Hoarding

I've just realised where my hoarding instinct comes from.

Went on a teeny adventure - to the cupboard under the stairs.  Found Nana's sewing box.
Here's an assortment of the things that were in it.

If you look really carefully, you can see that she's labelled the little bags, "LACE" and "BUTTONS", the lace looks as if it was taken from an underslip (now there's an old-fashioned word)

And as for this little lot.....I love the little folding scissors. But why has she kept the stripe from Dad's uniform?

Card made for sisters birthday - hope she doesn't look on here before then! But if I don't do it now, I'll forget.



A4 hammer white card, bits and bobs cut out from old cards, or random bits of card. Pink insert and peel off stickers from stock. Only thing bought were the shoe confetti. Pinched the handbag idea, think it works really well.

Here are the lovely little robins

When there's nothing on the telly, I've taken some of my small stamps away with me, and have done some 'colouring in'.

Here are some examples of the stamps, will post them as fully made up cards when they are done.

Photos of the various embroidery projects I have started over the years. For various reasons they didn't get made into anything. These are not really showing the sizes well, but the tiger is about 10" square, the lady is about 10" x 6" and the little boy about 7" x 5". I was thinking of putting the tiger onto a cushion, the others can really only be framed as pictures.

oops!

Reading the random post from October, I was going to find the lead for the camera. Still not found it. But spent last night sat in hotel room watching the new version of the Good Life and doing some stamping. So, if I can't find the wire I will at least try to find the SD card converter, and then I can put up all my lovely little robins etc.

There is something sooo relaxing about sitting, watching telly, with a set of watercolour pencils.

Hadn't realised how long it was since I'd updated this, last time was when I deleted a load of links, so must do better!

This isn't really about crafty stuff, so should be somewhere else, but will just rename the blog title. Easier all round

Mincemeat Recipe

Cranberry Mincemeat Recipe
(no idea who I pinched this from)

Ingredients

75g/2½oz soft dark brown sugar
60ml/2fl oz ruby port
300g/10½oz cranberries
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves
75g/2½oz currants
75g/2½oz raisins
30g/1oz dried cranberries
1 clementine, zest and juice only
25ml/1fl oz brandy
few drops almond extract
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp honey

Method

In a large pan, dissolve the sugar in the ruby port over a gentle heat.
2. Add the cranberries and stir.
3. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves, currants, raisins, dried cranberries and the zest and juice of the clementine.
4. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 20 minutes, or until the fruit has broken down and has absorbed most of the liquid in the pan. (You may need to squish the cranberries a little with the back of a wooden spoon to incorporate them fully.)
5. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little.
6. Add the brandy, almond extract, vanilla extract and honey and stir well with a wooden spoon to mash the mixture down into a paste.
7. Spoon the mincemeat into sterilised jars and, once cool, store in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Inspired by the crafty people on MSE this is going to be my money neutral Christmas. Need to find some more photos and the lead for the camera.

First attempt at snowman soup!

Christmas food recipe

Courtesey of Nigella Lawson!!

To make ~35-40 biscuits:

~300g plain flour, plus more for dusting
~pinch of salt
~1 teaspoon baking powder
~1 teaspoon cinnamon
~1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
~1-2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
~100g soft butter
~100g soft dark sugar
~2 large eggs, beaten with 4x15ml tablespoons runny honey

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment and preheat oven to 170C/gas mark 3

2. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves and pepper in a food processor and, with the motor on, add the butter and sugar, then slowly, the beaten eggs and honey, though don't use all of this liquid if the pastry has come together before it's used up.

3. Form 2 fat discs and put one, covered in clingfilm or in a freeze bag, in the fridge while you get started on the other.

4. Dust a work surface with flour, roll out the disc, also floured, to about 5mm and cut out your Christmas decorations.

5. Re-roll and cut out some more, setting aside the residue from this first disc, well covered, while you get on with rolling out the second. When you've got both sets of leftover clumps of dough, roll out and cut out again, and keep doing so till all the dough's used up.
(If you want to hang them on the tree, then you can use a small icing nozzle and use the pointy end to cut a hole just below the top of each biscuit, through which a ribbon can later be threaded)

6. Arrange the pastry shapes on the lined baking sheets and cook for about 20 minutes; it's hard to see when they're cooked, but you can feel; if the underside is no longer doughy, they're ready. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Once they're cooled, you can ice them and scatter sparkles or sprinkles. Once the icing is set, thread ribbon through the holes and hang on your tree.

Now, as you can see from the ingredients list, the cookies will be spicy, perfect for Christmas, but if you don't fancy that, just omit the ground cloves and black pepper, and keep the cinnamon. Or if you want, you can use some vanilla essence instead of the cinnamon, and mix a teaspoon with the eggs and honey!

Some Christmas stuff

Some quick and easy cards using one stamp and some colouring pens or pencils.