.... red roses and recycled raffia

It was garden tidy up time this week and this included moving our rose bush.  I have no idea what variety it is we picked it up from a local garden centre bargain corner a couple of years ago.  

It flowers quite early in spring and goes through in fits and starts right through to the end of summer and into autumn.  I don't usually bring the flowers indoors as I like to enjoy them in the garden as they last longer but the timing and weather we just right for both Hubby and I to get stuck in and sort a few things out. The flowers are beautifully scented but happily not over powering.

I chose to display the roses in a variety of bottles that I have collected, to add a bit of texture I wound raffia and jute string around the bottles. The different sized bottles worked well with the differing sizes of stems.

As I was winding the raffia around the bottle it occurred to me that this was the third time I had used this.  Its first outing was on the Christmas tree at the cottage we stayed in last year, it was brought home and used on a birthday present for my daughters boyfriend and now it was providing a bit of decoration in my lounge.  I have a feeling that it will be making another appearance over the festive period in some form or another.

I am very pleased with my autumnal looking mantelpiece, although I really should have swept the hearth!

Are the roses still blooming in your garden?   Do you have a little something that keeps being reused? Leave me a little message to let me know x

...a Pumpkin adventure

When shopping in Morrisons last week I spotted medium sized pumpkins on sale for only 50p!  not bad value when I can make a big pot of pumkin soup and have fun carving a pumpkin face.

The pumpkin face is of the traditional variety with the obligatory toothy smile.  A look round Pinterest offered plenty of advice on what you should do to preserve your pumpkin once it has been carved, they include

• soak in bleach solution 1tbsp to 1 gallon water over night

• rub carved edges with petroleum jelly (vaseline)

• PVA glue spread around the inside

• Special pumpkin preservation spray ( I think this might be USA only)

I found this link really interesting as it  does a comparison of the various methods.  I have gone for a quick dunk in a bleach solution and a then left it to dry, I actually don't mind that it will start to decay as I think that will add to the ghoulish festival that is Halloween.

I made my soup based on a recipe from Country Living magazine pumpkin and bacon soup as always I didn't stick exactly to the recipe. I used chopped lardons instead of bacon, I used more pumpkin as I mis-read the quantity (oops). I omitted the cream, the sage and the Stilton on cost grounds.  Because I had added more pumpkin I also added some extra stock, a bit too much unfortunately so when I blended it I tried to not include too much liquid, however it is not as thick as I would have liked and I am not keen of the texture.  The overall flavour is of the bacon and it works well with a thick slice of wholemeal toast, but I do feel that the seasoning is not quite right, probably as a result of me messing about with it, I will try and tweek that.

In the interest of clarity Morrisons have no idea that they got a mention here today and 50p was not paid to me.

Have you made any soup recently? I am always interested in new recipes so please share your favourites.

Sewing 30 minutes a day in October - week 1

How hard can it be to fulfill the challenge of sewing 30 minutes day in October?

A little harder than I had initially thought.  Of a potential 3.5 hours I succeeded with 2.5 hours and only one of these was a 30 minute stint. I found that once  I had started something I wanted to finish it or I had to get to a point where I could walk  away and easily just pick it up (not that there is anything complex about these makes).

One of the things that ate into my time was that I didn't think through the whole process of what I was making so I was running round getting buttons and trimmings and string and things.  There was of course the creative process of deciding what to use and how I wanted the finished item to look.

Grey felt heart

This was my first make, I blanket stitched the edge with embroidery floss using 1 white and 2 red strands I was trying to get a bakers twine type effect which is not quite there, maybe 2 and 2 might be better. I raided my vintage button collection and thought that the proportions of the little button were perfect.

Red felt heart

The second one took a little less time as I had everything to hand and I had learnt from the first make to include a hanging loop!

White felt heart

 
For the last one I broke out one of my Cath Kidston heart buttons, I have had them for a while and these seemed like the perfect project.


I am happy with my makes in the first week of this challenge and I am looking forward to next week.  I think I need to dedicate a little time to planning so that I do more sewing and less running around!

Grey, White, Red felt hearts

Did anyone else take up the challenge?  its not too late to join in, you could always do a mini challenge and join in for the week.

.. sewing 30 minutes a day in October

I posted last month about the 30 minute sewing challenge but couldn't commit to taking part as in September so I deferred it until October. Well here we are on the 1st October so I am going to try and sew every day of the month for at least 30 minutes!

Vintage thread box

My first thought is to cut some felt I have brought for making Christmas decorations.  These are mostly hand sewn and are small enough to fit into a corner of my voluminous handbag for the days when I am not at home.

I do have  a couple of unfinished projects that I will probably tackle as it would be nice at the end of the month to have some thing to wear.

Unfinished sewing project

I don't actually know how much I could get done in 30 minutes, if you follow this blog you will have realised that I am not a fast sewer and I am easily distracted!

Oh look buttons, see very easily distracted

I have started a Pinterest board 30 minute sewing challenge with ideas of things that in theory can be made in 30 minutes.  There are quite a few small items that would work well as Christmas gifts so I may use this as an opportunity to make a start on my Christmas list.

My local Facebook sewing group are supporting this initiative and we are planning to do a weekly check in so I will keep you up to date with what I have achieved and pass on any great ideas from the group.

If you want to join in just comment below or if you have just finished your month of sewing share your makes and experiences with us.

.... Cooking with Bramley Apples

Bramley Apples and Blackberries

We are lucky enough to have a large old Bramley Apple tree in our garden which at this time of year is bountiful with fruit.  We get a lot of "windfall" apples that drop from the tree and I do my best to make use of them, however, as they can only be eaten once they are cooked this means I have to put in a little effort to try and keep up with what is available. 

One of my usual tactics is to take carrier bags full in to work to share with my colleagues, however, I recently accepted voluntary redundancy so that is not an option. This has not been without some laughs as I tried to explain to my Moldovan and Polish colleagues that they must be cooked before eating, it turns out that cooking apples are peculiar to the UK.  

There was nothing for it but to roll my sleeves up and spend Saturday in the kitchen.  Hubby was working a 12 hour shift so I knew I could get stuck in without any interruptions.  I scavenged the last of the blackberries from behind the garden shed and set to.  First up was an apple and blackberry crumble for Hubby to take into work the next day to share with his co-workers.

This is all based around Delia Smith's basic crumble recipe

225g plain flour

75g butter (at room temperature)

100g sugar (I use what ever kind I have to hand)

Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until it is evenly distributed and resembles cake crumbs, add the sugar and mix through.  This is ready to be used now or it can be frozen to be used as and when required or it will keep in the fridge.

For the filling I peeled and sliced about 900g of Bramleys put them in a pan with enough water to cover the bottom and about 40g of sugar, cook until the apple starts to collapse and go fluffy. Place the apple mix in baking or Pyrex dish about 9 or 10 inches long. Add the blackberries they will make the apple go pink.  Cover with the topping, fork it  down, dont press.  Bake at Gas mark 4, 350 F 180C for about 30-40 minutes.  Serve with custard, cream or ice cream and don't think about what is happening to your waistline!!

I also made a couple of smaller ones where I added some mincemeat to the apple mix instead of the blackberries, absolutely delicious with vanilla ice cream.  The reason for using the mincemeat is that I brought quite a lot when it was reduced to 25p a jar in the supermarket after Christmas last year, Some have expiry dates as late as 2017, however, there are a couple that go out of date in October so any excuse as I love those festive flavours. 

This link will take you to the delia on line website, although I couldn't spot this basic recipe on there.

Bramley apple and Blackberry crumble

My other makes were both chutneys so I won't be able to feed back on these until they have matured a little.

First up was this classic apple chutney from the BBC good food website, I found the recipe easy to follow, it didn't require me to purchase a lot of extra items and didn't have to be cooked for hours.  I made a bit of a mess up and put in more ginger and mustard seed than the recipe asks for (wrong sized spoon), I tried to take some back out but know that there is more in there than there should be, oops.  Hopefully it will still taste fine and you and I will be the only ones who know about this misdemeanor.

Classic Apple Chutney

My second chutney make was also from the BBC good food website autumn tomato chutney  I only made half the quantity suggested as I was using tomatoes from the garden and wanted to save some to eat fresh.

Autumn chutney bubbling away

It yielded 3 jars and I can't wait for it to be ready to try, there is something so satisfying about making things with your home grown produce and this contains both tomatoes and apples from the garden.

Autumn chutney

There are plenty more apples left on the tree so I am in the market for recipe suggestions.

... paper play with autumn leaves

The weather here has taken a distinctly autumnal turn, cardigans have been in daily use and the big debate about is it cold enough to put the heating on has begun ( we have resisted so far).  My Pinterest feed has been popping up with images showing that I am not the only one to have noticed the change in the season and my Leaf me alone board has been getting regular pins fed into it.

Autumnal dispaly

I enjoyed my  adventures with recycled paper play and still have plenty of pages of the book left along with some brown paper that had been on a parcel delivered earlier in the week so I decided it was time for a new mobile.

paper leaf mobile

I toyed with creating different textures by screwing the paper up or by folding it in half to give it a sharp line.  The leaf shapes are a combination of free hand cutting and drawing round some small cookie cutters that I had, it has resulted in a variety of shapes and textures that I am very happy with.  I love the shadows that are cast, it gives the whole thing another dimension.

Brown paper leaves

Once the mobile was up I had to carry on and dress the rest of the mantle, my vintage Sylvac pottery is perfect for an Autumnal display.

Sylvac Squirrel

Sylvac mouse

Sylvac deer

I jumped on the idea of using some of my vintage button cards to complete the display, this is in the room where I do my sewing so I can look up and  see these little lovelies while I am working. It seemed to be lacking a little punch of colour and I hit on the idea of using some of my sewing threads which seem to do the trick.

The old mobile has now been consigned to the log burner to have one final useful role in helping to start the fire.  Who says recycling can't be fun.

How are you marking the change in the season or are you hanging on to Summer a little longer?

...National Sewing month

The USA have declared September as National sewing month

I like the idea of having a month dedicated  to sewing not only does it encourage you to take up your needle it also is an acknowledgement of the many sewers that are out there, it is generally a solitary pursuit which is why so many of us keep our blogs to communicate with the wider sewing community

 This  30 minute sewing challenge was brought to my attention on a Facebook group as a way of celebrating this. I like the idea of committing to just 30 minutes of sewing a day for the month and it would be interesting to see what could be achieved by adding all these little pieces of time together,  but I also know that this is not going to happen for me every day in September as we are on holiday plus I haven’t done anything in the past 3 days.

It did raise a few questions  though 

• Will I be able to stop at the 30 minute mark?
• Will I need to set an alarm?
•  Would it be like when the factory whistle blows and tools are downed mid seam only to be picked up the following day? 
• Does the 30 minutes include time for gathering your bits and bobs together?
• Does reading/writing sewing blogs, browsing fabric websites and talking on Facebook groups count after all it is sewing related?

I think I might give it a bash in October, I have already earmarked a couple of projects that needed finishing off and a 30 minute hit might be just what is needed,, after all they are unfinished for a reason. 

If you are taking part please  leave a comment and share your plans