Wednesday 12 December 2012

WOYWW

Wednesday again, where does the time go?
Desk first:

On my table today we have a small selection of the million Christmas cakes I have to finish, these have been marzipanned and will be iced today and tomorrow, plus I have two more to marzipan. There are a couple of Christmas CDs, you can't Christmas craft without the appropriate music. There's a Mr Ripley book to go back to the library, this one didn't grip me as much as The Talented Mr Ripley. There are two almost finished Christmas trees and a pack of ten thank you cards. Then there's a brown paper bag and a cardboard box containing who knows what?
Would you like to see what's under my table?
My poor rabbit has got cabin fever she's been in the hutch so long so I thought I'd bring her in for a hop. She's doing a lot better than the guinea pig, he died on Tuesday :-( He was almost seven which is ancient in guinea pig terms. RIP Shaggy, reunited with Scooby Doo at last.

This morning was absolutely freezing but it did provide an amazing sky for us to look at whilst my 12 year old scraped the cars!

Time to go mix up a pile of royal icing.
Hop over to Julia's blog to see a wide selection of festive surfaces.

Wednesday 5 December 2012

WOYWW and The Woman Who Saved Christmas

Here we are again!

Today I will mainly be making bunting and tending to a child with tonsilitis! I sold all my Christmas bunting at the weekend and urgently need to make more.

I survived the madness of last week's back to back activities. 

So the day went something like this:
07.55 leave home with son number one.
07.56 go completely round the roundabout to return home to collect his bacon roll
08.20 leave home with son number two
08.20.30 re-enter home to collect bacon roll to replace cheese and chutney roll he was attempting to eat (my lunch)
08.25 leave child number two at school after giving him the usual lecture starting with 'When I was your age....'
09.20 leave home for Hove
14.08 leave home after charity fair and head for Surrey
15.10 arrive at Busbridge school for card making class
17.00 set up stall for craft fair
18.00 Sit down (finally) for a meal at Prezzo in Godalming
20.00 Watch (or listen to) my first ever orchestral performance staring my son by another mother (I was there when he was conceived)
00.30 Go to bed
11.30 Arrive at school for craft fair
16.00 Arrive home with the new title of 'The Woman who Saved Christmas'

Photo: Jaki
This is me at the charity coffee morning in Hove. I shizz you not the house was like something from Hollywood Housewives

Right, enough of me hop over to Julia's blog to see what everybody else is up to

And if you want a laugh have a look at this blog it's called Anti Elf on the Shelf and I am one of the contributors.

Wednesday 28 November 2012

WOYWW

First of all, thank you so much for your birthday wishes and I'm very sorry I didn't get round to visiting any of you last week. My bad!

I have to get straight into it this week as I am completely manic with preparing for:

  • Friday 10-2 Charity Craft Fair in Hove
  • Friday 3-4.30 card making class for THIRTY children 50 miles away
  • Saturday 12-2.30 Busbridge School Christmas fair
Then the following Saturday I have another fair then that's it for fairs. Then I only have to make:

  • 6 mtrs of bunting
  • 7 ribbon trees
  • 9 Christmas cakes
  • a lampshade
And anything else I've forgotten!
Terrible photo as I took it on auto for speed. On the right is my to do list. In the centre my trusty ATG plus some very narrow DST. Towards the back are ten thank you cards I made last night using my 'swoop' technique. And then right at the back is my box of fabric with a cushion I made yesterday plus some bunting which requires some attention! The combination on 1940s crepe and too narrow bias binding was fatal.
So far this week I've made:

  • 10 jars of cranberry and apple chutney
  • 10 Christmas cards
  • 10 thank you cards
  • 15 metres of bunting
  • 1 cushion
  • 24 advent houses
Somebody remind me to start preparing for Christmas in January next year!
 Ten Christmas cards in the making
 Twenty Four Advent Houses waiting to be filled
Cranberry and Apple Chutney (yummy with Brie)

Right, got to dash as I'm teaching in 13 minutes!

Jump over to Julia's blog and have another peep into the mad world of crafters.

Wednesday 21 November 2012

WOYWW

Julia is going to love this week's post as I don't have time to write, just a photo!

Today is my first day in my fifties!!

To take a look at some more traditional craft tables go over to Julia's blog and have a nose

Cheerio, got to dash my husband's taking me out to lunch to the pub we had our first date in!


Tuesday 20 November 2012

Well It's Here

Well it's here, my last day in my forties! What do I do tomorrow? Change the blog title? Retire from blogging? Add a subtitle? Or just carry on regardless?

I think I'll do the latter.

So it's been quite a year and quite a decade really. This time last year I was going to spend the evening in London and wake up on my birthday in the big smoke. As for the decade? Well, traumatic would be one word to sum it up really.

What has this year brought? 

  • Lots of fun on the internet with my 'cyber' friends. 
  • The opera at Glyndebourne with a 14 year old boy. 
  • Fund raising the only way I know, making cakes. 
  • Strange birds in my tree.
  • Sending Christmas trees in the post and getting a discussion about it started on radio 2!
  • Going to Wigan for the first time in my life
  • My oldest friend emigrating to the other side of the world
  • Vintage craft fairs
  • Visiting relatives from America
  • Peacemaking between my mother and Godmother (praise be that's sorted)
I'll leave the bad and sad things which have happened as I try to always be positive.
Right that's it, I'm off to enjoy my last day in my forties.
Fifty? BRING IT ON!


Wednesday 14 November 2012

WOYWW

Well here we are again at Wednesday. Do you know what today marks? It is my last 7 days in my forties! Yes this time next week my WOYWW will be covered in gifts, cards, cakes and, well who knows?
Here is my WIP this week:
At the front are three recipes for plum chutney, I will do an amalgam of the three, in other words whichever ingredients I have/don't have! Resting on one recipe is a little red frog which came from a Christmas cracker on Sunday. At the back are the latest ribbon trees which I have made and to the left is a scrap of paper with some very tempting details of a holiday to Malta!
I have had a lovely week with a craft fair on Saturday and my niece, her husband and their son coming for dinner on Sunday. It was bitter sweet as they flew back to San Diego on Monday and we don't know when we will see them again. There were a few tears and a lot of hugs.
I am so busy between now and December the first that I have written a list with something to do on every day!
I'll leave you with a few photos and urge you to take a look around the world via Julia's Blog
             Another party shot, guess which one is me!

A selection of cards and tags

                      Bunting and lavender bags
  My two boys and Corbin, my great nephew. Great? He was awesome
Have a great WOYWW

Wednesday 7 November 2012

WOYWW

Here we are again, I've been missing for a couple of weeks and this week's desk isn't crafty but it will be later!
So, at the front we have a cake box containing half of a huge cake which my M-I-L made for my joint birthday party on Saturday. The other half is at my brother's. In the middle is half a bag of goldfish crackers and at the back is a box of toys.
Explanations required?
On Saturday I had a party with my brother, he was 40 last week and I will be 50 in two weeks. My niece, her husband and her little boy came over for the event, hence the goldfish crackers. Yesterday I spent the day with them in Brighton and then they came back to mine for toad in the hole. Although my niece is American and has lived in the states for all but six weeks of her life, she absolutely loves English food and I have to cook all of her favourites whilst she is here.
The box of toys was half of the mess that Corbin and my two boys made while they were here. It was so lovely to see my boys actually playing with real toys rather than their IPhones!
My lovely niece came bearing gifts for us all including a DCWV paper pad for me and these little beauties
Just in case you are wondering, it is a FOUR pound jar of peanut butter and it is amazing on crumpets
OK, I have to go now but don't forget to pop by Julia's blog to travel around the world being nosy.
I'll leave you with a rather amusing shot of me at my party. I believe it was rather late on during my dancing hours!

Thursday 1 November 2012

Missing In Action

Forgive me Father for I have sinned it has been 15 days since my last confession blog post.

Why?

I'll let the pictures tell the story:

                                                       My husband's birthday
                                             Dusting off the vintage china
            Throwing a tea party to raise money for Epilepsy Action
                                                Gratuitous shots of cake


                   Lemon drizzle cake would appear to be the favourite
      The generosity of people whom I've never met overwhelmed me
                               Pukin' Pumpkin & Wizzard Smiley Pumpkin
My Halloween Pussy
                                                               Craft Fair
                                          Turn your computer on its side
                                             Lots of lovely lavender bags
                                               Baby ribbon trees (sold!)
                      Natural History Museum, I needed the toilet!
                 Afternoon tea at a fancy hotel

Am I forgiven?

Normal service will be resumed shortly



Wednesday 17 October 2012

WOYWW

Here we are again!
Straight in with my very dull desk this week:
Too busy to craft today but we have evidence of previous activity! An ATG refill  why does it always run out when you're in the middle of something? My cute little reindeer stamp which I have had for years but I love it's simplicity, it suits my style. There is also a jar of orange card and a thank you card. On Sunday a friend came round and placed a large order from me! Whoop I am so excited. She said it's the sort of thing she would usually go to the shops for and she would rather spend it with me and get something different! One of the things she wants is 8 bottles of herb oil! My Mum's friend gave me the herbs last time so I have asked her for some more, the orange curd and thank you card is for her, to say, well thanks! I'm leaving the card blank so she can use it.
The orange curd was an experiment with left overs from another experiment:
This experiment is Orangecello as an alternative to Limoncello. I already have a customer for this as she has finished the blackberry vodka!
Right I'm off to visit a few desks before I have to go out.
Join me at Julia's, won't you?

Friday 12 October 2012

Fiddly Friday

I have managed to post a few more times this week under my made up titles!

Thrifty Thursday

We have the most amazing charity shop in Worthing, it raises money for DEBRA a little known charity. The reason why it is so amazing is that they style it so beautifully. The guy studied art and design and has done window dressing. I will be stealing one of his ideas for Christmas. He had naked umbrellas, if you understand what I mean, and strung fairy lights through them. He then hung them from the ceiling to create the most beautiful effect.
I always like to pop in there to see what they have. This week I managed to buy these little beauties for the princely sum of 50p
The hanky will make the most beautiful lavender bag as it is made of crepe rather than cotton. The glass jar is just perfect for my raspberry vinegar that I made in the summer. When I make jams, vinegars, oils, chutneys and flavoured alcohols there is always a quantity left which I put into random pots and jars for myself. I keep the new jars and bottles to sell but I like to be able to say that I have tried all of my produce so I can tell my customers the truth about it.
Another bargain buy recently was from a jumble sale,, my first ever adult experience of one
Tiny little jars which were formerly spice jars but now hold my small buttons, all colour coded. My husband couldn't understand why I spent so long sorting them out! I told him that when somebody asks me to make a blue button heart, I'll be able to do it a lot quicker. His reply? 'How often do you get asked that?' 'Oh, you'd be surprised!'

Finally, Fiddly Friday
I started off the day thinking I would make lavender bags and bunting, however I made the fatal mistake of checking Facebook before I started and ended up making this:

It started off we me trying to make my own bags out of paper as I'd seen on a blog but decided it was better to use pre-made kraft bags. I have ordered 50 bags at 12p each so watch this space for more!
These are the rejects

Take care and have a great weekend, I managed to phone my Mum to ask her a favour and ended up with an invite for Sunday dinner. Excellent!

Wednesday 10 October 2012

WOYWW

I did intend to post yesterday for my made up 'Tasty Tips Tuesday' so if you can be bothered to read through to the end, you will get two for the price of one!

So here is my surface today:
What can we see apart from my huge pile of washing to go away?
The boxes to the left are two shoe boxes which I covered using one sheet of 12x12 per box. In them are my Christmas cards which I have been making for an upcoming craft fair. They also contain some matching tags. In the middle of the shot are two bottles of Limoncello one of which is spoken for, the other is set for market too. The pile of books are quite contradictory! The top one is The Hairy Dieters book, amazing recipes. Last night we all had Spanish chicken, so easy and delicious. In the middle is a cookery book from The Great British Bake Off as I need to make a lemon drizzle cake with the left over lemon juice from making the Limoncello.


These are some of the tags I've made to go with the Christmas cards and thank you cards I've made. I rather like the stars, especially the pink ones. The paper is from Tilda and I'm just using scraps so it's economical too.
If you want to duck out now and visit Julia's, please do so!

WARNING: Photo Overload Follows

Tasty Tip Tuesday
On Sunday I made Jamie Oliver's Six Hour Slow Roast Pork, delicious it was too. But what to do with the left overs?
Because it was slow roasted the pork was shredded rather than slices so I didn't fancy it in a sandwich so I did a take on Coronation Chicken!
Here goes:
 Gather your ingredients, mayo,natural yoghurt sweet chilli jam and cold pork. (recipe for chilli jam is here)
 Chop the pork finely
 Mix the pork with a teaspoon of mayo and a teaspoon of yoghurt and as much chilli jam as you desire.
I'm on a diet so I had mine on crispbreads! I promise you it tastes better than it looks.
Right hop over to Julia's and see what you can find

Monday 8 October 2012

Make it Monday

On Wednesday I said I needed to find more reasons to post as I seem to only blog on a Wednesday!
So, last week, when I was rearranging the spare room for some overnight guests, I found a naked Christmas tree. So I thought to myself,'I know what I'll do. I'll make a ribbon tree'

I took a few photos along the way and I promise you it is so easy to make.
You will need:

  • A polystyrene cone (I bought mine from Pinflair)
  • Some pins, short ones are best
  • A variety of ribbons
  • A small circle of material (for the top)
Just to give credit for the original idea, it was from Kirsty Wiseman
She even helped me out via Skype when I couldn't get it!
So, here's the step by step:
 First you need to cut 2 inch pieces of ribbon. I used a piece of cardboard as a guide

Then you simply fold each piece of ribbon in half and pin to the cone. I put it on top of a jar so that I could see how the ribbons were lying.
As you go on to the next layer ensure that each ribbon covers the join of the ribbon below.
Before you get to the top you need to cover the tip of the cone. The easiest way is to colour it with a Promarker! Alternatively, cut a small circle of fabric and then cut a line up to the centre point. This will enable you to make a cone shape. Then either glue it in place or use pins.To hide the pins at the top you just tie a ribbon around the join.
Hope this is as clear as mud!
Any problems just leave me a comment and I'll try to help.
This tree is winging its way to Bristol to a lady on Facebook who liked it so much she wanted to buy it from me!
I am off now to order some more polystyrene cones! After the housework of course!