Paris Part 1: Things I've seen

Where do you start with a long weekend in Paris?

There is just so much to do and see, even though I've been there a few times before. L & I did loads of stuff, loads of walking and a fair bit of eating. It was his first time so we had to do some of the more iconic Parisian sights. I did however manage to drag him around to a bunch of crafty places. Here are some of the things I've seen.

The apartment we stayed in was near Goncourt, it was so lovely and in a up and coming area of Paris near the Canal St Martin, the 10th district of paris. I do think that staying in apartments is so much better than a hotel, and far better value. There were loads of lovely things about it, but my favourite was this chandelier, made from an old milk bottle holder-thingy and loads of milk bottles.. such a great simple idea. I'm always seeing these at flea markets and second hand stores, I think I'm going to have to copy their style.

Of course no trip to Paris for a yarn nerd like me would be complete without a visit to La Droguerie, a old and wonderful yarn shop right in the central of town. I spent a while in there trying to work out what to buy - there were so many beautiful things. In the end i purchased some yummy supersoft 100% wool (but I'm saving all my Paris purchases for another post, so you'll have to wait for that one)

And then walking around Le Marais I saw this little shop selling these cute knitted finger puppets.. a whole shop of them. Most of them seemed to be based on a fairy tale theme.

Near Hotel du Ville there's a street that has a bunch of Papiers on it (shops that only sell paper items) : like these amazing bound books, and sheets of wonderful paper.

We also headed out to the Marche aux Puces de St Ouen (a massive flea market in the north of Paris) that is great. There are loads of vintage stalls selling everything from old pieces of watches, buttons, clothes, fabric, furniture, retro pieces and nick-nacks. It's pretty lovely, even if a lot of the stuff is expensive. Well worth a visit.

Time Out

I realised I haven't posted on here for a while - but I've been a bit busy.

But you can expect some lovely updates soon, including great adventures from Paris ( a quick weekend away), some cooking and FINALLY some excellent tomatoes from the garden.

Bike In A Box

I made this bike for Robin's bday, it's not as lovely and tidy and neat as I'd like it to be, but I think for a first attempt its pretty good. I made it while watching episodes 1 and 2 of the Godfather. L made the box for it to be mounted in - I think we make a pretty good team. I reckon we can expect more strange crocheted l'objects in boxes - they make good pressies and look cool as well.

My first pupil.

Mhairi came to stay and one of the first things she does is learn how to crochet. She picked it up pretty quickly and was pretty good.. I feel like a proud mother and think that when she heads back to Sydney tomorrow she'll be taking her crafting ways with her!

Knitting Nite #4

Not a very successful Knitting Nite this week actually as not much knitting was done. We held it at my place as we were expecting a very special guest, Minna (who is departing London too soon) alas she's been pushing the boat out a bit far lately and has a thousand things going on with the move and the saying goodbyes and the packing as well as racking up too many air miles, and she came down with flu lurgy so she didn't make an appearance.

I think the other reason that we didn't knit much is because we ate too much and got sleepy.

I made Chicken Legs cooked in Cider with onions, a recipe I got from Delicious mag.

Here's the recipe - easy and yummy

4 chicken leg pieces (the whole leg and thigh, or I have used a whole chicken for this as well, which is also very good)
500mls dry cider
4 medium onions, sliced
fresh thyme
small pot of cream, or creme fresh
fresh peas, or little gem lettuce

Brown the chicken pieces (no need to do this if you are using a whole chicken) in a heavy based pot (I use one of these), then take off the heat and pour in the cider and stir in the sliced onions. The cider should pretty much cover the chicken. Pinch of salt & pepper, and a few sprigs of fresh thyme. Put it in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C and cook covered for 30 mins (adjust timings for whole chicken). Uncover the pot and cook for a further 10-20mins (until chicken is cooked through).

Remove from the oven, and take the chicken pieces out of the pot and rest - keeping warm. Bring the pot with the onions and cider to boil and reduce for 10mins, add in the cream and fresh peas (or little gem lettuce or both) and cook for a few minutes until veges are softened.

Serve the chicken pieces with mashed potato, pour over the cider-onion-pea sauce and some young greens (I used pointed cabbage on this occasion).

And enjoy.

D still doesn't like having her photo taken.

Portuguese Chicken Burgers

It's always the little things you miss from home, and L's been missing Portuguese chicken burgers.. for his birthday back in July I got him some of this tasty peri peri hot sauce which we've been waiting to try out - and we finally did on the weekend.

All we needed was some organic free-range chicken breasts, which we flattened with a meat tenderiser, we grilled them and put them on a fresh baguette with some lettuce, mayo and the chili sauce. They were pretty close to the mark, and rather tasty indeed.

Knitting Nite #3

A few weeks late it seems, but it was a good knitting knit on the 13th August at D's house. We had this yummy risotto, some pretty full on tasty french red wine and some clafoutis from La Bouche, a great french deli/cafe on Broadway Market.


Not only did we knit and crochet and gossip, but I scored a little job with D's flat mate, who publishes knitting books - I'm now doing some research for her, which is great as it means I get paid to look at knitting blogs on the Internet - it's like a dream come true. So it really seems that I'm saying GOODBYE to the film industry, which actually makes me pretty happy.

D's scarf is coming along very nicely....

WIP: Crocheted Robot Family

They're not finished yet, but I'm getting there. I'm pretty excited about how they look actually, I can really see I'm getting better. I had some help with working out how to make the cubes come out right, but they're looking pretty good I reckon.

Spicy Adzuki Bean Burgers

I made these the other night as I found some tins of adzuki beans in the cupboard, you can use soaked fresh beans obviously, but to make it easy if you're cooking after work then tins will work fine.



2 x tins of adzuki beans (mashed, or coarsely blended in a food processor)
1 small potato, grated
2 small carrots, grated
2 stalks of celery, very finally chopped
1 red onion, finally chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed,
a handful of grated cheese (I used cheddar)
2 or 3 tablespoons of sesame seeds
1 cup of fresh bread crumbs
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (more or less depending on how spicy you want it)
1/2 teaspoon of coriander powder
pinch of salt
slug of mirin

I made the bread crumbs out of some bread that had been sitting around for a few days, cutting off the crusts and putting them in the food processor. I wouldn't ever use store bought bread crumbs as I don't think they taste very nice. The reason I use bread crumbs is to bind them together, if you don't want to make your own just add an egg and a bit of flour to act as a binding agent. You could also use, No Egg, which is basically a potato starch.

Mix all the ingredients together, (I kept a small amount of bread crumbs aside to roll the burgers in before cooking).

Form the patties into handful sized balls, then roll them in the leftover bread crumbs, or flour. Cook them over a medium heat in a splash of olive oil (or whatever oil you like). When they have been cooking for a few minutes, press the balls down with a spatula so they form a burger shape, make sure that they are sealed well before doing this otherwise they could fall apart.

Cook for 5 to 7 minutes on each side, until the look crispy and delicious.

I served them with a Greek yogurt and dill sauce, and some spinach that had been flashed a pan with garlic and a squeeze of lemon (the best way to eat spinach, I think).

enjoy!

First attempt at sewing

I've been getting to know my Jones Deluxe 1970 vintage sewing machine by making this not-so-cubey cube, and a pin cushion which for some reason turned out like a bowling pin (which was not my intention at all, but i think it looks cute).

I popped into Mermaid Fabrics in the Narrow Way near Hackney Central and picked up this pile of scrapes for a quid.

My New Love - 1970 vintage sewing machine

I've been popping into the Bric'n'Brac store at Hackney Downs every now and then to keep an eye out for a sewing machine, and last Tuesday was my lucky day! I know it's taken me nearly a week to finally put some photos up of it, but I've been a bit distracted by it. I do really love it!

It's a Jones Deluxe (it doesn't matter that not many people have heard of it). It comes with the original purchase warranty (1970), original manual, all sorts of presser feet, bobbins and looks like it has hardly been used.

Obviously I have a lot to learn about sewing and what not, but I feel like I am completely crafty now! L even made some space in his studio for me to set up my crafty camp which was very nice of him.

Sunday trip to Brick Lane

We decided to pop down to Brick Lane yesterday to check out what was going on. It was so busy, as is to be expect on a Sunday. We didn't really bother doing much looking around the market - but we did head down to Cheshire St where there are so many cute stores.

One shop we've been walking into for months is Ellen Doran, she has such lovely things in there.. and we finally bought these place mats (they were 50% off which was the clincher, and it also means we can throw away those terrible ikea ones!). L thinks they are "too pretty", but I think they are just pretty enough (we really don't have that much girlie stuff in our house).

I also really like Labour & Wait - they have lovely oldie rustic things in there. Like these linen dish cloths, old fashioned colander and this cute tea pot cosy.

There are so many other stores down there, but Mar Mar Co is also great!

green tomatoes

The tomatoes are finally arriving, even if they are a little late.. hopefully these will ripen up nicely before the evil squirrels get them.

Booty-not-so-licious

I've been making some baby booties for the Ravelry Ravelympics, Baby Dressage event. I decided that I'd knock some together for Jo's new baby, Oliver (who looks rather cute). I found a pattern in Erika Knight's Essential Crochet and off I went.

I quickly realised that the problem with making two of the same thing, is that they both have to be the same.. the lovely soft as anything UK Alpaca wool I got from Prick Your Finger, in Bethnal Green is so lovely, its just a shame my booties look funny.

Maybe I should start again?

Lovely Softies..

I was checking out here and stumbled across these lovely crocheted and fabric creatures from Sweet Nellie. I think they're just beautiful.

Since summer is over, lets bring out the scarfs

I've been umming and ahhing about what to make out of this tasty yarn I got in Barcelona, and have decided that it has to be a scarf.. I started last night, am practicing a few other stitches to make it softer and more fabric-y .. here's hoping it works out!

Box of apricots

I got these yesterday from the Turkish Food Center in Ridley Rd Market for a bargin (3quid).. now all I have to do is decide what to do with them.. any suggestions

Spicy Broad Bean fitters

I saw a certain celebrity chef on the TV the other night making these yummy looking fritters.. so i thought I'd give them a go. I'm loving this year's broad beans, but have usually been putting them is salads and some stew-type things.. so it was nice to see a new way of doing them.. and it was really easy as well..

I just whizzed up the broad beans with cumin, mint, cayenne pepper and a few other things, shallow fried them for a minute or so, the served them with a salad and a yogurt/lemon/dill dressing.

They were yummy.

We have arms!

I finished the doll I started at my first Knitting Nite this week. And yes, as you can see - we finally have some arms (now can you see why I haven't been putting them on - I'm not very good at them!). We also have some eyes. I think we're calling this one Purple Party Boy, or Party G I M P. I think he looks a bit like one of the Sand People from Star wars.

Something from the garden

Finally - our first two cherry tomatoes from the garden and they were tasty. There are a few more waiting to green up. We've been growing two types - these cherry toms have been growing pretty well, but I've been pretty disapointed with the tumbling toms - they are just starting to flower now (not one sign of any fruit) and they have pretty hard to control..

as L says, we've learnt a lot of the garden this year - which I guess is what you say when it hasn't been as successful as you would of hoped! It seems that summer is pretty much over here in London so better luck next year!

What Not To Crochet...

I've been checking out 100s of crafty blogs today, and came across this funny one What Not To Crochet. I was thinking that some of my dolls should go up here, since they're a big ugly.. hopefully I'll never discover them there as I've added What Not To Crochet to my google reader.

And you thought some of my dolls were scary looking... this one is frightening.

Books I want: Creepy Cute Crochet - Zombie, Ninja, Robots & More

I saw this book on FutureGirl's blog and I want it. You can make little ninja, scary monster.. it looks excellent. I know who I need to make that monkey for.. she's even asked for a crocheted something for her bday which is coming up in August. Better get on that!