That was the week that was

Well hello there, lovely ladies, and how are you all?  I am making a quick bloggy pit-stop in between bouts of frenzied activity of one sort or another.  As I type I am licking jam from my fingers (makes it tricky to type properly when your fingers stick to the key pads, you know) having just spent a very happy hour or so making greengage jam from fruit picked by me and my gang from my gran's garden (the garden of flowery loveliness, you may remember).  Greengages are one of my all-time favourite fruit and I am pleased to report that after our recent picking session, the boys are converted to their sweet loveliness too.  If this jam works out well, I will be writing a post about my efforts (once the jars have cooled sufficiently for me to label them and put little crinkly hats on them ready for their photography session - can't have naked jars on my blog, that simply wouldn't do).  However, if the jam fails to set properly, I will never mention it again in my shame and will have to live in the hope that you will get collective amnesia and forget I ever mentioned it.  Fingers crossed...
Anyhoo, the eagle-eyed among you may have spotted those rather intriguing-looking circles at the top of my post and be wondering what they are all about.  So, with a small drum roll and slight nod of the head, I present you with the first official glimpse of my summer hols blanket.  Dunh duuuuunh:

 

Yeah babeeeeey, I LOVE this blanket.  This is not a blanket to be used as an accessory for pirate-related activities (a la springtime throw).  No sireee, this is MY blanket and it will be treated with due respect, or there will be serious talking-tos going on, and maybe even a bit of sitting on the bottom step.  And I haven't even finished it yet.  Don't let them say they haven't been warned...

So the past week has seen a bit of jam-making, a bit (a lot) of crochet, a bit of this:

Oh god, please don't drop them...

A bit of this:

quite a lot of this:

Oh yes, bun-bun comes in three different shades - no colour discrimination in this house...

And the final, rather thrilling thing, that happened this week was this:

Ooooh, open this one first, mummy

My amazing giveaway presents.  Thank you so, so much Catherine, I love them all and can report that the chocolate was most delicious - a little thank you will be winging its way to you soon. 

Right-ho, must dash, my next bout of frenzied activity involves packing an excessive amount of bunting and a big box of wine for our trip to the Just So Festival on Friday.  Eeeeeekkk!!!! x

Domestic-ness

Aaah, more of my lovely sweetpeas.  When I was pregnant with baby n, the smell of these used to make me barf and every other year I've tried to grow them, I've managed to kill them (how?) so I am completely, disproportionately thrilled that I have managed to keep these ones alive and not throw up every time I walk past them.  Happy days indeed.

Here's a thing: I have gone so completely crazy making my new summer hols blanket that my hands actually ache as I'm typing.  Jeez - a crochet-related injury - does that make it a sport?  Olympic crocheting anyone?  Well, yes please, that would be great; but I'd only participate because Olympic sports are no longer done naked as they were originally (I know about the naked thing because I watched Horrible Histories every day for the entire Easter holidays with the boys).  I have the missing blue yarn in my sweaty mitts now, though the second mint-coloured ball that I ordered from eBay has yet to arrive (cue panic attack).  Just to say a really huge 'thank you' to all you lovely, lovely bloggers who offered to bail me out in the missing-mint-yarn-nightmare.  I really appreciate your kindness and I've tried to contact you all to say thanks, but Linds I can't get in contact with you for some inexplicable reason, so I'm sorry - I have been trying!

So today has been a ploddy, domestic kinda day, which is always great.  I sneaked in a little, tiny quiet moment in bed this morning feverishly working away on my new blanket before I was rumbled and the child-menagerie came and jumped on my head.  (Ha ha, I say 'moment' but in actual fact it was more like an hour and a half.  How brilliant is that?  I love my husband quite a lot, he's so good at containing the mayhem so I'm left in peace...)  We took the kids to the park this afternoon after a long and heated debate about which park we should go to - I won the argument and we got to go to the one with the massive death slide, which I absolutely love.  Mwah ha ha!  This park also has the added appeal of being next to a huge field with goal posts in it, so the boys weren't too disappointed that I forced them to go there.  

I got a little bit excited when I saw these:

(They were transported home in a poo bag that I filched from a passing dog-walker.  Needs must...)

I got even more excited thinking about what calorie-laden delight I was going to make with them.

This did the trick:

Mr N actually blanched at the size of the portion I gave him, but I noticed he didn't actually leave any.  Pig. x

PS - we're off to sunny Dorset for a few days tomorrow so a) if you're a burglar, remember the thing about the hungry, slavering Rottweiller: and b) I may be a bit absent on the blogging front for a while, sorry; and c) if you're Cuckoo, lock all your doors because I know where you live and I'm coming to get myself a crochet hook roll...

Crocheting my way to survival

Today has been great.  There's not been much going on, but nevertheless, it's been a good day.  It's rare that we have a day with all of us at home and nothing on the calendar, so it was good just to be able to potter for once.  I managed to get a bit of cleaning done (thank god, it needed doing so badly.  It'd got to the point where you couldn't stay still for too long or you'd stick.  Nice)  I also managed to sneak in a bit of furtive crocheting.  I'm rather exicted about my new crochet book (which I will share with you in the next day or two, promise) and I got a bit carried away making some rather lovely little things from it.
It's been Father's Day here in England and so the day started with a family breakfast; croissants being the breakfast of choice for Mr N:

How spooky that the children should choose this as a present, it will be simply perfect for our forthcoming festival trip...

 

We had one of those hilarious family conversations at breakfast that makes you realise your children are, despite the odds, turning out to be quite brilliant human beings.  I was telling the boys about Desert Island Discs (as you do), which got us talking about what our luxury item would be if we were stranded on a desert island.  After a bit of a ponder, Mr N and I both said we'd have a dog (rather freaky I think, given the number of possible things we could have said).  Then Mr N had a bit more of a ponder and decided that, on balance, he'd actually prefer to have Bear Grylls as he'd be at least as useful as Ray Mears, but probably more fun to be stuck on an island with (and easier on the eye, I think).  The boys decided they'd have a year's supply of chocolate and an iPod (hmmmm, could be a bit of an issue with re-charging your mp3 there, big nut!)  Then, in a moment of inspiration, middle nut said 'no, no, mummy.  You'd have to have all your crochet things, then you could crochet your way to survival.'  Me: 'Really?  I think that's a great idea, it would certainly keep me sane'.  MN: 'No.  I mean, you could crochet an aeroplane and fly off the island.'  Now that's pure genius. x

Elderflower cordial recipe and a tent-related make

Just to let you know that I've posted the recipe for elderflower cordial on my 'cake' tab at the top of my blog (here you go, Nelly!)  I hope you like it - let me know how you get on if you do make it!  Good luck getting the citric acid - it can be a bit tricky to get hold of as it's used to make bombs too, apparently.  I got it from my local chemist - I think they made a snap decision based on appearances alone and decided that, on balance, I'm probably wasn't a terrorist.  Phew.  I'm sitting here with a glass of it by my side - it's especially yum with sparkling water. 
I also mentioned a tent-related make in my last post....and.....ta-daaaaaahhhh:

I give you: tent bunting (and a splat of bird poo, which I didn't spot when I took the photo - nice).  What do you think?  

I also made some bunting for my shed while I was at it (is that normal?)

I love that fact that every other flag has upside-down dogs on it; it adds a certain je ne sais quoi, don't you think? x

Just a little bit mad

Just look at these beauties.  Big nut and I are big fans of elderflower cordial, so I've been slaving over a hot jam pan the past couple of days making as much as I can before the flowers are over.  Well, 'slaving' is a bit of an exaggeration perhaps, cordial is one of the easiest things ever to make - it would be fairer to say that I've been using cordial-making as an excuse to avoid doing the housework.
Anyway, it's been a productive old session and eight bottles are now lined up in my larder in a rather pleasing fashion.  There's something very satisfying about having stores of homemade food squirrelled away, dontcha think?

It probably seems as though things on the making front have gone a bit quiet round here lately, but I have been quite a busy bee really.  I finished my springtime throw.  I draped it decoratively over the back of the sofa.  The boys used it to snuggle under while watching tv at the weekend.  Baby nut dragged it around the house a bit.  I put it back on the sofa.  I looked at it with my head on one side.  I rubbed my chin.  And then I decided it needed an edge.  So I've been making it an edge.  I just hope I'm not making a mistake and over-egging the pudding, I've seen Vanessa's springtime throw looking absolutely stunning in its edgelessness, and I do have to ask myself why I think mine would look better with rows of granny stitch round it, but there you go - it's having an edge and fingers crossed it looks okay! 

One way or another, this baby will be finished by next Saturday, when Mr N and I are taking the boys to see an outdoor theatre company perform Fantastic Mr Fox (crocheted blankets are a must...)  We're all pretty excited about this outing, which is part of Mr N's fortieth bday present:

We're also going to need lots of crocheted blankets in the summer, when we're going to.....(drum roll please).....a festival.  With the children.  I am soooo ridiculously excited about this, but I also think we might be just a little bit mad.  Three children.  In a tent.  For two nights.  Lunacy.
It's called the Just So Festival and it's for families - check out the link and let me know how highly we score on the madness scale.  I showed the boys the website when I got back from work on Saturday and middle nut's head almost exploded with excitement.  They didn't go to sleep until nine o'clock, they were so busy planning their itinerary, which mainly involved joining Robin Hood bootcamp, the midnight feast and the bushcraft skills workshop - I'm more excited about the family yoga sessions and the knitted art installation (everyone can knit a leaf or a flower and they're all joined together to create one enormous piece in the woods - what's not to love about that??)
I'm so looking forward to this that I have already indulged in a bit of pre-emptive, camping-related shopping:

I'm also halfway through a little tent-related make, but I'll show you that another day, my granny stripe edging is calling me x

New recipes for you!

Just to let you know that I've added two new recipes under my 'cake' tab at the top of my blog.  Butternut squash and sweet potato soup (yeah, I know, not strictly 'cake') and nana's gingerbread, which doesn't look terribly rock n roll, but which tastes uh-may-zing.

I'd really love to hear from you if you've made any of my recipes (that's if you can still move...) x

Happy Easter!

I love this little arrangement of chicks that big nut had set up on my mum's dining room table.  It makes me think of Saturday Night Fever.  They're actually wearing little flares - you just can't see them because of the angle of the photo.  Also, I love the fact that each chick is standing on the colour square that most closely matches their own colour - now that's a level of coordination that I am very proud of!
Today was another stunner - wall-to-wall sun and lots of outdoorsy fun.

Just look what the Easter bunny brought for baby nut.  Isn't he clever to know that she can't have chocolate?
There was no such chocolate-free nonsense for the two bigger nuts, however:

I was rumbled while taking the photo above.  Here's the scene two seconds later:

Hmmmm - a pretty good haul...

We spent the afternoon at my gran's house.  Her garden really is amazingly lovely and so I, obviously, went completely overboard on the gratuitous flower shots.  I took so many, in fact, that I'm going to have to do a separate post about just that! 

The adults spent the afternoon slumped in chairs in the garden, while the three nut children variously ran around like loons, played football, ate mud and grass, had battles, ate as much chocolate as they could without us noticing, and practised their new-found walking skills (oh yes, baby nut is really no longer a baby - not sure 'toddler nut' has quite the same ring to it though.)  

As we were all starting to crash down from our chocolate-induced sugar highs, we brought out high tea (a bit of a feature of Sunday afternoons at my gran's - and long may it continue):

This was a 'scripture cake', which I made from my new recipe book.  I'm not a religious person at all (nothing against it, it's just not a feature of my life), but this seemed a highly appropriate cake to be eating on Easter Sunday - it was made only with ingredients mentioned in the bible.  And despite having a slightly soggy middle (I'm not the most patient person in the world and couldn't wait to get it out the oven), it was very yum indeed!
Hope you had a lovely, sunny, chocolatey day too x

A stringy make and also a cake

What do you do when you've recently bought a big bag of bits of alpaca wool (fur?)  Well, if you're me, you make a string bag thingie to hang on the bird table for the birds to use as nesting material.  Natch.  Not really considering how I was going to achieve this string bag thingie, I started playing around with some string.

Now, before I reveal the finished article, can I just point out that as always, I was on a time limit.  Just so you don't completely fall over laughing.

I'm counting on the birds round these parts not being too choosy where they get their nest material from.

As if that wasn't exertion enough (ho ho ho) I then decided to make some cupcakes as middle nut had a friend over for tea (nothing to do with me fancying a bit of a cakey treat, honest).  These turned out pretty well - nice and springy and just crying out for a thick layer of buttercream icing - the boys did the honours with the icing and chocolate buttons.  I think they did a pretty good job.  Baby nut definitely thought so:

Can you just see how fast her hand was moving? x

PS - I will do a recipe post soon for these beasties as they are yummy!

Let them eat cake

Today was kitchen kind of day for me.  Faced with an overwhelming amount of housework, I decided to do what any sane person would do.  I retreated to the kitchen and baked.
I was tempted by these beautiful red plums in my local greengrocer's:

so scoured my (rather large) selection of recipe books for a plum-related recipe.  Jamie came up trumps with crumble-stuffed plums.  Anything that calls for these bad boys:

is good in my books!

Bashing up the seeds from these little cardamom pods filled the kitchen with the most amazing smell.  Yum.

That's pudding sorted, then.

I also badly felt the need for lemon cake.  I have discovered Mary Berry's crunchy-topped lemon cake from her Baking Bible (a lovely birthday present in January) and the whole family is now completely addicted.

Tragically, I broke the Number One Rule of baking, whilst I was cooking this cake.  Yes, dear reader, I o-p-e-n-e-d t-h-e o-v-e-n...  That one second mistake turned my beautifully risen, golden cakey delight into a slightly sad little concave baked item.  Sob sob. 

But hey, it didn't stop me eating it, no siree:

After today, the house may well disappear under a cloud of dust, but at least we won't starve.  x