I Think I Go To The Cinema Too Much!

Hi there Folks,

So as I may have mentioned, I love the cinema! My boyfriend and I go near enough every Wednesday...because we're cool! Now I'm pretty sentimental and for some reason or another decided to keep every set of cinema tickets for near enough every film we've been to see since January 2011. I know, I really am just too cool!

So anyway, I had all these tickets floating about the house and I decided that I really should utilise them in some way otherwise they'll just sit in a box forever more. So this is what I did...

I made some wall art to hang proudly in our home so all the world can see what film nerds we are. And we have spent some nice dinner times reminiscing on all the films we've seen together. It was really simple to make and literally just involved me arranging them into some kind of order and sticking them down with double sided tape. I then popped it in an Ikea frame and Bob is your Uncle.

Please tell me there are others out there who are as nerdy as this? I'm not the only one that hoards cinema tickets and cards am I?!

Ciao for now,

JB

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Out of This World.

Hi there Folks,

I first discovered nail polish jewellery through SayAnything Br00ke's YouTube where she talked about a seller on Etsy called Ginger Kitty Designs who makes nail polish jewelley. After watching some of the videos on them, I decided that seeing as I have an abundance of nail varnish I should have a try myself.

Now I love Galaxy nails...they're a whole lot of effort but I think they look so wonderful when they're done. So I decided to do my take on a Galaxy design, but in necklace form. I really love how they always turn out a little different than the time before, so I thought I would make you a picture tutorial so that you could try it out at home if you wanted.

Firstly you will need the following:

Polish Colours (L-R): No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat, Revlon Galaxy, MUA Shade 1, Collection 2000 Hot Look Sherbert Lemon (30), Miss Sporty Lastig Colour (No Name), Natural Collection White, MUA Shade 2.  

A clear glass cabochon 

Silver plated cabochon back

Small silver plated jump ring (approx 3mm)

Silver plated chain (any size you like)

A blob of Blutac

Nail polish (see above colours for reference)

You will also need: tweezers, 4 small pieces of sponge, a piece of paper and super glue.

Now for the photo tutorial.

1. Place your cabochon upside down on the Blutac to secure it. Paint one coat of clear polish and let dry and then one coat of your chosen glitter polish and again let dry.

2. The galaxy needs to be build up in layers. Firstly place a small amount of the dark blue polish on the paper. Use your tweezers to hold a small piece of sponge, dab in the blue paint and stipple along the outside of where you want the centre of your galaxy to be. The black line is where I'm planning to have the centre so the blue is acting as a blending colour into the black background. Let the blue dry.

3. Take your pink polish, dab on the paper and stipple as before, this time along the inside edge of the blue you placed down previously and let dry. 

4. Then take the yellow and stipple it alongside the pink and also a little further towards to centre and let dry.

5. Next take your white and stipple it down the centre of the galaxy, i.e. along where the black line is running, then let dry.

6. Finally, once all the stippled layers are dry paint two coats of black polish over the design. Let this dry then place another coat of clear varnish over the top and leave to dry thoroughly.

7. Once entirely dry, flip your cabochon over and your galaxy will be revealed! You now need to decide which way up you would like you galaxy to sit. Add a small amount of super glue to your cabochon back and glue the cabochon into place.

8. Finally, attach your galaxy pendant to your chain using the jump ring and voila! You have your very own galaxy necklace.

Here's a close up of the finished product :]

Have any of you ever tried this or would like to try it in the future? If so please share! I've made quite a few different designs and think it gives such a lovely effect. I may well do some more tutorials on these in the future.

Ciao for now,

JB

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Lets Cook - Pulled Pork.

Hi there Folks,

Today I'm going to share with you how I make pulled pork. I saw the original recipe whilst watching Food Network UK (you can find that here) and decided to adapt it a little to what I had in my cupboards and what I knew myself and my boyfriend would enjoy.

My boyfriend follows a low carbohydrate diet and so therefore the creamed beans in the recipe were out of the question. So I served my pulled pork with cheesy swede mash and pan friend sprouts as I know he thoroughly enjoys these low carb foods.

On with the recipe....you will need:

A pork belly joint (whatever size is suitable for your family)

500ml chicken stock

2 onions

Oil (I use canola, but olive is fine)

Salt and Pepper

Now the first step I'd never done before until I read the original recipe, but I've tried it twice and had some yummy crackling so I'll keep doing it. You need to boil a full kettle, hold your pork belly vertically with some tongs and pour the whole boiled kettle over the skin of the joint.

I then generously add oil, salt and pepper all over the pork belly and skin and give it a good rub down.

Peel and cut your onions in half and place them in your roasting tray to act as a little seat for your pork belly to sit on.

Place the pork belly on the onions and put into an oven preheated to 220˚C for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes add half your stock and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes. If after this your crackling still looks like it needs a bit of work, add the rest of your stock and return for a further 20 minutes again.

Once your crackling is nice and crispy (be it after the first 40 minutes, or after 60 minutes) turn the oven down to 130˚C and place your pork in for about 2.5 hours. Keep checking and topping up the stock if needed.

Once the pork is cooked, remove from the oven and leave to rest for 15-30 minutes. Once rested remove the crackling and shred. Serve your pulled pork with whatever you do so desire and ENJOY! (I certainly did!)

Ciao for now,

JB

Lets Cook - Sweet Potato & Garlic Soup.

Hi there Folks,

Today I'm going to share a recipe for Sweet Potato and Garlic soup that I tried out over the weekend. It turned out really yummy, although not as thick and wintery as I initially imagined, but super tasty none the less!

The recipe was taken from my new 100 Calorie Cookbook which I bought from Marks and Spencers (it was £5 if you're wondering, you can have a better look at it here).

The book has some really tasty looking recipes in it that are allegedly 100 calories or less per serving. Now I'm not so sure if I entirely believe this, plus the servings look pretty small, so I'm thinking that even with my "on the larger side of life" servings they'll still be fairly healthy and lower calorie (which is always a bonus, plus means more calories for chocolate!)

So anyway, back to the soup. I used pretty much the exact weights that it asked for in the recipe just to see how it turned out. In my opinion, this amount wouldn't make enough for 4 of my servings, I did manage to get three decent bowlfuls though.

Ingredients

1 garlic bulb - cloves separated but skins left on

Small 'glug' of oil (I use canola oil, but olive is fine)

1 onion - peeled and chopped

2 medium sized sweet potatoes - peeled and cubed

1 litre vegetable stock

120g french beans - trimmed and finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

3 tbsp low fat natural yoghurt

Recipe

1. Assemble and prepare your ingredients. Set the oven to 190°C, place the separated garlic cloves onto a small baking tray and place in the hot oven for around 20 minutes (or until they're nice and soft). Once done set aside to cool slightly.

2. Heat some oil in a pan and gently cook off your onion until translucent with no colour. Once the onion is done add the sweet potato to the pan and cook gently for about 5 minutes, being careful not add any colour. 

3. Prepare your stock (I used stock cubes but real stock is great), add to the pan, place the lid on and simmer for around 10 minutes.

4. Squeeze the garlic flesh from their skins. Add this to the pan along with the finely chopped green beans and simmer with the lid on for a further 10 minutes, or until the sweet potato is softened. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool slightly. 

Now, once the cooking was finished, the recipe in the book asked that you remove two tablespoons of the green beans from the pan which will be added to the soup once its been processed to give texture. I found that this was more effort than it was worth so left this step out, but by all means you can do this if you have more patience than me.

So now the final task is to blend the soup, season and serve.

I used my food processor but a hand held blender would work just as well. As I mentioned earlier, the soup wasn't as thick as I had anticipated, although I did follow the weights to the letter.  But it still turned out lovely :]

As a finishing touch swirl a tablespoon of natural yoghurt into your soup to add a bit of creamyness and to make it look pretty. The recipe said to garnish with chopped chives - I had none so improvised with some freshly ground pepper.

This soup was a definite hit, as well as being really easy to make, I will definitely be giving it a go again, although I think I'll add a bit more sweet potato next time to thicken it up slightly.

Ciao for now,

JB

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Knit Knit Hooray!

Hi there Folks,

Today I'm feeling very pleased with myself, as this morning I finished off my first ever knitting project!! It may only be a super basic scarf, but I spent hours getting really annoyed trying to teach myself to knit not so long ago, so for me, this is an achievement.

Here's what the finished project looks like...

It's grey, it's super chunky and its long, just what I wanted for a nice, snuggly scarf to help me face the northern winter.

The pattern I used was really basic, literally two different rows repeated over and over (the original pattern can be found here). But I decided to jazz it up a bit once I'd finished by adding some fringing/tassles. I used 12mm plastic needles and James C. Brett 'Rustic' Mega Chunky wool in the colour CS2 (both needles and wool bought from here, although they don't have the actual wool I used on the website, sorry!)

I know there are plenty of tutorials for how to make tassles etc. on the web, but I thought I'd add onto here how I did them. It was a bit of a process as I'd initially not made them long enough and didn't like them so had to start all over. This means I have lots of lengths of wool that I really don't want to waste that I need to find a use for...I'm thinking pom poms?

Anyway, here's how I did it.

1. I wrapped the wool round a DVD box (in this case - Band of Brothers Bluray Boxset) until I had the right number of loops. I wanted 27 as I chose to do 9 tassles each using three lengths of wool.

2. I then cut the middle of the wrapped up wool and was left with all my ready made lengths.

3. Using an old, clean chopstick I folded the wool in half over the top of it and used this to push the strands through the gaps on the end of my scarf.

4. Finally I pulled through, evens the lengths out and then wrapped the top loop over the tail ends to create a slip knot. I pulled the lengths tight and voila! Was pretty speedy once I got my method down and I found that the box I used gave the perfect length for what I wanted.

And here is me looking all pleased and warm wearing my lovely new scarf :]

Ciao for now,

JB