Hi there – just dropping by to say I am still around but for some reason still very busy – this is not what I expected when I gave up working, I feel I am working twice as hard now as then.
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter enjoying the glorious weather we couldn’t have timed our party better and of course it ended up as a real garden party (I needn’t have cleaned the living room quite so thoroughly after all!).
Many of the plants had started to grow quickly in the warm sunshine – we are usually quite late in this area being high up and I was willing my pretty Aquilegia plants, which have self seeded all over the garden, to open in time for the party….. but sadly they didn’t. But no matter there were plenty of the bulbs and Primula still blooming and the blossom….hasn’t it just been delightful?
The party took some preparing in the end – for new readers this was a party for my son-in-law’s 40th birthday combined with an Easter party as it fell on Easter Sunday, we held it at my house because my daughter’s house is so much smaller.
We had Easter eggs and decorations amongst the party decor. I spent some time covering polystyrene eggs with tissue paper which I hung from twiggy branches supported in a pot of sand hidden with a topping of moss, then added a few fluttery butterflies with my glue gun.
I also had fun making these Easter food ‘flags’ to help guests identify the different sandwiches, salads and quiches. 
And of course we planned an Easter hunt around the garden for the children though the eggs had to be hidden well in the shade so they did not melt in the heat.
We had a day or two in the garden beforehand – setting out all the pots that had been in winter hibernation and adding a few inexpensive pansies and primulas for a touch of colour.
We removed the covers from our garden tables and chairs and brought out the large parasol, then hung out the white solar lanterns from my daughter’s wedding a few years ago – they had been stored in the loft and I was quite surprised they still worked. We also bought some Festoon lighting and DH made a great job of stringing it across the garden using the clothes prop and an old piece of aluminium tubing he found in the garage.
At night it looked so magical……
Our guests were handed nibbles and cocktails on arrival….. I had spent four days making a mountain of ice cubes in readiness – and ice-cold drinks were very much in demand.
The table was laden with food – sandwiches, mini wraps and four different salads all ordered from M&S by my daughter. For the true meat eaters her MIL bought a selection of pies, sausage rolls and scotch eggs from a local award-winning butchers and my contribution was some small quiches and of course the cake.
The cake was certainly one project too many – it nearly didn’t happen when twice the ready rolled icing stuck to the kitchen work top despite the oodles of icing sugar I had sifted beneath. I am no cake decorator and it was very rushed so this is extremely wobbly and the icing a bit cracked in my desperation to get it onto the cake! And exactly what is it you may ask……a circuit board of course – as son-in-law is an electrician come electrical engineer and is always playing about with circuit boards. I had to have precise instruction for this from DH as I had no idea what I was doing.
For desserts we kept it simple with profiteroles, a huge bowl of mixed berries with crushed meringue and double cream to make Eton mess and some tiny party cheesecakes and chocolate bites.
Although not everyone was very impressed!!!
….but all in all it was such a wonderful day.
And the best bit…..Libbie (Little L) had made me an Easter present from some DAS clay a beautiful little pink heart – of course I will treasure it.
It has taken me a while to straighten the house up again after the party – putting dishes back and packing bits and pieces away – I am feeling quite exhausted now – I could barely drag myself to Yoga on Tuesday morning and somehow I need to gather up a little more energy to start on the Christening dress….we need to do a bit of fabric hunting in the next day or two and celebrate yet another birthday, but on a much smaller scale this time, before we can finally escape up to Scotland for a well earned rest.
I was then left with these little card motifs in my craft box of embellishments…
Cute little cut out Easter pictures… I am not even sure where they came from but I have had them for years now and they have escaped going into the give away box once or twice. So this time it was either use them or lose them.
Once dry I stuck the little motif in place and voila….
…these little bits have now made four delightful little Easter cards for the children – Libbie, Sweetie, Freddie and my great-nephew.
On the back of each card I make I have a little stamp to say it is home-made. This one is my favourite from Vista print and given to me by my daughter one birthday, but I do have some rubber stamps too.
Remember the birthday card made from a piece of decorative packaging I found – it may have been an old Panettone box from Christmas or something – I followed the design and embellished it with some of those stick on jewels in golds and rich purple colours. 
As well as stamping on the back of the card I often make a printed slip for the inside with a message. I think it gives a more finished look to a card and although I didn’t have time for this one, as I had to get it in the post, they do look lovely if you add a print too using a rubber stamp.
So even if you do not have any expensive equipment you can make some really simple cards using any decorative paper or card, a Pritt stick, some double-sided tape and a sharp knife. If you do not have a printer you can buy sheets of greetings labels; but equally you could get a rubber stamp and stamp onto some plain card and then add a border and cut out.
…but I wanted to use up the some of lovely scraps of papers I have collected over time and do something rather different.
The two below are actually made from some lightweight card packaging – I can’t even remember now what the packaging came with but again I saved it thinking it would come in handy for something. I was able to make matching tags too and I will add a greeting or other embellishment when I find something suitable.
The next two are made by recycling cards that were given to me. I cut the front off the card on the left and placed some pearl pink paper behind before sticking it down on a card blank. The one on the right is a card front stuck onto one of those accordion card blanks and I will decorate the inside of this too by adding some suitable prose. For these and the ones above I used the double-sided tape here rather than Pritt stick to stick one onto the other as the old cards and packaging I am sticking down are a heavier weight than the papers I used on some of the smaller cards.
Once I began there was no stopping me and it was one of those afternoons when you really feel you are ‘in the flow’ if you are familiar with the expression.
So I added a little greeting to some of them – but some I will leave blank and then when I need a card I can add the most appropriate greeting at the time. Others I will make into Easter cards if I can find some Easter greetings in town.
Most of these are just the tiny Papermania cards – just less than 4″ square – and although very simple I think they are quite effective and a good way of using up old papers. So far I have made about twenty-five but I have card blanks and papers to do many more.
I chose this pattern by Sirdar as it said easy knit (I might question that!) and I like the fact the yarn called Baby Crofter, although random, looks a bit like Fair Isle as you knit.
I took the time to wind off some of the wool so I could begin the second sleeve at the same point in the yarn as the first so they match and also match up with the pattern of the front and back.
I have finished the main body of the jumper and need to press and stitch it together so I can pick up around the neck to continue and knit the hood – that will be fun!
I am not sure if Sweetie will want to wear granny’s knitted effort when I have finished it but she is still young enough not to bother too much whereas Libbie (Little L) will be much more fussy I think so I need more practice before I make something for her. I am thinking of one of those summer dresses with a little knitted bodice and fabric skirt.
Christmas Eve has arrived. There was still a lot of hustle and bustle in the village earlier – the last-minute dash to the Co-op and Post Office for those forgotten items; but in the main people are settling down at home now and soon calm will descend on the village again. We were out this afternoon completing my final Advent task. This is how my Advent days 19 to 24 panned out…
I had just four organic lemons to make some lemon curd – there was enough for 3 jars – one jar went to my younger daughter yesterday and another into a home made hamper for my elder daughter and of course one saved just for me for my toast tomorrow.
For each friend we chose a selection of photos some months included pictures of themselves (unseen footage) and we also found photos of places they might recognise.
With difficult presents I wrap them in tissue paper and then put them into plain craft bags that have been stamped or you could stick a Christmas picture onto the bag from an old Christmas card.
The calendars were wrapped in plain brown paper and then stamped with snow flakes.
I also keep a roll of wrapping paper when I want something just a bit special and try to tie in the colours of the paper with a tag made from …you guessed it…an old Christmas card. 
Two glass owls, 5 baubles in the shape of pine cones and a tiny red father Christmas.
But you will need to keep it a secret until Christmas Eve (and her real name too!)
Day 17 – I swapped my Advent task today to make the mince pies – after all Christmas would not be Christmas without them even though I can only eat one or two as they don’t really agree with me now. I often bake these tiny ones as they make a lovely token gift and this batch was to take in to my old workplace for my former colleagues.
The thickness didn’t affect the taste though, the pastry was ‘melt in the mouth’ with no soggy bottoms. After a dusting of icing sugar I packaged them up onto these little white trays (I collected during the year from Chocolate Mini Rolls) lined with a doyley and added a sprinkling of confetti – green metallic holly leaves. 
I also took in a tray of the chocolates. Well it is Christmas.
Day 14 – on Friday my Advent task was to make a tray of my now famous chocolate for the neighbour’s get together that evening. This year I found a tub of miniature meringues reduced to 30p in Waitrose and these were sprinkled on the half with tiny fudge and honeycomb pieces. The other half of the chocolate had fruit, nuts and ginger pieces. The whole slab is laced like a spider’s web with white chocolate and when it is set chopped or broken into square pieces. It is as my friends say ‘just far too moreish’.
I kept some of the chocolates to take a packet in to my old work place for my colleagues to share.
Day 15 – Saturday – after getting home at 2am in the morning (it was a good night!) I didn’t have a very early start and it took a while to come round and eventually I had another go at printing my lino cut Christmas card. 
This year I tried creating a more stylised robin and nothing has gone well with it. The black ink has taken ages to dry and I swear some of the cards were still sticky when I put them into the envelopes – even after being in the airing cupboard all weekend. 
All I can say is that it is ‘different’ and I certainly need more practice but I had fun doing them and I shall miss my ’round’ of robins now they are gone to new homes. Each one was so individual I could have given them names!
It is a community in mourning, feeling the loss of a friend and neighbour – many of the locals are calling for a road barrier to be put in place now so this loss of life does not happen again in the future when the sea is at high tide. The sea that I love so much has suddenly become quite a fearful place but even so now I am back in landlocked Yorkshire I miss going to sleep with the roar of the waves in the background.
Our nearest store is – a bit too far away for a our weekly shopping but we always call in on our way to or back from Scotland at the Penrith or Kendal branch. It is packed with photographs of deliciously tempting Christmas fayre to order or buy in store interspersed with a few recipes to make.
So I collected mine yesterday and spent my elevenses this morning pouring over all the Christmas food on offer and a quick look at the recipes in the back. I find it remarkable that Booths can produce such a lovely little book and give it away free – I was a truly happy bunny.
As you may remember from last year I decided to do something different to the usual wreath on our front door so I hung my chicken wire cone 
Pack the front and sides with moss (I had collected a small heap in the summer in readiness). Find an empty jam jar and push down into the cone as far as it will fit and so it is not visible.
Remove the jar again and push some chicken wire into the jar to hold the stems steady when filling with foliage. Fill the jar with cold water and start arranging pieces of foliage. Hold the cone steady in a small bucket then lower the jar into the cone making sure it is a snug fit.
At the moment I am using some dried red hydrangea heads and a dried white one, some ivy and a few holly stems. As we get closer to Christmas I will swap these for eucalyptus, holly and Hypericum like last years.
As you can see I am no florist but it is not too difficult to get a pleasing arrangement. You could add sprayed leaves, ribbon or pretty much anything. Just remember to keep topping up the jar of water.
…a pack of watercolour notelets (right) painted by a local artist to support the Aldouran Wetland Garden and these two pretty little felted Christmas tree cards for each of my daughters – made by a local crafter.
The frilly cake band takes me back to my childhood and reminds me of Christmases past – they would appear each Christmas round our Christmas cake – at 99p I just had to have one. The packet contains an iced ginger cake – we always buy one when we are at the cottage but usually we get the un-iced version – these too are only £1 from Tesco or Morrisons but I have never seen them south of the border. I thought the iced one would be a nice treat for Christmas. 
And on the way home a few small inexpensive things for Christmas from Tebay services of all places – each of these little tissue parcels were a £1 – you will have to wait a while until I unwrap them to find out what is in them.
It was opening this Advent calendar that reminded me most of the anticipation I felt as a child and the delight of revealing a glowing candle or a decorated Christmas tree picture on peeling back the little doors – I thought they were the most wonderful and magical part of Christmas and I could hardly wait each day to see what the Christmas picture was going to be.
Then placed them all on my photo stand.
Of course the activities couldn’t be a complete random surprise as I have had to work around days when we are in Scotland and my mum visits and other commitments – I also had to make sure I had all the bits ready to make the crafts – so a little planning had to be done. 
And so DH doesn’t feel left out I have individually wrapped some Amoretti biscuits as a little daily treat in some greaseproof paper decorated with a gold pen.