Didn't they do well

Just as I thought, the Young Embroiderers had no problem with canvas work. It was a short meeting today as we only had the room for this morning, plus it was a small group but they did really well in the time. Not everyone finished but as you can see the work in progress looks lovely.


The green one above was Danijela's and Aleksija was working on the blue and purple one below. We found some plastic canvas in our cupboard which made them a little easier to work - certainly a lot easier to join together.

Molly was also working in blues and purples with an extra red tassel thrown in for good measure!

Quentin had almost finished his... another ten minutes and he would have been done!

And there were two finished bookmarks, this beautiful pastel one by Sophie.

And this lovely one by Nikki which reminds me of the colours of Spring flowers.

Canvas Work

At the last Young Embroiderer's meeting I noticed we had several rolls of tapestry canvas in our resource cupboard and decided at our next meeting we could try some canvas work. All very well in theory but my only experience of canvas work is a cushion made from a kit about thirty years ago. So I rummaged through old copies of "Stitch" magazine and adapted an idea for a bookmark (although made it into charm for my scissors). It looked simple enough! And stitching the actual design wasn't too difficult. But stitching the two pieces of canvas together, trying to keep them aligned and the stitching neat, never mind going round the corners, was near impossible.


I almost gave up, but not one to admit defeat I had another go using a slightly thicker thread. This time it was a little neater but it wasn't any easier... my fingers are very sore!

Although it does make a very smart bookmark.

I could start again and come up with another idea but we are meeting tomorrow morning. No doubt the children will find it a doddle!

Another Resolution

Whilst browsing blogs earlier I noticed Charlie had a very sensible New Year Resolution - to try a new recipe every week, the result of which will be 52 new recipes by the end of the year! That is my kind of thinking! Today I made this Apricot and Pistachio Crumble, courtesy of Nigel Slater and Sainsburys Magazine. I can honestly say this is just about the best crumble topping I've ever made and so simple ... so let me share it with you. He claims to have tried it with dried, fresh and tinned apricots but tinned give the best results.

3 x 420g tins of apricots in syrup (I used apricots in juice with good results), drained with 4 tblspn of the syrup reserved.

Butter for greasing dish

100g shelled pistachio nuts (unsalted!)

125g cold butter

250g plain flour

150g demerara sugar

a 1.2 litre baking dish

Preheat the oven to 190 deg C.
Grind the pistachios in a food processor until they resemble fine gravel.
Make the crust by rubbing the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, either in the food processor or by hand.
Stir in the sugar and the pistachios
Grease the baking dish and pile in the fruit mixed with the reserved syrup. Spoon the topping over the surface and bake for 30 - 35 minutes in the preheated oven. Watch that the crust doesn't burn and cover with foil if necessary.

Serve with Green and Blacks Vanilla Ice Cream (I added that bit!)

The family approved of this New Resolution but it won't help with the losing of a few pounds!

5th Jan Resolutions

I always think 1st January isn't a good time for resolutions. The house is still decorated, there are still remnants of unhealthy food and booze left in the house and if we're lucky the odd drinks party still to go to... all those good intentions to lose weight, drink less, get more exercise etc are bound to fail! So now it is the 5th Jan, the house is cleaned up, the fridge full of fruit and veg... and I'm still not making resolutions! Last year I adopted a word for 2008 rather than a resolution and I chose "balance", but that failed too! So this year I decided no resolutions, no words or mantras... until that is I read this...

The book tells the story of Lev, an Eastern European who has come to Britain to find work. It is a beautifully written story, dealing with loss and separation. It is sensitively written, rich and passionate and I can wholeheartedly recommend it. But it was this paragraph that struck a chord...

"... this was what, in the end, drew you on over the years, in spite of tragedy and loss, the idea that you could make some kind of mark, that through the slowly accumulating weeks and months you would somehow become the person you might stop to admire. Only the Best."

So no resolutions, just the thought that each day I should try to do the best possible to become someone I might admire... that and lose a few pounds, drink less, spend more time with friends and family.. and of course read a lot more too.

Another Year

After the weeks of work and preparation Christmas seemed to come and go in a flash as usual. A wonderful time was had by all made interesting by my newly repaired oven exploding in the middle of cooking Christmas dinner. Fortunately the turkey was cooked so we plied everyone with more wine while we pan fried the potatoes and parsnips. No one seemed to mind. On Saturday Stewart and I abandoned the boys to a house full of cold leftovers, and while they had parties in our absence we drove to Scotland to visit his parents.

On Sunday we had a lovely day out at Glamis castle which was beautifully decorated for Christmas... unfortunately no photos allowed inside so here's one of the imposing exterior.

And on Saturday we had a drive around the beautiful coastal towns of the East Neuk of Fife in glorious sunshine but bitter cold - stopping briefly for the obligatory photo - Stewart with his Mum and Dad.

Before Christmas I showed a few sneaky peeks of things I'd been working on and now I can show the finished items. First of all the Klimt book for Jude...

Like I said it involved eating a lot of chocolate to get all those foils... especially as I made two (the first one didn't quite fit!)

And in return Jude made me this beautiful Klimt book too...

Exquisitely stitched of course.

Even inside, the attention to detail was beautiful. Thank you Jude... I love it!

The second sneaky peek was this doll... Angela had commissioned me to make a doll of her husband Neil. I've never had to model a doll on a real person before so it was quite a challenge, but one that I really enjoyed.

And this is the end result...

But what is really exciting is that you can read what Angela and Neil thought about the doll themselves because Angela has got a blog at last! I've been nagging her for a long time so please go and visit, leave her lots of comments and encourage her to keep blogging because she produces beautiful work that needs to be shared.

I've now got a house to clean, food to restock and work to finish for mid January so I might be gone a while. Meanwhile I would like to wish you all...

A Very Happy New Year!

Happy Christmas!

Well, the present got wrapped, the class was prepared and the dessert got finished... I even got some sleep! Should you be wondering (and even if you weren't... indulge me) the dessert was a Christmas cheesecake. When Joe did his GCSE in food technology he chose cheesecake as his "product" which meant week after week of different cheesecakes which we all tried and tested. As a result we've become cheesecake affectionados. When I decided I would like to make a Christmas cheesecake we got quite carried away thinking of all the different flavours we could include. So this is basically Nigella's New York cheesecake on a ginger biscuit base, with the vanilla and lemon replaced with cinnamon and orange, topped with a cranberry compote... it was well received!


So with all that done, the last class taught and the last commission delivered, today I've actually started some real Christmas preparation... helped of course by a glass of mulled wine and the obligatory Christmas CD.

There has been lots of baking...

And I've even managed to get a Christmas cake in the newly repaired oven - okay, it won't be the most mature cake we've ever had but I've just taken it out and it smells pretty good! Still time for marzipan on Tuesday and icing on Wednesday!

The decorations have gone up... including the mistletoe (a girl can hope???)

And the tree was finally put up and decorated with lots of old favourite decorations and several new ones this year too - thanks to some lovely bloggy gifts!

My favourite though is still my fairy. Sometimes I think she must be as old as me... but not quite! She always looks a bit of a floozy with her sparkly knitted dress and broken wing, as though she's had a glass or two too many but out she comes year after year to top our tree.

I've a sneaky feeling this might be my last post before Christmas... still presents to wrap (and buy or finish making!) plus on Monday I'm driving Jacob and two of his friends all the way to Birmingham. Not like other families, to see a pantomime or perhaps the ballet... but to see The Mighty Boosh! I'll tell you all about it when I come back.

Meanwhle, thank you all so much for sticking with me and my rambling. It has been lovely to meet so many blogging friends this year. So I'd just like to wish you all...

A wonderful, peaceful and happy Christmas!

Tired!

I'm tired, I need to go to bed but I've a pudding to finish which I'm taking to our Zigzag Christmas lunch tomorrow, stuff to get ready because I'm teaching in the morning, a present to wrap... so I'm blogging instead. Sound familiar? Well I've some overdue thank yous and I had to show you my paper tree made from folded magazine pages. First seen demonstrated by Moogsmum... (I think) but I'm too tired to find the link. Then I had lunch with a friend last week (lovely lunch thank you Pat!) and she had made one too which inspired me to give it a try.


I think I may have cancelled out all the good of recycling the magazine though by then taking a spray can of gold paint to it!

Anyway... those thank yous. First to Maria for this gorgeously wrapped surprise which turned up at the weekend.

Inside were these two beautiful hearts which will hang on my tree if it ever gets put up. Thank you Maria.

And the second parcel contained these fabulous wiggly bags from Angela... who really must get a blog!

Not only that she included some emergency chocolate too! Thank you Angela.

Angela has recently opened a wonderful shop in Peterborough selling all sorts of fabric and art supplies so if you are in the area do pay her a visit. There will be an official opening in January so I'm sure I'll tell you all about it again as I'm going to be involved.

And to finish... some good news! I have a working oven which has meant the first batch of Christmas baking this week!

I'm now going to bed... the other jobs can wait until the morning!