HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Bake or Fake!

Hello Ladies, first things first. I would just like to say thank you to Lyn at Everyday Life for giving me this award.
The 'Lemonade' award is for "seeing blessings where they're not obvious and make lemonade instead if complaining about sour lemons"

Thank you sweetie.

And talking of lemons... This is lemon layer pudding.


This pudding is all mixed together in one bowl but then during baking, separates, leaving sponge on the top and lemon sauce on the bottom!


Pure genius! No need to make custard!
I need to find a chocolate recipe!
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Well that was the real deal and now for a little 'fake baking'

Mince pies!
All made from fabric of course.

A little bit of sticky mince meat oozing from under the lid.

Hmmm..... can you smell them. Tee hee!

I love the little red berries, three different red beads.

It's no good, I'm going to have to make some real ones!

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Granny Pilleys Treasure

Are you ready then?

Are you sitting comfortably?

Shall I begin?

Okeydokey then.

One rather beautiful needlepoint picture, destined for my wall.

Just look at all this scrummyness!

Oh the anticipation!

a beautiful crewel embroidery

Next a bag of old, mostly cotton lace.
Some of these still have the paper binding around them with a price written in pencil 2'/6

not sure about Granny Pilleys taste in clothes!

Home made though.

Some hand pieced patchwork. She's used lots of old envelopes for the templates.

From the address, she must have lived near Bath for a while.
The post mark is dated 1976 and there is some Laura Ashley fabric with the date 1975 on the selvedge.

Here's the right side. It's draped over my rocking chair here so you can see how big it is.
Obviously a work in progress.

Two more pieces of patchwork, I think these must have been destined to be a tea cosy from the shape. I'll finish it off.

Another bag with a tangle of threads and tapestry wools.

Two tiny homemade needle cases and a bead threader.

A selection of pretty pink embroidery threads in this lovely box.

Another lovely box full of pins where I found these old packets of needles.

This is the back of the Flora Macdonald packet, its soooo beautiful

This is what it says inside;

Ladies who are well pleased with the quality of these Needles should ask again for the same Packet.

This little packet of needles is teeny tiny.

More beautiful old lace. Truly, truly beautiful.

Yet more threads, Granny Pilley was a little on the untidy side.

and lastly MORE threads...

Gosh I feel a bit grubby now. Old things have a special kind of dirtyness to them don't they?

I'll just go and wash my hands before I show you a sneak preview of my latest project.

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Hmmm can you smell it yet...

I'll show you more next time.

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Hope you enjoyed that rummage through Granny Pilleys box.

I did.

I'm so glad this box found it's way to me, to someone who appreciates all the beautiful bits and bobs inside. I'll wash all the bits that need washing and finish all the bits that need finishing and create something new with the patchwork hexes.

I hope Granny Pilley approves... where-ever she is.

What have I been up to?

Hello.

When the weather is good we like to take full advantage of it up here, because when it's bad it's bad!


This is one of our favourite places. We make a flask of tea and drive 10minutes up (literally) the road. We park up, pour the tea, I crochet and take in the view and

enjoy a couple of hours of peace and quite.

Back home again now. I know I've been neglecting my blog a little, but I hope you'll forgive me as I have been busy. Here is a fabric doorstop I've made. It's for my friend Sarah who has just move next-door-but-one to me and was finding her heavy doors a bit of a pain!

Here it is finished. There's 2kg of rice in there! The fabric is one of Laura Ashley's to match Sarah's roman blinds. Thank you Hen for your help.

I was also inspired by Hens 30's patchwork tea cosy, so here's my version. I gave mine a modern twist by lining it with fluffy white fleece fabric instead of wadding.

Thursday was knitting at school. As you can see we started this knitting at the beginning of term in September and there's not a lot on those needles! There seems to be a lot of chattering and singing, but not a lot of knitting!

So I took an executive decision and decided I should bring the knitting home and do some for the children so that we can stitch up our little purses or monsters (that's what we are making) and get them finished next week before the half term holiday starts.

I've been baking too. Quite seasonal.

Pumpkin Pie!

Well actually I couldn't get a pumpkin around here so I had to use butternut squash.
Here it is waiting to be wrapped in its foil and roasted in the oven.

Ta-daa! And here is the pie. Well I didn't quite get to it in time with the camera! But as you see it went down a treat! You can find the recipe here if you fancy a go. This was the simplest recipe I could find. The recipe asks for a 16oz tin of pumpkin, but I just roasted the squash in the oven until it was tender then scooped the flesh from the skin. Easypeasy!

I've also been enjoying these beautiful freesias that wonderful man surprised me with on Tuesday. He bought them for me because he thought I might have had a rough day at work. (I had to stay and serve over lunches, which I hate!) They smell WONDERFUL! They remind me of our wedding day, I wore them with rosebuds in my hair and in my bouquet. See! I told you he was WONDERFUL.

Hmmmm... big sniff! I've been smelling the freesias and crocheting all these little centres to make a row of squares to go around...

the edge of my 'accidental blanket'.

But most of all we've been snuggling up at home in front of the fire.

some of us snuggling in places we're not allowed when Mum is there! I caught these two having a cuddle when I was out of the room! I won't say who, but one of these two is not allowed on the sofa and they know it. There seems to be a blatant disregard for the rules around here! (Just noticed! A man with the TV remote! That's unusual isn't it!)

Well that's all for today, but look at this box of treasure! I liberated this box from the charity shop.

Would you like to see whats inside?

You would?

Would you?

Really?

Ok then, meet me here next time and we'll empty it together!

Thank you all for the Christmas Pudding love.

till next time

Fi x

Stitching Christmas Pudding.

Hello ladies,

I'm sooo excited and I couldn't wait to show you my latest project. I'm soooooooo pleased with the way it turned out. I'll try and calm down a little bit so that I can type without having to backspace every other tippity tap!

Look! Look! Look at that little pool of thick cream that has trickled down the pudding and gathered on the plate.

Juicy red berries and prickly green holly leaves
and lots of delicious trickily, dribbily, thick cream.


Hmmm... smell that cinnamon.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Sorry about all that, but I'm feeling terribly, terribly smug. I wasn't expecting it to turn out so well. In fact I wasn't sure I could do it at all!

Thank you for letting me share my excitement with you.

Hmmm... I wonder if I can remember how to make another one?