Keeping Busy While Baby Keeps us Waiting!!

So yesterday was my due date, but there's still no sign of ought happening...

Last week I spent my days tidying the house, scrubbing it from top to bottom and getting rid of all the big and little dust bunnies... (Needless to say the long weekend undid most of that hard work)

With Dylan off school this week, and with his cough and the frosty wet weather, we've been looking for ways to keep us busy.

We've put up a giant spider web:

Gone for a walk in the woods and made an autumnal wreath (we didn't do much foragng- hense the sparse decoration!!):

This was really easy to do...
Just get somebody with super-human strength (in this case, my Dad!) to bend a wire coat hanger into a circle, attach pine-cones, conker shells etc with garden wire and tie on a ribbon.... Quick and painless- will look for more foresty finds to spruce (ha ha) it up a bit if baby still hasn't arrived by the weekend...


We made spooky halloween biscuits this morn, and have just finished decorating (and unsticking our fingers, lips and chins) them! For the biscuits just rub together butter (150g) & flour (225g) in a bowl. Mix in caster sugar (125g) & a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Roll out the dough and cut. Bake for 15-20 mins @ gas mark 4/ 175'C:

1001 Cupcakes, Cookies & Other Tempting Treats

6 Days and counting till baby due so have taken a break from Swap-bot, although I am still checking out and watching new swaps and forums all the time!!

Yesterday got another great package from Josien but unfortunately my camera is out of battery so can't post a pic. The swap was a private baby one that was supposed to be just a letter but Josien has outdone herself yet again, it was a great surprise to come home to, especially as the doc said there's no sign of baby arriving any time soon....

In the package was a great letter all about Josien's little girl and the baby products she uses. On top of that were sewing patterns, biscuit samples, samples of sudocreme and baby body butter, more fruit teas and a scented drawer liner for baby!! I am so thrilled and chuffed with the thought that went into this swap- Thanks Josien xXx

Today, Dylan and I decided it was too cold to go out, even as far as the library, and so instead decided to do some baking- supplies were limited but we did make some marbled cupcakes from the book AJ gave me for my birthday:

'1001 Cupcakes, Cookies & Other Tempting Treats'

I'm not quite as gung-ho as 'Julie & Julia' but do aim to eventually complete all the recipes in the book. Cake baking, or should I say, decorating, is an expensive and time-consming hobby but I'll do it eventually (with the help of my little baking buddy, Dylan!)!!!

My camera is still out of action, but here are the recipes we've completed so far (since 23rd April 2010):

• 92 ~ Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes (October 2010)
• 192 ~ Chocolate Chip Cookies
• 210 ~ Whirly Pinwheel Cookies (pic taken with my ancient phone!)

• 251 ~ Midnight Cookies
• 368 ~ Party Cookies (DP's fave- we've made hundreds of batches of these!)
• 622 ~ Chocolate Chip Flap Jacks
• 655 ~ Apple Streusel Muffins
• 760 ~ Marbled Chocolate Muffins (19/10/10)
• 802 ~ Children's Party Muffins (19/08/10)
• 804 ~ Birthday Muffins (11/08/10)

It's hard to try new recipes when you have old reliables in your recipe file.... But I'm always up for trying new things and fattening my other half up... We all need extra 'insulation' for the winter!!!!

My Wee Cottage

Having just signed an extended lease on our house, looks like we're here for another good while, so it's time for me to get decorating this bare abode. I'm starting with the bay window sill. I want to knit an entire little village street for the window, so I've started simple with this easy peasy country cottage;

As I'm not clued-up on adding tutorials to my blog I'm just going to copy and paste from Word for now... So here it goes, my super-simple pattern for my country cozy cottage...

This wee house can be knitted up and decorated in only an hour or two. I generally use 4mm needles and DK yarn. Scraps are needed for doors/windows and other decorations, with slightly bigger oddments for the walls/roof. The main body of the house is knitted in 4 pieces;

• 2x Side Walls
• 1x Front, floor and back walls piece, knitted in one piece
• 1x Roof Piece

Side Walls (Make 2):

Cast on 20 stitches.

Starting with a knit row stocking stitch (st.st.) 14 rows

Row 15- K1 K2tog knit until last 3 stitches, then K2tog K1

Row 16- P1 P2tog purl until last 3 stitches, then P2tog P1

Repeat rows 15 & 16 until 4 stitches remain.

Then K2tog K2tog to give 2 stitches. P2tog and pass wool through the final stitch.



Floor, Front& Back Walls:

Cast on 20 stitches

St.st. 48 rows

Cast off



Roof:

Cast on 22 stitches

Garter stitch 28 rows

Cast off.



Windows:
Cast on 4 stitches. St.st. 4 rows. Cast off


Door:
Cast on 5 stitches. St.st. 8 rows. Cast off


Chimney:
Cast on 4 stitches. St.st. 10 rows. Cast off


Making Up:
Sew side wall pieces to the floor and walls piece to form a boat shape.

Sew one end of the roof to the front of the house 1 or 2 rows up from cast-on edge of the roof to form a ledge.

Sew the windows to the house using black/brown wool to form the window frames. Sew the door using the same colour wool as the door. Embroider a knocker and letterbox using a simple stitch.


Ivy can be embroidered to the side of the house.


Next cut a long piece of cardboard and shape into a rectangle to fit inside the house and give it shape when stuffed. My rectangle was 7cm x 5cm.

Place a few stones/rice/sand in the base to weigh it down. Continue to sew the roof to the front slopes. Add the chimney. Add a further piece of folded card to support the roof and tape it to the square supporting the walls. Stuff and continue to sew the roof to the house, remembering to sew in a row from the cast off edge of the roof, for an overhang.

And that's it!! Next up... A Lighthouse- Don't expect it any time soon though I am extremely slooooooowww......

Getting Freaky!!!

Wow, I just lost an entire blog entry thanks to an over-sensitive mouse....

This morning there was a definite chill in the air and a slight mist around, it properly felt like Halloween...




When we got to the schoolyard, teacher said she had a surprise for Dylan and his classmates. After school, Dylan let me in on the surprise~ teacher had decorated the classroom for Halloween. Dylan was super-excited and wanted to put his pumpkin costume on then and there and go Trick-or-Treating!! Having made him a hot chocky and explaining that Halloween was still weeks away, and that the new baby would probably be here before then, we decided instead to scare Daddy with some home-made decorations.



So this afternoon we cranked up the ‘Glee’ soundtrack (well ‘Proud Mary’ on loop!!) raided the art press and made some batty bats:

They were super easy (and more importantly, fun) to make. All we needed was:

• Black paper

• Black crepe/tissue paper

• Googly eyes/sticky dots

• White crayon/chalk

• Scissors

• Sticky tape

• Sticky tack

• Glue & paintbrush

• Elastic thread

• Magazine/newspaper

First, crumple the newspaper/magazine paper into balls (we made 5) and wrap in black tissue/crepe paper. Secure with tape

Next, fold the black paper in half and cut out wing shapes. Stick on top of the balls.

Glue on googly eyes and attach a length of elastic thread to the top of the bats. Chase each other round the kitchen screeching like a bat and then climb on a chair to stick the bats to the ceiling with sticky tack. Dim the lights and wait for Daddy to come home. Put your hands over your ears while he screams like a little girl!!!!! If you have more time, and Daddy is not due home from work at any second, cut out some triangles from the black paper and glue as ears. Draw on fangs with the white chalk/crayons.

To make a simple, but effective cobweb picture, paint a cobweb to black paper with glue and stick on lengths of white wool or pipe-cleaners. Other coloured pipe-cleaners can be used to make spiders...

What a fun & freaky afternoon!!

Yippee Post!!

Got very excited today as I pushed open my front door- Something was slowing it up- lots of post!! I could tell it wasn't just the free paper and my heart jumped- my first swap packages had arrived (as had a wee pressie for my little man)!!

I put the kettle on and settled down on the couch to open my post...

First up was an envelop full of fruit teas from Josien in Spain. Immediately I picked one out and made a cuppa while I read her letter;

My second piece of post was from Regret in Finland and had 2 yummy bars of chocky (yes they are gone already-oops!!)

I just love getting surprises in the post, especially when it's goodies I can't get here!! xXx

I Heart Autumn

Today I sent off my 'First Day ofAutumn' Postcard to my partner on Swap-Bot, Can't wait to get mine in the post as I just love Autumn!!! It was my first swap so will have to see how it goes, really excited about the upcoming chocoholics swap....

Anyways back to Autumn, my favourite time of the year (after Christmas of course!!) I love all the changing colours and that crisp, cold, earthy, chill smell in the air. One of my favourite things to do in Autumn is pull the wellies on & go for a walk in the woods with my boys.

We love to gather conkers and pine cones and pick blackberries.

And when we get home all soggy and cold, it's nice to pop the kettle on, make some cocoa and tea and bake the blackberries in a pie or crumble. I especially like when I have a big box of apples from my parents' apple trees waiting there ready to be baked. Thanks Dad!!

So here is a quick and easy recipe for a delicious Autumn Crumble:

For the Filling:

• 
  
  2-3 Cooking apples
• 
  
  A cereal bowl of blackberries
• 
  
  Sugar to taste (about 2-3oz)

For the Crumble:

• 
  
  50g butter
• 
  
  100g flour
• 
  
  50g brown sugar
• 
  
  handful/ eggcup of porridge oats

What to do Now:

1. 
   
   Peel & slice the apples and put in a pot with a little water and the sugar and stew gently. When the apples are almost fully softened add the blackberries
2. 
   
   While the fruit stews, sieve the flour into a bowl and rub-in the butter. Add the sugar and oats, and mix.
3. 
   
   Spoon the stewed fruit into a pie dish and sprinkle the crumble on top.
4. 
   
   Bake in a pre-heated oven at about 175'C for 20-25 mins

                           ENJOY with a big dollop of custard!!!!

And after all that with the evenings drawing in, it's easier to get the little fella off to bed and enjoy some fab Autumn telly by the fire...

Last Weekend Home...

So with only 5 weeks before baby is due, we figured this would probably be our last go at the three hour journey home...


It was well worth it!!! Had a great meal out at The Lemongrass, followed by 40mins of 'The Other Guys' till the projector caught fire and we'd to return home!!!! Oh well it was nice to get out for a few hours by ourselves.





On Sunday decided to check out the Clonmel Indoor Market at Dudley Mills: http://www.clonmelmarketatdudleymills.com/





Loads of great stalls and a car boot sale next door, my secret love!!! Despite there being only 5 cars there I still managed to pick up this beauty for only 4 euro;




I've been after a glass cake stand for ages so am thrilled with it. Must dash off now to bake something to display in it...

Feeling Motivated....

Ok so himself still hasn't redesigned my blog for me (I'm no good at the technical stuff...) but feel it's time I posted something anyways.

Have been mad busy over the Summer, getting ready for baby number 2 while trying to entertain a four year old. The good news is he's practically all sorted now for big school!! Baby stuff is pretty much under control too... Just need to pick up the little essentials nearer the time (12 weeks to go!!) Then there's the small matter of decorating the spare room/ nursery. We are renting at the mo so cant go painting/ hanging new curtains etc...

Have successfully made bunting (in both our girls and boys names) to hang but need to make the room feel more welcomming for the new baby. Have decided to sew up a number os decorative bitsNbobs with the time I have left. My grand project (before this have only sewn a few patches...) will include:

• Redoing the lining of the moses basket I had when I was a baba (25 years ago!!!) Found a great tutorial on SewCanDo- Love this blog!!
• Making a diaper/nappy stacker- and get this I've even come up with my own pattern (I'll probably lose all confidence the moment I start and google one but for now I will use my own!!)
• Making a pair of fabric shoes from one of the loads of tutorials available out there!!
• Creating a tapestry/ playmat to hang over the boring curtains in the room at the mo- will hopefully work as a black-out blind too...
• Some other sort of wall art, framed picture, quote etc... all ideas welcome!!

Wow I feel very motivated right now but dunno how long it will last. Have figured out my sewing machine though- wouldn't my home ec teacher be impressed (or shocked) if she could see me now!! I wasnt allowed near them in school as struggled with foot pedal control and managed to cut a hole in the middle of, and burn with an iron, the apron I was supposed to be making. Have reintroduced myself to the sewing machine but the iron remains my nemesis....

Fingers crossed, and a deep breath as I dive back into the World of Crafting after an absense of about 12 years!!!

Double-Sided Curtains??

Yesterday was outside and noticed that many of my neighbours had blinds down/ curtains drawn and they were all white! Why?? Brainwave: Double-Sided Curtains

These curtains would have a scene or picture on the outside as well as a pattern on the inside. so curtains for the living room could have a fireside scene or sunset, bathroom could have a tub or silhouette of somebody on the toilet reading a paper (although as I pointed out to himself in my excited planning last night, in our case we could always not have any curtains and that silhouette would always be in our bathroom.....) Children's bedrooms could have a character or whattever.

Then for blinds they could be reversible... So you could change the pattern on the inside/outside to suit your mood. Genius I think, need to research it harder but am thinking of taking it to Dragons Den!! While himself was not totally enthusiatic (I believe the term was 'pointless, stupidist idea'), he thought it might work better than my fold-up, portable table for fitting in your handbag. t fits in your bag/pocket and on a night out you unfold it and wear it to put your chinese take-out on. Its attatched by braces....

Anywho after this entreprenerial rant in bed last night, I felt my genius was working so asked himself to tell me how phones work (again). It's just something I can't get my head around. I mean how can I be in the hall on my wired phone, chatting to my mum 200 miles away on a cordless phone and we can hear each other instantly. I thought the wires went under the ground, apparently they're the wires on the poles (not electrical ones like I thought). And then it hit me, that's where the expression 'A little birdie told me' comes from. Birds are always on the phone lines, they must pick up the message and pass it on quickly. So my final way to make moola is to start my own phone company. I'm going to train the newly hatched birds in the garden, which I have lovingly fed and watched every day and make a fortune....

Guess who's Back...

Finally decided to get back on a blog after 6 years so forgive my rustiness... This has co-incided with me finding my knitting needles after a considerably longer absence from my life, The two are set to become a major addiction.