Spring branch with crochet leaves

Take one twig, a crochet hook, some brightly coloured wool and a tutorial from lady crochet

and hook yourself a little piece of Spring colour to brighten your home.

Whoops, it's the end of January already!

I've joined Annie the felt fairy's challenge to do a make a month during 2011. As I normally make things for others I'm going to take this opportunity to make some things for myself & cross some things off my want to make list.

So in January I have crocheted a mini flower wreath.

A chunky cowl.

I've also crocheted a face scrubbie & a dishcloth in 100% cotton to try out before making some for my stall.

If you head over to Annie's blog using the link above I do believe you'll find a list of other participants & I'm going to crack on with February's makes as after all it's a short month, maybe something heart themed I think.

Pumpkin recipes & other Autumn bits

I tried cooking pumpkin years ago & never liked it but this year we have grown quite a few & what we grow we must eat! This is what I made with one pumpkin a similar size to the one in the photo about 4lb. They were all really yummy & I've made the soup 3 times since.

First I washed & dried the seeds then spread them out on a baking tray & baked them for 20 minutes.

Pumpkin Bread (American recipe hence the cup measurements)

2 cups of plain flour, 2tsp cinnamon, 1/4tsp baking powder, 1tsp bicarb, 1/2tsp salt, 1 1/2 cups sugar,3/4 cups vegetable oil, 3 lge eggs, 1tsp vanilla essence, 3 cups shredded pumpkin, 1 cup toasted pumpkin seeds.

Mix the dry ingredients then add the wet ingredients keeping back some of the seeds. Put into a loaf tin pushing the saved seeds on top. Bake at 325 for about 1hr 15 mins or put mixture into muffin cases & bake for 30 mins.

Spicy pumpkin teabread.

12oz diced pumpkin boiled for 10 mins, 5 1/2 oz honey, 30z sultanas, 11oz SR flour, 2tsp mixed spice, 5 1/2 oz margarine, 1 tblsp seeds

Mash the boiled pumpkin with the honey then add the sultanas. Put the flour & spice in a bowl then rub in the margarine add pumpkin mix & seeds. Put into a 2lb loaf tin & bake for 50 mins.

Pumpkin soup

When I make soup I tend to make it up as I go along using what I have available so this is a rough guide to my soup!

I sauted in a knob of butter a diced onion, 1/2 diced green pepper, 1 deseeded red chilli, 1 chopped clove garlic. Add 2 diced potatoes and the chopped pumpkin (I used about a half of a 4lb pumpkin) Add roughly a pint of veg stock, a tsp of ground cinnamon, pinch of salt & pepper. Bring to the boil then reduce heat & simmer for 1/2 hr. Blitz with a blender then stir in a little milk.

Some of our Autumn harvest.

I have done some crocheting an Autumn coloured brooch & some Amigurumi pumpkins.

And some fabric pumkins scented with orange & mandarin.

L and I made a Autumn display using some leaves & seed heads collected on our walk through the woods.

It was very sunny & the butterflies were making the most of it, basking in the afternoon sun.

Lots of funghi and the first signs that ........

Christmas is just around the corner :)

Happy Easter & the rest of the crafty bits.

The daffodils are now looking beautiful all over the village green, we've done some Easter baking:

A rather messy ( helped by 3 yr old) bunny cake, egg nests, hot cross buns, Easter biscuits and jelly bean Biscotti.

I finished some more crafty bits: crochet Amigurumi bunny & chick, crochet eggs,

some more crochet hair slides.

I think the egg cosies are breeding!

A couple of lambs.

Yoyo & lace brooches.

and some Hen hearts.

L made this really sweet chicken card at school.

She also overloaded this table centre piece and the Easter tree :)

And finally I did the Easter craft and produce market yesterday, which was very successful in our new venue, even though it was absolutely tipping it down with rain.

Thankyou for all the comments on my last post re the 'makes' just to let you know they were made over quite a few weeks not all done in one :D and Gill I will try and find out the name of the hen/bird fabric for you, it is gorgeous.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of the Easter holiday as the sun is now thankfully out I think we will be going to the beach for an egg hunt.

I'd also like to say congratulations to a family friend who had a beautiful baby girl in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Sewing & crochet makes part 1

This is my reason for lack of computer time at the moment, one thing for sure I'm covering my 20 minutes a day crafting challenge! Back in November we held our first monthly craft/produce market in the village and I'm pleased to say that it's been a success and we have 15 regular stalls. Because it's been so successful we are going to open every Wednesday morning in August and are having an extra one this weekend on Easter Saturday. We are very lucky in that everyone gets on well with each other so it's a pleasant place to be on a Saturday morning. We are also moving to new premises until the winter so will have bigger tables, I will no longer have to cram everything onto a tiny round table! I do tend to make a lot of stock mainly because during the next few months I will be busy tending the allotment but also because I'm always finding new fabric!

Egg cosies, there are more, children's ones, but I haven't taken photos yet.

I thought I'd make some lavender hangies for the boys, I've made some cowboy ones too using a fab Michael Miller fabric, for some reason I can't move the photos around so these are further down the page.

Crochet Spring flower hairclips.

Crochet bunny flowers.

Crochet bunnies.

Some softies.

Tea cosies.

Bags.

Tiny bags for little girls.

Tissue holders.

So there you go life will soon resume to normal and then I can complete Dolly Dollop's crochet stool cover, finish some string quilting projects and catch up with the last month of recipes on the 52 week recipe challenge as well as get up to date with everyone's blogs of course!