Home grown chili's

My first crop not bad for Scotland

Is it a bird is it a ufo

No it's a fluffy cloud.
Floating above my parents house, well people always say I'm strange so  maybe I'm an alien after all.

Pinterest

I've just discovered Pinterest it's fabulous now when I'm blog hopping I can pin to my virtual noticeboards all those fabulous ideas I can never find again when I'm looking for them.
I love blog land perusing all those wonderful blogs unfortunately I have realised I'm not consistent enough blogging myself so when I stumbled upon Pinterest I was ecstatic just what I've been waiting on Oh my gosh someone must have been reading my thoughts. You've just gotta check out Pinterest.

Wedding gift

We seem to be in the midst of wedding season, what to give mmmhh. Well it had to be crafted slightly and who couldn't use money when starting out, and chocolate is always welcome (well it is in my house).

So I decided on one of my gift boxes.

I covered a bud box with prettty paper, sunk in some florist foam cut out a circle for the champagne to sit in and wine flutes. I used balloon sticks rather than insert bamboo skewers into to chocolate. Attached some tissue to the stems and arranged into the foam. 

I made money roses  

Money roses instructions here.

I will vary gift boxes can't have them all the same now can I but this is the general idea.

Hello again hello

Well I haven't been abducted by aliens or some such nonsense.  I'm to busy reading other peoples blogs then it's time for bed and I haven't posted again. Bad me naughty naughty girl. 

Love these books read them to my niece. Second only to Beatrix Potter or as she called her Peatrix Potter.

 Lol when Nat was 5 we took her to Beatrix Potter world and the whole way there she asked when are we getting to Peatrix potter world not quite sure what she was expecting. But she had fun and even though she couldn't understand why Peatrix wasn't there she was happy.

She loved Peatrix Potter. 

When she got a bit older she moved onto Katie Morag her signed copy was a treasured item.    

Oh the random thoughts I have not at all what I intended to post but never mind my brain doesn't work like that.

Christmas creations 2010

I'm beginning to realise I'm not very good at this blogging malarkey jeez October to January wow didn't think it had been that long.
Anyhoo Just some of the creations I've been up to in December though my photography skills leave a lot to be desired.

 The view from the bottom of my parents garden onto the millpond Sammy loves walking along here.

  

Wrapping in earnest

Jackie and I don't give each other gifts we get more joy giving to others but I sneaked a little gift in there for him from Sam.

I decided to give the nieces and nephews money again this year as they enjoy receiving cash and putting all the Christmas money together and buying something special. So I couldn't just give them money in an envelope so I popped it in a cracker and made up the sweetie jars attaching the cracker to the lid.

Selection of goodies ready to go savoury popcorn with paprika, garlic salt, cumin and coriander and sweet popcorn with white chocolate crushed peppermints and M & M's.
If your not good at making popcorn try here

A jar of doggy choco drops for the neighbours dog from ours.

A closer look at those sweetie jars

mmmh those cookies were delish recipe from here

And because of our initials Jackie & Yvone together there is Joy.
I put this in our hallway.

Halloween decorating has begun

 I have this convenient little nook as you come in the front entrance which is great for decorating.
still got a pumpkin to decorate.

I decided to paint/carve this one got the idea from BHG free pumpkin templates although I didn't use the template it did give me the idea.

 The plate at the back  has peelable glass paint on it so I can change it throughout the year.

 With the lights out above and below it just isn't showing up on the photograph however its lights up pretty well in reality.

Halloween

I have been looking for Halloween crafts for seniors trolling blogs and found a few ideas however I did find theses delightful labels which would be great for my hallway bookcase they are fantastic and I just had to share Halloween jar labels

You must check out this blog even after halloween

These are two of the jars I've done so far one is an old medicine bottle and the other is a jam jar I mixed mod podge and ink the painted over the jar let it dry and added the label I got from here and scrunched the label before addin to the jar.

I also added lids and stems which I got from here

Where have I gone

Shock horror I hadn't realised how long it had been since I posted anything. Lots of projects completed but alas not posted off on holiday for a few weeks and when I come back I plan to post post post. Of course I will have to change my name by deed poll to the ' procrastination queen'

shiny shiny buff and polish

One project finished at lightning speed woohoo.

While DF was polishing his shoes last evening he asked If we had a spare canvas bag to keep all the shoe shining items in the current carrier bag was falling apart at the seams.

Mmh me thinks I can make it look more apt.

yeah I know I should have ironed the bag 

This is what the image looks like up close.

DF was really pleased.

Sewing box

As I've mentioned before I work in a care home.

I made this from a roses chocolate tin, painted it with acrylic paint, and added some transfers, buttons, measuring tape to.

Helps keep these items tidy and hopefully in one place when we need to sew on some buttons. Also wanted it to be tactile.

 

Tin before which is kinda pretty.

 

Sewing tin after.

Something I read today

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass....

it's about learning how to dance in the rain."

Be kinder than necessary,

Because everyone you meet

Is fighting some kind of battle.

The last bit was the hook that got me. We are all fighting our own battle everyday just trying to get through each day, sometimes it helps to realise we are not alone in this. Our battles may be different but we all have our struggles. 

Cherry, cherry oh baby

Did I mention I love cherries.
Strangely enough not many cherry flavoured items out there.
Used to love cherry coke and cherry 7up but no longer available least not in Scotland, boohoo.
Today's shopping score three pitiful cherry items.

Roll on summer for fresh cherry season too too short.

Baking again

Today I had another mini bakeathon it's becoming a weekly habit, mmh yumyum.
Lemon tart, 2 orange cakes (which is basically the lemon cake made with orange instead of lemon. Rocket science, maybe not) Tiffin slice, thumb print cookies. ohh and of course not forgetting banana muffins.

 

If life gives you lemons bake a cake

        I always thought about that phrase if life gives you lemons (which seems to be the case at the mo) make lemonade which is all very well easy to make, refreshing to drink, however cake is sooooo much better so I thought I would share my Lemon cake recipe. 

I'm sure there is lots of version of this yummy cake out there in blogland but this is the one my Mum makes and I love it.

       Recipe

• 175g Butter softened
• 175g Caster sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 4 tbspn milk
• 175g Self raising flour
• Lemon zest unwaxed is best
• Juice of the lemon
• Tbspn icing sugar

Cream together the butter and sugar (sometimes I cheat and pop the butter in the micro to soften but not melt).

Gradually mix in the milk and eggs, then fold in the flour and lemon zest. Spoon mixture into a greased loaf or cake tin and bake for 50-60 minutes at 180c/350f or gas mark 4 (or like I do when its golden brown and my skewer is clean)

Just before you remove the cake mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice and pour over cake immediately upon removing the cake from the oven. Allow the cake to cool slightly in the tin then remove and cool completely on a wire rack. Mind you sometimes a sneaky slice has been know to mysteriously disappear before the cake has cooled.

Octopus for Sam

I've been thinking of making some toys for Sam however I couldn't decide what would be the best shape until today on our usual walk around the park. He was foraging around in the shrubbery when all of a sudden he came bounding out tossing something around (don't worry I thought that too for a second) when I realised it was a just a glove someone had obviously dropped. There was no-one around just me and Sam so I let him keep it.

Boy did he have fun throwing it in the air and catching it.

That's when inspiration hit me an octopus. Well okay I could have just given him some old gloves but where would the fun be for me in that. I had an old sweater that I loved the colours of and was loathed to throw away so I had my material.

   

I cut the hood off then drew a rough Octopus shape before cutting out.

The hood was lined with the same material in plain grey which meant I had four layers.

I'm an impatient stitcher and tend to sew without tacking (bad me).

I stitched the two layers of the tentacles together but not the head yet, I then turned the tentacles right side out and joined the striped bits of the head together then turned then the right side out.

Sam waiting patiently.

I added some eyes just for effect though they probably won't last long with Sam.

I then stuffed the head lightly but not the tentacles as I wanted to mimic the lightness of the glove.

I tucked in the excess material to strengthen the head (hopefully last a bit longer).

Then hand stitched the seam.

Et voila!