I ♥ Summer!!!

Lots of loveliness from the garden...

Juicy blackberries...

Birthdays with lots of cake and cuddles...

And I finally found out who's been eating all my basil!

Tomato harvest!

The first tomato harvest, along with one rogue chilli. There are soooo many chillies already - I have no idea what I'm going to do with them all!!! Stir fries and curries every day :)

The tomatoes keep growing taller and taller, no matter how often I pinch the tops out. They've completely taken over the greenhouse and pushed out all the chillies, tabacco plants and courgettes (I ate my first homegrown courgette last week too).

Excuse my messy room in the background but how AMAZING is this blanket my lovely friend Barbara sent me :D

Off to play in the sunshine now...

x

Happy Birthday Ashton!!

Mission complete.

Cake Update!!!

Getting ready for delivery now.
All he's missing is his wheels and ladder...

Cake progress...

Bloody miserable day today. Rain rain rain. Time to plan a holiday I think!!

Just an update on the progress of the fire engine cake, I am quite pleased with it so far :)

Hope he likes it! hehe.

Also, went in Prim Vintage Fashion in the city yesterday for the first time.

Oh. I wish I had been in every day since they opened lol

It's beoooooooooooooooooooooooootiful

Cupcakes!

The finished cupcakes for my cake and plant sale...

Yummy :)

Bury

oh beautiful Bury, thank you for a lovely day!

The Abbey Gardens must be one of the most peaceful places I have ever been and I was definately in need of a nice sunny day to be able to go and sit in them. Time well spent :)

I even knitted a square to add to the 'Close Knit' project...

Conquering crochet, Part 2.

Yes, it's officially an obsession...

At least the kitten will have a nice warm blanket to snuggle up in with his shaved bits :(

poor kitty!

Conquering crochet, Part 1.

Yes, have hope all you non-crocheters out there!

I have hated and loved and struggled with crochet for ages - can't follow the patterns for the life of me - the hook goes where? you make a loop for the what now???! you make a row with 1dc in 2nd ch miss next ch rep from last dc 1dc in next ch sch 11tr in ring 1ss in 3rd argggggggggggggggggggggg madness

And yet....

I,

totally terrible and completely hopeless crocheter

have made

a square!

That's right,

a whole square...

So have hope :)

If I can do it, anyone can

Thank you to the blog of Dottie Angel, for inspiring me to try one more time

The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.
- George F. Will

short photo update :)

Currently...

tidying my room

causing chaos in other rooms

looking forward to spring...

and making a moss terrarium!

Snow! :)

This morning, for the first time in absolutely years, I built a snowman...

Lugabarooga

So. A lovely weekend... Someone got a nice pony jumper! :)

I think (hopefully!) a good time was had by all. I certainly enjoyed every minute.

Right now I am wishing I lived closer to all the wonderful people I got to see this weekend,

and nearer to hills and valleys and Bradgate Park.

And I am, finally, decorating my christmas tree...

Pajaki!!

Finished Pajaki with pom-poms...

A real fiddle, trust me.

I don't think it turned out too bad for my first try

Fingers crossed for a boy!!

Floristry practise

Advent rings

Couple more advent rings I've made for people...

M and I went for a nice long walk in the countryside and nicked some bits of holly and some berries from the hedgerows :)

pom pom pain...

I'd forgotten how much of a pain in the butt pom poms are to make!! lol

But I saw a tissue paper pom pom mobile during my internet browsing, and decided to make a wool one for my cousin for when her baby is born in January.

Seeing as we don't know whether it will be a boy or a girl, I am actually making two

Tissue paper would have been much easier I'm sure...

It's a work in progress...   :)

Inspiration from the blog of Lena Corwin

I'm so excited about there being a baby in the family. Seeing as my brothers and all our cousins are not much different in age there hasn't been a baby about since we were all babies. So this will be the first in a long while, and the first between us all, and I'm really looking forward to it sooooo much!!

Floristry practise!

Advent ring I made for one of mum's churches!! ouch... prickly...

sorry for the crappy photos - I'm tired and the camera battery was running out :s

white christmas please!

For some time now I have been jealous of the americans, and their beautiful white iced cupcakes. This has posed a problem for me... because it always looks suspiciously like butter icing, so not just water and icing sugar or royal icing which will of course go very hard.....

However, using butter has always given me a yellowy butter icing (obviously),

so how do they do it??

Apparently it's because they use shortening, and some complicated recipe with egg whites and cream of tartar or corn syrup and all that kinda jazz.

This kind of icing does not appeal to me. YUCK. Apparently it does not give a great flavour, and also bestows a lovely vaseline-esque coating on your tongue.

So - I came up with a solution. The coconut oil solid cooking stuff that M's mum gave me! So yeh it tastes of coconut, but what could be wrong with that. So today I tried it out. Chocolate cupcakes topped with my usual butter icing recipe, only I used this crazy coconoil stuff instead of butter

mm mmmmmmm tasty

and super super white

yes!!!!!!!!

Want one?