.  I have treated myself to some sugarcraft cutters.  They are coming from Hong Kong, so it will be a few weeks before they arrive.  They are about a third of the price as I would get them here and no packing and postage to boot.  I shall have to start doing some sugarcraft before I get too rusty with it!  I also got a pair of Mickey and Minnie cookie cutters.

The ASJ is coming on - 16 increase rows.

I think I am still feeling a bit peeved after Thursday, although am starting to come around a bit.  I think HK might be thinking that the sugarcraft cutters will go some way to cheering me up.  They will.  I would have liked to have done some baking today, but I am not the only one in the house that want to use the kitchen!

Getting Closer To Dyeing

I'm still feeling a little fed up, but trying not to dwell on it.  It has been a fairly sunny day today.  This afternoon, Mary-Jane, Mum and I went to Workington primarily to get Mary-Jane some new pyjamas.  I couldn't find any with long sleeves.  Bit of a bugger really!  If she had short sleeves, she may scratch the inside of her elbows, which flare up from time to time.  She is a scratcher, so I want to reduce where she can get to to scratch.  Back to the drawing board on this one.

I discovered last night that there is a new Jane Austen Knits magazine, from Interweave, due out later this month.  With increased heart rate, I pre-ordered my copy from Hulu as fast as my fingers could type.  I can't wait.  I very much like the first one.  It is a little ray of sunshine for me at the moment.

I am having more serious thoughts about buying some yarn to dye, then selling it.  I have looked on a couple of sites for yarn.  It seems that without buying bulk, there is very little profit in it.  I need to keep looking.  One site I went on said that their first minimum order was £200, which is beyond my budget at the moment.  I need to start slowly slowly, not too slowly.  I think I will go for finer yarns, rather than the heavier weight ones.  I would be quite tempted to go stash surfing in the yarn that I dyed previously and have a go at making some felted bags.  Not to sell or anything like that.  Just to use the yarn up and remind myself how much I like dyeing yarn, making something with it and felting.  Hhmmmm.  Thoughts might have been sewn here.  A new felted bag.  I've not had one of those for a long time, not counting the one that Knitr54 sent me  early last year, which I still use everyday.

For a very long time I have wanted to make a mitred tote style bag.  I saw the pattern done in a recycled sari silk and it looked wonderful.  I assume it would work as a felted bag, anything where there is colours.  I am not yet needing a break from my ASJ.  I am now 8 ridges into the increases.  I know I'm not of the frame of mind to do lace work.  I might just have a cathartic look round ebay.