Cards On Show

I love collecting cards and find it really hard to walk past a Paperchase shop with going in and browsing for a while.  If I see a card I like, I'll buy it but then I find it really hard to give away.  The trouble is, the cards are put away in a drawer and not seen. S'not good!

In February we visited Conor in Falmouth and I went into my favourite shop there, Willow and Stone.  It is a fab shop and I have bought several things from there, including this wrapping paper which I'm going to get Irwin to frame for me.  I think it's too nice to wrap a present up in for it then to be thrown away.  They have lots of cards, postcards and posters and I saw a really good way of displaying my cards that I have at home and I recreated it at home.

I chose this area in the living room to display the cards.

This method is quite easy and only involves some string and fancy paperclips!

Pin the string up, hang the cards up with the fancy paperclips ......

and then you have your cards out on display and you can then admire them.  It's also easy to change them when you can't resist that other card in the shop!


*  I have nothing whatsoever to do with either Paperchase or Willow and Stone, I just have great taste! 

Maggie the rabbit

Very recently I have stumbled across Alicia Paulson's blog Posie Gets Cozy and since then life has stopped!  I have read every single one of her posts, these go back to September 2005 and I'm up to December 2010, so you can see I'm slightly obsessed!  Luckily I work in a school and have the holidays off, so I've had plenty of time to indulge.

She has me laughing, crying and most importantly inspired.  What a woman, full of great designs and can write a line or two.  Sometimes I think I'm boardering web stalking, if there is such a thing, but I know that I just admire her and she makes me laugh and I love reading about her life and her adorable daughter (I cried buckets when she came into their lives!!!). 

Her most recent designs is a rabbit called Maggie ........ she is just gorgeous.  Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to buy a kit from her before they sold out and I couldn't wait for her to re-stock, so I bought a down-loadable pattern and bought the materials myself.

Here is my first Maggie ......

Body sewn together

All ready for her dress and cape

All finished.  I LOVE her!

When I ordered the materials, I bought LOADS, so I've been making more, 4 more, all at the same time.  I've been seeing rabbits in my sleep!

Bodies made, arms and legs stuffed, ears sewn, booties cut and yarn ready.

On another note, I really need to sort out my sewing space as it's driving me mad.  I sit here on the sofa during the day as I have the daylight coming through the window and the side table is great for keeping everything on.  But in the evening it's too dark and I can't see anything.

I then move over to this corner were the light is.  The chair is really uncomfortable as the seat support broke and Irwin cut a square of wood to replace it.  It's HARD!  The chest of draws is where I keep all my supplies (we bought this a couple of weeks ago as we didn't really have a lot of storage in the living room and I have hijacked it!). 

The draws are slowly getting filled up with fabric.  I just need to move all the other supplies that are in another chest of draws up in my bedroom downstairs so they are all in one place.  What I need to do is to get Irwin to put a shelf in the bottom draw, one that slides across I can still get the things underneath.  "Irwin ........... ".

Anyway, back to the bunnies

On Saturday afternoon I started cutting all the pattern pieces for my bunnies.  One was for my daughter Em, two presents for friends and one special present for a little girl who was coming to see me this week. I'm friends with her mum and last week they had to go through the heartbreaking experience of having their 5 year old dog Honey put to sleep as she had cancer, soooo sad :-(   I thought that I would make one for her daughter so that she would have something else to cuddle and hoping that it would cheer her up a little. 

I had my first Maggie sat up on my mantelpiece so I could see her and admire her and lover her.  I underestimated how long it would take me to make them all and I knew that hers would not be finished in time for her visit on the Tuesday. 

I gave her my Maggie, her needs were greater than mine and I will keep one of the new ones.  She loved her!

I knew that Alicia would approve.

Love Marge x

 

Checking out Swansea

My one and only daughter is deserting me, leaving me  going to university in September.  As you can tell, I am handling this very well and really looking forward to the event!  So on Friday we went to Swansea where the uni is to have a good look around and see what the area was like.  Irwin took Em down for her interview and only saw the central shopping area and he didn't go much on it. So, off to put my mind at rest.

I love going across the toll bridge.  I wish I could stop the traffic and take some really good pics of this bridge.

 Isn't it great, all those lines and angles.  It would look GREAT at night!

 

Welcome to Wales!

 

 



 This is the outside of the Swansea Met Uni Art, Design & Media building.  Very modern ......

With a lovely old part on the back. 

 

It used to be a Girls' School ...... I think!

We then had a drive to Mumbles to the west of Swansea.  What a view.

We parked up and had a walk along the sea front and went to find somewhere to have lunch.  Nice picture of the plant Irwin! 

There could be worse places to go to uni I think.

 

 

And then we went home.  I really liked the place and Em will have a great time.  I happened to find a really nice quilting fabric shop in Mumbles as well, result.

This isn't the first time one of mine will be going off to uni, Conor went last year and I surprised myself on how well I handled it.  It was definitely a case of the lead up being worse than the actual event.  The week leading up to taking him saw me breaking down on several occasions at work, home and anywhere else.  Conor had visions of me crying all the way on our four hour drive down to Cornwall but I didn't.  I nearly broke down when we pulled up on the campus ready to sign him in, I nearly broke down in Asda when we went to get his shopping but I did have a very short 20 second breakdown as we got in the car and drove away from him but Irwin needed me to give him directions and that distracted me ...... and that was it, no more tears!!  It did help that he was in a gorgeous place in the country and we knew that he would be really happy there.  What more could you ask for.

Something tells me it's not going to be the same when we take Em.  1) She's my only girl and we get on really well, like the same things, kind off/sometimes. 2) I will be left in a house of boys (Irwin, Tom, Bob & Hector the dogs).  3)  I will only have one child left at home who will be 14 and who really won't need his mum much and I will be out of a job *sobs*. 

And that my dears, is the problem.  I've had them for 20 years needing me and looking after them and I won't need to do this so much anymore. 

Ah well, more time for me and sewing.

Greenhousekeeping



We have a veg patch at the end of our garden and I'm ashamed to say that it has laid idle for nearly two years. What's even more shameful is it's only 4 years old! I think in the first year we bit off more than we could chew and struggled keeping up with it all.

The second year the caterpillars had a bloody banquet. We came home from holiday and all excited to see how the brussels and cabbages were getting on and all that was left was the stems ...... well, nearly. If Irwin had a rattle and was sitting in a pram, he would have thrown his rattle out of his pram!

 

So it's been left since really, but this year it's going to be revived. We've learnt our lesson and we are not going to plant any brassicas so we do don't have to do battle with the caterpillars. What I'm going to plant is only things that I can use in chutneys and pickles, salad things, tomatoes in the greenhouse along with peppers, cucumbers and chilies. I'm also going to have a bed full of cutting flowers. I'm very excited about that!

So, three hours later, the greenhouse is clean and tidy, ready for some replacement plastic windows and then I can start planting. It's been sooooo cold here that it really needs to be wind-tight before doing anythingelse. I may even need to use the greenhouse heater.

Irwin has started digging the beds and then we can tidy up outside.

 

One day, soon (Irwin has promised) my studio/hideaway is going in the right hand corner, right by the flower bed.  *eeeekkk*

Exams Passed!!

AAT books that I've worked through!

 
Hello!  I am well and truly back in blogland.  The past two years I have been studying for my AAT accountancy qualification and I had no idea how much space they would take up in my life.  I was either studying, thinking I should be studying or if I wanted to do something other than studying I wouldn't as I was thinking I should be studying!  It sounds crazy, but apparently the whole class thought the same too, so it's good to know you're not the only one going mad!  Passing my exams has meant going to college nearly every Wednesday afternoon and evening for two years, working through lots of books and passing 15 exams and writing one 4000 word project.  But it's all done now and I can't tell you how pleased I am to be finished and how proud I am of myself for actually completing and finishing something  It's a standing joke in our house that I start things and never finish them, but I did this time, wwwwwooohhhooo.  I promised myself I would never study again, but we'll see (shoot me now!).

My hubby treated me to a little pressie for passing my exams.  We bought it a couple of months before passing them, but I didn't really use it until I'd passed, so that's fine ..... isn't it? 

Meet Betty!

Singer 201K - aka Betty

 

 

I'll do a separate post on my 3 month quest to find her tomorrow.  It will take some time, believe me!

So welcome back and please keep reading as I have so much to show and tell.


Love Marge x

Mr Blue Sky

Just a quick post to show you what I have been up to this afternoon.

I wanted to do some sewing, especially to get and finished a quilt for a friend that I have started. As it was so sunny I decided to take my sewing machine out in the garden.

Bliss!

Tomorrow I will be sewing the quilt top together and will post a picture.

How to make ........... Marmalade

****  I actually made the marmalade and wrote this post in January.  It took me ages to write this up as my laptop was playing me up.  I had just got to the end and the computer died on me.  I nearly cried!!  I know that in the background it saves the post as you go along, but I couldn't find it and really couldn't face sitting down and starting all over again.  Now that Blogger have updated their site it shows me all of my posts, including all of the draft posts that have been saved ..... and this one was sat there.  So, it is out of season but who cares. 

I'm now on my last jar of marmalade and I wish I had made more.  Hay Ho, at least I have something to look forward to in January! **



THE POST

It suddenly struck me the other day that it was the season for Seville oranges, which are the perfect oranges to use when making marmalade.  I've always wanted to make marmalade, but I'd never got around to doing it.

I made jam for the first time two years ago which was always something I had wanted to do and never got around to it.  I wish I had tried it before because it was really EASY.  I think what had put me off before was the thought of it being difficult to make and that the jam would never set and it would have been all a waste of money, time and energy. But it wasn't at all and it tasted so good.  I made strawberry, raspberry, blackcurrant and blackberry (once I started I could stop!!).

So realising that the Seville oranges were in the shops I decided to have a go at marmalade.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1kg Seville oranges
• 2kg demerara sugar
• 75mls lemon juice

I scrubbed the oranges, removed the little tops and put them in 2.5ltrs of water. Bring that to the boil, put the lid on and let that simmer for 2 - 2.5 hrs.

I would suggest putting the coffee on.

Whilst the fruit is simmering it's best to get prepared for later when it's all hands to the pump. Put three saucers into the freezer, you will use these to test the setting point later.











Then wash the pots that you will use. This amount of fruit will need around 6 or 7 jars, so it's best to prepare 8 or 9. I have learnt from experience to do more as it isn't an exact science and there is nothing worse than having lots of lovely jam/marmalade left and nothing to put it in. I put mine through a short cycle in the dishwasher and then put them in a pre-heated oven (100 deg) to dry and sterilise.

The oranges are ready when they are nice and soft and the skin pricks easily. I wish this was scratch and sniff as the smell that comes from this is lovely. It's like a summers day in the kitchen.

Remove the oranges from the water, but keep this as you will need it later. Let the fruits cool down and remove all of the pips.

I used a fork and flicked them into a sieve resting above a bowl to catch any juice.

Now comes the chopping part. This is where personal preference comes in, if you like thick pieces of peel, slice them thick, if you like them thin, slice them thin. I just chopped and had a mixture!

  

Measure out your reserved cooking water and make it up to 1.6ltrs with water. Add the chopped peel, sugar and lemon juice. Slow bring to the boil to let the sugar dissolve.

Now bring the mixture to a rolling boil for 10-15 mins or until it has reached setting point which is 104.5 deg c.

To check if it has reached setting point, go and get one of the saucers that you put in the freezer. Take the marmalade off the heat and very carefully take a teaspoon full and put it on the saucer.  Leave it to cool down for a minute and then push your finger through it.  If it crinkles it has reached setting point, if it doesn't put it back on to the boil for 5 minutes and then test again, or in my case again and again and again.  This really did seem to take forever and I think it must have been on the boil for at least 25 mins.  I will put my hands up now and say that in the end I got a bit fed up with it and decided that it had reached setting point even though it wasn't crinkling.  More about that later!

Let the marmalade cool down for 20 minutes.

Take your pots and lids out of the oven and VERY carefully fill them with marmalade.

Put the lids on and leave them to cool down.  Now, I did say that I didn't wait until it had completely reached setting point didn't I .........

Guess what I had to do the next morning......... Decant, re-boil, re-steralise and re-pot. That will teach me 'eh! Now, when I realised the next morning that it hadn't set I done a bit of research on the internet and marmalade can be a bit tricky with reaching setting point and can take a lot of boiling. Some people got around this by adding shop bought pectin, so that is exactly what I done and it passed the crinkle test first time.

I did think that there was too much of the peel and this was probably due to having to boil it for so long and the liquid evaporated, therefore leaving a higher ratio of peel to liquid than normal.  This was easily sorted by taking some of the peel out.

So, after re-potting I was eventually done and had lots of lovely marmalade to enjoy, especially as I am the only person in my house that likes it.  Result!

**  It also seems like the dog likes it too and enjoyed two pots which I had left opened on the table!