I took my visitors to the beautiful city of Lincoln. Sometimes it is easy to forget what is on the doorstep.  Although still cold, we were lucky as the sun shone down on us...

I took my visitors to the Strait, somewhere that I hadn't been for many years.  we found an old fashioned sweet shop and relived our sweetie history...

Although not completely like the olden days, I bought myself and husband a couple of treats...

I did buy something for my children too but there was no chance of photographing it!

If you've got it flaunt it!

One of my lovely friends has emailed me a picture of the wreath that she made at our last workshop. I really love passing on some of the crafting skills that I have learnt, often people just need a little pointer in the right direction and they too become bitten by the crafting bug! She has made an amazing job of her rag wreath and should be very proud of herself. The colours are fab.

 

She has also made the most amazing kanzashi flower! She bought her fabric from here  a lovely little online shop called Elephant in my handbag who sell lots of scrumptious fabrics and bits!

An Easter Magazine

Whilst I'm waiting for my visitors to arrive I thought I would share a magazine with you. I have had this magazine for quite a while not since the date mind you.  It is dated April 1939.

 I have got a few similar magazines and it seems that the original owner was a regular reader as her name and profession is written on them - Mrs Jones Teacher

 Apart from the coloured cover, it had only a single coloured page inside... 

 An advert for some fashion sewing...

 and some pinking shears...

 Some crochet...

 some undergarments..

 Every child needs a Spring clean!

 A few recipes from Mrs Stanley Wrench...

I thought I would share the one for hot cross buns.

 

Ingredients:

To 1 pound of plain flour allow a teaspoon of Cerebos salt, a level teaspoon of spice, 1 ounce of yeast, 2 ounces of New Zealand butter, 2 ounces of currants, 2 ounces of sugar, 1 egg and 1/2 pint of milk, also, if liked, 2 ounces of candied peel.

 

Method:

Sieve together flour, salt and spice. Rub in the butter. Cream together the yeast with a teaspoon of sugar, add 1/2 gill of tepid milk, and make a well in the middle of the flour. Pour in the creamed yeast and set to sponge for ten minutes. Now add the sugar and beaten egg, also the rest of the ingredients. Mix all to a light dough and beat well, then cover with a clean cloth and leave in a warm place to rise for an hour, when it should have doubled its size. Turn the dough on to a floured board, knead slightly, then divide into twelve portions. Shape into buns. Flatten them slightly and mark deeply with a cross. Stand them on a floured baking sheet for ten minutes to prove, then bake in a hot oven for twenty minutes (Regulo Mark 7; Electricity 400 deg, Fahr.) When done, brush over at once with a glaze of sugar and water.

 

Happy Easter

It's a short and sweet post this evening. I've  tried my hardest to think of something witty and intellectual to write, but then I realise that none of my other blog posts have shown those qualities. There is only one more sleep until my visitors arrive and I am very excited! I need to get up early tomorrow  to have a tidy up. So the quicker I go to sleep the quicker morning will come - well that's what I've told my children! Good night!

My  cards were very well received by my class today.  They really are such a lovely bunch that it was a pleasure  make the cards for them. I do feel truly blessed with my job, I am so lucky to love going to work. This hasn't always been the case, not by a long way, but a change of job in September has made all the difference. I only have a day of staff  training left until I break up for Easter. We had a choice of workshops. I have chosen colourful semantics and the sensory trolley. Don't know anything  them so am hoping to be fully enlightened! I have visitors arriving  on Friday and I just can't wait. We  planned to have a turkey. A lack of  oven means that we have still have some large joints of pork left in the freezer. So one lucky turkey will be celebrating Easter with their friends.

Come see my brood!

I knew it was the last day of term for the students tomorrow but I'm not really sure that it fully sunk in! I should have called at the supermarket tonight to buy Easter eggs for my class but the long and short of it is that I didn't.  So this evening when I should have settled down in front of the fire for the evening I had a mad dash to Asda.  They had plenty of eggs so there were no worries there but they didn't have any Easter cards. What to do? Well, make them of course!

First of all I sketched out my design.

 I was going to paint it with watercolours but quite honestly I had no motivation to do so.  So I looked through my crafty bits and found some papers that I liked...

 

I decided to tear the shapes from the papers as you can get quite a nice effect. After fiddling and faffing I changed the shape of my chick until I was happy. I glued my shapes onto the background and drew around the shapes with a fine black liner pen.

I then scanned my collage onto the computer and added some words.  I printed them out multiple times and cut them out ready to stick to some card blanks.

 

 

I couldn't just leave it there because it lacked something.  So at 10 o'clock tonight I have found myself sewing around the edges of the cards and now I'm happy! In fact I really am rather chuffed!

 

 

They are such cute little things, why they even lined up whilst they were waiting! ;-)

 

 

Meet Egbert Bunny

I am a sucker for a free gift with a magazine.  I don't normally buy any knitting magazines but I was drawn to this one because of the free gift (is now a good time to say that I also bought one for the free brooch kit?)  How could I resist a kit to knit a bunny egg cosy?

 It came with three small balls of yarn although I did choose to use my own bunny coloured yarn as I wasn't keen on the cream colour provided. I know it's being fussy but I just can't help it!

And I've made it in time for Easter!

As quickly as our snow came it went again. Apart from food shopping I've been indoors all day long. I completed the last row of my second granny square this evening but to be honest I'm not really feeling the love for it. I love the brightness and colourfulness of Lucy's crochet at attic 24 and this one just fell short of the mark. I think I may just make a few more of week one's block and see where it takes me. I am off to watch the film Red now as  it's showing on TV this evening. Good night!

The grand reveal and my jumble buys!

Drum roll please! The grand reveal...

My new cooker and hob! We have already celebrated with a roast dinner.

 

No 4 usually plays football on a Saturday but this morning the match was cancelled because of the snow.  That was a real bonus because it meant that I could go to the jumble.  Pickings were slim today but I still managed to bag myself a couple of goodies. 

I loved this, the flowers are very pretty and unchipped.  I'm not too keen on the brown frame so I hope that I can prettify it with some cream paint. 

 

I also bought these flowery plates which already had the hangy things on them. They too were unchipped, possibly protected by the layer of dust that they came with.  They'll fit right in here!

I also bought some green Poole pottery teacups and saucers. A set of six no less, one of the little cups has a chip but it'll be fine.



 

I also bought myself a couple of items of clothing but I'm not going to show you. If I pass you in the street I don't want you nudging your friend and saying 'she bought that at the jumble!' ;-)



Vintage Linen Part two

I hadn't planned to do part 2 tonight because I really wanted to tell you about my new oven which we bought last night. A miracle happened and my husband has actually fitted it, I'll share photographic evidence of my new hob and oven over the weekend, once I have gotten over the shock!

Anyway, back to the vintage linen. I slightly altered the Tilda pattern as my bunny has jointed arms and a little puff of a tail.

Now she just needs a hug!

Vintage linen part one

I've had this pretty embroidered runner for ages. Despite washing it there are still a few stains that have proven impossible to remove. I knew that to make it useable it would somehow need to be repurposed into something else. I was reluctant to cut it up at first just in case it was ruined, but I also knew that I would never use it, in the current state.

.

I chose the bits that I liked and drew around my template. I made my templates from acetate so that I could find the best position for the shape.

 I didn't like the brown embroidery so I unpicked it. A hot, steamy iron soon removed the little holes that were left.

Before cutting out the pieces, I ironed interfacing onto the back of the runner.  Linen frays badly and your hard work can quickly turn to threads if you aren't careful. Trust me on this one I speak from experience! I have a lack of photos now, but on the whole I have copied the instructions for the bunny from this lovely book...

I will return with part 2 when I can upload some more photos...

TK Maxx treasures

 I am a big fan of TK Maxx, I haven't always been, but as a new frequenter I am definitely feeling the love now. I have often read other blogs and seen the bargainous goodies that they have bought. I had never been that lucky. I realise now that a TK relationship can't be fickle, you need to be there for the long haul, through good times and bad. My daughter's car is in the garage so I have to take her to work.  As work and TK are practically next door neighbours it would be rude not to just pop in. Lately the TK gods have been looking favourably at me (I think it's my newly found loyalty.) I've found endless CK goodies, a new Puffa jacket (my last one was purchased nearly thirty years ago and is still going strong!) My latest find is this cute little sewing kit to make three Russian dolls.

 

Inside the tin was everything needed to make up the kit, from the fabrics, patterns and trimmings to the scissors and filling. It cost just £5. I thought it would make a lovely, lovely gift so I gifted it to myself ;-) 

Thank you for all the positive comments that you have left on my crochet. It's really very heart warming that you like my attempts. I have loved crochet from afar for  a long time, so it was high time that I sorted myself! If you did leave a message then you may have noticed that I have emailed a reply directly to your inbox. I have finally worked out how to do this - well I never said I was quick!

When I grow up I'd like to be a blanket!

I've just joined a Crochet-along over on Ravelry.  I've not done anything like this before because I am not really very confident with my crochet but I'm hoping that over the coming weeks both my confidence and skills increase. There are many very talented people on the internet who have crocheted some amazing things. They all had to start somewhere! This is my first block..

Using the same colours this is my second block...

 As you can see from the picture below the main colour that will run through these blocks is the red...

Now I await this week's block.

That 's not strictly true as I'm on mucking out duties today and I've just come in for a warm and a cup of tea!