Extremely floral

Hello, I hope you had a lovely weekend. We did - some gorgeous friends had a party to celebrate their wedding a year ago and the arrival of their beautiful daughter three months ago.

They took pains to stipulate that presents were not required, but I only do as I am told when it suits me (which it does most of the time), so on this occasion I ignored that instruction with relish.

I made them an extremely floral tea cosy which turned out to be a most excellent choice, for despite being hardened tea drinkers they didn't own a cosy.

Now, while I was busy snipping and stitching and hooking, Tiny Boy was busy with his own project. He likes to collect all the little offcuts and thread ends of what ever I am making. Usually he stashes them in bags or boxes around the house. Sometimes he steals my tupperware specially. This time however, he collected them all up and wrapped them in a sheet of paper. He then dictated what I should write on the front...

In case you can't read it, it says 'Things for you to make something with. You could make a teeny tea cosy. Love Tiny Boy.' We slid this inside the cosy and wrapped the whole thing in pretty paper. As you can imagine the recipients were most tickled by their bonus parcel.

xx

Hooking and baking

I cannot believe it is Friday already!

I have been busy replenishing my stocks for the stall to replace the bits and pieces I sold last Friday.

I sold several hair clips and bands, earrings and broaches.

My Mum, who was manning the stall, said that it was mostly locals coming for a nosey, who wanted to support the craft fair but didn't have much money to spend.

I am really hoping it will pick up a bit as the season progresses.

My Mum sold a few books and was pretty pleased.

Then, as I was about to post about my making we were struck with two kinds of lurgy and the Smalls were off school. I really hate it when they are poorly. Firstly because it is not nice for them, but also because my carefully worked out logistics go awry. I can only seem to keep on top of everything if I plan plan plan, (I do like a plan) and if the best laid plans are turned upside down, something gets lost or forgotten. This time we lost my camera, found, at last, in the bottom of my crochet bag, and Tiny Boy's school folder, still missing, and the blog got forgotten, or at least not blogged upon, partly due to the lostness of the camera.

I stole J's camera to take a wee snap of these while there was a moment of sunshine. They are to embellish a present for someone. You might get to see the finished article next week.

Today it was my turn to host Friday coffee. Always a pleasure, but I do feel the need to tidy up a bit and put the hoover round. I wouldn't want even my lovely ladies to experience the everyday standard of my housekeeping! I whipped up some raspberry and white chocolate muffins and some coffee cake with mocha icing. The company was excellent and we had a lovely natter as usual, in between retrieving Smalls who all seem to want to escape up the stairs.

I used a really simple sponge cake recipe for the coffee cake and it was much more successful than the last time I tried a Nigella recipe that was very complicated and had loads of specialist ingredients in it. I like simple.

Look, there is plenty of cake left. Would you like some? Or you could make your own...

xx


Coffee cake

8oz butter or marg
8oz caster sugar (I used golden because that's what I had - it's not critical)
4 eggs
8oz self raising flour
4tsp instant coffee stirred into 2 tbsp boiling water.

Cream the butter and sugar. Stir in the eggs, flour and coffee gloop to make a thickish batter. Take a large fingerful to taste (just to make sure). Scrape into two greased sponge tins. Bake at 200 deg/Gas 6 for about 25 mins but check after 20. The top of the cake should have lost its wobble and feel, well, spongy and a skewer or knife poked in should come out clean.  Remove from tins and leave to cool. Share the licking out of the bowl with a Small or not as you choose - we all know this is the best bit!

Mocha icing

2 biggish dessert spoons of butter or marg
1 tsp coffee mixed with 1 tbsp boiling water
1 tbsp cocoa powder
about 6 oz icing sugar

I have to confess I never measure anything for icing.

Pour the warm coffee over the cold butter to soften it. Add the cocoa and icing sugar and mix with a fork.If the result looks too runny, add more icing sugar. Taste and add more cocoa if you like. Turn one of the cakes upside down and spread with icing. Squoodge the other cake on top. Dust with icing sugar through a tea strainer if you like. Share with fun people.

Girl's eye view

Tall Girl loves to steal my camera and take happy-snaps around the garden. I thought I'd share some of the best of today's with you...

As you can see she excels at the close-up.

xx

An actual stall at an actual craft fair!

Look! I actually did it. I made stuff and put it on a stall. Actually my Mum made it look so fab before I even got there. She is also manning it while I run about to and from school for various Smalls activities. Her mobile has run out of juice so i'll have to wait til she gets home to find out if she sold anything.

You can see her books at the front. Two poetry collections and a novel. They all look good together.

I was a little distracted taking the pics because Giant Baby is not too well. He has what the doc described as unexplained spots. Not chicken pox as I suspected at first, but enough to make him a mummy's boy today.

I stole the children's little chair to use as a prop. I think it looks cute and gives the whole thing some height.

I am so relieved that it looks ok. I just hope a few bits sell. Next time I go over there I'll try and take some pics of the other stalls because they were all beautiful.

Off to make a cuppa now. Would you like one? Milk?

xx

Pretty packaging

Today has been all about the wrappings. This morning I went to buy some paper bags from a lovely lady who runs a haberdashery stall in the market. I thought I had better get some for my craft stall and rather than buying 500 in a job lot she let me have a handful. Much more suitably modest for my crafty ambitions!

Then this afternoon I set about packaging some of the smaller bits and pieces for display on the stall. I am very chuffed at how they turned out.

Earrings,

cuff links,

broaches,

 

and hair clips.

I hope other people think they are as pretty as I do!





xx

Two of my favourite things

Today I want to tell you about two of my favourite things.

The first is when the Smalls, without any prompting, behave in a lovely friendly way to each other and make my job very easy. They are usually pretty good, but the time straight after school can be tricky when they are tired and need some chill out time.

Yesterday when we got home I brought a sleeping Giant Baby in from the car and unusually he stayed asleep.

Tall girl then announced that she had chosen her school library book specifically because she thought Tiny Boy would like it, and she intended to read it to him immediately.

She was quite right. He really liked it and they had fun learning about trains.

The unexpected peace and quiet that ensued was well timed because I was feeling a little under the weather. I took myself upstairs and changed into comfy pjs and slippers.

Lovely!

The second of my favourite things is a regular Friday morning date with a bunch of lovely ladies and their babies. I say babies, Giant Baby is the youngest by a couple of months. We got to know each other through a mixture of aqua natal classes and what is commonly known as boob group. We meet at a different house each week, or sometimes at a cafe, and busy ourselves with pleasant chatter, coffee and large quantities of cake.

Today's gathering was hosted by a baker of most excellent goodies, and on offer was cinnamon, walnut and courgette cake, which sounds a little weird but tastes divine.

I have to confess that I don't actually partake of the coffee, not being a fan, but prefer a nice cup of tea, or two, instead.

Really the perfect way to spend a Friday morning!

xx