Category Archives: Advent Calendar

Keeping Mobile!

If last week’s post was all about the Hearts and Flowers Mobile, this week has just been about keeping mobile, full stop! Last Monday morning I was proceeding blamelessly down the road in my little car, an old faithful which has been in the family for years, and an elderly man pulled out of a side road straight into me. He confessed that he just didn’t see me. Neither of us was hurt, just shaken, and I thought I had got off lightly with a damaged bumper. Alas, an inspection at the garage discovered that all sorts of things had happened under the bonnet (you can tell I’m not terribly sure what happens under the bonnet!) and my car was deemed beyond economical repair.

I’ve forgotten which insurance company used to trumpet that they don’t make a drama out of a crisis, but it certainly wasn’t ours! I won’t bore you with the tale of how many hoops they produced for us to leap through, even when it was established I was completely blameless. I’ll gloss over the gibbering frustration and cut to the happy ending which was that the lovely man in our local garage (we went to primary school together) produced an ideal replacement which ticks all the boxes, particularly of transporting my mum and her wheelchair. And in the nick of time as Tim has just headed off in his car which is about to spend a week in the car park at Luton Airport. (Not Tim you understand, just his car!) So I’m mobile again, and I’ve got a much better use for hoops than jumping through, as you will see…

We’re about to plunged back into Winter apparently. I saw a newspaper headline yesterday which screamed “48 HOURS OF SNOW HELL!!” some people can expect “UP TO 10CM!!!” That’s around 4 inches if you are reading this in the US, where by all accounts some of you are sitting under 4 FEET and more of the stuff. If you are, I’m thinking of you. I’m sure you are coping better than the UK where the default position seems to be of ‘making a drama out of a crisis’ again. SO embarrassing!

So that’s why I’m going back to earlier in the week when the sun shone and Higgins and I went out into the garden to spot signs of spring. The primroses are still looking good…

There was just the one violet…

…a solitary crocus..

..and of course, my favourite snowdrops…

I brought this piece of Spring indoors too…

A good use for a favourite cup which has been glued back together after an unfortunate incident with a tabby cat!

And those hoops we were jumping through ? Well, I’ve made another mobile, for the knitters this time. Remember the Christmas ornaments from Day Two of the Advent Calendar? I just loved the mini yarn balls and needles so much I wanted to use them again…

It would be perfect for hanging in a craft corner…

…and a great way of using yarn scraps. (It reminds me of the story of the old lady who had a box in her dresser labelled ‘Pieces of String To Short to be Useful’, I have bags of yarn like that!)

Tomorrow I am back to needlefelting, neglected for too long. I have a group of 14 ladies from or local W.I.S.E. group (Women In Search of Entertainment) I just hope I can entertain them with a needlefelting class…we are making hearts and I hope to have some pictures for my next post.

I’m linking up with Handmade Monday later today which you’ll find hosted by Wendy over on Handmade Harbour and…

I’ll be back soon, have a lovely week …x

Advent Calendar Day – Twenty Four

And so here we are, day Twenty Four of the Advent Calendar and I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown. Thanks you so much for coming along with me, not just for Advent but for the whole year. It’s been fun and I’ve enjoyed the challenge.

The last thing we need at this point is something else to DO, it’s Christmas EVE for goodness sake! So I’ll leave you with something to get you in the mood.

I love this, I hope you do too….

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Advent Calendar – Day Twenty Three

Day Twenty Three on the Advent Calendar and my little girl is coming home for Christmas! And tomorrow Tim will be back, weather permitting and Christmas can begin…

So what we need is a seasonal tipple to celebrate and what could be better than mulled wine?

This is the recipe in my little black book which I always turn to…

1 bottle of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon or similar)

3/4ltr water

1 orange stuck with cloves

1 orange, slice

1 lemon sliced

3 tblsp sugar

small piece cinnamon stick

1 tspn ground ginger

2 tblsps brandy

With everything in saucepan, bring it up to simmering point stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Keep it at this heat for 20 min or more, but do not allow to boil or the alcohol will evaporate. (This can be made in advance and reheated)

Serve in warmed glasses.

What more can I say? Cheers and Bottoms Up!

Advent Calendar – Day Twenty Two

Today for the Advent Calendar I’m going to let you in on a big secret! It’s my special pudding for Christmas time, the one that people always get excited about and ask for. But the biggest secret about it is that it’s probably the easiest pudding I ever make, it’s one of the most delicious and everything you need can be stored in the fridge, freezer and cupboard ahead of time.

So before I regret letting the cat out of the bag here it is…

Penny’s Extra Special Extra Easy Christmas Trifle

You start off with either Trifle Sponges or Jam Swiss Roll which you either break up (the sponges) or slice (the Swiss Roll) Arrange in the base of a pretty serving bowl.

Take a 350g pack of frozen fruit, I use about half but it depends how fruity you want to be! I like raspberries or a mix of raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, scatter them over the sponge…

…reserving about a cupful. Put these in a small pan with a dessertspoon of sugar and a little water and heat slowly, stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved and you have a light fruity syrup. Stir in about 2 tablespoons of sherry, it’s always Harvey’s Bristol Cream in our house, and spoon over the fruit and sponge in the dish.

Next, the custard. You have three choices here. You can go down the route of ‘proper’ custard, with milk eggs and sugar and stirring and splitting, swearing and worrying, you can crack open the Bird’s Custard Powder and make a pint of custard according to the instructions, or you can buy a carton of your favourite supermarket’s readymade custard in a carton.

Whatever you choose, stir in 2 or 3 tablespoons of sherry until it’s completely blended and smooth and if it’s hot allow to cool slightly before spreading it over the fruit and sponge. The beauty of the frozen fruit is that it finishes cooling the custard, and the custard defrosts the fruit.

At this point you can cover the dish with cling film and pop it in the fridge for up to 24 hours. To finish, whip a carton of whipping or double cream until it forms soft peaks and cover the cold custard.

Then decorate. My personal favourite is toasted slivered almonds, but you could use more fruit, or glace cherries, or even hundreds and thousands. Whatever you use, I can guarantee compliments.

Today I’m off to my mum’s for a pre-Christmas get-together with my sister and her family, guess what I’m taking with me!

Ooh, we’re nearly there…see you tomorrow…x

Advent Calendar – Day Twentyone

I’m hoping that the Advent Calendar for today is going to get posted and that the world hasn’t ended yet. Those Mayans have a lot to answer for!

For me, the 21st December is a special day because it’s the Winter Solstice, and this date always means so much more to me than the man made celebrations of New Year. The shortest day, and tomorrow the world in the Northern Hemisphere starts turning forward into the light. Now that’s something to celebrate! We usually get together with friends for a celebration as we did last year but with Tim offshore and various other reasons it’ll just be me, Higgins and Henry tonight!

But that’s why today’s Advent make is all about light, I’ve been making candle holders.

I’ve always got too many jam jars, and although I could recycle them so many are just too nicely shaped to drop in the bottle bank. And I love to light the room wth candles in the winter, it looks so pretty and festive, so I’ve rootled around in amongst my pretty bits and pieces and decorated an assortment of glass jars for holding tea lights.

With pretty paper (this is the time you can print out on the most basic and thin 80gsm printer paper!) Lace scraps, short lengths of ribbon, cord, string and trimmings your imagination can run riot and you can fill your mantelpiece or windowsill with twinkling prettiness.

I hope that’s inspired you, even if it’s only to get all the half used jars out of the cupboard and make jam tarts so you can decorate them!

Talking of cooking, I have a date in the kitchen. Tomorrow I’m meeting my sister and family over at my mum’s for lunch, and I’ve promised to take one of my most popular edible creations to the party. I’ll be bake tomorrow to share the recipe…

I’ll see you then, and in the meantime, Happy Solstice!

Advent Calendar – Day Twenty

Can you believe we’re at Day Twenty on the Advent Calendar? I’m out in the office with the rain hammering on the roof in a most unseasonable fashion, while Higgins makes the most of his cosy little bed by the heater.

I’ve never known a dog who likes to be wrapped in a blanket as much as Higgins does!

Anyway, despite the gloom I’ve managed to take some photos of today’s make. (I seem to have had my camera set to the ‘Low Light’ setting for days and days). I loved the music sheets from this post so much I was determined to use it some more, so this time I’ve made a Christmas Song Bird.

It’s very simple to make and lends itself to all sorts of variations depending on the paper you use. You need something fairly sturdy, or a light card. Double sided wrapping paper would be good or you could scan or photocopy on to both sides of your sheet of paper. For children you could draw out the shape first for them to colour it in, then cut out and complete.

Because this requires a template I have made the instructions as a PDF so you can print it out. You’ll find it by clicking on Christmas Song Bird right here, then clicking again on the link which comes up. This is first time I’ve tried this so do let me know if you have problems.

So that’s the Advent Calendar for today, and I’ll be back tomorrow if we haven’t been washed downstream!

See you then…x

Planet Penny

Crafts, Needle Felting, Crochet, Patterns & Tutorials