Inspiration

I haven't been very inspired lately, as you may have gathered. Then today I walked into The Horsebridge (a gallery and event venue in Whitstable) and saw an exhibiton that included work by ...
Katharine Love
Wow.
I want. I want. I want.....

Feel free to comment!

Just a very quick post - yeah, I know it has been ages since I last blogged but I'm struggling a bit with the old blogging at the mo. It was supposed to be about things I have made and second-hand lovelies that I have found and errr...I haven't really made anything lately and I haven't brought any lovely second-hand things. I can't seem to find the motivation to get sewing or blogging lately...

I have been reading though. It's like an obsession at the moment. I have to have a book to read or I feel a bit twitchy. I have also really enjoyed writing lately - just not on my blog!
Oh and re this blog, I have had to change my comments settings. I keep getting weird Japanese/Chinese (I aplogise for not knowing which!) comments - are they spam comments? I haven't a clue, but they were getting on my nerves, so now I am going to have to approve comments before they are posted.
Please don't be put off!
Hopefully I will be back here soon, but I wouldn't hold your breathe!

Making and giving

I have been a bit quiet on the blogging front.   I just don't know where time seems to go!
I've been a bit quiet on the making front too and haven't really made anything since the baby quilt from my last post(thanks for all the nice comments on this by the way).
I did get the sewing machine out for a couple of orders for these name signs at Taking the Plunge in Whitstable, where I sell some of my stuff.

On a completley different note, my very good friend and neighbour Vicki, has recently started writing a blog Vicki's Resolution,which follows her quest to raise money for a couple of charities.  In her latest post she also mentions, Stella a little girl who lives locally in Canterbury. Stella has gone to America for life-saving, but jaw-droppingly expensive treatment. Her family are trying to raise funds towards the money they borrowed for her treatment.
Please take a look at Vicki's blog for info on the charities she is supporting and also for the link to Stella's fundraising site.

Thank you  and I will try not to leave as long between blogging next time!

Feeling patchy!

I had an order from a friend the other day to make one of these pram patchwork quilts for a new baby due soon in their family.  I have made a few of these as orders as they seem to be a nice new baby present.

They do take a while to make and I am sure the patchwork police would look at them in horror! But I quite enjoy making them (so long as I don't have to make them too often, as then I think I would get bored!) and I hope the new mum will like it!

I enjoy sorting out all the different fabric to use and I especially love the fabric I used for the backing at the moment. It was a vintage sheet that I have ended up using on loads of projects recently.

Hair horrors!

Is it just in our house or does anyone else face such hair horrors in the morning?

This is our daugher D and what her hair normally looks like when she first wakes up!

And this is our son F's hair!

 I swear mornings are a nightmare in our house as we have to allow about half an hour just for hair taming....but we do eventually...This is D when her hair has been tamed some what!

She is modelling a beautiful cardigan made for her by a very clever lady who runs knitting workshops in Whitstable called Knitorama. She asked me to make a plain linen doll for her a few weeks ago and knitted this lovely cardy for D as a swap for the doll! I think I got the better deal!

This half-term we have been mainly filling the house with drawn pictures of Buzz lightyear..

My son is mad on Toy Story at the moment, we have quite a collection now.

But what do you call a group of Buzz Lightyears?

I'm not sure, but I am pretty sure we are going to have an army of them soon at the rate he is going!

Granny Boyd's Biscuits

Normally biscuit and cake making is a mid-morning or afternoon thing in our house. That was until I suddenly remembered at 6.45am this morning that there was a cake sale at F's school today, to raise money for the Haiti earthquake. 

I really wanted to contribute, which is how I was ended up baking at 7am, whilst also sorting out breakfast! (I was very annoyed with myself as school had been cancelled on Thursday because of the snow we had falling over Whitstable and some other parts of Kent on Wednesday night - so I'd  had a day at home with the kids when we could have baked in less of a rush if my brain had been in gear!)

I decided cakes were out of the question as they would take too long to cool and ice etc, so I decided to make some biscuits...Granny Boyd's Biscuits to be exact!  They are a Nigella recipe and the most delicious, chocolate biscuits I have ever tasted! I only discovered them when borrowing my neighbour Vicki's Nigella Christtmas book as I wanted to give some chocolates and biscuits as christmas pressies last year (which they are perfect for, wrapped in clear plastic and a ribbon).

I am sure I am about a hundred years behind and everyone already knows about these but just in case you hadn't seen the recipe and fancied baking this weekend, I would recommend giving these a try (they are incredibly easy!):

Granny Boyd's Biscuits
Ingredients
300g self-raising flour
30g cocoa
250g soft unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
2 baking sheets, greased

Preheat oven to 170c

Sieve together flour and cocoa and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and soft, then work in  flour and cocoa.
It might look as if it needs liquid, but keep working ingredients and they will form a dough.
Roll into walnut sized balls and arranged with decent size space as they will spread.

Press down with the back of a fork, leaving fork marks.
Put in the oven and cook for 5 minutes then turn oven down to 150c and bake for a further 10-15minutes.
Makes approx 35 biscuits

I think they are lovely with a cuppa, still warm from the oven but also good for a couple of days.
Or have, as Nigella suggests, with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream....

Yum!

Bad blogger!

I have been a very bad blogger of late!  I have been quite busy doing a few other bits and pieces and the blog seems to have taken a back seat at the moment.  I haven't even done much sewing lately, so haven't felt that I have had anything to blog about! I have been doing something creative that has been taking up lots of time, but it's not anything to talk about yet, just something I am enjoying doing that I might blog about in the future, you never know!

Anyway, back to the here and now! I did finally sit down at the kitchen table and think of some things I could do for Valentines day to try and sell in the little shop I sometimes work at Taking the Plunge in Whitstable.  I haven't taken these in yet, but I thought these little felt fabric envelopes would be good for sweets, jewellery or vouchers.  They are based on the tooth fairy envelopes that I do, but I used felt for speed.  I hope they go down well, I am trying to keep costs down so they won't be too much in the shop. I might add some  to my Folksy shop too, as I haven't added anything in there for ages - another thing that is feeling a bit neglected!

I also made this cushion cover from some seasidey fabric I had.  I used to sell lots of cushions in the shops but I have ran out of pads, I normally get them from IKEA so I am waiting for someone I know to go and get me some, so that I can make some more!!!

And these little make-up bags in different fabrics. I am hoping to make more of these if they sell. I made some for Christmas presents and they went down well.

This Habitat areoplane fabric I found in a charity shop! It had been used as curtains I think.

This ticking is my favourite fabric, I am hoping to cover a chair in our lounge in it - but at £14 a metre, I am scared I will make a mistake and muck it up! EEk! I am used to bargain or re-used fabrics most of the time |(like the vintage floral sheeting used inside £1.50 for a double sheet!) so it seems so indulgent to me to spend that much on just 1 metre!  I will have to make one cover in some old fabric to try and get the pattern right - but more on that another time I am sure!