April in the UK

24th April 


Today is the last Friday in April, frightening thought don't you think.  It is definitely true the older you become the quicker the days, weeks and months fly past.  So with this in mind, I decided to reminisce, please excuse but indulge me.  Grab a coffee or better still join me in a glass of red and view through some of  my month highlights. WARNING, an obscene amount of photographs...


My garden...

April and May are the best months in my garden, after 15 years here, I still have not cracked the rest of the year, ho hum.  Must try harder.

Front garden

Grape hyacinth come back
year after year in this pot

Autumn pansies still going string

Side house view

Love it when the bluebells
come out to play

Blue and white bluebells!!!

I love tulips

Against the striking blue sky

Tall, elegant and variegated

These are stunning

So colourful in April

Yay!  Growing potatoes in a bag for the first time to get
some really early ones, the ones in the ground are far far behind.

My village...

Local architecture, this was until
recently the post office

The size of the twigs and mini branches that
are used to make these nests is truly amazing.

My surrounding area...

So many houses here have beautiful wisteria,
we do have, but ours is white and comes out a little later

The river Thames on a Spring morning

A short walk from the house,
luckily we don't suffer from hayfever

My London...

Living not too far from London, I do try to get into the capital at least once a month, I love being a tourist in our own city, after so many years, I still find new discoveries and of course often visit old haunts.

A firm favourite, this month I
saw the Magna Carter exhibition.

Statue of Isaac Newton outside the library

Beautiful crescents, London is good at that

Always time for a coffee stop

Wonderful sculptures everywhere in London

Looking up at the Shard

Typical London town house

Loved the window box and
the reflection in the window

My makes... 

Couldn't have a month round up without showing some of my months makes...

A new brunch recipe tried and eaten with a little
sock knitting thrown in for good measure

Crocheted Scottie dog brooches

A commissioned piece,
 a funny little story about that  here

Loo roll covers ~ see here
PS he still hasn't noticed?!?!



Enjoying the garden whilst beginning a new crochet project...

It has been a good month despite all the illness in the house.  Hope you have had a great month too.  Joining in with   Amy from lovemademyhome  sharing five things from my world, do pop over and see what others are sharing...

 ♥  Hope the sun is shining wherever you are, it's not looking great for us here in Oxfordhire ♥

Crocheted Eric

20th April 


You may have seen my post about my husband and his teasing me of my crafting, many many of you commented and either could relate or found the whole thing hilarious.  Click for the post here    Well it didn't stop there, let me enlighten you, grab a coffee, this could take a while...


About two years ago my husband began an email correspondence with me, under the name of Lotta Wool, he even created an email account in her name and began teasing me through these email exchanges.  Each email became more outrageous and I laughed so much.  If I can bring myself to share them with you, I will in the near future...

So it was this in mind when I received an email a couple of months ago, I was very vary, this is what I received...

Hi John

 

Selma is undoubtedly a very talented woman.  Not only does she have fantastic taste in men but she is a pioneer in the world of crocheting and sail sewing!

 

So can I introduce you both to ERIC

 

ERIC is our new internal ‘Green Champion’

ERIC has a big job to do.

ERIC is going to galvanise our people during our Green Week in May to turn off lights, recycle waste and get involved in our local community.

He is going to travel round our business helping our people do fantastic things.

 

ERIC is sad because he is only a 2D version of himself.

In fact some would say ERIC is paper thin.

ERIC dreams of being 3D.

I think we all deserve to be 3D don’t you?

 

ERIC needs a hero.

ERIC doesn’t need a bear catching, world saving kind of hero.

ERIC needs a crocheting, sail sewing kind of hero.

ERIC needs a hero to help him come to life.

Do you know a hero that could make ERIC’s dreams come true?

 

Would it be too cheeky to ask if Selma could do me a really big favour and crochet an ERIC for me?

 

Say no if you want as I know you are both very busy so no pressure.

 

Thank you for reading ERIC’s story.

 

S

 

 

Can you see why I was dubious to its authenticity?  It smacked of my husband and I almost, note the word almost, wrote a rude reply back.  In actual fact something stopped me and I sent a one liner asking if this person was serious and indeed they were!

 

So my first commission and I nearly ruined it before it began!

 

What did I have to make, what did Eric look like...

 

 

 

 

 

I set to excited and nervous and trawled the internet on all the usual pattern websites for help and clues as to how to make Eric.  Nothing out there closely resembled him and so it was to the drawing board for me.  I am not a natural designer and I found this whole process incredibly difficult.  I tested, not as much as I should have done, I made several versions of each part of him until I was fed up and just settled on the latest make and kept putting him away and making anything else other than Eric. 

 

Eric is now completed and I feel drained of his colours, they are not my usual choice of working colour and am drained of designing and having the responsibility of him being used in a work place.  He is not perfect, in fact there are many things I would change if I had the inclination, but this morning he left the house, office bound and I am glad to see him go...

 

 

The body begins to take shape

Just seeing how he will look

The first leg looked rather phallic, so it had to go

Rip it, rip it, rip it.  I often felt like a
 frog on this project

Trying very hard to make him as close to the spec as possible

Coming together but something is not quite right

Eric had to be beheaded as he was too floppy

With a wider neck, the floppiness was sorted

I love his cape the best

Notice the raised eyebrow, just as in the spec

All ready to head off to work...

All said and done however, this has been a huge challenge and learning curve and I'm glad that I was made to do this and do you know what, for all my moaning about Eric, I'd do it again in a flash.

 

 

 

♥  From Eric and I, have a good week ♥

 

Apple roses for dessert

19th April

A quick post just in time for your Sunday dinner prep. Last night I made the quickest and easiest dessert ever that looked like it should have taken hours. 

I urge you to try and give it a go. 

All you need for 6 people are 2 red apples, puff pastry, I used shop bought, apricot jam, half a lemon and icing sugar to sprinkle in at the end. Oh and ground cinnamon is optional. All of us enjoyed this immensely.

Thinly slice the apples, place in a bowl with just enough water to cover them. Squeeze half a lemon into the water and microwave for 3 minutes. 

Place 3 tablespoons of apricot jam and 1 tablespoon of water in a bowl and microwave for 1 minute. 

Meanwhile, roll out puff pastry till it is a thinner oblong and cut into 6 equal rectangles. Spread the apricot mixture over each pastry section.

Place sliced apples along one edge as in the photograph. Making sure to leave a 1cm space at either end, this allows for easier rolling. Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired. 

Carefully roll each pastry apple combination and place into a well greased muffin tin. It should already look like a rose. 

Bake in a preheated oven for approximately 40 minutes. 

Allow to cool in the muffin tins for a couple of minutes and then sprinkle with icing sugar before serving. 

We ate ours last night with cream. Custard or ice cream would be just as good or in fact they were so delicious they do not really need any partner. We will be making these again very soon I'm sure. 

For the original link:  http://apple-slices.dailymegabyte.com/she-soaks-apple-water-absolutely-delicious/

❤️ Have a wonderful Sunday ❤️

Food for the soul

17th April 

It's been a strange week in our household, the children have returned to school after the Easter holidays but I have not returned to work.  I am still under orders from the doctor to take it easy and that was fine in the beginning but I'm not good at doing nothing.  So instead this week has been much about food for me, here are five of this weeks favourite.

Firstly, I've been trying different herbal teas and then adding in some fresh ingredients too.  As soon as the mint is up in the garden, I am going to try some of my own mint tea.  Have any of you experience with making your own herbal teas, would love some recommendations and steering in the right direction.

Camomile, ginger and lemon tea

I have over the past three weeks lost my appetite a tad but this week it has returned and I was craving vegetables, I turned to Delia as I often do and decided to make her Moroccan chicken, this is the photograph before adding the chicken and before the rice was cooked, I just love these colours, the flavour was lovely too.  This is a great supper dinner for friends as you can assemble everything before hand and then just pop it in the oven with nothing to do when everyone has arrived, a great make ahead dinner.  Moroccan chicken

Moroccan chicken

The weather has been wonderful of late but the beginning of the week I was still cold, out came Delia again and this time real soul warming food for dessert; chocolate bread and butter pudding , a great British classic with a twist.  It went down a storm in our house.

Chocolate bread and butter pudding

Thursdays herald crochet evening and it has become a tradition that I make a cake for the chatter, crochet and cake sessions.  Each week I make something new, all the recipes are here on the blog.  This week  as I was having a bit of a Delia fest, I decided to stick with her and delved into her Summer book, here I spied her American muffins, making six of the coffee and walnut ones and then adapted the basic recipe to add in mixed berries that I had in the freezer.  I added 110g of frozen berries into the basic mix.

Coffee and Walnut muffins

Mixed berry muffins

Basic muffin mix according to Delia: Makes 6 large muffins or 20 mini muffins
150g plain flour
1 level table spoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
40g caster sugar
50g melted butter
1 egg, size 2
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For the coffee and walnut variation you will also need:
2 tablespoon instant coffee powder mixed with 1 table spoon of boiling water
75g finely chopped walnuts
For the icing:
icing sugar
2 teaspoon of instant coffee mixed with a little boiling water
6 walnut halves


With muffins it’s always a good idea to have everything weighed out and ready before you startBegin by sifting the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, lifting the sieve up high to
give the flour a good airing.

Now, in another bowl, mix together the egg, sugar and melted butter and vanilla essence. Return the dry ingredients to the sieve and sift them straight into the egg mixture.

(This double sifting is crucial because we won’t be doing much mixing.)

What you now need to do is take a large metal spoon and fold the dry ingredients quickly
into the wet ones – the key word here is quickly (i.e. in about 15 seconds).

What you mustn’t do is beat or stir, just fold, ignoring the uneven appearance of the mixture because that’s precisely what makes the muffins really light. Over-mixing is where people go wrong.

Next, quickly fold in the walnuts and coffee – again no stirring.

Now divide the mixture between the muffin cases. Sprinkle on the demerara and bake near the centre of the oven for 25–30 minutes until well-risen and golden brown.

Remove the muffins from the oven, and transfer them straight away to a wire rack to cool.

Store in an airtight tin or cake box.

However I may have been busy with food this week but having been inactive for 7 weeks due to torn tendons in my foot and the added complication of pleurisy, the waistline has expanded and I think I may need a life style change when it comes to food, so whilst forced to rest over the past few weeks I ordered the below book.  I am plodding through it and getting the enthusiasm up to try and reduce if not totally quit sugar from my diet, shhhhh don't tell the rest of them in my household... they will be part of this too!

This is what's coming my way...

Thank you for everyone who took time to comment on my previous post   here , it seems many of you laughed and shared the same issues within your house hold.  Watch out for the next instalment soon of my husbands shenanigans when it comes to my crafting...

Joining in today with  Amy   for Five on Friday, pop over and see what others have been up to too.

♥  Thank crunchy it's Friday  ♥ 

PS  He still hasn't noticed these yet...  shhhhhhh, don't tell him!

Crochet tension

10th April  


Life in our household over the Easter period was not as we had expected, more on this in another post if I can bring myself to share...

However, I thought I would share with you my husbands sense of humour when it comes to my crafting.  We have now as of last week end been married 121 years, oops, that's a slip, it should have read 21 years!  And in the beginning I think he was bemused by my crafting and maybe did not actively encourage me to indulge in all my whims, but he did make the right noises.  Thinking back he did sit with me just before our first Christmas together and made all our salt dough Christmas decorations, think that can be thought of as actively encouraging

But as John says, after 21 years of me crafting, the house that had a few odd bits here and there now is overrun with items not necessary and he wonders that we have any more room.  He comes home after each week working away and almost dispares at what he will find next.  He is due home tonight by the way and has yet not seen my latest make, wonder what he will think of these  latest creations, it's a bit of a risk, they might be taking it all a step too far, but I couldn't resist.

So it was not completely surprising when coming home about 18 months ago, I found a chalk written note on our front door.  Loving my husbands sense of humour, I laughed rather than be offended or worried and have kept it ever since.  Woe betide anyone who comes near it wanting to use this chalk board as I want it to be kept.  What did he write...

I came home to  this sign one day

... someone else may take total offense to this but not me.  It was actually left on our front door for a couple of weeks in fact.

But this got me thinking about words and sayings and what other partners and better halves may think and I found this poster used by the By Hand Magazine, that started up through the Kick Starter programme.  I just love this saying.

Classic quote has been 'crocheted'

However, my husbands days of making fun of my crafting did not stop there and this past Christmas I was presented with a new tirade of words.  Again I laughed (should I be taking the hint, maybe) and have hung it up in our dining room for all to see.  

New crochet wisdom hanging in the dining room

Want a closer look...  (please excuse the profanity within, if offended by such things, then skip the next photograph)

Crack Crochet according to John

He has of course like many people before him confused the crochet hook for needles, what can I do, after 21 years, he still hasn't learnt.

Ironically on April 5th of this year, the comic strip Pickles produced a comic strip on crochet.  I read whilst in bed Easter Sunday, the day after our wedding anniversary and laughed out loud.  Turning to John and insisting he read it I said it will be us in a few more years, thinking retirement years, he snorted and replied it was too late, we were there already.  Read on, see what I/he means...

Pickles caption about crochet, this could be John and I

I wonder how many other couples out there this could relate to?

Wishing you all an excellent Friday wherever you are, hope you have enjoyed my five photographs that I have shared with you today and my husband's "wise" words. 

Joining in today with  Amy from Love Made My Home

Nordic knitting

7th April

What do you give someone who has everything?  What do you give a man?  These are often questions I ask and I find it hard to buy or make for. 

Nordic knitting

During my foray into the capital last week I made my way across town to the infamous shop called  Loop .  Despite it being much smaller than I imagined and less of the Aladdin's cave I had been led to believe, it was still a little treasure gem and I managed to spend a few of my hard earned pounds.  I can never resist anything Scandinavian, Norwegian especially and here I found a wonderful knitting book called Knit Nordic There is much written about Norwegian knitting design and the photography is stunning throughout, with several different projects for beginner and advanced alike.  It had to be purchased and it had to be mine...


So what do you make for someone who has everything?

                                                                

Photo by Gina Marie

Well... not the above doll toilet roll holder.  This is almost identical to the one my husband's English grandmother had and I think is one of the fears he had when I took up knitting and crocheting, that I may make one of these for our bathroom.  He need not fear, the Scandinavian in me will always shine through, so on to what to make someone who has everything, can you guess yet?

Scandinavian style toilet roll cover

One made and another on the way

Before blocking, I just love the design

Two made in two days.  Quick and fun.

Not the neatest of knitting

I love the way the decreases create their own pattern on the top

This is such a simple design, I used size 3 dpn and dk wool.  Cast on 80 stitches, 20 on each needle.  ribbed for four rows and then knitted the pattern for 35 rows before decreasing.  decreasing was fun too, started with knit 8, k2tog till the end of the row and then knitted a plain row.  Then decreased down a stich so, knit 7, k2tog repeating till the end of the row and then knit a plain row again, before beginning on the knit 6, k2tog , 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, etc , until you come to the end where you k2tog and are left with 8 stitches and cast off.

This was so simple and is continuing to encourage me to knit more.  I'm doing well so far this year, my Arne and Carlos baubles and now these toilet roll covers, I have my eye on a few more things from this book, so watch this space...

Now who to gift these too ♥

 

 

London calling

1st April  

I have been lucky enough to be spending a few days in London, so as I need to rest my weary foot, it's still not right, I thought I would jump into an Internet cafe and be a real tourist in my own capital!

I have planned these few days so that I could pack in as much as possible and today I share with you my trip south of the river in and around London Bridge. 

The Fashion and Textile Museum  in London often has wonderful exhibitions and the latest one is no exception, all about Thea Porter, the interior and accidental fashion designer that actually won designer of the year in 1972 jointly with Zandra Rhodes.  I don't know about you but I knew her name but did not realise how huge she was until I visited the exhibition, all her clothes designs influenced the '70's in a big way and I found myself saying, yes, oh I remember that and ahhh look! 

Anyone who was anyone wanted to wear a Porter creation from Dame Edna Everidge to Joan Collins, Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Margaret and Brit Eckland, not to mention, Pink Floyd, some of the members from Police and Mick Jagger.  Porter was hot and in demand and her creations cost hundreds and hundreds of pounds, they were not for the faint hearted.  She became the darling of Vogue and was in her time the most represented fashion designer the magazine featured.  Barbara Streisand commissioned from the little shop in Greek Street a whole wardrobe based on the colour scheme of her home.  She wanted a dress for each room of the house, here you see her in orange, the colour scheme of her room and grey which represented the steel mantel piece in there also.  Porter did wonder what Streisand would do in the corridors, she was heard to ask her if that is where she would do her quick costume change! 

Unfortunately for Thea she was not business minded and was a very generous soul, often giving away her unique garments and with no business head but being read her tarot cards every day and making her decisions based on that, eventually went into liquidation.  She did have a brief comeback but was soon diagnosed with Alzheimer and eventually died in 2000 at the age of 73.  Porter does however leave a long legacy behind her as many new fashions are based on her ideas, she was one of the first to include exotic far eastern material into the western world and believed strongly that:  "Whatever else clothes maybe about, I believe they must add to the enjoyment of life.  A dress is a failure unless it gives a woman added confidence.   She must put it on, feel great in it, and then forget that she is wearing it and get on with her life."  Kate Moss on announcing her engagement wore a vintage Porter dress. Her clothes, style and evocative exquisite fabrics are still in demand today. 

Along Bermondsey Street there are numerous cafes, deli and independent shops such as Lovely and British, where only items made and sourced throughout the UK can be bought.  I sat out in the sunshine and had my brunch soaking up the London atmosphere and drinking in those April rays.

Walking along there is even some Banksy type graffiti...

Further along from the museum is one of the UK's oldest glass blowing houses, where you can often see them in creation as well as see finished pieces of art in the showroom.  Well worth a visit.

Before leaving this area, one would be remiss to not visiting it's famous market, that of Borough market, a feast on all the senses as this is where food is bought and sold and consumed on site. Always a hive of activity. A market has been here for more than two hundred years.

Once my foot has recovered, I shall mooch along and find a quiet spot to watch the world go by with a cup of coffee and crochet to hand...

This will be my last post before Easter, wishing you all well and 

see you on the other side of the Bank Holidays here in the UK  ♥