Now Wearing Purple

BIRTHDAY SURPRISES! I have had a hectic weekend and now feel totally exhausted.  I can't say things went smoothly. I felt so sorry for my sister, who had arranged the weekend of surprises, only to be scuppered by the DLR closing the main railway route that we needed to use, for repairs. Add together that it was Black Friday weekend, the England versus Tonga rugby match was being played and  Little Mix were performing at the O2, our time out and about in the city was somewhat fraught.  Our initial trip from Canary Wharf to Greenwich was supposed to take 15 minutes. It took us an hour and 15 minutes! However, we did manage to get to The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane by the skin of our teeth. The show she'd booked as a surprise was 42nd Street and it was BRILLIANT!  Beautiful costumes, amazing sets and incredible dancing. We were seated in the Grand Circle which gave us a terrific view of the stage. I loved the interior of the theatre. My pics of the...

CANDY COWL, DOGS AND BIRTHDAY TREATS What a great start to the day, sitting in bed crocheting!  Even naughtier, as the sun was shining and I had a ton of things I should be doing. Oh, and of course, I had company.  I have started a shawl, as the cowl I wanted to do was a no go. I have so much yarn, I just couldn't warrant buying more for the cowl.  I actually made myself one of these shawls last summer, but felt I wanted a bigger version. I was going to let my sister have mine and make a bigger one for me, but guess what? Yes, this one is going to be exactly the same size.  I seriously thought I'd added enough extra chains...Aaaggh!  I am not re-starting though, this has to be fate (and yes, I'm being lazy). The shawl is the Late Summer Shawl   (yes, totally out of season, but hey).  I used Stylecraft Special DK in a range of what I call 'Candy Colours'. My sister will be gifted this new one for Christmas, rather than getting my old on...

MUMS CHICKEN CASSEROLE WITH DUMPLINGS It was my late Mum's birthday a few days ago and it made me reminisce.  She taught me to cook when I was a child and I loved to hang out in the kitchen with her, acting as her 'minion' (the term she used, well before the weird little yellow blobs appeared).  I always refer to my chicken casserole as my Mum's for some reason. She became a very good cook, after somewhat disastrous beginnings, but I always loved her casseroles.  The best thing is, my girl loves my casserole so much that she makes it now too.  I think it's lovely that my Mum lives on through her cooking. Although I learnt this recipe from my Mum, over time, I have changed and tweaked it a bit. I start mine with a homemade stock.  Whenever we roast a chicken, we always pop the carcass, a carrot and onion and a bunch of herbs in a pot and boil it up. It then gets bunged in the the simmering oven of the Aga overnight, or a slow cooker if the Aga's off....

CRAFTY CHRISTMAS PRESENTS The not so perfect Twinkle-toes is finished, and no, I'm not going to show you all the flaws. Well, she was my first attempt and I'm sure her faults won't be noticed by the little girl who's getting her for Christmas. Love her little hooves. Oops, and there's a flaw,  No, don't look too closely. Just look at that little rainbow tushie!  Should I put in a few more strands of colour? Yes, I know, overkill on pictures, but she is my first toy.  I wanted to give an idea of size, but of course you can't tell how tall my lamp and vase are...I'm a twit.    She's supposed to be 34 cm (3.5 inches) and when I measured her she was. The little pink swirl on the horn is just yarn, wrapped around, which I'm not too happy with, as I can see it unravelling. I think  I'll put a few stitches in there to secure it. I now have a cute little giraffe and a cheeky monkey in the pipeline. My gorgeo...

COWL NECK PONCHO I promised my sister back in September that I would crochet her a replica of my cowl neck poncho. The original pattern is from Simply Crochet Magazine and there are many versions of it on various blogs. Lucy from Attic 24 did a lovely version that was faithful to the original pattern apart from colour choice and the edging used. I have to say, I'm not a fan of the fringe on the original pattern. I could see it getting tangled and tatty, so chose to use Lucy's edging  instead (she has a lovely, easy to follow tutorial). Mr. took this photo of me in my newly crocheted poncho when out walking the dogs (just in shot). As you can probably detect, I'm not a fan of being snapped! I decided against the multi-coloured look and plumped for colours that go with my what I tend to wear, using cream, denim blue and earthy brown, crocheted in blocks of colour. My sister also fell in love with the colours, as they pretty much go with everything.  I had just ...

ANOTHER DAY OFF! Just been in the garden to get some bay leaves and realised that Stan (yes, my bay tree has a name!) really needs a trim.  One big gust of wind and he might snap! The hellebore is looking very pretty. ..... and it's  nice to see the nasturtiums are still hanging on. As I'm home today, I thought I would get ahead with  some cooking. I also have stuff that needs using up and I hate wasting food. I prepared one of my vegetarian (actually vegan this time as I used veggie stock cubes) curries. Basically I chopped up one butternut squash (left skin on as it was homegrown), one summer squash, five carrots, one sweet potato, one large potato.  Roughly cut  into even sized  chunks. Put a good glug of oil in a large, heavy based casserole on medium heat and added one teaspoon of  nigella seeds, cumin seeds, ground coriander, ground cumin, chilli flakes and half a teaspoon of turmeric and funugreek. Then add a large chop...

WRESTLING UNICORNS My gorgeous girl's partner has a daughter that  loves unicorns! Well she is seven, so that's fair. I,  in my infinite wisdom, decided it would be a good idea to crochet one for her, as a Christmas present. I have only been crocheting for three years and have never attempted a toy. The unicorn I found,  that looked like it might be up my street for it's simplicity, was Twinkle-toes , a free pattern from Hobbycraft. Now excuse the pun, but I'm hooked!  I was so excited once I'd finished the head, which I had  to wrestle inside out,  as I had been crocheting in the front loop of every stitch instead of through both (don't know why).  The head did look a little weird but I was fairly confident it would be ok once stuffed. Of course once I'd started crocheting this way, I felt I had to continue and all parts had to be turned inside out. The horn and ears were the most fiddly, but I really enjoyed the crocheting. Ignore E...

CAKE'S A GO! What a beautiful day!  Gorgeous sunshine and blue skies.  I've got lovely Ina Garten on the laptop to keep me company and I'm putting my Christmas cake together. As I said yesterday, I'm making Nigella's chocolate fruit cake. I didn't have any coffee liqueur, so used two teaspoons of  coffee to 125 ml of water as a substitute. Now this is going to be a bit experimental because I'm going to cook it in the Aga without a cake baker, as I don't have one.  Aga recommend using one for this type of cake, but as they are expensive and I don't tend to make this type of cake very often,  I don't see the point in forking out for one. I couldn't find anyone on the internet who'd done this before,  so fingers crossed. I have to say, it's a very easy cake, you just chuck everything except the flour, ground almonds, raising agents and eggs into a large pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Then you leave it to...

CHESTNUTS HAVE BEEN ROASTING We took the dogs to our local park at the weekend and found these little beauties, nestling in their spikey covers. I've never seen this many on the ground, as they usually get eaten by the wildlife.  The trees are pickled in them too, so many more to come.  We actually went back with my sister as she wanted some too. I know, some of them look like conkers, but they're not.... they're just lovely and fat!  I am going to mention the 'C' word, but only because this is the time of year I get my pudding and cake sorted.  I was going to cook the pudding in the Aga, but I messed up my timings as *I'm feeling a bit under the weather. I've never used my slow cooker for this before and thought I'd give it a go instead. I decided on a different recipe this year. My usual choice is Mary Berry's Aga Christmas pudding, but this year I went for the Stir Up Sunday Christmas pudding recipe from the Country Living ...