Busy, Busy, Busy!!

Here it is February and I still have not caught up with 2012. I have not been wasting time, but trying to catch up with some WIPs and some UFOs. On top of that Blogger decided it did not want to upload the pictures from my computer, so I decided to wait till it was mended.

The photograph above shows part of my table at the Christmas Fayre. I make a variety of crafts, and this part of the table has earrings, dyed and carded wool, embroidered bags (folded) and two woven scarves. The reddish woven scarf has a story attached. My husband was fascinated by my weaving loom. He watched me weaving some scarves and wanted to have a go, but thought it would take too long to make a big scarf. I had bought some special material for weaving fancy fibres, so I cut the fibres for him, showed him what to do and away he went. It was gorgeous!! The scarf was so successful that his sold even before the sale was officially open. I made some more in different colours.

Below is the next part of the table with dyed silk scarves, embroidered lace coasters, wine glass coasters, scissor keepers, flower hair clips, bangles and notebooks.

The end of the table has more silk scarves, jewelry kits, aromatherapy crackers, beads and findings. The willow branches behind are from the next stall.

These are some of the embroidered bags and backpacks I make. 

My husband always helps me with the sales and eggs me on to do greater things. We had great fun at the sale, and it was nice catching up with islanders we had not seen for a while. Hopefully this ends 2012,and I can now post about 2013!!
Till next time
tich

Trifle Recipe

I can't upload any photos, as Blogger has an ongoing fault. I will upload them as soon as possible!! 

Still having great problems with blogger, but after a lot of trouble, managed to get these up.

 

Birthdays, Christmas and New Year, we always have trifle. My grandmother made it and so did my mother, the same way. When we got married, my husband said, 'That's not a real trifle. It hasn't got cream on top of it!' But he had a bowl of it and then another. I did offer to make a 'proper' trifle after that, but funnily enough, I was told to make it just like my mother did.

To make the trifle, you will need-

Harvey's Bristol Cream

2 Jam Swiss Rolls (no cream)

Tin of sliced peaches

Custard powder

Tin of evaporated milk

Sugar

Raspberry jelly

Water

• Drain the juice from the peaches.
• Fill a large whisky glass almost two thirds full of sherry, then add a small amount of juice from tinned fruit. (have a small glass of sherry for yourself, just to check it tastes good!)
• Chop up the Swiss rolls and pour over the sherry mixture. Mash to mix well in.
• Make custard, using the evaporated milk, instead of ordinary milk (don't add any water). Make it slightly thicker than normal and pour over sponge/sherry mixture. Arrange the peaches  on top of the custard. Leave to cool completely.
• Make the jelly, but instead of making it up to 20 fl. oz. (1 pint), make it to 17 fl. oz, with the water and the rest of the fruit juice. 
• Carefully pour jelly over the custard and peaches. Leave to set.
• Serve with cream or ice cream. 
• Stay in or you will be breathalised!

Enjoy!

Till next time

tich

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Wishing you all your dreams come true in the New Year!!

Storms and Snowballs.

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas. It was a beautiful day and we walked to the far beach. It was so warm I took off my jacket and opened my jumper, but now we are back to torrential rain and high winds. It is supposed to be a stormy weekend again, so what's new?

As you probably have read on the Net, the PTA of Sandy Horne School have decided to welcome the students to the new school by decorating it with snowflakes. They have asked people to make snowflakes, and details can be seen here There are loads of free snowflake designs to download, but they have to arrive at the school before 12th January. Go and make some! Here is a picture of some of the snowflakes I made to send -

In the last few posts I haven't been showing a lot of the things I have been making, so I will have to get my finger out.
Perhaps next time,
tich
  

Merry Christmas!!

Wishing you all, wherever you may be, seasons greetings and much love.

tich xxx

Storms and Floods

Last Friday the winds got up and we had a lot of rain. If it is a high tide and the wind is in the right direction, we get the spray from the waves flying over the road into one of our fields. My husband had moved the ram into new pasture, so all that could get wet were the geese. They enjoyed the flood that ensued and went swimming quite happily in their newly acquired pond. This happens every year and it subsides just as quickly as it arrives, so we don't worry.

On the Saturday the wind direction changed and the waves were now hitting the road past the bridge and round the corner from us. The wind did not seem particularly high, but the waves were spectacular. We had to go out at night and the road was completely blocked to a depth of two feet with stone and seaweed, so we about turned and got out the other way. Sometimes the road gets stone and seaweed on it after a storm, but I have never seen it as bad as this. I went along on the Sunday morning to take a few pictures. 
The council worker had been at it for hours, and he said the road had been blocked for 70 yards. It was the worst damage he had seen for years. The fencing on the opposite side of the road was broken, and one of the houses nearer the road has a curved dry stane dyke through the force of the stones hitting it. The storm had hit down the east coast of Scotland, so we were not the only ones to suffer. We have high winds and rain this weekend again. Never mind. The shortest day is passed and we are now heading to Spring!! I will leave you with a short clip of the stones being cleared (the council worker stopped as he was wondering if I wanted through) and some other pictures. Some can be enlarged.

Till next time.
tich

News

I started writing this weeks ago and it suddenly disappeared! I was looking at Blogger today, thinking it was about time I got organised and started to blog seriously again, when I saw this lurking in Drafts. It wasn't there before, but perhaps it was fed up hiding! So I will continue from where I left off. At this rate the New Year will be half done, before I catch up!

  My blog sebatical was due to a little illness, a bit of procrastination, a lot of visitors and finally a computer that died of old age. I didn't enjoy the illness, loved the visitors, but my computer!!!!! It was like a death in the family!! I had religiously made back ups, but when it came down to it, I still lost a lot of files! A friend helped me a lot over the Internet and eventually my cousin, who lives in the south of England, sorted it out, and my baby is back up working! I did go onto a PC when my Mac was away and I still don't like them! I think eventually I will revert to a PC, as I have so much software I cannot use on the Mac, but that does not mean to say I will enjoy it as much.

The embroidery above was done for one of my visitors. Let me state now I do not like canvas work all that much and I usually do not use kits, but this was an exception. I have known this person for over fifteen years and even though we moved away, he has kept in touch and is a lovely person. He had just moved into his first home of his own, so when he asked me to make a cushion for his sofa, I could not say 'No'. He is an avid gardener, so I thought I would bring a little colour into his house, during the dark, dreich days of winter. When he came with his uncle for a visit, he was delighted with his present, so I did not feel so bad.

We have been seeing some terrible pictures of freak weather conditions on Mainland Scotland and England, with enormous floods, torrential rain and rivers bursting their banks. We have been so lucky. We have had a little rain, but in the main the weather has been good. I leave you with a little clip of our bay, taken last week. I thank God every day for this beautiful view. We are so lucky to live here!  

Till next time.
tich