Am busy working on lots of things. Shall get back to blogging properly soon.

MontMellick Work...

Now, as I am making a MontMellick heart for ChainofHearts for lovely Maureen 3 of Austrailia I thought I would write a little bit about it.

Mountmellick or Montmellick embroidery is a dimensional white on white embroidery technique. Traditonally done in knitting cotton on a heavy white cotton satin jean.

Motifs tend to include a variety of natural floral designs specifically those of the area local to Montmellick such as: blackberries, acorns, dog rose, ivy, oak, barley, woodbine, and wild clematis.
Cultivated plants such as snowdrops, passionflowers and cyclamen, and daffodils also crept in along with butterflies, seashells and even birds have crept in during the revival of it lately.

There are three embroidery stitches specific to Mountmellick work:
* The cable plait stitch
* Mountmellick stitch of which there is a good description on this page http://www.white-works.com/mountmellick.htm
* Mountmellick thorn stitch - I can't find this anywhere....

Other normal embroidery stitches used include: Bullion, Long cable or cable chain, Thorn stitch, French knot, Blanket stitch, Buttonhole stitch, Satin stitch, chain stitch, Seed Stitch, Feather stitch and Lazy daisy.

For information this is one of the best sites I'd found : http://www.mountmellick.net/activities/what_is_mountmellick_embroidery.htm
and its sister page: http://www.mountmellick.net/activities/history_of_mountmellick_embroidery.htm

Chicken With Mango Sauce

Another low fat recipe today - Its still very nice though! I add dried mint to mine but the straight recipe is here.I also haven't garnished it as I was only making it for me.

This serves 4
You'll need:

1 large ripe mango
7 fl oz Chicken stock
3 tbsp dry white wine
Juice of 1/2 lemon
13 oz chicken breasts, skinned and boned
1/2 oz low fat spread - margerine
1 tsp pink peppercorns - optional
2 tbsp low fat natural yogurt
Salt and pepper to taste

1)Half the mango and remove the stone. Cut 8 thin slices from the better looking half of the mango.
2) Scoop all the flesh from the remaining half of the mango and put in a blender or food processor with the chicken stock, white wine and lemon juice, and blend till smooth.
3) Fry the chicken breasts in the low fat spread till evenly browned on all sides.
4) Season, add the mango sauce and simmer for about 8 mins.
5) Stir in the pink peppercorns - if using - and the yogurt, and heat through.
6) Arrange on a warm serving dish and garnish with the slices of mango.

Enjoy!

New Haul of goodies

Look what I got! Got took shopping :)

Some more ecru cotton lace for me and some white for swaps/projects.

Some big ribbon roses for my cherry blossom bag.

More buttons for the collection ;)
Some lovely coloured fabrics.
Some ricrac braid. the orange still in a bag is for making catapillars for Judyth...and the insect swap. Its in a bag still because I have issues with orange.
This is a gift for myself. I know it probably isn't as hot here as in other places in the world but till i shed a few pounds I have problems with the heat...and I feel horribly decadent when I am using it when I'm out and about.
This is a little jewellery box. Its going in my work basket so I can stop losing my finger rings in the bottom of my basket!
These are lovely teacups. I've seen another I want thats blue and white!


These are little stoneware bowls that will be good for dips and things.This has the most beautiful flowers on it...now I just need to get a teapot that isn't orange plastic and glass - its marks, don't ask. I do NOT do orange!
These are some books that we found too...the counted beadwork one is good :)

Now i need to find shelf space and find more fabric somehow! I keep making things and have a limited collection....

Low Fat Pork Lasagne

I invented a yummy recipe last night. I've been feeling rather down the last couple of days, and decided to fill my craving for Lasagne(Just call me Garfield). My little sister makes one of the best Lamb Lasagne's I've ever tasted and this is one of the best recipes I've done to emulate it.
I used pork mince as I can only eat Pork or Chicken - red meat is a major trigger of my IBS.

I only made enough for 2 maybe 3 servings - so that was last nights dinner, todays lunch and tonights dinner!
I used:
1/2 lb pork mince
1 small jar tomato and olive pasta sauce
Dried lasagne pasta
italian seasoning
1 onion, finely chopped
250g pot of low fat fromage frais
Fry Light.
2 oz cheddar cheese, grated
Salt and pepper to taste.

1) Cook the onions till soft in fry light. Add the mince and cook, stirring constantly till meat is cooked through.
2) Once meat is cooked add half the jar of pasta sauce.Add herbs to taste. Allow to simmer for 5 mins and then remove from the heat.
3) In a bowl mix the fromage frais and the remaining pasta sauce.
4) Taking a small oven proof dish, line the bottom of it with dried lasagne pasta, and layer with the meat sauce, over lay it with more pasta, layer on some fromage frais mixture and so on till dish is full. You want a layer of fromage frais mixture as the top level. Sprinkle over the cheese and Cook at Gas mark 7 for 35-40 mins, till a wooden skewer can be pushed easily through the layers.

Its really nice and is low fat :)

My plants

These are some shots of my 'garden' - the pots on my little roof terrace.

These Lobelia look much bluer in real life. I have lots of these as they are pretty and they aren't too expensive!The leaf and stick you can see in the top righthand corner is my tomato plant.I need some more of those!

I got some nice pinky purple ones too!

These really brighten up the corner of the terrace and look really nice with the daisies that had seeded themselves from the nearby garden.

This is a very tiny and only just starting to grow again passionflower. It had florished but a previous tenant had done something too it. I deadwooded it and replaced some of its soil and just watered it and its growing several new shoots so I hope for flowers next year!
These were some Coriander seeds we found in the back of a drawer- they had been there as long as he's lived here which is about 3 years! We stuck them in a pot and hoped for the best.

This is my fushia. This had three leaves and some dead wood when I got it!


This is Marks Harebell. This is a cultivated wildflower related to the bluebell and we had worries for a while as it just seemed to be growing foliage.
These are my garlic plants.
This is another photo of the harebell, with some purple daisies behind.
This is my window box with my rosemary plants in the middle.

I've never had plants before, and it may sound silly but its nice to have something to look after!

Photos of embellishment stash and current/ongoing projects

Following discussions on CQForNewbies about our stash of pretties, here is some photos of mine.

This photo is of my general stash of stuff. There is threads and beads and yarn and ribbons and motifs. There is also a stash of buttons I keep in a tin.

Nestled in the corner of the tin is a box of vintage victorian boot buttons I hope to use on something some day.
These are some Mother of Pearl buttons that were my Grandmothers . I'll get the courage up to take them off the card and use them soon!This is one of four vintage glass buttons that were my Grandmothers, they will probably go on my hussif when I find the right fabric.
This is my tub of special embellishment stuff - the stuff I want for projects of my own.
These are the beads - notice the abundance of purple!
These are the motifs. Notice the group of butterflies in the bottom corner. these are earrings I am going to use as charms.

These are some cotton laces of my grandmothers.
This real gold thread, the type used for military uniforms. Its a pain to sew with but will be hopefully getting up the courage to use it soon. That spool easily weighs a pound.
These are the latest addition to the stash - tiny dragonfly beads. Saving up for some more :)

Jo (http://www.nzjo.blogspot.com), this is the selection of fabrics that will be going into your oriental bag....but thats the only picture you will get to see ;) Enough green for you?

This lady is going to be my gypsy for my gypsy bag to do, and although shes not a gypsy this lady may take the place of honour! Shes the modern equivalent! . I'm getting inspired for this project.
This is the rest of the fabrics I am going to use for my gypsy bag. The basic fabrics are all going to be pale dusty pinks and whites and then the details/embellishments are going to be in red and sky blue.
Now although this isn't a craft project I'm currently making some flavoured vodka. This is Apricot, Honey, Cardamon and Cinnamon vodka and after 2 days on the windowsill will spend the next six months at least in the back of a cupboard. Mark just checked on the Liquorice Vodka he started making several months ago - which he is welcome to, I hate Liquorice and the closest thing I get to is Strawberry flavoured eating Liqourice or Twizzlers when I can get my paws on them - and I hope to get a batch of mead started soon. I just need to find a bee keeper to source honey from.

Though not a project, I finally got a fushia. I have one outside that was on its last legs but I really wanted a flowering one. Its small, and not coping with the heat but is very pretty.Will put photos up of my plants on my roof terrace soon.

I'm also working on my first heart for Chain of Hearts heart which I am swapping with Jo NZ as I fell for the gorgeous red heart on her blog.


This is one of my current UFO's. Intended to be my cherry blossom evening bag its sitting looking at me reproachfully.I'll have to not join swaps for a while later in the year and get it finished. My cross stitch change purse is also a UFO at the moment too, as is the on going task of transferring my cross stitch designs onto the computer program I have.

My insects for the Insect Swap are developing slowly. I need to get them done so I can get them sent to Judyth ASAP as I need to allow time for Surface Mail in the states. I've only got 90% of one done so far :S

I've also signed up for Its a Surprise Swap, which is a straight swap where you make a surprise item for the person you are paired with; and the second group of the Birthday Swap which I also probably need to get in the post soon!

Right thats it for the moment!

Books

We held a BBQ last night. It was the first time I had ever entertained.No photos unfortunatly as everyone was busy enjoying themselves but I now feel comfortable enough to do it again and most of my friends are people with time consuming hobbies which means they understand my house being full of junk!....

Anyway, I unpacked some favourite books earlier and thought I would share something about them. Anyone who gets to know me well will know that books are incredibly important to me. I speed read naturally and if have the time have been known to read the full Lord of the Rings in 2 days - though I rarely have that sort of time these days.

Some are fiction and some are non fiction.

The first is A Witches Kitchen by Val Thomas. I met Val several times when I lived in East Anglia. For those who don't know, I am what tends to be described these days as a Hedgewitch or Wise Woman. This is a practical form of Wicca - though I don't consider myself Wiccan, - and focuses on nature, cooking, crafts and people rather than doing spells and making charms.... This book is about all sorts, from cooking,food, drinks, herbs, spining, weaving, using natural dyes, making lotions and candles, and is realistic about life rather than being about being a zealous uber pagan... And before anyone jumps on me for not being Christian, (I've had it happen before!) I was raised Quaker and split from it in my early teens due to having serious issues with the role of women in the bible and in traditional Christian society. I still hold a lot of the tenents of my original faith but I also respect and value the world around me. Faith is personal.

The second is Wicca in the Kitchen by Scott Cunningham. This book is about the traditonal health, atrological and mystical attributes of various foods and drinks. Due to health reasons and the general way I was bought up food is very important to me so I find books like this very interesting. He has done several other books of a more estoric nature that I hope to own someday.

The third is Old Mistresses by Rozika Parker and Griselda Pollock. Griselda was my personal tutor at University and is the leading professor in Cultural and Art Gender studies and this was her ground breaking book into the neglect of women in the sphere of art since the renaissance.
I turned up at my first day of uni to be handed a piece of paper saying she was my personal tutor - I had to sit down I was so shocked. This woman was a literary and academic hero of mine long before I ever got to University.

Fourth is The Alphabet versus the Goddess - Male words and female Images by Leonald Shlain.
This looks at how patriciachal language effects the way we view the world, and how it is often inadequate to describe female images. Its hard to describe without going into lots of details.

Fifth is The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin. High scifi/fantasy at its best. Wizards and the need to know that there are dangers in the shadows. I first read this at High School and liked it so much my teacher bought me a copy. I now have the Earthsea Quartet which is all four books of the series bound in one. It is probably my number one comfort read.

Sixth is Dark Cathedral by Freda Warrington. This is a very strange fantasy book but her style of writing draws me in. I have a passage from it, about the transformation dressing up in new clothes can have on a person who never really thought about them before. Unfortunatly her books are like gold dust in the Uk so I don't own any more of them. Shes a UK author but all her books seem to be published in the states.

Thats it for books for now - though i am very pleased with the Neil Gaiman compenduim I aquired yesterday - Neverwhere, Stardust and Smoke and Mirrors. Just need time to read it now.

The hardest decision to make....

Yesterday, I, to use a colloqiual term, bit the bullet and went to see the bank about my student account. It was less scary than I thought it would be and they were in fact very helpful, which proves I had been tying myself in knots for nothing!

This is all to do with my somewhat troubled academic career....I started a university degree three years ago, but found it wasn't the right subject for me, so I transfered to a different university and started a degree in History of Art and Museum Studies. Earlier this year, due to a period of extended illness - I got everything that was going starting with a chest infection that landed me in hospital, a sprained ankle days before Xmas - preventing me from travelling to my parents who at this point haven't seen me in 2 years, and another chest infection which just wouldn't go away. This culminated in my department, with the best intentions, turning round and saying "You are on the verge of failing the semester. Take a year out to get better and repeat this semester next year or we'll have to fail you on your degree." In other words, they have basically forced me to take a non research sabbatical due to ill health.
Well, This kinda made my whole world fall apart. I had put everything I had into getting into University and trying to get a good enough degree to do Postgraduate studies (I hope to get a PhD some day) and it was like having the floor pulled out from under me.
I decided to take the time to get better, though for quite a while I wasn't sure I would go back, but I realised that I WANT to finish my degree, but I kinda HAD to make a decision before talking to the bank. It will mean stress and potentially being short of money and there will be other factors but it does mean that I get to finish my degree.

I may use some of the 6 months before going back to study the books so I have less stress on me when I do, as that was part of the problem.

Anyway, the short version of the trip to the bank is that the financial side of it is now sorted out.I pay off the third year overdraft extension and they will reset it for me back to the second year level.which means I still have a student account. They have also opened me a current account to use so I can just pay off the other one, and if I manage to get the assistant managers job I've applied for I hope to open a savings account as well - after I've done things like get new glasses.