Catching Up (with crochet, flowers & chocolate cake!)

My first attempt at a crochet creation continues...

... Using Lucy's summer garden granny squares pattern I had crocheted enough squares for a 4x4 cushion cover as I had originally set out to do. However, once I started to crochet them together I realised it was going to be a cushion cover for a very small cushion!

I considered just crocheting a wide border, but in the end decided to go ahead with making up the other 9 squares required for a 5x5 cushion.

I'm more than halfway through them, and will not run out of yarn as I had at first feared.

I should manage to get it finished before the end of the year!

Remember the flowers in the first photo on this post?

This is them now, well flattened and dried out. A used them to make a card to send to Granny.

This daisy flower was my favourite and I rather fancied keeping it for myself, but Granny was to get all the flowers on her card. I will just need to be more organised next year and squash more of the garden into the flower press (but will not be using corrugated cardboard in the press again though, didn't really like the stripey effect!).

Also during the week I made this egg-free chocolate cake. I'd seen this post on Tabiboo's blog linking to the recipe. She did all the work testing various recipes and this one came out tops, I have to say it was indeed rather tasty. Next time I'll have a go at Tabibbo's recomended icing (didn't have the ingredients to hand at the time)

Another random image from the week. A's cuddly toys were playing hide and seek, Bagpuss looks a little squashed in his hiding place.


This afternoon I sold these two 60x15cm mirrors from my website. I apologise for the poor photos, they're old ones and the weather was too awful today to make it worthwhile taking any new ones. My "shop" is now rather bare, must get on with making (and listing!) new items.

This evening I took A to our local fireworks display and tried out the fireworks setting on my camera. A then told me on the walk home that not only were the fireworks too loud but they were too bright and so she had her eyes closed most of the time!

And finally, a little glimpse of a special parcel I received earlier in the week. It's my PIF gift from Diane at HeartShaped, but I'm not letting you see what's inside till my next post! (It won't be a Bike Trip post as hubby will be doing some overtime this weekend which means I'm on swimming lesson duty instead; I'll miss my bike & pics, even if no one else does!)

October Garden Mosaics and Finally...

... I have finished making these three personalised mirrors. I had committed to making them for the end of October not realising at the time just how busy October was going to be. They were commissioned by a lady for her friend who has just adopted three children.

It's been such a dull, grey day here that the photos are not very good at all, the mirrors are much more colourful and sparkly in real life!

Despite the weather, I did find colour in the garden and today took the photos for the photo mosaic below. The Vibirnum bodnantense (top right) is smelling lovely too!

Earlier in October I took the photos for the following mosaic...

... so October is still a very colourful month. Not sure what I'll manage to find in November, won't be long now!

Craft Fair Preparations

I've a little craft fair coming up on Friday night so I'm busy getting a few things ready. It's a good incentive for finishing off some lingering craft projects such as...
... these blobby glass fridge magnets.

This one's my favourite, so I've kept it! It's jazzing up my fridge right now and looks rather nice even if I say so myself.

It's useful to have cheaper items to attract browsers who aren't really interested in investing in one of my mirrors.

I also have quite a few jewellery items. I discovered the pleasures of playing with beautiful glass beads and pendants a couple of years ago and became quite distracted by them for a while!
The photo above is an old one of a bundle of bracelets. I don't have any recent photos of my jewellery but I will take a photo of my table display at the craft fair before they're all sold (haha!) to put in my next post. I'm not planning on making any new jewellery items to sell as my main focus is my leadwork.

I'll therefore be taking these leaded mirrors...
The event is within walking distance and involves wine and cheese so I only want to take what I can carry! It's a fundraising event for A's nursery and to be honest the wine is usually more popular than the stalls so it's not worth the effort taking all my mirror stock along.

Among the mirrors above is one that I just finished this week...
...it's a new design. I'll see if it's popular before I'll make any more.

I will also take along a couple of suncatchers including this one...
... the robin is one of my favourite design motifs, regardless of the time of year.

October has turned into a very busy month. Craftwise I'm also working on three personalised mirrors which I need to finish before the 31st. My crochet has had to be hidden away to prevent it distracting me!

Thistle Mirror

I like this mirror!

It's another commission, and one that I enjoyed working on.

I'll package it up tonight ready for posting tomorrow.



While I was taking the outdoor photographs the clouds were scudding across the sky with more and more blue sky becoming apparent in the mirror reflection.

I'm off now to enjoy the sunny(ish!) afternoon and plant some more of the bulbs I bought a week or so ago. I've a couple of big terracotta plant pots from Ikea earmarked for the tulips so it will be a nice pleasant job just popping them in the soft compost.

Flowers, apples, berries, birds and bees.

More random things from the week gone by...

Blue sky - a mirror reflecting a sunny day. Both gone now...

...finally, this mirror has been finished and posted. I'd forgotten how much work was involved in making this one - it's really two mirrors in one with both a border and flower features.

I took some shots while I was making it...
My templates for the three mirrors I've been working on, the other two are still in progress.

Prior to applying the lead.

Completed flowery detail.

While the warm sunny weather lasted...
... I picked the crab apples.

N seemed to be enjoying them so I tried one, yeuch! Very tart, definitely needs cooked with lots of sugar. I've 2lbs of them, will have a look at crab apple jelly recipes I think.

After my harvesting I checked on some of the other plants in the garden...

Holly berries ripening nicely, note interesting beetle on the leaf.

Busy bee.

Roses thriving despite almost complete neglect of the front garden.

We have lots of house sparrows living in our hedge.
They're generally considered a little brown and ordinary but I like them. They are much more polite than the many jackdaws (who fight a little) and starlings (who fight a lot!) who also visit our garden in quite large numbers.

I photographed tea one evening...
Tomato and butterbean soup - very easy:
Fry a chopped onion in some butter till soft, add 2 tins chopped tomatoes and 1 tin butterbeans (drained), and a little water/stock. Simmer gently for about 15 mins, whizz with a blender than serve, cream swirl optional.

Strawberry and plum crumble with Mackies ice cream. I basically chuck any fruit that's lying around into my crumbles (except bananas or citric fruit!) this combo was rather tasty, mmm, wish there was some left now!

Mirrors, tablecloths, stew and shadows.

This Mackintosh inspired mirror is now on its way to its new owner. I like the autumnal colours, very suitable for this time of year! I've another one in a completely different design almost ready to post and orders in for four more different ones so I'm keeping busy at the moment.

As you can see from the reflection in the mirror the lovely sunny weather continues. We even had a barbeque on Sunday night - the first one this summer.

And, a chance to get all my recent linen bargains washed and out on the line to dry. I don't know what I'm going to do with them all but when I see them languishing at the bottom of a box in a charity shop I feel the need to give them a new home. With the exception of the orange tablecloth on the right they were all 49p or less - so little when you consider the many hours of embroidery involved.

This is a detail from my most recent find, beautiful bright colours on a good sized tablecloth (25p!)

I think this one is still my favourite though.

At the end of last week we were visited by a sparrow hawk. After taking the above photo I tried to creep up even closer but scared the sparrow hawk away. Fortunately she took her prey with her so all we were left with was a pile of feathers.

We've started pulling up the carrots. We didn't get round to thinning them out hence why they're probably a little on the small side, but still very tasty and not bad for a first attempt (beginner's luck perhaps). The runner beans are still cropping too.

I cleaned and chopped them them all up to make a stew with some lamb and sausage chunks and dough balls. Dough balls have become an essential ingredient for our stews. They're very easy to make (I just use the recipe that's on the suet packet - 2oz suet, 4oz SR flour, and enough water to mix to a dough to form balls, makes 8), in fact it involves less effort and is quicker than peeling, boiling and mashing some tatties. Often we still have mashed tatties too - no wonder I have to get out on my bike every week or I'd be even bigger than I am already!

We also have our first ever sunflower. There are another two which look as though they may manage to flower successfully if the warm sunny weather continues just a little longer.

The bright sunshine reflecting off neighbouring windows gave us an unusual shadow display (on my "tidy" shelves)


Now I'm away out to enjoy the sunshine while it's still here - I've bags of bulbs waiting to be planted, somewhere - goodness knows where I'll find enough ground that is not already chock-a-block with plants but is also soft enough and sufficiently stone-free that the task is not too much of a chore.

I finish off this rather random collection of photos with one of the heart-shaped stone A collected from our holiday in Ireland, just because I like it!