Advent Sunday - more baking

Time to bake the Christmas cakes -  round ones this time, but with marzipan and fruit/nut top rather than icing. Much the same ingredients as the puddings, but no Guinness and some different fruit; apricots and glace cherries.
Patience, now. They will need 4 weeks of weekly feeding with rum before they are ready!

Very cold today, but with wonderful bright sunshine. Feels like midwinter aleady!

Here is the little Christmas cake  - the bigger one is still in the oven, 4 hours later! I'll show you them again when they are marzipanned and decorated.

Teddy Axtell goes to school

It was "Bring your teddy to school day" last Friday, so Teddy Axtell came to school with me, and was by far the most mature student.  He was kept busy in my classroom entertaining the children with his musical skills. We raised about £500 for Children in Need, which was a great effort.

                  Bravo, Teddy! Your musical skills were much appreciated!

Flowers



I've been following the progress of this flower on my way to school, and it's still in full bloom in dull foggy November! A lovely splash of colour on a grey day.
Still, when there are no flowers, I can still wear one! Got into the swing of these corsages now and can knock one up in 20 mins without having to keep referring to the pattern. Ideal for the Tube as you can keep elbows tucked in!

Stir-up Sunday

I sang at Peter's church this morning for Mass as it was the feast of Christ the King. I always enjoy it, and we had a lovely shared lunch afterwards.

Stir up Sunday so time to make the Christmas puddings - the mixture made three this year! One for Mummie, one for us, and enough for one more. The kitchen smells lovely - spices, fruit and citrus.

                                                Before and after .........

 
  6 hours steaming and they will be ready to enjoy on Christmas Day!

More crochet.....

More tea and crafting yesterday; this time a crochet flower brooch, and in a colour other than pink for a change! We learnt single, double and treble crochet. I had a lovely evening, and was so pleased with my efforts; once I've sorted out my somewhat uneven tension I'll be able to make some more demanding things. Guess what I'll be putting in with Christmas gifts!

                             

Granny squares

I had great fun at Tea and Crafting (teaandcrafting.co.uk) yesterday evening. I'd always wanted to learn how to make Granny squares, and Debbie had taught me some of the basic crochet stitches. I found it tricky at first but Jane is a great and patient teacher, and 8 willing pupils were soon hooking away. 

Now I can make these groovy matching tank-tops and tabard I found in a fab    knitting book!                                                                                                         

                                                                        

          

I'll show you the finished article when I've made a couple more rounds. I'm going again next week to make a flower brooch - really looking forward to that!

New Finds

On Saturday I had a lovely morning at the Royal School of Needlework in Hampton Court Palace as they were having a sale; found two of these haberdashers' cabinets (gave one to Sean as a cabinet for examples of his work) to house some of my huge collection of fabrics, these amazing wire spectacles (for a very short-sighted person!!) and scissors, including this dear little pair in a matching case. I also found some bundles of material which will be made into something soon. I had a wander around the formal gardens as they are open in the winter. It was a lovely crisp bright day - the complete opposite of today's wet and windy weather!

Remember, remember....

Wonderful smell of cordite in the air tonight. It's Diwali as well as Bonfire Night, so lots of fireworks. I love them! I remember we used to have indoor fireworks at home as well as going down to Stanpit Marshes to see the fantastic displays there - we loved the snake and the man smoking a cigar! We're having baked potatoes for dinner too, but the weather is quite mild at the moment; it doesn't feel very November-y yet. I have some sparklers to wave around and get into the spirit of things.

Breda gave me this wonderful box full of hundreds of buttons - they belonged to her mother, and some are the most beautiful Art Deco style. I'll have a great time picking out ones to use.

I've gone mad on buttons since I found this lovely necklace in my fave Chiswick charity shop, and have made a few for friends since.