Baking, blocking and blogging

How do you cheer yourself up on a cold snowy day when confined to the house???? I found myself in this position yesterday and with the able assistance of GD Ellie we had a mammoth baking session.  Following recipes suggested by fellow bloggers and SCC girls we made

Carrot Cake supplied by the lovely Debbie over at Country Heart & Home

another Rocky Road Mountain adapted from the Domestic Goddess Nigella's recipe

Jam Tarts & Butterfly Cakes

After the children had tea this evening there is not much left !!

The next recipe to try is Chocolate Orange Marble cake from Big Red Hearts blog

My girls have been their usual obliging selves and provided some yummy eggs for these recipes despite the weather conditions.

And to finish the day today I have managed to put together my first four blocks for Loft Creations No Strings Challenge

and here they are made from some mini print FQs that I have in my stash .... a whole bag of them acquired for the princely sum of a fiver at a car boot sale last year

Job done ....

At the beginning of December I took a look round my little sewing sanctuary and decided it was about time I used some of the vintage textiles that I have accummulated.  I scoured my book collection, websites and blogs for inspiration and finally settled on the idea that I could recycle or upcycle quite a lot of them into a quilt.

Today I am proud to present my circle quilt

Apart from the new polyester wadding inside it everything else is vintage.  The white squares were a damask tablecloth in a previous life which had some stains and holes but still some very useable fabric in it.  The circles were from table mats, runners, tray cloths, seat covers ...... some hand embroidered, Sanderson print, vintage oriental bird .... a multitude of colours all complimenting each other.  The border fabric is very old and was a door curtain from a children's home.  The backing fabric in a gorgeous Liberty print called Corsham was a pair of curtains.  The sewing thread came from an old cantilever sewing box acquired last year too.

I can honestly say I have never felt such satisfaction in one of my makes as I have with this one.  Made with love and I hope you will agree that it has given a new lease of life to some wonderful textiles that most people would bin.

Now comes the hard bit ..... it would make a lovely heirloom but not for this family .... I have decided that this one will be for sale but I haven't decided where or for how much yet. 

I hope I have inspired some of you to try something similar and for my next project I have decided to join Loft Creations No Strings Attached challenge.  Go on give it a go .... you know you want to ;-)

Coldest day so far

Today has to be the coldest so far this winter .... woke up to a very heavy frost this morning and at 10.30 am the temperature was still only -4 degrees .... brrrrrr.  When I went to let the chooks out at half eight I took the camera because the trees and bushes in the garden looked splendid with their white frosting.

I am a great fan of Freecycle.  For those of you who don't know the website it is a fantastic means of keeping loads of unwanted goods out of landfill.  I use it regularly when I am having a clear out of the clutter (a lifetime's work in my case!) and if I am looking for something in particular I always take a look at our local groups.  At the weekend I posted a request for a dog bed for Ruby because she is behaving so well it is time for the cage to go and a very kind lady offered one immediately.  It had been living in her loft for three years and now Ruby is quite at home in it.  Late last night a new batch of postings came online and I couldn't believe my eyes ..... I have been looking for one of these for ages and really wanted one to do up for Ellie at Christmas

Good things come to those who wait so they say

It is teacher training day at our school today so I have three children back with me today ..... we have been making samosas this afternoon .... very warming on such a cold day and a great way to use up leftover veg.

The Recipe

225g plain flour

half tsp salt

2 tbsp cooking oil

warm water to mix

I just bung the lot in the food processor and pour the water in slowly till it forms a soft dough.

Leave for half an hour to rest (have a cuppa ;-)

Roll out and cut into circles then cut the circles in half

For the filling fry a chopped onion in some oil

Then add a Shwartz Bombay Potato Mix, a tin of chopped tomatoes and 100ml water

Add whatever leftover cooked veg you have or just parboil a mix of potato, peas, beans etc (a bag of frozen mixed veg would do the job too)

Leave to cool while you are making the samosa pastry

Dampen the semi circles of pastry, put a blob of filling in centre and fold over and seal.

Deep fry till golden

Happy New Year everyone

Well there it is all done and dusted for another year .... I've just taken down the tree and everything is back in the loft until next time.  I love the build up to Christmas but always feel tired and stressed on the day itself.  Boxing Day is my favourite day when I can relax.  Always felt the same and don't suppose I will change now.

I thought I would share this with you today .... it is from a book I purchased for the grand total of £1 a couple of years ago in Lyme Regis.  It is a little tatty and forlorn but then so would we all if we were 133 years old.

It is a lovely collection of children's stories and was published by Ward Lock in London in the 1870s  .... this inscription is on the inside cover

What a kind Uncle William he was and I wonder who Dear Little Amy was.

There are stories for each month of the year and this is the one for January

There has been lots of talk on other blogs about plans, targets, resolutions, lists of things to do etc etc

Well my plan is to take each day as it comes and be thankful for that day.  I will not fret about what I haven't achieved and will just concentrate on the things that I can do.  All this list making is useful in its own way but we really run the risk of creating more stress by worrying about it.  An old work friend used to say "if nobody is going to die then it aint worth worrying about"  and I always remind myself of this when I feel the stress levels rising.

On the 24th of this month it will be my 1st blogiversary ..... this time last year I discovered blogland purely by accident and I am so glad that I did .... there are so many lovely people out there and it truly restores your faith in humankind to know this.

To celebrate this nearer the time I will be having a birthday giveaway.

Take it easy

If you haven't got it in already don't worry about it it won't be the end of the world .... I am certainly on a wind down now and if I don't get to the shops tomorrow then so what!  We won't starve ..... I listened to some bloke whingeing on the radio yesterday that his Asda shopping hadn't been delivered .... how does he think the Asda drivers get to work .... they don't have superhuman powers to avoid the snow and dumped vehicles.  When I was a child the whole country shut down for a week and there was none of this 24/7.  I can remember mum having to get enough bread and milk in to see us through ..... those were the days ;-)

It is my last day of having the minded children today until the 4th January .... a well deserved rest I hope you will agree ..... my first child arrives at 8 am and the last one leaves at 6 pm for five days a week and my last week off was in August.  Next week I will have lie-ins till at least 8 o'clock and spend the rest of my day fiddling round in my sanctuary.

This afternoon we are having our Christmas party with lots of games, food, fizz and music and then I will hand the little darlings back to their parents with their Christmas gift bags.  We still have a blanket of snow this morning and it is frozen solid with sleet forecast for this evening ..... looks like the telly and Tia Maria for me tonight ..... Bridget Jones is on and although I've seen it umpteen times before I will watch again and dream of Mr Firth  ...... I would like to think that he is as much a gentleman in real life as he is in the film.

The Spode dinner service that I have been collecting is now out of the cupboard .... I longed for this for years but couldn't afford it when the children were small but I've been collecting it bit by bit (mostly from Ebay) for the past few years.

Time now for some of this and then I'd better get started on the party food for later.

Portmeirion tableware .... they do some lovely gift sets for children too

Obsessed with snow

Like a lot of other bloggers I just cannot resist getting the camera out during this cold spell we are having .... these were taken very early this morning and this afternoon when we went to the local park with the children and dogs .... I couldn't believe we were the only ones there and there was loads of lovely snow just right for snowmen and snowballing.

The telephone wires look like spider's webs

My snow puppy who looked liked a black and white poodle by the time we came home .... she had huge balls of snow stuck to the feathering on her legs

Will it last till Friday though????

Pause in Advent Week 4

What a week it has been.  The weather has caused havoc but has also provided some additional time at home to reflect and think.  We are not a church going family but we do have our values and beliefs passed down through the generations.  I do love to read about everyone else's experiences through blogger and it is fascinating to see how we all have different ways of looking at the world and our lives but we all have a common thread of family and community running through. 

I can't believe that in January it will be one whole year since I discovered this wonderful world of blog  .... the time has really flown by and it has brought some lovely new friends.

I will, as always, use this time to look back on our year which has had it highs and lows.   Two lovely weddings to attend and the birth of another scrumptious grandson.  Then the passing of my sister in law, my husband's operation and the fragility of his employment have weighed against these highs.  Now I will take stock and start planning for the next twelve months ..... I am a firm believer in that you have to make your own luck and not just sit back and wait for things to happen.

So on this final Sunday in Advent I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and send my best wishes and happy blogging for 2010.