HOLIDAY BAG

For Christmas I was given a lovely Jelly Roll and matching Charm Squares.  The Jelly Roll is currently partially made up into a quilt (more on that some other time) but I couldn't decide what to do with the Charm Squares until I was browsing Amazon one day and came across a pattern for a bag.  Of course this meant buying the book the pattern was contained in but you can never have too many books!  Love... Quilting: 18 Simple Step-by-step Projects to Sew  by
Marion Patterson, Sally Ablett and Sue Warren

On Monday I set to work making my bag.  I found some cotton ticking in my box of random fabrics and had just enough for the project.  Little did I know at the time that I was sickening with 'flu.  I thought it was just an inconvenient sniffle but as it turned out it knocked me for six and I remained in bed all day Tuesday and Wednesday and half of Thursday too.  When I finally felt able to resurface I continued with the bag-making and finished it off today.  I'm really rather pleased with it although it will be interesting to see if it can actually hold any weight!

 The front of the bag with it's co-ordinating button concealing the magnetic clasp underneath.

 The back of the bag.

A bright and cheery fabric for the lining!

School Puds

Today I was feeling a little nostalgic so I decided to see if I could find a recipe for a school pudding that was a favourite of mine many, many years ago - Chocolate Concrete.  It turns out there are only 4 ingredients required; plain flour, granulated sugar, butter and cocoa and it's ever so easy to make.  Simply put all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, melt the butter and combine.  No wonder it was a regular on the menu at my primary school.  I can't imagine why I haven't made it before.

Begin by gathering all the ingredients ...

Melt the butter either in a pan or microwave ...

Measure out all the dry ingredients and combine in a bowl ...

Line a baking tin in readyness ...

Combine the melted butter and the rest of the ingredients.  You can either do this with a spoon or if you don't mind getting messy use your hands ...  Tip the mixture into the baking tin, use the back of a spoon to pack it down and place in an oven ...

When the concrete has cooked take it out of the oven, sprinkle it with sugar, cut it into portions and leave in tin to cool a little.  By the time you've made yourself a cup of tea the concrete will be just right to eat.

To be truly authentic the concrete should be served as an island in the middle of a lake of pink custard with a thick skin on top in a chipped green china bowl.  It will come as no surprise that I scarcely have any unfilled teeth and need to lose weight.  My school has an awful lot to answer for!

The Life Of Py(rex)!

Last weekend my husband finally installed my new double oven.  Construction of the new kitchen has been a lengthy and trying affair to say the least and although I have been warned that it will need to be disconnected again soon in order to wire in the hob I was so pleased to finally be able to see the oven without it being shrouded in packing.  There it sat in it's housing, all shiny and gleaming!  After a long day working on the kitchen on Sunday we "christened" the oven by cooking pizzas for dinner.  Yesterday I used the oven for a second time to make bread rolls and the top oven came in very useful for proving the dough, particularly as it is so cold at the moment and the dough stubbornly refused to rise at room temperature.  The top oven is a novel feature for me not having had one before.  It was while I was cooking dinner yesterday evening that disaster struck!  I was warming a tinfull of spaghetti in a Pyrex jug and reached into the oven to check how it was coming along.  I picked up the jug by it's handle and suddenly with a loud ping sound the jug exploded into several shards of glass and spaghetti sauce spattered my lovely new oven burning on instantly and dribbled down the new cupboard door.  It couldn't have happened a week ago when we were using the old oven!  Anyway, as the Pyrex jug was a wedding present I guess I can conclude that the life of Pyrex is a maximum of 32 years.  Just to finish this little tale I had to abandon the spaghetti/glass confection and resorted to heating a second tin in a bowl in the microwave.  No problem, you may say!  Oh no, my husband had got there first.  He'd heated a frozen curry shortly before the Pyrex incident.  The curry had heated up then gone off like a volcano in the microwave.  The whole inside of the microwave was spattered with curry, so much so that it is a wonder there was anything left for him to eat, and he'd left it like that without even attempting to clean up.  Result: I spent half the evening cleaning burnt-on goo off appliances.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for tonight's meal - wish me luck!

Scrapology: New Year Candy

Scrapology: New Year Candy: We thought it was time to share a box of blog candy. As the weather outside is cold and miserable we thought we would select some warm colou...

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas.

Mum's Christmas Present

Well, here it is!  All finished except for one last seam and my name and the date.

Micromys Minutus

Today I received what is probably the last birthday present I shall get this year.  My friend Julia recently attended a straw plaiting course at Acton Scott Historic Working Farm in Shropshire.  As a beginner Julia learned how to make a 7 strand plait for hat making and although Julia didn't make these Harvest mice herself the plait she learnt is the same as is used for the bodies of the mice.