Monthly Archives: August 2011

A Wave in Passing…

…to Handmade Monday!  I shouldn’t really be here…I’m packing….. but I just had to fit in a quick post before we take off for a few days at the seaside.

I do seem to have packed quite a lot of little projects to take with me, you know, just in case.  It would be terrible to have idle hands!

So, there are the birthday socks to finish…

…a few more squares to add to the blanket…

…and if I need a change,  something warm and snuggly to made from this, I haven’t decided quite what yet…

as well as a couple of books, my camera, notebook….

I’ve just time to share the birthday cake, (well, pictures of it, that’s all that’s left!) which I made for a friend’s birthday party over the weekend.  An extremely clever friend who built his own car….

…like this…

When I come home I will share the recipe of this, the most chocolatey chocolate cake in the world…it’s called Clovis cake!

All will be explained…..

So do pop along to Handmade Monday 31 to see who else is joining in.  Sorry to be so brief, Higgins and I will be back soon with tales of holiday fun….

Byeeee! xx

 

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A Push in the Right Direction…

…sometimes you need a little shove.  I’ve got rather off track over the last few weeks with highs – birthday celebrations, and lows – the poorly pussy cat, so I’ve been really grateful for a bit of focus.  So I’m saying a big thank you to two blogging lovelies who have put in a lot of work to come up with a ‘Big Idea’ which not only concentrates the mind, but introduces a whole new section of the blogging fraternity.

Firstly, there’s Silent Sunday.  It’s a wonderful idea, which you can find out all about here, because if, like me, you always have your camera with you, even when the week is such that you just have no words… there is always a photo which will say it for you. Thank you Jay, photographer extraordinaire!

And then there’s Handmade Monday, curated by Wendy of Ist Unique Gifts who has concentrated my mind wonderfully over the last couple of weeks so I’m getting back on track. Thank you ladies!

So what have you been up to, I hear you wondering… Well, I’ve been tinkering around with the idea of making framed pieces using  needlefelting, to give more of a context to them, and I’m just beginning to feel happy going in that direction.  My first piece was this, which is in the folksy shop now…

And with my Handmade Monday hat on today I put the finishing touches to this…

…a framed flying pig….I’m very fond of the flying pig!

I’ve painted and distressed the frames I bought to experiment with, they are a soft Swedish grey with a beeswax sheen which is a favourite of mine.  Quite a few pieces of nondescript furniture in our cottage have had that treatment!  I wan’t sure what to put in the smallest of the frames but today I devised this….

…the ribbon along the bottom has been hand printed to say…

And just to add the little extra to the whole ‘handmade’ aspect of this evening, as I’ve been typing this, the room, no the whole house, has been filled with the smell of Banana Bread cooking! I feel SO virtuous!

Which reminds me, thank you so much for all the lovely comments about the Welsh Cakes.  They really seemed to strike a chord, especially with expat Welsh ladies!  I hope the recipe worked for you, and brought back a little taste of home…

If you want to meet all the other Handmade Monday Bloggers, you’ll find them here. And if you decide to join in, with this or Silent Sunday, do let me know, I’ll be paying you a visit!

See you soon! x

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Taking out Stitches…

…or ‘frogging’, as it is sometimes called.  If you’re wondering why, as you unpick your precious stitches, you will, ‘Rippit, Rippit’!

Today was the day Henry went to be frogged!  He was not impressed…

I took as a good sign just how MAD he was about the whole thing.  Only 4 stitches but the fury, the spitting and snarling …phew! We’re both glad that’s over…

Higgins checked out the crate…

…and the patient…

…a risky business with that cold nose!

so Henry went to bed, and I had a soothing cuppa, and did some therapeutic baking.

When my children were very young we lived for a few years in Pembrokeshire, in fact my daughter as born there.  We were very rural and I didn’t drive, so  we were very self sufficient, and any treats were homemade or foraged.  Jam was always blackberry, although as the children complained about ‘lumps’ it was bramble jelly, there was a freelance apple tree, and one amazing year  the biggest field mushrooms I’ve ever seen.

I was always baking to feed these hungry mouths and a favourite was Welsh Cakes.  I haven’t made any for years, and was amazed to find I could dredge the recipe up from memory (this is the memory that never knows where the car keys are!)

 If you’d like to try them out, I’ve added them to the Recipe page which you’ll find at the top.

I have a knitting project on the go too, some birthday socks for a dear friend.  Hard wearing and colourful was the key, and I must extol the wonders of Twitter again.  I tweeted for recommendations and got an answer back from the lovely Pip of the Sock Yarn Shop. I wizzed over and had a really hard job to choose from all the lovely yarns and colours but finally settled on a  Kaffe Fassett  design for Regia.  I ordered in the afternoon and was unwrapping the parcel at 8 o’clock the following morning!

…and I got a free bag to keep it in!

I think I’ve been creative enough today to join in with Handmade Monday, despite the feline frogging!   Have you heard about it? You’ll find a guest post explaining  it on Craft Blog UK which is well worth a look in itself if you’re a fellow blogger.

So I think it’s time to get back to the knitting needles if I’m to finish the socks by the end of the month, and offer a warm lap to Henry to make up for the indignities of the day.

 

See you soon…..x

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