It’s a MicroMaster and granny tells me it’s from Home Bargains.  so tres cheap! I’ve been making the most delicious chicken casserole and it’s so fast and easy I can barely believe it. Four chicken thighs are £1.50 from Tesco and you put these, raw, on the bottom of the dish. chop up an onion, a red pepper, some mushrooms and throw them in. Having boiled the kettle, mix up half a cup of wine with half a cup of chicken stock, add some sundried tomato paste, half a teaspoon of lazy garlic salt and pepper and mixed dried herbs. Pour it over the chicken and veg, slam the lid on and stick it in the microwave for 15 minutes. When the dinger goes, pour the stew into a casserole dish and make sure that the hicken thighs rest on top of the veg with the skin facing upwards. Amazingly, the chicken will be cooked through perfectly but I just think the soggy skin is vile. So salt the skin and drizzle some balsamic glaze on. Put this dish under the grill and quickly rinse out the MicroMaster. Throw in a few measures of rice and water and put it back in the microwave for another 15 minutes. So while the chicken is crisping up the rice is being cooked perfectly. BINGO BANGO dinner for four in under half an hour with no dirty utensils apart from a knife and minimal washing up!

I bloody love this contraption and will be experimenting with more ideas which of course will be pegged immediately.

In NailNews, the wenches of Made in Chelsea have been sporting some lovely shades and patterns recently. As last night’s episode wound p I couldnt help but notice her fantastic red white and black nails which i CAN’T FIND A PICTURE FOR YET BUT will edit in asap.

Peg soon!!

I am thrilled to announce that KELLY ROWLAND reads the Peg. I know this to be true because she read what I put about colour alternating nails last week – and look! She did it! You go girl!

I’ve also been experimenting with this addictive quirk for my digits and this week I’m going with burnt orange vs. Gold! (At least, I think its burnt orange? To quote Donkey: “This would be so much easier if I wasn’t colourblind!”)

Other breaking news, for lunch today I had (brace yourselves because this isn’t going to be as boring as it sounds) a little pot of Daal and veg by Innocent – as in the smoothies. It was super tasty and nutritious, plus, look what was on the inside of the packaging! Cute cauliflower!! Baaaa!

Anyone else addicted to One Direction’s “What makes you beautiful”? Don’t be ashamed – stand proud. It is ACTUALLY a good song and it’s totally natural if those cheeky chaps make you feel like you’ve got butterflies in your tummy a la first date/first kiss/first love all rolled into one! At least, that’s what I’ve heard it makes other people feel like. I’m not talking about me or anything. Enjoy!

First and foremost….. I have finally experimented with the new nail varnish trend of painting all your nails and then your ring finger in a different colour. After taking many, many photographs of this with the help of MammaMcCPeg (and comments like “This angle makes your hands look like udders”) here is what we came up with. (Give Adele a little wave too…Hiya Adele!)

Second up – I think I can now consider myself an actual journalist because I have been published on a website! Nooo, not The Peg, or Facebook, or Hotmail, but a proper website that people read for news and interesting things. The magazine is called Push it and I have written various designer profiles for Spring Summer 2012. So far they have uploaded my Rochambeau, Laitinen and Wackerhaus but there is more still to come. The magazine is quarterly so please cross your peggy toes and fingers that they will use my work next time the magazine comes out! Here is the link to my work:

http://www.pushitmagazine.com/news/wackerhaus-spring-summer-2012/

http://www.pushitmagazine.com/news/laitinen-spring-summer-2012/

http://www.pushitmagazine.com/news/rochambeau-spring-summer-2012/

And last but not least, I am about to embark on an MA in Fashion Journalism at London College of Fashion. I only found out that I got the place last week (after a gruelling phone interview: “If you had £5000 what would you buy” “If you got 3 subscriptions what would they be” and ”If you had come to an interview today what would you have worn”). I am SUPER excited about this because not only is it going to  open up a million doors of opportunity, give me exciting things to Peg about, get me out of Wolverhampton (no offence Wolvo – I’ll miss you!) but most importantly it means that me and SophPeg are going to be ROOMIES! Yes – you heard it, a Peg house full of Peg Patter. Also, I’ve got a feeling that I am going to worship at the feet of my course leader, much like I was susceptible to influential, inspiring lecturers back in the good old days at Leeds! See video below.

http://www.fashion.arts.ac.uk/video-showcase/postgraduate-course-director-interviews/andrewtucker-mafashionjournalism/

What a guy.

Went to my local class in the village hall last night. I got there and I first had to sign a disclaimer (never done before for an exercise class!) basically saying that I wont sue if I drop down dead. I thought that was a good start. I walk in terrified, look into the room and see a real range of women, all shapes and sizes and two older ladies in the corner -  I thought -PAH – this is going to be a walk in the park (or village hall).

However, after a little bit of bottom-wobbling and hip-shaking to warm up, we then started JUMPING and CLAPPING for about 35 MINUTES NON-STOP. As I got increasingly knackered, it was getting harder and harder to decifer the intricate footwork of the super-toned instructor (in her Zumba branded trousers). There were some steps that I couldn’t co-ordinate in my small brain and transfer to my weakened limbs. You definitely get your moneys worth, dancing the length of a Zumba CD right to the last minute of the class.

On the other hand, I have never laughed so much with strangers during an exercise class, as it was a bit of a novelty for everyone. I genuinely enjoyed and I am definitely going back. Even though it’s a bit of a fad and the music really (to be honest) does all sound the same and coming from a seady latin-american bar, if I dance that hard each week I should have thighs of a GODDESS in no time at all!

Har har!

Soon I will look like this woman at the front….ABULOUS.

Watching B.dolan support Dan le Sac + Scroobius Pip at the newly opened HMV Ritz midweek: something new- Old Dirty Bastard’s ‘Who killed Russell Jones’ in the style of Bob Dylan- didn’t see that coming, not sure he totally pulled it off but I was probably after more of a comedy element not serious hip hop but interesting it sure was.
DLS+SP sure were good, they hadn’t played in a while together apparently but any mistakes were taken in good humour, the crowd were loving every minute, especially the old favourites off the Angles album, ‘Look for the woman’ is still ringing in my ears. I hadn’t listened to the new album but to be honest, their new material seemed more dancey and commercially viable, less political and I prefer the crafted lyrics to them nearly breaking their own commandment: ‘ thou shalt not make repetitive generic music’. Although they’re only toeing the line on this and are far from crossing it entirely with consistent spurts of lyrical genius I’m moved more to explore competitors to Angles rather than buy their new album. Still, they are incredibly infectious and crisp to watch live.

For the most part, the film was very uncomfortable to watch; quite appropriately, it really did make my skin crawl. But we were distracted from the uneasiness of the content because of it’s stylistic appearance. It looks incredible. Jean Paul Gaultier was involved in the set and costume design (even muggins here could see the influences in the “body suits” in the film). It feels like it was made about 20 years ago, it doesn’t have the feel of a modern film despite the content being based on scientific advancement.

There are some great performances from well cast actors. When Antonio Banderas first starts talking in Spanish I instantly thought of this….

But luckily that didn’t last very long! And he did a bloody good job!
This film massively plays on the shock factor – the audience in the cinema often laughed out of disbelief, horror and confusion! The big twist in tale – I don’t think anyone could honestly see that coming because it is so fantastical. At first I was disappointed with the revelation, but then I realised that Almodovar is trying to do so much more than just shock his viewers. I think the film is a lot about human identity and how “the skin we live in” defines who we are….or does it?
Hmmm… I’ll leave that teaser with you.
However, something  FAR more disturbing than anything in the film was THIS:

How scary is THAT. There are a few points that make this image frightening:
1. Meryl Streep is Margaret Thatcher
2. She looks like a weird clone of her that went wrong
3. Americans are making a film about Margaret Thatcher
4. The height of Meryl’s eyebrows

*Shudder*

Also – saw the Rise of the Planet of the Apes at the weekend too, which was better than I thought it was going to be! I wasn’t sure when I saw CGI’d chimps, but despite some holes in the plot, it was a good watch about animal rebellion and human meddling! One things for sure – they aren’t going to kill the vegetarians first are they! Hahaa!
Love ya pegs xxx

I do have some interested things to share though:

1. Trampolining. Not as carefree an activity as you’d imagine. After weeks of nagging friends to accompany me to deepest darkest Salford’s trampolining centre of excellence which is staffed by lovely helpful people but is in need of funding for repairs, I finally got my Bounce Crew together and headed off on an expedition. I’d been humming the Tigger song to myslef all day but when I got on the elasticated death trap, I ended up throwing my back out! Agony! Everyone else had a fine time though swivel-hipping and star-jumping all over the place, the sweat was literally pouring off them and cheeks + abs were aching from all the laughing. When I’ve recovered I am so going again it looks like and amazing workout with added endorphins!

2. Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies. See here for total heaven: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/cheesecake-brownies-753840.html

110 g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids) 110 g unsalted butter 150 g caster sugar 60 g plain flour 1/4 tsp sea salt 2 medium eggs

Cheesecake mixture

225 g cream cheese 50 g caster sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 medium egg

Preheat the oven to 150C fan oven/160C or 315F electric oven/Gas 2 and butter and flour a 23 cm square cake tin. Melt the chocolate with the butter in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Remove from the heat, add the sugar and stir, then leave to cool slightly. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Add the eggs to the chocolate mixture, beating after each one until it is very glossy. Lightly fold in the flour and set aside.

Beat the cream cheese with the sugar in a bowl for the cheesecake mixture. Add the vanilla essence and egg and mix. Spread the chocolate mixture in the prepared tin evenly Top with the cheesecake mixture and using a sharp knife, gently swirl it into the chocolate mixture. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until just set in the middle. Leave to cool in the tin for 15-20 minutes before cutting into squares and serving.

3. Let’s Dance with Mel B What a workout! This has got some good tracks on it as well as Mel’s gravity defying breasts! Backstreet’s Back —owch!

4. Mariachi El Bronx Don’t you just love it when already fantastic indie band The Bronx decides to go for a Mexican musical side project. Yeah me too. Their version of Prince’s ‘I would die for U’ is so good. It’s the sweet confusion of hearing their take on classic hits that I relish, I just need to make sure I don’t over-play it and lose it’s mariachi edge.

5. In blog world, I’d lost touch with my usual faves: Sartorialist, Paul Smith, Style Rookie… New blogger friend http://somewhereontheoutside.wordpress.com/ makes for an honest, varied and interested read so CHECK IT OUT PEGSTERS.

PEG OUT XXXXXXX

Last weekend the family McC spruced themselves off and headed down to the wedding of a family friend. What a gorgeous day – and, Pegs, I ask you: is there anything better than getting a bit piddled with your family and then hitting the dancefloor (brother, sister, Mum and Dad in tow) and making some shapes to Pitbull’s anthemic tune – “See somebody sexy tell ‘em HEY, give me everything tonight!”. No. There is nothing better. Here’s the proof that we began the day in a sober state:

On another wedding note, MammaMcCPeg has been clearing out some of her things from the house that she grew up in this week and she found the receipt from her wedding dress! I had to share the ADORABLE detail with you – here is the back of the receipt. “Earliest With The Latest!”

Apologies for my absence and I haven’t got any excuse apart from busy-ness to make up for it! But I come bearing news in the realms of craft and family. Firstly – my lovely cousin Jenny is going to have a baby girl LITERALLY ANY MINUTE NOW. Not only I am over the moon that Jen and her daddy to be husband Tom are having their first ever sproglet, I am terribly excited at the baby-related craft projects that I can busy myself with! I have already finished my first one. See the pic below:

Soft Baby Dice!

Fun AND educational for baby minds. I followed an excellent tutorial on how to make this on this site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/londonmummy/sets/72157604381990885/

However it doesn’t include instructions on how to applique shapes onto fabric (please don’t look to closely at the shapes as they ARE abit on the wonky side) But the structure of the cubes themselves are supereasy to make

AND my other news is that my lil sis has done extremely well in her GCSE results today and got more than enough clever points to get into college to do Hairdressing (here’s hoping I never have to pay for a hair cut ever again!) So Peg-congratulations to you Beth!!!! I’m beaming like a proud big sister should

RayPeg – that’s a great looking bit of Peg merch there. Thank you for using it! I’m still keen to experiment on other Peg merch ideas – any of my fellow peglets or peg-sympathisers got any ideas??

Love KatyPeg xxx

After the whirlwind of final collection, finishing University, leaving Nottingham and moving home – my difficulty now is working out the next step. I don’t  mean to sound so dramatic – I know its a manageable situation in the grand scheme of things – and my! All you peg’s are getting on dashingly!

And I do have an exciting trip coming up! Just after finishing in June I took part in an ”optional project” – it seemed reasonable as I was still in Nottingham so I could use the college facilities. In a nutshell – it was to produce a range of swatches (rectangle knitted fabric pieces) which reflected in the corresponding theme and to promoted the yarns. The end use would be for WGSN (trend forecasting website) and SpinExpo – a major industry yarn/knitwear trend fair in Shanghai. Somehow there were 2 places available for the students involved – and I got it! Hooray!

The swatches I produced were for the theme ‘Home Workshop’ – one out of the 6 themes we were given. One of the key words in this theme was ‘embracing imperfection’ which seemed just right for me! These are predicted trends for Spring/Summer 2013 – and therefore the idea was for them to be experimental and inspiration . After sorting out the suitable yarns to reflect the theme and colour palette, it was back to the knitroom…

The techniques I used were relatively simple – using grosgrain to gather up part of the fabric to create more of a 3-D shape and a feel of movement. Applying a patch-like plaster coating to try and fit in with the ‘Home workshop’ theme and also mixing different yarns and gauges, mainly cottons or cotton blends as being for Spring/Summer, to get interesting textures or a mix and match look.