Scatterbrained

I embroider!

I do! I have been doing it for about a year now and I love it. I always thought embroidering was something Grandmothers only do. Sitting in rocking chairs in long white dresses with aprons and bonnets. I don't know why I always got that picture in my head when I thought of someone hand embroidering but I do... did, because now I know that is not the case at all.

 

I discovered modern embroidery while looking at craft blogs and thought I would give it go. I love sitting down on the couch watching TV with a cup of tea or a glass of wine and stitching away. I stick myself with the needle at least once during each session but I still do it.

I'm not particularly good at it though. See that split stitch in the grass that is supposed to be a back stitch!

This little house is a night time spring scene. It is stitched on a little piece of linen. I am working on a few of these and I am going to piece them all together and make them into a table runner. I have some more but my camera batteries went flat but I'll post some more over the weekend after they are recharged.

I read a book!

A really BIG book!      

* WARNING dirty words in this post!

A friend gave me this book to read and said it was really good. I thought, it's big! Really big! I like big books, but only if they are very good. I read all the Twilight books, they were big. I read The Talisman and the Lord of the Rings, they were big. Do I really want to read a very big book about building a Catholic church? No, I don't think so. But if I don't read it or at least some of it, it would be rude.

So after having it for a few weeks, I opened it up one night and begun reading. I FREAKING LOVED THIS BOOK! I am so glad my friend guilted me  I guilted myself, into reading it. I loved it from start to finish and I am already reading the sequel 'World Without End', which is almost like reading 'The Pillars of the Earth' except two hundred years later. So far I am loving that too although I have heard it isn't as good as the 'The Pillars of the Earth'.

I loved the characters in this book even though most of them are not particularly appealing. No one is perfect in this book, except maybe Jack, he's pretty perfect but all the characters flaws made them seem more real to me. I loved the adventures of their lives and traveling through time with them and seeing how their lives intertwined.

I loved reading about that time, the story starts in the year 1123 and I found it interesting that chimneys were not common building practice and that everyone drank beer all the time. I was fascinated by the fact that they said 'fuck' and 'cunt' even! I wonder how much of this book is based on truth or if my new medieval knowledge is actually bullshit? 

I haven't ever read a Ken Follet novel before but now I feel myself needing to read them all. This is a book I would recommend to anyone. The story is based around the building of a Catholic cathedral and the stories of the lives of the people involved. It is like a whole bunch of life stories and how their lives are effected by each other, the times and the building of the cathedral.

It doesn't particularly portray the catholic church in a nice way, but I think it portrays the Catholic church of that time, in a real way. I am not sure how people of that faith would feel about it. It is harsh and there is no holding back in this story. It is violent and there is bad language and sex. It will make you cry and it will make you smile and it will make you really very glad you live now and not back them.

Read it OK!

The best cake I've ever made

That is what Scott said about this cake. It was pretty good, and easy. You can find the recipe here.

The cake is supposed to look like this one.

The one I made was Scott's birthday cake so I wanted it to be a bit more special so I doubled the mixture and made two round cakes and stuck them together with the frosting. Then I dusted it with cocoa powder. Plain simple unfancy chocolate cake. That is what Scott likes.

The biggest trick I have learned when it comes to baking cakes it not to pay any attention to the time you are supposed to leave it in the oven because so many ovens are different. The recipe for this one says to leave it in for forty-five to fifty-five minutes but I took mine out just slightly underdone at 40 minutes. It cooked a little further in the tin while it was cooling.

The best thing about this cake is you don't have to use a mixer at all. I did use our mixer for the frosting but most of the cake is made in a saucepan.

I'm pretty sure I'll be making this one regularly!

Scatterbrained

My mother called me scatterbrained once. She meant it as an insult but I took it as a compliment. It was when she met my partner, about  eight years ago. It was her little piece of advice on how to keep a man, “Be careful not to be too scatterbrained” she said with a smile”. I laughed. I liked the thought of my scatterbrainedness. I suspect she thought that was why I hadn’t gotten married and had several failed relationships and she recognised that Scott was a good catch.

 

I can fault my mother for giving me advice on how to keep a man, especially since she has two failed marriages under her belt, but as for calling me scatterbrained, she is right. I am scatterbrained and I like it. There is too much happening in life and I find it hard to keep track of it all. How is anyone supposed to keep an ordered life in such a disorderly world.

 

So here I am travelling through my disordered scatterbrained life and dragging my two small children and partner, Scott, who obviously after almost nine years, finds charming, with me.