Hooray - it may have taken a long time, but finally today I finished the zebra cushions for Stuart! It's so good to cross another thing off the to-do list.
posed on my favourite chair!
I like the effect of the faux chenille
I used the same fabric as the binding on the opening on the back
Next on the agenda is to finish the gnomes - hopefully next time you see this ........
....... it will have been transformed into three Christmas gnomes!
The weather really has been miserable, and one of the casualties was my bird table, which was blown over and suffered abroken leg. This little robin was very unhappy this morning, as he can't quite manage to use the fat-ball feeder!!
This afternoon, however, was considerably brighter (except for the pouring rain!), when I went down to Chesters for the Christmas Fair. First stop was at Lindsay's stall
can't tell you what I bought (it's for Malcolm's Christmas!)
Fiona's lovely felted things (again, I can't tell you what I bought!)
Alison's lovely kitchen accessories - I bought a towel to match the chef's pad that I bought from her at the last Woolgathering
Janet and her wonderful fabric creations
gorgeous jewellery from 'Beautiful Beaders'
Lorraine with her delicious Christmas goodies - beautifully iced cakes, jams, chutneys ..... and her award winning speciality, marzipan petit fours. I don't like marzipan, which has presented a problem in the past when it comes to decorating the Christmas cake, but that has been now been solved! I only put icing on the cake, then put the lovely marzipan fruits on the top, so that Malcolm can have some marzipan with his cake. Did you notice the crutches beside Lorraine? She went over on her ankle last week and has damaged the ligaments in her foot - which is a bit of a hindrance at this busy time of year!!
Hope to see you tomorrow for Shadow Shot Sunday - but after the weather of the last few days, I think it will be some archive shots!!
Did you think I had forgotten the photos for the Friday Cake Fan Club? Of course I didn't, I just thought I would keep them until today!!
lemon drizzle cake and date and walnut loaf
And the third cake? Following the success of last week's no-cook chocolate brownies, I thought I would have a go at no-cook sticky toffee cake .......
I crumbled the cake into a bowl and added twelve dates, cut into quarters. I melted the two Mars bars in a small bowl over a saucepan of hot water, then added approx 60g butter to melt and mixed it well. I added this mixture to the cake and dates and stirred it together - that took a bit of effort as it's decidedly sticky! Next, I put it into a loaf tin lined with clingfilm, then into the fridge to chill. Last, I cut it into squares
So .... how does it taste? Absolutely delicious!! As you can see, I cut it into small squares, as it is very rich. I think it would be even more delicious with a little cream or ice cream!!
I should have done the ironing this afternoon ..... but instead I got organised for my next knitting project (I finished my shawl yesterday)
These little fellows are so cute - I had intended to knit them last year (possibly even the year before) so I thought I had better get a move on to make sure they are ready for this Christmas!
Their little hats are so cute! I've been saving up yarn - odd balls from the bargain basket!
I'm spoiled for choice for their beards - maybe I'll just have to knit lots of them to use all the different colours ......
Yesterday morning there was a wonderful rainbow in front of the house. Unfortunately, I couldn't get far enough back to get all of it in one photo! (I suppose I could have climbed the fence into the field behind the house and run up the hill .....)
the left hand side
the right hand side
the centre!
This afternoon, there was a dramatic sunset .....
...... but this isn't it, this is the reflection of the sunset on the clouds in the east .....
First, of course, I have to start by revealing the Christmas cake, after it was unwrapped!
mmmm - rich and delicious!! Several times between now and Christmas, I will drizzle brandy over it, so it will be even more moist. In the past there have small disputes over the icing of our Christmas cakes, as I don't like marzipan, but this problem has been resolved - no marzipan under the icing, and marzipan fruits on the top for Malcolm!!
While we are on the subject of cakes ..... of course there was cake yesterday at patch'n'chat - in fact there were two -
a border tart
iced ginger bread
Yes, I had a piece of each!! We could have eaten them in style, as the table in the shop has been laid to show off Christmas place mats
If you would like to make these mats, do check out Borderland Fabrics' website, to get in touch with the shop to buy the fabrics.
Now on to today - we set off this morning for the village of St Abbs over on the east coast. It was a beautiful morning and we had a lovley run over. We were heading to another event organised by local wool shop Woolfish - a cornucopia of all things woolly. Malcolm came in to have a cup of coffee, but then he left me to immerse myself in all the wonderful woolly goodies. (he went for a walk along the clifftop - taking lots of photos for me, which you can see tomorrow in Shadow Shot Sunday!!) I haven't yet taken photos of the things I bought, but of course I did take photos of some of the stalls. First is the exceedingly colourful stall of my lovely friend Lindsay
Every time I see Lindsay she has made all sorts of different, interesting things, and they are always beautifully presented.
The next lot of loveliness was on the stall of Janis Embleton - all sorts of super handwoven delights
And then I succumbed to the most beautiful hank of pure silk lace weight yarn from fyberspates - I will have to knit something very special with it
Unfortunately the llamas and alpacas weren't there today - I know I showed you photos of them when we were there in the spring, but you can never have too many photos of such lovely animals!!
After falling in love with the gorgeous bull, today (fickle thing that I am!), I transferred my affections to a cute ram. However, this isn't a real live one, but a toy one that we saw this morning in a shop that has just opened in Hawick, called 'Quaint or Ancient'. The shop is a wonderful mix of quirky gifts (quaint) and antiques (ancient!). I have named the ram Tuppence (another name for a ram is a tup) and he has joined Jacob - I think next time I will have to buy some ewes!!)
It wasn't just me who bought something in the shop - Malcolm couldn't resist some of their lovely blue and white china
It looks lovely on our blue and white place mats and table runner, as does our bowl of pot pourri and autumn squash
Also new in the kitchen is the tea cosy, which I finished yesterday - I turned in the edges of the openings and needle-felted them in place, to make it fit better. When I took the photo, the light wasn't very good in the kitchen, so I took the teapot, resplendent in its cosy, out into the front garden
I paused on the way back in the door to take this photo of a pot of winter plants that I bought in the supermarket on Monday when I was doing my weekly shop!
I took this next photo late this afternoon when the sparrows arrived for their teatime
feed from the bird table. They are very fussy and eat all the choice bits from the bird food, leaving behind one kind of seed - but I refuse to put out more food until they eat it all up!
On Friday, my lovely blog friend Lee celebrates her birthday. We are in the middle of a postal dispute, so I didn't want to post her card (and there may be a little pressie too!), so I'm 'posting' her card on the blog (clever!!) Again, because of the poor light indoors, I took the card outside - there was a slight problem though, as it was a little bit breezy, and every time I went to take the photo, the card would blow over!! Finally, I managed to get a photo .....
..... but I then went indoors to take a photo of the inside of the card (you'll probably recognise the location - it's a chair in front of the French doors that I use quite a lot!!)
I know it's only Wednesday, but we're going away for two days, and although Malcolm has booked us into a hotel with wi-fi, just in case I can't do a post tomorrow, I wanted to make sure that Lee got her birthday card on time - Happy Birthday Lee - I hope you have a super day with your family - and enjoy the wine after your detox!!!!
Some time ago, I had a post called easy peasy tutorial - it didn't attract a lot of interest at the time, so you can imagine my surprise, when in the last few weeks it kept showing up in my stats. A little bit of investigation has revealed that the tutorial is listed on this blog, which comes from Buenos Aires, Argentina!! I have no idea how I ended up on the blog (I don't mind!!) - so I have e-mailed the writer of the blog to ask how she found out about me - I'll let you know if I get a reply!
Today had been another miserable day, grey, wet and increasingly windy, so this afternoon I was quite glad to retreat to the studio, especially as the Malcolm had lit the log burner for me! Last night I finished the tea cosy - here it is sitting on the teapot
As you can see, it is a little bit big, so I decided to felt it - I put it in a bowl of hot soapy water, then gave it a good pummelling (for once ignoring the rule about only squeezing handknits!) I also washed (but not in hot water!) the baby hat and socks that I knitted recently (the baby is due next week). I took them all out to the studio to dry in the heat of the stove
Oh dear, Typepad had thrown one of its periodic hissy fits and won't put in the photo - but I think (I hope) if you click on the red cross you will see the photo! If you can't see it, it shows the tea cosy, the socks and the hat warming themselves in front of the stove - the best place to be on a miserable afternoon! The tea cosy still isn't quite the right shape/size, so once it's dry, I will use a bit of needle felting to tweak it into shape!!
Malcolm made the dinner tonight and I wondered why he was shouting at me to bring the camera, when he was dishing up .... well this is why - he was so delighted with how his fish pie had turned out!!
mmmmm - it was delicious, and the sliced potato was a nice change from mashed potato on the top!! And on the subject of food - of course there is a photo of yesterday's cake - the patch and chatters think it's hilarious that Annette's cakes have a fan club!! So here it is - a yummy peach flan with cream .....
I found this wonderful book when we were on holiday.....
It is written by Pip Lincolne, who lives and works in Melbourne. She has a shop called 'Meet Me at Mike's', full of all sorts of wonderful things (according to the back of the book - I haven't been there .... yet!!). She also has a popular craft group and this book is full of whimsical projects.
My favourite one, just because I turned the page and burst out laughing, is this one ....
..... paper flowers made with metal coathangers and pages from old phone books - that's my kind of quirky craft! (And I love the distressed stool.)
I also liked this idea, and collected up lots of receipts, tickets, brochures etc, so that I can make a mobile for the studio, which will remind me of our holiday
ps, I haven't suddenly started crocheting squares - it's the inside back cover of the book!
To return briefly to yesterday's giveaway, I have now put together Lee's prize! I hope she likes the Hinnigan fabrics, buttons from the Scrapstore, silk thread from my stash and a pretty piece of ribbon which I am sure she will use in her cardmaking
