December...ing

Welcome to my December...ing post. There is never a shortage of images to plop into an advent themed post. We like to indulge in our creative side at this time of year but no pressure, if it is not enjoyable, then we don't do it. 

 Decorating - the tree. For the first time in family life, I did not touch the tree. I put it up and the girls did it all by themselves.

Buying - one new carefully chosen tree decoration each year. 

Unwrapping - my nativity characters and placing them carefully in the stable by mate made for me about 20 years ago. I have crafty friends too!

Creating - a tree from bits of a tree! We don't have room for a tree in the porch but a big piece of a fir tree blew down in storm Arwen so Andy made a chicken wire cone shape on a pole set in cement and I chopped up said branch and shoved it into the holes. Ta Dah! narrow tree. The wreath has been made by my wonderful floral design mate Beth... I know more creative friends.

Scrapbusting - the last of my Christmas themed fabric scraps. I don't ever actually recall buying Christmas fabric but I think it was probably in some donated fabric bags I get from time to time. 

You sew all the scrap strips together in one piece then cut out triangles. 

Sewing - a new set of eight napkins. I fell in love with the nature inspired fabric, the colour palette and the fact that it was not overtly Christmassy so they would have all year round use. I have a set of four white ones I bought in Eygpt when I was travelling in my 20's so now I have twelve which coordinate.

Knocking - up four crackers. I really love crackers but when I look at them in the shops now I just can't see past that much waste packaging for such frippery. The trumpets were prised off last years crackers, waste packaging tubes are inside and I used some tissue I had saved from a present wrap them up. I used to have some snaps but I must have used them all so this year we have silent crackers.

Opening - the box of Christmas cards I made last January. After I have taken the cards down, in the cold days of January, I like to make all of my Christmas cards for the next year using my favourite ones with added stickers, sticky gems and sentiments. Sometimes I delve into my stamp sets and make some from my own ideas. 

Struggling - with some daylight. It has been so dark here of late, barely getting light until lunchtime then very quickly entering dusk light again by 2:30pm. I feel almost Scandinavian.

Baking - Cherry Bakwell Cake eaten warm with cream as a dessert and then cold the next day with tea. On low light days the only thing that gets me moving is baking. The girls and I spent a lovely afternoon decorating cakes to give as presents. They love doing it and the older they get the less stressful it is for me and the more rewarding it is for them. Heidi made the wreath cake, Megan made the parcel cake for her uncle and I did the candy cane cake using a mash up of whatever was left over.

Wasting - not a thing! Hence the final design. Not enough fondant or royal icing for the whole cake as well as not enough icing left in the icing bag for a base line. I ended up peeling all the fondant bits left over from the girls designs off the worktop, then started to roll them up. While rolling a sausage shape, inspiration struck like lightning when I curled the top over and considered that my work here was done. Instant Candy cane! 

Finishing - my fur backed sweatshirt fabric Juno Pyjamas. The word cosy simply isn't enough to describe them but I don't know a word more cosy than cosy; suggestions welcome. Seriously good knitting pyjamas I can tell you. I have a winter plan for this donated Stylecraft chunky yarn stash which I will show you soon.

Enjoying - time outside on brighter days. We did have a few bright frosts earlier on in the month when I loved taking the dog out for a long walk with my camera.

Spotting - the moon shining out on a frosty morning. A different view for you to enjoy today, this one is from the back garden towards The Stiperstones which is the grey, low hill line to the right behind the wooded one.  

Thank you for calling in throughout the year, your supportive comments and interest in what I do. I am off to look at your beautiful Christmas tree photos and read your crafty endeavors to fill me with seasonal cheer. Best Wishes to you all!

Love from Jo x

Nobody Died...

I made foraged mushroom soup. Andy always gets a little nervous when I do this. I used to go mushroom picking with my uncle when I was a child but only because he was a man of wide girth and couldn't be bothered to bend down and pick them himself. He held the basket, pointed and said, "That one". I would bend down, cut it with a penknife and pop it in the basket and so it would go on until the basket was full. We picked field mushrooms and parasol mushrooms. We used to see shaggy ink caps but he didn't like the texture of them when they were cooked so we always left those. I am no expert, I know the ones I know.

When they are curled round they are fresh

and as they open out they become a bit more soggy as you cook them. Parasol mushrooms have a loose ring around the stem that you can slide up and down.

You can't wash mushrooms; they just go soggy. I wiped each one with kitchen towel.

Mushroom soup is not the most glamorous soup to photograph but boy was it delicious. Parasol mushrooms give a very subtle flavour; not the more harsh taste you get from a nearly black field mushroom soup.

My mum visited in the afternoon and we both had a taste. When I presented it to Andy later, he asked his usual wary question, "Will it be alright?" I replied, "Nobody died!" I picked 1.5Kg of mushrooms and batched up the soup for the freezer. It has been lovely as our latest Saturday soup.

Foraging has been the late autumn choice of activity. I bagged the last of some windfall cooking apples from a neighbour, mixed them with a couple of handfuls of my crab apples and four eating apples to make an apple wine brew. It had a great smell because you also added lemon zest. It is a bit cloudy at the moment but ready for its first rack now that the bubbles have stopped. Racking is when you sieve the wine into a clean demijohn to keep removing the sediment. You might need to rack a wine two or three times over a few months before you bottle it.

The damson wine has been racked and is looking ready to bottle then lay down for 6 months. Damson is one of my faves. You don't drink this wine like table wine - you would fall over quite quickly! Instead you have a double shot of it like a spirit. 

 Sloe Gin is always on my Autumn list. I like to give little bottles as presents. If you spot any, wait until there has been a frost, then pick them on a dry day. I use a rule of three: one part gin, one part sugar, one part sloes. You have to put the gin in last to visually gauge this. The girls helped me prick the sloes to release the juice. Shake it every day. The longer you leave it the better it is. 

I also like to do a little supermarket foraging too. These wastenot boxes are £1.50 and a lot of fun to cook with, albeit that the cooking has to happen on the same day! I made dauphinoise potatoes; a soup with carrots, swede onion and potatoes; roasted pepper pasta sauce and a beetroot and cottage cheese side dish to have with fresh mackerel. The two apples went in a fruit salad and the tomatoes went in the pasta sauce. Yum! 

The limes? I grated the zest into my Christmas cake bake up. There is a small one for my brother-in-law, a round one for grandparents and a medium one for Heidi and me.

Hoping you have all had a good week. Jo xxx

November...ing

 Hello there, welcome to November...ing.Lots of foraging this month so here goes.

Foraging - in our fields for parasol mushrooms. I left this one because it had opened out too much but I picked a whole basket full.

Walking - to get some exercise. Beano the boundless spaniel helps me to walk quickly and get out of breath.

Cutting - the very last summer flowers from the garden. Now I have planted up some bulbs in all of the outdoor pots.

Going - to a ball - I know! My friend has a charity ball every year (except during covid) where we get the chance to dress up and catch up with friends I only see once a year.

 

Sewing - A dress for the occasion. None of my evening dresses fitted me. The margins are small on evening wear so a little adjustment in waist size can knock an outfit off the list. This time I went for a wrap dress to eliminate future body changes. This is the glitter lace fabric with a satin back which I used - such wonderful fabric and a versatile pattern.

Fixing - my sewing machine! It was making a funny noise so I lifted the foot plate, cleaned it out and found the very tip of a broken needle in the bobbin case. I re-oiled it and put it all back together. This saved me about £80 I reckon, the minimum charge for a service. Very chuffed with myself today.

Baking - white chocolate and cranberry cookies with Meg.

Eating - Homemade cinnamon rolls. Meg wanted to make these but Jeez they took all day. Mixing, first prove, rolling and filling, second prove, baking, resting...but they were nice. 

Visiting - Hergest Croft Gardens to see the glorious late autumnal Acer trees.

Cheating - by making this Tilly and Buttons Nora top from a cotton waffle knit fabric. For a knitter like me, the lure of a sweater made in 2 hours was a novelty.

Finishing - my latest (real) knitting project. I am thrilled with it. A teenage sweater pattern called Jory in 4ply. It was in The Knitter issue 168. Heidi looks fabulous in it but I knitted the arms longer so she liked the fit.

Thinking - out a few plans for Christmas knitting. In the meantime, to give me some head space, I have this stop gap crochet shawl which I add to every time I need to think. It includes all the ends of sock yarn I have left over so it sort of grows and changes over the year. I have recently added some of the grey from Heidi's jumper to use up an end ball and break up the mad colours.

Pre-washing - fabric for sewing. I don't know what yet, something long sleeved to pair with the autumn leaf design. But hey, you know me, it will probably become lots of things to the very last scrap. 

Searching - for Sloes to make another batch of sloe gin which I gift at Christmas.

Firing - the young 'uns outside for a bit, they have been a bit glued to the TV of late. They really enjoyed themselves on their tree swing and remembered just how much they like playing out together.

Leaving - you with one for the road as always. This was just before everything turned orange in the last week.

Thanks for dropping by. Jo xx