Hang up those Stockings, santas coming

Eeeep! Its only 37  days until Christmas.  Good job I have some stockings.  They are exclusive to the folksy shop so dont look for them on etsy. Only lisitng them once as they are a fab price. Click on the links to take you to the individual listings or browse the shop here



Santa and Snowman Stocking



Icy Blue Snowman Stocking with knit look cuff

Cream Swirly Stocking with glittery holly cuff and toe

Santa sleigh ride stocking

They are all approx 37cm long and  16cm across the cuff. Just right for some small goodies.

More New items to show off

I have been busy making stock for the shop. I have just put these 2 in the etsy shop for now. I have opened a shop on folksy to cater for the UK market a bit more and am gradually adding things to that. Pretty much everything is one of one, so, if you see it in one and then in the other, there is still only one. I dont envisage it being a problem at this stage, but there are one or two things which you will only find in the one place.



Tabitha is my first cat design. More to follow



Rufus is a gorgeous raspberry red. He has a sister on the way shhhhh dont tell him yet he will get too excited!

New Bunny and Cute Chrimbo Decorations.

This is one of those purely promotional posts I am afraid.  I did not manage to finish 3 critters last week but did finish a couple of blankets which I am going to list over the next few days.
This weeks offerings are 



 Beautiful Brianna.

Brianna Bunny

Then I came up with these cute little felt and flannel mittens for your Christmas tree. I am really chuffed with these. You can pop choccies or tiny gifts in them and hang on your tree.  They look like i have raided the Cutey Critters wardrobe I think.  I have listed them as singles for £1.75 or a set of five for £7.50 saving you 25p on each one. You wont find these in DIY sheds or garden centres, they are quite unique.





Cute little mittens



Choose from these colours

Flying Apron Baking Book

Click here to find it on Amazon

I had my birthday last week and  one of my gifts was The Gluten Free & Vegan Baking Book.  I am not vegan but definitely gluten free so was delighted with this.  Now, it has to said before I go any further, if you are in the UK like myself, some of the ingredients are a bit alien.  More about that in a bit.  The concepts used in this book are also somewhat different to the norm.  It is a delightful book. I can honestly say, I have never had my nose in a cook book for so long. I just cant leave it alone.  Never have I read all the forewords and blurb at the back before, but this one I definitely have.  It is going to take some experimentation, but I shall not be defeated.  I have had a couple of failures, but know what is wrong with one, if not the other.  I have had a good outcome with today's recipe and the look of glee on my taste tester sons face summed it up for me.  Any recipe book that can produce a cookie that is much healthier and still makes him smile like that has to be good.

These photos are of the Chocolate Chip Cookies I made from the book.  I have to tell you, I did not use rice milk because I am not vegan, but ordinary semi skimmed.  Also the chocolate was not dairy free etc but none of these things I think would affect the finished result.  Also, you may notice I made some,  double chocolate ones too.  After the plain ones went in I added about an ounce of cocoa and about 2 tablespoons of water as cocoa really dries mixtures out.  This I am pleased to report was also a success but not in the book.
Some ingredients that are called something else in the UK

Garbanzo bean flour  = Gram flour, made from chick peas, like we use for bhajis.  I cant call it gram flour any more now. Garbanzo is such a good word!

Fava bean flour = broad bean flour (I haven't found that here yet)

Canola Oil  = rapeseed oil which is usually listed as vegetable oil here ( look on the back).  That said, I believe sunflower would be fine too.

Stevia = this is a plant based sweetener, also hard to find her.  Research suggest that a similar plant based sweetener called zylitol or xlitol would be a good substitute.  Both warn against using too much, as it can cause a laxative effect in large amounts.

Baking soda.  You prob know this one, but that's bicarbonate of soda, just in case.

That's what I found so far. Will update this list as I go along.

And the winner is..........

Drum roll please, the giveaway has been drawn courtesy of  Mr. Random number generator.

The winner of the little Tilda witch is

True Random Number Generator


Min: 1

Max: 26

Result:

9

Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Julie from A Tale From Toadstool House  who said

"Hi Joy ,thankyou for finding me,I love your Tilda witch and would love to enter your giveaway. Well done on the crochet,I learned last year and really love it!Its so addictive though,do you find? Hope you have a lovely evening,take care,julie.xxxxx"

Congratulations Julie, if you could let me know your details, I will get her in the post for you.

Thanks to all that entered and so sad I cant send every one of you a little witch. x

New Bears in time for Christmas

The giveway is now closed folks. I shall be collating the entries and making the draw later on today.
I have completed 2 new gorgeous bears for the shop. Click on the pictures to take you to the listings. Dont forget, I can set up interest free layaway listings for you if it makes it easier. Just ask, even  a 3 way split will be done by Christmas and as long as we time it right, with you for Christmas too.

Kiki, a ginger and white Panda

Victoria is a 18 inch beauty

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.