Update

Well, I haven't blogged have I? 

Time to make up for it now. What's happened?

I am a Nanna! My gorgeous adorable grandson is 9 weeks old. I am not sure if I am allowed to show you so I have to check. I know I am biased but he really is a cutie. Well done to my wonderful daughter and fabulous son in law.

The house we are buying is going through. We changed to a different one and there is room for the sewing machine! Happy days. Not long now. We will be in for Christmas, yay!

Speaking of which, I have been stocking the shop a bit. I made one of these tea cosies for a gift and that inspired a tea cosy mania for a little while. I think they would make a lovely gift, maybe with a teapot for that person who likes the nice homey things. My friend adored hers.

That`s only half of them, get ready, here is yet more. I am not sure how I got so excited by tea cosies, but I do.

Right, the sight of all those tea and biccies has made we want a cuppa. 

Next time baby blankets!

Will I be allowed a model, I wonder?

xXx

So what have I been Doing?

Well, I have moved house. We sold quite fast and are currently happily nestled in a rental house that suits just fine for now. I still have a sewing room but maybe not for long. We may have found the right house to suit our needing less money lifestyle (read as less pressure and stress lifestyle). Just waiting to see if it goes through. It will not have a room to dedicate to sewing, but I will manage. I did before and I will again. I actually love finding clever and innovative ways to store stuff and use my space. Keep you posted.

I have been doing some making in all this time but not sharing. How mean!

I have my first grandchild imminent any minute......literally. My daughter was due on Thursday so it really will not be long. She doesn't believe me, poor thing. I rustled up a cot quilt and bumper set for the nursery and a matching fleecy pillow. Hope you like. The beautiful knitted shawl was made by my very talented Mum who has been knitting some just lovely things for baby.

She also asked me to make some fabric buckets with some of her fabric. I love this colour combo.

There have been some crocheted blankets too but I quite forgot to photograph them. I will next time I am there.

Until next time folks. I have so enjoyed writing this blog again. Now that a lot of life's hiatus has calmed, maybe I can get back to it. Next time I shall share my non baby crochet.

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Perfect Things and a Perfect Friend

For simply ages I have been looking for a vintage jug for some silk daisies I have in my bathroom.  They currently reside in a mug which whilst colour wise works, was never quite what I was happy with. I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to these things.  I haven't been successful in my quest.

I was at my friends the other day and she says to me. 'Oh, look what I got at a car boot the other day'. She then produces two old jugs which she says she bought for a pound each.  I obviously admire both because as you may already be aware, I love vintage china.  One I innocently with I swear no agenda remark that one of them would look brilliant in my bathroom. My naughty but just lovely friend insisted I had this jug and after lots of no! yes! no! YES! and my fearing it would go on the floor if we pushed it back and forth on her coffee table any more ended in me agreeing and being so grateful.  I have insisted on making her an item she was thinking of buying in return to make me feel less guilty of relieving her of such a beautiful find .

So here we are.

This is what the daisies were in

This is the picture I have in there that I fell in love with from this lovely shop that has all the colours I recognised in said jug of loveliness

  This is my prized CK towel again with the lovely colours

And this is the jug holding the daisies. Perfect match or what?  

Floral Decor

I do love flowers but I think they look best in the garden really.  I did pick these partially from the garden and partially from the hedgerow. They do not last long though do they?

I do however still like to have flowers in the house, so I collected these white jugs which almost match and then ordered some silk ones. This is how I did have them but the pink lisianthus were a bit brighter that I thought and jarred a bit with the raspberry tones in some of my accessories. So, after living with them for a few weeks, 

I splashed out on what I should have got in the first place, some ivory roses. So pleased I got these!  I love roses but they fade so quickly. These are quite believably realistic and I get to keep the natural ones where they belong - outside. Now contemplating one of those scents for faux flowers to really fool people.

On the subject of outside. Am I the only one to be really disappointed with the fact that it is mid July and all I have to show produce wise is this pitiful harvest?  This time last year, I had less raspberry plants and had picked oodles by now. All this rain and those pesky slugs! Euwww!

Dont Faint, I finished something!

I do have some beautiful bunnies to share but I want to wait until I have enough to open the new shop. They are coming on so well I cant wait to show you guys!
So this weekend, I decided to actually finish this zig zag quilt that I must have started this time last year. I did the machine quilting a month or 2 ago and just had the binding to do. So i stayed up last night and finished it finally.  The quilting is a bit puckery still. I need more practise. Also the band on the backing ended up a bit wonky but nonetheless I rather love it. I have to trim some threads and spotted a few pins I missed last night. But here it is whilst the sun makes a brief appearance. It was of those not really planned quilts. The majority of the fabric, was one of those 'oh i love that, I will buy it' moments and stashed away. I then saw how to make it on another blog (I cant remember who's and will add it if I do - yell if its yours!) and thought this would be the time to get out that impetuous fat quarter purchase. Its just because I wanted to make it so it doesn't matter that its a bit off perfect does it?

Shop of The Week, Katiedidonline

This weeks craftbritannia shop of the week is Katiedidonline.  The strapline is 'upcycled kitchen and home goods.  This exciting shop is full of delightful non granny aprons, coasters, baby bibs and bunting.  I also found some cutely packaged scrap packs. What a fabulous gift idea for sewing friends.
This shop is actually full of things that would make great gifts.  Here are my picks but do pop along to The Craftbritannia Blog for an in depth interview with the lady herself and please go have a browse of her Etsy shop as there is so much more than I have shown you here.

Flowers

Short and sweet post today. I week or 2 ago I was lucky enough to receive a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I actually forgot to take a photo of them believe it or not. On their demise, I realised i really liked having fresh flowers in the house so went on  a hunt in the garden to come up with a replacement. This is what I came up with. I think I shall add some cutting type flowers to the garden this year as I am loving the whole floristry thing at the mo, even if I am not up to professional standards.  I do have one tip. Apologies if you know this. Years ago a friend did floristry and passed onto me that to replace that little sachet of feed when you either change the water or pick your own. Add a tiniest drop of bleach to the water to guard against smelly water and a bit (about half a teaspoon or so depending on your vase) of sugar to feed the flowers. It does seem to work.

Its The Little Things

Isn't it funny, how the smallest changes can make such a difference.  I inherited this futon from a boys room and put it in my sewing room, as my it wasn't wanted in there but I thought we should have a spare sleeping arrangement of some sort (OH wanted to get rid! The very idea!). It is actually really comfortable for both sleeping and sitting. The thing is , I just hated how it looked. It really jarred with my pretty lilac and cream look in there.

 So, I spotted this lovely duvet set on the Grattan website. What luck, it totally reflects the feel in my sewing room and teddy seems happy too. I now have a beautiful sofa by day and a spare bed ready to go at a minutes notice. Ok I have to pull a pillow out of the airing cupboard, but you get my drift. I can't decide whether I like the front down hiding my truck   packaging underneath.

 Or tucked in and looking more sofa like. Either way, its a great improvement on the denim homage to boyness that it was.  I must tidy up the little piles I still have to find a home for that are quite evident in these pictures.

A Good Cake Book to tell you about and its gluten free

I am a bit of a sucker for both books and cakes and was delighted to recieve this book from my daughter for Christmas. I had put it on my wishlist as I was quite interested in the health factor or if, given all the recipes contain some "vegetables". Yes, I havent gone mad, I did say vegetables.  Things such as sweet potato, pumpkin and carrot to name but a few. What I hadnt realised was that all the recipes used rice flour, so perfect for me on my gluten free diet.  I have never let wheat flour in a recipe stop me and can usually adapt, but these have been intended that way and so far, work perfectly.
 Whilst looking through this book, my husband declared it sounded awful and certainly wasnt going to eat anything from that book. Well, he tells me he never reads my blog so we will find out because I am going to tell you, he has eaten enthusiastically 2 cakes made from these recipes. He hasnt a clue they contain non conventional ingredients and I am not going to tell him. Because its good for him. If he knew, he would refuse to try them so just goes to prove how good the recipes are. 
The first was Coffee & Walnut Courage Cake, here it is before we nommed it.

 Next, I tried "Beach and a Blanket Fruit Cake"
Now it has to be said, it should have cherries and blanched almonds as well as raisins, but I didnt have any. In line with the authors approval of maverick behaviour, I had to substitute butternut squash with sweet potato, but it still was the yummiest thing I have made for ages and the raisins did not sink!!!! If you cook gluten free, you will know how impossible this is.

Now , are you intruiged? Yes? Good. The book is called "Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache" and is written by Harry Eastwood.

The above link is for the lovely glam hardback which I have. Also available to pre-order in paperback, but I have to say the difference in price makes the hardback by far nicer.  Next on my "to bake" list is the Red Velvet Cake with, you guessed it, beetroot!!!!. Will keep you posted. Also, lets see if my hubby does sneak a read and refuses to eat cake ever again on the grounds I definitely cant be trusted. If he doesnt, my secret is safe. Also, brother-in-law, if you tell on me I shall never speak to you again. You know who you are.

DIY Wrapping

I dont know about you, but I find commercial warapping paper either quite boring or if its nice (more the latter in my case) and tasteful, hugely expensive.  I hadn`t found any I liked this year and had a wrapping urge last Sunday.  So what was a girl to do with the notion in her head and the gifts ready to wrap but not tools to complete this whim?  Answer, make it yourself.  Now, last year I used brown paper and stamped it up with some tags and red and white bakers twine.  This year, no forefthought at all so had to be even more resourceful.
A good few years ago, we bought my son a huge roll of drawing paper as he was always drawing. That has stopped and I found the roll on top of the kitchen cupboard.  This I stamped with a metallic blue mandala stamp and raspberry snowflake. Tags were simply cut from some blue gingham card I had in my stash. There is always some suitably  coloured embroidery floss floating around here. That just left the tying up finishing touch. I had some hessian which wa sleft over from previous projects and cut this into strips.  Apart from that large one, which the hessian was not long enough for. This was solved with brown paper cut into strips with fancy scissors and punched with my crop o dile punch.  What do think? I even made a cute gift bag for a small gift. Obviously,  there are a few more but these give a feel of what I did.

I finished The Crochet.....and started another...oops!

Well, as I mentioned in my last post, I finally after umpteen years have mastered crochet! I used a tutorial on you-tube and stayed up far too late, and it all suddenly made sense. I think this may be a bad thing in some ways as I am, if you will pardon the pun, totally hooked. It grows so fast. My hubby thinks its hilarious an just another addition to what he sees as my quirky pastimes. I don't think he would have me normal, so neither of us are really complaining. Little Mango loves it. She is so interested in it all its quite amusing. Here is a pictorial story of its evolution.

This was the 'Eureka' moment and the first of many



My little pile grows  larger (can you spot my reading material?)




Mango helps while I decide on lines or randomness



She cant quite wait for me to finish sewing all the squares together and commandeered some of the squares.

The 'Ta-dar' moment!

There has to be lots of shots as its going in the etsy shop.  I have started another now and I really cant keep everything I make.

So, its been a wonderful journey and I am so proud to have finally gotten to grips with something that has confounded me for so long. Though a little ashamed now I now how easy it is.  Its half term now and I intend (remind if I don't manage it) to have at least 2 new critters finished by this time next week.  Christmas is coming you know.

If you were looking for the giveaway, you need to be quick as it ends Monday 24th October at around 3 pm.  Its the next post down or just hit the highlighted word.

Goodbye Summer. Hello Autumn

So, the summer hols have come to another end.  As you may know, I work in a school for my day job so I, like lots of gleeful children, get 6 glorious week off in the summer.  Now, its has to be said that the weather hasn't been fabulous but its been ok, and,  if  I am honest, I am not that bothered.  Its just nice to have time for walking, fruit picking, gardening, knitting, sewing and cooking.  Phew! how do I get time to work at all?  I do a lot of these things during term time too but just more of it in the hols. 

There is always a degree of catching up with jobs like painting  the deck and trips to the recycling centre with LOADS of weeds. I even tidied the undersink cupboard!  This is an achievement for me.

My newest passion is jam!!!  Who knew it was that easy? Who knew I would become addicted?  I have not actually bought a jar of the stuff in a whole year.  We started off with just bramble last autumn. Then rhubarb and vanilla earlier in the year when the rhubarb was reduced loads in waitrose. Same in early summer when the strawbs were going for a song.  Recently I have gone on a foraging rampage and we have apple and blackberry jam and raspberry (foraged from my own garden) and blackberry jelly.  I have even considered picking hawthorn berries for jelly as I read they are perfectly fine.

So, here is what is left of my jam cupboard she says proudly. Needless to say,  I have nommed quite a lot and various family members have made off with a jar or two. I need to get some of those pretty tops going on really.  Chutney is the next project for half term. I have a fab recipe for Christmas. I may share if you are all very nice to me.

Don't worry, there has been sewing and knitting.  I have a couple of Halloween collectibles to show off next time and have even made a lovely Christmas bear with a bit of a panda look about her. Because that IS creeping up I am afraid. Think its about 15 and a half weeks or thereabouts. 

Summer Baking!

Today we had family round for lunch.  Not trusting the weather enough for a barbeque I rustled up chicken, quiche and chick pea burgers with a load of yummy salad.

But the reason I have blogged this fact is, infact, more about the pud.  Inspired by The Great British Bake Off and wanting to make up for the fact that my gluten freeness precluded me (and my poor family) from Tea at Reids` Palace whilst in Madeira.  I made some yummy mini chocolate eclairs and mini butterscotch sponges, all gluten free of course.  I am really quite pleased with the baking, if not the rather hasty pictures taken with my phone before the hungry rellies tucked in.