Well that was something different :-)

 Yesterday was my birthday and one of the gifts from my girls was a Bake Off experience.

Now I have only every watched one series of  Bake Off, I don't like cooking shows in general so when they told me we were going to be partaking in a Bake Off I was a bit dubious, as it turned out it was good fun 😁

The tent was set out as in the show and all the ingredients for the cake we were making was set out together with instructions.  We were on a time limit, just as the contestants of the show are, which I have to say is a bit nerve wracking, even though ours was for fun, you can imagine how the real contestants are put under pressure.

Our instructions were to make a three tier cake with meringue buttercream icing, a white chocolate Iglu, plus figures to sit in the Iglu.  I had never made meringue buttercream or any form made from chocolate, but the instructions were very clear and easy to follow. 

I teamed up with Joanne and Stevie and Jenny paired up, this Is the cake Joanne and myself made.

And a closer look at our figures, which Joanne made, I think she did a great job with them!

Our sponge was almond flavour with salted caramel flavour frosting tinged with blue colouring, coconut for snow and silver balls

Here is Jenny and Stevie's creation.

Their sponge was flavoured with almond and the buttercream with black cherry and decorated with coconut for snow and flaked almonds.

Time for the judging by the head baker,

We all had to carry our cakes to the front, just like the show, they are not allowed to taste so the cakes were judged on appearance and decoration.  So now would you like to know who won?

Well the winner was actually really good but then she revealed that two of the bakers were actually sort of semi pro, one of them worked at the place and another worked at a bakery, there were four in their team too.   I didn't get a photo of it but It's the cake on the back row, second in from the left.  Love how they did two tone buttercream.

BUT....Mine and Joanne's cake was awarded 2nd place

Stevie and Jenny were awarded 3rd place.

I'm very happy with that result 😁

I had lots of other lovely presents, including this one from my good friend Jo

Jo also gifted me these gorgeous goodies for Christmas.

Thank you so much Jo, I love everything 😍  

I've been wanting some stitch stoppers for a while and can't wait to put these into use.

Today I'm doing very little, I've stitched a bit, caught up with Call The Midwife and had some home made soup for lunch, the first proper meal I've eaten since Christmas Day, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been fueled by chocolate, mince pies and left overs in the last few days, ha ha.  I promised myself that I would go for some long walks to compensate, but the weather has been atrocious, the wind if fierce and the rain none stop and as much as I would like to get out I'm averse to getting wet and wind- swept, lol.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and enjoying these days in-between doing whatever it is you want to do.

-X-

Anyone else taking part in this CAL?

 Were having some lovely Autumn days here at the moment, I've just come to sit in the conservatory to have my coffee and enjoy the sunshine.  It's still warm enough to sit in the conservatory at the moment, and I'm making the most of it, and of course taking advantage of natures heating source while we still can.  We haven't put the heating or the fire on yet, If It goes a bit chilly in the evening having a water bottle by me and an extra layer has helped take the chill off.  At the moment our bills are fine, we have only been using around half as much as we pay in each month so there are reserves for when we start using more in the Winter.  Mark submits a metre reading each month and it's annoying when almost every month the utility company send him an email saying they are increasing our direct debit, they can clearly see we are paying more than enough, with money in reserve, Mark calls them and say no, we are not increasing on your say so, if needs be we will increase it, but I wonder how many people just either don't pick up on the fact their monthly payment has gone up, or don't know that they can call and refuse to pay what the company are asking for?  These companies are making millions, and as I see it my money is better in my bank, not theirs making them yet more money!  Sorry for the little rant there 😉

I didn't come here to talk about bills and the cost of living, I came here to tell you about a CAL I'm going to be taking part in.  

I was vaguely aware of this blanket in July when there was a Christmas in July CAL but there was too much going on over the Summer to think about taking part but, a couple of weeks ago I saw that there was another CAL starting on October 20th, so I ordered the yarn for it.

The Christmas Eve Wishes Blanket  (CAL)

Photo below curtesy of Madebyanita blog

Various online shops are selling the kit for it but I purchased mine separately from Wool Warehouse, there was hardly any difference in price doing it like that but places selling kits were selling out really quickly and I wanted to make sure I had everything ready to go on the start date.  I believe there are two other colour options, a blue and a pink, but to me, red and green shout Christmas.

If you are interested in making this beautiful blanket too there is a group in the Sirdar make along group on fb, although you don't have to join the group because all the details are on the blog Madebyanita she will also be posting the weekly pattern releases on her blog, oh, and the pattern is FREE.  How generous is that!

I can't wait to get started on Thursday, I haven't done any crochet in a while and there will be some stitches I'm not familiar with, also, I've never done colour changing in crochet but apparently there will be photo/video tutorials so It should be doable.  Let me know if you are taking part in this CAL too.

October means the beginning of the birthday season for us, we have NINE family birthdays between now and the end of December, starting with Oliver's yesterday.

The wonderful boy that made me a nanny is 10 years old

He's growing up far too quickly!

We went to Pizza Hut for a birthday treat along with his cousins, they had a lovely, (if noisy) time.

-X-

Making hexies while the sun shines

 Back at the beginning of July I started a birthday project thinking I had given myself plenty of time to get everything completed for today, August 12th.   

In hindsight, (isn't hindsight a great thing), I should have started it earlier but, I sure many of you can relate to last minute gift making, as crafters we tend to do that to ourselves don't we?

The first task was to paint this little Ikea dolls cot and make a mattress for it, I got both of those jobs completed before the end of July and I was feeling very pleased with myself for being ahead of the game.

The mattress is reversible and I was pretty happy with how it came out

I fell down the Pinterest rabbit hole of dolls cot bedding and that's when I made more work for myself, I decided that a little patchwork quilt would look lovely.

By the time I'd sorted and cut out fabric, ordered the hexie papers and attached the fabric to the papers It left me with just over a week to hand sew everything together.  

I've never attempted anything like this before and haven't hand sewn anything in years, but I really enjoyed the process of sewing all the little pieces together.  

Now, If you're a quilter reading this, please don't look too closely, technically I've probably gone about it all wrong and it's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination,  but I think the end result is passable,

The binding was, well, a bind, again, first time binding anything, I managed, again, it's not perfect but then neither is my eyesight, lol.

Below is probably more true of the colours

You can't have a quilt without a pillow and a sheet, so I made those too, I also made a pillowcase for the pillow so it can be taken off to wash.

I think the end result is pretty cute, and best of all the recipient loves it.

I bet you've guessed who this is for haven't you? 

Yes, it's for my beautiful granddaughter Bonnie, she turned 5 today.

Here she is dressed for her birthday party, look at the gorgeous smile  💖

She had a rainbow themed party with all her school friends last Sunday, Joanne had booked an entertainer who was just brilliant and they all had a wonderful time.  Joanne also did a great job making the rainbow birthday cake.

As you can imagine not much in the way of other crafting has been going on I been pretty much sewing every single day, sometimes all day, for the last two weeks to get all that bedding done but tomorrow I shall pick my knitting up again, I have just one cuff to knit on my jumper! 

 

The heat wave is set to continue over the next two day and then rain and hopefully cooler temperatures for next week, thank goodness.   Like a lot of others peoples gardens ours is not fairing too well, everything is dry and faded and the grass is turning brown, it's not a good look, I much prefer the Spring and Autumn when everything looks fresh, lush and green.  The only thing this weather is good for is getting the washing dried super quick, although I do have an ironing mountain growing in the laundry room,  you could not pay me enough money to tackle that at the moment!

-X-

 The second week of the Easter holidays has been another busy one, I've had both Oliver and Bonnie for three days and they have both slept over too.  

On Tuesday we went for a lovely walk around Haden Hill park again, the house was closed this time and the ducks must have been fed a lot because they just weren't interested in our offerings at all but, the weather was better there was lovely blossom on the trees, an abundance of garlic and we heard a woodpecker, although we couldn't spot it.

The trees are starting to fill out with leaves, I took a photo from this spot about three weeks ago and you can really see the difference.

On Wednesday we went to Bewdley and took a picnic to eat by the river, we also had a browse around the charity shops and came home with a few books for the little kids and one for me, there was nothing that took Olivers fancy this time.

More blossom, I do love to see all the blossom on the trees this time of year, this is in the little park in the town where there is an orchard.

We sat and ate our picnic by the pond, it's such a pleasant place to sit and just watch the world go by.

Yesterday we had a slow start, well as slow as you can with small people.  We needed to make a birthday cake for my youngest daughter, Stevie-Leigh, she was 28 yesterday.  Wow those years have gone so quickly, it's hard to believe that my youngest child is 28, in my head she is still a teenager, lol

It's become a tradition that I make the girls a cake on their birthday, Stevie had tagged me in a post on fb with a photo of a (professionally made) Battenburg cake a few weeks ago, saying 'this years birthday cake'  Well, I had to have a go at making a copy cat one when the challenge was made!

I think she was pleased with my effort, it tasted good anyway :-)

I put the house back in order last night after the little people had gone home so that I could get up today and have a day for myself, I've caught up with some podcasts and watched a couple episodes of Life after Life on BBC iplayer whilst knitting, it's been lovely after a full on week.

Mark will be back soon and we are taking Stevie and Darren out for a birthday curry later, It's been ages since we went out for a curry, I'm looking forward to it.

Hope you have a lovely weekend

-X-

Easter Birthday

 Yesterday was Arty's 4th birthday.  Because of the Easter holiday he had his party last Saturday with his friends from nursery.  Jenny organised a forest school party at a local primary school for him.

All the kids seem to love forest school, they get to play in the dirty, build dens, hunt for bugs and generally have a great time getting dirty.

All Arty could talk about all week was his party and was really looking forward to it, unfortunately on the day he wasn't very well, he was sick just before and only played for a short while, his, daddy had to hold him while he slept for the rest of it.  

Bonnie and Jacob playing in the mud kitchen.

There was face painting, Bonnie couldn't have hers done because she had just got over chicken pox.

They got to toast marshmallows and eat them around the camp fire

Me and Jacob made giant bubbles, he was very impressed

And he got the hang of it and made some himself :-)

Getting small kids to all look at the camera at the same time is a nightmare, lol

Poor Arty missed out on all the fun waking, up just as it was all finishing

He did perk up enough to open the presents his friends had bought him once they got home

He was much better the next day, just one of those 24 hour bugs. 

Yesterday, on his actually birthday we went to the zoo.  Joanne was at work so I took Bonnie and Jacob, although yet again one of them was sick, this time it was Jacob's turn.  Poor thing only managed to get halfway round before he fell asleep and I had to call his daddy to come and get him because he woke up crying for his momma and seemed like he'd got a temperature, fortunately  the zoo is only a short drive from home so he didn't have to wait for long.  

Joanne ended up taking him to get checked out at A&E because he was really hot and very lethargic.  They got home around midnight, his temperature had come down and it was put it down to something viral.  She said he seems much better today.

Honestly, these kids are a constant worry to me!

The remaining three had a great time at the zoo, nanny was absolutely shattered though last night and has spent today recovering, lol

Wishing you all a Happy Easter

-X-

Chapter 60

Yep, I'm 60, no idea how that happened, lol

I've been treated to lots of goodies including some Pandora gifts from the girls and Mark gave me the money to buy a light for my Lowery stand :-)

The lovely Jo gifted me the Bird Street Yarn, chocolate and those cute little bath truffles, they smell amazing! Thank you Jo. x

The two items below were from my sister.  

I know they won't be everyone's cup of tea but I love them! 

When we were clearing out Mum's house, me and my sister had gone into town to see if the charity shops were taking donations, (as there was a threat of another lockdown a lot of charity shops weren't  taking donations).  We walked into one and these were just sitting on the shelf, it was truly serendipity!

  Mum had a cheese dish in the same design which was my granny's, (Jenny, my eldest daughter now has that) but, we had been talking about how granny had a biscuit barrel to match and no one knew what had happened to it , and the next day we walk into the shop and here is the biscuit barrel I remember sitting in my granny's china cabinet, well I just had to have it, and the butter dish had to come home with me too because it is just so cute! 

My sister said If I wanted them she would get them as part of my birthday present, of course I said yes please :-)

Like I say, they probably don't appeal to a lot of people but they remind me of my granny and my mum too now, who I think guided me to that shop that day.

I have my granny's china cabinet and they will eventually live in there but, for the moment they are on my kitchen window where I can admire them

One last special gift.  

With so many birthday's in December my mum had already put out all the money for them, so this is my last present from Mum.  I have no idea what I will buy yet but I will put the money towards something special.

I also got a cold for my birthday :-(

I felt like I was coming down with it when I got up in the morning, we don't think of a common cold anymore though do we?  But I tested twice yesterday and this morning and It is a cold.

Everyone came round at lunch time to partake of sandwiches and cake but by the time they went I was feeling quite rough.  I was in bed at 8.30pm and had a lie in this morning.  I feel a lot better now, 

I did test again this morning, (still negative). I just think with everything that's been going on, together with late nights and early mornings I've probably been doing too much.

This afternoon though I'm putting my feet up, watching a film and stitching!

Hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas

-X=