February's GG

Here is my February post for Gifted Gorgeousness - Jo's Blog Hop, where we get a chance to show off our gift related crafting every month.
I've got a few things this month. First is the Valentine's Exchange at Needlecraft Haven. We had to send a stitched card, a skein of thread and some sweet treats to our partners.
Here are the goodies I received from Gill

I love the card, and will have to figure out a way to frame it so it can stay on display
And here is the card I sent to Julie.

The stitched section detaches to form an ornament. The design was one I found online, but I've forgotten where. I also forgot to take a picture of the other bits, but I sent a skein of  WDW "Ladybug" and some chocolate ladybirds/
Next is a little "plant" I made from buttons for Barb's birthday

And here is the prize I made for Jo, for winning my guess the number of finishes/books/shoes competition last year.

It says "Mae Govannen", which is Sindarin for "Well met". It's stitched in a Kate's Kloths overdyed green floss on Crafty Kitten's 32 ct Murano in Faded Olive
And finally, not stitch or craft related at all unless you count cooking, but I won  a caption competition on Ainsley Harriott's Instagram, and got this fantatsic goody-box with one of every Ainsly Foods product (there's a load more than you can see in the picture) and  best of all, a signed photo of the man himself (which is up on the kitchen wall now)

August's Gifted Gorgeousness - Warning: Picture Heavy

It's time for Gifted Gorgeousness again - when we show our gift related crafting - for a full explanation see Jo's blog here.
This month I'm showing the gifts  sent and received in the VSCyberstitchers July exchange.
Here is the gorgeous sheep design pincushion I received from Margaret.

Isn't it beautiful? I just love everything about it - the design, the ruffly ribbon edging, that sweet little button...
And here is the little pillow I made for Linda.

I didn't have a pattern for this one, I saw a photograph of a similar design on Pinterest and sort of made my own version up.
Also in gift related stitching, a little something I made for Eloise's new kitchen.

And not gift-related at all, it was the Village Show yesterday, so here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Some of the flowers

 and pot plants.

Look at these stunning fuchsias.

Cookery Section: "Picnic for Two" and cakes,

jams, bread and children's cookery section

and some of the floral art,

and children's floral displays.

We did quite well, with quite a few individual class wins.

I got a 2nd prize with the little basket of peppers and aubergines front left in the picture, and a first with my cherry tomatoes, which you can see in the background.

Naomi got a first place with this flower arrangement. The theme was "Good Enough to Eat",  and lots of prizes for her baking, and art.

 Naomi's decorated cupcakes

One of her drawings

The overall prizes were a close run thing this year; Naomi was one point off winning the Most Points in Cookery Trophy, whilst luck swung the other way for me and I took the Most Points in Handicraft Trophy by a single point. I also won the trophy for Best in Show Art with this pastel picture

.
Bonus blog points if you can tell who it is.

The Village Show

It was the annual village show last weekend, and I thought you might like to see some pictures.
Prize winning vegetables:-

Not that I can claim credit for any of those, other than the very tiny cherry tomatoes in the centre and a bundle of rhubarb

There were some lovely flowers as well (again none of these are mine)

We did rather better in the Art and Handicrafts section though, winning lots of classes between us as well as three Best in Shows

Mr Penguin, who I've shown on here before won Best in Show - Handicraft

and I got a 1st with this floral arrangement in the class called "Beachcombing"

Eloise got a second place with this life drawing:-

Naomi won the class for Celebration Cake

 and got 1st and 2nd with her pastels (you can see her winning one. of ballet shoes.in this picture)

The large watercolour painting of silver birch trees in mad colours is mine and took Best in Show - Art. I suppose I ought to buy a frame for it...

Christmas Continued

Last year I put half a punnet of unused cranberries out for the birds. 

Indigenous British birds obviously have no idea what a cranberry is. Either that or they're just plain fussy.

The cranberries remained, sad, alone and untouched, on the lawn, until they resembled little red bullets, only eventually disappearing when they met their demise in the form of the first mowing of spring. 

This year the wicked ungrateful birds got proper bird seed and I found a recipe on the BBC Good Food site for a Cranberry Apple Chutney.

Both the birds and the family seem much happier with this arrangement.

I also wanted to thank a few people for their Christmas gifts. I was particularly spoiled this year.

Thank you so much to Clare for the pretty diary and soap, to Karan for the lovely silk threads and to Barb for the adorable penguin cushion, (you can't tell in the daylight but it has little light up LEDs on it). 

Your kindness is much appreciated.

I also got a few splendidly geeky things from my family, who know me too well, including some chemistry themed kitchen stuff

A Game of Thrones coaster

An Alice fob watch

And this little box that Naomi burned for me. The elvish script reads "Christine"

Anyone interested in Naomi's creations can find them in her Folksy Shop "The Word on the Street"

Village Show

Yesterday was our Annual Village Show. Here are couple of snaps of some of the flowers and vegetables.

And these are some seriously impressive parsnips

No I didn't grow them. I did get a 2nd place with some rhubarb though.
We did rather better than our measly one 2nd place card on the cookery and handicrafts side though, bringing home three trophies and a few class tickets.
Here are a drawing and a pen and wash I did which came first in their respective classes

I also got the cup for Best in Show - Handicrafts for this cross stitch.

I think the judge was mostly impressed by the fact that it's done on black 32ct fabric.
Naomi and I did some of the more involved entries between us, and got the cup for Best in Show - Cookery with our "Afternoon Tea". Ours is the second one in the picture, with the blueberries and strawberries scattered through it, not the one nearest the camera.

And the trophy (it's a rather impressive cut glass bowl) for a themed display based on a novel for this Pride and Prejudice themed entry.

Naomi also did really well with her baking, missing out on the cup for most points in cookery by just one point.
Lets just say we are going to be eating a lot of cake for the next couple of days.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to you all. 

Check out the awesome cake Naomi made!

And a little crafty finish from me, a coin purse made from a vintage sheet

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to you all. 

I've no crafty stuff to share today but Naomi did make this delicious Easter cake. Sorry about the blurred photo.

Button Time

Not much to show lately (pop over to our wedding photography blog - link in side bar - if you want to see why I've been so busy recently), but I did make up these button bracelet watches last week. Watch faces from eBay, buttons from stash.

And here is the first of the rhubarb from the garden, all waiting to be made up into a pie (we won't talk about the sticks I ate raw before they made it that far...)

Advent Calendar Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to those of you who are visiting for the first time as part of the Advent Calendar Blog Hop organised by Jo of  Serendipitous Stitching

My stitched piece is adapted from a free design by The Sampler Girl. 

This is also my finish for The Needlecraft Haven Monthly Challenge. My version is stitched in Carrie's Creations threads in Luna, Wine and Koala Claw. I changed it a little from the original, adding a couple of little snowflakes around the text and hearts between the snowflakes to carry the colours through the design a bit more. I also changed the three large snowflakes. I freely admit that this is more symptomatic of my problems than of any issue with the original design, but I looked at those snowflakes and I came over all Darth.

So I made mine symmetrical

Anyway back to the blog hop. Jo asked that we share a little about our Christmas food traditions. Ours are all very standard I'm afraid, turkey, Christmas pud etc, but we do always have baked brie for tea on Christmas Eve, which I make like this:-

Lightly oil an oven-proof dish with olive oil, chop a nice big bit of fresh Cornish Brie (of course you don't have to use Cornish Brie, but don't use the cheapy processed kind it doesn't melt properly) into largish wedges as required to fit the dish. Over the top scatter crushed peppercorns, some sprigs of thyme, a clove of garlic, roughly chopped, and some thick strips of zest pared from a lemon. Don't be too precious about chopping things up small, you're going for rustic here. Drizzle a little more olive oil on the top and bake at 180 for about ten minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbling. Serve immediately with lots of warm crusty bread to dip into the meted cheese. I usually put out some sticks of carrot, cucumber and pepper as well so I can at least pretend it's a healthy meal!