Who has a Birthday Today?

Stewart...

who is still not as old as me!

I couldn't let the occasion pass without a little collage...

And then I found this when I was rummaging through the photos...

Speedo Man!
David Hasselhoff had better watch out!

Happy Birthday Stewart
Forgive me for the photos?
I love you!
I made you a cake...

This is the tried and tested chocolate cheesecake - well actually it is a caramel and chocolate cheesecake definitely not made for the faint hearted. With a whole jar of Dulce de Leche caramel toffee, 300g of Green & Blacks 70% chocolate, a tub of cream cheese and a tub of creme fraiche plus a base made from Hobnobs (oaty cookies for those not from these parts) it doesn't come under any description of low fat or healthy eating. My scribble in the margin beside the recipe reads "Anything with this number of calories per portion has to be worth it... and this is!"

I leave you with the birthday card to Stewart from my Mum and Dad....

Just as well... given that cake!

Now about that cake....

I told Joe that even though he is on the other side of the world we would have cake to celebrate his birthday. He requested a chocolate cheesecake (as long as I make it again when he comes home!) Now I have a tried and tested chocolate cheesecake recipe but it contains raw egg and my Mum can't eat it, so I thought I would try something new. A striped chocolate cheesecake... and this according to the book is what it should look like.

However... this is what it actually looked like!

You could be forgiven for thinking I was trying to bake a model of the Grand Canyon.

Although it didn't look quite so bad when sliced...


... and this lot all thought it tasted pretty good. Stewart even had seconds!

( I seem to have cut my Dad and Ben out of the photo.)

So once again... Happy Birthday Joe!

***

I finished my latest "pair" of socks this afternoon. You might think I'm going for the Lucy Locket approach to sock making...

In fact I finished the first one of a pair I was making for myself when I suddenly remembered I'd bought some yarn to make a pair as a birthday gift for a friend... and his birthday is at the end of this month (as if we didn't have enough family birthdays at the moment!) So I abandoned my pair....

... to start this pair!

I've got two weeks left to make the second one! Meanwhile, come back on Tuesday for another birthday... and possibly more cake!

Another Happy Birthday!

Next birthday... Joe (son no. 3!)... born nineteen years ago today at Watford General Hospital weighing in at a whopping 9lb 6 oz! Today Joe is in Sydney, Australia but we spoke to him this morning and he sounded as though celebrations were in full swing!


He said he was wearing his birthday present which we managed to send out to him... a T-shirt with this printed on the front! It's very apt... at least he thinks it is!

Hard to believe the years have gone so quickly.

There will be cake (it is baking as I type) but we're eating it tomorrow when my Mum and Dad will be here too.

Happy 19th Birthday Joe.... We miss you!

***

Other things going on here recently... You may recall I made this applique some time ago...

Which was based on this very splendid drawing by the very clever Minx (daughter of the very clever Moogsmum!)

Well I finally got around to turning it into a bag. I'd been trying to find a lining with fairies on but everything I tried was just the wrong colour pink, so it has a pretty floral lining instead. I've made it as a sample as I'm hoping to make a variety of commissioned items from children's drawings... there will be more to follow.



And I also made this little owl egg cosy from a tutorial generously given by another clever lady, Amy. It was lots of fun and could have gone into my last post as it was very quick and easy but as you can see, also very effective. This might be a present for someone... or I may just keep it!



And last but not least, not something I've made but something I bought for myself from Etsy from another talented lady Jackie who makes beautiful machine embroidered items and also has a lovely blog! The brooch is made from silk and velvet and the colours are fabulous... perfect match for sainsburys bags!

Quick and Easy

On occasions I have been known to buy a bottle of elderflower cordial as topped up with sparkling water it makes a good non-alcholic alternative to sparkling wine. However I don't make a habit of it because it is so expensive... (and frankly I prefer the wine!) So this week inspired by Pipany and the abundant hedgerows I went out a-gathering and came back with a bagful of these wonderful frothy elderflower heads. I've never tried making elderflower cordial before but it was incredibly easy.



I found a Sophie Grigson recipe (although Pipany has now kindly shared hers too) and started out by making a thick sugar syrup (1.8 kg sugar & 1.2 litres water). I then put the pared rind and two chopped lemons in a big bowl.

Added the 20 elderflower heads.

Poured over the boiling syrup and stirred in 75g of citric acid (bought from the chemist)

Left it to stand for 24 hours before straining and bottling!

Six bottles for £2.70 and about 20 minutes effort.

How quick and easy was that!

And it tastes delicious -

far more elderflowery than any bought variety I've tasted.

I need to make some fancy labels for my bottles now.
Meanwhile I'm enjoying a glass as I type!

Also this week I've abandoned my usual sock knitting for something much quicker and cuter... these little booties for silver pebble's new arrival. Made in Rowan cashcotton from Saartje's pattern.

Made in an evening and also quick and easy!

And the winners are....

... but first of all a prize! This is McFly, a bird of unknown species. Choosing a name from all the brilliant suggestions (I knew you were all a creative bunch) proved to be very difficult and in fact I didn't really choose one. Well... I did... but I've changed it a bit! And when I asked Stewart which name he liked, he chose the same one... and he changed it a bit too. So quite independendly we both came up with "Miss Choc a Spots"

So McFly is on his way to Angela (no blog... we are still waiting Angela!) who suggested Choc a Lots. So here is Miss Choc a Spots who could have just as easily been Milly Boggle, Tallulah, Spotty Spice, Ferraro, Blinkey, Delilah Van Razzchoc, Horatio or Lydia which were all on my (rather long) short list. My task now is to make a sock creature to go with each of these names. (Sorry Jude... Creatures made from Y-Fronts just don't have the same appeal!)

Next job was to write out names on slips of paper... nothing high tech here...

Folded up and into the hat...

Being on my own in the house I wasn't sure who I could ask to make the draw...

but help was at hand...

Miss Choc a Spots of course!

Ooops... a bit too enthusiastic I fear...

And the winner is....

Silver Pebble!

I think Emma might be a little preoccupied at the moment as the new baby sounded imminent on Sunday so let's hope this is a nice surprise.

Thank you for taking part and for all the great suggestions for names. Thank you too for everyone who has sent messages to Ben. He's still not very comfortable but much better than Saturday night.

How not to spend a Saturday night!

Well the first part of Saturday night was okay - a lovely meal out with Kirsty, her boyfriend Dan, James, Kirsty's Mum and stepdad, plus me and Stewart - good food and lots of laughter. Then we came home to find Ben (son no. 1) doubled up with really bad stomach cramps. One look at his ashen face and I knew he needed to be seen by a doctor. So at midnight last night we went off the Addenbrookes Hospital A & E and believe me Accident and Emergency is not where you want to be on a Saturday night. We were subjected to the fall out from teenage binge drinking in full technicolour glory - I've never seen so much blood in one night. It was enough to put you off your Pinot Noir ...

...by 4am they finally let us go home with painkillers and a diagnosis of suspected gall stones. Ben has now been referred back to our GP who will in turn refer him back to Addenbrookes for an ultra sound scan... all seems a bit back to front to me. Meanwhile he is still very uncomfortable.

Despite serious sleep deprivation there has been cake making this morning (well I did promise you there would be cake). Kirsty came to see us to open presents and we had a strawberry and cream cake to celebrate her birthday....

With pink champagne of course! How else?

I wasn't going to show you the next picture not being very proud of the results but I've had my arm twisted! On Saturday afternoon I went to a lovely informal afternoon at our Embroiderer's Guild where one of our members kindly demonstrated Indian Shisha (mirror) embroidery and brought some amazing examples of her own work for us to see. I sat beside Stephanie and we were generally very rude about each others efforts amid mutterings of "I don't do hand embroidery" from both of us. Well these were my two attempts... come on Stephanie... I've shown you mine now you show me yours! In the words of many of my teachers... "Could do better!"


I'll be back tomorrow with results of the winners of my giveaways... still time to leave a comment tonight and be in with a chance of winning. I'm very impressed by all the name suggestions - so much so I now want to make sock creatures to go with all the names.

Another birthday!

Today is Kirsty's birthday - Kirsty is Stewart's daughter - my stepdaughter (and you thought I existed in this exclusively male environment!) I've known Kirsty and her brother James for quite a few years - longer than I've known Stewart in fact (it was Kirsty and James that introduced us!) And it has been lovely to see this timid little girl grow up to be such a lovely, confident young woman.

Always smiling, always happy, always beautiful... and always excited by birthdays!

Happy 21st birthday Kirsty!

I know I promised a month of cake, but we're not seeing Kirsty today as she has just started a new job in London with long hours plus Stewart has to go up to Dundee for this evening and tomorrow so we're having a family meal out on Saturday instead... but there will be cake next week!

***

Now I'm sure there was something else...

Ah yes...

this...

Let me introduce.....

ummm...

well I'm not sure because it doesn't have a name yet.

...So I'm going to have a bit of a double give away. First of all, because I have managed to reach 150 blog posts (who would image I could talk so much???) if you leave a comment here between now and Sunday evening all names will go into a draw to win the spotty creature.

But because I can't decide on it's name there will also be a bit of a competition - leave a suggestion for a name along with your comment and the one I like best will receive a surprise package (it's a surprise because I haven't made it yet so I don't know what it is either!)

I'll leave you will a view of the tattoo on it's bum!