Creating during winter ...... Quince and Felt

I thought I would take part in Thrifty Household's and Silver Pebble's Making Winter.  I too am not really a winter lover, I hate the pewter grey skys and the cold, I hate that I can't get out into the garden to potter and earth myself and what I hate most of all are the dark mornings :-(  So here goes with a bit of creativity to see if that helps lift my spirits :-)

A month or so ago I took advantage of my neighbours Quince tree and made some Quince Jelly from the book below.  I love this book, it is full of wonderful recipes ....

   

Image taken from Amazon site

I started off by roughly chopping the Quince.  This fruit has the most wonderful smell, it smells like flowers until you cut it and then it smells like pineapple.  When you stew it it then changes to the scent of apples.

I then stewed them ....

I hung them to drain off over night, I was going to make a net fruit bag but got this off e-bay for cheaper than I could create one in the end :-)

You then re-boil the liquid with lots of sugar until it becomes syrupy in consistency .  I did find I had to squeeze a lemon into it to get it to change more quickly although Quince are meant to be high in pectin.

I then sterilised some old coffee jars and jarred the jelly up.

 

It is a really lovely taste, sweet with a summery flowery taste .... hmmm I can't really describe it.  It goes really well with strong cheese or pork.  Here it is on a plate with some of my friends piccalilli :-)

I think I will make smaller jars next year as less is more with Quince Jelly.

I have also been playing with Merino wool with the children and had fun wet felting and needle felting with them.

Here are some little felted acrons I made :-)

Here are the children's.

After chatting the a lady who created gorgeous felted scarves about creating a tortoise in a walnut shell (she must have thought I was a little bonkers :-)) she suggested a pin cushion would be great too - she was right, I love this little pin cushion :-)

 
And then of course there are my son's (right) and my tortoises made out of walnut shells :-)

There is something else I am creating but that will have to stay secret for a little while longer .... this is the scene in my sock drawer (away from prying little eyes :-)).

Thanks and Happbee Birthday....

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last blog post, it is so nice to know I am not alone in needing space sometimes.  I have started digging in the garden in preparation for a hobbit house - well I can dream can't I :-)  Oohh just think how cosy it would be ....

This week seems to have been better, I went to work on Sunday which helps I think as it gives me some space to be me.  It was rather a sad day in many ways at work with death all around me (I work in a hospital) but also nice in a way that I could help just a tiny bit by listening to peoples worries and be there to hold a hand or two (the power of holding someones hand is amazing - it always surprises me just how much comfort someone can get from that simple human gesture).

Well back to this blog post, went off an a tangent then :-)  Mr Sweetpea was a whole 40 years old the other weekend so I took Sunday off work (hence my need for space lol).  We went out to Ely to potter around as a family which was lovely.  We had wanted to go to Spain but at £2000+ for last min tickets that idea went out of the window.

I made him a belated birthday cake due to a silly cold I had.  He wanted a bee cake to go with his new hobby of beekeeping.  Can you see middle Sweetpeas Queen Bee on the right ?  It was fun to make if not a little stressful with the eldest Sweetpea deciding to throw freezing cold water over the girls in the bath whilst I ran down to pop a couple of the flowers I had cut on to the cake.  Yes I was cutting icing flowers outside the bathroom so I could keep an eye on them in the bath, I left them for about 30 seconds and it all kicked off - Mr Sweetpea was on lates at work :-(

Here are the bees, I thought you may like an update on them.  In the winter you have to give them sugar water to try and keep the hive numbers up as there is not much nectar and pollen around in the garden.

Mr Sweetpea then put a hive top feeder on so they could stay in the warm hive and feed in there.  This meant going in to the hive .......  eeekkk.  He got his kit on and got the smoker ready .....

When it was smoking enough he went to the hive .....

He then puffed the hive with smoke and stood back for a while.  He learnt a valuable lesson from last time he went in to the hive - slow and steady wins the race :-)  You have to smoke the hive and leave it for a few minutes, re smoke and do that until they all calm down.  The reason for this is that if they get smoked they assume there is a forest fire, they rush in to the hive to suck all their honey up and then they get a sugar rush which makes them dozy.  I always thought it was the smoke creating a lack of oxygen that did it but you learn something new every day !

He then went in and took the current lid off and replaced it with a feeder lid.  We knew the hive numbers had grown but look what they had created on the lid - isn't it wonderful.

So pretty to look at!  We have yet to open it up for its honey :-)  Some of the bees have already died away due to the cold weather, this is quite normal but still rather sad seeing them dead in front of the hive :-(  I hope the winter isn't too harsh for them.

Thanks for reading my ramblings, sorry they have been rather moany of late - parenthood is hard sometimes isn't it.  I know where I am with babies, I find them so easy but this hormonal time the kids are going through is a whole new ball game :-s

Take care
Zoe
x

Little Sweetpea turns 4!

I can hardly believe it, little Sweetpea is now 4 years old.  It only seems like yesterday she was using my ribs as her own personal exercise machine (oohh she was a good kicker!) and now she is 4.  It is not only me that is shocked by how quickly time is flying by, she got several cards with 3 on them and that made Mr Sweetpea and me make sure that she really was 4 :-)    I still remember so vividly this precious moment in time just hours after she was born ....

So what cake did my little princess ask for this year, well this time round it was a sweetie bag.  I thought it would be easy to create but it wasn't as easy as I thought.

 

It came out OK and the Sweetpeas had great fun getting the pick and mix sweets to fill it with :-)  I got slightly stressed when making this - well to be fair I was stressed about several things that week - my own fault for trying to make too many things whilst also helping at pre-school.  One of the reasons I got stressed is that I had to make it when all the little ones were awake and wanting to help as I had to complete a pressie whilst they slept.

Eldest Sweetpea made a mini version from the left over icing and sponge - I like his better than mine - so cute!

oohh and this is the other reason I was slightly stressy, when I put a jar slightly heavy handed on the shelf  ..... this happened  .... yep the whole shelf fell down!  Eldest Sweetpea whisked everyone out of the kitchen at this point saying that he thought I was getting rather angry - bad mummy moment :-(  I blame the full moon and my hubbys horrid shift work which meant he wasn't coming back until late every night :-(

All the stress was worth it seeing her blow out her candles and her big smiley face when the cake was all light  up.

She got some lovely gifts from her friends, grandparents and auntie.  I thought I would photograph them all so she can look back at them when she is older.  Loving the flamenco outfit!

She also got a new furniture set for her house which her and her Auntie played with (not sure who is having more fun here lol).  Auntie Sweetpea got her a ladybird money box, a labybird wand and also a trip to the Zoo which they all really enjoyed.

We got her a wheelbarrow as little Sweetpea loves the garden.  She has been collecting leaves in it already.

I also made her a nature satchel which I will share more photos with you next time as I want to photograph some other lovely handmade gifts she received.

As I couldn't muster the energy to throw a full on party for little Sweetpea this year we took cakes to each of the groups she goes to during the week.  I batch baked a lot of cupcakes last week and froze some ready for icing the day before we went. 

Middle and little Sweetpea loved decorating them, not sure how many cakes actually managed to leave the house :-)

Oh little Sweetpea how I love you so.  You have only just started sleeping through but I still love you with all my heart even after all the sleep deprivation.  You have made me laugh and smile each and every day since you were born.  I hope you grow up to love life as much as you do now , even when you are as big as the clouds :-) xxx

Creating birthday gifts

Recently I have been trying to make a lot of presents or buy them from artists rather than buying from shops.  I don't know why but I don't find much excitement in high street shopping anymore (unless it is whilst pottering round just looking at things whilst chatting to friends or family).

With my ickle Sister's birthday coming up I had to put my thinking cap on as to what she might like.  She recently popped over to give us a training course on how to ice cupcakes properly so cupcakes was one idea.  In fact she had bought me a day out with her in London to decorate cupcakes with her but I chickened out :-(  I don't know why but my confidence levels drop sometimes and the old shy me re-appears for some things - my sis is really understanding and let me chicken out - I love her so much for loving me for who I am (oohh soppy moment there lol).   Isn't the brain a funny thing - there are so many things I am confident about and people who know me probably wouldn't believe how shy the inner me is sometimes (especially when sleep deprivation takes hold) - I have to fight her quite often :-)

The kiddies loved their Auntie showing them how to ice with a piping bag and we made some funky retro cakes.

Here they are next to our retro phone which we are still loving.

So a little box of cupcakes it was.  I had a little brain wave to add love hearts on the top of them and some pink sparkly sprinkles.  I had to go through all the love hearts though as some of them were mean and not nice with things like 'grow up' written on them - when did that happen?

I then found some wonderful little cupcake boxes in Sainsburys to set them off nicely.

Now as you will know if you read my last blog post, my Sis loves tashes!  Not sure why but she does so I set about making her a key ring of moustaches that she could use for any occasion :-)

There were curly ones, little ones and long ones ......

I then I added a cute little heart with some ribbon on that I bought a while back especially for my family.  My Mum always tells my kiddies that she loves them 'this much' with her arms out so when I saw this ribbon I had to have it :-)

Just look at that cute girl in her hoody with her arms stretched as wide as they can possibly go :-)

Some time ago she asked if I could make her one of my daisy chains for some festivals she was going to so this was another pressie.  There is something lovely about making something for someone when you know they are going to get so much joy out of it - you smile all the way through making it :-)

Last but not least I ordered her a Scented Sweetpeas bath bomb box from Caroline's Creations, it must have been the best smelling item I have ever received through the post!

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post, I really do love reading them and they always make me smile - thanks for spending your precious time doing that. x

Yey I am back :-)

The bonkers Sweetpea family :-)

Wow that was a bloggy break I wasn't expecting, it seems like ages since I have been able to do a blog post :-(  It has been rather hectic here in the Sweetpea household with a family wedding, 3 birthdays and also making some more creations since I have been away - oh that is on top of the school hols :-)

A few weeks back my cousin got married, goodness it made me feel a bit old, I remember the day he was born and when he was little attending our wedding in a cute little suit.    Now I  am not really a fan of formal events like weddings, christenings etc as I am more of a welly wearing lady rather than a posh shoe lady and I am not really into all the pomp and circumstance of it all (it makes me feel uncomfortable for some reason).   I got a bit stressed on the run up to the day frantically trying to find outfits for all the kiddies as all the bloomin summer clothes had been removed from the shops but it was worth the stress as it was such a fun day.  Oh how I hate clothes shopping - I only really like charity shop shopping now, probably why I haven't bought myself clothes for ages.

This is me and my gorgeous little sister - can you tell she is wearing heels!

I asked her to do a 'Versace' pose here lol - she is so beautiful but doesn't know it!

This is my parents with my sis and I.  I think we all scrubbed up rather well - especially as after all the looking for clothes for the kiddies I just grabbed stuff out of my wardrobe for the day.  At the beginning is a blog of the Sweetpeas.

Now I am not sure why I was worried about this event being very formal with my family involved in it, we are not renowned for being the most sensible family :-)  Above is a photo of middle Sweetpea and Great Grandad Sweetpea with my Sister's tash bag, this went round the room for everyone to have photos taken with it.   There was also a pair of plastic glasses with a willy nose doing the rounds too - goodness knows who bought that with them but the photos are very funny indeed :-)

The next day was Eldest Sweetpea's birthday.  I was off work as I was feeling ill (not drink related I might add as I was the driver back from the wedding) so we all chilled out for the day.  I hadn't planned a party for the day of his birthday as I was meant to be at work so we were going to have a party later.  Well Sweetpea got bored and was playing up a bit so I said he could go out with his mates (rather than sending him to his room on his birthday) and this is the result, a broken wrist!  I wish I had sent him to his room now :-(

Poor dot was in goal playing footy with his mates, a ball was kicked at him to save only to push his wrist right back.  We were called from his mobile and rushed to get him, we initially thought he has pulled a muscle but then when he went into shock I drove him to A&E (well two A&E's as one didn't have the x-ray machine on !) as there was obviously something more wrong.  He had a buckle fracture on his wrist and now has a funcky blue cast on which we can take off ourselves in about a weeks time so he needs it on for 4 weeks all in all which isn't too bad.

I finally got to make his cake quite a few days after his actual birthday and he didn't have a party in the end :-(  He did however love his fishing cake complete with his dog ted in the back of the boat and he got enough birthday money to buy a really good BMX bike that he wanted.

He has gone off to secondary school today - this boy is growing up far to quickly for my liking.  How can I have a child who is at college when I am so young myself (I am 25 in my head :-)).  He seemed very happy going off, not too nervous at all which is wonderful, I hope he loves his new school.  I managed to sneak a little kiss on him before he ran off for the bus, he is nearly too old for kisses :-(  Little Sweetpea and Middle Sweetpea are under strict instructions not to grow any more :-)