Made More Jam

Hello friends

Welcome to new follower Chrissie from chrissiecrafts.blogspot.co.uk She's a great embroiderer.

A friend of mine has a grape vine in her garden and it has done very well this year and has had more fruit than she could cope with and I was invited round to collect as much as I wanted, which was very kind of her. I took a small bucket with me and filled it twice and there was still loads left on the vine.
I took them all off their stalks and froze the fruit until I was ready to use them.

Yesterday I took the grapes out of the freezer and filled two non-stick pans. I let them defrost over night and this morning, after L left for school, I crushed the grapes (no I didn't take my socks off) with the potato masher and then cooked them. The juice was quite sour as there were quite few green gapes but the black ones were sweet. At this point I'd not added any water as the grapes were very juicy. 
After the grapes were cooked I strained off the juice in to a big pan and cooked up the pulp again in the non-stick pan. Strained it again into the big pan and added the sugar.



The colour is a lovely rich purply red and whilst it was bubbling away the house filled with an amazing aroma. When it was eventually ready I filled 6 and 1/2 jars. 
I gave three jars to my friend with the grape vine.
The jam is very tasty and one I might make again next year.  I have some oranges in the freezer waiting to be made into marmalade but I've no room to store it yet.
Jam butties for tea anyone?

Carolx

Mum's Sunshine Award

Hello friends

 

Nice to see you all. Mum. over at mum's simply living blog was given a Sunshine Award and instead of nominating other bloggers she has left it open for any of her flowers to join in. That's nice.

 

 

'The Sunshine Award is an award given to those who inspire us and bring sunshine into our lives.'

There are a few simple rules:-

1) Include the award logo in your blog post.

2) Link to the person who nominated you.

3) Answer 10 questions about yourself.

4) Nominate other bloggers. 

 

 

 

Mum's 10 questions are as follows:-  

 

 

 

1. What would be your first thought if you saw the first flakes of snow falling from the sky?

Yeah! We don't usually get much snow here so it's quite exciting when it arrives. Saying that I don't like it to hang around too long. Just long enough to build a snowman and have a snowball fight.

2. Let's suppose you had to dress someone's snowman. What hat would you put on its head?

A flat cap
3. Do you celebrate this season? If so, how?

Assuming you mean Christmas - we have an artificial tree with traditional decorations (don't do colour themes) and nearly always buy two new tree decorations each year. L and I always go to a Christingle service and I make a small buffet tea for when we come home. M always goes to the pub on Christmas eve afternoon and usually come to church a bit worse for where.
4. It's cold, wet and blustery and you have to go out. What do you wear on your feet?

If I really, really had to go out it will be either walking boots, wellies, or a nice pair of full shoes (not sandals)

5. What game would you recommend for a seasonal party for friends and neighbours?

I have three brother  and when we were young we always played monopoly. Now I like Trivial Pursuits


6. You are going to a seasonal party for friends and neighbours - how would you like to spend the evening?

Chatting, drinking, nibbling and maybe playing a few games.
 7. Do you have a favourite decoration for putting out at this time of year? Please describe.

I like to put out my nativity set because for me that is what Christmas is about.
 8. Have you written your Christmas cards yet?

Not yet

9. Are you making or crafting anything seasonal at the moment?

I have made three gifts so far  and plan to make a further four. I also have four mini Christmas cakes to almond and ice.

10. There's always something to like about each season. What do you particularly associate with this season?

I love Christmas, The decorations, the preparations, the whole atmosphere, oh just everything (except the shopping, I hate shopping).

I'm not passing this on because I'm full of a chesty cold and can't think of any questions. If you do want to join in maybe you would like to use Mum's questions above.

Hope you have a great week. and I will see you soon

Carolx

 

 

 

 

 

Some Christmas Makes

Hello friends

Welcome to new follower Chrissie from http://chrissiecrafts.blogspot.co.uk. I've been a secret follow of Chrissie for a while (sshh don't tell her) She is such an inspiration, she can knit, crochet, embroider and much more, why not take a look?

Ok my Christmas makes. My 11 year old nephew is into Harry Potter and wanted a scarf similar to the character's. Having looked on the internet and checked out the price his mum asked if I would make him one for Christmas and a hat. He wanted Gryffindor colours which is a dark red/maroon and gold. I didn't have those colour so I trotted off to Fleetwood market (I also did some other bits and pieced whilst in town).
The badge I was going to make in cross stitch (I hate doing cross stitch; I find it so boring) however M found one on Amazon. In total this scarf cost me £10 which is less that half of what the original would cost.


For my baby nephew, a toddler of 21/2,  I've made him a jumper. L decides that is should be red and black striped. This yarn I already had as it was left over from the Hero blanket I made earlier. To go with the jumper I have bought a Thomas story book that was half price. That's Three down and a few more to go.

Next on my needles will be something pink for their 8 month old sister. But first I need to make a Christmas decoration because I have join in with a Christmas swap organised by http://ladybirddiaries.blogspot.co.uk another great crafter.

This week I have decorated a picture frame I got for my birthday. I was lovely as it was but a little too stark so it went from this

to this

 

 



I played around with different ideas and ended up with this and it got L's approval. Now I just have to find some photos which could take a while to get them just right.

I need to get on I've to go out, clean some cupboards (yuk) and then I want to do some baking.

Hope you all have a good week end and the weather stays fine.

Carolx

What Have I been Doing This Past Two Weeks?

Hello friends

Welcome to new follower Joy.

What have I been doing this past two weeks?
Well, quite a lot but only one thing that was very exciting.
 During Half term I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked with L because I was sewing, these crafted squares (on the right) onto the backing fabric, on my mum's industrial sewing machine.  Radio Lancashire have been promoting the Up For Arts project all year and this is one of their projects. All the craft groups in Lancashire were asked to make a square, using yarn or material, it could knitted, patchworked, embroidered etc but it had to represent their craft group and then it was sent on to us at Thornton Library to put together. There are some wonderful works of art. Some very simple and some very details and lots of in between but all fabulous.  We did the unveiling last Thursday with radio Lancashire. Please click on the pictures to see them better. In a few weeks the displays will be going on tour all round the libraries in Lancashire. Unfortunately I don't know the tour dates. If I can find out I will pop them into another blog post.

One of the other things I did over half term was to pack mum's case because dad was going on holiday for a much needed rest and mum was going into a home for 9 days. This was not an easy task because I didn't know if she would be warm or cold so I selected a mixture of clothes that could be layered. Then I had to put her name in all of it. Finding space on a label was not as easy as thought it would be. We have name tags now ready for next time. On the Friday dad and I took mum to the home and stayed with her for a little while before returning home. All last week I visited mum every afternoon before getting L from school. One of the sad things about the home is that all the resident did all day was sit and watch TV or sleep and it was quite sad. Although mum has a form of Alzheimer's she is still very active and ended up helping the staff with some of their chores which I thought was a great idea.
Whilst mum and dad were away from home I spring/autumn cleaned their home as it's so much easier when no one is about. Now that is all done and they are both home (mum was so pleased to see dad back) I can relax a bit. I'm glad they are both home because mum is not ready for a nursing home yet and I missed them at home.

I have been making some Christmas present in the evening and I will share them with you in my next post.

See you all very Soon

Carolx

Joining in with Mum's Virual Tea Party

Hello friends

Did you remember to turn your clocks back 1 hour this morning?

Nice to see so many visitors. Welcome and come and sit yourselves down. The storm hasn't reach our part of the England yet and the sun is shining, don't suppose it will be long though.
Would you like a cup of tea and how about some cake.

It was my daughters birthday earlier in the month but we waited for half term to have her friends round for a sleep over (last night). I made a chocolate cake. Wow it's amazing and so moist and light. My SIL gave me the recipe which I think she got of the BBC website. Anyway I will post the recipe at the bottom of this post with the link.
After making the cake I sandwiched them together with bought white buttercream and then smeared it all over the outside before putting on the fondant icing. Very sickly and sweet but the girls loved it. Hope you do too. (L is a huge 1 Direction fan)  I forgot to tell you that the crunchy bits in the butter icing are chocolate chips.

Do you like the flowers? M bought them for me because yesterday was also our 7th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by going to the local weatherspoons and had a lovely meal. The three girls had their own table next to ours and  unfortunately we had to pick up their tab too.  I'm off now to visit the others. See you all again soon.
Don't forget your recipes below and a big thank you to Mum for organising this tea party.

Carolx


http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6652/naughty-chocolate-fudge-cake

Ingredients

175g Self raising flour
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
1 Tsp Bicarbonate soda
150g Caster sugar
2 Eggs Beaten
150 ml (1/4 pint) Sunflower oil
150 ml (1/4 pint) Semi skimmed milk
2 Tbsp Golden syrup


For the Coating and filling
75g Unsalted butter
175g Icing Sugar
3 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
Drop of Milk
Method

Pre-heat oven to 180ºC/350F/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line two 18cm (7 inch) sandwich tins.
Sieve the flour, cocoa and Bicarbonate of Soda into a bowl. Add the sugar and mix well.
Make a well in the centre and add the syrup, eggs, oil and milk. Beat well with electric whisk until smooth.
Spoon the mixture into the two tins and bake for 25 - 30 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Remove from oven, leave to cool before turning out onto a cooling rack.
To make your butter icing, place the butter in a bowl and beat until soft. Gradually sift and beat in the icing sugar and cocoa powder then add enough milk to make the icing fluffy and spreadable.
If the cake has risen a little to high then use a serrated knife to even off the top, now sandwich the two cakes together with the butter icing and cover the sides and the top of the cake with more butter icing.

Twiddle Muff

Hello friends

Hope you are having a lovely day today. The sun is suppose to shine all day today, Yeah can get loads of washing dry outside.

Here's the Twiddle Muff I've been making for my mum for Christmas. You can buy them over the internet but at £38 I thought they were a bit expensive and there's not a lot to twiddle. This has not cost me anything to make because everything came out of my stash.
I got the basic pattern from here and then made up my own twiddles. I wanted to be visually appealing so I used lots of colour and different textures and dangly bits. My idea was that there would be too much to take in all at once so new discoveries would be made each time it was picked up.


I started off embroidering a small piece of fabric with a flower and then another piece with mum on it, stitched them together to form a pocket and then added some polystyrene beads, closed the
 pocket and stitched it in place. I'm not that good at embroidery and I think I should have used long and short stitch. I did try it by it was very untidy so I stuck to satin stitch.  I already had some crocheted flowers made up so added them. I made some felt hearts and embellished them with pretty buttons and bows then attached them to a pale green ribbon so that they would dangle and look pretty. I had more of this ribbon and decided to cut it into four strips and added some clear coloured beads. Now they can be plaited or the beads moved up and down into different positions. I've also added other dangly bits to provide visual interest as well.
Twiddle Muffs are suppose to give the dementia patients something to focus on, keep their fingers mobile and keep them calm. I don't know if it will help mum in anyway as she doesn't sit down long enough. Can only try. I did enjoy making the muff as it was something different.

Whilst I was doing the embroidery L was sat next to me watching and said the she would like to have a go too. I asked her if she minded waiting until I had finished my pieces and then she could have the small embroidery ring. She agreed and whilst waiting she selected a picture, traced it, enlarged it on the printer/photocopier and then transferred it onto a piece of white cotton I found for her and selected the right colour of thread (it had to be the right red) and this is the result. I used another piece of white cotton on the back to hide the stitching and trimmed off the excess. It's now ready to hang in her room with the rest of her 1Direction collection.
My next project is a Harry Potter scarf for my 11 year old nephew S. Unfortunately I had to buy the yarn because I didn't have the right colours in my stash.

My blanket (from my last post) goes to its new owners next weekend. I do hope they like it.

Best get on now whilst the sun is still shinning. I look forward to reading your comment soon.

Have a good week. Half term for us next week.

Carolx

Ta Da Moment

Hello friends

A warm welcome to my new followers, Suzanne from Tales from my craft room, Sarah B from Compostwoman and Rachel Flowers. Hope you enjoy my ramblings.

I have finally finished my comic strip hero blanket. I don't want to sound smug but I feel really proud of this project. It's taken a long time (since August) because I had to do some research on the computer and old Dandy and Beano annuals. Then work out the designs for the squares.  After working out how many stitches and how many rows I was going to do for the squares I could then work out the design on graph paper. 1 square equalled 1 stitch. It worked out when I did stocking stitch but not when I did moss stitch. I crochet round each square in white so that they wouldn't blend when stitched together and to make sure that they were all the same size. Next I placed them in an order where I tried not to get the same two colours together, especially the block ones and then stitched them together. Afterwards I crochet a large boarder around the edge (trebles) only using the colours I'd used for the squares except for the brown, I didn't have enough.  My last round of trebles were completed in black (will understand why further down the page) and the final round was done in treble shells and a slip stitch between each shell. I then made some fringe and attached it to three sides.

I bet you are wondering who the squares represent.
I'll tell you.Going from the top from left to right (top picture).
1 Mini the Minx (Beano)
2 Bully Beef (Dandy)
3 Desperate Dan (Dandy) there are buttons going down the red shirt,
4 Hell Boy (cartoon) there are two crochet circles to represent cut off devil horns,
5 Bash Street Teacher (Beano) there is a tassel on the black square to represent a mortar board, 6 Billy Whizz (Beano)
7 Winker Watson (Dandy)
8 Roger the Dodger (Dandy)
9 Scooby Doo (cartoon) dog collar, my favourite,
10 Spider Man 
11 Dennis the Menace
12 The Riddler from Batman
13 Flash (cartoon I think)
14 Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles - Rafael (cartoon)
15 Iron man (cartoon, I think)
16 Cat Woman
and last Gnasher, Dennis's dog, represented by the fringe and I crotched a bone to keep him quiet. Now you know why I didn't put it round the top, too risky hehehehe

I guess you might be wondering what I'm going to do with it now it's finished. Well, M has a nephew who will be 30 soon along with his girlfriend and nephew has a son who will be 11 soon and they're having a joint party at the beginning of November so we thought we would do a joint birthday present. The weather is getting cooler and they like super heroes so why not snuggle down under a nice warm blanket whilst watching them on the TV. I will include a quiz sheet to see if the can find the heroes and at Christmas if they haven't been able to find them all I will give them the answers. I do hope they'll like it. How much did it cost - about £8 for the materials and man hours - too many but I've enjoyed making it.
L wants me to do a Jacqueline Wilson one to represent all her books. That will take quite a while and will be an after Christmas challenge. My next challenge is to knit a twiddle muff for my mum for Christmas, I will post about that when it's completed.

It's been lovely to see you and I hope you will drop by again.

Carolx