Place Mat Pockets. Done.

 
 
 

A spotta Lotta

Lexie was "washing my hair" at the "hairdressers" last night and she was passing me "magazines" to read as I lay there on the sofa having my hair washed. One of the books she passed to me was "Simple Sewing" by Lotta Jansdotter which I haven't looked through in such a long time. In fact I haven't looked through any of my books in such a long time.

 

So, once the "salon" was closed for the night and the hairdresser was fast asleep in bed, I got a handful of my favourites and began to flick through them.

 

I've been thinking of doing a little project. Something easy to get back into the swing of things. It's been over 6 months since I made anything. So I thought the placemats, coasters and napkins would be a good start.

  

I like the pocket on the front so I'll incorporate that but I'll probably adapt her pattern slightly as I'd prefer a back to the placemats. I have tonnes of linen so I can use that for the backs and I've been sifting through my fabric stash for the fronts.

I better dust down my sewing machine...it's about to be put to good use again. 

a bit of cath kidston

The new Cath Kidston catalogue arrived the other day. I looked through it and dreamt about a kitchen with one of these in it

And while listening to the radio I could make some apple compote

I would also need one of these because the weather is so crap here

and a couple of these for my babes to play with

And finally...do I really need an excuse for a new bag?

  

morning stories

A Cath Kidston Christmas

Look what just fell through the letterbox at my house.

I'm particularly in love with these birdie tree decorations...

These candles...

There's even a recipe for mince pies...

Makes 12 mince pies

Ingredients

1 pack of puff pastry (can be pre-rolled)
450g/1lb mincemeat
1 egg beaten with a pinch of salt
55g/2oz caster sugar
60ml/2floz milk

You'll need a 7.5cm/3 inch pastry cutter and two oven proof cake trays (muffin tray or similar)

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.
2. Roll out the pastry until it is 2mm thick
3. Using the pastry cutter stamp out as many rounds as possible from the pastry (roughly 24). Ensure you have equal amount for lids and bases of the pies. Then place one piece (the base) of each pie into your cake trays.
4. Place a tea-spoonful of mincemeat on each of the base rounds in the cake tray, brush the edges with egg wash and place the other half (the lids) on the top of each pie.
5. Seal the edges of the pies, brush them with egg wash and sprinkle with caster sugar.
6. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden brown and cool or serve warm with cream and some mulled wine.

I'm definitely going to give these a go!


The christmas crackers look so cute...


and a competition...sew your own Christmas Stocking...

There's a downloadable pattern and if you enter the competition and win you could be the proud owner of a new Sewing basket, needle case, pin cushion, button tin, pin tin with pins, thread tin with threads and a mini travel sewing kit. A prize worth £75 can't be all bad for having a go at making a Christmas Stocking. The competition closes 17/12/08.

A new venue

We have a new library right next door to Lexie's school. It's brand new. New shiny books and loads of them. It's the best thing. I love books and always encourage Lexie to read as much as possible (even though she can't read herself yet). She loves looking at books and we read to her as much as we can. The new library opened on Monday and Lexie has been 3 times this week already. I hope she continues to enjoy books as she grows.

When I was young I can remember going to our local library and feeling very claustrophobic and stifled by the silence inflicted upon us, the dim lights and the musty old book smell which kind of put me off going to libraries until I was sort of high school/university age and even then it was a necessity rather than for enjoyment. The new library is quite the opposite. Airy, light and bright. There is a feeling of total encouragement when you walk through the doors. I can see me spending a fair bit of time there in the coming weeks and months.

I didn't choose any actual reading books this time, I was much too excited by all of the sewing, knitting and general crafting books they have to offer.

if anyone is wondering

what to get me as a Christmas gift this year, this would be a really good idea. Maybe accompanied by this and a little splash of this. And if you're feeling generous maybe this would be something to consider.

Charlotte was asking me how I compare the Lotta and Lena printing books...I promise I will do a bit of a book review  in the near future Charlotte with some pics to illustrate.

new reading material

I also bought Lena Corwin's book "Printing by Hand". It's not in this shot, it's next to my bed.

I've been buying a few things

The cutest, tiniest little alphabet & number stamps from Leslie...they really are tiny.

The sweetest book full of knits for babies - oh yes, the baby stuff has started already.

A bias binding maker - need to figure this one out but it looks pretty easy.

Some bargain sketchbooks - I'm looking forward to drawing in these.

a new book to add to my ever growing library

I got this book for my birthday. I love books. And I love this one. It's full of amazing handwritten fonts used in all sorts of ways. Brilliant.

I had a great day on my birthday by the way, thanks for all the birthday wishes!!!