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!

The Sunshine Blog Award

Wow! thank you so much Karen at Blonde Design, she has awarded me The Sunshine Blog Award, I am chuffed to bits!

The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspires others in the blog world.

The rules for accepting these award:-

Put the logo on your blog or within your post.-

Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.-
Link the nominees within your post.-
Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

There are so many fab blogs out there that it is very tricky to pick 12 out of all the ones that I follow and keep up to date with, but it had to be done so here are some of my favourite blogs (in no particular order):

Vicki's Resolution (a lovely new blog by my lovely neighbour - do take a look!!)
Domesticali
Reddymade
The Beauty is in the Detail
Jennyflower
Mollycupcakes
Me plus Molly
Jolly Hockey Sticks
Cupcakes for Clara
Pottymouthmama
Little Cottage Comforts
Pants and Paper

Do go and have a look if there are any you haven't seen before!

By the way as you can probably tell from this slightly longer post, I have sorted the wine/keyboard problem!
I have a new keyboard sitting on top of the laptop! Not ideal but it is working just fine so I can happily type away again!!

Snowy new year!

Happy New Year! It has been a little while and this will be a very quick post as a couple of days ago I spilt red wine on our laptop! EEEeek! It still just about works apart from the letters r, t, s, d, x and c on the keypad!!!!!! having to use the on-screen keypad for those letters, which takes forever!
Here are some pics of a lovely snowy Whitstable and our little princess who is 4 today!

Eek! It's nearly Christmas - how did that happen!

Well, it's been a while.  I apologise for disappearing for a little while but you know when you read a book that you just can't put down.....well, that happened (as you could probably tell from my last brief post).  Problem was, it was one of a series of four! For 2 weeks all I did was read and I swear I felt like I was on another planet, I was so lost in these books!  They were not the most literary read I have ever read, but they were the most addictive and I just fell in love with the story and had to keep reading to find out what happened.  You might have heard of them, they are called the Twilight series and the first 2 books were made into films, with the 2nd film New Moon just out in November.  Enough! I am having a Twilight break for a bit!!!

Last week we had D's playschool Christmas play. They have been rehearsing for weeks and she was so excited. The play was a nativity called Shine Star Shine, all about a big star who lost her shine, but needed to show everyone where the stable was!  Bless, it was so lovely especially at the end when she found her shine and her costume lit up! D had tried so hard to keep her costume a secret from us, she played the big star and I didn't realise how much she would have to do till we saw it.

Gulp, don't kids amaze you? She will be 4 on the 7th January, but she could have been a 10 year old she was so brave up there.  She was concentrating so hard and did every action and word perfectly.

Her part needed her to be in the middle of the stage the whole time on her own, I was fighting back the tears as I filmed it and took pictures.   It was even more amazing because she hadn't been feeling well and had been sick a couple of days before.  She still got up and did it and has been poorly all weekend.

We are so proud of her!

She also got to meet this special man afterwards!

The week before had been F's school Christmas fair which was fun!  The kids got to ride in this horse and cart which they thought was very exciting! (although hard to photograph as Rodney the horse moved so fast, I cut his head off!).

I can't quite believe Christmas is only a few days away.  I still have a few handmade pressies to make but at least we won't be rushing to and from school this week and can take things a bit easy.

I guess I had better go and get on with all that present wrapping.............

It's been a little while....

.......but I have been busy, very busy reading.
Yes, I have been Twilighted!
I have nearly finished Eclipse, I'll be back when I've finished Breaking Dawn..............

A few new makes...

I took part in a craft fair at a local school last Friday.  I did ok in the end, although not so much with the things that I had there of course! I had one christmas stocking from last year and hadn't bothered to make more, but then got 5 orders for them!  So I have been busy making them this week.

I never seem to sell the things that I think I will go!  I made loads of these red and white fabric and button hearts, which I was selling cheaply - and only sold one (thanks Vicki and Josh for liking the furry one!).

I was thinking of adding them to my folksy shop, but I have only sold one thing on there so far and until I get a bit of a customer base going, I figured 3 weeks till christmas was a bit late for me to start adding christmassy bits and pieces!

I also made this bunting, which didn't go either!

I have decided to go with a red and white theme for the christmas decorations this year in our house!!

Now please excuse the shameless self-promotion but I have added something new to my folksy shop.  A post of so ago I gave a little teaser about what I was making, well they were these......

A sweet little tooth fairy fabric envelope!  A lovely keepsake for any little ones with wobbly teeth! They are only £4.50, if I have lots of viewings on Folksy, I will add some different fabric ones (you can see some of the others in the top picture. Fingers crossed these will sell well!

I love the 'dear tooth fairy' on the front that F wrote for me, I then scanned it, reversed it, printed it on transfer paper, ironed onto cream fabric, cut it out and sewed it on the front!  It is brilliant stuff, I just got mine at the supermarket and have used it for loads of things!

I am going to make something similar as little presents for the kids school teachers and neighbours, and fill them with sweets or chocolate!