Autumn Swap Time

Did you notice in my sidebar I joined in Crafty Helen @ Homes Autumn/Halloween Swap, well I chose Autumn and I was paired with the incredible knitting talent that is Chloé.

We had a little email discussion about what we liked and we read each others blog, I spent hours looking through her flickr makes, she really is brilliant.

This is what arrived :

Brown paper packages tied up with string......

...these are a few of my favourite things:

This wonderful book full of clever and unusual knits for little ones, perfect! It is spiral bound which I love in a craft book as it actually stays open and you can use it without creasing it.

how cute is this:
and this is adorable:
a fabulous laptop sleeve, which I have been meaning to make for myself for months now - this is just very me, I love it

The loveliest facecloth hand knitted isn't it amazing, Chloe has linked to the pattern on Ravelry on her blog, it looks far too complicated for me. The body bar just smells amazing I wish I could share it's smell with you, I can't use it I want to keep it like this!

And last but not least the softest, most beautiful wool scarf handmade by Chloe using a design she created herself of falling leaves, isn't it just amazing, I love the detail in it and it's so appropriate for this swap, I will treasure this.

Huge, huge thanks to Chole for such wonderful and well thought out gifts, I hope you like my little offering to you!

Big thanks to Helen for organising this, you lovely clever thing you!

p.s. Weigh in last night, lost another 1.5 lbs - thats 9lb in three weeks, I just need to keep this going..

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

Givaway Win and a Slimming Pudding

Did I mention that I won a lovely giveaway recently, well I did, I won!

This is what I won from Bibbitybob's Giveaway ~ aren't there some lovely bits in there? I have already got the vintage doilies out in the house and the kids snaffled the little chocolates ~ just as well really I have eaten far too much naughty stuff this week. Thanks again honey this was a welcome suprise and made my week.

Beautiful little handmade heart:

CK covered photo frame and little heart:

An assortment if beautiful pre-loved cloths, some of these have already found homes throughout my house:

Didn't I do well it brightened up a dreary week! Thanks again honey x

Now on a different note, I have been cooking lots more since joining slimming world. I know I have to cook most days but spag bol from a jar is not really cooking is it?

I am not a cook as such, I make what I have to and find it a chore, but I have enjoyed making some new Slimming World Recipes recently, here is one I made yesterday:

Slimming World Raspberry Roulade

Ingredients: 4 eggs, few drops if vanilla essence ( I used lemon essence), 4 tbsp sweetner, 1 tub quark (virtually fat free soft cheese), and strawberries or raspberries.

Directions: Seperate the egg whites and whisk until stiff peaks form.

In seperate bowl mix egg yolks, 1/2 tub of Quark, 1/2 the sweetner and Lemon/Vanilla Essence. Give it a good mix.

Gently fold into the egg whites.

Pour the mixture in a lined (important as it will stick) and well oiled (with frylight) tray and bake for 10-15 mins at gas 5 or 190 centigrade.

It comes out like this, it was a strange texture a bit like a sweet omlette and very delicate:

Next you mix the remainder of the quark, sweetner and fruit together and spread it across the cake then roll it into a swiss roll and dust with sweetner. Stick it in the fridge for an hour and you get this:

And it was delicious, I was not expecting it to be; but it was. I ate the lot myself, everyone turned their noses up at it and I didn't encourage them too hard to share it. I hasten to add I did not eat it all in one sitting.
This will only make sense if you follow slimming world or if you have done, but this entire roulade is FREE on all plans. There is a version which is 1/2 syn for the whole thing but that is for 1 tsp baking powder which I leave out and it makes no difference as far as I can tell.

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

Versatile Blogger Award

I have recently received another award (get me, I feel like Katherine Hepburn... I wish I looked like her too) from the rather talented Jacey of Coffee 'n' Crochet ~ thanks very much honey!

To receive this award there are 3 things you have to do;

1. Say a big thank you to the person who sent you it: Thanks lovely lady :)

2. Reveal 7 Interesting facts about yourself. If I keep doing these you will know me better than I know myself, I am not terribly interesting but here we go:

1. I am a movie fan, I have hundreds of DVDs scattered about the house and buy films all the time.
I have a pile of movies that I circulate through on a regular basis and I watch movies sometimes in 10 parts as and when I get the time, they are the backlight to my daily life. I like a wide array of movies and the last few movies I watched this week were; Harvey (for the 1,000th time), The something, something, something Dark Side, Dead Man's Shoes and A Christmas Story (in September I know, but I love this film). I do however rarely go to the cinema, it is not easy with 4 kids and its blooming uncomfortable and expensive, and I hate that plebs sit near me and talk and eat with their mouths open and it just drives me insane and I can't enjoy the film, oh I am such an old woman! Ohh I once had a fight at the cinema (on my birthday!) with a man who sat on me and then poured Nacho's and Cheese and Pepsi over me. The cinema apologised on his behalf, gave me loads of free tickets and offered to pay for my dry cleaning and the police had a polite word with him. I must learn to keep my mouth shut though :)

2. I am a scatterbrain and have to write everything down.
I carry a huge handbag with two notebooks for current lists of stuff and long term stuff I need to remember. I wonder sometimes if I have early onset dementia, it does run in my maternal family. At work each day I keep a notebook by me all the time and write everything down and each day things that have not been addressed I have to copy over to tomorrow's page so I don't forget. People at work know not to ring me on my mobile as I always tell them to confirm by email a I WILL forget.

3. I am a huge Alan Bennett fan.

I love all of his work and have a special fondness for his monologues and his work with Thora Hird. I know he is gay and has a life partner but I could spend the rest of my days with this man, I adore his dulcet Yorkshire tones. I have listened to his talking heads monologues so often I know them all verbatim, my favourites being A Cream Cracker Under the Settee, The Last of the Sun, Waiting for the Telegram and A Chip in the Sugar.


4. I love the Radio, especially Radio 4.
For years now I have never missed an episode of the Archers, I am an Archers Addict! I love Womens Hour too and podcast this each day. I don't watch much TV really, I do like some of the soaps, but that's about it.



5. When I was a little kid we lived in a Sheltered Accommodation Block for the elderley a my Mum was the warden. It consisted of a huge building housing about 60 self contained flats. It was locked all the time and as such I had the run of the place. All my friends were between 60 - 98 and they were the people that shaped my life.
I visited my favourite friends every day, it was like having dozens of grandma's and grandpa's, my best friend was Hilda, she fed me Jam Sandwiches and let me play with her treasures. I remember at Easter my brother and I would get about 40 or so easter eggs each!

6. I have very few friends.All through my life I have had one or two close friends rather than a huge gaggle of friends around me. I am not a social animal, and can't abide having a house full of visitors, I prefer a few select friends who I really care about. I have one best friend who I love and lots and my Hubbie and Boys, then we have quite a small family and a couple of other friends and that's enough for me! I can't abide false people and false 'friends' so I choose not to have them around me. As I am getting older I am much less tolerant of everything, I am a grumpy old woman at 36! Oh p.s. I love Calvin and Hobbes (the comic strip above).

7. I love poetry and have a poem for most occasions. Again my tastes are wide and varied but some of my favourites are;
Flowers ~ Wendy Cope
Sonnet 116 ~ William Shakespeare
Sonnet From the Portuguese XLIII ~ Elizabeth barrett Browning
The Road Not Taken ~ Robert Frost
The Lady of Shalott ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson
Sudden Light ~ Dante Gabriel Rosetti
Remember ~ Christina Georgina Rosetti

So there you have it another few pieces of me. Again, I have to pass this on, but again, if you fancy taking up the mantle please feel free to, I will not actually tag you as I know some of you don't like it, but it's open to all.

All images courtesty of google images.

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

Things that made me smile this week...

Sometimes I need to just do a quick catch up post for the bits and bobs that don't warrant a post all of their own, so here goes, some things that made me smile this last week or so:

Pink Roses from my beautiful teenage Niece, when I asked why she said "just because I love you":

More of those 20p knitting patterns, I went back and almost cleared them out:

A new lamp for my kitchen that I just had to have, it was on offer, but not any longer it's from Laura Ashley (I have removed the link ~thanks Nicky~ as they have taken it off their website eek hope it's not dodgy!):

A little teddy I knitted follwing an Alan Dart pattern (he is about 3" high) in September's Simply Knitting Magazine:

Some pretty crochet flowers I plan to turn into brooches:

And a crochet dishcloth with a crochet flower:

Oooohhh and exciting news for last I won a wonderful giveaway ~ I couldn't believe it I was in the middle or sorting my stuff for my giveway and I won one myself from the lovely bibbitybob and I can't wait to get my hands on the lovelies, I will show you when they arrive, thanks again bibbitybob!

That's it, we are up to date!

p.s. ohh almost forgot weigh in last night and I lost another pound, thats 7.5lbs in two weeks, I was given a little award for 1/2 a stone ~ bless.

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

Crochet Coincidence

I was speaking to my Mum the other day about the things I have been busy making and she said oh I thought I would try my hand at crochet again and she produced a box of stuff she had been working on recently. Years ago Mum tried to teach me to crochet but I couldn't get it so she was glad that I finally got the hang of it. Mum has been collecting the Crochet magazine that was released fortnightly I think, and has been having a go at granny squares. I have talked her into making a lap blanket. I had a scrabble through her magazines and found this one that I thought was beautiful:

I ran off and bought the fine cotton and made this:

... it took bl&%dy ages! I did enjoy it though and it is really delicate and pretty close up. I will turn it into a lavender sachet when I find the right fabric for the inside.

These are what I need to make next with Autumn gently creeping in; well, actually up here in Northumberland it is Galloping! I have been after a pattern for these for a while, I have had a look at the pattern and it's a bit tricky (for me!).

I have actually attempted to start these twice now and have ripped them back to the beginning twice. Aaaaarrrrggghhhh! I don't help myself by making them in black, now I have had two attempts perhaps it will be third time lucky with a different colour yarn, one where I can actually see the stitches, I am thick sometimes!

The lovely Chloé of Clobelle who is my Autumn Swap partner has kindly emailed me one of her knitting patterns for 3 hour fingerless gloves - so for now those crochet gloves can go hang, I will try Chloé's knitted ones next, it might be more like 30 hours than 3 as I am a slow knitter but still!

Any ideas for a nice simple crochet scarf?

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

Simplicity Patterns 50% Off

Handmadehappiness gave a heads up on the sale on here (thank you) where simplicity sewing patters are half price. There were lots I wanted but restrained myself, well actually I only intended to buy a couple but got a bit carried away...

Look at the lovely bag patterns;

I really like this one, might be a great use for some special scraps:

These remind me of my Nana's pinnies, yeah I could fancy a pinny bag; I would love a nice laptop bag, I must get myself one made, oh god my to do list is growing and growing...

I also bough these toy patterns, I am imagining a teddy made in CK cotton fabric:

I am not sure how long the sale is on for but it is worth a look.

p.s. can I apologise for not leaving as many comments as usual, I am so busy and tired all the time I am barely scratching the surface of my reading list. I tend to get the chance to catch up at the weekend with a cuppa and it takes me a good couple of hours. I love it though, I keep finding lots of beautiful blogs and ideas and inspiration.
I still ♥ love ♥ you all and will catch up as soon as I can.

p.p.s. It was my first weigh in on Wednesday night with Slimming World and I lost 6.5 lbs. I was overjoyed, it's a good kick start to my healthy living plan.

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

150th Post Giveaway Winner and 100th Post Winner

Thank you all so much for entering, I find it incredible that you are all reading my blog, its great to have your support and encouragement

♥ Thank You all ♥

Again I would love to send you all something but I’m afraid I can’t.

As this post is also my 100th post (I didn't know I had that much to say!) I will send a small gift to another person.

For this giveaway I added you all to a long list, some of you twice and due to time constraints I gave you all a number and copped out again and did a random number generator (sorry, it’s so impersonal, but practical).

The winning number is:

That number corresponded to :

The Little Vintage Company

The second number for the 100th post is:

That number corresponded to :

Annie@Birdcages n Butterflies

Annie not sure what I am sending yet I guess it will be a suprise!

Congratulations lovely ladies, I will be in touch soon for your addresses to post your goodies out, if you see this first please email me at Kandipandi (at) Tiscali (dot) co (dot) uk!

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~