Category Archives: Nature

Carrot Cake! – for Handmade Monday

I’m sitting at the computer in the gloom, listening to the rain hammering down. This is certainly the wettest drought I’ve ever experienced!

In fact now it’s hailing, so that’s going to do for the blossom on the cherry trees, what a crazy mixed up spring!

I’m just praying that Mother Nature will get it all out of her system before the 12th May, and the wedding.

This morning Kit and I went off to the Forum in Norwich to deliver our pieces for the Norfolk and Norwich Open Studio Taster Exhibition, which starts tomorrow, so I no longer have my branch of woolly birds hanging on the wall. I’m rather missing their colourfulness!

Once again my creativity this week has been of the secret kind, with the wedding in mind, but I do have a completely scrummy cake recipe to share. Hands up who likes carrot cake!

Unfortunately I didn’t get to it quickly enough with the camera, but you can get the impression of yumminess from this last remaining slice I’m sure! I’ve put the recipe in the Planet Penny recipe folder, or you can find it here.

It’s been a little quiet on the Planet Penny Cotton Club front of late because I have been awaiting an elusive out of stock colour, but it’s now on it’s way, so if you are on the waiting list, please bear with me, it’ll be here very soon. ( If you are a new visitor you can find out all about it if you follow the link.)

However, I have been plotting, yet another ‘cunning plan’! I’ve had a huge amount of traffic on the Crochet Rainbow Mouse Pattern page and it’s been pinned on lots of Pinterest boards and ‘liked’ on Facebook hundreds of times, and people have asked to buy the finished articles.

It occurred to me that if you really wanted to make the whole set of mice in all the rainbow colours, but didn’t want to end up with lots of unused balls of yarn left over then it could be good to buy a Rainbow Mouse Pack, with the required amount of yarn to make one mouse in each colour, which would make it much more economical.

So, that’s what I am offering, and at the moment I have just three packs, on a first come first served basis. The pack contains 14 balls of yarn, each ball enough to make one crochet Mouse…

…with the pattern and instructions on how to make it into a mouse wreath, plus the beads for the eyes and noses. All you will need to add would be a 3mm crochet hook, toy stuffing and some black sewing thread, and if you want to make a wreath, I used a florists wire base which cost 75p.

I’m offering the packs at £15.00 each, plus £3.50 P&P (UK)

If you would like to purchase a Rainbow Mouse pack, please contact me here and let me know your address, and the email address linked to your Paypal account and I will send you a Paypal invoice to pay. It’s as simple as that!

Don’t forget, if you haven’t already entered, the draw to win Goldie, the needlefelt sheep is still running. I will be taking the winning name out of the hat next Sunday in time for next week’s Handmade Monday, so there is still time to leave a comment on the post, and for extra entries, ‘like’ Planet Penny on Facebook, follow @woollyplanet on Twitter, or become a Planet Penny blog follower and let me know about it.

In the meantime, I shall leave you with the usual link to 1st Unique Gifts and the Linky to all the other creative bloggers taking part, do go and have a look, and I’ve just joined the High Tea Linky Party at Black Cat Originals where you’ll find some more yummy recipes.

I’ll be back soon….x

Silent Sunday

Needlefelt Sheep for Handmade Monday

I don’t know what the weather is doing in your part of the world, but despite the bright sun, fluffy clouds and blue sky, the wind feels as if it’s just blown off a snow field in this corner of Norfolk! It doesn’t help that we know we live in the windiest spot in the village, as you can see by our proximity to the village mill, now sadly defunct. That’s us, at the end of the arrow…

So even though I’m still finding plenty of newly emerging flowers…

The view is still decidedly wintery…

…and it would actually be really good to get some rain, and I don’t say that very often!

I’m going to share some other people’s handmade lovelies with you now, before making a very exciting announcement! So first of all, have you come across a book called Best in Show – Knit Your Own Cat?

One of the ladies at our Knit and Stitch group was given this for Christmas, and has been knitting her own cats ever since!

Aren’t they amazing? Imagine knitting a tail, with 4 stitches, on 4 needles!

And, since I am running out of time in my life to make anything for me, I went off to Folksy to find myself a peg bag and found just what I wanted from Plum Pudding, and couldn’t resist these little heart fridge magnets as well…

There are so many pretty things in the shop, and the fabrics are right up my street.

And now for my big announcement…

This is my 300th Blog Post!

Added to which, I have just galloped past 100,000 visits on the Planet Penny stats, so as a thank you to all you lovely people who have loyally followed, and commented and generally joined in, I’m going to have a prize draw.

This time, I’m offering a very special prize. Do you remember my needlefelt sheep?

There haven’t been any sheep in the Folksy shop for a while, something I mean to address very soon, and they usually sell for £30.00. But, I have one very special sheep looking for a good home, and because this is an occasion worth celebrating, I am offering her as the prize. Meet Goldie…

Goldie could be yours, all you have to do is to leave a comment on this post for a place in the draw. If you ‘like’ me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter you’ll go into the hat again! It’s that simple… I’ll keep it open for a couple of weeks to give you all a chance to join in.

And can I make a plea for some healing vibes to be sent my way on Tuesday? I dashing off after teaching the needlefelt course at The OutHouse Studio on Tuesday morning to have a tooth out in the afternoon, at two thirty would you believe…(tooth hurty!?…sorry..) So I may be a bit feeble for the rest of the week.

Anyway, off to 1st Unique Gifts now to link up for Handmade Monday again, do go and see what everyone else has been up to.

See you soon x

Silent Sunday

It’s Spring, It’s Spring!

Wow! Look at the sunshine!

I think Tim brought it back with him. We went off for a walk in Bacton Woods yesterday. We haven’t been since the time Higgins had a play with a very bouncy spaniel, got a sore leg and had to be carried back to the car. He might be little but he’s very solid! But it was lovely, and I’ve spotted clumps of bluebells so we must be sure to go back again at the right time.

The gorse made a lovely splash of yellow…

…and Higgins even met a little friend…

I’ve spent the afternoon in the garden today, I’m glad you can’t see the compost under my fingernails! I’m trying very hard to keep up with the Garden Diaries but I’m afraid I’m a bit of a fair weather gardener. The broad beans are coming on very nicely and I might have a few baby salad leaves to harvest next week, but the carrots and spring onions are taking their time. I hope a bit of warm weather might do the trick.

More and more things are bursting into flower. This really is my favourite time of year. You can feel things growing all around, and I love the fact that the roadsides are filled with daffodils and the hedges with the starry white blackthorn blossom, and every time I go out in the garden something else has popped out.

There’s still the odd garden pest though!

I also love the weeping willow at this time of the year, at the point where the leaves have emerged just enough to turn the branches limey green without hiding its gracefulness.

I’ve been very busy indoors too, and after all the wrapping and packing I’m nearly at the end of this batch of rainbow yarn. I’ve had so much lovely feedback as the pink parcels have arrived at their destinations.

‘My cotton has just arrived ! It is so so gorgeous (even better than I thought!)’

‘The cotton arrived yesterday afternoon. It is WONDERFUL!! Better than any cotton I have ever used. I LOVE it! THANK YOU so much for sharing. I am off to crochet a little mouse… 8-)’

And it’s great (and just a little strange) to see the yarn turning up on other blogs in other countries, in Australia and the USA.

If you haven’t got your pack yet,

find out all about it here,

Please get in touch with any questions

here

I’ve been needlefelting, working on the piece for the Taster Exhibition at the Forum in Norwich for Open Studios but I haven’t anything to show you just yet! What is so frustrating is having a pattern in my head for another crochet idea and NO TIME TO MAKE IT! I’ll try very hard to fit it in before Handmade Monday comes around again, I do hope it works.

So on that note I’d better stop chatting, and skedaddle off to work again, I hope the sun’s been shining where you are…

See you soon…x

Higgins and the Bootscraper

Ever since the East Anglian drought situation has been in the news, it has barely stopped raining in this little corner of Norfolk! Poor Higgins couldn’t leave the house on Monday because the floods in both directions were deeper than his little legs could cope with, even if he was prepared to venture out in the rain.

We got out yesterday, but the all pervading gloom really put a damper on things…roll on Spring!

We also fell foul of the dreaded hedge cutter. I know it make things quicker and more efficient to have large machines to cope with things that might have been a full time job for one man, but I hate the way the hedge cutter just rips and slashes the twigs and branches from the hedges and small trees, leaving jagged stumps and debris scattered all over the lanes. Higgins stopped dead in his tracks and held up a paw half way through the walk and had to be upended so I could remove a thorn from his pad. (He was very brave…)

You can see that having this to contend with on a regular basis would make a bootscraper by the back door a useful thing to have. I was very excited when a friend sent me this link a few weeks before Christmas with the perfect Christmas pressie for Tim, who is always a nightmare to buy for.

Source: grahamandgreen.co.uk via Penny on Pinterest

I duly sent off the order feeling quite smug that for once I was ahead of my usual Christmas panic. Unfortunately, I didn’t make any allowances for the Higgins factor, and when it arrived, conveniently while Tim was offshore so I didn’t have to worry about secrecy, I unwrapped it and put it on the floor to admire it….

Oh dear…

Competition? Or maybe a little friend to play with?

It’s probably just as well I don’t have a little film, complete with wuffing and gruffing and growling and yodelling which goes with these photos…

We’ve tried to sneak it out by the back door while Higgins isn’t looking, but as soon as he spots it he starts all over again, so for now it’s on a high shelf in Tim’s workshop…

As I said, Oh dear….

I’ve got lots more to ‘show and tell’ but reliving this means I need a cup of tea, if not a lie down! Do please have a game with Higgins in the side bar, he loves chasing the ball. And it is possible to make him roll over, has anyone managed to do that yet?

I’ll be back with Planet Penny Cotton Club news, see you soon x