What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday? #195

I’ve been out and about today and came home to find my scheduled post hadn’t posted at all. Now it doesn’t make a lot of sense! Here’s the edited version.

In the background some red winceyette (reminds me of sheets I had when I was a little girl), a couple of notebooks (for my daughter), a new magazine (that I haven’t even opened yet), a pattern I was lucky enough to be given (more about that on Friday) and thread (to match the fabric from last week).

The spoils of my little trip to Salisbury to meet some lovely fellow WOYWWers. We had a great time looking at fabric and wool and chatting about anything and everything. Jan gave me a cute little fabric basket, which you can see on her blog today.

Right, there are a million other things I should be doing, so I’d better go do them. First on the list is making a jug of hot chocolate for my frozen children, when they walk through the door in a few minutes. Once I’ve got the washing in, I think I might need one too. Linking up with the lovely Julia and her merry band of desk hoppers.

PS For those who worry that clicking on my links will end up forcing them to buy pretty things (you know who you are!) I haven’t added any of those kind today, I promise. You’re quite safe!

PPS Hopefully I’ve worded that better now and it won’t upset anyone. That was never my intention. I don’t think it was being read in the spirit it was written.

Hello Monday, Hello Back to School

Half term is over. It’s been lovely to have the children here for the week, but it’s back to school today. We’ve a busy week ahead, with lots to look forward to.

• Hello to his GCSE Art final project being decided on and prepared for.
• Hello to a trip to Salisbury to meet up with some fellow WOYWWers.
• Hello to cutting the kits and teaching this week’s craft class.
• Hello to her options meeting and starting the process of choosing, again.
• Hello to driving 90 miles, to meet up with more crafty friends.
• Hello to a whole weekend of not being Mummy.

What are you looking forward to this week?

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday? #194

Not much crafting happening around here, with it being half term this week.

On my kitchen table, the parcel I just picked up from the sorting office. Customs charges to pay, which I have no problem with. I do object to the £8 charge the Post Office stick on top and all for the privilege of collecting your own mail. I wanted 4 yards of rabbits to back an Adventures with Alice quilt and couldn’t source it here.

Good thing it was on sale at a bargain $5 a yard. If you’ve ever bought quilting fabrics in the UK, you’ll know they are around £12 per metre here. I made sure I put as much as possible in the envelope for the shipping fee and added a couple of yards of the green and yellow to make a summer skirt.

That’s it from me. Lots more to see at Julia’s Place.

Hello Monday, Hello Half Term

We made the most of the sunshine yesterday, to get out for a walk in the woods.

This was our destination. Beautiful Shearwater, shimmering in the afternoon sunlight. We shed our coats for a stroll around the lake, but were very glad of them during the two mile walk through the trees.

In 1988 the lake was drained and I walked there on a similarly cold and sunny day. During much harsher winters, in the late 19th and early 20th century, the lake would freeze over and ox roasts and carnivals would be held there. My Dad remembers his Grandmother talking about these events.

I love those kind of links to the past. The thought of my Great Grandmother walking out across the lake, 100 years ago. Myself walking along the bottom, 20 odd years ago and my own children walking around the edge just yesterday. Happy Half Term.

If you’re interested in reading more about it, there is an article I came across here.

Friday Finds ~ Play Food From Felt

A couple of weeks ago, one of the lovely ladies who comes to my craft class, was telling us all about the play food she had been making for her grandson. She had found lots of ideas and inspiration online, although no actual instructions. When I got home, I had a look around to see what I could find.

A nice variety at Lemonwood Clock, from eggs and bacon to bread slices with peanut butter and jam/jelly filling. There are two printable PDFs, giving templates for everything shown in the picture including little trees broccoli and carrots. If you want something relatively quick and simple then these are the patterns for you.

Polly at Helping Little Hands hosted a Felt Food Cook-A-Long a couple of years ago and she has over two dozen different tutorials available, many with printable patterns. These are a little more complicated than the previous ones, but well worth the effort for the finished results. Lots of the items can be mixed and matched.

This picture shows what All Twisted Up calls Infinity Bread. It can be used flat with added pizza toppings, or rolled up to make wraps and fajitas. Scroll down on the link to find some inspirational photos. Instructions to make something very similar to the Infinity bread, can be found among the tutorials on my previous link.

With a bit of imagination and some felt, of course, you could make just about any kind of food. What I like most is being able to have a variety of ‘ingredients’ which can be put together to make lots of different meals. Much more exciting than the plastic food my own children had. They often substituted lego, which they had built their own food creations from! I know they would have loved this.

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday #193

After getting everything together last week to make my Washi dress, I just couldn’t seem to get started. It’s been quite a while since I did any serious sewing and I think I’m a little bit scared of it. I just need to ‘get back on the horse’.

I’m going to repurpose this old dress into a zippered pouch.  The front is patchwork with some applique and embroidery. Inside out it looks like this….

….and the back is plain chambray. It even has a zip.

All I need is some matching thread and I’m ready to go.

To see what everyone else is up to, head on over to Julia’s place. See you there!

My Month in Numbers ~ January 2013

I should warn you that this post turned into a bit of a food fest. If you haven’t eaten yet, or are sticking to a diet, you might want to look away now!

Eight red peppers turned into four jars of Sweet Chilli Jam. Delicious with cold meat and with the home made chicken fillet burgers we had on Saturday.

Four new recipes tried, including Pasta with Pancetta, Leek and Mushrooms.

Paprika Chicken from The Hairy Dieters book…..

…..with three more peppers.

Five kilos of sweet potatoes and carrots made into several litres of Meadow Barn soup to restock the freezer. It doesn’t last long in this cold weather.

Twenty bananas whizzed into the same number of smoothies, along with a variety of other ingredients. Including frozen forest fruits, which I found lurking at the bottom of the chest freezer. Best Before End: 19th October 2008! I’m still here.

That’s my little round up for January. I found it easier with a theme. Linking up with Julie and all the other counters at Notes on Paper.