Celebration cake

Yet again time has flown by.  I can't believe it's nearly That Time Of The Year again  (I REFUSE to say it out loud in October).

Anyway, my Mum & Dad have just celebrated their 54th Wedding Anniversary, and with a couple of other family things worth celebrating, I decided to have a go at a cake that was a technical challenge on this year's Great British Bake Off.

So, here goes, this is my first ever attempt at Mary Berry's Frasier Cake.  It tasted gorgeous and was light and fluffy, not at all heavy or stodgy.  Yum :-)  It took a good while to put together, but was well worth the effort if anybody wants to have a go.  I just need to work on my piping skills (and presentation too as I've just noticed the cake tin base and cling film showing.  Ooops).

Bits n bobs

Time really flies - I didn't realise how long ago I last posted.  It only seems like yesterday :-/

Anyway, while I'm stuck at home and busy job-hunting, I have to do something (other than much-needed housework) to pass the time. 

So, opinions please!  Do you like/dislike both the wristwarmers and the pincushion?  

And for no other reason than this little dog is very special soul, here's a couple of pics of Miss Dharma who came to visit while I was on holiday in Portugal.  I can't tell you how special this little dog is - she was rescued by my friend Isabel, and not only does she know it, she makes sure you know she's eternally grateful :-)

Why not...

It's been a long time since I've posted, but I've still been fiddling and faffing about with things.  Tea cosies seem to be claiming my attention lately and I've struggled with patterns.  I never knew there were so many different sized teapots around, so in the end I just came up with my own pattern.  For no other reason than "why not?" I decided that as we've a Jubilee coming up, I'd have a go and see what I could do in red, white & blue.  What do you think?  Enough roses, not enough roses, enough leaves, not enough leaves?  Decisions, decisions...

Does the basketweave stitch work?  I'm very unsure...I need help!  Should I make more?  How much would I sell it for?

I've made a lot of other flowers too which are really difficult to photograph, but here are a few.  I've got a lot of ideas floating around in my tiny mind, but working out how to press/stiffen/attach the things is proving hard!

And finally, just because....here's my beautiful house guest who's been a very poorly boy lately.  He's on the mend now which is a huge relief, but I'm really going to miss him when he goes home.

Aww, Reggie :-)

Off to stare at some more crocheted flowers now, to scratch my head and wonder how to bring it all together 

Erm...

For some strange reason, I got the urge to make an owl doorstop.  I played around and figured out a pattern and fiddled about  making feet etc.  Wasn't quite expecting him to look so sinister...I was aiming for cute but something went wrong.  More work needed on the finishing I think.

Boob hat

Inspired by something shared on Facebook, I was asked if I could make a boob hat for a baby girl. The original idea came from knitted boobs to aid new breastfeeding mothers, but there are a few boob hats around now.

So, I fiddled about with a basic pattern, but I'm not 100% happy with it.  Any opinions?  I think it needs to be made slightly differently so you don't get the holes on the increases.

FFOs

Finally Finished Objects!


My time stuck at home with Horrid Bug 2 hasn't all been wasted.  Yes, I've actually managed to get some bits and bobs finished at long, long last so here are a few pics (bad ones, sorry) of things I've had lying around just waiting for the dreaded ends to be sewn in.


This was the first ruffle cushion I did but never got round to finishing off

This one's a teaser - the recipient knows who she is and just a glimpse will be enough to drive her mad :-)

A lap blanket I made way back last year.  I'm not too pleased with the way I put the blocks together, but it's too late now, and it's only for me

I used to be more of a knitter than a crochet fiend, and for a change I picked up some needles and made quite a few cowls/slouchy neckwarmers/snoods or whatever you want to call them  for Christmas presents, and just for fun.  I'm sure I made more than this though but mustn't have taken pics before I gave them away




I know I took pics of a couple of other things too, but I can't find them anywhere on my computer :-(

So, that's the FFOs for now, but here's my house guest Reggie.  My sis is recovering after a knee operation so I've got this beautiful boy staying with me for a while.  There may be a custody battle when it's time for him to go home - he's my new best friend and has been dishing out lots of love and cuddles.  We think he's a Norwegian forest cat, but one of the vet nurses seemed to think he could be a Maine coon.  Whatever he is, he's a very beautiful boy and I'm more than a bit in love with him :-)

Time to find something else to do now after all that blogging.
TTFN!

Christmas cake 2011

I didn't realise I hadn't posted anything since July!  That's dreadful, but life has just kind of got in the way again.  I'll try to do better in 2012.  I've been making loads of crochet/knitted stuff, but I just haven't had the time to take pics or do any blogging (anyone using Picasa to upload pics having the same trouble as me?  It just refuses to work, I don't know why).

I wasn't going to do my usual cake this year, but I started out with the marzipan and a box of coloured icing, and about 5 hours later I'd forgotten I wasn't doing anything fiddly this year!  Here's the result - I try to make my family smile when I turn up with a surprise decoration on the cake.  I think this one worked......and I had fun making it :-)

Merry Christmas and a very happy and healthy New Year to all my friends out there in blogland.

Back!

I haven't been around for a while, but I'm back now IF Picasa and Blogger will work.  Anybody else having trouble?  It's driving me insane telling me the security certificate isn't valid, and Picasa refuses to upload photos straight to Blogger. Grrrrrr

Anyhow, after a pretty traumatic time lately, I've been in Portugal for a lovely break.  It was an, erm, interesting break to say the least - with spooky goings on among other things.  I don't recommend anybody sprays fly spray and then shuts the door and has a nice warm bath by the way - it makes you feel VERY ill!  What an idiot, I should know better, and I do! Good job I can laugh about it now.

Well, true to form I had to make some Diabolical Doilies, but no beading this time around.  I took some lovely Lanarte cross-stitch with me to do for a change (I managed to sew my dress to that too!) but I didn't get very far.  In fact, I'm not quite sure what I did manage to achieve other than reading a fair few books and some crochet.

So, this year's Diabolicals are coming up :-)

I did make a couple of filet crochet mats too.  Not quite sure what happened to the pic of the second one, but here's the other - it's quite large (would fit a large tray) and took the best part of 5 days to do.

Forgot about these!  Just seen them in my album.  I was just fiddling about with the threads I had and decided to make a few coasters and a bigger version to put under a bowl.

I think that's about it.  I'm sure there's other stuff lying around I've forgotten to take pics of.  

And finally, just when you think the hols can't get any weirder, in the middle of nowhere in the Portuguese countryside, what else would suddenly appear trying to get a drink out of the pool?

Well, obviously it's a very tame budgie.  What else?  We managed to catch it and it now has a nice new home along with another rescued budgie :-)

Bye for now!

Trying again

I've given up trying to get Picasa to post pics to Blogger - the "fix" they say works just plain DOESN'T.  Grrrrr.  If this method works, I'll try to repost the pics from the previous post!

So, to test out another way of doing it, here're a few pics of some earrings I fiddled about with last week.  The bigger ones are made with regular #11 seed beads, and the smaller ones with #15s.

A weird week

I'm having a bit of a weird week - no change there then! I didn't know gardening was hazardous - I managed to pop something in my back and pinch my finger in the cutters all in the space of an hour on Saturday. I've been stuck at home ever since trying to move about slowly but with a lot of grunting and groaning like an old lady. Anyhow, I had some physio today and it's a bit easier so fingers crossed it'll ease up a bit now and I can get back to work - minus the hot water bottle stuffed down my trousers, lol.  Then my laptop did very weird things and I thought it'd died - black screen, white screen, wouldn't switch on or off.  I unplugged it, took the battery out and let it sulk in the corner overnight.  It seems to be playing nicely again now though so I thought I'd do a blog post while the going's good.

So, stuck on the sofa, I got some beads out and had another play - the pattern is from Beadwork Feb/Mar 11 issue but I adapted the beads and style a bit. It's a modified St Petersburg stitch, which is really simple once you get the hang of it. The finished necklace is about 17" long and drapes quite nicely. The green version was made with 1.3mm cubes and the red one with ordinary #11 seed beads - both work well.

Right, off to walk around for a while - I'm told it's good for me, but it might take me some time to launch myself off the sofa :-)

Edited to add:  the week gets weirder - Blogger ate my pics so I hope they're here now.  Grrrrrr.

Edited again 3rd April - Blogger and Picasa have an "issue" which supposedly is fixed.  IT'S NOT, grrrrr.  You can't upload multiple pics and you can't edit the html code as they suggest, because the code they tell you to edit isn't there.  Anybody else having this problem?  It's driving me insane.

Busy beading (mostly)

Too many things on the go keeping me busy, but this one had to be ready for tomorrow for my Mum's birthday. The pattern was in the Feb/Mar 11 issue of Beadwork magazine and was easier to make than I thought it would be (even though it was fiddly and took a bit of getting used to as it's a lonnnng time since I got round to any serious beading).
Anyhow, the result is a bracelet for Mum, made with Toho and Miyuki seed and delica beads and Swarovski crystals in the middles and for the button. Sorry the pics aren't up to much - photography is NOT my strongpoint - but I hope you get the general idea :-)

I ought to show you these cute little pieces, found at the Antiques & Collector's fair in Brighton a couple of weeks ago. Lizzie came over from Hastings (EXPERT bootfair rummager/collector, so she led the way) and we spent a fun couple of hours rooting about. We spotted these - one little crochet hook and one, erm, prodder I suppose you'd call it (although I have no clue what it's actually for) with mother-of -pearl handles which aren't split anywhere (which I'm told is good) - and I was busy admiring them when Lizzie stepped in and bought them. I had no clue she was buying them for me, so I came away very chuffed.

I'm mid-way through crocheting another ruffle cushion (that'll be 4) and trying to knit, yes knit a corgi. I can't say as I'm enjoying that corgi very much - it looks more like a dinosaur to me at the moment - but it's another one to add to my CV I suppose, lol. Before anybody thinks my plot has gone even further into hiding, the corgi is for a Royal Wedding window display in my friend's wool shop, and not just something I've decided to do at random :-)  TTFN