The Mad Dash

'Tis the week before Christmas and all through the house,

The family was hiding. Yes, even my spouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

Though the smell of fresh glue still hung in the air.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
To the sound of the sewing machine hitting high revs.
And I in my 'jamas and all in a flap,

While he settled down for a long winter's nap.

When from the kitchen there rose such a clatter,

And he sprang from his bed to see what was the matter.
He sprang down the stairs all of a flash

And flung open the door with vigour and dash. (Colin Firth look alike is my man! Honest!?!)

The angle poise set the nook all aglow,

And gave the lustre of day to the little tableau.

There at the bench was a snoring young maid

And before and around her the following were laid...

Twelve strings of bunting,
Eleven socks with piping,
Ten dye lots steeping,
Nine skirts for dancing,
Eight cards for gluing,
Seven stars for sticking,
Six sacks for fraying,
Five golden wreaths,
Four crochet hooks,
Three pinking shears,
Two craft knives
And a jar of glitter on the floor!

Look What Arrived!

The postman risked life and limb and look what he brought.
My swap partner from Linda's Craftaholics Handmade Gift Swap ( say that 3 times quickly!) Stephanie sent me a lovely box containing beautiful bracelet and earrings all the way from the state of Georgia.
Thank you Stephanie and thank you Linda. I have thoroughly enjoyed the swap and will definitely take part next time.

When I know that Stephanie has got her parcel, I'll post up pictures of the other bits I popped in her bag. Don't want to ruin the surprise for her. Apparently the weather has caused havoc in the postal system so it could take longer than usual

Am I strange?

In my family, Christmas was always a very special time, made more so by the unbridled excitement of my younger sister Lin. I have always loved the decorations and the music, the food and the presents so I am fairly sure that I am not a Humbug. But I don't put up any decorations or the tree until a week, maybe 10 days before Christmas at the earliest.
I am tempted of course, but I can't help but think that it would be torturous for my young daughter to build up her expectations and then make her wait another month for the big day to arrive.

Am I strange to want mince pies at Christmas, and not the rest of the year?
Am I odd to want to hear Christmas carols at Christmas, and not for 2 months before?
Am I peculiar to want my Christmas tree to be special, and not something that I need to dust and hoover under?

Craftaholics Anonymous Handmade Gift Exchange Linky Party

Dear Linda, S~ and all the Gift Exchangers from C.Anon.,

We have had a little snow here in Ireland and sadly, the postman can't get through. Hopefully it will have melted by the time a parcel is likely to arrive from America. Since these photos were taken we have had another 20cm of snow. This in a place where we usually would have snow once in a year... and then it generally melted before noon.

Luckily, I got to the post office before Saturday when the snow started, so the parcel was in the post before we got snowed in. And this is what I sent...

A shopper bag with pockets inside for purse, phone, etc. It is made with fabric swatches from a shop sample book.

There are a few random bits and pieces inside it too. I hope S~ likes it.

Potato Cake Recipe for Martina

Hi Martina,

It's not really a recipe. It's a "what have you got in the cupboard”.

Plain potato cakes made with grated raw potato.

Grate potato. Put into clean cloth and squeeze out juice.

• Use grated potato straight away or it starts to turn brown.
• Add lots of salt and pepper and then try to form into patties in your hands. Not too thick.
• If they won't stick together add in a little leftover cooked mashed potato or a little flour.
• Get oil in frying pan good and hot.
• Put a couple of cakes in and do not touch until golden brown underneath (otherwise they fall apart in the pan). Then turn over and fry til golden.
• Pop into the oven to stay warm while you cook the rest.

Left-over mashed potato cakes

Mashed potato plus some egg... (dinner for family of 4= about 1 egg)

and 1 -2 dessertspoons of flour.. enough to make it just stiff enough for making patties.

• Mix in a little of what you have in the fridge...
• Mashed carrot and fried onion.
• Left over fish and sweetcorn.
• Sauteed leek and cooked sausage chopped up fine.
• Chopped cooked rasher with onion and random leftover veggies chopped fine. (dash of worcestershire goes well with rasher and onion)
• Cook as the other cakes.
• Excellent with a fried egg if you want to add some protein.

Hope you enjoy!

Time Marches On

Tempus fugit! Time has flown by and I haven't been near this blog in sooooo long.

I won't give excuses, only apologies; lots of apologies.

The crafts I have done in these last few months have mostly been with my daughter's toddler group. Paper tissue flowers, paint splodging with sponges, masquerade masks, that sort of thing. A few months ago I joined an art and craft course for teaching pre-schoolers. That has been a frenetic bit of cutting and snipping and glueing and painting and sticking. The class is held in a village hall in the wilds of Co. Wexford... 50km from my house; all a bit tiring, but very entertaining.

Here are Hazel's crafts... I will post some of my class crafts another day when I have got my portfolio in some sort of order for the assessment on Wednesday.

Friday Night Sew-In

Ah ha. I have found a way to help me get a few bits done; I have joined the Friday Night Sew-In. It is being hosted by Bobbi this month. I will add more to this post in a bit, but right now I have 40 minutes to get Hazel and I washed, dressed and fed before we have to go to playgroup.
Running now....

Right we are back from the playgroup now and a cup of tea is being had before leaping into action again. Imagine... on Friday evening I will cosy up with my jim-jams and a cup of something nice, and finish making an art smock for Hazel. So far the pattern has been bodged together using an example on the internet and one of H's sleeved bibs and I rootled out some fabric (some cotton curtain material from the attic and a very decrepit white shirt of my husband's). All I need to do is find some elastic and a little vilene over the next few days.

I've been busy... honest.

I've been busy... honest. No, I have. I have pyrographed a "Chickopolis" sign as an Easter present for my neighbours who have started breeding chickens. There have been 3 pairs or slippers knitted for my nieces and nephews. Ummm... A single duvet and duvet cover have been refashioned into 2 cot duvets and 2 cot duvet covers. Oh yes, and I made a fleecy dressing gown for Hazel. I didn't have a pattern so I roughly copied a coat that she has. It worked out pretty well but it still needs a button. I would post lots of photos but I keep forgetting to take them before I give my bits and pieces away

Some pictures to follow...

Cute Easter Bunnies

Easter bunnies! The pattern idea came from Lion Brand (will add link later). They only take a little while to make and mine fit about 3 small eggs.

Easter is on the way

Yum, yum!

While trying to entice my daughter to eat something, I found a scrumptious recipe for Banana Bread. I would have included a photo of the loaf but we ate it all.

2 cups plain flour (or 1 cup plain and 1 cup wholewheat)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup marg/butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 beaten eggs

2 1/2 cups ripe bananas (about 2 good sized bananas)

Cream sugar and marg.

Mix in eggs and bananas.

Sieve flour, soda and salt.

Mix flour into banana mixture. Mix well but do not over beat.

Put in greased loaf tin.

Bake in preheated oven at 175 C for about 1 hour.

It is a lovely moist cake/bread. You could add a little cinnamon, or some chopped walnuts to the mix for some variety.

Enjoy!

Stripey cotton.

There are never enough hours in the day but I have been following a crafty blog and it has convinced me to get my sewing machine out and do a little bit.

http://craftsinbloom.blogspot.com/2010/01/clothes-refashion.html

This is a fabric sampler that came from a shop via my mother-in-law. Some shops throw these away when they go out of date. Others are only to delighted when someone offers to fill their car boot and take them away for nothing (big grin).
Can you guess what it is yet? (australian accent)

Wish me luck finding the time to assemble this.

Crochet and Reefs

The crochet bug has bitten me. There is an exhibition in Dublin in March of a crocheted coral reef. There are several reasonings behind the logic of coral reefs, crochet, mathematics and organic communities, but leaving all that aside, it just tickled my fancy. These are my contributions to the reef. The white pieces are for the bleached coral reef. I did hope to try some plastic crochet but ran out of time.

Nothing to see here

I was going to put up some photos of such things as greenhouses, crocheted coral, cotton dresses and a small cute daughter this evening. Sadly, the signal is crappy so ye will have to wait.