Yes, I know it is really rainy days and Mondays in the lyrics of the song but today suits the song very well. What else do you do on such a wet weekend but grab your camera and go outside and take photos. Such an abundance of raindrops, dripping from every leaf and berry and glistening like tiny jewels.
Inside, is a different story – dry and cosy but oh so dismal. I spent an hour or so switching over beach pebbles and shells for a few discreet pieces of autumn decor. One or two pine cones, a few little dried pumpkins, my favourite seasonal cushions and pictures and before I finished I replenished all the tea lights and candles in the holders. I have some lovely wooden candle holders which add a nice warmth to the room this time of year.
Whilst taking these pictures I smile to myself …. just out of shot is absolute chaos in our house – we may be doing the pantry conversion from the smallest room in the house, the downstairs cloakroom, but every room in the house is now upset. To get more lighting and sockets fitted DH had to pull back the carpet in the bedroom above….I could have guessed…have been here before – so all the furniture had to be taken out and temporarily put where we can.
Despite all the mess – I made more, and have been crafting over the weekend – remember this knitting….
With the help of this book I found called Simple Knitting by Erika Knight I finally manage to finish the knitting part of this little hooded jumper and have only to sew the seams together now. Whether it will fit little Sweetie is another matter – I rather think it might be passed straight on to little Freddie – do you think the colours too girly? I can’t decide.
The four teatowels below came in a pack from Sainsbury’s in the sale. They are a good weight of cotton with a slight linen slub or waffle and my idea is to turn them into place mats. Two tea towels will cut down to make 2 place mats. So the striped grey will be backed with the plain grey and the dashed white backed with the plain white. We only need two mats most of the time being on our own now, so they will do us fine. I will need to buy some heavier vilene interfacing to sandwich between the two layers so they keep a good shape – but it is shopping day tomorrow so I can get some in town. Next time you see these I hope they will be made and on my table.
I have also been having a bit of a play around with ideas for Christmas presents and cards. So out came the sketch pad and pencil – had to dust it off a bit! In April I bought 5 of these calendars on stands for around £2 each, from Sainsbury’s clearance sale, with the intention of designing and printing my own calendar pages for 2020 and switching them over.
The original calendars had some quite nice little line drawings so I had thought about doing a simple lino cut print reflecting each of the months but time might be short now and twelve is a lot of designs to work on and print.
– so I decided to look through my sketch book for drawings that could be adapted.
This is still an idea in the making and I will have to do a few mock ups first to see what might work. I am no artist but some of the sketches will pass….I think. Whilst I had the sketch book handy I scanned in a few pages of drawings – these were mostly done in the days when we had more time and well before the grandchildren arrived on the scene!!
I keep intending to try to get in the habit of doing a sketch each day so that I might improve, but am not sure how I would fit it in.
And what better to occupy my time on a cold and miserable day than trying out a new recipe. I have been wanting to try this recipe for a long time – I think it is from Good Housekeeping magazine. I didn’t quite have all the right ingredients so had to improvise.
I just happened to have chestnut and ordinary mushrooms but no dried ones and I used a vegetable stock cube rather than the yeast extract, but it still tasted fine – in fact it was really delicious – but be warned I made two strudels from the mixture – the second one was much smaller but there is ample filling.
Mine doesn’t look quite as good as their picture – the cooking time seemed rather long and the crumpled filo pastry that you lay on top caught a bit whilst in the oven…. and the sesame seeds didn’t seem to want to stay on top. I might do this bit slightly differently next time or even use a different pastry, puff pastry perhaps.
I will add the recipe to the list in a day or two. For now I will have to close – it is my brother’s birthday today and I need to go and surprise him with a card – then I have a big mess to clean up.
Hope you all had a brilliant weekend despite the rain. x
where the journey takes me 2 
Your art work is amazing.
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That is such a compliment coming from a true artist. I would like to do more sketching and painting and really must make more time to do it – I thought when I left work I would have heaps more time on my hands!
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I am so enjoying your blog. You have a creative eye, your sketches and home decor vignettes are beautiful. I am in Aust and it was nice to start my day with some pretty photos and thoughts
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Hello Veronica are you from Aust in Gloucestershire? I used to live in Cheltenham and so love it down there – so many Georgian and Regency buildings as opposed to the heavy Victorian ones we have here in Yorkshire.
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That thickly embellished flower garden cushion is an utter delight. Your own work?
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I wish – no it is Sainsbury’s handiwork! I bought it one year in their sale – but it is rather lovely.
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Not too girlie for Freddie, in my opinion. He will look very handsome in it. Love your photos and art work…and the strudel, all I can say is …yum!
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I will get my daughter’s opinion before I pass it on I can always give it to our church coffee morning for the stall when they raise money for the Crisis charity at Christmas.
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Wow,you are so creative and I love your drawings.Its wet and windy where we are, I need to find my mojo! We are also having work done in the house, a new bathroom but a tradesman is doing it,I finding it so disruptive but I know it needs to be done. Hope you have a wonderful day
Kind regards Margaret
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I hate the disruption – my whole house is now disrupted – I even have washing drying in the family bathroom as it is presently the only dust free place – I have given up tidying – crafting will be my solice this week!
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your drawings are exquisite. You have such talent, I wish I could draw like that.
I’m loving your flower embroidered cushion, that’s gorgeous.
I love a rainy Monday morning., but then I love any rainy morning so I’m in the minority there.
Your strudel looks just as good as the picture, better in fact. Looks crispy and golden and scrumptious. Hope your week is starting off well. x
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The week is starting off with shopping and it is dry here – I would have preferred to go into the garden to tidy up but our cupboards are a bit bare and DH needs more ‘stuff’ to do the pantry – pieces of floor board and all those boring bits!
I can take no credit for the cushion it is from Sainsburys! And my drawings well enough said – I really am no artist believe me the computer just makes them look a bit better than real life! I can recommend the strudel. xx
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Joining in the chorus of approval for your artwork. When my son was doing AS level Art (my children’s school offered A level in Art rather than the SQA Higher and Advanced Higher) his Christmas holiday homework was to do a self portrait every day. It really improved his drawing skills – although of course we had much grumbling!
Bracing ourselves here for over 4 months of building work starting at the end of this month – worst possible time of the year to be knocking holes in external walls! The only upside is that i have given up cleaning windows since they’re going to be gone soon!
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We are doing the smallest room in the house and it is causing the most upset – I will be thinking of you – 4 months is a long time.
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I love your ‘rain droplet’ photos, they are so clear! I’m with Sadie, in that I love a rainy day, but I would’ve liked to have been able to go out in the garden to tidy things up before it came! Your little dried pumpkins are sweet. Sainsbury’s have some dinky ones this year, so I think a few might make their way on to my mantlepiece. I look for to seeing your future sketches, you’re very talented!
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I saw the pumpkins in Sainsbury’s yesterday and must say I was tempted but my shopping bill was already over budget by then!
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I don’t think the jumper is too girly. Not at all.
Love the rain drops. Do you use a smart phone or a camera?
If I have time, I’m going to do season decorations. But as you say, hard to find the time for everything.
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Camera – my phone only has pictures of my feet so far becaues when I swipe down the screen to access my phone I often catch the camera symbol at the bottom and it takes an instant picture – but it is usually my feet!
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