Chicken and Vegetable Soup

1 pint chicken stock

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, poached in the stock

2 carrots, sliced

1 onion, sliced

Half tin of sweetcorn

Handful each of baby broad beans and frozen peas

 

Having already poached the chicken thighs in the hot chicken stock, I removed them and shredded them, chucked the vegetables into the stock to cook. Once they were tender I put the chicken back in the pan and got the stick blender out. I don’t blend mine until it’s completely smooth because I like it to have some texture. Check the seasoning and adjust to taste.

I really don’t know why more people don’t make their own soups because they are so easy, and guaranteed to taste better than anything out of a tin.

Hope you enjoy

Jo x

The Spring Knitting and Stitching Fair

There is one time of the year that I really look forward to… Spring. Is it because my birthday is in Spring? Partly, but no. I do love the fresh smell in the air as trees and flowers start to blossom, but that’s not what I’m talking about either. What I really look forward to, being the avid crafter I am, is the Spring Knitting and Stitching show at Olympia. As the name suggests, it is mainly aimed at knitters and stitchers, although there are elements of lots of other crafts too. It’s something my mum and I go to together, which is a nice way of spending time together, as well as us both being in heaven!

This year, it was slightly different. It happened to be a weekend my children weren’t with their dad. We had also chosen to go on the Saturday, which just so happened to be my brother-in-law’s 30th birthday, which also meant there was no chance of leaving the children with him and my sister. So, for the first time, I took all 3 children with me to the show. Big mistake!!! Not only did it seem like there were about 10million people there so being vigilant over the children was a given, but it also meant I spent WAY more money that I’d intended and ended up with more crafty goodies for the kids than for myself! I did get myself a few bits and pieces I needed, as well as a few bits I didn’t, but after watching a few demonstrations I could not resist! There will be pictures and probably a very dodgy video of my attempts at using my new goodies to follow!

Saturday Morning Make Do and Mend

We seem to live in a world now where everything is disposable and everything can just be replaced and it drives me a little bit crazy! I sometimes think I was born in the wrong era because my mindset, more often than not, is of a bygone age where you used, repaired and reused everything. If the table was wobbly you didn’t throw it out, you put a book under the wonky leg! If an item of clothing ripped, you sewed it up. And that is just how I spent my Saturday morning. Trying to get dressed I was hunting for a pair of leggings (which a girl my size probably shouldn’t wear but they are comfy) and of the 4 pairs I found, not one was without a rip!

“Just throw them out Mum and I’ll have a look for another pair on the washing line,” chimed in my oldest, as she could see the frustration on my face. And it was in that moment that I realised I must not have been setting the right example for my children. It almost appalled me to hear those words coming out of her mouth, but how could I blame her when I too have been guilty in the past of chucking something out just because it may have a small rip in a seam.

Even though we were getting ready to go out I decided there and then to give up the search for a pair of ‘intact’ leggings and sit down quietly to repair the ones I had already found. Every one just had a rip in a seam up the inside of the thigh, my own fault for having such chunky thighs, but they weren’t significant rips, more just a seam had come open. Not a hard job, not particularly time consuming but most people probably would have just chucked them in the bin and gone to buy some more.

I am a single parent, and my budget is somewhat tight. Some weeks, after bills and the like, I have a little more money to play around with than other weeks. But I usually find there is always something far more pressing that needs the attention. And yes, I could pop up to the shops to get another pair of leggings for less than a fiver, but why should I have to when it is purely a seam that has come undone? What is the point, really? I don’t have so much disposable cash that I can afford to spend it on something I don’t really need. I have enough problems with that and my crafting obsession and, to be honest, until the leggings completely fall apart I’d much rather spend that spare cash on craft supplies!

So out came the needle and thread and within a few minutes I had 2 pairs of leggings, with their holes sewn up. In walked my daughter with a very puzzled look on her face, like I was doing something completely crazy. “Oh, I found you these on the washing line,” she said. I explained that I was going to wear the ones I’d repaired but thanked her anyway. She had the obvious moan about how long it was going to take and how we had somewhere to be but by this point, I was really trying to prove a point. That point of course was why bother throwing them away when actually, if I’d just sewn up the first pair I’d found, it would have been done quicker than the whole time I spent looking for the other pairs and the time Aimee had spent getting another pair off the washing line.

I think, at least I hope, that she got it in the end. She even commented later that she couldn’t even tell where the mend had been. Funnily enough, she had a couple of small holes in a pair of trousers she wanted to wear for school one day a few days later and instead of throwing her usual strop about something like that, she just asked, “Mum, if I go and get your sewing box, could you sew these up for me before school please?” Pretty sure I proved my point!

Introduction to Jo

I’m Jo. A mother of 3, a single mother I might add, not by choice, but it turned out to be one of the best things that happened to me. I am independent, I am strong (most of the time) and most importantly, I am trying my hardest to be the best mother I can be.

As well as being a full-time mummy, I am a crafter! My maternal grandfather was an artist, my mum has always knitted, crocheted, made her own clothes, quilted, turned old useless things into new useful things… basically crafting is in my blood!

I have been cross stitching since my 14th birthday. I took up knitting a couple of years ago while my sister was pregnant with my first beautiful niece. I do decoupage, card making, I try as often as I can to reuse or ‘upcycle’ things destined for the bin. Oh, and I also love to cook! I know we need food to live but I live to eat! There isn’t much I don’t like, I’ll try just about anything, love trying different restaurants and different cuisines, new recipes at home as well as experimenting with the children, their ideas I mean, not cooking them!

Apart from crafts and food, and the children of course, the only other thing I love is my cats! And making people laugh!