Grannymar

A young woman brings home her fiancée to meet her parents. After dinner, her mother tells her father to find out about the young man. The father invites the fiancée to his study for a drink.

“So what are your plans?” the father asks the young man.

“I am a Torah scholar,” he replies.

“A Torah scholar. Hmm.” the father says. “Admirable, but what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter to live in as she’s accustomed to?”

“I will study,” the young man replies, “and God will provide for us.”

“And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring such as she deserves?” asks the father.

“I will concentrate on my studies,” the young man replies, “and God will provide for us.”

“And children?” asks the father. “How will you support children?”

“Don’t worry, sir, God will provide,” replies the fiancée.

The conversation proceeds like this, and each time the father questions, the young idealist insists that God will provide.

Later, the mother asks, “How did it go, honey?”

The father answers, “He has no job and no plans, but the good news is he thinks I’m God.”

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Thank you Ramana for this weeks contribution.

Maybe you were expecting to see some more experiments with the aluminium cans, but the truth is that I am not a big fan of carbonated drinks.  I do have a few cans waiting to be opened and a couple of people keeping a specimen or two for me to play with, but that is for the future.

Today I have another experiment …..

I only have the one photo for you.  I did try with both the phone and the camera but it was impossible to get closer detail.

It is a sample of crocheted beading wire with beads attached.  A slow, very slow process.  It takes time to work with the wire as unlike wool or thread, the wire has no ‘give’ in it.  It is a project for an ‘untidy’ worker as the stitches are seldom uniform.

I only became aware of this technique on my recent visit to The Point Village Market in Dublin.

Perhaps my choice of beads were not the best as most of them disappear in this tiny sample.  I did have rather grand ideas when starting out but it is so frustratingly slow.  Now that is not something you hear me say very often when it comes to craft work.  I am usually happy fiddling away for hours on end and almost need an alarm clock to remind me to eat!

I will try the technique again and I see many possibilities, but there are several unfinished projects to tackle and complete before I go there.  I tell you of my successes so it is only fair to tell you about my disasters too.

If you wanted to be a recluse, how would you go about it?

Perhaps start by stocking up on:

• food
• books
• music
• paper an pencils
• craft materials
• warm clothes

What else would you do?

Do you shake a blob of tomato sauce on you chips, or eggs & bacon?  I know people who cannot live without a bottle of Tomato sauce in the fridge.  Have you ever thought of making it?

On my journey down memory lane with this old cookery book, I found a recipe for tomato sauce.  I will reproduce it here.

Tomato Store Sauce

3 lbs red tomatoes
1 small onion
1 clove or more
10 peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1 blade of mace
1 dessertspoon salt
½ pint vinegar
3 ozs sugar
Cayenne

Cut the tomatoes in halves and chop the onions.  Place all the ingredients, except the sugar and the cayenne, in a pan and simmer for 1 hour.  Pass through a sieve, return to the saucepan and boil hard for a few minutes to reduce to a thin cream.  Add the sugar and cayenne.  Pour the sauce into bottles.  When cold, cork tightly and store.

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Now I challenge Not Junk Food to update it!

“Be not the slave of your own past - plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience, that shall explain and overlook the old.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Relationships-of all kinds-are like sand held in your hand. Held loosely, with an open hand, the sand remains where it is. The minute you close your hand and squeeze tightly to hold on, the sand trickles through your fingers. You may hold onto some of it, but most will be spilled. A relationship is like that. Held loosely, with respect and freedom for the other person, it is likely to remain intact. But hold too tightly, too possessively, and the relationship slips away and is lost.
~ Kaleel Jamison

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“Every day we live is a gift of God.”   That rule applies whether or not you believe in God, because life, unless you hate it, is surely a great gift.  We did not earn our earthly existence, but we can justify it by our good works.
~ Henry J. Stern

Joanne was in a hurry to get married.

It was her dream since she was about ten years old.  She had spent her days playing house and nursing her dolls.  Not wanting to stay in school a day longer than needed, she left on her sixteenth birthday.  She was fortunate to find a job in a local jewellery store not far from her home.  The baubles were a far cry from the Crown jewels, more your cheap and cheerful with plenty of bright lights to make them sparkle!

How would you write the next paragraph?

The active members of our Loose Blogging consortium are:- Conrad,  Gaelikaa,  Ginger,  Grannymar, Magpie 11,  Maria, & Ramana. Some members seem to have taken the tale of Sleeping beauty to heart but I hope they do not keep us waiting for 100 years!  Wake up Anu, Ashok, Helen & Judy, we miss your contributions and look forward to the sound of your keyboards clattering in our direction.  Our topic today was chosen by Conrad.

Half Truths

How many fingers do I have?

Gosh it is a long time since I drew an outline of my hands.  The crooked fingers make not a pretty picture!

Have you counted yet?

I bet you said ten!

Look again….  I make it ELEVEN!

Counting backward from the left…

Ten, nine, eight, seven six plus the five on the right hand makes ELEVEN!

Granny, I was listening all those years ago and I can hear your laughter right now.

This lady balances at Donegall Quay in Belfast.

A business man got on an elevator in a building.  When he entered the elevator, there was a blonde already inside and she greeted him by saying, “T-G-I-F”? (letters only).

He smiled at her and replied, “S-H-I-T” (letters only).”

She looked at him, puzzled, and said, “T-G-I-F” again.

He acknowledged her remark again by answering, “S-H-I-T.”

The blond was trying to be friendly, so she smiled her biggest smile and said as sweetly as possibly “T-G-I-F” another time.

The man smiled “S-H-I-T.”

The blond finally decided to explain things, and this time she said, “T-G-I-F, Thank Goodness It’s Friday, get it?”

The man answered, “Sorry, Honey, It’s Thursday.”

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Naturally this one had to come from a male friend!

On my recent visit to The Point Village Market in Dublin I encountered some interesting Craft Artists.  I came home hungry to try out a few new ideas.  Yesterday was my first opportunity to try one of them.

A needle did make an appearance but, the project did not involve thread.

Are you curious?

I also employed the services of the following:

An old filleting knife, kitchen scissors, Food blow torch and a packing needle.  The bodkin was not called into service this time.

To begin with I went on the scrounge to my young neighbours.  Thankfully they were able to supply me with my needs.

Empty aluminium cans.  Three varieties to be exact.  I only wanted the sides of the cans so the knife and scissors were called into play to remove the ends.  The knife proved to be easier to work with at this stage.

Placed in the same order as before with the reverse side showing, notice the difference in the colour of the aluminium.

It was at this stage that the blow torch made an appearance. NB WORK OUT OF DOORS to avoid the fumes.

Nicola Loughlin, the young lady that introduced me to this craft (unfortunately she did not have a website), probably used a DIY paint removing blow torch.  I do not have one and therefore resorted to the less powerful kitchen version.

Nicola had several collages and smaller pieces on display and for sale.  She spoke of the different effect and colours achieved with using different brand named cans, from the three above and several different beer cans.

Remember this was my first attempt, and I am sure to improve with time and experience.

The Red bull can

Red Coke can

Diet Coke can

Then came the fun.  deciding on shapes and adding pattern with the packing needle (blunt ended) from the back.

Brooch shapes were what I had in mind.

The veins of the leaf were pressed on from the reverse with the packing needle.  I need to spend more time playing about with the technique to perfect it and perhaps add beads.  I do have a few brooch closures, so all I need is solder.  I do have a soldering iron somewhere in my kit….