Fear not I am still alive

Sorry for the lack of posting over Christmas week. I have been busy having a wonderful time with the children and Mr B. This Christmas may well have been one of the best ones ever. Here are a few photos of the fun. We are off to Brighton to see in the new year tomorrow so I will update when I get back. Very much looking forward to seeing the sea!

Here is a snap of one of the four Christmas cakes I have iced and gifted.

I hand painted the snowflakes and it looks rather pretty if I do say so myself.

The pook love love loved his Christmas stocking. Here he is unwrapping on our bed.

The moomoos checking out her new walker. She has fallen in love with it. I am not loving the noises it makes!

The moos developed a taste for lemon. She is a very strange child.

Christmas feasting.

Moos loving the sprouts.

And I must remember to tell you all about the wonderful Sipsmith tour. It was a fantastic way to waste some time whilst sipping the most fantastic gin.

X

We're walking in the AIR!!

Well are not but I have made the most wonderful string of snowmen after the inspiration of the stars lookie here...

So easy to make and so cute!

I am very proud of their little scarves.

The weather is very damp and grey here so not the best light for photographs!
We have also finally got a Christmas tree. I suffer from Christmas tree OCD. My tree MUST be a thing of beauty. I cannot stand fake trees. They not only look dreadful but there is none of the fun of the purchase. Walking back to the house with the husband carrying the tree. The smell of Christmas tree filling the house etc...



So after a prolonged shopping expedition involving the visiting of more than one tree selling establishment we found our tree. It was say four and a bit feet tall and all bushy and rounded. The pook and I spent a wonderful morning decorating it. We have a simply HUGE amount of decorations. Glass ones, new ones, antique ones and special decorations from around the world that my mother has brought back to us from the various counties she has lived in over the years.

Here is the splendid tree. Is it not beautiful?

I am now feeling all christmassy. The house is nearly ready and I have done all of my shopping and wrapping. Today I baked Christmas biscuits with the pook which we iced in different coloured glace icing and then decorated with silver balls, edible glitter and hundreds and thousands. They are very pretty.

And they also taste very good. I will pop a photo of the finished biscuits up when I get a chance.

Tomorrow will be Christmas cake icing and maybe tackling the chocolate log. I am really looking forward to it. I have had some time in between the Christmas baking and crafting to do a few rows on my granny stripe blanket but not as much as I would like. I really need to become more organised. Has anyone got any tips??

Hope you are all enjoying the run up to Christmas too.

Starry starry night

Well  it would be a starry night if it were not for the clouds and rain. Today I finished my christmassy felty garland. I love love loved making this. It was one of those projects which is quick to complete but requires enough effort that you feel you have accomplished something. It was also an excuse to get my sewing machine out. I find zipping things about on it relaxing and oh so fun!

So I started with some felt. This was perhaps the boring part. There is always a boring part is there not? I chose red and white mainly as there wasn't much of a selection in my local craft shop which was a surprise. I cannot be the only person in my little corner of west London who is making Christmas decorations from felt?

After making a template from some baking parchment I began chopping. The was a great deal of scissor action involved. Cutting out what felt like hundreds of pairs of felt stars.

Look at the neat piles of felt stars. Are they not full of the promise of Christmas!

Then began the sewing and the stuffing and the sewing again. First of all I zip nearly all the way round each one on the sewing machine leaving a small hole for stuffing. This took more time than in anticipated but was lots of fun. When the moomoos had her afternoon nap I sat on the sofa listening to radio four whilst I stuffed each star with toy stuffing until it was all chubby.

Once all the stuffing was complete it was back to the sewing machine to stitch up the stuffing holes. I then threaded the pretty stars onto lengths of red cotton. Don't they look pretty?

All of the red stars then had little bells sewn below them so that when they move they tinkle. They bells really were the perfect finishing touch.

Of course I hung them up right away.

I think I may make some more with a different motif. Maybe angels or Christmas trees. What do you think?

Now I am just sitting down with a cup of tea to write this post having just baked 35!!!! Yes THIRTY FIVE cupcakes! It is the pooks Christmas party at school tomorrow. He asked me to bake cakes for it late last week. I am sure I was distracted when he asked. I cannot think why I would think it a good idea to bake that many cakes but we did and here they are.

 The pook decorated them and I think he did a rather good job don't you?

Now to feed the children and get them off to bed. I am rather sleepy this evening and am looking forward to cosying up on the sofa to watch a film.

Tis the season to be jolly!

The days a defiantly shortening rapidly now. The chill air in the mornings makes me wish I could spend the day snuggled up instead of braving the outdoors.

The pook breaks up from school on Friday. This means I have spent a portion of the week planning what we will do with his days off. I have planned chilly winter walks, baking, decorating the house and watching wonderful films. Yesterday I purchased my Christmas radio times. Each year I buy one and with the help of the pook and some input from the husband we plan the Christmas must sees.

This year there seems to be a huge number of wonderful films on along with must see Christmas specials such as Outnumbered and Dr Who. I predict a lot of time snuggled under a blanket eating nibbles and watching films.

Now on with the JOLLY. Things that are making me jolly apart from my Christmas radio times include -

My pretty advent calender. I love opening a door everyday to see a pretty picture inside.

My amaryllis. Have i mentioned my amaryllis before? The pook and I potted it up about four weeks ago. It began to grow like the clappers. I am always impressed by how quickly they grow and bloom. Well this amaryllis is special. It does not have one fantastic flower head but TWO! yes two! This made me feel extra jolly.

Is it not splendid?

Making mince pies with the delicious mincemeat i made a few weeks ago has been a jolly making delight. I like to pop a ball of marzipan under each lid making them extra special. Mince pies seem to disappear at an amazing rate in our house. One minute they are there the next gone.

I am hoping to make a chocolate yule log this week and some biscotti. Just to add to the gluttony! I have a wonderful recipe for the most perfect biscotti. When I bake them I will post it. They take a while to make and the ingredients seem a bit mad but they are a little piece of heaven.

This week I am hoping to get going on making a cute star garland made of stuffed felt stars. I will update with my progress.

My what a weekend!

I have just be thrown out of the end of the most wonderful weekend filled with fun and laughter. Mr Bs birthday was yesterday. As his birthday fell on a Tuesday it was decided that it would be the most wonderful idea if he booked the monday and Tuesday off work. This created an exceedingly long weekend. So what as all this fun we got up to?

On Saturday to mark the getting older of Mr B we went to one of our favourite places. It is a wonderful pub in little venice called The Bridge House. This charming boozer snuggled next to the canal is wonderful. The food is wonderful, the drink is wonderful (they serve aspalls blush which is perhaps my favourite drink) and the staff are wonderful. So with a band of merry friends we descended on the bridge house for a spot of supper. Once we had stuffed ourselves and imbibed some alcohol we went upstairs to the equally wonderful Canal Cafe Theatre. This Tiny theatre is fantastic! We went to see the excellent News Revue which according to the Guinness book of records is the longest running comedy show in the UK. So that was a wonderful Saturday.

Now for Sunday we mooched around. Ate a very decadent lunch pleasing ourselves. This is how I like to spend a Sunday. Monday the pook was in school so we headed to the shop with a very sleepy moomoos tucked and snuggled in her buggy to the Westfield. There we pootled around the shops picking up a couple of bits and pieces. This was followed by a brilliant lunch at Wahaca. Lunchtime margaritas are the way forwards I tell you. The fun did not stop there. In the evening we all wrapped up warm and set off on the Piccadilly line into town. Are destination was the winter wonderland in Hyde Park. This has become somewhat of a family tradition that every year around Mr Bs birthday we take a trip to see the circus at the winter wonderland. This year did not disappoint. The circus was a fabulous show including daring trapeze artists, contortionists, acrobats, stunt motorcyclists and jugglers. We were wowed by fire and noise and lights. A wonderful end to the day.

And so you probably think, that's enough fun for a weekend. you couldn't possibly squeeze anymore in? But we did. Tuesday, the actual birthday we walked to Chiswick and pottered up and down the highroad. We met with a friend in the Duke of Sussex for nibbles and a pint before slowly walking back with rounded bellies.

Tuesday night I created a feast of vegetable biriyani, dhall, coconut and cauliflower curry and roasted spiced aubergines. We feasted until our tums nearly exploded. Altogether a weekend to remember.

Here are a few snaps illustrating the fun

Enjoying the bridge house

The moomoos enjoying being out and about

Enjoying lunch at Wahaca

Winter Wonderland

The pook and his candyfloss at the circus

dec the halls with funny things made of felt.

Yesterday, the first day of Christmas, was very productive. After popping into Chiswick to pick up the photographs I had ordered to put in Mr B's wallet that we are giving him for his birthday I pad a visit to Turnham Arts and Crafts. I became slightly carried away by the array of crafty wonderfulness! In a first for me I exercised some restraint and only picked up what I had come on for which was red and white felt and also some little bells. You have probably guessed what I was planning to make.

In Novembers Mollie Makes they had instructions for making the most adorable Christmas decorations. These little felty beauties were too much the resist and I knew the moment I saw them that I would have to make some of my own.

Look are they not adorable?

Here are the ones I made. There are plans afoot to make many many more.

And some close ups for those who are interested in the scruffiness of my handy work :)

I played around with different embellishments.

Some worked better than others. I think my bells need a bit of work!

I was pleased with this one decorated with buttons. I need to find some more christmassy buttons to decorate future ones.



With all the decoration distraction I have done not one hooky stitch to my rainbow blanket. I wanted to finish it before Christmas which is seeming like the impossible task. I will try to get some done today between baking, cleaning and school Christmas fairs.

STRIKE Nov30

Well today my colleagues are striking about changes that the current government want to make to our pensions. I am rather sad that I cannot join them on the picket line as I am at home looking after the moomoos, the pook whose school is closed due to the strike and a friends child as she had no childcare for today.

I have found when talking to friends and acquaintances that a large number of those working in the private sector have been mislead by the propaganda spread that the public sector is a world of milk and honey where workers are wrapped in cotton wool and therefore do not feel the pinch of the double dip. This has saddened me and it is simply not true. The public sector like the private sector are faced with redundancies, pay freezes, recruitment freezes and now problems with our pensions.

Also should we not be supporting each other when we are fighting for our rights rather than picking on each other due to feelings of jealousy?

Wandering through heath and parkland

I have had the most wonderful couple of days. The husband had a day off on Friday so we decided to head to Hampstead Heath whilst the pook was at school with the moomoos. The sky was blue to air was crisp and I forgot my camera. Well we can't have everything!

We set off on the overground which is my favourite way to travel in London, to Hampstead. Strolling up the heath in the direction of Kenwood house was wonderful. We strolled over the old viaduct bridge spanning the old brickworks. The trees still hold many of their leaves all wonderfully coloured in ambers and reds. After working up a bit of an appetite we walked back towards Hampstead Heath station and then on to the Garden Gate. A wonderful pub serving wonderful food. It has the most spectacular garden in the summer. With it being November we decided to sit inside on the chesterfield sofas by a toasty warm fire. I love love love a fire when it is cold outside.

As we had already decided that it was going to be a special lunch we went for the three course set menu at a very reasonable thirteen English pounds. I gorged myself on a starter of mushrooms with garlic and chili with a watercress salad, a main of GIANT hake fish fingers with chips and minty peas and tartare sauce yum yum yum! Dessert was a rather decadent beetroot and chocolate brownie. I think vegetables used in sweet dishes is genius! So sad that I have no pretty photos of our walk or lunch.

Friday evening was more fun. My brother and I went to the wonderful George and Dragon pub in Acton for a comedy night. How we laughed! For some unknown reason (maybe wine...) we decided to sit ourselves right at the front. This is not something I would usually recommend for a comedy night. The comics tend to pick on you and you can't get up to go for a wee. However last night it was the best seat in the house. Two of the comics were particularly funny; Tyson Boyce who was quite frankly a bit odd but very funny (does he put on that voice?) and Matthew Crosby. Overall a wonderful night and I am hoping they will repeat it again soon.

Today I was a bit more successful with the picture taking on our mammoth four hour walk in Richmond Park. There were trees and lakes and deer and herons. Even a woodpecker! We had the most wonderful time. Here are some photos I took along the way.

The terrace gardens just before the star and garter gate

The view as we walked from the station to the park

The pook hiding in one of the many hollow trees

Beautiful trees! I have been trying to put my tree identification talk to use.

The husband sporting his movember mo

A view down to the Thames

So a busy day full of fresh air and family fun. We all felt very tired when we arrived back at home. So I made a scrummy veggie tagine and some of my energy bites. They really pick you it.

Ingredients

500g raw cashews
200g raw sunflower seeds
200g dried mango
200g stoned dates
some sesame seeds

soak the cashews and dates in water for a hour then blend with the mango and sunflower seeds until well chopped and mixed. Roll into balls and coat with sesame seeds. Place on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for one hour at about 140 degrees. These make for a super healthy and tasty snack. Enjoy!

Blues skies, fluffy slipper and a bit of baking

I <3 November. I think it may well be one of my favourite months. All blue skies and crisp mornings. The trees have shed their last few leaves preparing for winter. I too am preparing for winter. I am baking fruit cake, crocheting blankets and making mincemeat for winter mince pies and spooning through porridge in the cold mornings.

For my mincemeat I use a recipe by Dan Lepard that you can find on his Guardian baking blog. This man is one of my baking heros. He mixes traditional recipes with scrummy strange ideas like macaroons filled with cream and marmalade. I follow his blog avidly pinching his ideas to experiment with in my kitchen.

Other cooking blogs that deserve a mention are the whisk kid and Sweetpolita both of which inspire my baking.

So the house is filled with the smell of fruit cake. I have spent this morning icing a Christmas cake whilst the moomoos naps. I have gone for the traditional marzipan and royal icing, placing tiny gold edible stars all over the top of the cake. This cake has a purpose. On the first of December we have a tradition that involves the first mulled wine of the Christmas season. We have friends and family round to ours in the evening. We will eat Christmas cake and drink delicious mulled wine.

As always I am behind on everything. I like to make handmade cards for christmas. So far this year I have not made a single one! I really need to get a bit of a wriggle on with this. To motivate myself a friend and I are planning to have a card making and wine evening. I am sure that the wine will help with the card making.

Another project that I have on the go is crocheting stars and baubles in red cotton which I am then stitching beautiful little gold star sequins. I am hoping to give a few of these away as gifts as well as making some for our own tree this year.

To finish here are a few photos which show how this wonderful November week has been going. Enjoy

Decorating cakes with stars

Pretty christmas lights

Jewel like spiderwebs adorning the burial grounds railings

Moomoos helping with my crochet

Foggy misting mornings making London looking all victorian peasoup like

Hours pass by in the blink of an eye...

See I only meant to be gone a moment whilst I settle to moomoos and then finished my last post. However a few seconds turned into five whole days. I don't know where the time goes really. I seem to spend a great deal of time chasing my own tail attempting to keep up with things I am supposed to do, things I want to do and things I feel I should do.

Over the last five days I have atleast had a few stolen moments to add a couple of rows to my rainbow granny stripe blanket. It is really coming along. When I do have a moment to work on it I find it grows at an extraordinary rate. The rhymic speed of the pattern pausing only to change the colour of my yarn every so often.

Can you see all the ends I will have to weave in. Not one of my favourite jobs. I have considered teaching the pook to do it and then bribing him with chocolate!

Here is a couple of the moomoos enjoying the rainbow blanket.

She seems to love the stripey rainbow fun. I have attempted to keep the stripes random changing from one colour to another without following a pattern. It is really hard not to fall into a pattern though.

Also this week I attended the last print making class. I will be very sorry not to be attending this class every week anymore. I have really enjoyed myself and the other people on the course have all been a pleasure to work with. This week I set to screen printing bags and tea towels of christmas gifts. Here are a couple of them.

I love the combination of the blue print on the orange bag. Sadly I only printed one in this colour combination so will not have one to keep.

I also experimented with printing the motif in repeat on a bag and working in different colours. It was all wonderful fun! Maybe I should sign up for another six week course in the new year.

Now on my list of things to do today I need to find two secret santa gifts, bake two christmas cakes and source some felt to make pretty christmas decorations. This months Mollie Makes came with loads of beautiful ideas for christmas which made me very excited. I will have a hundred and one different projects on the go over the next few weeks.