Crochet: Granny Square Baby Blankets

I'm not dead, I've been busy creating, not massive amounts but enough to keep a girl's hands from being still. I've made 40 metres of yellow and black bunting for my friend's wedding and have made numerous little things for friends but all the while, I've been crocheting granny square baby blankets:

Everyone I know is having babies, it's crazy and I keep on making presents for both boys and girls and they are always boys. I now have an abundance of girl presents, so luckily, I'm predicting that my friend, Jo, has a daughter, within the next year or so and she is going to be oh so spoilt with gifts. YAY! Or a boy who has a lot of pink gifts?!

These photos show my first completed blanket of 2013, it's a collection of soft baby acrylics, I'd love to make a blanket out of stunningly soft cashmere, but it's not practical, as most babies vomit, poo, dribble a lot, and therefore the blankets need to be thrown in the washing machine and dried in the tumble dryer with all of the other clothing, instead of being hand washed and dried flat rolled in a towel and placed in the airing cupboard ... actually, I wouldn't be surprised if I found a hand washed cashmere baby blanket rolled in a towel, that has been drying for 3o years, in my mum's airing cupboard ... lets be fair, during the first years of most babies lives, the mother is not of Earth, let alone giving a shit about the washing. My friends can thank my thoughtful nature of ease of washing by paying me in kind, failing that, cash or wine is always accepted!

Anyhow, I'm extremely proud of my first blanket of 2013, which I completed with a scallop edge.
Below are the other three blankets I've been crocheting. For two of them, I'm awaiting a parcel of cheap wool from the mother dearest, who was kind enough to pop to my old wool shop, Masons, in the country and pick up some balls on my behalf! Curse stupid London and it's expensive wool shops!

My Year in Books: Great Expectations

I love Great Expectations! I love Charles Dickens! I want to live in Little Britain, London and visit Hammersmith, as though it is the village it once was and talk to Herbert, etc.

For a while, when Pip had been told he was going to London to become a Gentleman, he got a little above his station and was rather rude to Biddy and derogatory to Joe but I feel that for now, I can forgive him these, as he seems rather charming at the moment. I'm only up to the point where he goes to Mr Wemmick's for dinner in Walworth.

I also, love that I'm learning about London, while reading it, it's positively charming to learn about the olde days!

Here's to the next 100 odd pages...

Scotland

I've just gotten back from my first ever trip to Scotland, aged 31. Which seems rather odd, bearing in mind that I've gone to New Zealand, in fact I've visited all of the countries in the United Kingdom, apart from Scotland - all very circumstantial, I swear.

The Lingtons

Any how, I was dragged to Scotland due to my best/oldest friend in the world, getting married there and no, neither the bride or groom are Scottish and no, neither of them have truly Scottish roots, it's all due to Edinburgh being their first weekend break as a couple.

The entire wedding preparation and day was incredible and a lot of fun! I was honoured to be a part of the wedding party and loved every second of the entire thing. I wish them both all the bestest in the world, with me right by their sides like a parasitic twin!

After the awesome wedding, cocktail drinks in to the late hours and a long, heavy, hangover, I found myself next to Loch Tay. Which is rather marvellous and beautiful.

The view from the cottage

Tom and I spent the weekend in the company of a most hospitable family: The Hickmans, who are friends of Tom's family, and Katie, all of whom are extremely warm and welcoming people, they assisted me in seeing more of Scotland, than I could have hoped too, or even have planned too.

Loch Tay

Loch Tay is where the River Tay runs to and through, it's long and thin but very pretty, I was told by the Scottish people I met, that I'm not allowed to recommend anyone goes to Scotland, let alone Loch Tay. So all I'm going to say, is that Loch Tay is crap, as is Scotland, don't bother going there, at all. There is nothing to see or experience, honest?!

We spent the weekend being accompanied by the most darling springer spaniel, Rum, who refused to sit still long enough to have her photo taken, hence the fragmented image below...

Rum the split personally dog!

In all seriousness, Scotland is truly beautiful and lovely and a place I'd love to go back to soon. Why did it take me so long to get there?

My Year of Books: Anna Karenina Pt.3

I've gotten to the beginning of the third book, of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, and have quit reading it, this is how hard I found the book to read and the characters to like. I kept on coming home from work complaining to Tom about what a bitch she is and have finally lost my patience with this book in it's entirety. In fact, the only character I really liked was her husband, Count Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, which I'm pretty sure isn't supposed to happen. I'm 100% sure you're supposed to have sympathy for her and dislike him, but alas, I do not feel that at all...maybe my wiring is backwards. I also can not stand Count Vronsky, he's a troubled dickhead who can't see past the end of his own nose and always wants what is on the other side of the fence!

I read the ending of the story on Wikipedia and revelled in joy when she dies at the end, I felt as though she deserved it for being self centred and desperate for drama in her own life. I appreciate she fell in love for the first time, I really do but regardless of that, she should have behaved better and no it's not that I'm unromantic, not at all, It's just I hated her behaviour of trying to justify her actions and blaming others for them. I get that she's a modern naive woman and all of that but I do not like her or understand her. But hey, that's just my take on it. I know someone who adores this book and probably adores the character of Anna Karenina. Although, most people who I've spoken to about this particular book have all expressed that Tolstoy is quite a difficult author to read and that Anna Karenina is a whole lot of drama for little purpose.

In the mean time, I've started reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens; I feel that I'll get on this with book much better.

My Year of Books: Anna Karenina Pt. 2

I've pushed on with Anna Karenina but I'm finding it extremely hard to like the book or the characters. People keep on telling me that I'll feel sorry for Anna eventually but I'm finding that hard to believe as I think she is a rather self centered character who only thinks about herself and not the consequences. I really dislike her, in case you can't tell.

Red Onion and Garlic Quiche

I purchased the largest amount of Red Onions and Garlic, due to a bulk buy deal, so started looking for recipes to make with them. For some reason, I instantly thought of pie and quiche, my recipe below is a small twist on this recipe I found online: Onion and Wild Garlic Quiche. 

I made it with 5 medium eggs and it was too moist, even after cooling down, so either add the 5th egg and cook it for a little longer, use 4 large eggs or make it with 4 medium eggs and it should be a little cheesier, instead of wetter than wet. It's all trial and error, like most cooking.

Also, I love garlic, in fact I think I'm a little immune to it's taste, my boyfriend tells me this is very garlicky, so if you want to have something a little more subtle, use 3 large cloves or 4 small cloves.

Ingredients:

5 Medium Eggs

200g Cheddar Cheese

Half a Ball of Mozzarella

2 tbsp of Parmesan

4 red Red Onions

4 large cloves of Garlic

Salt and Pepper

Fresh Shortcrust Pastry (because who can really be bothered to make their own pastry?!)

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 190 C

Finely slice the Red Onions and crush the Garlic.

Add to a warm pan and soften the Red Onions and Garlic in lashings of Olive Oil.

Meanwhile, grease your container with butter / oil. 

Roll out your Pastry and lay within your container, add greaseproof paper and baking beans and pop in to the oven, for 25 mins.

Grate the Cheddar, roughly chop the Mozzarella and Parmesan.

Scramble the Eggs in a large bowl, add all of the cheeses to make one big eggy cheesy mess, and add the softened Red Onions and Garlic.

Season accordingly.

Once the pastry has finished cooking, remove from the oven.

Remove your baking beans and greaseproof paper.

Add the eggy/cheesy mixture and pop back in to the oven for 30 minutes.

Once completely finished, it should be nicely browned on the top, allow for the quiche to cool. Don't worry too much if it's a little runny when you initially pull it out, it should dry as it cools.

And enjoy!

Song for Judith

Judy Collins - Song for Judith

I've only just heard this song for the first time and I think it's the most beautiful song. I'd like to pass my thanks to the TV series 'Girls', for playing it at the end of an episode.

My Year of Books: Anna Karenina Pt. 1

So, I've given 'Notes from the Underground' to my bedstand to look after, so my handbag now nurtures Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

Generally, I've found Anna Karenina a thoroughly enjoyable read, although that was until she met Vronsky, I know exactly how she felt in that moment, I've felt it many a time and it blows your mind and makes you question everything. and I mean everything....therefore I can completely sympathise with her situation but also, I have a sensible side that wouldn't risk what I have to lose for a one off, but I guess the point is that she has very little too lose, as far as she is concerned...

I'm currently 200 pages in and shall report back once I'm nearing the end, but so good, so far. Minus the day I lost to Tolstoy describing Levin's farm for 3 chapters...

My Year of Books: Notes from the Underground

I've started to read Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, it is basically a novel about someone who has been isolated from humanity for an extended period of time.

I really like Dostoyevsky's style of writing, but after 2 weeks of reading this particular piece on the tube, it's difficult; the writings are rambled, confusing and long. I've chosen for this to be my bed reading, as it is a little too complex for a 10-15 minute trip along a busy track.

I feel about this book, as I did about 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Gael Marquez, it's a beautiful book but needs care and consideration when reading. They both almost need reflection time, to ponder of the greater message...these are not books for public transport, they are books for tranquil holidays of reflection...

My year of Books: Of Mice and Men

Right, so mid last week, I finished Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, if only someone had told me how sad it was going to get.

Firstly, you can instantly tell why it's a modern classic, it's so well written and hits home emotionally instantly, as soon as I started reading it, I cared for Lenny and George, I wanted George to do all he could for Lenny; and to me, he did.

After meeting Candy, I could feel that he and George would have an affiliation; and after meeting Curley's Wife, I knew she was up to no good. I've met so many females like her, they can't see the harm they do due to their boredom. Oh, how mad I got reading about Curley's Wife, she isn't a girl's girl, that's for sure...

Ensuring I give nothing away, if someone had told me that I would end the book sobbing into the pages, my heart emptying with every tear that hit the page, I don't know if I would have read it. It was heartbreakingly beautiful. So incredibly beautiful, that I've recommended it to my mother, who has read  everything twice...just to ensure that she has definitely read it.

This is the kind of book that leave an impression, the kind of amazing book that takes hardly any words to describe, it's all about the passion within 5 words: You have to read this book.

Quilt No.2

I've finally sewn all of the squares for 'quilt two' together but I've now lost my quilting wind and therefore have frozen, I'm sure it'll come back, it always does. Probably during the height of summer, as there really is nothing worse then sewing a quilt top to the wadding and backing during hot days, but when the wind strikes, you just got to sew.

If the recipients of this blanket are lucky, they may get it before their first wedding anniversary, unlike the recipients of the First Quilt. It's not about the delivery date, it's about the love which is given while making it, hence the lack of energy and ability and the duration for making one, honest, honest it is. 

OK, maybe I'm just impatient and like to change my projects often and due to that, I apologise to the lucky recipients, when it is finished. Along with the other three which haven't even been thought about yet...I'm going to stop giving them as presents, as I'm crap at quilting.

My Year of Books: Animal Farm

Since dating Tom, it has appeared that I am extremely unread. I knew that I hadn't read most of the classic works but I didn't realise how truly hopeless I had been.

In the last three years, I've read most of Jane Austen's books, 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte and 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Bronte, but that is about it; and most of those were read over the last year and a half, since moving to London; it's amazing what dead time spent on the underground can cause.

I decided that 2013 is the year of books, I'm going to read the classics, or at least start reading the classics. In the last week, I've read 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell and have started to read 'Of Mice and Men' by John Steinbeck.

Animal Farm was brilliant, I know I'm teaching old people to suck eggs, I know that everyone who has read it knows all about it but still. I really enjoyed it. I knew the premise of the storyline and obviously saw the cartoon version when I was a child but I couldn't remember a thing about it. For a book of 110 pages it's concise and entertaining. I really felt for Boxer, who so wanted to trust in the "greater good".

Tom has informed me it is about Stalin and Lenin, so my next stop shall be a quick scan of the wikipedia page and probably miss the point entirely. I mentioned to Tom that the way that Napolean raised a mass fear by blaming Snowball for everything was very similar to how Hitler raised the general public to dislike the Jewish Community, etc., I guess it's the same in most Communist parties, the mutual enemy, and you've no choice but to carry on hoping and believing in the future, and your leader.

I recommend this book wholeheartedly for all ages, it's only 110 pages or so, where is the harm?!

Basil Oil

Last year while unemployed I made Basil Oil as a birthday gift. It's really simple and delicious.

Buy, acquire, grow a basil plant. It needs to be bushy and full. Over pluck the plant until it's just stalks with small / little leaves on. Never pick the small leaves, only the medium to big ones.

Place in a saucepan (I used a sauce / milk pan and the amount of leaves I picked filled it a third full, approx. 2.5 inches deep) and add 75cl of Extra Virgin Oil. Put on an extremely low heat and leave until the oil starts to simmer (Do NOT let it boil). Let the oil simmer for about 5-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. When you return to it an hour or two later, the oil will now be a green misty colour.

Find the appropriate receptacle for the oil. I like to use old glass drinking bottles (but you could easily purchase some from here or use alternatives). Using a funnel and sieve, pour the oil in to the bottles, wrap with a bow and add a tag, stating when it was made.

I'd advise it be stored in a cool dark cupboard and consumed within 30 days - although it might need to be used way before this. I eat mine with freshly baked bread, on salads and it tastes great with anything parmesan based.

Photo to follow....

Iced Spiced Biscuits

When I was a child, my family had this awesome cook book, which is ideal for children of all ages and I highly recommend it. I spent most of the younger years with my nose stuck in it, making all sorts of things from brownies (in fact this brownie recipe is a variant of the one from this book) to Welsh Rarebit, etc. It features very simple easy recipes, which are enjoyable to make.

Now, one of the most tortured pages in our copy of this book was the Iced Spiced Biscuits. I've no idea how many of these I've made over the last 30 years, in fact I dread to think. But here is my version of the recipe...

Ingredients required:

250g Plain Flour
125g Butter / margarine
125g Brown Sugar / golden caster sugar
1 beaten egg (I normally use medium)
2 teaspoons of Mixed Spice
A pinch of Salt

Measure out and throw all of the ingredients in to the bowl. Mix together until the dough is dry-ish and biscuit like. Sprinkle flour on to the side and roll out to your required thickness. Cut in to all sorts of shapes and put on to a tray covered in greaseproof paper, or grease up a tray with some butter.

Place the tray in to the middle of a pre heated oven, 190 C / 375 F or Gas Mark 5. Cook for 15-20 minutes, depending on their colouring.

Once out of the oven, place on to a cooling rack. In the mean while, mix up some icing.

125g Icing Sugar
1-2 teaspoons of tepid water
Food colouring of your choice

Decorate the biscuits accordingly, you can add Smarties, Jelly Tots, etc. and gorge away....

These are perfect for Christmas, as they have a lovely spiced flavour and can be decorated in all sorts of Christmas colours, etc. and hung on the tree. They also make great presents for your noisy neighbours who stomp around their flat at all hours of the night...I'm the only person who has this, oh I do apologise.

2012 wrap up...

My intention at the beginning of 2012 was to write more frequently than I did during 2011, I've completely failed, due to work expecting me to actually work, and not only work, but work above and beyond.

2012 has basically seen Tom and I often get home from work, eat and then head to bed by 11pm, due to being exhausted. Tom spends all day being his most charming self on the phone and through emails, and I spend my days juggling eggs and running around like a mentalist, at least I never need to go to the gym, due to it.

We are finally getting to enjoy some relaxing time off, due to both of our companies being closed during Christmas. Today I wrapped all of my presents, I only have two presents left to buy, which surprised me, I thought I'd hardly bought anything. I also made a couple of final presents, see here. Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to cooking some biscuits and possibly some bread, although I'm fully aware that Tom's bread is better than mine, so maybe not...

I'm also celebrating Christmas this year with my first real Christmas tree (we always had an artificial one when I was a child), of course I had to find a fairy to go on the top and luckily my first Sindy doll came to the rescue, her dress is made out of some remnants.

Hopefully next year I might get to be more creative and have time to write the random brain waves of my mind down here, like the olden days. I knew moving to London was never going to be easy, I just didn't realise that it would be this tiring...maybe I'll just learn to survive on 6 hours sleep a night?!

Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year! 

Christmas Stockings

I've been extremely lethargic lately, work has been crazy and all I seem to do outside of work is sleep. Personally, I'm looking forward to a calmer time, if such a thing exists.

But, due to the beloved festive period being here, today I have sewn some stockings for my two god-daughters, admittedly they won't get to enjoy the splendour this year, but next year, Christmas should be pretty epic for them...yep, that is right, I am going to claim that these stockings will change their future Christmas experiences!

These particular stockings are made from Moda's 2011 Christmas range, with a plain white lining.

Chocolate Chip Cake Biscuits

While in the pub on Boxing Day with some friends, we discussed cooking / baking styles, I'm the kind of baker who throws caution to the wind and takes chances on not having the right ingredients, throwing additional things in or varying other aspects, it's drives Tom mad, as he is more of a precise follow the recipe kind of person.

This recipe is the perfect example; I started out trying to make cookies, adapted the recipe due to the lack of chocolate and ended up making some form of cake shaped like biscuits and they are delicious, so I thought I'd share them, enjoy!

Preheat the oven at 190 C / 375 F / Gas Mark 5.

Mixed together -
200g Drinking Chocolate
350g Plain Flour
3 tsp of Baking Powder
1 tsp of Salt

Cream together -
225g Butter
175g Caster Sugar
175g Soft Brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Medium Eggs



Slowly add the dry mix to the creamed mix and add 6 tbsp of Semi-Skimmed Milk to ensure the mix stays moist. Once everything is added together please add 100g of crumbled Dark Chocolate (Try to make it epic dark chocolate, 75% cocoa content and up).

Place large dollops of mixture on to greaseproof papered tray spaced wide apart and put in the top of the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, pull out of oven, allow to cool and serve with ice cream, double cream or eat plain.

I've no idea what the calories contents is, it's probably about 1000 per cake, I've eaten at least 5 in the last day, oops!

Quilt No.1 Making

I've had to change the colours
slightly, so you can see the
pattern, as it's a light jade on cream.

One of Tom's oldest friends decided to get married to a pretty fab girl and I had the desire to make a quilt, after all of the time at the Haberdashery last year, I couldn't resist...so I started thinking that making one as a present couldn't be too hard...Yes, these are the same two who's wedding I helped decorate.

The thing about making a quilt is that it's a very personal thing. It doesn't just keep you warm, you can also dress your home, so you need to ensure it's in keeping with how the people you're giving it too, might dress their home. Or maybe I'm thinking too much?!

These two particular people have a Classic, Country, Parisian, Sleepy City Suburbs style. The girl is vintage and calm colours, the guy is good suits and shiny shoes.

My initial lay out
for the quilt

Luckily, the haberdashery I used to help at, Beyond Fabrics, had a nice selection of five inch square packs, one that had maps of Paris on them. Additional to these, were various pretty flowery squares.

There are only 40 squares in a pack, at approx. £15, bearing in mind of the salvage, that only covers 2.5ft by 2.5ft, roughly. Which won't make a single quilt of 6ft by 4ft.

Luckily I had various flowery patterns in similar colours, so I cut additional squares up and started to lay them out in a satisfactory pattern, where none of them seemed to clash.

I started to sew my 4 squares into square formations and realised, I was going to need loads more material, bloody hell, it's gonna cost a fortune! I head back to Beyond Fabrics and found some fantastic new materials with little swirls on them...perfect!

So I started to make borders, 1 inch wide. They have great appeal and look fantastic, but, they are a bitch to cut, sew, press and sew! I also made 3 inch wide borders to go in between the squares. I would suggest doing bigger squares, but I had an experience, back in the earlier days of my sewing career, where I tried to make a double quilt with big 7 inch squares...huge mistake!!!

I then needed to extend it length ways and found some neutral materials in my box, to add in. This is when I made a huge mistake, I mismatched two materials, then added a strip of plain either side, it looked shit! Cue lots of unpicking...the joys of sewing!

I set about cutting and sewing to break them all up and added my strips to the strip of squares and borders.

It's been suggested that I should have made a plan to begin with, or have used a pattern, but it's not how I fly. Yes it might have made life easier, but it wouldn't have been so much fun! If you've a logical brain, get an idea of what you'd like it to look like and set about it...I wanted squares, the borders were a last minute requirement that set it off nicely.

My lazy quilting...

I found the cutting of the final borders of the quilt and the sewing of those borders really tedious. It's up there with sewing the quilt top, wadding and backing together, or the binding...both dull as! The most exciting part is sewing the quilt top, it's a lot of fun seeing it come together, although I need to improve my lining up of the squares, etc.

Also, I bailed on actual quilting, lazy of me, I know. I did little square stitches in the middle of the squares and left tassles on the reversed side. 

The finished article!

I will try harder in the future on the actual quilting part, as I'm soon to embark on another quilt. This time it's brightly coloured with lots and lots of squares, I'm still collecting the material for the quilt top, I'm worried that I'm loosing my mind, as I'm seeing every item of my wardrobe as potential material. 

Here is a little taster of the next quilt...

The Strangest Day (a music diary)...

Today has been a crazy day. I awoke after a night of meeting a lot of people who I've heard about for a year. It was a really charming evening and the people who work with Tom are lovely, truly great people.

This morning, I awoke after a random drunk dream where I was 5 hours later for my plans today, a standard drunk dream, if my records stand true.
I eventually got up, after some re runs of Supermarket Sweep, showered and departed to head towards the South of Wimbledon...

I ended up stuck between Colliers Wood and South Wimbledon for about 20 minutes...at which point I was thinking of this song:


Mary J Blige 'Going Down'

Eventually, I met up with the ladies, we did tea, and then headed towards the bridal shop, for Hammers to try 1000 dresses on, at which point I was sensing this:


OMC ' How Bizarre'

And also this:


Charlie Rich 'The Most Beautiful Girl'


We found the one with jubilance, at which point we ended up in Wimbledon feeling like this:


Polyphonic Spree 'It's the Sun'

After some free cocktails and a platter of food, we headed to the home of Brian, at which point I tried to be mega cool and hip, so not to upset Brian, as he's mega awesome. FYI ---> This is Brian, he's pretty cool!

So I played this:


Calvin Harris & Rihanna 'We found love'

Then Vik's mentioned this and my life was changed:


PSY 'Gangham Style'

and Hammers made me watch this:


Sam and the Womp 'Bom Bom'

and all of a sudden I realised I was hanging out with Europop freaks and desperately craved East London indifference...

at which point I changed the settings of "the bar" and played this:


Wicked ' Defying Gravity'

We then had a musical moments, where I basically played the Phantom of the Opera from beginning to end, obviously singing along all the while...then came round and realised it isn't the 80s anymore, sad times.

So I ended the night singing along to this on my bus home:


Carly Simon ' Jesse'

and this:


Celine Dion ' It's all coming back to me'

and this (I had an epic 45 minute bus ride to fill, these are the girly highlights):


Meatloaf 'you took the words right out of my mouth'

Basically, it's been a fantastic day!!!
And I tried to get everyone to watch Queen live at Wembley, 1986, but they weren't game - sad times!

But most importantly, I tried to educate Hammers tonight, by leaving her with this album, and especially this song:


The Kinks 'Strangers'

Pigeons

I have an issue with pigeons feet. No, I'm not sat in a restaurant staring at a menu full of them, I'm talking about those infamous flying rats, the very much alive ones.

Every morning I walk through Grosvenor Square which is full of them, now I'm not talking Trafalgar Sq in Mary Poppins, I'm talking modern day pigeon masses. And every morning I can't help but stare at every pigeons feet, it's just the gammy feet that make me sad, they make me want to stamp on their heads and put them out of their misery and I'm not sure why, as it's just a little impractical not life destroying, especially as I'm talking about pigeons who mainly rely on their wings, although some of the ones I've seen recently are possibly too fat to fly?!

I guess my issue is made worse by the colour and texture of their feet, I don't know! I know I'm being stupid but I can't really help feeling the need to stamp on the heads of pigeons with manky feet.