Crocheted Birdie Brooch

:: In a blind panic at 10.30pm one evening I had that sudden feeling of sickness rising over me as I realised that it was my eldest nieces birthday in two days and that in the fashion of 2010, we as a family are trying to give homemade gifts as much as possible, and certainly to those who appreciate a little home made goodness in their lives ::

:: I have a folder of patterns stashed away for reference and vaguely remember there being one for a brooch birdie, I don’t know if it was because it was after 10.30pm and my mind was as mush, or if it was because it was an American pattern and therefore had to be converted, but I couldn’t make head nor tail of it (quite literally)…so on a wing and a prayer I made it up as I went along! And my goodness I think that I may have cracked it! ::

:: She’s a little bit wonky, but overall a very successful little thing, small enough to pin onto a card and tuck into a birthday card, supplied via the Tallest and herever growing stash of lino prints! ::

:: I’m sure that I’ll be making several more to put aside for gifts (well that’s the plan, although I have the feeling that I’ll always be rushing to finish things – isn’t it always the way when you have to fit these things around your family) And when I do, I hope to record the process and put up my first ever crochet pattern tutorial – Watch this space! ::

Reveal……

:: I managed (reluctantly) to hand it over, and it was as I had expected well received, as it was given to a lovely lady who appreciates these type of things, she was in fact the giver of a hand knitted bag for my 30th birthday – so it seemed an appropriate choice. ::

:: I don’t mind admitting that it took a fair while to do, but in truth it worked up an awful lot faster that I thought that it would, a lot of the work was saved by hooking the ends of the yarns in as I went along, its incredible how much time is saved by not having to thread a needle and weave those ends into the work ::

:: I may have to share that technique with you its a REAL time saver ::

:: One last thing that really makes my heart happy……gifts, giving…..sometimes receiving, but pulling away the wrapping and finding something beautiful or magical beneath. Or am I just a very lucky lady who hasn’t had too many blooper gifts in her life! ::

:: Yummy! ::

Old discoveries

So I’m torn, I’ve been finding half knitted and hooked things, in the big clear out, do I keep them and endevour to find the patterns, or unravel and put them back into the stash? ::

:: This particular loveliness is a toe up sock that I started I don’t know when, and even though I don’t have the urge to keep it, it seems contrary to my nature to just pull it out, so a challenge for the day is to discover another use for this half knitted sock (no heel) it begs to be made into a little purse / bag, but we’ll see, will the creative urge strike? I do hope so ::

WiP Sneaky Peek

:: It’s for a friends significant birthday ::

:: It’s stripy – no change there ::

:: She’ll be lucky if she gets it at this rate – I’m rather taken with it ::

:: I’ll take more pictures, and share it with you properly after it has been handed over to the lucky lady ::

:: Two more days at work to come, so until next time…. ::

Glove Puppet Goodness

:: Just wanted to share this terrifically easy idea for a activity for your little ones – making your own glove puppets ::

:: The Tallest chose to do a Prince and Princess for her’s, and these were made by following three super simple steps ::

1  -  Draw around your child’s hand(s)

2  -  Encourage them to decorate within the glove – be as adventurous as you like

3  -  Stitch around your puppet (wrong sides facing) turn to right side facing out and enjoy playing with your new toys ::

:: the opportunities for these are endless – watch this space! ::

Lino Printing

:: Needing some Christmas thank you’s in a hurry (how ever did I manage to get so far behind already?) Lino seemed the obvious answer to the dilemma, the Tallest is still a touch too young for this to be a more relaxed and less supervised activity, but she certainly enjoyed it ::

:: we did find the card that we were using a little on the stiff side, and went back to using paper, she loved rubbing the back of the spoon over the print mose of all, and of course the reveal ::

:: A satisfyingly quick way to produce images :: there are plans afoot for a big crowd picture thanks to this latest edition to the collection :: It’s a beautifully effective thing, and relatively cheap if you can find the materials for a good price ::

A bird in the hand…

:: Is worth how many in your back porch exactly? ::

:: And this wasn’t the half of it – I managed to find people willing to take the unprocessed birds – so that was five less for me to sort out, but I am still complaining that my thumbs hurt! ::

:: I had a night off from it tonight, but there is one hen pheasant left to be sorted out, who will by tomorrow have been hung for six days (more than enough for my tastes!) my freezer is full and my slow cooker full of pheasant curry! ::

:: Never one to refuse a free meal – that’s the problem – free in the monetary view of the word is all very well and good, but it usually means that some time has to be spent on making whatever it may be fit for eating, time a commodity that I feel so desparately short of of late ::

:: There are as you see on the left of the picture, four wee woodcock – quite a prized bird I hear, knowing not one thing about the preparation and cooking of these wee things, I turned to the bible that is The River Cottage Meat Book and read with growing horror that he suggested they be roasted with nothing but their gizzards removed, and that the insides have a delicate creamy flavour once cooked, and isn’t recommended highly enough, although among all the beaters and shooters that we know not one of them had eaten them this way, so needless to say, mine are minus their insides waiting patiently in the fridge to be cooked. Until HFW himself want’s to bless my kitchen and cook them himself – that will be the way forward from now on. ::

Good Gluten Free Pastry

:: Following the gift of a rather large chicken, which was Thank Goodness already plucked and drawn (hooray and thank you Val!) After half of it had been frozen, and the other half roasted – probably only half of that had ben eaten, so the next day’s dinner? A lovely Gluten Free Chicken Pie of course ::

Gluten Free Savoury Pastry Recipe

9oz / 225gms Gluten free plain flour plus extra for dusting

1 heaped teaspoon Xantham Gum

Pinch of Salt

5oz / 150gms Butter

1 Free Range Egg, whisked and mixed with 3 tablespoons of cold water

• Sift the flour, Xantham Gum and salt into a bowl and mix well, cut the butter into cubes and rub into the flour mixture.
• Make a well in the centre of the mixture, and add enough egg and water mixture to bring the pastry together using a fork.
• Begin to work the pastry into a ball with your hands, if it is too dry add a few more drops of liquid, try not to add too much liquid as although a wet dough is easier to work with a dry dough produces a better taste and texture after baking.
• Knead and flatten the dough for a minute of two, if you have the time wrap the dough in clingfilm and place in the fridge to help prevent too much shrinkage, but if not don’t worry too much as after all it is gluten free so less elastic than a ‘normal’ wheatflour dough.
• Roll out between two parchment sheets (if necessary) and use as desired.

:: I used up my leftover chicken in the pie, I chopped it into small pieces, added plenty of freshly ground black pepper and seasoned with salt to taste, poured in enough double cream to fill in all the gaps between the meat pieces and covered it over – rather delicious – and super simple too ::

Pre-breakfast Art

:: I have just recently bitten the bullet and rationalised all of the girls drawing materials – this was an exercise that had to be completed without the Tallest’s knowledge or I would never had been able to get rid of anything! ::

:: So to celebrate this new found organisation, I presented them with some little handmade notebooks (more on those another time ) and a selection of newly discovered / sharpened crayons and pencils, popped them in front of the fire and left them to it whilst I prepared breakfast – and what a lovely sight they made quietly beavering away ::

:: it set the president for the day actually and I highly recommend focusing your children with an activity before their first meal of the day, although ours is always post the first warm drink of the day or I might have a revolt on my hands! ::

:: Have a good one GT xxxxx ::

The Handmades :: More wrist warmers and a little bit of matching loveliness

:: Now that my Lovely Mother’s birthday has past I can reveal the little gifts that I made for her, one of which was requested (the wrist warmers) after seeing the ones that I had made myself, and the other was just a little something extra ::

:: These are shorter in length than mine, and as requested a little more conservative with the colours, I wanted to make the brooch to match, as I know that Mum is not a big fan of a standard type scarf, and I had not given myself enough time for a hat, so the brooch was a perfect compromise, it can be pinned on anywhere, I particularly had in mind the beret that she is wearing this winter, I thought that it would make a jolly addition to her outfit ::

:: I can never resist a bit of button embellishment! Enjoy your day GT xxxxx ::