Learning Opportunities, vintage bread bin and making felt beads
I love my titles to be an eclectic mix of topics – in other words I can’t think of a witty and succinct title to cover all these topics, so you will have to make do with just the reality! (If you CAN think of a more appropriate title for this post – feel free to let me know)
Lesson 1
When a friend suggests we try to arrange a reunion of 4 couples at short notice, don’t be a pessimist and think there is no way everyone will be free the next Saturday – because they were!
Lesson 2
When aforementioned friend books the restaurant, turn up at said restaurant and wonder why they have no record of our booking.
Whilst the husbands go to discuss our lost booking with the restaurant staff, and your friend shows you on her iphone how she searched for the restaurant online to make the booking, CHECK THE TOWN the restaurant is in! In fact I noticed she had managed to book a restaurant with the same name IN A DIFFERENT town – oooops!
Ring and cancel booking at restaurant in other town, with humble apologies.
So there are 8 of us looking to be fed at 8pm, and due to the fact it is our error, the restaurant we THOUGHT we had booked has “no room at the inn”.
Fortunately a very lovely other restaurant just down the street in the same village is able to accomodate our group of 8 at 9pm, and the evening is back on track.
Lesson 3
When you have a reservation for 9pm, the food, although delicious, may just keep you awake at night.
(for your info I ordered goats cheese with roasted beetroot and candied walnuts, chicken served with rissotto and roasted vine tomatoes, and finally a creme brulee which I shared with my husband)
Lesson 4
Be very thankful that your father-in-law shares your love of vintage kitchenalia, and will look out for bits and pieces for you. He presented me with this lovely original enamel bread bin which will be perfect in our holiday cottage.
Even my husband agrees, probably as unlike a number of my purchases, this one actually has a function!
So has anyone any ideas how to find out how old this enamel bread bin might be? Let me know if you do!
Lesson 5
Finally I learned this week how to make felt beads. It is a great way to tone your arms, as there is a lot of rolling and squishing required for each bead, but it is a very satisfying and tactile process.
I will be sharing some completed items made with these felt beads shortly, and will add some for sale in my online store www.janmarydesigns.com
Lesson 6
As our tutor always tells us, we don’t make mistakes but we create “Learning Opportunities”, so through some learning opportunities (!) I discovered how to make heart shaped beads! In fact I even won a prize of a magazine for my beads, and inspiring others in the class to make alternative shaped beads too!
That is your lot for this week. This week, poor Jo-Lynne is sick, so What I Learned This Week is being hosted by Julie at From Inmates to Playdates.
Remember that next Wednesday 17 March is St Patricks Day, and I would love you to join in with my blogging carnival of how you do/don’t celebrate St Patricks Day. As it says in the Guiness museum in Dublin …..
No comments yet – so just checking it is working!
The bread bin is sooooo nice! What a great gift. And your late dinner sounds delicious.
Maybe your title could be “bookings, bread bins, and beads.”
I love the bread bin! And, everyone is Irish on St. Paddy’s even over here in America…but some of us are lucky enough to be Irish all year round.
That cracks me up about your dinner reservations! Good thing to know. 🙂 That bread bin is beautiful! How nice to have someone so thoughtful in your life. I love the St Pats. day sign!
Fun “lessons learned.” What a great time you all must have had and your menu made my recently filled belly hungry again. Of course that may just be Breeley taking my food again! 🙂
I’m glad you found a restaurant to accomodate! I would be just like your girfriend, getting it all mixed up, and would be ever so grateful to you for your graciousness (AHEM, when Mr. and I come to visit you make sure HE books all dates with you personally or it might be an alternate day, hour, week, year) LOL!
If I ate at this time of the night, I too would not sleep well – especially with such an eclectic mix of ingredients. Sounds like your intestinal tract had great ruminations over such indulgence so late in the night.
Oooooh your bread pot looks gorgeous! I’ve never seen such a thing, sort of like a dutch oven but with steam holes!
Wishing you well on your St. Patricks Day Carnival!
love that bread bin –
must find out where your father in law got that!!!
Love what you posted this week!
The bread bin is so cute. Is it used to bake bread in? It doesn’t look big enough to hold bread. Oh, and the whole booking thing is a pain in the patootie… Thanks for linking up this week!
cool lessons learned and your felt beads are fantastic.
love the vintage enamel bread bin
Kitchenalia – I love that word! Is that an Irish term?
I want that bread bin – it’s adorable!
I am visiting you via SITS-How wonderful to find an Irish blog in St Patrick’s Week! I love your bread bin and you have a great blog too.
Happy SITS Saturday and best wishes for St Pat’s day!
Natasha.
Oh yummmy!!! Your dinner that you, finally, got to eat sounded delicious and is totally what I would have ordered! We’re having our own little St. Patrick’s Day celebration with the lame and traditional (at least here in the states) corned beef and cabbage. It’s his favorite meal of the year. He is a Fitzpatrick after all. I enjoyed reading your post and LOVE the new bread tin!
Happy Saturday Sharefest!!!!
Alex aka Ma What’s For Dinner
http://www.mawhats4dinner.com
WOW!! Lots going on! Congrats on the magazine featuring your beads… glad you had a fun night out with freinds, and LOVE LOVE LOVE that pot!! Yeah dad in law!
Blessings-
Amanda
Happy SITS Saturday Sharefest!
~Gay~
itsahodgepodgelife.blogspot.com
Oh Yippeee … I’ve made it to Ireland this morning :o)
Visiting via SITS Saturday … you got me with the felting …. LOVE that medium of art. Also a lover of antiques and very jealous of your recent *gift* … have no idea. Best bet is to search the internet or on-line auction groups. Interesting with the holes on the lid.
Happy Saturday and early St. Patty’s Day ~j.
Happy SITS Saturday Sharefest!
In the States, everyone is Irish on St. Pat’s day. I even saw a man in Miami who attended a St. Patrick’s Day parade wearing a T-shirt that said “100% Irish” on it. What was strange is that he had a thick Jamaican accent and his head was covered with Rastafarian dreadlocks. We celebrate the day the way we imagine people in Ireland do: we drink green bear, eat corned beef and cabbage and listen to bag pipes. But, your beer is usually amber isn’t it? I suppose you don’t eat corned beef much and I’m sure bag pipes are Scottish. So I guess we’re being Irish in a very American way?