April Kitchen

 It's bright and sunny again (at last) here today....after a few rather chilly days and a very damp easter, today the sky is blue and the birds are chirping outside my window again.....i made some little spring inspired cakes the other day......

 ...it was nice to do a bit of baking after mostly working intensively over the last couple of weeks....lovely to have a bit of time to do other things like baking and crafting just for fun......

 .........a while ago i did a review of tea towel designs for al at all tea towels, and when i decided to give one of them away as part of my winter giveaway, al kindly said i could pick another one too.....so i chose the one in the pictures above called a nice cup of tea.....i discovered that the artist who designed it was the same one who designed the first tea towel i picked....linda edwards, whose lovely website can be seen here......the tea towel, like all the ones stocked by al is lovely to use and i love the colours in my april kitchen.....

 ................and a very SwEeT block here along with the coloured chocolate flowers.....from fee, of course....

 .........lots of spring flowers brighten up my kitchen at the moment....some of my favourites are the natural primroses which i grew from tiny plug plants a few years ago.....i have quite a big primrose patch in the garden now, and pot up a few as presents or to enjoy indoors for a while.......

 ............some daisy cupcakes in spring green paper cases........all gone now.......we still have some chocolate flowers left though, as well as some easter eggs still to nibble..........

 ......i had a bit of time to make some more blocks for the farmer's wife quilt over the weekend break....

.........i had to include this one today because it's name is...broken dishes.....i love this block pattern, i remember first discovering it years ago and thinking how the little pieces did look like shards of broken dishes........ i have a couple more blocks to sew together, and my flower patch quilt is nearing completion now....and i've begun a new crochet blanket but will save that until next time :-)
.......thank you for calling in to see me in my little bit of blogland today.....i hope you are having a sunny week and enjoy the coming weekend too.........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Happy Week

These beautiful flowering tete tete bulbs were a little present I gave to my mother yesterday - so bright and cheery I had to snap a picture before I gave them to her. And I have been given something too...another blog award! I feel very lucky to receive this award from the lovely Millie at milliemeadowsweet - do visit this pretty blog, if you haven't already, and you will wander into a magical and enchanted world. Thank you so much Millie!!

As I've already told you lots of things about me recently - how about seven pictures of my week instead?

one: opening the box newly arrived from my publishers, David & Charles, containing the makes from my two latest books - Home Sweet Home and Simple Sewn Gifts...lovely to see all the things again and I'll show more pictures of them when they are all fully unpacked....

      two: choosing seeds for my new spring planting - the plan is to have the most flowery garden ever...

    three: spending time in the kitchen sorting out the baking cupboard and putting the flours in labelled jars..

       four: and at the same time making flapjacks again...mmmm....only eating one a day though!...

     five: finding this sweet vintage jug at the back of a cupboard and bringing it out to enjoy properly....

 six: loving these tulips flopping around on my kitchen table - when they open out they form such huge flat petalled flowers not at all like tulips but beautiful all the same....

seven: and loving these little yellow violas which I rescued from the garden centre where they looked unhappy and weather beaten and in need of tlc - after a day or so on my windowsill they look much more perky and content.....I hope you've enjoyed my seven things today. I don't really know who to pass this award on to - everyone on my list who hasn't already got it? You are all stylish bloggers!
I hope you are having a happy week and enjoying life's little pleasures, with maybe a bit of spring sunshine too. Thank you so much for dropping by and reading this and for your wonderful comments too. See you soon! xxx

Happy Winter

Hello! I hope you've been having a happy winter week! Here are some of the things I've been enjoying in mine. Knitting clothes for toy rabbits... much quicker than knitting them for me and I'm sure that  the bunny likes being cosy...

    Seeing Daisy playing with the soft blocks I showed you in my last post - she loved them sooo much!!

       Baking bread mmmmm there's nothing quite like the delicious smell of fresh baked bread is there?

 Reading this sweet book - I've heard of it for ages and was curious about the quirky title, and I loved the cover design especially the postmark and stamp bit, but have only just got round to reading it...I'm so glad I did.

     Cutting into these scrumptious dotty fabrics to make something new which I'll be showing you soon...

And sooo enjoying my spring bulbs...another present from xmas...this is a wonderful little postcard-y decorated container with the deepest blue sweetly scented hyacinths - a bit of heaven on the table in my studio, delicious wafts of scent while I am working at the computer (like now!)
What have you been enjoying this week? Thank you for visiting me here, for your sweet comments and  a big welcome to new readers who have just found me here!! Have a happy week! Back soon xx

Stitching Stars

One night last week we saw the clearest skies and the most stars we've seen for ages - so sharp, bright and twinkling. Soon I'll be putting Christmas lights in all the windows. (I've already got a string of fairy lights in the kitchen to brighten up my cooking.) One of my favourite things is seeing all kinds of little lights in different houses shining through the winter darkness in such a warm, welcoming way.

 This week I've been stitching some little stuffed stars to make a decoration. I haven't decided on the final colour way yet - I might keep it all cool blues and turquoises or add in some pink and red....

 Sometimes one colour works best and looks the most stylish - but I have such a love of colours and their effect on each other I find it hard to resist combining them. I think that's why pretty floral designs work so well for me - the mixture of colours is delicious to my eye!

 It's not just been stitching stars here, but baking them too. These are Vanilla Star Cookies - which are really just the basic cookie recipe with a couple of drops of vanilla essence added. I put some in the freezer to have later in the season. I might make some more as gifts too, as they look pretty in a cellophane bag tied with ribbon or raffia, with a homemade tag.

            We did keep one or two to try - just to make sure they really were good enough to eat!

I'm looking forward to this weekend, with winter walks, sewing, and cosy family time. I hope you all have a  lovely weekend with starry nights and sunny days. x

A Bit of Baking

Hello! I hope you had a lovely weekend! We enjoyed ours - gardening, shopping, seeing family and friends - and a bit of baking which I am showing you today. Nothing fancy of course, I just make simple things...

Like these little cakes. I use Delia Smith's All in One Sponge recipe for my cakes, as I have for years, as she promised in her book that it will never go wrong and she was right!

Then there is the icing...we have a choice of pink or white with sprinkles. Now we have a little boy in the family I do try to have alternatives to pink....

The little cakes have all gone now, and it's fruit and vegetables all the way until next weekend! Apart from this little cake which is always around - a crochet cake which I bought on a shopping trip in the summer.
Hope you have a great week filled with sweet things. x

Baking Buns

The recent hot sunny weather has made me less inspired to bake things, but until we became so sun kissed around here I would bake a batch of our current favourites each week. Sometimes it's flapjacks, sometimes it's scones, or maybe a tray bake - very easy traditional recipes, old fashioned home baking is our favourite. The latest craze before the heat wave, was rock buns. I don't know what made me dig out an old recipe and, finding I had all the ingredients in stock, begin to make these simple little cakes. They are called rock buns because of their shape, not (hopefully) their hardness. I love recipes where you throw it all in the mixer and it's done quickly and you don't have to wait too long for it to cook. These are so delicious and tempting - the lemon zest makes them really yummy.

Favourite Rock Buns

100gbutter, 225g plain flour, 2 level tsps baking powder, 1/2 tsp mixed spice (optional), pinch salt, 100g demerara sugar, 100g mixed dried fruit, grated rind of 1/2 lemon, 1 large egg, beaten, 1 tsp milk. Place baking parchment on two baking trays. Rub the butter into the sifted flour, baking powder, spices and salt until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Mix in the sugar, fruit and lemon rind. Pour in the egg and milk, and mix until stiff and crumbly. Use a big spoon to drop the mixture onto the baking trays, roughly shaping the cakes into similar sizes. Bake in the oven at 200C for 15-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container and they'll keep for a few days - or maybe not......