New Year, New Start

 Hello everyone and a happy new year to you all. I hope you had a good send off to 2022, personally I just stayed home which is what we always do and that suits us.  We had a couple of drinks and watched a few episodes of Yellowstone, we had to stay up downstairs even though we were tired as the fireworks scare the dogs so we stay and make sure that they are ok and it has all settled down before going to bed. My son went out early to the cinema and then around the pubs with his friends he was telling me how insanley crowded it was, how they couldn't get in anywhere to eat etc.  I thought yes that is exactly how I remember it and give me my evening over that any day!

We have had a nice relaxing day today, got up and did my quick pilates routine, then down with the tree and decorations.  I like it up early but once new year is done we like to clear it all away, though it does look bare without it. Then I made some coffee and walnut muffins in the mini oven.  I bought myself a six muffin tray that just fits my mini oven and I tried it out earlier.  The  idea being to still bake with less electric, they came out well if a few were a little caught on the top.  The thing with the mini oven is that everything is always so close to the elements top and bottom, you don't get that in the standard oven.  It does use a lot less power however and we have used a lot this last month.

Then did a bit of tidying up in the garden and off for a walk with the dogs before making the Sunday lunch when I got back. Also making some roasted pepper humous so I am going to do that shortly.

A  few intentions for this year...

• So one that I mentioned the other day was to do a little bit of art every week, I always used to just do this without any plan but it has somehow dropped off my radar so this will get me back in the habbit. There  will be no definite day for this I just want to create something each week for me, for fun.
• I am going to try and timetable my day a little better.  Work gets done, but sometimes I find myself tagging the dog walk to the end of the day or frantically running to the shop just before my husband gets home.  I also often skip lunch as I am busy sewing and always think to myself I will have something when I am finished but then it is too close to dinner time.  This is not good so I need to give myself some space and factor in some breaks to at least eat or walk the dogs while it is still light.  
• All future sewing projects are going to be noted in my scrapbook rather than just on paper, along with the sample and any notes.
• More trying out new recipes, I did quite well with this but then got into a rut as the year went on this year.  So I will try and document those to keep me on track.

That is as many as I am adding for now, I may add more as time goes on but they do say try to do too much at once and it is asking for failure.  It is also true that it takes a while to develop a new habit so getting a few to stick before adding in more is the way to go. 

Because I felt it was going to feel bleak now that the tree is down my husband took my little bottle from the homemade gin my friend gave me and put some of the little lights inside.  It is now on the mantle piece I just need to take the label off the wire.

It is not blue in real life just a cool white.

Just in case any of you would like a better peak at my sewing space I filmed a little tour for youtube yesterday and here is the link if you want to watch.

See it here, watch the video

Have a lovely evening and I'll be back soon. 

Busy Inbetween Days

 I hope you are all enjoying the break, it can feel a little like limbo land that bit between Christmas an New year and you tend to forget what day it is or I do any way.  I have had a very productive few days and one of my intentions is to keep working through new recipes and all my cook books.  There is a beautiful one that one of my sons bought me for Christmas last year and I have used it a fair bit, todayI made two recipes from it and I will share those below.  I also have in mind a better way in future to document all my sewing makes especially as quite a few of them will be going back to Minerva for in house videos.  I do like to keep track and this year I have been using the papers that come with Minerva fabric for project planning but this means I have a stack of those knocking about.  What I am thinking is a scrap book with images, fabric swatch and an actual photo in it, yes this does sound like even more work but it will be lovely to look back on and remind me how much I get done.  Sometimes I can be hard on myself even though I know I complete multiple tasks, garments, etc a week so it will be a nice record.  There is a scrapbook in my possesion that has been waiting for just this job I feel. 

I will share one of my Christmas gift makes here and it is my husbands Hoody.  I made him one a little while ago from Burda magazine and he loves it so I made him another in a different colourway.  It was right to the wire as I was busy making it on Christmas eve.  This time I went for the colours in the original magazine image of navy and orange, well the orange I chose is more of a bright rust colour but it is lovely together.  He loves it, here is a picture of him in it but I think he has splashed it here with water as I cornered him in the kitchen for a pic.  

                                      It has been on since he opened it, and now needs a wash.

Todays sewing  was my brand ambassador make for Minerva and as I had made a lovely sweater with a Simplicity pattern that has been worn quite a lot, it felt suitable to remake it but this time in the dress length.  It is a lovely comfy french terry so hopefully this will be another much reached for garment.  I will share an image of it on the mannequinn but need to do full write up for minerva so please catch up with me over there for the full post on that. (it is not on yet as this is only just finished!)

My reading is going well and The Magpie Murders is keeping me turning the pages, this is a good thing as my husband bought me four books by the same author in the same genre!  There have been a few duff reads over the past months so glad  I am to get my reading head back on.

We are keen to get out and meet some family for a dog walk but so far those palns have been rained off, lets hope that the next few days will bring some dry weather so we can get out in the fresh air.

There was a lucky find by my husband in the ASDA  yetserday in the form of discounted LOR advent calenders, the coffee.  They had been priced at 25 pounds and are now down to three pounds so he brought home two.  He said it was quite funny as a couple were looking at them at the same time as him and the man was saying we should get these to his partner  and she said but we haven't even got a coffee machine.  I am intrigued to know if they could be used without?  I mean it seems to me that all the machine does it perforate the pod and slowy pour hot water through it, I could be wrong so let me know your thoughts on this.  Youngest son is a big coffee drinker so he was super pleased with this find.

From one of my cook books today I made a butternut squash soup...

I also made a fabulous fruit cake that has so many ingredients in it and luckily I had them all bar one which I subbed.  It is a vegan cake so all suitable for me and I added my gf flour mix too.

This is the book my son bought for me.

Here is the cake cooling, there is a fair amount gone already!  Sneaky gin in the background that a friend gifted me, it is rather depleted. 

So there we are a bit of an inbetween catch up, I thought I would blog while I have the time as I have not been as consistent with this for the last year and I aim to to better.  So two in a row but if I don't do things while they are on my mind I blink and a week has passed.  

Thank you for stopping by.

December...ing

 Hello, I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas and have managed to do the whole thing stress free.  I never really understand why people get themselves all whipped up into a frenzy at Christmas time as there really is no need. I can understand people feeling lonely or missing loved ones but not the need for a perfect meal, gift or experience.  It is after all what we make it, so if other people do not appreciate your efforts then  that is their problem so let's just all be happy with what we have and what we can do.  That said we had a lovely christmas day, my oldest son came over and my mum. So with me, husband and youngest son that was the five of us, we cooked a chicken for the meat eaters and I did a Veg Wellington that was fabulous details below.  Here we go...

Cooking The Veg Wellington, recipe from the Happy Pear guys on youtube.  If you have not looked at their videos beofre please do check them out especially if you are thinking of eating more plant based recipes in the new year. It is such a good one and formed part of their two euro dinner ( that is per person not two euros for the whole thing).  Now I know with inflated costs it would cost more than that now but it was still really good value, we had enough left to have it for lunch again today.  I did not get an  image as I was busy enjoying the day and I did have rather a lot of cooking to do so got sidetracked but I will make it again in future so I promise to take a pic next time.   I also did their spicy cabbage recipe, again so tasty! I will only cook cabbage that way in future, it has chilli, ginger, sesame oil and a little maple syrup.  That dish even got my younger veg adverse son eating it as it is so good. 

For desert I made Christmas pin wheel pastries with mincemeat in (the sweet kind) again no image due to Christmas day busyness. 

I also made cranberry cookies with walnuts and almonds twice this last week, green and blacks chocolate drizzled over the top.  My food photography is somewhat lacking but here is a peak...

I know the decoration also leaves something to be desired but they taste lovely so who cares, I find it very tricky to drizzle with a spoon. 

Dressmaking Of course there is always plenty of this, the latest makes were both dresses and one is the style arc Patricia Rose dress.  I was sent the larger pattern so I have sized it way down with tracing paper, origami and lots of faffing.  It worked but the dress is a loose fitting dress with no closures and now it is complete I have also added darts at the back as I do like a more structured look.  Here it was just after it was finished.

I also made a vogue dress in a blue soft washed chambray...

Sewing more hexies on my ongoing piece of handstitching, my thing with this now is that I have come to the realisation that I do not want a full sized bed quilt in all these colours, much as I love colour.  I feel that I would rather have a more definite pattern and carefully selected fabrics for such a large piece.  The main reason I am thinking about this is that I made a quilt some years ago called lone star and spent a lot of hours on it. The fabric were manily offcuts from the market near where I worked and part way through I knew they were  a bit dark and I didn't love them, still I carried on and completed it, quilted it etc.  A lot of hours and I had it a while, I was pleased to have finished but never really loved it.  That said I don't want to be in that situation again, so I am thinking maybe a large cushion cover to be used out on my bench in the summer and also continueing with the colourful hexies for scrap busting but using them in my handbags?   Here is the  piece so far...

Let me know your thoughts, but I have seen so many pretty designs for quilts and there are such a lot of hours that go into these that maybe it would be best to invest my time in one that I will treasure.

Eating out, with my mum.  As a christmas treat I drove my mum to Wentworth for breakfast and we had a little look around, youngest son came too as he was off work using up hoilday days.  She did take a bit of convincing as she gets stuck in aroutine but she really enjoyed it once she was out and said she would like to do it again so that was nice.

Watching a new series called Yellowstone with Kevin Costner.  I am quite enjoying it although my husband has just informed me there are another four series to go.  I will let you know if I still like it after all that.

Reading The Magpie Murders, now I have only just started this but I am a good way in and I have to say it feels a bit like Father Brown to me, I like Father Brown so that is not a bad thing.  My husband bought me a set of books for my birthday and I had said that I wanted to try something a little different.

Promising myself that I will do more art in the new year, I don't always do resolutions more intentions so this is my first. A promise to myself that I will set aside some time each week to do some art and also learn a little more about it, a new technique or style to try, anything as long as I sit down and create something with pencils or paint.  I love to sew and I am really enjoying working at it as my day job again but I think this year I have let a few of my others hobbies slide.

Enjoying the lights, decorations and cosiness that is Christmas, I will be sad to see them all come down as I am every year.  So I will be looking for new ways to cosy up the house for January, any suggestions welcome.

That is all for today, enjoy yourselves wherever you are.