with love, cupcakes and biscuits...some jammy pudding too.

It cannae just be me who does this....

2012-02-08T15:41:00.000Z

Surely it cannot?

Today I find myself with my mind birling with ideas.
Creative juices a bubbling and a spiraling.
I have a need to design.

So I have all of this out designing a special quilt; my 'Teawagon Quilt' inspired by the lovely Jane of teawagon tales who sells the most lovely vintage fabric (oh and Jane is very cool too, she loves Morrissey, what can I say?). All of the fabric for this quilt is from her shop so hence the name. I have been quietly foraging pieces away in my stash for a while now. Once I have enough I'll get going as it will be sewn on my machine and therefore won't take long (I have been sewing the below by hand for months and months so anything by machine seems easy and lightening speed) but...

The ridiculous thing is that I already have three other blankets on the go, two of which are stumbling in the main due to finances. This granny all-square from The Royal Sisters blog which is shown here as part of the 52mmmc...

which, even though I have a hundred plus pile of, I need a lot more wool to complete it and then there's this...

of which the top is pretty much finished but I still need to add some more white hex's to square off. This involves counting up all the spaces and working out how many half hex's I need too. There's two thousand paper pieced hexagons on this bugger already but I need some more calico to make more hex's which means money. Oh and the batting but luckily I have an ancient (well it used to be on my bed when I was wee) candy stripe flannel sheet for the backing. This 2.3 x 1.1m quilt top has been a real labour of love and I could have carried on and on, I loved it so much!!

I'm thinking of opening a wee Folksy and/or Etsy shop to (hopefully) make a few pennies to help??? Scottie dog/apple brooches anyone??

I have also started a knitted patchwork blanket from my wool stash...

You know, something for the evenings!

It doesn't seem to matter how many WIPs I have on the go (just about to start this too???) I cannot stop the need to be creative about the NEXT project. I don't always have to start this next project straight away and I like to have a few things on the go; a bit of crochet, a bit of knitting, a bit of sewing, as I like to be able to move around depending on my mood but when a new idea strikes or there are rumblings of an idea taking seed I MUST heed it and sit down, pencil and paper in hand and design.

Hands up who else?

I see you there, get that hand up!

Sunday baking.

2012-01-16T17:05:00.001Z

Yesterday I spent the better part of the day in my apron baking.
I had a lovely ol' time to myself listening to music (MGMT, Newton Faulkner and REM if you are curious) and making a floury mess.

Scrummy yummy cupcakes, a few topped with lime buttercream and sprinkled with coconut.

And also

Bread to go with dinner.

I love baking bread but my rubbishy wrists hate it, particularly after making pizza dough the night before. I use Jamie O recipes (after trying many others) but think I will be trying out some Baker Boys ones soon, love them! Realized I love a man dusted in flour, who knew?

My Biscuits were playing happily, Mr Biscuit was maintaining his friendship with his guitar and I was in my lovely kitchen baking. Happy day!

'What is funny?' It's one of those 'big' questions...no.1.

2012-01-05T13:07:00.000Z

It is indeed such a subjective question. What is funny?
I am always curious to what makes us laugh. How some of us find things hilarious whilst another has a bare quiver of a lip. How it is uncontrollable, not always welcome and usually always funny in itself. Seeing someone in tears, tummy aching and body rocking is, to me,a beautiful sight! Love to see actors corpsing!
I am always interested in peoples take on the world around them and how they feel about it, their quirks and eccentricities, their likes, loves and hates.
In particular I love to know what makes people smile and even more so, laugh.
I got to thinking I would share some those things that tickle or have tickled me, either into a smile or requiring a seat to compose myself or in some cases sent out of a room and hope you will leave some of yours in the comment box too.

so...
Here, for your pleasure folks, or not - rich tapestry 'n' that, are some of the things I find/have found funny for as many weeks as I can think of things to share.

"Back in April I was manning the bake stall at my Biscuits' school and they had a few different things on in celebration of their 40th birthday. One of these things was a balloon artist. As we were setting up this balloon artist who was dressed as a clown (as they seem to always be) had to go into the next hall so he decided to run.
Did I mention the maseeeeve clown shoes?

Slap slap slap slap slap slap slap slap slap slap slap slap slap slap slap."

It was one of those occasions where I am laughing like a loon and all around are not. Oh and if he had fallen down.....
Funny? Not Funny?

Twenty Twelve or Two Thousand and Twelve? Don't Panic...

2012-01-03T12:01:00.000Z

I have to ask which is it?
The man of the flowing locks and much historical wisdom, Neil Oliver, got me thinking when he tweeted the other day we should be saying Twenty Twelve by now. Since the millenium started I have been saying Two Thousand and... which seems ridiculous when I think I said Nineteen something for the first twenty six years of my life! I just don't know if I can break the habit now.
Twenty Twelve seems like something someone talking of the Olympics says especially in the spoof telly prog about the organization of it with the lovely Hugh Bonnevile.
It does roll off the tongue though and it cannae be that hard to change my ways if I want, especially about something so really very unimportant.

Don't panic it's only a new year!

But panic I did.

Over this...

Have you played it?
Oh my effing G it's scary! Simply having to say 3-7 things like Star Wars characters or dinosaurs in ten seconds sounds easy right? I got round the board first because I bloody well did panic, screaming out answers as fast as I could "three sharp things? Needle, scissors, knife" Slam the timer button down and breathe. No really breathe. It was so uncomfortably stressful and scary, afterwards the adrenalin was pumping and I felt I could have taken on anything. Though definitely NOT another game of Don't Panic!!
At least I won, our other new board game is QI and I have no chance and without someone making up the mad scoring system where you can win when you've hardly answered at all, I have definitely nae chance!
Oh well I have come to accept my children are surpassing me in many facets of knowledge (even if I do from time to time give a friendly lecture about needle sizes or the like to show I do indeed know some things!).

Just as well I am not (very) competitive!

The answer to the ultimate question (not 42 by the way).

2011-11-17T13:20:00.001Z

The question I mean is "what to have with a cup of tea when there are no home bakes at hand?"

For me, it has to be...

How about you?

Nearly Headless Nick...sorry I mean Nearly Wordless Wednesday!

2011-11-09T17:58:00.000Z

Some days...

It feels like I live in an apron.

The difference a day makes-surrounded by Christmas!

2011-11-02T10:12:00.000Z

If Monday was a day of avoiding and in the end, completing dreaded domestic chores
- by the way how can people not have to iron? Tis like some kind of magic if you don't have to -
then yesterday was a day of comforting sewing and being surrounded by Christmas.
Deliveries making my insides jump and twirl, yuletide potential in button and recipe form.

It was a good day my friends!

Felt candy cane decorations - tutorial from the amazing Lupin found here.
Christmas 'elf' buttons and ribbons can be found here and at lovepaperfish.com/
Red Wool Coat pattern or craft kit found here.

"First we'll make snow angels for two hours, then we'll go ice-skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookie-dough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle." Buddy.

Feck that for a game o' sodgers!

2011-10-31T10:35:00.001Z

I wish I could...
But I can't.....
I have tried...
I have dithered about decorating windows with fake cobwebs and the like.
I have procrastinated drinking coffee and now I am even writing a post about it, big *sigh*.

I feel like Hamish in this photo...

because of this...

I am hoping, rather than bemoaning this outrageous mound dear friends, you all agree that this is the size an ironing mountain should get to before being embarked upon. Please say it is so, I'd hate to look like a failure in the housewifery department! *takes tongue out of cheek*

Feckity feck feck feckity feck feck!!!

I better get these out then, my ironing companions, the 10th Doctor will ease my pain!

Sort of.......no he won't, who am I kidding??? Yet more *sighs*! I am proper huffing now by the way!

I've been a busy wee bee with birthday business!

2011-10-25T11:23:00.000+01:00

For us, the last two weeks of October is abundant in birthdays which is fabulous really - love a birthday - but bugger it's exhausting! I feel sorry for Mr Biscuit too as inevitably we spend his birthday preparing for Youngest Biscuit's the day after so we never go out or celebrate much. I did make him Lamingtons which has scored me many many tens of points in the Good Wife department. Just as well as I barely had a second to send him birthday wishes.

Traditions were kept, birthday age biscuits...

...made every year of both of my Biscuits lives and now, always decorated with a brother at hand.

And of course there was a cake...

...based on the PS3 game Driver: San Fransisco, Youngest Biscuit's favourite game. I had to edit this photo in cinemascope to match the feel of the game's opening sequence, very dramatic!
My amazing friend from the States who lives near to SF got me the Golden Gate Bridge which we spray painted red and really makes the cake, don't you think? She sent over oodles of chocolatey pretzels too, the star that she is!
The Dodge Challenger (hark at me with the car names) was made from Sculpey clay so it could be kept. I have to say it's a lot of fun making cakes like this but the sugar paste was so soft it was a right pain! I was tired after I admit. It was a cake four days in the making and I think all that creativity and organizing is exhausting! I get very sick of baking too which I really do hate to admit.
After all this effort I will be terrorized with a remote control tarantula and Nerf Guns, such is life, with boys!

It was my friend's special day yesterday and I got to be girly...

...which I don't get to do very often!
It had been a busy old time and I really did deserve this...

Two more birthdays this weekend and I have just had my two year blogging anniversary, which is just a bit mad. I think my second post ever included Youngest Biscuits birthday.

I must be off, Biscuits are back at school today, beds are stripped and Stormy (my Dyson that 'looks like a Stormtrooper') wants to come out and play.

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Weekend baking: Cinnamon Buns.

2011-10-17T15:28:00.000+01:00

On Saturday I was up early doors so I could make Mr Biscuit Cinnamon Buns for elevenses, from my newest baking book. I have gone on many a time about my love for Cupcakes from The Primrose Bakery and now there is a new one filled to the brim with deliciousness after deliciousness. I want, no need to make lots from this book.
The recipe was actually really easy to follow ( I've made lots and lots of bread dough in my time) with helpful images to aid me along but as always, my inability to roll out dough neatly led me to have to try three times for the rectangle needed. This added lots to the prep time but I got there in the end.

The icing was Mr Biscuit's idea as the recipe didn't call for it. I have to say the bread like texture of these was somewhat strange (they looked a bit like a pork pie too!) but lovely all the same with the sugary cinnamon flavour. I didn't do the apricot glaze as Mr Biscuit isn't keen on it. Also I'm not sure if it was my lack of tight rolling, but masses of the filling leaked out all over the oven, coating it in toffee. I don't think they were tasty enough to justify having to clean the oven afterwards! Is anything??
In the end we decided that pastry cinnamon whirls are better.

We ate some none the less and froze the rest.

If you'd like a looksee at the book go on over to Amazon.co.uk

Happy Baking!

I've got a birthday cake based on Driver, San Francisco, lamingtons and miniature coffee & walnut cakes this week!

Unbrushed hair and a poorly look on my face!

2011-10-12T09:31:00.000+01:00

The reason for Monday's clumsiness became clear when I woke up yesterday feeling ill. Y'know aches and pains, sore head and awful nausea. I determinedly kept down my morning porridge and cappuccino but was indeed sick sometime after lunch. I shouldn't have ate it really but I thought the sick feeling had got worse because I was hungry but no, the sick feeling got worse because I was going to be sick. Yuckity yuck yuck yuck!!
I spent the best part of the day on the sofa, on and off with my laptop and TV wanting and waiting for everyone to come home and accumulatively feeling sorry for myself. I did get some sewing done....
Today I still feel pants so will try to rest I guess. Having to miss my 'pretending to be a librarian' morning at nursery but what can you do?

So here's what my day will look like for the best part.....

Dirty dishes and Hortensia on my knee. I even used my iPhone to take a photo so I wouldn't have to get off the sofa. Better to embrace the sofa that fight it I figure. I've started sneezing now so no doubt in a bit this photo would have skanky squished up tissues too.

I am grateful though. At least these days, with not being required to walk my Biscuits to and from school, I can stay in my jim jams with unbrushed hair and a poorly look on my face.

Monday morning and being clumsy!

2011-10-10T10:17:00.000+01:00

Seriously....

I genuinely almost fell out of the bed and no one wants to start their day suddenly finding themselves having to be agile. I took it for the bad omen it was. I am indeed in for a clumsy day. I can sense it. I made it through getting ready, got downstairs, did not burn toast because I concentrated really hard on the time and then, then, like a fool, I dropped the lid of the orange juice and watched it roll under the freezer. Aahh!
Youngest Biscuit did his best to retrieve it but in the end I had to go outside in the rain, in my slippers (again FOOL!) to rake about in the recycle bin for another lid. (Notice it doesn't even match!) I dropped the butter tub at that point and spilled jam everywhere getting it out of the jar. That was my own fault as the raspberry jam we made looks like Wallace and Gromit jam. Now don't get me wrong, we don't have manic, stressed out mornings in our house. We give ourselves plenty of time and don't have to rush about so I have no excuses. I made a right old drama out of breakfast.

Mr Biscuit has a theory. He doesn't think I am clumsy at all. He suggests I don't give my full attention to the job at hand but am thinking of the next or the one after that.
I have nothing to say about that.
I wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

I'm off for this...

and to write a list of cake ingredients etc for Youngest Biscuit's birthday in less than two weeks. It all kicks off birthday wise the last week of October round our way. I like writing a list though and I figure I can't really be clumsy doing that. May be safer to stay clear of the iron too. Shame! I was really looking forward to that today.....

Nearly Headless Nick..sorry I mean Nearly Wordless Wednesday!

2011-10-05T13:21:00.000+01:00

Yesterday afternoon...

I didn't know I had nodded off until my phone beeped and with a thudding heart, my arms flew into the air, my book went flying onto the floor and my mouth went "aarrrhhhhh".

Nealy Headless Nick..sorry I mean Nearly Wordless Wednesday!

2011-09-28T13:10:00.000+01:00

still hexed!!

Today...

2011-09-23T10:59:00.002+01:00

I decided to print off some of the patterns accumulating on my laptop and boy now I'm feeling a wee bit....forget that negativity. Let's just say rather than looking on it as lots to do, overwhelming and a long long list, I've decided that it means (poor, poor unfortunate me!) lots and lots of necessary sitting on my bottom watching box sets and films whilst sewing and knitting.

It's important work I tells ya!

*sigh*

I loves a homemade Christmas!

I confess though the first thing on this printed out pile that will be made are for me...

Surely if I am to work so hard [??!!] for Christmas it is essential for me to be comfortable and cosied up in the feet department. I found the wool recommended for a bargain price of 12.95 instead of 36.00 for a ten pack. Shocking for 100% undyed virgin wool! Not that I need ten balls but everywhere else would have sold only the four required for the same price. Now I could knit another pair for someone else and have two balls left over for a pair of socks. Not keen on the word 'smug' but if the feeling fits...

What is on your crafting 'to do' list?

p.s the pattern for the bunny slippers can be purchased from here. If you'd like to see more of my knits, I am on Ravelry as cupcakeandbiscuit. You do have to be a member or join to have a looksee but it's easy to do so and is an amazingly helpful and fun site, lots of available patterns etc.

An out of body experience??

2011-09-13T12:05:00.000+01:00

Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

It's not my fault! I couldn't help myself! Effing Amazon! It made me buy books I didn't 'need'! I don't know how I even arrived at the craft book section, let alone the whole site.

I was hypnotized.

Brainwashed.

Led by the hand like a distracted toddler unaware that Mummy is going to 'her' bit of John Lewis.

It clearly was not my fault.

That is my story and I am sticking to it I tells ya!!

I'll be telling Mr Biscuit I needed them for Christmas presents that he need not be involved in even a teeny bit. He'll roll his eyes and hope I won't be asking his opinion (I say opinion, I really mean 'let me discuss this with myself out loud until I come to a decision') on fabric/wool/colour/size/recipient etc etc.

Besides he'll only find out if I tell him mmmwaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaa!

*shakes fist at Amazon*

*gets excited at thought of new books*

Here's what I bought and of course I am slapping my wrist for the utter lack of self control, sort of, well pretending...

and

(images from amazon)

Not content with getting a fix myself, I am going to be a 'pusher' and encourage you too.

Click here for the first, here for the second and you will be taken to the land of temptation otherwise known as Amazon.co.uk.

Surely I am not alone in this, I cant' be?

The 'pet me' punch!

2011-09-12T15:13:00.000+01:00

And of course, I did.

They've all got knits!

2011-09-09T14:20:00.000+01:00

Knits in abundance!

Everywhere I look I see AMAZING knits I am simply chomping at the bit to have a go at.

An email from Loop had me smiling and drooling over these..

deer with antlers hat

woodland hoodlet

(images from Loop)

The patterns are available here at Tiny Owl Knits and here at Loop. Loop is a fantastic shop and used to sell the amazing Swallow coloured milk casein knitting needles that I love from Australia. They've not had them in a long while which is such a shame. I keep meaning to get my brother-in-law to send me some over. There are many many 'salivating on chin' patterns available and gorgeous yarn, really gorgeous yarn. It's also one of those mail order shops that wrap your purchases with such care that you almost don't want to open them. Of course you do. No amount of well wrapped tissue is going to keep from my new yummy yarn for a squeeze. I love a squeeze of a ball of yarn. One of the many reasons why I like a good quality yarn; acrylic doesn't lend itself to an enjoyable squeeze! If you have never had a look at Loop, I urge you to do so.

The latest post from the purl bee is full of more temptation...

(images from the purl bee)

These images encompass warm tummy favourites of mine; socks, wrist warmers, blankets, stripes and rib stitch. I love ribs in knitting, ribs and moss! As the leaves start to turn I find myself day dreaming about yarn, Brittany crochet hooks and knitting needles. Does anyone else?

If you have never visited the purl bee, please do. It's very inspiring , full to the gunnels with crochet, knitting and sewing patterns.

Lastly, this blanket. Again with the hexes!! From Tiny Owl Knits:

The Beekeeper's Quilt...

(images from Tiny Owl Knits)

Are they not gorgeous? Is the blanket not gorgeous? I am waiting to see if I am lucky enough to win the pattern from a competition at the mollie makes blog, if not I am so so so buying it here or here.

My heart lies on a hexagon blanket!

So much temptation...

What knits have you spotted?

To everything - turn turn turn. There is a season - turn turn turn. And a time for every purpose under heaven.

2011-09-02T10:54:00.000+01:00

Boy is it getting chilly of an evening! Blankets are coming out and my need for knitting socks is abound. Luckily that is exactly what I am knitting, therefore contentment follows easily. I am looking forward to dark evenings cooried up on the sofa with my cats and my man, listening to their snores. My hard working Mr Biscuit nods off, as often as not, as soon as he sits down. Hence why I get my nightly cup of tea before his lovely bottom touches the comfy sofa!

Today it is so dark, I am considering putting a light on. The Autumn is here. I've felt it coming for a wee while now. I realized too that this is to be expected when my boys are three weeks back at school and a lot of you folks out there are ending the summer hols right now. It is time for the garden furniture to get packed away in the hut for the winter, it's unlikely we'll be using it again so no need for it to sit neglected out in the garden. That makes me feel bad. When it's gone my body knows it's past the point of being out there relaxing soaking up [any?!?] sun. It's also time for delicate herbs and flowers to get put in their little plastic greenhouse as frost can come at any point now. I am craving hearty soups and hot jammy puddings. I have taken to wearing socks indoors, feeling the need for cosy toes, and cardigan centred comfort. Am reading more too. Finding it easier to not move around so much and to simply sit without necessarily making something with my hands.

I am heart glad the weekend has arrived. I like getting my men folk around me. Mr Biscuit is planning a hilly Highland walk on Sunday with a friend though. My boys are still desperate to see the Smurfs film. Maybe this weekend. A canal walk for brambles? I was still picking them at the end of September last year. Cake, in some form or other, is a definite condition for a good weekend, this weekend.

Hope yours is a happy one!

Nearly Headless Nick..sorry I mean nearly wordless Wednesday!

2011-08-31T12:38:00.000+01:00

decisions,

decisions...

Have yourself a very squeaky Christmas!

2011-08-25T12:39:00.003+01:00

I am unapologetic, Christmas is on it's way and I, for one, am jumping up and down. Skipping and a' twirling because I lurves it so. No, I am not wishing the time away, nor have any desire for songs or decorations yet. Simply, for me, the build up, the anticipation of Christmas is as important as the day itself.

Autumn is starting to poke it's head out and I've spotted his forehead and that it all it takes. My body is reacting. I am thinking about socks, warm stews and crunchy golden leaves. I am thinking that not so far in the future winter is coming and it makes me happy. Happy because it means jingly jangly bells and fairy lights, gingerbread and cinnamon. Let's not be ashamed to mention Christmas like it's a swear word! We are about to enter the 'bers' and that folks ends in "the most wonderful time of the year"!

Also Christmas needs a bit of planning. If, like me, you enjoy a good session of list writing, Christmas calls for that in abundance. If, like me, crafting is a fundamental part of your Christmas, then really it's best to get ahead and not risk spending any part of December in a panic sewing, knitting or making (not this year, I swear!). I confess I am not a lover of shopping *bows on knees to the internet* and my idea of hell is a shopping centre but will do if for small necessary things. I don't want to be doing it for main presents. I also don't really want to do it at any other point in the year. I sometimes buy cards and wrapping paper in the new year sales but I never look at anything else, not until the days shorten. If I have to shop then I want endless rounds of Wizard and puddles on all the shop floors. I want the atmosphere, though not necessarily the crowds, and I want to feel Christmassy.

So this week I have started ordering craft supplies and yesterday I made my first present. I was itching to make this. Do you get that way?? You see something, are inspired by something and you are restless until you give it a go?

Isn't she cute?

Watching the rain.

I saw her in this book by Tone Finnanger who designs the Tilda range of fabric etc.

I do love Tilda fabric although, like most designer fabric, it's quite expensive so I tend to buy charm packs and the like so I can get a wide range of patterns without breaking the bank. I've had this book for a while but never really felt at all inclined to make anything from it until now.

The mice 'spoke' to me, as it were, their squeaky wee voices niggling me so off I went to my fabric stash. It was very easy to make but still took me all day. Forever up and down to the ironing board all all that stuff. Pushing the fabric the right way out was a bit fiddly and I changed the face by embroidering the eyes, nose and whiskers. I couldnae be bothered faffing about with paint and ironing on the nose. I didn't make it Christmassy either. I went for pinks and other Tilda fabrics. Even though it took me hours and hours I am very pleased with myself. I don't tend to make sewn things like this and my confidence has been boosted no end with a successful time in front of my machine.

One down and many more to go! I'm off to carry on with another...

Can you tell how driech it was when I took this? The sun has come out to play as I type but is anyone else freezing? Autumn is coming but it's still a shock to consider putting the heating on in August!

Take care lovely peeps!

A richt ol' blether!

2011-08-18T12:04:00.000+01:00

...to you all and thank you to those of you who left a comment on my last post. It is a common query as to posting about such sad things but life is sad at times so thank you for your kind words.

Our new - above - phone arrived today. I knew I could have probably found a 'real' one of these but time was short and I am lazy shopper so characteristically hopped over to Amazon. Our old one's internal battery had died again and it seemed a waste of money always replacing them (rechargeables are expensive!!). It was under thirty squids so I'm not complaining.. I like it and yet, I will still ignore it ringing, it's quite gorgeous ringing, most of the time. Don't want to hear voice recordings and have people 'fishing' about possible PPI's.

I am still hexed and planned a long loving post waxing lyrical about the joys of hand sewing but I thought I'd show you how I am getting on...

It really is a labour of love because it hurts, a lot! Not my sewing hand but the other pressing two hex's together. I'm about a third of the way there, it's only - did I say only? - for the bottom half of a king size bed and am very VERY addicted. I can be found wandering around the house, hex's and needle in hand. I am going to want to make another I can tell. Also I am finding the irony in shouting at my cats to "keep off" when I have throws on our bed for them to sleep on. It's easier to deal with hair and any mess on a throw than on a whole duvet. Do you like it so far?

We have also been making jam, emergency jam.

So called because at a recent sleepover at their grandparent's house we got a phone call from Youngest Biscuit saying "We picked too many strawberries by accident, do you want some?" "eh....okay". In fact they went for 4lbs and ended up with twelve. We gratefully received four of them and got to work. Youngest Biscuit devours jam and was thrilled to make some. Can I mention again the joy of a huge wooden spoon in a huge, in this case 'jeely', pan. Oh and it tastes wonderful. Today it will be lavishly spread on a Victoria Sponge. I need cake. Part celebration/relief and part comfort food. My period finally arrived today, a week late, and although I doubted a vasectomy reversal I wasn't finding Mr Biscuits round tummy jokes funny. The VS will taste all the sweeter today.

I'm in a right blethering mood today, shame I've no friends to chat with!! Also world war three is happening again next door. They're loopy mental, always arguing, but luckily one or the other storms out so there's usually a ceasefire. Tis all quiet at the mo. Cannae be doing with all that negative energy when I'm in a mischievious mood.

I shall leave you with my take on a harassed Woody running from the paps.

I cannot resist taking photo of Youngest Biscuit looking cross in his Woody outfit, it makes me laugh so so much. He, on the other hand, does not like it!! Not one bit.

...unexpected grief.

2011-08-17T00:27:00.004+01:00

All at once you are looking for your favourite recipe for cream of mushroom soup in a book that you cannot remember not being there and then, suddenly the wave of grief hits.
This books once belonged to your Dad, it's 80's images conjuring up memories of old houses and innocent days.
My stomach suddenly turned, my eyes suddenly filled and all I wanted was to close the pages and turn off the pain. Run away and forget.
Grief never fully leaves you. You smile through your days and suddenly sadness comes and it hurts.
September hurts.
September 18th kills me.
Fourteen years ago I watched my Dad die of a heart attack. Literally in front of me, noisy ambulances, defibrillators and speeding hospital beds in the A&E with doctors sitting on my Dad trying to bring his body back to life. It didn't work. Being sent to the room I knew was the 'death' room and it was the room where they came and declared the obvious.
I try not to dwell, try not to feel the awful heart wrenching pain of him dying, of never knowing my boys and then in my kitchen it hits me so hard I could fall over and roll into a ball and weep. Never wanting to feel anything but this pain that brings him back to me.

Life goes on. You bake bread to go with the soup that made you think of him and try not to think too much.

My Dad...................

It's probably pathetic but.....

2011-08-10T15:14:00.000+01:00

on a rainy day, when requested to play this with my Biscuits...

winning tastes very sweet indeed. Wiped the floor with them I did!! I even impressed them which is a huge deal in itself. *dances around* I get my thrills where I can!!

Less than a week now till school goes back, necessary purchases made (well except for gym rubbers for Eldest Biscuit who has gone up a size and a half in the last six weeks!), questions of how on earth they will be able to be up at seven am, etc. Equally looking forward to and dreading the quiet.

Tis the same every year.

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 45 - 51!

2011-08-01T17:10:00.004+01:00

Tis done and dusted. Finis, the end. A whole year of weekly makes....almost.
I must warn you this is a long one. There was one very good reason why each of my school report card said 'talks too much'. I do.
You will have noticed there is no week 52, I've saved it for it's own post.

Week 45

lemon poppy seed cake

It's one of our favourites and I have made it more times than I can remember. A variation of (rather mediocre in my view) madeira cake to be found in Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess. I made the madeira cake once and since that particular disappointment, have made the lemon version ever since. It's very good, very satisfying even in teeny pieces.
In fear of repeating myself; I would choose a lemon cake over all others.

Week 46

teapot needle book

I made this because I wanted a small needle book to hold my teeny quilt needles (for the hexagon quilt I am making). I looked all over Folksy and Etsy and to be honest (and hopefully not sounding too big headed) I came to the conclusion it would be better to make one myself for two main reasons. Firstly, a lot were simply too big for my needs, beautiful, well made books but too big. I needed something small, only to hold a half dozen needles or so. Secondly, so many square and rectangle books are skew-wiffy and it winds me up. If something is going to be skew-wiffy it should be by my hand and not as a thing I have paid good money for. I suppose what I am saying is that sometimes hand made can mean it's not very good. Of course there are amazing, truly amazing makes out there but there is also a big ol' pile of crap. Badly sewn, messy stuff that I for one would be unhappy with if I had made and certainly would not have the nerve to ask money for.

I could, though, have one of this lady's in every colourway and design. The simple, easy way of turning the pages is a wonderful design. When looking for a new needle book very few came close to Fishy's designs but again they were too big, having too many pages of felt for my requirements.

Alix too, from Used-to-bees, makes an amazing Little Red Riding Hood book that is simply gorgeous and I am still sorely tempted by.

Maybe I am being harsh and I really do appreciate maker's effort but I am being real too. There is plenty of naff stuff being sold out there along side the really truly good stuff.

I think I used a Tilda fabric. I tend to buy charm packs of expensive designer fabric. Perfect for wee things without hurting my purse too much, along with my much loved acrylic [Fishy] felt. I used a cookie cutter as a template and I am pleased with how it turned out. By using bondaweb to attach the fabric to the felt on each cover, it's very sturdy which means I can stick my needle into it when I need to put it down to turn my top layer pieces around or when newly threaded. Quilting needles are teeny so very easy to lose track of.
It's cute too and makes me think of tea rooms and, of course, cake.

Week 47

hexagons

I made these for about three weeks actually. Nearly two thousand of the buggers and will probably have to make more white ones. I am usually always in the process of a 'big' make meaning one that takes a long time. Something to be picked up and put down whenever the moods suits. In a put down time I make other, smaller things. This week all I did was wrap two inch square pieces of fabric around a one and a half inch paper hexagons, over and over again. I loved it though, the obsessive numpty that I am.

Expect much more on the hex's. I have, as it were, been hexed! Big time!

Week 48

mint, milk chocolate truffles

(just remembered in time to take a shot)

OMG!!! Right two things. They are not cheap to make for their yield and two, I warn you, they are irresistible. If you hanker after mint Aeros, whether in bar form or divine 'bubbles', these are for you. From a recipe in Good Food (please feel free to request the recipe although it's probably on the web site) I first made at Christmas (I think from the December issue) for my parent-in-law's hamper. These ones were for after dinner when friends were over. They are so good. They look a right mess I admit. My take on truffle making is taking a teaspoon full and squishing a bit then rolling in whichever casing you care for. Any kind of insistence on ball forming leaves too much of the ganache (God I love that word, so dirty, love it and it reminds me of Rab C Nesbitt) on your hands. I will happily lick from my own fingers but even I draw the line at [excessive] palm licking.

Week 49

chocolate chip and fudge cookies

I like to keep my men folk happy making batches of biscuits. I don't know why I feel the need to do this, they already have me as a slave for their every whim. From, I think, Nigella's Kitchen book. I followed the recipe knowing full well they would be masseeve, next time I will make more, smaller ones. Oh I did add fudge pieces I had in my baking drawer well, just because I had them. Good, good cookies. Easy to make too, not too fiddly and I got to use my beloved Kitchenaid so happy days.

Week 50

iphone sock

This week was supposed to be the four felt flower brooches (based on the mollie makes issue 2 flower) I made for the end of the school year gifts, for one teacher and the three ladies I help out at the school nursery. I did a different colour for each and put them on labels etc, they looked gorgeous and then forgot to take a photo. Dagnammit! Just like the planned week 51 of cupcakes my biscuits helped with for them all. Pants and poo!!!

So......this week I also quickly knitted up a felt lined sock for my iphone and because it's still here I can photograph it for this.

I like it, it's stripey which is always good. Not as neat as I would have liked as I haven't picked up my needles in a while. I used Debbie Bliss 4 ply yarn with ' punk pink' (not that you can see that from the photo) felt inside for extra protection.

Week 51

granny squares

This week was, as I said, supposed to be cupcakes amazingly decorated by my Biscuits for their teachers. Someone batter me with a baguette for my failings at remembering to photograph them. What is it about gifts that I forget to take an image? Maybe because they are not for me, or us but for others. Who knows?

This week I also was [still] beavering away at the [endless] crochet blanket, trying to get it completed for our camping trip. I stopped at 150 squares because I was sick to death of them, they were a good 5 inch/13cm each which is quite big, not easily seen from the photo. So not quite the double I was planning but a largish single is fine enough because it meant I could stop making the effing thing. The sewing together was much quicker I am glad to say. I admit the only reason I got so fed up with the thing was because in order to finish it I had to keep at it even when I had had enough. I couldn't put it down even though I desperately wanted to. Also I was hugely resentful at not being able to carry on piecing my hex's together.
I was going to do the post I had planned on this blanket today but Eldest Biscuit is using it on the sofa as he has a bug. Sick twice etc etc. My poor wee man. That post will have to keep for another time.

This post is EPIC......do I need to apologise? I do, don't I?

Just week 52 to go.......very soon. Picture me on my boat, Brinkley at my side, saying it needs tweaking.

"Ahoy hoy"

2011-07-28T16:26:00.003+01:00

How are you all?

It feels like I've been away from my wee blog for an age....lots to show and tell. I will get to it but I cannot be arsed dealing with photos and the like today (is it OK to admit that?) and really wanted to say a Mr Burns "hullo" to you all. We've had sun home and away for a couple of weeks now (well until today and my garden is loving the rain. It's having a grand old 'sook'.) It's been lovely. Hopefully you've been having the same.

Camping was heaven. I have glorious sunny shots of the West Coast to share; golden beaches, blue skies and sunsets.

The [endless] granny blanket is finished. I was going to take a photo in the garden today but, like I said, rain!

I am feeling seriously hardcore because of ache inducing hexagon quilt making [really OUCH!!]. A whole post needed to tell the story about reliving a ten year old Ali's first foray into sewing. It's a long way from finished but probably the most satisfying project I've ever embarked on.

We are thinking of getting a dog. It's a BIG BIG decision as we are cat people wondering if a dog is a good idea.

I have finished the t52mmm challenge and must post about it soon. I messed up big time though. It won't be a shock that I forgot to take essential photos AGAIN. Luckily I am forever making and most weeks choose the 'make' so replacements can be made but still..... I am pleased to have completed it and enjoyed it a lot.

.......and breathe.

A quick catch up then.

We are three weeks into the summer hols now. We headed out on our journey, have reached the half way mark and are heading back now. Adventures still to be had and all; it's a three week journey yet, but heading back to the normal routine, we are.

I have lots of posts planned and will be back soon.......X

Grabbing it while you can!

2011-07-16T13:01:00.000+01:00

The sun, I mean...

Sitting in the garden for the whole day cause you never know how long it'll last, ignoring chores and dreaming of being transported to a similar scene in the countryside very soon.

Morning cappuccinos and reading, endless - I do mean endless and a whole post needed to discuss - crochet, gazing at roses and my boys and our cats.

Happy days.

We're off camping next week, once we decide which part of glorious Scotland we want to see. West Coast, the Highlands, the Islands? So much to choose from. Tolerating midges and soaking up amazing scenery. See you when we get back...

Paws and a face - my bonny Beau-Beau.

2011-07-08T12:07:00.000+01:00

He is though, he's the bonniest Beau-Beau in the land. My fifteen year old 'baby' and bless him I could watch him nap all day. Having cats makes me very content. The house can only be so quiet before the increasingly loud snoring begins or I hear the jingle jangle of the 'you are forbidden to kill birds' bells on their collars. It's the fur that blows my mind, they are covered in fur that is delightful to stroke and makes me want to get my face in for a rub. Not a good idea as I end up with hair up my nose but I do it anyway. I love that they look like they a smiling all the time - too cute. Any cat owner out there knows the delights of felines and I am in heaven when a cat is sleeping near.

So indulge me please......

My Hamish - he's huge and needy and has the muckiest eyes in the land and trips me up when I am cooking meat but he's mine.

I call this last pose his 'Bugs Bunny' look. I love his pink pads......I could sigh and sigh. I wonder if we humans look this content sleeping.........

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 41-44!

2011-06-28T11:03:00.000+01:00

The sun is out today and with a hint of shock I am ignoring all inside jobs and forcing myself to sit in the garden, it may only last a day and it's still a bit on the chilly side but I'm determined to act like it's summer. My Biscuits' finish up school on Friday so I will enjoy the quiet whilst I can and a wee bit of sun on my toes.

I heard last night, to my dismay, there had been a heatwave, must have occurred elsewhere....

Anyways...

More marvellous madness folks, hope you like...

Week 41

Mummy bear

Made with a pattern from this amazing book...

(image from amazon. Click here to take you for a looksee)

which I borrowed from the library and after renewing and renewing I realized I needed to have a copy of my own. It contains many things I want to knit and is old fashioned in a very nice way. I love this teddy and want one for me too. It was knitted for a first birthday and hopefully will be loved for many many years. I couldn't resist adding a wee something of my own to the design...

Too cute, if I do say so myself. I also added a bell inside it's tummy in homage to my own 37 year old panda who has one in his. He jingle jangles every time I pick him up and I wanted to share the joy of that. Made with very luxurious (and expensive!?) baby alpaca and the reason I am making noises about the price is the pattern only calls for one ball so seven pound a ball seemed reasonable for a whole teddy but a whole teddy it did NOT make. I had to buy another just to finish off the arms and was not happy as the pattern said tension didn't matter etc, very frustrating but made a beautifully tactile and soft ted.

Week 42

Eldest Biscuits 10th birthday cake.

I've used this giant cupcake tin a few times and have of yet to be satisfied with the end result. Tis very tricky to get the inside done without the outside being overdone and being the perfectionist I am, this winds me up. I've tweaked and tweaked and will keep on tweaking until I get it perfect. Also tricky to make this requested cake as non girly as I could and I think I pulled it off. I have to add this image as the birthday boy's face fills my heart...

watching his daddy singing 'happy birthday' and his wee brothers face is so happy to be joining in. Family joy! I am usually on cake carrying duty and Mr Biscuit on the camera but on this occasion, with my clumsy ways, was not to be trusted. Fair play! Now this cake was no where near as complicated as other ones I have made but it can never be underestimated how long they can take to create and at what late hour you tend to have to be creative. That, my friend, goes hand in hand with birthdays in our house. Me being exhausted just comes with the territory but as the above photo shows, it's worth it.

Week 43

Birthday biscuits.

It is a real shame I forgot to take photos of these biscuits as they were the best I've ever made. I really went for it with piped then filled in icing, polka dots, hand made sugar daisies and blossoms and lots of pink. Very frustrating that I have no image to look on my handy work. They were greatly appreciated (along with Mummy bear) though and scoffed and that is the most important thing.

Week 44

Poppy Treffry Egg Cosy.

I had a discount code for Poppy's shop and thought I'd get a kit for the above cosy and have to be honest the sewing instructions were far easier to follow than in her book. I am flat out rubbish at following written instructions ( I may have said it before but I even struggle with Kinder eggs. I am that bad!) but managed to sew one up. I am thinking tea cosies will feature highly this Christmas so this was really a good way to have a go to see if I am up to it. I am (even after many years) not as comfortable with a sewing machine as I am by hand. I'd like to be, think in many ways I should be by now but alas, I am not.

I love the style of Poppy's work and by that I mean I love that it looks a wee bitty untidy and suits the fact that in machine sewing, I am not neat and therefore cannot be perfect. I can easily lift of my own wee hat of pressure for perfection and enjoy the flow of sewing. Click here for Poppy's shop. It's pricey as hell but nice to look at and be inspired to get her book and make your own versions.

Back to enjoying outside, if only I could block out the sound of my neighbour boaking with his morning smokers cough. Is it a man thing to make that much noise?. The previous tenants were the same, although they liked to go in the garden and spit, MINGING!!!!

Let it pour and pour.....

2011-06-21T11:49:00.002+01:00

The rain is never ending today.

I love never ending rain. No indecision, no dithering over a bit of rain or a bit of cloud or a bit of sun. The decision is made, the answer clear; it will rain and rain and rain. ' Dreich' it is and I love 'dreich'. 'Dreich' is meant to be cold and miserable and yes some days 'dreich' certainly captures the feeling the weather induces, but today it feels right. I even walked with my Biscuits to school just to be out in it. Colours are popping, particularly green and I do love our garden in the rain.

It is small and no matter that I sometimes yearn for more space I feel cocooned in it, comforted and at peace whether in it or looking at it and today it is a pleasure to see it out there. There is enough space for a table and chairs and for the fun and frolicking of trampolining and it is ours, all ours.

I am not, however, a natural gardener. I very much like a garden that looks untouched and left to grow however it pleases; walls of ivy or clematis, alive, grasping to hold on to what ever it touches. I find it utterly romantic and am happily lead into thoughts of fairy tales and magic. Of woodlands and homes in hollowed-out trees of hidden lives behind hidden walls, lonely princesses and curious strangers. I just cannot bring myself to constrain and control. I am absolutely sure there are sound gardening reasons why you should but, for me, it feels wrong. I surrender to their need to climb, to cling and take comfort in the wall of green, vivid life.

I also love the stones we have; weed suppressors but, for me, they take me to wild Scottish beaches. They are battered and bruised by the North sea and for their trouble give forth their intense colour and patterns. Something they barely give up in the dry. Hidden treasure. I imagine being at a Scottish beach today. Of being soul cleansed by the severe wind and the certainty I am alive because I feel so much.

I spend a lot of time in solitude; in my head. I am by nature a brooder and often I marinade in things I shouldn't but I am also a romantic, an optimist and see things in a skew-wiffy way always enrobed in my imagination. Always reminded of songs or things I have read or feelings I have had, of love and of living, of the nature of beginnings and of endings.

Today I am content and fit to burst, all because of the never ending rain and the view of it's power over our garden and, in oh so many ways, over me.

Nearly Headless Nick...sorry I mean Nearly Wordless Wednesday!

2011-06-15T12:52:00.004+01:00

"Squish Your Head!"

Almost as good as tea and cake?

2011-06-09T12:06:00.000+01:00

Is it? Could it possibly be?

Only a smidge behind I say and is a flavour combination that I, for one, cannot get enough of...

Mini pretzels smothered in chocolate.

My wonderful friend sends such delights over from the U.S. Peanut butter cups are a must in my birthday and Christmas celebrations. How lucky I am that my friend indulges me so? She takes a jaunt to Trader Joe's, fills a box with edible treasures and posts them off to Scotland for me and mine to enjoy at our leisure.

When Sophie Dahl described her peanut butter fudge recipe in nostalgia laden memories of salty seas and sweet ice cream cones I knew I had to make it and have many times since (see here). Salty sweet or sweetly salty has to be one of the best combinations out there. It accounts for my general love of peanut butter, snickers and star bars. One year my friend sent over chocolate and peanut butter covered pretzels. I quite happily could have died an exquisite sickly sweet death and floated to heaven. In light of this hankering I regularly thank my anal thoroughness in tooth cleaning and regular check ups at the dentist.

Unfortunately [for me] my Biscuits seem to have inherited the same taste buds so I have to share but right now they are at school and I am here alone able to enjoy a few with a cuppa. I am one lucky lady yet I confess I have to use a little plate or would scoff the whole packet and would be rightly persecuted as an awful Mummy. A cruel, selfish, greedy Mummy and I would, dear friends, deserve it.

Want one?

I love lemons....

2011-06-01T14:37:00.001+01:00

...what can I say?

My laptop adapter went to heaven and being forced on to the family pc for a few days showed up that on a bigger brighter screen, well the background was minging. Perish the thought that this is the version of my blog any of you may have seen!

It matters......

Aesthetics do matter.

What it says about me matters.

I do not want to be minging.

I want to be like lemons; not the screwy face pulling and sour but bright and yellow and sunshiney and good with cake.

Like well hung wallpaper; something interesting to look at behind the photo frames and furniture.

Maybe a bit overpowering and loud? It wouldn't be the first time I'd be called that...

I may well tire of it soon enough but for now....who's for a squeeze of ma lemon?

Excuse me now while I ponder the Rock God of all Rock Gods that is the young Robert Plant for whose request,as I have said before here, to squeeze his lemon has me all but on the floor begging for a time machine to do just that.

I wonder....a post about the could be erotic adventures if I had a time machine. There would be a list. Who's curious???

Nearly Headless Nick...sorry I mean Nearly Wordless Wednesday!

2011-05-25T11:18:00.002+01:00

On their own or making friends with yummy mature cheddar, it's my kind of sandwich.

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 35 - 40!

2011-05-20T09:17:00.003+01:00

Hello and welcome to the next batch of marvellous makes...

Week 35

Butterfly and bunny key rings.

Made for a schoolfriend of Eldest Biscuit to take along to her Saturday night party. Can't remember the last time I was invited to a party on a Saturday night!!

Made up from felt, fabric and buttons from their respective stashes. A bit of making fun!

Week 36

Owl egg cosy.

Made from a tutorial from LucyKate for one of the Nursery Nurses where I help out (pretend I have a career as a Librarian) of a Wednesday morn. Last year I made her an owl brooch for her birthday not knowing she has collected owly things for years and years so this year when I spotted this cosy I knew who would love one.

Week 37

Bread.

I make bread often but I thought homemade bread deserves to be in this as it is indeed a marvellous thing to make. Have tried many different recipes but always come back to Jamie O.

Week 38

Bunny egg cosy.

Made from a Little Cotton Rabbits pattern. Made for youngest Biscuit's teacher at Easter. Eldest Biscuit didn't agree that his [gorgeous, young] male teacher would want one. Made with various 4 ply from my wool stash.

Weeks 39 and 40

Chocolate cake - again and again.

Seeing how my craft making mojo was being a fickle friend...

Made as week 39 only to be required the next week very last minute for a work friend of Mr Biscuit. I didn't take any photos of the second one, last minute like I said, so am making up for it by the above photo compilation extravaganza.

Only 16 makes left!

Have a lovely weekend peeps and if praying to a God of Weather would help, please let this incessant rain stop and let there be sun. I like a bit of rain but c'mon!!!

edit 3pm -it has rained here for the last two weeks. Not all day but enough to make hanging out washing risky and a nice seat out all but impossible. Oh and it's been cold....

Nearly Headless Nick..sorry I mean Nearly Wordless Wednesday!

2011-05-18T09:43:00.003+01:00

"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."

Groucho Marx

Feeling like a hormonal Keith Lemon.....

2011-05-16T10:50:00.001+01:00

...and this is why.

"Shiting"

Who knows how it is that my wrist is in this state today?

Am rubbish at typing with one finger let alone my left hand.

So why am I?

A blatant non-apologetic need for sympathy I'm afraid.

My hormone riddled body wants to weep for the pain, the inconvenience and the unfairness if it.

I had so many plans...scunnered now.

Under strict instructions not to use it.

Must fight the childish rebelliousness in me to do what the buggery I want, sore wrist or no sore wrist.

Could be worse I know, I could have dodgy eighties hair and a tash.

Nearly Headless Nick..sorry I mean Nearly Wordless Wednesday!

2011-05-11T11:33:00.002+01:00

Who wants to simply get dressed?

Pants to that!

It's most definitely unusual...

2011-05-09T14:22:00.003+01:00

...for me to have absolutely nothing to say but alas that is how it has been.

For weeks now when I think of my ickle blog, I realize, sure enough absolutely nothing to say.

I've lots I could talk about.....organizing and decorating instead of intended camping trip over the hols - boring but necessary if I want a craft room this year. Easter family celebrations at my in-laws and accidentally getting very drunk, had to send myself off to bed very early for me to ward off the chance of vomit. Hubby did not let it lie at all, for days. I'm too old and obviously a shandy lightweight when it comes to afternoon to evening drinking!!!

Eldest Biscuit's 10th birthday - how can a decade pass so fast?. Youngest Biscuit loosing his top two teeth in the same weekend - who knew he could get any more cute? Painful orthodontist visits (is there any other type?) - at least one more year to go thanks to waiting a year and a half for minor surgery. Sitting in the garden reading. Watching Masterchef - I couldn't bear Tom and Sarah not winning too. Losing my making mojo only to find it briefly and sporadically only to lose it again and again - effing HATE that. Watching E.T for the first time in a long long time - laughing at the blonde wig and hat and crying (you know when). Being terrified by The Silence in Doctor Who. Remembering again why Mr Biscuit is most definitely the best man in the universe for me.

Making plans, always making plans - holidays, garden, alfresco eating, quilts, my 'running away from the menfolk' craft room.
Ooh and chocolate.

Maybe now I've said all that I can get back to blogging about pants. Intrigued, are you not??

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 33 and 34!

2011-04-12T13:15:00.001+01:00

Hello, hello bonny bloggers.

First things first, my oven is mended, yay!!! Relief....must bake something today (am thinking scones). There was a slight delay in it taking a few days to realize buying over the net was the way to go as our local shops were pants. We managed fine without an oven in the main due to me having a cold over the weekend. Ladies you may know what I mean when I say, if I'm poorly not much meal production happens at the hands of Mr Biscuit.

Why is it that after a busy busy time you catch a cold? It's a bit worrying that the night before it hit I was handling cakes at the schools Birthday celebrations baking stall. If any of you have never had the pleasure (???) of manning a baking stall let me tell you it's insane!!! Unbelievably busy! The teachers helping me didn't believe me when I said to get ready for it to get scary. It'll be like childbirth, I'll forget how bad it is by the time I'm asked to do it again. There are perks as you get to choose what you want before it sells/sells out, on this night meringues and cream, yummy!!

The Biscuits school was celebrating it's 40th Birthday and it was cool to see photos of Mr Biscuit all Ginger and clad in 70's brown fairisle jumpers. Not so good was the idea to light lanterns in the playground, at one point it was like The Hindenburg, watching one burning away to nothing not very high up in the air. All the health and safety plans went out of the window when people realized it was better to use a lighter rather than queuing to get to a designated lighter, it got a bit scary with kids running around chasing lit ones. It probably seemed like a great idea in the meetings...

Eldest Biscuit was also in a production of Oliver. School productions and assemblies are always a joy to witness.

So to business...

Week 33

I find it ridiculous that no matter how many (cough four) pin cushions I have, when I am sewing I inevitably have to stretch my way around mess - messy pup remember? - to reach whichever one[s] I have out to get a pin so I thought one of these fellas might be handy. It is, I am happy to report! A wee simple rosebud made of felt sewn on to a ring, easy peasy!

Week 34

A Fish[y] brooch.

Made for a birthday gift on a creative whim giving a bit of freehand/machine embroidery a go. I'm not entirely happy with it but.... Made with felt, fabric from my stash and the dinkiest wee spotty 'love bug' button. I like to describe these buttons as raindrops on fingertips. They are available from lovepaperfish.com if you'd like some.

More weeks to come....

A list of one thing (so not really a list) that I hate. Hate more than....

2011-04-05T16:52:00.001+01:00

...being late, U2, mediocrity, bad cake and hangovers.

1. When I went to put lemon cake mixture into my only working oven to find, in the time it had taken me to put together the mix, the element had overheated and gone kaput.

Let me just clarify, No EFFING OVEN SO NO EFFING CAKE!!!!!!

Please someone take this blade from my heart.
I am not exaggerating. I am beyond devastated and am not even going to discuss that homemade pizza was on the menu tonight....
Ignoring the fact that Mr Biscuit is and Electrician and elements are easy to get a hold of etc etc....my heart is broken, I feel I have lost a limb. My birthday cake- my wee gift to myself - is still sitting on the worktop wondering it's fate. Will it make it into an oven- am considering the risk of moving it to my parent-in-laws - or never furfil it's telos and become sponge because of it hanging around in it's unbaked state for hours? I admit it will be hard for the baker in me to risk moving and/or baking at this stage in the game!

I wonder do you, my fellow bloggers, know me enough to understand the gravity of my loss?

Yes of course you do!!
Don't you???

"you go home and you cry and you want to die!" and "heaven knows I'm miserable now!"

Morrissey knows what I mean!

Today I am putting the 'drama' in Drama Queen, well because I want to *stamps foot*!

A Random List of 38 things I love (that I can think of at the mo) for my birthday!

2011-04-04T13:12:00.002+01:00

Which is today by the way! You find me hungover (not enough sleep for the amount of wine I consumed. I should know better at my age!) and feeling very delicate...the sofa and my new Gene Kelly box set awaits.

A List

1.Cake - I know it comes as a shock!

2.When you move a fairy bottle and an ickle bubble pops out of the top. For some reason I have always called washing up liquid shopping up liquid. Mind you I always call cotton buds pipe cleaners. I get names muddled very easily.

3.When my eldest made the joke about an orthodontist being a dentist who writes books.

4. Getting absolutely soaked in the rain and having to strip off and get completely changed, even knickers. I have a vivid memory of one occasion doing this at uni in Glasgow which left me so invigorated with being alive, I have never forgotten it.

5. A really good bowl of soup. I could eat soup every other day easy peasy.

6. The smell of wild garlic on a woodland walk.

7. A robin puffing out its chest. My most favourite bird to see in the garden. Makes me think of the Jackson Five too which in turn leads me to think of 70’s music clubs of my youth in Edinburgh, MC5, very short dresses, hotpants and feather boas.

8. Roast chicken. Easily the best Sunday dinner of all time and number one in our family Top Ten Meals. We do like to do Top Tens whilst sitting at the table together.

9.Pantomimes. I will boo and hiss at the baddies in my loudest voice every time.

10. Feeling part of a crafting community - it’s all so very inspiring.

11. The alchemy of baking - it is truly amazing!!

12. Stroking a newly smoothed, sugar pasted cake. It’s almost erotic how much I love doing it. If you had a go you’d understand.

13. When my hubby makes fun of me mixing up the name of electric appliances. I do every day. He says because I don’t fully pay attention to what I am saying. He has a point.

14. When a plan comes together! Picture me with cigar in mouth. Something I haven’t done for a long, long time but I do remember partaking in way back when a) I was a smoker and b) it was sometimes a great idea to end an evening at a pub. Smelly though!

15. A box of embroidery thread – akin to Willy Wonka’s edible room, it’s so enticing and magical.

16. Harry Potter, Doctor Who and Percy Jackson. I am a geek!!

17. When you’ve been slicing chilli and your fingers numb your tongue for hours afterwards. Me and my Biscuits will take turns for a finger dab on the tongue at the dinner table, much to the annoyance of Mr Biscuit.

18. Brora cardigans. I am lucky in saying I own one ( purchased for our wedding day, cost more than my dress) and would love to be able to afford many more in many colours.

19. Knitting – especially small animals with coloured needles.

20. Cats napping. It is a sight that fills me with such contentment. My Hamish ‘the mancat’ can snore for Scotland making me chuckle to myself when alone. Laughing when you are by yourself, I think, always feels all the more funny.

21. Trampolines. “Bouncy Bouncy. Ooh What a good time! Bouncy Bouncy. Shoes all in a line!” They are just silly and I always end up hurting my back but I will insist on going back on them.

22. Dancing. I LOVE dancing. It makes me so happy. I will be on a dance floor all night. I confess I barely spoke to a soul at our Wedding, I was too busy dancing, from the first dance to Runrig at the end. I very rarely have a partner and care not a jot if anyone else is on the dance floor.

23. Flowers. Lillies, roses, tulips to name but a few.

24. Donkeys. This is the animal I would have if I had land. Of course not just one, never only one.

25. Buttons. Luckily I have a Dealer for this addiction. (Fishy, you know I mean you.)

26. Foxes. I always feel just a little bit wrong in loving an animal that will kill and not necessarily eat its victims. I love their pointy faces, I cannot help myself.

27. Watching trees blowing in the wind. It’s hypnotic and like the next ‘love’, a reminder of my insignificance. Except when I have been watching The Happening, then they FREAK me out something silly.

28.The sea, especially on dull grey Scottish days where it looks like concrete it’s so still.

29. Breaking eggs. Since the days of being a teeny toddler pretending to be Calimero [cartoon chicken who wore half an egg shell on his head] putting a tea cosy on my head, I have be taken with egg shell.

30. Reading for large blocks of time. I don’t do it much these days for lack of such indulgent time yet every now and again I give it a go and usually nod off. I remember reading more than one book in a day and confess when a new Harry potter came out, once I got to the end I’d start over again.

31. A large glass of red. I love red wine, particularly Austrailian. When I eventually get over to visit my brother in law, I WILL be touring the vineyards! NB.not so much today - blast this darn hangover!!

32. Tea in a china cup and saucer. You all know why!

33. Jane Austen. I love the language and the excruciating romance of her books. The rules, the taking of tea and calling cards, visits, the dancing, the humour. Wonderful!

34. Hedgehogs. They can roll into a spikey ball!!! What more can I say?

35. Christmas. Simply Christmas.

36. Disaster films. The more devastatingly ‘end of the world’ the better. Special effects these days make for amazing films but I am still partial to a bit of Towering Inferno or The Poseidon Adventure.

37. Me in a Narrowboat meandering along a canal (Guy Martin optional). If it wasn’t so darn expensive I would do it every year. A custom built one is first on the lottery wish list.

38.Classic Fm. I don’t do radio. I get very irritated by songs with singing, it may aswell be people screaming at me but classical music calms me and I had the best Christmas baking build up ever in 2010 listening to it EVER. Except Lawrence LB, he kinda spoils it.

Can you imagine the length of this post if I was older? Deary me. I think I may share the same trait as the wonderful Stephen Fry in using many words instead of a few to say what I want to say. I so wish I had lemon cake (hoping the sponge would help with the HO) but will suffice with the ickle white chocolate tarts I have in the fridge leftover from yesterdays Mother's Day family gathering. I am in need of a sit down and a cup of tea.

It's Friday Ali! Why so forlorn?

2011-04-01T12:21:00.002+01:00

The chocolate cake is finished!

...sob

I am smitten, Chief!

2011-03-29T11:21:00.001+01:00

He has an accent and sideburns to die for, Boss.

Mucky hands from grafting, Driver.

Rides motorbikes really fast, Chief.

Will happily drink tea all day, Boss and has a Narrowboat.

What more could a girl want, Chief?

I am smitten!

Now which photo to choose...Fred Dibnah lookalikey overalls or leathers?

Hell...first get the Narrowboat in!!

(image from motorcyclenews.com)

Okay then, leathers too...

(image from picasa)

Okay, if you insist one more...

(image from bikeracingnews.co.uk)

Is that enough? No you say....

(image from grannybuttons.com)

Did I say I was smitten?

Catch the lovely Guy Martin on BBC, Sunday evenings or iplayer.

I do it like an Italian...apparently. Every day!

2011-03-25T12:15:00.002Z

Who am I to argue with the pucker Jamie Oliver?

C'mon, who doesn't yearn to be Italian?

We'll just turn over very quickly the fact a few pages later it says Italians don't have chocolate sprinkled on their cappuccinos.

Ciao

Me and my pot - a tale of love[s] in the kitchen!

2011-03-23T11:49:00.001Z

I admit, using humongous pots really does it for me in the kitchen, well does it for me full stop. I'll double (or triple or quadruple) any old recipe so I can justify using this stockpot. Even using a long wooden spoon to stir, I still have to get my arm inside, stirring and turning, turning and stirring.

I feel truly at one with the world stirring, well anything.

Or like a dinner lady from favourite childhood stories or a witch mixing up her brew to poison a princess.

To be honest I could do with one a bit smaller as you can see that this four litre plus soup barely comes up halfway. My next largest pot (which is still pretty huge) simply cannot hold the quantities I like to make. Hubby says I don't need (urgh!!!!) one but I say as long as it fits inside this one no extra cupboard space is required. That's as practical as I get. At Christmas time we have to tell the butcher it's measurements to make sure the enormous ham we buy each year for the 'Eve will fit in it.

It is masseeeeve! I lurve it. It has lived with us for five years and will do so forever and ever and ever......

On Saturday it did it's job providing us with pea and ham [from a chicken!!] soup for having in mugs after a lovely long Sunday walk.

A huge sigh for me and my pot.

If we are all in for more 'what does it for me in the kitchen/kitchen porn' (I have a long list).......

I know, I know, more cake!

It cannot be just me who feels this way about kitchen paraphernalia, can it? I haven't even mentioned my love for ladles or colanders or cake spatulas, or knives or measuring spoons or Kitchenaids and Magimixes or aprons or cake tins or pie dishes or.....I really do have a long list.

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 28 - 32 The Anniversary special!

2011-03-09T14:53:00.003Z

(image copyright nofussphotography.com)

Five years ago in January Mr Biscuit and I got wed. You see us above, having a smooch cutting our cake (I had to get the cake in!). For an anniversary gift this year I offered a bake of his choice for each week representing a year. He's not called Mr Biscuit for no reason!

The 52MMMC Anniversary Special....

Week 28

He would have me bake these every other day if he could. From Nigella's Feast. Very moreish and I love filling and sandwiching these biscuits. A kitchen job that soothes the soul. Like most of this Anniversary Special list, I had to make double batches so there was enough for us all. Mr Biscuit devours biscuits!

Week 29

You've probably spotted the whacking great error here, no actual bourbons. The story goes, I made them the day before I had surgery (had to be in my kitchen to settle my nerves) and totally neglected to take any photos of them before they were scoffed. I was in a lot of pain and medicated up to the eyeballs if you remember so I'm sure you'll forgive me. I based the recipe loosely on the above custard cream one (Mr Biscuit's idea/wish) obviously omitting the custard powder and adding cocoa and dark chocolate to the mixture. I can't really remember how they tasted. I'm sure I dunked them in tea to soften so I could manage them with a sore mouth. They have been requested again therefore must have been alright.

Week 30

Technically called Anzac biscuits but not in our house. From a recipe by Mary Berry. Again Mr Biscuit would have me tied to the cooker constantly supplying him with these biscuits, he adores them. I have been making these for years and years from various recipes. They are fantastic with a cuppa and a sure way to keep the menfolk of the house happy.

Week 31

I have a wee confession...I persuaded Mr Biscuit to request these by reminding him of one he had at a wee deli coffee shop in Kelso last year whilst holidaying at Easter time. I really fancied making them for the first time and grab an opportunity to use my special tins. They did not disappoint. Gorgeous wee things from a Gordon Ramsay recipe in a Good Food magazine. In fact they were so delicious that for the first time in the 52mmm challenge I repeated myself and they became...

Week 32 (too)

We could not help it. We were quite overcome by how delightful these little cakes are. In celebration of a new found love I made this...

I do love brooches so.

In fact here are some new purchases from the shop where I have already purchased brooches in the shapes of a custard cream, bourbon and jammy dodger. A fantastic shop at Folksy now called CorBlimey Designs. A pink shrimp and a white chocolate mouse...

I love them. I am a huge fan of nostalgic brooches and sweeties and biscuits....

***

So that's it for The Anniversary Special.

Mr Biscuit and I did take our time in getting wed, together nine years before, but if we hadn't then we would have missed the chance of seeing our then four and two year old Biscuits looking adorable in kilts and aran jumpers.

(image copyright nofussphotography.com)

I'm sure you agree!

Can I tempt you?

2011-03-08T09:37:00.004Z

I may not be in the same league as serial [button] Temptress that is KirstyFish but I may be just tentatively stroking the title with my fingertips with these....

Any excuse to get my hand me down griddle out! Therefore it is a must on Pancake Day and this very morn (for the first time ever on a school day) we had pancakes for breakfast. It felt very decadent indeed having such a feast without the usual lazy weekend morning feel to it. They were delicious, bathed in Golden Syrup and I confess I made ickle teeny tiny individual ones for two of my cats. Thomasina was screaming at me the whole time I was at the cooker, she loves pancakes so. (What's not to love?) And why should they be excluded from the celebrations?

Go on you know if you haven't already, you simply have to make or buy some!

I'm going with Plan B.

2011-03-02T11:51:00.000Z

(image from amazon.co.uk)

I cannot help myself.

Listening to The Defamation of Strickland Banks is like reading a novel.

I live each each song like chapters, engrossed in plot shifts and twists, my imagination thoroughly captured.

I get caught up in the injustice - how could someone lie like that?

I am scared for him in jail.

I wish I could take his guilty feelings away.

I worry about his sanity and anger with God.

About his loss of love and most of all I want to know what the jury decided they were 'gonna do' at the end.

I am, I suspect, feeling exactly how Ben Drew wanted me to.

I am transported back and forward through time, melodic soul and urban rap.

I am touched by the bittersweet love songs and on edge all at once.

It makes me thinks of Marvin Gaye and those soul songs I used to dance to in clubs.

Don't you just love the power of music?

p.s what are you listening to?

'Possibility' is positively my sort of word.

2011-02-25T12:14:00.001Z

And why not when you can apply it to a glorious sight like this...

"fa la la la laaaaaaaaa!"

*sigh*

Almost more beautiful than what they can become; these colourful balls.

Part of our memories.

Part of our family story.

They will transform like magic.

From, as Mr Biscuit says, me wrapping wool around a wee wooden stick really fast.

Possibility...

A happy [hearty] accident?

2011-02-22T15:59:00.001Z

This is what happened on Sunday when Mr Biscuit took a turn of our beloved Gaggia coffee machine.

He is neither a Barista nor artistic, although he was talking to me at the time so it may have come from deep within....

If that is indeed true it shows love is most definitely blind to bed - in desperate need of a wash - hair and unattractive nighties.

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 25-27

2011-02-14T16:49:00.006Z

and how are you all? I have a new toy. A toy to help me enjoy my sewing machine more, a deal I made with myself that I would do this year - (the above picture is of me having ' a go' with paper - too tight to practise on fabric for the first try).

For a wee bit of fun with freehand embroidery. Have to have a ponder over what marvellous make I can craft with it.....

Here is another batch of makes, actually from weeks ago but only just got around to organizing myself into posting about it.

Week 25...

sofa cushions

The green crochet one was a previous make (week 15 ) and is now happily together, making friends and offering tea and cake, with four other cushions. Two made with thrifted tartan fabric and the other two made with a lovely green cotton, covered with cream aran crochet fronts. Still I am in shock when I sew something that turns out how I had imagined.

Week 26...

crochet front for a floor cushion

For my Biscuits' bedroom. They are still in 'talks' about which colour fabric they want behind in. It measures 26" by 26" and I have to say I loves the vibrant colours emboldened by the black borders.

Week 27...

Not any old chocolate cake but one from my favourite book - Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery! Quite an involved process including one of my favourite kitchen jobs; separating eggs. I love doing it and learned at the feet of my Dad many many years ago. I have, I confess, been a bit fascinated by egg shells since I was small. Love breaking one handed and love peeling boiled ones too! For some reason doing anything with eggs makes me feel very proficient and Goddess like in my kitchen. This cake includes whisking the whites and adding at a later stage and I am always enthralled watching the whites, well become white. It was a wonderfully moist cake and deserves a place in any Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame.

I've already got another few makes done and cannot believe I'm past the halfway mark. It really has been fun documenting some of the things I make each week.

Sometimes...

2011-02-09T22:26:00.002Z

As a teenager in my parents house I loved to re-arrange all the furniture in my bedroom every now and again. I loved that feeling of taking the familiar and making it fresh and new. That room was the small part of the world (and the house) that belonged to me. Where I could escape, think, marinade in teenage melancholy, frustration and angst. Where I could play with my sewing machine, read, write stories, listen to music and be left to be.

Sometimes you simply feel like a change.

Sometimes you feel that old arrangement simply doesn't suit you anymore.

Sometimes you find a new way of doing something so that something feels re-energized.

Sometimes you simply need to tweak your 'space' to make it feel spacious once again.

A winter remedy!

2011-02-07T10:42:00.010Z

I don't know about where you are but the weather here in my wee bit of Scotland is seriously driech, it's horrid out there *update at 11am - it's snowing, lots!!!!* I need something to counteract this grey dull sky. Something to banish the winter blahs. I need COLOUR and that's why, tomorrow I will be running like a woman who just spotted a naked Robert Downey Jr (OMG Imagine!!!!!!) towards my favourite Etsy shops for a SALE.

Yes really a SALE for one day only.......

....at the gorgeous (could stare into those pretty eyes for hours), uber talented, super seller, button temptress, Goddess that is

KirstyFish!!!!

I love her shops so much, they are one stop shops for buttons, the bestest felt ever, amazing needlebooks (I could have half a dozen easy!), bunting, brooches, pin pots, ribbons, trims and anything else that takes my fancy and trust me, much does.

Kirsty shares, she wants us all to have buttons and ribbon and felt because she's passionate about what she does and she does 'that' with unburdened creativity and flair. Her designs are original and simply lovely, like the Lady herself.

I desire many good things for her so buy, buy my pretties with abandon. You won't be able to stop yourselves and those of you who have shopped with her already, buy more. You know you want to!

Here are the details you need to know. The sale is on tomorrow, Tuesday 8th February from 8am to 8pm with FREE POSTAGE on UK orders only and at two of Kirsty's shops ...

www.etsy.com/shop/BigFish

www.etsy.com/shop/paperfish

..not at the FuzzyFish (felt) or SnowFish (christmas goodies) shops. Getting free postage is huge and I for one will be there with my purse open and ready to spill into hers.

Go to Kirsty's blog for details straight from the Fish's mouth and please Fishy let me know if I've missed something or got something wrong.

I lived!!

2011-02-03T18:14:00.001Z

I popped on to thank you all for your support, venting my fears yesterday really helped as I wasn't too nervous today. I'm drugged up to the eyeballs and sore but I got through it. I'm properly out ma face if truth be told so better be off before I talk more nonsense than usual.

Lots if kisses to you all you lovely, lovely ladies!

In a right tizz!

2011-02-02T12:32:00.000Z

So I have a wee bit of surgery tomorrow and I'm in a right tizz about it. It is a wee bit, a rummage around in my gums for a stray bit of tooth (bone?) that was getting in the way but in the year and a half since I was referred to a surgeon, it has moved out of the way but still tomorrow it's all go and I'm full to the gunnels with nervous energy. I'm getting a couple of teeth taken out at the same time so I'll get my teeth as straight as can be orthodontically, it was this or have my jaw broken on each side and re-aligned. You can see why I went for the tooth removal.

It is quite ridiculous how nervous I am!

I could have had a general anaesthetic but after the last time, jeez it made me so weepy and sad when I woke up and I found that so very mortifying getting pushed through the hospital and into the ward in full view with blood all over me (every time I opened my mouth it sprayed every where) and sobbing. This time I opted for a local with sedation (thank goodness they'll be working on my mouth, I'm a loon at the best of times. Who know what I may say sedated?) but the other day I realized that means I'll be awake getting stitches, my ultimate fear. It properly FREAKS me out, just the thought of a needle and thread going through skin ......my imagination does not need this kind of stimuli. I cannae do any kind of impaling or puncturing or needles. I really should have went for the general. Tis too late now! I know I probably won't care what they do to me if I am sedated but I'm not sedated right now and right now I care, I care A LOT!!

Way back when, three and a bit years ago, when I first saw an Orthodontist and they mentioned surgery before I could get braces, I struggled hard with the point of it as really why would anyone in their right mind have surgery for cosmetic reasons? Non-essential surgery? Why have the inconvenience and pain? I went ahead with it mainly because I was getting the opportunity of free braces and well it lulled me into doing it, but I am thinking these thoughts again. I don't want pain but I've came this far so must see it through to the end. It was for this reason there was NO WAY I was getting my jaws broken, N.O. W.A.Y!!

I am a major woose I admit. A proper big girl's blouse. A bright yellow custardy coward! Laying there having strangers poking at me makes me feel vulnerable and uncomfortable and helpless and a wee bitty trapped.......deep breathes!!

I wish I could stop my mind going over and over it again and again. Time will pass as it undoubtedly does and it will be over soon enough but in the meantime......

Wish me luck that I won't feel a thing and will wonder what all the fuss was about!

Please...

Haggis, 'fantastic' yarn and Dr Scooby!

2011-01-25T12:23:00.001Z

It'll be a braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht the nicht!

Right I cannae guarantee the bright, moonlit night but it will definitely be braw because this is on the menu for dinner this evening...

Haggis, neeps and tatties!

(don't you like how my tartan material matches the packaging? I'm so anal!!)

I love haggis, no that is untrue, I love Macsween haggis. There are some minging ones (*cough* Halls) out there. They even do an amazing vegetarian one well worth a taster. I know some people are put off by it but I have been eating it since I was very wee, long before I knew what it was so it was therefore way past the point of stopping. I was already hooked. Growing up we always ate it on Burns Night and must now with my own family. My Biscuits devour it and although we have it at other times in the year and in other ways, it's tradition to eat it tonight with neeps and tatties. Cannot wait!

I also have this to show you, my new Mirasol Qina yarn, a gorgeous 80% baby alpaca/20% bamboo spun in Peru. I have it in mind for a 'fantastic' animal project. Can you guess which 'fantastic' animal it will be?

Have I said 'fantastic" enough for you to get the clue?

Hopefully I'll get knitting soon, so many projects so little time!

We also had a big drama this morning as Youngest Biscuit's bestest froggy friend Hardy had an accident. Fell out of bed he did and broke his wee green arm. First aider cub, Eldest Biscuit, set upon him with a Woody bandana and strapped him up while Youngest Biscuit sang him a lullaby to help him rest. Poor Hardy!

His best friend Duff is keeping him company.

Unfortunately Eldest Biscuit started to annoy Youngest Biscuit with his, frankly lacking bedside manner, so a new doctor was requested.

Dr Scooby!

One injection later and Hardy is off to the land of nod (I know his eyes are still open but trust me he is asleep) and a slight confused Scooby is waiting until he is paged again for his services. I am on nursing duties of course. I do not mind as Hardy once belonged to me. I rescued [well bought] him from a pharmacist shelf twenty years ago and named him after the author Thomas Hardy, whose novels I buried my head in at seventeen feeling anguish over Tess and Jude. Yikes!

I'm pretending to myself I didn't just write twenty years ago....

Looksee what I just pre-ordered!

2011-01-21T11:21:00.003Z

Tis just a wee bitty exciting but looksee what is coming out in March...

More decadent delights from the hummingbird bakery. I love the first book and have praised some of it's beauties before, banana bread and chocolate muffins specifically. I love the cookies, all squidgy in the middle. I recently baked blueberry muffins from it too and they were the best ones we have tried and believe me I have tested many a recipe in the past. Sure you have to check the website for amendments if, like me, you had an early print, but it is a wonderful book.

Happy, happy times ahead. Salivating at the thought of seeing the many more images of cakes inside.
Here's a taster...

all images from amazon.co.uk

Yummy!

Did I say I was excited?
If you would like to pre-order too, click here and you will be swept away to Amazon.

Annoying phone calls and Scottish Gods!

2011-01-13T16:25:00.002Z

We all get them and I'm sure you would agree how very, very VERY annoying they are too. My particular gripe is how once you are done been spoken to like you are a right thicko, if you do assert yourself, i.e say no in a way that means the conversation has nowhere else to go, the other end hang up on you. No more "How are you today Madam?" or "Hope you are having a good day/morning/afternoon/evening." So rude and I'm not doing a 'Miranda' camp look to camera here. I'm feeling more of a 'Just been watching The Thick Of It and I'm Scottish so could really come over Malcolm Tucker if I wanted to
[excuse the rudeness of that 'not sure isn't true' line, I mean Peter Capaldi shouting, who isn't a wee bit turned on? And then there's Malcolm AND Jamie together about to burst vital forehead blood vessels.....breath]
and scream such vulgarities I'd sound like the speaking clock I'd be beeping so much and doing the Tucker face [breath again!] and generally acting like a crazy, mad woman mentalist'
Alas, I am never rude even when I am asked if my husband would know. I do tell fibs, saying things like everything in my home like windows, fitted kitchen etc are under two years old because I know if I say the real age it opens the door to offers. Don't we all?
A friend told me, at Sky, having worked in the 'talking you in to staying dept' for years, the easiest way to cancel, and this is the most ridiculous thing ever, is to say you are moving to another country....they have nothing to say to that one apparently. The mind boggles! This particular friend admits to saying, when she receives annoying calls at home, her partner has died just to get people off the phone which I think is hilarious but could never say myself.
So today I stopped myself from swearing down the phone and abusing someone in a wonderfully horrific way. I'm sure if it did happen I would be forgiven when I explained I'd had an afternoon of the Scottish Gods, Malcolm and Jamie. [I wish!!!!]

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 17-24!

2011-01-05T18:07:00.004Z

Hey Check me out!

Mrs Organized I ams......so here's me feeling smug that I did indeed make a list of sorts of what week was what and indeed I forgot to photograph some makes (I am so so bad a remembering to photograph gifts before I hand them over!) and had to exchange a couple for baking...lots of baking then, but what is Christmas without lots of joyous mixing in the kitchen?

Scream if you wanna go faster!

Here we go!

Week 17 - stockings Ickle ones attached to and i-cord, knitted up from a free pattern available at Little Cotton Rabbits from the amazing Julie, famed for her delightful bunnies. I'd like to be her when I grow up. If I knit for the rest of my days I shall never be as neat as her but I shall endeavor to try.

Week 18 - hot water bottle cover Made up, could be better, say no more about it. My friend was pleased though...

Week 19 - pear brooch Should be with it's partner of a larger needlebook [both designed by me] but like I say RUBBISH at taking photos sometimes. A birthday gift for my mother-in-law.

Week 20 - wrist warmers Another pattern I got from Julies blog, a joy to knit! Christmas gifts for two lovely ladies.

And...

Week 21 - door curtains One of two. I am very proud of these as they are "What I call" proper sewing and I've never done anything like this before, lined and everything! Gave it a go without instruction and am still in shock they a) look like curtains b) work like curtains and c) are not skew-wiffy!!!

Week 22 - christmas cake I've never made this before either as I don't like fruit cake. Obviously I baked it a while a go [the best smelling cake I've ever baked] as a huge ten inch square to be cut up and shared out with family and had to as I felt something was missing from my life as someone who bakes not to bake one of these each year. I admit to picking some of the fruit out as I eat it but it's very yummy. I suppose if I was ever going to enjoy a fruit cake it was going to have to be a home made one.

Week 23 - mini apple pies After confessing my loathing of dried fruit it's no surprise at Christmas time I don't make mince pies. These, my friends, are no inferior alternative. Delightful 'pop in your mouth' melting, citrusy, yumminess! From Nigella's 'before she became a caricature' Feast.

Week 24 - christmas cupcakes Man how I adore these. May well be my favourite cupcake ever, dense, chocolatey and slightly spiced. I've made them each year since Nigella's Domestic Goddess book came out and constrain myself by not making them at any other point of the year. You know traditions and all that.

Take a deep breath......lots more crafty delights planned for the 28 weeks left to do!

Here's to 2011 and I shall leave you with easily my favourite gift, given to me by a teenage boy.

A testament to what I am all about...

Popping in and out again!

2010-12-31T14:47:00.001Z

Having not managed to get on this laptop to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, I got my finger out and am popping on to wish you all a Happy New Year!

I hope 2011 brings you all joy, creative hearts, fewer hangovers and much cake!!!

With love, cupcakes and biscuits,

***** Ali *****

Help Me!!!

2010-12-17T15:48:00.001Z

I have to go shopping for the second time this week.........with a husband who follows me around....children I cannot see for crowds and all because the Royal Mail suck and have forced me to shop in the High Street.

If I could send them Ghosts of Late Post and Lost Parcels and a very scary one called the Ghost of Christmases Spoiled, I would. In my world (where obviously I rule and can be utterly ridiculous if I choose) they should be forced to listen to Vogon poetry and have to endure non-stop soaps and reality TV. Afternoon tea with Derren Brown with minging tea and dry stale chocolate cake whilst wearing braces, set in a hospital waiting room with awful Jeremy Kyle type shows on in the background and moany faced receptionists. Wet pants and a waiter who prods them repeatedly over and over and over and over and over until they beg for forgiveness, plead for their souls and wake up the next morning ordering me the biggest prize turkey from the butcher from a street urchin who happens to be passing.

If I could I would.

Until them I shake my fist at them and boo like they're baddies in a panto and off I go.....

What to do when...

2010-12-06T20:02:00.002Z

...Mr Biscuit is wielding power tools in the kitchen, Biscuits are playing PS3 games and snow is falling (again!).

Eat chocolate and sew!

"We've gone on holiday by mistake!!!"

2010-12-03T19:57:00.001Z

Can you guess what happened?

Remember that cottage, our weekend getaway, our country idyll, that cottage that we decided to go in November instead of January in case we got stuck there because of snow.

Will it surprise you then that on Sunday we got snowed in, in that cottage until yesterday [Thursday] when we made our bid for freedom with the help of the local shepherd who indeed 'shepherded' us along the seven miles to civilization and boy did I leap out of the car to hug and kiss him.

I could write long passages telling of the stress, the loss of wages, the feeling of utter isolation, the hunger (I don't think I've ever gone so long without cake - Hubby and Father-in-law had to walk those seven miles into town and those seven miles back to get us food), the lack of radio or television so no idea what was going on in the world, my Biscuits missing the first day of advent and the joy of chocolate that brings, the fear of feeling so helpless and trapped but the worst, by far the worst was seeing snow as an obstacle and prisoner. I tried to enjoy the bunnies bounding and frolicking about in the snow, the deer over yonder on the hill and the beauty of a snow laden countryside landscape but all of it was tinged with a desperate need to get out and home. Wishing for rain to wash it all away and the desperation to see the gritter coming up the hill. I love snow, love snow so it was horrid to feel negative towards it.

We were so lucky the owner of the cottage told us we could stay as long as we needed no charge and to help ourselves to the logs in the shed and the wine in the attic to which I cannot describe our gratitude but boy am I put off going away in the winter again and boy am I never paying attention to weather forecasts. I don't ever anyways but on this occasion I checked all week, 'light flutterings and sleet' I read. The locals up there knew it was coming. How come weather forecasts seem to depend on where you get them? I looked up the Met Office online for goodness sake!

Luckily the road home was clear all the way and considering how often since Sunday that particular motorway and the forth road bridge was shut, we were blessed with little traffic, sunshine and no snow!

I should be panicking at the time I've lost (homemade Christmas an' all) but I cannot. What's the point getting stressed over things I can control when I just went through an experience where I had no control except how to react? Feeling trapped had made me appreciate the freedom to choose I usually have. It feels like I've been away from my real life for yonks and I'm so glad to be back. I even spent all day cleaning and didn't complain once [shock!!]

*BIG SIGH*

The irony is once having 'dug' ourselves out of the snow 'twa hoors awa in th' Glens' we had to dig ourselves into our house.

A Neverending Saga - it's a matter of perspective!

2010-11-22T12:38:00.005Z

Ladies, I have managed to pick up another cold. As I write I am sniffing and blowing and coughing and sighing. Hubby Biscuit says it's because I got lots of my hair [as in never had my hair this short, ever!] chopped off on Friday and the cold has found it's way in via an exposed neck. So having never quite making it to 100% well I've taken a wee baby step back again. I say a baby step as it is all a matter of perspective. Yes I feel god awful again but so what, Christmas is on it's way and that means I can justify sitting down sewing and knitting all those gifts I have in mind.

The washing machine has been showing signs of dying the last few weeks and this morning it would not switch on. It has obviously lost it's battle. Ah well, I have a large kitchen sink, a bath and arms with which to scrub. It'll either get mended or be replaced and in the big scheme of things it's no real biggy. As I say the approach of the ching-ching of jingle bells can ward off pretty much anything even kitchen appliances dying [my gas oven went on the blink a couple of weeks ago too, luckily I have a second electric one].

So I say Que Sera Sera!

I admit I am finding it easy to be philosophical as this Friday we are off here...

Auldallan Cottage

(click for more of a looksee, even a virtual tour if you are curious)

...set in a simply beautiful landscape...

this image and above from cottages4you

...for a couple of nights and it will do me the world of good. A bit of relaxation before December brings it's usual full steam ahead activity. A break way from home to take some deep breaths [I hope my nose will allow this] and to look at the stars without the pollution of street lights. We have holidayed there once before a couple of January's ago and I was stunned by the night sky.

It'll be difficult not to arrive home feeling rejuvenated and refreshed on Sunday.

It's either the thought of this cottage or there being something to that old adage - 'get a haircut, take a load of your mind'. Either way I am glad I'm taking it all on the chin.

Nearly Headless Nick...sorry I mean Nearly Wordless Wednesday!

2010-11-17T11:22:00.001Z

Thank goodness my dining table is a big fella!

Sure I would love to take part in the actual Wordless Wednesday but who am I kidding, not gonna happen, no way, no how!

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 13 to 16!

2010-11-11T13:54:00.003Z

I think I [finally] am feeling better now, my head seems to have cleared a lot and am sleeping better so [again, finally] got my finger out with catching up posting about my t52mmmc challenge.

First up Week 13 - bumble bee scarf!

A Christmas gift for a friend to honour his much treasured sweater of the same stripes which was worn all the time, two decades ago. Wear and age caused it's death as can happen with well loved clothes made of wool. This was also the bugger that caused the wrist incident, I used acrylic wool on bamboo needles and it was hell. Punishment for not using pure wool and the opposite of the scarf I knitted at the same time for myself with Rowan Big Wool made of 100% merino which was a dream to knit. Last year I knitted one similar to this in black/white stripes and didn't have any trouble, different yarn brand, different experience. Acrylic does have it's place and is great for crocheting blankets for my Biscuits to wrap themselves up in playing caterpillars and the like.

Week 14 - a week of birthdays!

Coffee and Walnut Cake* (which I've always detested until I tried this one!) for Mr Biscuit. Birthday biscuits* which I have made every year of my Biscuits' lives (they say they expect them till I'm too old or too incapacitated to make them and I am NOT allowed to try anything fancy like filled in icing, it has to be messy and covered in sweets, glitter etc or else. Suited me fine this year as my sprained wrist meant I struggled and this too is the reason for Youngest Biscuit's birthday cake* not being made in the shape of anything needing rolled icing but in the shape of a child's mud pie, worms and all.

I also baked pretty pink cupcakes for a dear friend but with organizing her birthday meal, I forgot to take photos before they were taken away or indeed scoffed for pudding.

A very busy week indeed especially in a bandage and always during school holidays.

* from Cupcakes from a Primrose Bakery.

* from Nigella's Domestic Goddess.

* easy chocolate cake (x2) from Nigella's Feast.

Week 15 - granny square cushion front!

Making new cushions for the sofa. This is the cover that I needed to fix the mistake in if you remember. Wishing I had pressed it for the photo, ever the perfectionist!

Week 16 - empire biscuits!

I think some would call these german biscuits but they've always been empire to us. I always make plenty of dough when I am making birthday biscuits so I can freeze batches and these biscuits are the main reason why. I got away with love hearts in a house of males as we all agreed they were the best shape out of the haribo box, almost went for the fried egg. Scrummy!!

That's all for now. Still loving this challenge!

I shall leave you with a couple of caterpillars I managed to photograph one day...

Seeing black and feeling blue!

2010-11-09T11:29:00.000Z

I'm fed up!

I'm fed up with feeling fed up!

Week three and I'm still poorly and it's starting to eat into me now. Really starting to get me down, not sleeping well, no energy and so, so tired. As Hubby Biscuit always says "I'm keeping it till it gets better" and I am looking after myself but impatience, hormones and a general lack of understanding as to why this b*****d cold will not go away are draining me.

I'm feeling blue, finding it hard to see the positive thus seeing black and feeling affected by the rain and the lack of sun.

One of the reasons, if not the reason I started this blog was the idea of pulling my thoughts out of me and feeling the catharsis that brings. I wrote a journal for years. Books and books filled with ink; my thoughts, feelings, ideas, my history and yet it stopped, stopped when the weight of motherhood caused such repetition I didn't want to listen to myself anymore.

It was no longer cathartic discussing my life, life simply was what it was.

After staring reading blogs I started to see blogging could open that door again so I tentatively began. I felt more freedom in my life and found a platform so here I am using that platform, putting it out there that I feel pants and saying (writing) that out loud and pulling it out of me helps just a little. Helps enough to motivate me enough to keep going and do the things I need to do today.

Helps enough to know putting The Smiths on my ipod will put me over the edge so I won't be doing that then!

Ooh and my Doctor Who DVD may come today! See, a positive thought!

You know you are a geek when...

2010-11-06T12:27:00.002Z

...you spend your money (very excitedly and with baited breath) pre-ordering this...

image from amazon
(out on Monday - yikes!!!)

...instead of visiting your lovely friend and hairdresser (gorgeous bride in the photo of the wedding cake I made - remember her?) for a full head of highlights. Bugger it I'll maybe go red instead, I can do that with a shop dye, much cheaper!

I am more of a geek than a lady, what can I say?

Bats in the belfry!

2010-11-04T15:17:00.001Z

Not really!

Workmen insulating the loft!

Why am I drawn to phrases on madness? I suspect for the same reason my first reaction to having workmen in the house is going through Criminal Minds type scenarios of rape and gruesome murder. I cannot help myself. No wood is innocent and no stranger in my house has not concocted a well thought out ploy to get in and torture and/or kill me.

Actually (workies have just left the building) they drank tea and coffee and insulated the whole loft in forty five minutes for free. Yes!! FOR FREE!!!!! A knock on the door (why do some people ignore both the letterbox and bell?) less than twenty four hours ago from a rep from a well known energy company offering free loft insulation from the local council for all houses in the area whether council or privately owned like ours. A grant that would eventually run out of funds so grab the chance of FREE FREE FREE while you can, so we did!

I don't know about you but it has been on our list of things to do for a few years now and usually gets usurped by some other plan (this year redecorating the kitchen which is taking forever due to birthdays, wrists and colds) and now *sigh*, didn't even have to empty the loft, didn't have to watch Hubby Biscuit take forever with the prep, it's done and dusted.

It's a great thing to have something so readily at hand to be positive about to counterbalance the negatives of a cough laden, sleep depriving night in bed and a morning of having to unpick sewn up granny squares to reach the one I noticed had a mistake just as I was finishing off. Love Actually helped with the hour plus fixing that mistake. The ying and yang, the balance of doing something as I spent last week strewn on the sofa poorly and being poorly masking my ability to catch mistakes as they happen.

Where the inability to leave the mistake well alone comes in, I do not know! Well I do but after thirty seven years, I have grown to accept the perfectionist in me!

No longer a clown....that's a matter of opinion!

2010-11-02T11:18:00.004Z

It's week two of this awful cold I am experiencing and yes my face has sooked itself back up (as much as a 37 year old face can), my nose is no longer as red as a clown's nose or Rudolph's for that matter. My house is no longer covered in ickle mounds of used tissues and I am no longer sneezing and spitting (that includes food, I know MINGING!!) all over myself.

I am however facing the truth that I do not sound sexy and husky and all Mariella Frostrup but like I am crying all the time which is embarrassing when phoning school offices and hospitals to cancel orthodontic appointments. I am blessed, for the first time in nine years, in being able to be ill and in my jim-jams for days on end as my lovely Biscuits have been taking themselves off to school in the morning. I have been able, for the most part, to stop dead in it's tracks the dreaded 'Mum' law that seems to state we must keep going no matter what or how ill we get. I was poorly this time last year and 'kept going' and was still not right at Christmas time so this year, thanks to my Biscuits, I have been resting lots, watched lots of films and thankfully (after only one week of wearing a bandage although I'm not going to get into how bad that week was..ooh the pain!!) have been able to knit and crochet again.

So I am not dwelling on how little I have been getting done or how sick I am being poorly or how I am going ever so slightly mad cooped up in the house but grateful I am getting to have sick days and blessing the invention of Jakemans Soothing Menthol Sweets.
I have missed some posts I was planning, namely celebrating this...

...the first birthday of my blog. My lovely wee blog that has enabled me, for the first time in years, to feel more like me. Not just Mum and Wife and Housekeeper but silly old clown-like me. I have 'met' a hopeful, 'restores your faith in mankind', large mixing bowl amount of fantastic people and can not get enough of being reminded how similar we all are and I am not alone in my existential thoughts (forever the Philosophy student). If I am being honest I thought, in my usual way, I'd get bored with it after a bit but no, a year on I'm still really enjoying it. So thanks peeps for reading!

Here's to another year!

Looking for sympathy!

2010-10-19T15:26:00.002+01:00

Here's me...

I am an awful patient so Hubby is having nothing to do with feeling sorry for me so I am looking for sympathy from my blogging friends who will, I am sure, let me milk my sore wrist for all its worth. Who knew too much knitting could cause this? Actually I suspect too much knitting caused a weakness that somehow enabled a sprain sometime on Saturday afternoon. That's the version I am sticking to as I cannot accept knitting could cause me pain. I never learn though hence why I am typing even though it hurts. I have rubbish wrists due to numerous strains as a child roller skating, skate boarding and of course falling off my bike. I am ridiculously clumsy and stupid, on one occasion going straight back out on my skates after arriving home from the nurse bandaged up, only to fall again on, you guessed it, my sprained wrist.

I am cross if I'm honest, offended I cannot do what I like ( I am that childish!). Hubby Biscuit has banned me (for my own good) from knitting and picking up a crochet hook and it's way hard. Much harder than I thought so I am moving on to sewing instead which probably isn't sensible but I cannot not make something. I may 'grow up' enough to rest it after over using it shopping earlier, but I figured if I have to be injured and I am (milky milky!!) I at least deserved this whilst out and about...

image from amazon

Don't you agree?
I'll try to be sensible as I have mucho baking later in the week due to three birthdays, well starting tomorrow actually. Better go and sit I suppose...