Al long time away...but Merry Christmas!

Having been soooo busy making handmade decorations to sell at the local school craft fair, 

my blog, I have to say, was put aside!.   

However, my Tree is up,( good job too I hear you cry)  and decorated by my hand made decorations too. 

I am pleased I managed to get every thing done.   

 As I can pause for breath now before the next splurge of activity (I'm having a mincepie and mulled wine, friends get together So my kitchen and I will be getting to know each other again while I bake away!)

I shall spend a few moments to catch up with my blog and make a post 

One of the gifts I made and an idea given from the wonderful internet, is a recipe gift in a jar.   Of course you cant sell the ingredients unless you've tried it out for your self can you!?!    So following the instruction for Gingerbread Cookies I made mine and  Yum, yum, Spicey but utterly delicious. (thank you Staci from allrecipes.co.uk)

When it came to adding the christmas spices I didn't skimp on the tsp level!!! 

so they really were lovely and spicey, of course you can always add a little less.

Have a go, there's still time to bake some more!! The kids can cut out the dough into whatever Christmas shapes you have at hand and fresh from the oven, they are sooo tasty.

Have fun baking 

xVx

Busy doing nothing......?

It has been a little quiet here of late, but be assured I have not been busy doing nothing..

My daughters primary school are holding a craft fair and I have been beavering away at my craft emporium (well craft desk in the hall way) making lots of little goodies to sell. 

No pictures yet, so to keep things going I have a little baking treat to offer courtesy of Jamie Oliver. 

I had a friend over for tea with her little girl so decided to make pizza!  

I have never attempted pizza dough before but trusted Jamie to see me through.

I have to say there is no going back to freezer bought pizza's. Even if I do say so my self...this was one lovely pizza and the best thing about homemade pizzas is that everyone can choose their own topping and its fun getting the kids involved too.

You will find the pizza dough recipe in 'Jamie's Italy' pg. 52 where he talks you through the process but here is the basic ingredients for the dough itself:

For a pizza this size, could make 2 round ones I used:

400g strong white bread flour

100g ground semolina

1/2  tablespoon fine sea salt

1x 7g sachet of dried yeast

1/2 tablespoon golden caster sugar

Just over 1/2 pint of lukewarm water

Mix water,yeast, and sugar together and leave

Mix dry ingredients and salt

Make a well in the flours and add the yeast water

use a fork to bring ingredients together

knead into a dough ball

wrap the dough very tightly in cling film ( or you might find it bursting out as I did when you go back to it!!!) leave in the fridge until required

Roll out when ready to cook

Add your toppings, 

enjoy

xVx

Pom tiddy pom.....

A frugal make....Can you justify buying more wool when you have so much left over??

 (well probably, yes..)

But Luckily for my purse I had a light bulb moment and thought...

Pom tiddy pom......

I bought my self a pom pom maker, soooo long ago I am surprised I remembered I had it..and brought it al the way out here to Cyprus.

Having routed through all my craft boxes I came up for breath triumphant!

With Pom Pom maker and left over yarn in hand I set aside time to make a pom pom garland.

Although I have hung my garland outside, I think that at Christmas time I shall decorate my home with them. 

I can think of many occasions that these lovely pom poms can be used to decorate such as birthdays, summer parties or even just to brighten up any room in the house you fancy.

xVx

Cat Who???

I was trying to think of small projects to do using the felt recently bought from Seamstar.  I wanted it to go a long way.....so what would be small, cute and useful? 

A Little Feltie keyring....

Here he is.....

I think he looks like a cheeky chappie but the right name escapes me...

So I thought I would put the question out there

Cat who???

I would love to here your ideas for the perfect name for a cheeky chappie cat.

xVx

a sneak preview....

My friend is due to give birth at the end of this month,

So to celebrate this fact I have decided to do an embroidery. 

My Friend has a VW camper van 

and I thought this would be a fun piece to do for their 'new arrival'!

So gathering my pieces and the VW template I liked. I now have what I need to start. 

I'd better hurry up!!

left over yarn and more...

Having finished my bathroom stool cover, I had yarn left over..what should I do?

It seemed enough at the time to make something substantial. 

So choosing something quick I thought I would granny square 

until it was gone and see how far it went towards making a baby blanket. 

 Needless to say I did have to go back to the yarn store and pick up some more.

 Not a bad chore I have to say! So arriving back with just, yes just, the yarn I needed 

I finished my 'little' project and I am pleased with the results.  

I do love the granny square!

A bright bundle of fabric

This lovely lush bundle came from Seamstar

It was so hard to choose which fabrics to buy 

and if I had my choice I would have crazily bought all they had to offer!

Instead I went for a selection of tones in bold patterns.

The felt..well I did go mad and bought just about all of their shades

I hope to soon have this beautiful lot made into some smashing little projects

Definitely have a browse through the Seamstar website. Not only do they have lovely fabric, they also sell trimmings and tools to help with embroidery too.  All delivered with a wonderful friendly service. Any questions you may have, they are happy to help.

xVx