Fish and Noodles!

Although I love cooking, I rarely post recipes or anything foodie on here. Not sure why really, but thought I'd show you what I cooked on Saturday.


I try to have fish once a week, but sometimes find it a little bland. This recipe was quite yummy! I think I got it off the Waitrose website, so please don't think it's my recipe! I changed a couple of things to make it easier, but it was pretty simple anyway.

Ingredients:
100ml dark soy sauce
100 ml rice mirin
1 tbsp clear honey
2cm fresh root ginger
sesame oil toasted
egg noodles
pak choi
spring onions
mange tout
fish!

I haven't listed all the amounts as I don't really follow them exactly - just throw in a bit of this and that and see what happens!

Method:
Mix the soy sauce, mirin, honey and ginger (chopped) into a shallow dish, add the fish and marinate in the fridge for 15 minutes. Turn the fish over after 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees c. Put the fish in a roasting tin, pour over the marinade and cook for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the noodles, pak choi and mange tout. Add the onions then mix them all together and add some sesame oil.

Serve with the fish and that's it! Pretty simple and very tasty.

I'm not sure how appetising the pic looks actually. I bought rather a lot of noodles. It was buy one get one free, they have a short shelf life and you're not meant to freeze them, so we just ate them. The fish is under there somewhere!

New venture nearly ready

Happy New Year lovely followers! Just a teeny tiny post to say that I really hope this will be the year that my new venture takes off. It's been a few years in the making, but I feel like I'm nearly there. If you like magical things and cute little keepsakes and images, then you may just love what I'm going to unveil soon...

Watch this space!

ACEOs

I first heard of ACEOs a couple of years ago but just hadn't got around to ever having a go.

ACEO stands for Art Cards Editions Originals. You can use any medium you like to create these miniature works of art, but they have to be 2.5" x 3.5".

As there's a recent trend on Folksy with lots of artists giving it a go, I thought I'd show you my first attempts:


Wonky Alphabet. I messed a couple of the letters up a bit.


Wobbly Orange Jelly. This was inspired by my wobbly jelly glass painted photo.



Flowers at Sunset.

Cupcakes

I did make several polymer clay ones but they didn't turn out too well. I've got a couple more planned which I'll try to do tonight.

Did well at the craft fair weekend before last. Made a profit anyway! My polymer clay bookmarks and earrings seemed to be most popular. Sold some buttons and bag charms too.

Went to visit Father Christmas at the weekemd. The miniature train ride through the forest was nice, especially as there was still snow on the ground, but the 'grotto' was more like a fairground stall! Oh well, Little W enjoyed it!

Join in the Craft Carousel!

The craft carousel is a fab idea set up by Maryann from OneStopPamperShop on Folksy. I'd been wanting to join in for ages, but, although there have been many many wonderful items I would have loved to buy, I could only really afford to get something as a present. This morning I finally found something from Silver Birch Crafts. Which means I can now replace the item I bought with something of my own:


If you're looking for some unique handmade loveliness, then take a look at the craft carousel and join in the fun!

French Memo Boards!

My latest crafting 'thing' is French memo boards. I love them! They look ever so cute on the wall and it's so much fun choosing all the fabrics and ribbons. I make the buttons myself out of polymer clay.



I've sold one already, within days of listing on Folksy:





I've got two left in my Folksy shop at the moment. This retro cupcake one:



and the Winnie the Pooh board at the top of this post.

I'm busy making others to send up to the Gift Gallery. I also need to get some more prints sorted out to send as well. I'm hoping there'll be a big Christmas rush!

Other good news is that I won a free ad in Creative Crafting mag today. It'll be in the Christmas issue. I've entered this weekly comp a few times now, so it's wonderful to win!

Philosophical Ramblings about Time

I’ve always been fascinated with time. I know that’s a slightly odd fascination to admit to, but I can’t help it! When I watch something like the X-Factor I’m always working out how old I was when the contestants were born or thinking, “Wow, they didn’t even exist when Take That had their 1^st number 1” or something!

On Saturday it was mine and Mr W’s 15-year anniversary (not wedding anniversary, just ‘being together’ anniversary) and the following day was Little W’s 3^rd birthday. So my thought process went something like this... It feels like yesterday when we first met, but in the same amount of time prior to us meeting I was the same age our son will be tomorrow and those 15 years seemed like a lifetime! How weird it is that time goes so so much quicker the older you get.

Anyway, I’m constantly working things out - dates and how old I was when... and then looking at famous people and thinking they wouldn’t even remember such and such an event. Not sure why I’m so obsessed with this!

I’m also really good at guessing the time. For instance, if I wake up in the middle of the night, I’ll guess the exact time within a minute or two. And often during the day I can get it spot on! I know, I’m a genius.

As blog posts are so much more interesting with pics, I’m going to show you one of Elibee’s wonderful CD clocks:

My stuff's in a shop with walls and everything!

Yep, the day's here at last. The Gift Gallery York is opening today! From what I've seen and heard, Kate's done a fantastic job getting it all ready, as well as getting married!

Some of my photos and cards are for sale here, plus one notebook. Yes, just the one. I simply had no time to make any more.

Anyway, it's really exciting to have my things for sale in a real, proper shop. There are loads of other Folksy sellers stocking their fantastic items as well. It'll be the perfect place to buy a quality, unique gift from talented folk in the UK and Ireland.

You can join the shop's Facebook page and see a pic too. And if you're in York, why not pop in to have a look around? 19 Shambles, YO1 7LZ.

And other promotion news... I just joined Crafters R Us which is a growing online directory of crafters. Take a look!