Home Invasion

I have finally got round to finishing of this tray cloth embroidery which I started back in May. The pattern is called Home Invasion, designed by Sarah Terry from the book Hoopla.  Not being a great fan of spiders myself, I know that it will startle me everytime I saw it so this is for my dad who likes the design.

Using What Nature Provides

Yesterday I had my first attempt at making elderflower cordial. I'd done a quick search on the internet for a recipe and found that I needed some citric acid but being late on a Saturday afternoon, had no chance of buying any so I used this recipe which used extra lemon instead. The flowers are easy to come by as we have a tree in our garden and my hubbie kindly nipped up his stepladders to cut some flower heads off inbetween rain showers. He also debugged the flowers for me because I'm not too keen on creepy crawlies and the flowers seemed covered in them.

I never used like this tree much as I don't think its the prettiest to look at and have considered chopping it down but its grown on me over the years mainly because its something afew steps from my back door that I can use for free. Last year I made elderberry jam from some of the berries and even though it didn't turn out quite as I'd like, I'll have another go this year but maybe mix it with another fruit.

While we were at the bottom off the garden yesterday I noticed the hawthorn berries have started to make an appearence already. I used these last year to make hawthorn delight. ( I thought I'd used elderberries for this until my husband said he remembered being prickled picking them). We only have a small patch of hedge which we leave to grow berries so we usually trot off down to the canal armed with bags to pick more there.

We haven't had a Summer here yet and I'm already looking forward to berry picking with the kids and jam making.

A Day Of Baking

When I woke up today the weather didn't look too promising so I thought both me and Little L would be trapped in the house all day. Being in a fidgety mood I thought that I'd make vegetable soup for lunch, Little L's favourite and another of her favourites, cheese scones. Cheese scones don't last long in this house as my youngest boy and Little L eat the lot usually before my husband knows that I have made any.

Little L asked if we could do some baking this afternoon and she wanted to make something which my eldest boy would eat. He is pretty fussy at the moment compared to my two other children and won't touch anything with oats or fruit in. We ended up making sponge cakes with chocolate chips, apricot oaty biscuits and a pear and chocolate upside down cake. As the afternoon wore on, the sun came out and the temperature soared it didn't seem such a great idea to be standing in front of a red hot oven. At least I'm out of there now until everyone arrives home and needs feeding that is.

Vintage Stitchy Contest

The Flickr group, New Embroidery with Vintage Patterns is currently holding a contest. I first heard of this via the feeling stitchy blog and popped over to the group for a nosey. There are three categories in the contest, Summer Theme, Modified Pattern and One Pattern, Many Stitchers. The pattern for the last category was supplied by doe-c-doe and can be found along with all the information regarding the contest here.

I used the pattern supplied as I thought it was cute and would look good on a tea towel. As I started to stitch, Little L sat with me and asked if she could have it. She seemed to take a shine to the design (I think it's due to the smiley faces).

I then added the felt and thought that as I have more of the same tea towels ( cheap ones from IKEA ) that I could maybe turn it into a half apron for her.

WIP's

Just some wip's that I'm working on at the moment.

A knitted teacosy using a pattern which I found on Ravelry,

a multi coloured crochet blanket using oddments of wool

and an embroidery using a pattern found on the feeling stitchy site.

Another wip is my hair. I began the week with long curly hair and booked an appointment for a quick trim. I always stress to hairdressers not too go berserk with the scissors as even with a small amount cut off, my hair tends to bounce up alot. Well my hair was absolutely butchered. Its not just the amount that the hairdresser cut off, I seem to have chunks missing here and there. My hair is parted in the middle and one side is about 3ins longer than the other. Theres no way I can disguise this hideous hair so I have made an appointment at a different hairdressers for next week. I think that the only way I will be able to sort the mess out though is to have a short hairstyle which I'm not too happy about at the moment but at least it won't have random chunks missing.

New Family Members

Today we gained two more family members. Little L's bunnies, Honey and Pippin.

Little L had been asking for another rabbit since Fluff died last year and her requests have been increasing lately. Plus we seem to be ganged up against by my mum in law and an elderly neighbour to give in and buy her a rabbit. Little L has mentioned her longing for a bunny at her pre school and one of the ladies who run the school knew someone who needed to find a home for rabbits. We went just to have a look yesterday, chose two and picked them up at lunch time today. They were born in January and are Rex cross Lop Eared rabbits. Both are friendly and easy to handle which is what I need for Little L.

The Pekins hatching eggs didn't go too well. Only one egg from the six hatched and that died. I don't know if it had been trampled on due to all the chickens being broody and all trying to sit on the eggs. I can't wait for them to get back to their usual selves and start pecking about in the garden.

A Day At The Farm

Little L went her first school trip yesterday to Stockley Farm with the pre school which she attends. The parents were quite welcome to go on the visit so I happily tagged along.

 Before we saw any animal we were taken on a tractor and trailer ride which Little L wasn't at all impressed with. I don't know if it was the fact we sat on hay bails or that the ride was a bit bumpy.

The first animals we were shown were goats and sheep which the children could feed. Little L loved this and kept giggling because she said it was tickley.

Then on to some pigs where children could throw food to these. Little L didn't like these at all because they were too stinky.

Next they fed the chickens before playing in the outdoor play area. One of my friends commented that you could tell she has brothers as she is a bit of a dare devil.

In the afternoon they were shown the cows, horses and birds of prey and played in the indoor play area but the highlight of the afternoon for Little L was when a lamb and kid were fed a bottle of milk by the children. She thought it was hilarious when she saw a lamb leaping about.

Little L was worn out so she had forty winks on the way home which some of her little friends thought funny. After her day at the farm we have another person in the house who loves goats. My eldest boy loved them when he was little and I found a story book about a goat last night which was his so he passed it to Little L and she looked at goat pictures until she drifted off. I think me and the children will have to gang up on my husband until he gives in and lets us have some of our own.