real life

FO: Bow Pouch

Posted on August 29, 2011August 29, 2011 by bekswhoknits

One thing I have learnt from reading knitting blogs and spending time on ravelry is that FO is a finished object.

And this is something I finished off recently
It’s this little bow pouch
It’s really cute, the only thing is I don’t know what to use it for yet.
It was made using Moda Vera Cardellino, that I had frogged from the <a href="https://polkadotsandsparkles.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/frog-it"hat that wasn't.

It didn’t take that long. It’s probably a little bit bulky in the Cardellino, so I may have to make some more in a less bulky yarn.
But oh so cute.

thursday night tacos

Posted on August 26, 2011 by bekswhoknits

This is becoming a thing.

This week is was Chicken tacos.
I put a little less effort into presentation, mostly because I was avoiding the washing up.
The chicken breast was diced and friend in a pan with some Old El Paso chicken seasoning stuff and some chopped onion. I added a little water when it started sticking to the bottom.

Next time I wouldn’t add so much of the seasoning.

But that’s the cooking done. Serve and Eat!

This is totally a thing now…

Scones and lemon butter

Posted on August 24, 2011October 5, 2011 by bekswhoknits

I still have my home economics recipe book from high school.

I could have thrown in out a long time ago but I haven’t. Mostly because it’s still useful, not the recipes so much as the quantities. They’re perfect when cooking for two.

The last time I was at J’s parents place they sent us back with a bag full of lemons.
Brain storming recipes to use up these lemons I had a massive craving for lemon butter.

J had never had lemon butter, but my nan used to make it all the time when she lived on a farm, so it has wonderful memories for me.

We used to go up to the farm in the holidays. It was a wonderful place to grow up, slide down the sheep shearing ‘slides’, run around, and be kids.

But the food was always wonderful. Mostly because it was cooked in a really old wood stoked oven, and because Mum wasn’t cooking.

Great-Nan’s specialty is still Christmas pudding, but she won’t give anyone the recipe. Mostly because there is none! Her style of cooking was influenced by the depression and war time and making ends meet. All part and parcel of being a farmers wife in the wheat belt. And I aspire to be more of that kind of cook. Making sure that nothing goes to waste.

One of the great things about the farm was always the home-made delicacies that we would come home with. I can remember standing on a stool next to the old stove while Nan made jam. Being told off for standing too close and wanting to dip my finger in the (very hot) mixture.

So she used to make preserves and butters to use up the stocks of fruit that would be produced.
And so when lemons were in season, there would be lemon butter.

It’s a very easy recipe. And J loves it. He had an idea that it would be very tart and lemony, but the sugar and the butter really mellow out the tartness.
I’ve now seen him spread it on crumpets, toast, as well as when I make scones.

It might just be making it into a few Christmas stockings this year.

everything that is connected, and beautiful, and now i know just where i stand

Posted on August 22, 2011October 24, 2011 by bekswhoknits

I’m having a really good day.

One of those days when I feel that I’m alive and making a contribution.
I feel like I can do just about anything. I’m alert, I’m active,
I’m thinking. I’m socially engaged.
And I just can’t help but smile.

There was a post I read today (from one of the many blogs I follow) from the lovely Give Me Bows, celebrating her 6 month blogoversary. One of the reasons that I love her blog so much is that it’s plain and simple awesome. She takes things that I like and I think about and makes them into blog posts.
What I liked about that post, is her idea of blogging as a scrap book. It’s a space to call your very own. I think of my blog as my online house. It’s where people can come to get to know me, to know who I am and what I’m about.

And it made me go back and look at where I’ve come from, my first post which was full of trepidation and insecurity, to see how blogging is a part of my life now.
Blogging makes me feel better about myself. It makes me less insecure about my own life. I’m judgemental and jealous. I know that about myself. Blogging has made me appreciate me own life a whole lot more.

I’m still thinking about a better name, but for the mean time, welcome to my world.
My little hub where you can see what I eat, knit, listen, and live.
The world as seen by sparkles.

(title lyrics courtesy of silversun pickups)

He doesn’t call scrambled eggs an ommelette

Posted on August 14, 2011October 24, 2011 by bekswhoknits

My neck is rediculously sore. My best friend is my heat pack.
And so whilst I’m incapacitated, my lovely boyfriend made me scrambled eggs.

And made the plate look all pretty for me. It was meant to be an omelette, but J didn’t quite separate the eggs properly so it became scrambled eggs.
It had cheese, German sausage, and eggs. It probably had more to it but I wasn’t involved in the cooking process.

Thanks baby, it was delicious.

Identity struggles

Posted on August 12, 2011August 12, 2011 by bekswhoknits

I’m struggling with my blogging identity.

Music food life. It’s what I write about, not who I am.

I love wordpress, but sometimes I don’t like how that’s the way I’m portrayed to the outside world.
I love commenting on blogs. I love the thought that, just maybe, my comment can brighten some one’s day.
I want to make things brighter. But I feel that commenting as musicfoodlife makes it sound like I’m out to promote myself.

Music food life. It’s an accurate depiction of what I do, but it doesn’t have much scope.
As (I discovered on the train today) I’m becoming the kind of person that can spot a ravelry pattern from 100 paces, I’d like to write more about my adventures in knitting. Or even my adventures in life.

I look at all these blogs around me, with their beautiful photography, their beautiful clothes, their beautiful food. I feel that my iPhone photos don’t quite cut it.
But I have to be true to myself.
I’m never going to live behind a camera, I have to experience things.

I’m struggling to find my purpose.
I guess I’ll keep blogging until I find it.

I love the feeling of new sheets

Posted on July 30, 2011 by bekswhoknits

I love bed.
I love sleeping in. I love curling up in the blankets watching comfort tv. I love the feeling of new sheets.
The crispness. The comfort.

So ever since we got our new bedroom furniture I’ve wanted to buy new sheets and a quilt cover to match.
Of course J didn’t want to come with me, so I had to choose it myself. The only guidance was nothing hot pink and nothing floral.
Which in the realm of bedspreads is quite limiting.
Of course the other pattern that’s in style is birds, and as I have a mild phobia, I’d rather not go to sleep thinking of birds.
So I found one that I quite liked, a lovely old forest scene. Naturally when I got home J said that it reminded him of the ‘Blair Witch Project’ – thanks babe.
Next time he can come with me.

I splurged on some 1000 thread count sheets, which I am itching so get in to.
Is it bed time yet?

the day after On The Bright Side

Posted on July 26, 2011July 27, 2011 by bekswhoknits

We had a sleep in.

J lost his voice and tried not to speak all day.

Did our washing at a laundromat, while we’re waiting for our washing machine to get fixed.

I finished off a hat that I started, but have plans to frog it.

I made chicken and corn soup (with a trip to the shops in the process).

I fixed our internet connection.

J played Gran Turismo.

I made cheese and bacon muffins

We went to the casino for a silent dinner, watched Mark Webber lose pole position.

Went home and watched some tele and fell asleep.

zzz

cauliflower, it’s better with bacon

Posted on July 20, 2011July 20, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Well I have one crook little cookie at home at the moment.
His temperature is up, he’s going between hot and cold, and all his muscles ache.

So what was needed was some soup.

I’m going through a massive cauliflower phase at the moment. I absolutely love the stuff.
So I’m making sure I buy some whenever I go to the supermarket.

So when J called me on his way home from work (he had to work late yesterday when he was feeling ill) and said that he was feeling terrible but really hungry I had to get dinner on straight away.

A quick search on taste.com.au revealed the cauliflower soup that I made last time (no thanks).
But I recalled a conversation with a lovely checkout lady from Coles, who basically described the soup recipe here

I didn’t have leeks so instead I fried a brown onion.
Then I added the potato and cauliflower so that could boil away in chicken stock.

Once it was cooked, I mashed it (as J was asleep on the couch and the stick blender would have woken him) and added cheese and bacon (because everything is better with cheese and bacon).

I think mashing it meant that it was chunkier, which was nice.

Then topped with some fresh chives from the garden.

It was so delicious I went back for seconds.

After my boy fell back asleep on the couch, I cast on for a cowl that I’m making for his sister, and knitted a few rows of that. The lace pattern didn’t really turn out though so I’ve abandoned the lace in favour of the rib that makes up the lace pattern.

It was almost like having a night to myself.

And it makes for some good work lunches aswell

Snausages and mash

Posted on July 14, 2011July 14, 2011 by bekswhoknits

First off can I just say I’m impressed that snausage is autocorrected in my phone.

But the point of this post is to brag about my boyfriend.
As I was organising all my clothes into my new wardrobes (sheesh I have a lot – and still nothing to wear) my boy took himself off into the kitchen and started making dinner.

He is a good cook. I would live with him if he couldn’t cook. That just doesn’t fit with my values regarding gender equality and stereotyping. And if he can’t accommodate my values then sorry – not on.

So he can cook. Sure his repertoire is BBQ, breakfast, brunch, and brinner, but it’s the actions that count.
Oh and he does good steak.

So off he went into the kitchen, and cooked me mashed potatoes, with sausages, mushroom gravy (gravox) and sugar snap peas.

And bonus points for polony sandwiches.