Friday 28 December 2012

Water Water Everywhere

This was Whittlesey Wash on Boxing Day, the road  has been closed since before Xmas and is clearly not opening any time soon especially since we have had more rain and there is more forecast.

 
You can just make out the white lines under the water.

 

 

 
This view is looking back towards Whittlesey.
 
I hope you all had a great Xmas and managed to spend time with your nearest and dearest. We had a wonderful day and the lunch was cooked to perfection. Although I did forget to cook the red cabbage and make the bread sauce, but hey you can't have everything and how close to perfection can one person be?

 
Ellie enjoyed her lunch, she managed to eat five roast parsnips along with everything else. 

 
She also enjoyed opening her presents and everyone else's. I was incredibly lucky on the present front this year. The most fabulous present was from Neil, a jacket that heats up. It really is something special it's a gorgeous pink colour- unusual for me to like a jacket that colour but it is lovely and oh so warm. 

 
This was Eva after an afternoon and evening with Ellie, I know how she feels! I'm convinced that Eva is going to be the dainty feminine granddaughter where as Ellie will be a one woman demolition team. She is incredibly stubborn, she must get that from her mother's side!

Monday 24 December 2012

One More

One more sleep till the big day. Tomorrow the house will be in chaos, the fridge will be locked and hopefully we will be able to smell the chicken and beef roasting not burning.

The kids came round yesterday and put the tree up which was nice. Ellie ate all the grapes and cherries from the fridge so she will get a shock tomorrow.

The last present was finished this afternoon so they have now all been wrapped and delivered or are under the tree. I am now snuggled up on the sofa with a large glass waiting for Mrs Browns Boys.


All that remains is to wish you all a Happy Christmas and New Year.

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Two Dozen

The first of the mince pies and I have to say they look and smell lovely. The pastry is nice and crisp as well, I may have excelled myself this time. What's the chance of that happening again in the kitchen?


Tuesday 18 December 2012

Cake Anyone?

I may soon need to change the title of this blog - there has been a lot of cooking going on and a bit of baking. Yesterday I made a lovely lasagne and this evening we had pork with a cider and apple sauce. That's not all though I've also made some sticky toffee cupcakes for the Tuesday Strippers and they come recommended by Ellie who managed a whole one. The recipe was recommended by Gina.




Monday is my day off and every week I hope for a quiet day doing not a lot, maybe even going for a walk. I should be so lucky. This morning I looked after Freddie whilst his mum took Ellie to an Xmas party at playgroup. I did take him to the office to see grandad, he loves his grandad more than nana, he doesn't settle very well for me but grandad has the magic touch with him. Then after lunch I had to do the usual shopping, housework stuff you know what I mean, and that's the day gone.

I am one step further with my Xmas tree. I'm still hopeful it will be finished in time.




Saturday was a quiet day at the shop so Pam, Dawn and I arranged to do a jelly roll race which was fun to do but it means I now have another quilt top to finish. Somehow I don't think I will ever have a lazy day.




Friday 14 December 2012

One Down

 
Well I've managed it, one football-covered folder Xmas pressie for a friend. He has recently taken an interest in baking after watching too much TV. I consulted with his wife and we decided that a cupcake covered folder would be to sissy for him so I went with the football fabric as it's also the colours of Manchester United who he supports. I'm not counting how many other presents I've got to finish. Looking at that picture my sewing room still looks quite tidy.
 
I'm also making good progress with my Xmas tree and hopefully that will be finished very soon.

 
Hope you all have a good weekend.

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Fingers Crossed

 
My fingers are crossed in the hope that this post actually works. It's the fourth attempt and I am now so fed up with blogger that I'm thinking of giving up and starting a facebook page. Just to annoy me even more while I typed those few sentences a picture has dissappeared. Does it only happen to me?
 
I have finally had to admit this week that christmas is definitely on it's way, in fact it's just around the corner. On Monday I went into town to do the dreaded  christmas shopping, oh it was horrible! I was there waiting for the shops to open and I was home by 12.00pm and I'm not going back. I'm so pleased Neil has booked an Ocado delivery for next week.
 
The picture above is one side of Freddie's stocking, the picture that has vanished was the other side. Below is the stocking I made for Eva.

 
As part of my christmas preperations I've started yet another project, it is an Xmas tree hanging and I'm hoping to have it finished in time for this year.



Here's Ellie having her first sewing lesson. Doesn't she look thoughtful, she sat there for quite a while just watching.

 
I have also started playing around with hexagons. I'm not a huge fan of hand sewing but there are times when it's not possible to be sat at the machine so I thought I'd start working with hexagons and it would be a long term project so no pressure to get it finished. 

 
I have got so many things I want to do during the christmas break but knowing my luck I will be finishing christmas presents. One thing I really must do is work on my Spectrum project.
 
You never know, next time I blog there might have even been some christmas baking. I love homemade mince pies - shop bought ones just don't do it for me.

Wednesday 5 December 2012

What Happened To November?


Time has yet again flown by ( I didn't do a single post in November) but it only seems like 5 minutes since my last post. Life has been very busy we have been enjoying getting to know Freddie who is definately a grandad's boy. He settles much better with Neil than with me. He doesn't sleep anywhere near as much as Ellie did so that has been a bit of a shock for Nicki and Anthony. I have to say though that Nicki is coping extremly well with having two babies and she is managing to breast feed, she really is a star.

Neil and I have had a week in Wales but I can't show you any pictures because I've lost my camera. I'm quite upset about it, I had a brilliant photo of a rainbow over the sea and it's reflection in the sea and now it would appear it's gone forever.

I've also done a few more shows on Create and Craft TV, which takes up a lot of time and preparation.

I have almost got enough squares for my blanket, I'm just making a few more for a bit more colour variation.




Monday evening I made a Victoria Sponge for the Tuesday Strippers. I think they enjoyed it.




A few photo's of the little man. He is almost half of Ellie's body weight now and there is 13 months between them. Hopefully now the health visitor will see sense and stop giving Nicki a hard time about Ellie's weight. Although I'm quite sure that Ellie isn't in the health visitors good books. When Nicki took them to be weighed last week, she had Ellie weighed first and that was fine. But whilst she was getting Freddie undressed and weighed Ellie sneaked off into a corner with the health visitor's handbag and emptied the contents all over the floor. The first Nicki knew of it was when she looked up to see Ellie waving the health visitor's sanitary towels in the air and chuckling like mad. The chuckling soon changed to screaming when the health visitor tried to retrieve them. Poor Nicki she said she had never been so embarresed before and wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. I think she may have a lot more of that to come.



 

 

 
I have at last finished Freddies quilt. It really doesn't photograph very well it looks so much better in the flesh, so to speak.

 
Ellie's first painting, it has pride of place on the wall at work.