Stars and Ice (ing)

Good Morning! Thank you for dropping by.  This morning is actually a tad sunny for a change, the last few days have been sooooo wet.   I am feeling in a 'getting things done' sort of a mood, you know, around the house, I think its a pre-christmas clear up and clean.  Hopefully I will get the time for some hooking later.

I must show you my first attempt at making icing roses - as you may remember I have made a cake for my mum's 80th birthday in December and I want to ice it myself - I have made novelty birthday cakes for my kids but never a serious grown up cake! So on Sunday my daughter and I decided to have a go at making roses as a practice, oh dear! I don't believe blogging should always be about the perfect projects you should come clean and show the not so good ones too - and this wasn't so good...........................

We thought it would be easy but we struggled, laughed, made progress only for the petals to droop, and got ourselves into a gooey icingy mess! But we did have fun!!!

Anyway the upshot of this tale is, that we were using the wrong type of icing paste, so yesterday I found a cake specialist shop and I now have the right stuff, so later in the week I shall have another go, cripes if that doesn't work I may have to resort to fluffy snow peaks!!!!

I have finished my Grandma Stars from The Royal Sisters blog  which I found through Lucy and I am pleased with them, they go really well with the Snowmen.  I made them in crochet cotton and glitter cotton and I added an extra round to emphasise the 'pointy bits', because they looked too small in crochet cotton and when I blocked them I sprayed a little fabric stiffener on them, and hey presto they have come out really well.

I must say a thank you to Maria who mentioned me on her blog and made a snowman from my tutorial, I am glad it worked.!

Well I will leave you for now or else my 'getting things done' mood will rapidly diminish hehe! oh and if anyone is an expert at icing roses maybe you could give me some tips!!! 

Have a great day, speak soon xx

 

Welcome to the fold!

Hi there!

Firstly today I must give a special welcome to a new reader to my blog - my daughter yay!!! She has just been connected up to the internet at Uni, which is great.  I kind of regard the blog as an online diary so it will be lovely for her to see what I am up to!

Secondly today I want to thank Sue(Mrs Twins) for her friendship and guidance through blogland, and she mentioned me yesterday which was an honour and a surprise. So thank you Sue.

Last night I was able to concentrate on my baby cot blanket  but because it is quite a dense pattern progress feels quite slow - I seem to be crocheting for Britain, but its not growing as quickly as would like, never mind, slow and steady wins the race!

This week is rather busy for me, its a shame when work gets in the way of creativity!!!!!!!!! Hopefully I will snatch the odd half hour here and there to do some hooking.

I have also been trying to prepare a little more for Christmas and the other day the house was filled with the aroma of nutmeg and cinnamon when I made red cabbage to go with our Christmas dinner

I love how pretty a red cabbage is when you cut into it and the random patterns that are produced are lovely.

I mixed this in with the onions, garlic, apples, spices, sugar and vinegar

I had to squash it down to get the lid on - after long slow cooking you get a lovely squidy georgous smelling dish, ready to be frozen for Christmas

The next thing on the list is chestnuts

I bought these this morning, they are a bit fiddly to do, but worth the effort, then they can be popped into the freezer too!  They will make great stuffing - yummy!

Hoepfully later on in the week I will have a blanket update - I am not in love with this project yet but I am hopeful that once I start to make the edging it will come into its own and have a ta dah moment!

Speak soon xx

Two WIPs Make the Finish Line!

Hello, just a quick post today to let you know that two of yesterdays WIPs have made it to the finish line!!!

The cake looks good, I am having to fight off hubby and the boys who think I can "trim" bits off for them to eat already!

and

finished the flowers brooch, think I might make some more as presents, because they are quite cute.

Well I am waiting on my wool to arrive by the post - so that could take a while with the postal strike so I will just have to start something else wont I!!!

Have a good day!

Speak soon xx

From Hooking to Cooking

Yesterday I went to buy some wool to start the cot blanket I have been gearing myself up to for some time but when I got to the shop I was a little taken aback as to how much it would cost, so came home and did some research on line and found it a lot cheaper - an order has been placed and we will see what arrives.  So last night I had a little play around with the flowers and leaves that Lucy over at Attic24 designed.  I have a stash of fine crochet cotton

which I found in a charity shop for a pound the lot, a couple of weeks ago, bargain I thought.  I have forgotten how pretty fine crochet is but I must admit doing it late in the evening is quite hard, even with my glasses on!!!!!!

This is a far as I got last night a WIP, will hopefully do some more this evening.  It was quite late when I sat down to make these flowers and leaves because I had embarked on another WIP, this one is a very secret WIP, its a cake, a very special cake, not a christmas cake, but a birthday cake.  I spent quite a while weighing and sorting the fruit last night, picking it over for stalks and then leaving it to soak in brandy overnight.  It was a labour of love, and it will be a labour of love:-

because this cake will be for my Mum who will be 80! between christmas and new year.  I have decided to have a surprise family get together for her, she has no idea and will be bowled over!!!!!!!!  Its soooooo exciting !!!!!!  My kitchen looked a bit of a mess during cake preparation

lovely cat Thompson ( I will tell you about him another time) wanted attention, but no he will have to wait til later!!!!

Finally everything was mixed and the cake ready to go into the oven for four and a half looooong hours

I cannot show you the cake because it is still in the oven, and now I am slightly apprehensive, hoping the middle will be cooked, I wont burn it etc, but it smells lovely so fingers crossed!!!!!!!!!  I will show you the results tomorrow.  I wanted make the effort for my Mum who made both mine and my brother's wedding cakes many years ago, and also all of her grandchildren's christening cakes.  I am NO domestic goddess so you will have to see how I get on with the icing nearer to christmas.  I must admit though, it has been a blissful afternoon, doesn't happen very often!!!!!

Have a great day whatever you do

Speak soon xx