Monthly Archives: November 2010

Christmas Smells

We’re really getting into the swing of Christmas here on Planet Penny, are you keeping up? My main problem has been that if I’m being creative I can’t squeeze in the blogging, sorry, I will try harder!

Delia’s’ Happy Christmas’ is sitting up on the kitchen bar and I have in progress Christmas cake, Christmas pudding AND mincemeat. All of it has to sit over night for the flavours to blend so the kitchen will be a frenzy of activity tomorrow too. But the smell is already tantalising, mixed spice, cinnamon and my favourite, freshly grated nutmeg, the zesty tang of oranges and lemons and heady aroma of the dried fruit for the cake, steeping in brandy. (note to self – I must not pick and nibble…no, no, NO!)

This morning I popped out to the shop where the sun was shining on the snow and a brass band was playing carols which made me feel really festive so when I heard what a depressing play was on the radio I abandoned it for my ‘free from the Daily Mail’ carols CD….

Higgins, under protest, has gone for walk so I have been able to quickly clear up the carnage left after he disemboweled his festive reindeer soft toy, new today, little terror. He seems to think his mission in life is to remove the squeaks from all his toys, leaving a trail of stuffing all through the house.

So what have I been up to? Well next Saturday we have a Christmas Fair at our village hall and the Knit and Stitch Group have a table to fill. I have been stitching and stuffing in ever available spare moment, producing little hearts…

and birds…

The next project is to find a twiggy branch which I can turn into a tree for them to perch on at the fair, my cherry blossom branches don’t look Christmassy enough…

As usual I am battling with the light for photographs, flash does weird things with the colour. I find I don’t have one photo which shows that each little bird is made with two different but complementing colours with little silver stars for eyes, and every bird is different.

If you would like to buy the hearts or birds without a trip to Norfolk please get in touch!

Higgins is home now, and very tired. He can’t think who could have done the naughty thing to his toy and made all that mess, because he is, of course, a very good dog. Look, butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, now would it?

Blog Award

The lovely Teje of Nero’s Post and Patch has given me an Award! Thank you so much Teje, one day we must get Nero and Higgins together, that would be an achievement! As part of the award I must reveal seven secret things about myself which has set me thinking. So I will continue to think as I decide who I can pass the award on to which is really hard. Hard because I read so many blogs, and there are so many talented and versatile people out there who have become blogging friends, and I can only choose three, only three?

So, with difficulty I will choose, without further ado…..

Penelope at L is for Love, Julie at Swedish House and Lisa at Bobobun for their versatility and alround fabulousness!

Now these secrets..Hmm, I do have secrets but most of them are really quite boring…

Who know ALL the goss….?

Ah! I know! Higgins! he knows all my darkest secrets…

If you click here, he will tell you everything…

Buying! and SELLING!

Despite the foggy weather it’s been pretty jolly here on Planet Penny this weekend. I hope yours is being just as much fun.
Yesterday morning we set off to Holt in North Norfolk to the third Pick n’Mix Makers Market organised by Teena of Kitschen Pink, and Lisa of Bobo Bun. The Church Hall was filled with not only beautiful things but with lovely people I have been gradually getting to know through the blogging world.

It was funny to be greeted by cries of ‘Planet Penny? You must be Higgins’ Mummy!’ There were a lot of people disappointed he didn’t put in an appearance, but I think he would have cramped our style a little. Emma from Silver Pebble was there, with a gorgeous display of her jewelry, and since she had asked me take along one of my Robins to buy, a little bargaining and bartering meant that she could go home with the Robin of her choice, and I had these wonderful earings.

I had gone with Christmas shopping in mind, but it’s going to be hard to part with this set of little notebooks from The Lapwing Printworks

– I actually need to write down my Cunning Plans – and this soap from Perfect Scents is heavenly.

Later on in the town we visited Verandah, a shop run by a co-operative of artists ( where I always want to spend too much money), and where I found these pottery Christmas decorations.

See how focused I am? Well there are only 34 days to go!

But I didn’t just spend money yesterday, I MADE some! How amazing is that? I actually sold FIVE Robins! Why I have so little confidence in what I do that I have taken so long to get to grips with marketing it I don’t know. I think it’s the curse of working alone, in a vacuum. And although I’ve been gaining confidence thanks to all you lovely people and your positive feedback, I really needed to be shoved off that diving board so I could start swimming. Special mention must go to Emma, and to Celia of Purple Podded Peas, and my fellow procrastinators!

And that wasn’t the end of it. I got home to a request to buy one of my cushions!!

Kerching!

For the first time in a long time I ended the day richer than when I started!

So here I am, thinking positive. I hope I can spread it around, there are lots of talented people in blogland hiding their lights under the proverbial bushel, you can do it too!

P.S. This post took a little longer than intended. Half way through, Higgins’ magic nose detected the sweetie Tim dropped down the side of the reclining armchair. Have you ever tried to remove a dachshund from the inside of an armchair? In another life, I’d have Truffle Hound… In reality, a Jelly Bean Hound. Probably just right for Planet Penny…

Robin Redbreast

Oh, woops…Wrong photo, wrong Robin Redbreast! ( Higgins does like to join in)

Remember I mentioned robins the other day? Well, since then I’ve been seeing them all over the place and I particularly liked this image in Country Living.

But I’ve also been having a lovely time with the needle felting,which I have sadly neglected lately with all the knitting and crochet work I’ve been doing. I’ve really got to get back to making the big stuff I enjoy so much, but just at the moment I’ve been having lots of fun with my Christmas theme in mind. Hence the robins…

I love the way they fit into the palm of the hand, they are very tactile, if time consuming to make. I can just imagine how sweet they would look as a Christmas table centre, or all along a mantlepiece. That was the intention, but I have been getting sternly spoken to by my artist friends. How long ago did I first mention selling on line? Don’t tell me, it’s too long. I’ve been procrastinating like mad, in the name of research. However, after an assortment of dire threats from people I had previously assumed were sweet and mild mannered…ladies, you know who you are!…I have taken the plunge.

Planet Penny is now a Folksy Shop..Ta DAAA!

As from half an hour ago.

And there my little robins are available to buy. At the moment, I have said I’m only shipping to the UK, but do get in touch if you live somewhere else and would like to make a purchase.

Now I have to work out how to put a link on the side bar… Hmm, please bear with me, I think there might be a few teething problems before I get it right!

Edited to add: As of 2012, Planet Penny is to be found on Etsy, where the latest versions of the needlefelt Robins are to be found…

No More ‘Bah, Humbug’

Delia's Happy Christmas

This year I’m taking back Christmas. I’ve spent too long being made cynical by the avalanche of glittery glitzy comercialisation which starts it’s inexorable rumble around the middle of October. I’m left feeling overwhelmed and inadequate by Christmas Eve because I’m not hosting my own little festive drinks party, handing round my Marks and Spencers nibbles wearing the little black dress I have successfully slimmed into over the preceding weeks, my face dewy from the Clarins facial I fitted in earlier on in the day while having a pedicure. I only recover my equilibrium on Christmas morning when, wrapped in an apron, I potter round the kitchen with the sprouts and the turkey with carols on the radio, talking to family and getting back to what Christmas is really all about.

I’ve already experienced the familiar panicky feeling in the supermarket when confronted by pyramids of Quality Street and Roses tins, I just want to run away and hide till it’s all over. Last year I got in such a flap because nobody sold Christmas cards I could bear to write my name in, I didn’t send any at all!

So …NO MORE…

This year it WILL be different.

Last night I sat tucked up on the sofa with Delia and Nigella and the Christmas issues of Country Living,

Country Homes and Interiors …

and the Sainsbury Magazine …

and got in the mood. I’m all geared up to make a Christmas cake for the first time in years, (I probably won’t be doing anything very ambitious with the icing after the Fairy Cake debacle!) AND a pudding, AND mincemeat. I will share with you the frangipane mince pie recipe I discovered last year which turned me from ‘take it or leave it’ on the mince pie front to a ‘sneak into the pantry last thing at night’ greedy pig.

And I shall make more decorations and share those with you too.

This isn’t a spur of the moment decision either. If you’ve been visiting Planet Penny for a while you may remember this post from way back. I didn’t mention it again because it seemed to frighten you all!

There are 39 days to go. Maybe this year I will be organised? Are you going to join in?

Cup Cakes – or Fairy Cakes?

I’ve had a rebellion about the whole cup cake thing. When I was child, we had fairy cakes, and butterfly buns and that was just what I made for birthday parties when my children were small. I think it was Nigella Lawson in her Domestic Goddess role who started the whole American cup cake thing in Britain. Now, I’ve nothing against having a cultural mix on the culinary front, in fact I think the national dish of Great Britain is actually Tikka Masala. But I don’t see the point in renaming an English teatime classic in order to making it appear, I don’t know, more fashionable? if I went to New York I would be so happy to seek out a cup cake (or two?) but I like the whole English Vicarage tea party idea of the fairy cake or the butterfly bun.

But I was happy to enter a cup cake competition which was in aid of Children in Need which was what my friend Emmeline at the Cherryleaf Coffee House in Norwich was running this Sunday. We paid to enter four cakes, one was tasted by the judges and then the rest were sold to raise money for this amazing good cause.

You know, I haven’t done the butter icing thing for ages. These days I tend towards a more grown-up icing sugar/lemony thing on my little cakes but I decided that I would fly the flag on the whole fairy/cup cake thing and make butterfly buns and you have to have butter icing for those. Now, Nigella appears to waft about the kitchen in her dressing gown whipping up tasty morsels. Me, in the kitchen with butter and icing sugar probably needed industrial protective clothing.

And it probably wasn’t a good idea to pop the icing sugar and butter (and it was chopped and softened, I’m not completely stupid) into a bowl and switch on the food mixer. Once I’d cleared the fog of icing sugar ( and removed the sneezing pets) I could see that the icing was actually blending together nicely, and was ready to be piped. I could only get the syringe type of icing equipment when I dashed to the local supermarket, just the same design as the one I threw out in disgust years ago. And it had all the same design faults. The collar which attached the nozzle didn’t quite fit and the thread kept crossing so it popped off. The syringe part didn’t quite screw in tightly so it fell off at crucial moments. By the time I had created four buns out of the twelve I had made which were worthy of public scrutiny I had butter icing over everything. The work top, the floor, Higgins, (Henry ran off at the icing sugar cloud stage) my clothes, hair….

Oh, and some buns…

…butterfly buns… They taste fine, I put lemon juice and zest in the cake mix and orange juice and zest in the icing.

We got the buns to the Cherryleaf this morning. There were lots of entries, and I know that to date £90 has been raised for Children in Need which is fantastic.

Back home, I can now reveal my sixth and final cushion. This time I went for zigzags, and I’m really happy I did. It took a little time to make the colour sequence flow, but I think this is my favourite of all. I like it even more than the fair isle ones, there is something really zingy about it. What do you think?

I’m feeling bad because I have been promising for ages to post a zigzag tutorial, but it is under way and will be here hopefully this week.

I have been overwhelmed by the lovely comments I have have had over the last months, thank you all so much. It’s wonderful to feel I have made so many new friends in Blogging Land, both in cyber space and in reality. I’m also SO excited to see something I have devised and written a pattern for being made by someone else. Do go over to Penelope by the Sea’s blog to see her version of the Christmas Bunting. I’d love to see other versions if you have made them.

I must away now, I have a date with some robins…

Curious?

Come back again and find out!

In the meantime, there is also a little bit of butter icing to chip off the kitchen door!

P.S. I’ve just found out I won the prize for the best looking cupcake. Wow!! First time I’ve ever won a beauty contest!