Easter makes and bakes

So Easter is over for another year and it threw every kind of weather it could at us: thunder, lightning, wind, rain, hail and sunshine.

For most of it, we stayed inside and did some reading and crafting, only venturing out for new supplies. The pom pom tree is a new make. I did try gluing the balls onto the polystyrene cone but they fell off and rolled in all directions. What worked in the end was threading them into different sized rounds and simply dropping them over the cone.

Chickpea and her boyfriend made biscuits. He's never made them at home so she's introducing him to the joys of baking. Last time they made a cake just so he could experience licking the spoon.

On Sunday while the thunder and lightning raged, Chickpea and I made a start on some decopatch. The dragon and unicorn are hers and the bird is mine.

Just the legs to finish now.

I also started my bird embroidery from the Feb/March issue of Stitch magazine. Tracing round the pattern, listening to my favourite Bon Jovi song, 'Dry County' on Planet Rock, whilst sipping fragrant Lullaby Dreamcatcher tea. Pure bliss.

And, of course, there was kirigami.

We didn't stay inside all weekend though. On Good Friday we ventured to Dunham Massey. It seemed like everyone else did too so our journey took three times as long as usual. However, it's a big place so there were always quiet corners to be found. More photos coming soon.

Finally, there was excitement in the garden as I spotted our first ever willow warbler! After watching it for ages, it of course flew off as soon as I went to fetch the camera so here's one from last summer.

The best thing about this Easter? That it's not really over as I still have this week and next at home. Yippee! I have a whole list of things to do and see. Don't you just love holidays? :-)

Festive making & baking

Christmas already seems so long ago that it feels strange to still be looking back. However, I wanted to show you what I'd been up to before continuing to move forward with the new year.

One of the things I most enjoyed over the Christmas break was having time to spend making and baking. The luxury of actually being able to plan to do some crafting and to do it at a leisurely pace, rather than squeezing it into increasingly fewer spare moments. If I was to make another resolution for 2014, it would be to find more of that kind of time rather than trying to cram in as much as possible. I really felt much better for slowing down, resting and feeding my creative side. Luckily, I don't make resolutions though because it would already have been broken.

But anyway, what making and baking did I get up to?

Starry lebkuchen biscuits with some dough I found lurking at the back of the freezer (and it was no worse from having been there since the previous year!).

I also ventured into baking with yeast for the first time with an apricot, chocolate and cardamom panettone. How exciting is it watching bread rise?! Why have I never tried this before? Bread making is definitely something I'll be coming back to when I can plan an 'at home' day.

The panettone should probably have been smaller and taller but I only realised at the last minute that I had the wrong size tin. Not that it made any difference to the taste. We ate it toasted for breakfast on Christmas morning with shop-bought Christmas tree crumpets and starry waffles.

This was a tree of a different kind made from a polystyrene cone. As you can see from the photos, I cut circles of Christmas fabrics with pinking shears and pinned them in layers to cover the cone. The idea came from the free Cloth, Paper, Scissors e-newsletter.

I also worked on my Father Christmas cross stitch which, I'm embarrassed to admit, has been on the go at least 5 years. All that remains to do is the outline stitching and more of the swirly snow. I've been in two minds whether to crack on and finish it or whether to keep it as a project to pull out each Christmas. I have another cross stitch project in mind though and I'm not sure if I have another frame so it looks like it will have to be finished.

No photos for this one but I've been working on my quilt too, transferring rectangles from piles of unsewn to sewn - a slow but therapeutic process.

And I wasn't the only one crafting for Christmas. Chickpea made this beautiful decopatch treasure chest as a gift for a friend. I was so proud of her: she worked so hard and really took time over all the details. Watching her enjoy crafting was one of my highlights of last year and something I love to encourage. This year, therefore, I'm going to continue being a craftlete, trying different crafts and hopefully finding others which she'll enjoy.

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Thanks for the comments about the cookery book challenge. I was ridiculously excited making my first draw this week, quivering with anticipation of which of my lovely books I'd be using. Was I still excited afterwards? Well, you'll have to wait until my first update to find out :)

Daffodils and sundaes

I brought these lovely daffodils home from the supermarket and then realised that all of my vases and jugs were much too tall. A search through the cupboards uncovered a sundae glass.

Let's hope neither me or Chickpea has a craving for Knickerbocker Glories in the next week!

Luckily we do have another one though because it was needed to measure out one of the main ingredients for a recipe I'll be telling you about next time. Can you guess what it is? (Rose, you're not allowed to guess!)

It's been a very quiet weekend. After dodging all the bugs and germs this winter, I have finally succumbed to the lurgy so I've done very little but rest. Of course, the cold couldn't have picked a worse time because I'm off work this week. TYPICAL!! I am trying very hard not to be completely FED UP.

I did have days out and activities planned and, hopefully, we'll get to do some of them. Chickpea won't be bothered either way: she'll probably just be happy getting on with her peacock decopatch.

Back in a couple of days with, fingers crossed, fewer germs. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. x

(Deco) Patching

Last year I decided to try some different crafts: 'variety is the spice' and all that. I'd seen decopatching in a craft magazine and then saw the papers in Hobbycraft. As a patchworker and quilter it wasn't too much of a stretch to try patchworking with papers.

Well, I love it! It's so simple and so effective. What can be more relaxing than cutting up bits of paper and sticking them on objects? 'Dream' was purchased from Hobbycraft and was the first thing I made. 

The 'Love' ornament came from Next and was plain and boring and just begging to be transformed into something bright and colourful. Can you tell I took the last two photos in the summer? All that lush greenery. I saw the first buds on a cherry blossom tree today - true spring really is on its way!

And this is what I've been working on over the last couple of weekends. I made a similar one last year as a gift and this one will be winging its way over to Germany later this week. The papers are probably not really my friend's taste but I still have lots of the paper left and it would have been a waste/extravagance to buy more. Hopefully, she'll appreciate the sentiment if not the colours.

Of course, as yesterday was World Quilting Day, it seemed appropriate to do some real quilting with fabrics too. This is the border for the Wonky Star quilt which I'm foundation piecing.

I've also been baking cookies but you'll have to wait until next time to see those :-)