Pre-Christmas ritual

Morning all,

Hope everyone had a good and safe weekend after the recent storms. It was a weekend of 2 halves wasn't it?

Ours was reasonable - lots of football matches for Toby, a meal out with friends on Friday night putting the world to rights (always good) and then flapping around yesterday about lots of silly little things....

Despite lots to do, I had my baking head on Saturday so made a Marmalade cake. The recipe had spices and ginger in and as we had some Marmalade with ginger, I thought this would be the ideal one to use. Scrummy it was too! Can you see the big chunk taken out of the side! Nothing like getting a knife and slicing a piece off!

I have unpacked my CL goodies and they are in a heap on the floor so I'll tease you yet again with just a quick snapshot of them.

At this time of year I have a sense of urgency in clearing out cupboards and having a general sort-out. We are fortunate enough to get lots of charity bags through the letter-box so I always feel good when I select some bags to fill. Mostly NSPCC, British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research. Not only are my unwanted items going to a worthwhile cause, but it enables me to sort out and have the items picked up! Fantastic.

What rituals if any do you have in the run up to Christmas? - aside from the obvious!

Crafting like mad and Country Living

At this time of year my business really hots up and I go into frantic and high stress mode - that's excluding all of those Christmas preparations we have to do. Not that I'm complaining. I still get a warm feeling after 7 years of doing this when people like and buy what I do.

A little while ago I shared some fabric with you so I thought you might like to look at what I made. Some retro Christmas trees lightly stuffed with some added cloves to give them that wintery smell.

My new best friends' - the snowmen family - they're work in progress at the moment but soon to be finished - I hope!


Last but not least a couple of handmade Christmas cards - I was pleased with how they turned out. I may well make some to give to family and friends'. I never normally make goodies to give as presents as I feel that people might see it as a bit of a cop out, especially as I do it for a living. Silly isn't it?

Aside from Christmas goodies, just a quickie to say that Country Living was on top form and really enjoyable. Spent lots and I'll share the goodies with you shortly. I have never seen it so busy and unfortunately the fire alarm went off so we all had to evacuate. It would have been a great time to shop......I always find CL inspiring and it certainly got me in the Christmas mood. Here's a taster of what I bought.

I had to take 1 item out of its bag as it needed watering! Isn't it sweet and so reasonably priced too.

TTFN.

Chairs and a drum roll.....please....

Hello All!

End of yet another week, wow it went quickly. Believe it or not my bric a brac goodies bought last week are still sat in carrier bags waiting for me to eagerly get them out and share them with you....I have been told patience is a virtue!! em..

Anyway, moving on. I've gathered the names for my giveaway, shaken them, stirred them and the winner of my simmering potpourri is.....................................Noelle! Congratulations Noelle. Please email me with your address and I'll get that off to you.

Something I've been looking forward to receiving is 'The Chair'. I saw a bespoke chair in Cirencester a few weeks ago and thought I have to have it. Unfortunately it had been sold, so I asked if another could be made up and was so pleased that it could.

Did I think about where I was going to put it - no. I briefly did but loved it so much I knew there would be a 'right' place for it. You're with me on this one aren't you ladies?

I also knew that if our good friend CK sold them - they would be in the £100's - my one was considerably less, bespoke, vintage and glorious. Fancy taking a look - go on then...

So there you have it....it is official though - I am chaired out. There is no way this house will take yet another chair.

Off to Country Living on Wednesday so I'm really looking foward to that. Hope to see some of you there. We should have blogger badges!

Have a great weekend.

Another weekend....

Hello All

I hope you had a great half term and equally great spooky Halloween - we only just made it back from Sussex for the boys to go trick or treating.....! We wouldn't have been very popular otherwise!!

On Friday we went on our brief jaunt down to Lewes in Sussex and stayed in a different B & B this time which was just as delightful as our previous one. It certainly gave us an opportunity to visit another great part of Sussex.

As we are National Trust members we thought we'd stop off at Wakehurst Place which has the world's largest seed conservation project as well as beautiful botanical garden's and walks. The boys had fun as they had Autumn half term activities involving leaf rubbing, mask making etc.

After spending a lot longer at Wakehurst than we thought, it was then time to head to the B & B, drop our stuff off and go to Lewes for a wander around and something to eat. Lewes certainly didn't disappoint in terms of bric a brac retail therapy. I'll save those photo's for later in the week!

On Saturday morning we went back to Lewes to visit the castle, then off to the Bluebell Railway the UK's first preserved standard gauge passenger railway. It was lovely to hear the steam train and stand at a real old fashioned railway line. The weather was glorious too so added to the delight of travelling in a piece of history.

I'll leave you for now, don't forget to enter my giveaway for those who haven't - I'll be drawing a winner on Friday.

Enjoy the week!

Fabric delights

Hello all, hope you are keeping well and those with children, enjoying half term. It's so great not to clock watch - the days seem so much longer. We're off to Lewes in Sussex tomorrow just for a night, so will be a welcome break. No doubt I'll be taking my knitting to continue with the bunnies!

I'll remember to take the camera so hopefully will be able to share some snaps next week with you. In the meantime, I'll leave you with my fabric buys over the last week. I'm surprised they arrived so quickly in light of the postal strikes.

I'm really looking forward to making some goodies out of the Christmas fabric.....I'll salivate and stroke it for now!

See you next week!

Fancy a giveaway

Hello All

What a week it's been. None stop, full on, lots of stress and not enough sleep I think sums it up. Never mind, it's now half term so hopefully things will slow down a little.

At this time of year, I love filling the house with autumnal/wintery scents - be it candles, my Mr Smokey, potpourri etc.

One idea I liked, after seeing it a few years ago on a trip to the States was simmering potpourri. Very simple in principle but produces such a lovely smell. The idea is to put various ingredients together - bayleaves, cloves, cinnamon etc etc and allow the scents to mingle for a while. You can then add a tablespoon of it to some water and put it on the stove to simmer, or add some to a tart burner or indeed just simply put in a dish to fragrance a room.

Since making my own, it's proved a big hit on the website at this time of year, so as we are now at the right time of year I thought I would giveaway a jar of it along with instructions. If you are going to use it for simmering purposes it will last an awfully long time as you need so little of it to get a lovely waft!

If you would like to partake, simply add a comment saying what your favourite autumnal/winter scent is - easy as 1, 2, 3! Or indeed, just leave a comment saying you would like to enter.

I will draw a name out on Friday 6th November!!!

Have a great weekend.

Cooking a coming

Hello! - I can't believe it's the end of another week, where are they going? Thanks for your comments about the parents' meeting - all went well thank goodness. There is always a sense of anticipation which is so silly really, but anyway all done for 6 months!

This weekend sees lots of cooking and knitting teddies! We have some friends over on Saturday. They are great to cook for as they are so enthusiastic about food and eat with great gusto.

I thought I would cook Spicy Meat Gumbo from Jamie's America

I've not done it before but it seems like a hearty dish so we'll give it a whirl.

For pudding I'm doing Spiced Apple Bread and Butter pudding. A fairly bulky dish following the gumbo but I think it'll go down well.

Whilst flicking through CL yesterday my eyes were drawn to a couple of recipes which are worth giving a go - Christmas Rocky Road - a guaranteed favourite in our house. I've never made it using jam.

( Sorry about the poor picture quality, the light is awful today.)

The other recipes look equally scrummy.....

Hubby bought home some Sainsbury 'try something new' recipe cards yesterday. I'm a great fan of these as they are quick, simple and more importantly don't cost the earth to make. The wicked carrot scones, and the banana bread and custard pud are ones I'll try first - can you tell I've got a sweet tooth?!

I hope everyone enjoys the weekend - I'll be back next week with my very first giveaway!!!!! so tune in then.

Cheerio..