Stitching Sunday Week 6

Oops not sure what happened to last nights post, but here goes.

Joining in today with the lovely Chrissie for Stitching Sunday. This week I have stitched another little fairy, yes there is a pattern emerging here. The majority of my fairies that I have stitched lately is inspired by the wonderful and very sweet book called 'A flower Fairy Alphabet', which I have read to the kids since they were young. Both the poems and fairies are by Cicely Mary Barker and I love each and every one of these gorgeous fairies.

This little fairy didn't quite turn out how I would have liked and the ribbon I used was a little wide I think. At times she grumbled at me whilst I stitched her flowery skirt as she is quite particular about her dancing attire. I love her colourful nature and her desire to please, not only is she the most wonderful dancer, but her wings come alight whenever she does. She has the ability to find music in everything, from the smallest petals that fall from her little flower skirt, to the leaves swaying to the rhythm of the wind. The more I stitched this little fairy the more I fell in love with her vibrant and enthusiastic character.

I particularly enjoyed working her pretty and sparkly wings with some sparkly floss, it was like being part of a little piece of magic to see them glow.

 

This morning I woke up to a grey and rainy day and to be honest it has been like this all weekend. Yesterday my doh travelled up to the Lakes and back in a day to do a fell race, so I had the pleasure of taking the kids to their swimming lessons and also stopping at a small park on the way home. Even though it was really exhausting for me, it was so lovely to see them swim and also to have some fun with them in the park, something I really miss. We picked some leaves and brought them home to do some leaf painting and also for drying with the view to make a pretty autumn garland, so we will see how that pans out in a couple of weeks as I opted for the traditional method of pressing them in books. Who knows it might just all be ready in time for the Christmas garland to go up, gosh it isn't long now.

I really wanted to share this moment on my blog as I know in years to come I would love to look back on it and remember these small but beautiful moments that I have with this little gorgeous girl of mine. She has this habit of coming to me once a day and putting her little hand against mine and saying 'Mummy follow me' and I am suppose to follow each and every one of her movements. It never lasts more than a couple of minutes but I love it, her touch and her small hand, which is now so much bigger than it was a year ago and the year before then. I love her fascination with 'leading' the movement so to speak and today I thought I would snap the moment, in which we most probably lost the moment, but we did carry on after the photo was taken.

 

Right now as I sit here and type I can smell the wonderful aroma of the wonderful pot roast Brisket which has been bubbling in the over for hours, in fact it is called 'Four Hour Brisket'. The last and only time I cooked Brisket, I put it in the pressure cooker instead of the slow cooker for the same amount of time, and well you guessed it was far from tasty, a bit like a piece of old leather. Now I shan't try and explain why I used the pressure cooker instead of the slow, one could argue that it was a slow brain not registering slow or we could just say it was a particularly bad hair head! I will add that this was many many years ago and I figured this time I would use a different approach so I followed this Nigella recipe.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and I am really looking forward to seeing what everyone has been stitching. 

 

 

 

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo 

 

Friday Bake - Sweet honey cake and some pretty strawberry pincushions

Hello lovelies. It has been a super duper busy week here with soooo much going on so both mind and body is really pleased that it is Friday. This week I wanted to bake something from this new book that I bought for a bargain last week. This National Trust book is crammed full of wonderful recipes, but my first choice was 'Buckland Abbey's Honey Cake'. I have never made honey cake before and to be honest I don't know why as I have always fancied the idea. I love honey and have many wonderful memories as a child eating fresh honey on fresh bread, yum!

Fortunately, I have also found the recipe on line, so you can use this link to get started right away. It is a REALLY easy cake to make and I can tell you that the entire cake was scoffed in record braking time. I have never quite seen anything like it in our house. The kids LOVED it and the visitors that dropped in all enjoyed it, so I think it is fair to say, it is a winner and will be made again VERY soon. The added mixed spice makes it the perfect cake for this time of the year, not only is it comforting, but also sends wonderful aroma's of honey and mixed spice wafting through the house.

 

 

I loved the shape and colour that the honey made, such a pretty flower. I adapted the cake to suit my be gluten and dairy free 'weirdness' (as my friends would say) by using Doves Gluten Free self raising flour and Pure Sunflower spread.

 

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 It is pretty much a case of throw and go and within minutes your cake will be ready to go in the oven.

Unfortunately there aren't many pics of the afters as it literally got scoffed in two shakes of a lambs tail. Always a good sign! Well there was a very blurred effort to grab a snap of the last piece going.

Earlier this week I met with three very close and special friends to celebrate a birthday and also to celebrate the fact that we could have our first lunch out without kids. It was a wonderful afternoon where we laughed, cried and just loved being in each others company. As a present I bought my friend Sarah Moore's Vintage Home book and for anyone interested in this book go and grab yourself a bargain as I have just seen it for sale for a great deal less at The Works, bad timing or what?!, grrr. Anyways to go with the book I made her one of my Scandi style tea towels and also a pretty little pincushion.

Recently I have been so inspired by all the pretty strawberry pincushions that are being swapped around blogland, that I just had to make some. They are so easy to make and for reference I used the instructions from one of my favourite ladies on YouTube 'The Gourmet Quilter', here is the link. I didn't follow it to the letter as I had an idea of what I wanted, but she is amazing and I just love here laid back attitude to sewing and quilting in general and I always find her tutorials really helpful.

 

This week I also harvested the last of our vegetables from our patch, meet bill and blob (sorry couldn't resist :-)).

 

 

This week I have done very little in way of crocheting or embroidery, I have largely worked on finishing off custom orders that was collected yesterday, but some of them involved a little crochet edging, so also joining in today with Chrissie and Marianne with their Crochet-A-Long, oops a day late sorry.

  

Before I go, a big and warm welcome my new readers, it is so lovely that you have decided to stop by and I look forward to getting to know you a little better. Also thank you to each and every one of you who leave such lovely comments and sorry that I haven't replied to any of them of late. I am finding it difficult to get around all your lovely blogs and also leaving messages here. I am sure life will resume a slightly less busy schedule after my stall at the end of November. I hope you all have a great weekend and I will pop in on Sunday with a little stitching.

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo


 

Stitching Sunday Week 5

The weekend has whizzed by and it's Sunday again, so joining in with the lovely Chrissie for her 'Stitching Sunday'.

 

I so enjoyed stitching this sweet little flower fairy, he is gentle and painfully shy, but he has an inner strength that comes to life when he is exploring. He came to life with the help of stem stitch, back stitch, the encroaching stem stitch, a little long and short and a few stab stitches here and there. I have enjoyed doing a little ribbon embroidery with him too and I am looking forward to stitching him into his final place, which I will share with you all fairly soon.

We are loving this Indian summer that we have been gifted and this weekend blessed us with more beautiful sunshine and lovely temperatures. We indulged and enjoyed, spent time with friends and enjoyed good and hearty food. Here are a few of my favourite bits of our weekend.

Driving over the top where we live to visit friends and just taking a moment to appreciate the beauty.

 

Savouring every taste of the delicious pumpkin pie, which I wrote about here.

 

 

 

Finally getting around to making our Christmas pudding, something that is becoming a wonderful family tradition. It is something we have done since the kids were little and even though it is normally done around August, we all get a little flutter in our bellies at the thought of the reindeer bells jingling in our garden. Everyone gets stuck in, but the best bit is that we all get to make a wish whilst we stir (thank you Delia for this very lovely idea).

Enjoying this bargain and buying two books for a tenner at Smiths. I can't wait to start trying some of these recipes.

 

My first attempt at gluten and dairy free puff pastry to make this tasty Steak and Ale pie. The pastry didn't quite puff, but it was super yummy, so I will persevere.

Photos of the kids out on their walk with the doh, who usually forgets his phone, so it was a real treat to see them out and about. They had a long walk up to the top of White Nancy, and little Es in her usual attire, pj's and fluffies.

 

 

Lastly finishing Mr Robin into a sweet little lavender heart.

 

I hope you have had a good weekend and managed to relax a little. I am looking forward to seeing what you have all been stitching, so off to go and have a little look.

 

 

Hope you all have a wonderful week.

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo

Firday Bake - Pumpkin Pie & some fabric pumpkins for good measure.

It is Friday and time for the first of my series Friday Bake. I am feeling rather excited about this, as not only will I hopefully get some inspiration from others, but I am also going to aim to bake things that I have never made before, sometimes we need a little incentive. For me there is no better way to start this than with Pumpkin Pie. This American delight has become so popular around the world and today I have made it gluten and dairy free and I can't wait to indulge in  it.

The word pumpkin appears to originate from the Greek word 'pepon', which literally means large melon. This was later changed by the French to 'pompon', which the English later termed 'pumpion'. So I was interested to find out whether Pumpkin pie actually originated in America and also during which period. Apparently early American settlers of the Plimoth Plantation (1620-1692), which was the first permanent European settlement in southern New England, made something similar to pumpkin pies, by using the flesh of the pumpkin and stewing it with milk, honey and spices and then baking it in hot ashes, but it doesn't appear to have had a so called crust. Interestingly enough a recipe for pumpkin pie that included a pastry was found in the famous French chef Francois Pierre la Varenne and author of what's claimed to be one of the most important French cookbooks of the 17th Century, known as the 'The True French Cook'. In 1653 this book was translated to English and published in England as 'The French Cook'. This meant that by 1670 recipes for Pumpkin pie were appearing in English cookbooks, but interestingly they used ingredients such as rosemary, thyme, and raisins combined with nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves, maybe something I would like to try one day. The idea of rosemary most certainly appeals

So where does the idea of eating it around Thanksgiving in America come from? It is lead to believe that the Native Americans brought pumpkins as gifts to the first settlers and taught them the many uses for pumpkin, and this is apparently is how pumpkin pie developed in America. I would be so interested to hear from the American readers to what you have been told about the history of Pumpkin pie.

I followed this recipe from the BBC GoodFood website. It is easy to make, and for anyone who hasn't ventured into the world of pastry, get your pinny on and get cracking. It's fun and not all that scary and fortunately this one, phew, is sans soggy bottom! I didn't use this pastry recipe, but used my own, which can be made with gluten and dairy, or as in my case free from it all. Now I am sure Paul Hollywood would have a field day talking how the absence of gluten will affect the pastry and I am sure it does, but never fear as thanks to the wonders of Xanthan Gum it all comes together nicely. I made the pastry last night and then just had to do the pumpkin filling and roll out the pastry and voila, one pumpkin pie and a few jam tarts made it into the oven. You do however need to blind bake your pastry and for any of you not familiar with this, this is where you cover your pastry with some baking or parchment paper and keep the paper down with some baking beans, but fortunately the recipe gives you all the instructions you need.


Here is my Sweet shortcrust pastry recipe for anyone interested.
250g soft butter (or sunflower spread as in my case)
150g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
5ml vanilla essence
420g flour (Doves gluten free in my case)
10ml baking powder
5ml salt

If you are doing it gluten free then add Xanthan Gum to the dry ingredients before you sift it. They say you should add two teaspoons to every 100g of flour. I didn't add 8 teaspoons, but around 6.

Mix the butter and sugar in a blender until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time whilst your mixer is mixing. Add the vanilla essence.
Sift all the dry ingredients and slowly add to the mixture to get a soft dough. Roll it into a ball, wrap it in clingfilm and then refrigerate for 15 minutes, or you can do it the night before like I did.

I know the kids won't like this pie one bit, so to soften the blow they have some lovely jam tarts to look forward to for when they get back from school today. Now I just need everyone home, so our weekend can begin and with all this rain and mist, this pumpkin pie is just what we need.

This week I also made some sweet little fabric pumpkins using this fab tutorial, inspired by the lovely Heather.

So what do you all have planned for the weekend? We are having a quiet one, with a birthday party tomorrow, and maybe doing a little sanding on my new shelves, that I mentioned here. Wishing you all a very lovely and relaxing weekend and will see you on Sunday for Stitching Sunday with Chrissie.

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo

Crochet-A-Long (CAL) week 1

Joining in today with the lovely Chrissie from Chrissie Crafts and Marianne from Ladybird Diaries for the first of their Crochet-A-Long (CAL) series. I won't be joining in any specific projects, but will just be working on projects that I need to complete before the end of November and then for Christmas.

My very first crochet project was a hat, so I am quite fond of making hats as it conjures up wonderful memories of learning a new skill at a time when life seemed a bit glum. I can't believe that this is now already two years ago (give and take a few weeks), gosh time flies when you're having fun.


It is a simple shell cap and it is super easy to make. I got the pattern from watching this YouTube video. I have made tons of these as a friend commissioned me (ooh that sounds posh!) to do around 15 hats among many other bits for Christmas presents and I have also made some as presents for people. I love this pattern it is super easy and it is such a darling little cap. Little Es has outgrown the one I made two years ago, so this will be her new winter woolie and going by her fondness for her first, I know she will love it.

Time to put kids to bed, but back tomorrow with my Friday Bake and there is a little button ready to grab for anyone interested in joining in.

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxox

Crochet Scarves & a pattern

I love this time of year, it feels very homey. Maybe it is all the harvesting, jam and preserve making, but also preparing the house for the colder months ahead. One of the tasks this year involved making a new scarf for little Es, after the doh (darling other half) threw her newly crocheted scarf in Debbie Bliss Cashemerino Aran in the wash last winter. In order to avoid history repeating itself, I chose Stylecraft Special, just in case the pesky man looses his senses again ;-). For the pattern, I used Catherine Hirst's  Granny Square Crochet, which I have mentioned here. This is the fourth item I have made from this book, and I love them all.

Now as most of you will know, if you do one thing for one child the other soon starts nagging, so the second scarf was set in motion as soon as the first was finished and again I chose Stylecraft Special, simply because it won't have the 'itch' factor and also it CAN be WASHED! (I know you are reading this ;-)).

I love these colours, they are very autumnal and look so inviting. Once I showed him the colours, he was completely in love with it and he lay it out for me in the order he wanted it (this boy has style) and I think the end result is rather lovely. I didn't follow a pattern for this, I just wanted a simply block scarf, with some blocks being slightly bigger than others. So if you are interested in making this scarf, here is a very brief pattern.

 Pattern:

Chain 30
Do 15 rows of treble crochet (or double if you are in the US).
Remember to do your 3 chain- turning chain or use the alternative to the churning chain that I blogged about here, which gives the link on how to do it.
At the end introduce a new colour and then do 12 rows of trebles (UK) or double (US).

Continue alternating between 15 rows of trebles and 12 rows of trebles until your scarf is the desired length. I did 11 blocks in total and made the darker colours more dominant by doing 15 rows of blue and green and 12 of brown and cream.

I didn't want a border on this scarf, but that's a matter of taste and preference. If I did this for myself or a woman I most probably would add a border (not that I want to genderise here), but I love the rustic look of it for a man, or little man shall I say.

Over and above this I also made a crocheted cowl from the same Granny Square book. For this I used Debbie Bliss Winter Garden, which is a very chunky wool and works up really quickly. It is something you can make in an evening. You only need one skein of this yarn to do this pattern and you will have a little left for another small project.

To the right of the picture is this months Treacle market purchase, and Edwardian keeper shelves. I promise to do a Treacle market post soon, but before then I will be back for my 'Friday Bake' and promise to have a button ready for the grab on Friday if any of you fancy joining in. If you haven't read this post about the 'Friday Bake', you can read more here or tune in on Friday this week.

Thank you very much for all your lovely comments on my Stitching Sunday, you certainly know how to make a gal feel happy! Wishing you all a very happy October. 

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo