My new coffee pot

A photo of my new enamel coffee pot, I bought it today from Chesters by the River at Skelwith Bridge. They also had the coffee pot in midnight blue and cups to match. The company that makes the enamel items is called Wild & Wolf Ltd

Coming soon....... how to make plarn (plastic carrier bags made into yarn) and then crocheted.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

A small break

I decided myself and my husband needed a break from painting the outside of the house this week and so we decided to go for coffee and cake in the Lake District, it's only about fifteen minutes drive or so I thought....... I now know the reason why we avoid the Lake District in the Summer months, the traffic was quite bad, long queues and it's very difficult to get a parking space. However, once there is was definitely worth it. We had picked a lovely day, the weather was warm, slightly overcast, exactly how I like it to be.

We went to a cafe I had not been to before in Ambleside, right overlooking the water. It's called The Waterhead Coffee Shop on Borrans Road in Ambleside. There are a few free parking spaces and if they are full then there is a car park nearby which costs £1.80 an hour. I had a lovely homemade blueberry scone with cream and a latte. My husband had a slice of homemade apple pie and a cup of tea, the apple pie must have been good as it was gone in under a minute, I didn't even have time to take a photo of it!

I took a couple of photos while we were there.

As we were enjoying our cakes and drinks the Ambleside cruise boat arrived, the queue to go on it was very long.

We also had the Mountain Rescue Helicopter fly over a couple of times

On the way home we went past Skelwith Bridge, there is a little restaurant/shop there called Chesters by the River, it's definitely worth popping in they have some really lovely gifts there. I couldn't resist popping in myself and bought a lovely enamel coffee pot. I will post a photograph of it later, it's gorgeous, it's white and has foxes and owls on it.

I also stopped and took a few more photographs, these two were taken just outside Skelwith Bridge, driving towards Coniston.

Posted with Blogsy

Rain, rain go away...

This weekend I decided I would paint my garden benches a lovely bay tree green, I opened my curtains this morning and instead of the sunny day I imagined, it was raining, dull and windy, so bang goes that idea.

I decided instead to finish off some embroidery. I love embroidery, I have been doing it for over 25 years. I am very lucky as I have a lot of my grandmother's embroidery transfers, needles, rings, thread, material, probably enough to carry on doing for the next 25 years.

I bought some Dorma pillowcases a couple of months ago and transferred some vintage violets on them.

The Dorma pillowcases are in a shade called Heather and I decided to embroider the flowers in different shades of purple-pink colours. I apologise as I know the thread is from DMC but it is vintage thread and they did not have the DMC colour numbers on them. The stems and leaves are a mixture of two different green colours, two threads of a medium green colour and one thread of a light green colour.

I have only used four different embroidery stitches for the pillowcases.

• French knot - for the centre of some of the flowers
• Stem stitch - for the flower stems
• Long and short stitch - for one of the main flowers (pink and purple middle flower)
• Satin stitch - for the rest of the flowers

The pillowcases do look a little bit crinkled but that is because I have had a hoop around the embroidery transfer, once they have been washed and ironed they will be completely flat and won't look crinkled/puckered.

Posted with Blogsy

Gin, Gin, Gin.... Maybe Vodka

I have picked the last of my blackcurrants, redcurrants and gooseberries from the allotment. I have had so much fruit this year it was hard to decide what to do with it all, you can only make so many pies and jam. So I decided to make gin with it. In particular redcurrant and vanilla gin, red gooseberry gin, blackcurrant liqueur and for a change redcurrant and orange vodka.

Redcurrant Gin

300g of Redcurrants

150g of Caster Sugar

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Essence or 1 Fresh Vanilla Pod

Bottle of Gin or Vodka

Large Kilner Jar

Put all the redcurrants in the kilner jar, crush them with a wooden spoon, add the sugar, vanilla essence or pod and mix together then add the gin or vodka. Screw the lid back on give the jar a really good shake and then put it somewhere dark. Shake the jar every day for one month, after that just shake every couple of weeks. It will be ready in six months or like me you can leave it for a year. When you are ready to bottle it, sieve the mixture and then pour through muslin into a bottle.

The red gooseberry recipe that I used is from another blog called cottage smallholder, it is very simple, the only ingredients or items you will need are gooseberries, granulated sugar, gin and a kilner jar.

Blackcurrant Liqueur

Blackcurrants

Caster Sugar

Gin

Kilner jar

Each blackcurrant needs to have its skin pierced to release the juice. Fill the kilner jar to about a third full with the pierced currants. Fill the jar with the sugar until it has covered the currants. Finally pour the gin in, secure the lid and give it a really good shake. Put the jar somewhere dark for six months, shaking daily for a month then every few weeks after that. As before when ready, sieve the mixture, then pour through muslin and bottle.

Enjoy, I know I will!

Posted with Blogsy

Wallpaper Wreath

As I mentioned in my last post I volunteer at Ulverston Scrap Store. I brought a few items from the store home to play around with and decided to make a Wallpaper Wreath. They are very easy to make, most of the materials you can get at the store with the exception of a glue gun and a couple of diamantés.

Materials Used

Three pages of wallpaper samples
Two pieces of lino samples
Tin lid

The plain and patterned blue wallpaper I cut into 3.75 inch squares and the mustard colour I cut into 3 inch squares. I then individually rolled them into cones from left to right and glued them along one side using my glue gun. I ended up with 12 cones each of the plain and blue patterned paper and 16 cones of mustard paper.

I covered the largest piece of lino with blue wallpaper and glued first of all the plain and patterned blue cones all the way around using my glue gun. When this was done I cut a circle of mustard wallpaper and covered the inside lid of the tin, used glitter around the edge of the tin and glued the tin lid to the centre of the lino. When this was done I then glued all the mustard cones with the points just and so tucked underneath the tin lid.

I had enough of each colour wallpaper left to make a Kusudama Origami Flower, please see the link at the end of my post on how to make these. I then glued this onto the centre of the tin.

To finish the wreath off I then made two holes at the top of the smallest piece of lino and then glued this piece to the back of the largest piece of lino. I attached some wire to either side of the holes to hang it up.

Links

Kusudama Origami Flower

Posted with Blogsy

Ulverston Scrap Store

I have recently started volunteering at Ulverston Scrap Store every Thursday, it's a fantastic place if you're into crafts. If you haven't heard of USS before here is a little information for you....

USS is a small charity set up to provide clean, cheap, safe scrap materials to our members for their creative projects. It's open to everyone individuals, groups, clubs, brownies/guides/scouts, community groups, workshops, schools.

Individuals pay £5 and for that you get an empty carrier bag to fill with whatever takes your fancy. There are also group memberships available, please click on their website link at the bottom of this page for more information. There is a lot to choose from e.g., fabric, card, paper, wallpaper samples, curtain rings, folders, cardboard, zips, foam, tin lids, small containers, bottles, carpet samples, tile samples, there is so much stuff.

USS is open on Thursdays from 2pm until 5pm and Saturdays from 10.00am until 12.30pm. The entrance is on Cavendish Street, Ulverston. It's the first door on your right as you enter the street from County Square. The door has USS posters pinned on it, the door will be locked but there is a doorbell and someone will come and let you in. Why not pop in for a chat and a look around.

For more information, please click on the links below

www.ulverstonscrapstore.co.uk

www.facebook.com/UlverstonScrapStore

twitter.com/USS_ScrapStore

Posted with Blogsy