Cupcakes, a craft project, and a rather delicious pasta sauce!

I'm currently enjoying one of those rather delicious moments, when both children are happily asleep.  These don't always come along every day, so I am making the most of it- as soon as I finish this post I shall busy myself with one of a few craft projects I have up my sleeve (more on those another day...!)

Yesterday I had a friend round for tea and cake, and in the morning I sat down and realised that I didn't actually have any home made cake to offer, so, nothing like a spot of baking to ease one into the day!  I thought it might be nice to do some with my son, but he wasn't terribly interested, though he did keep me company by drawing trains at the kitchen table.

I am trying to make my way through lots of new recipes at the moment (any good ones, please send my way!) and this one, for Carrot and Raisin Cupcakes is from Annabel Karmel's book on Finger food (which has other, very tasty recipes).  It is pretty easy, and the icing is a delicious maple syrup one.  However, as far as I'm concerned, a good carrot cake has to have a cream cheese filling, so I made half of both!  Some were decorated with pecan nuts, but others (for the non nut-eaters!) had some little wafer flowers that I happened upon in our local shop.

I did say that E wasn't particularly interested in helping with the cakes. That is, until it came to eating them....

Next up. I've been quieter on the blog on the crafting front, but do have a few ongoing projects. I'll not say much about it now, as I will give it a post of its own when I am finished, but here's what's going on in my knitting world...

And recently I made a delicious pasta dish (again a Jamie O!).  This time it was Spaghetti alla Trapanese.  It's amazing.  You use lots of fresh ingredients, and it's essentially a bit of a home made pesto and some. You can find the recipe here, and it's a fabulous summer meal.  I don't like raw tomatoes, so I cook the whole thing for a few minutes on the stove, just to take the edge off the acidity, but you obviously don't have to.  It's a great way to use up lots of fresh basil, and is lovely if you don't whizz it up too much, so the nuts are still quite crunchy!  It's well worth a try!

Yum!

Right. They are still both sleeping, so on with some crafts!

Have a lovely weekend, friends.

Cx

Mud and Crafts.

I laughed when I read Fay's blog post a few days back, documenting Flo's taste of mud in the garden.  E is a big fan of mud.  His current favourite thing to do in the garden (when not chasing or playing ball with the cat) is to dig for worms.  Failing that he will aim to mix mud and water in whatever suitable container he can find, and drink as much of it as possible before being stopped by my husband or myself!  As you can see, today he was rather a state after a short while in the garden.

I am so thankful for our garden though.  I love that he's old enough to be able to play in the garden (and that he enjoys doing it), and that he wants to do it at any given opportunity.  I was raised by parents who were always championing the benefits of fresh air, and I've become one of them myself now!

In our garden we have some beautiful daffodils starting to blow their trumpets.

And the promise of many more to come! (Thank you Mummy for planting last summer whilst I was feeling grotty!)

I made another carrot cake today from the same lovely recipe.  Except this time I added sultanas too.  Good move. It tastes great!

I've been doing a little more on the crochet Granny squares, am progressing on the cabled cardi and am eagerly anticipating an evening of crafting and fun with two good friends. Lovely.

I hope your weekend is going well.

Crumpets and Cake

It's Al's birthday today- Happy Birthday to a lovely husband!  And E has an ear infection.  He didn't play ball when I took him in to sing happy birthday to Daddy, in fact every time I paused after "Happy Birthday..." for him to fill in the lyrics, he whined "noooo".  Not the chirpy start to the day I'd envisaged, but never mind.

We had a lovely birthday breakfast, complete with Eggy crumpets and ham (masquerading as bacon for the purpose of the breakfast!)... (for Al)

And croissants (for E and I!).

We joined Al at work for lunch in the office (very exciting to a toddler), and enjoyed the first (of more than one during the course of the day...) piece of the carrot cake...

It did not disappoint!

Our gift to Al was a canvas of a beautiful photo taken by a very talented friend at a photoshoot last year, which sat on our piano whilst we decided on a suitable location, but is now hanging above our lounge sofa.

Our day was finished off with a delicious dinner, full of giggles, with family.

Craft-wise,  I finished weaving in loose ends on my tank top, and finished off the ruffled scarf I've been making on commission. Other than that, much time was taken up sitting waiting to see the doctor (for the boy), cuddling said boy, and generally looking after a grumblier-than-usual son.

I'm now looking forward to cracking on with the pink cable knit top for the impending arrival so that it's ready in time, whilst doing a little more crocheted granny squares when I fancy a change.

I hope you are well.

A Grey Day

Today the weather has been grey and rainy.  And I have had a more fragile little boy to entertain who is pushing through about 7 teeth in one go!  I can't really complain, given that he has a generally joyful disposition, but somehow that makes it even more of a challenge when he's grumpy!

In keeping with the colour of the day, I was wearing my lovely grey aran, made for me a few years ago by my Mum.

I unpacked three boxes in our conservatory today, leaving two left, but it's freed up quite a lot of space, and there you can see how a nice "new" (to us!) chair fits in the newly vacated corner. Lovely.

I've now finished my grey tank top, and am just weaving in the last few ends (a job that always takes far longer than you estimate).

The centre of the "V" neck was a real pain to knit, as, no matter how carefully I tried to carry out the instructions given, it never seemed to look quite right... Oh well- I think I got there (or thereabouts) in the end.

I also lengthened it.  Having knitted it all up, I measured it up against myself, and I thought it was too short.  I really dislike tops that are too short, so I undid the tops of the shoulders, and elongated the top section (rather than undo to below the "V"- I wasn't sure if I could face that!)

I will now have to wait a few weeks to try it on, as I'm not going to risk stretching it this side of the baby arriving!

This afternoon saw baking time, with a carrot cake on the menu for my lovely husband's birthday tomorrow.  It is his favourite cake, and apart from this one, he's not really a cake eater.  In fact, I don't know why I don't bake it more often- it's not difficult! Perhaps having it once a year keeps it special.  I used this recipe from BBC Good Food.  We've not tasted it yet, but it smells fabulous, and, of course is completed with the delicious cream-cheese icing!

This evening I've been making a birthday present for my Nanna.  I bought a beautiful cross-stitched sampler at Oxfam when I was Christmas shopping, and earmarked it for this project...

I chose a cornflower blue fabric for the backing- another freecycle bargain- a pair of childrens' curtains that I picked up a while back, that wouldn't fit any of our windows, but which are in very good condition, with lovely colourful material! 

I didn’t have any cushion pads of the correct dimensions, so I used a spare pillowcase, and filled it with some soft-toy stuffing I had handy (having once ordered far too much for a small project!), then sewed it up, and- voila! A cushion of precisely the right size!

I’ve enjoyed using some of the 'fancier’ features of my sewing machine- such as blanket stitch and the button hole setting on this project.

All in all, a productive evening- even more satisfying that I was able to make a lovely personal Birthday present without having to spend lots of money.  Right.  Need to get it wrapped up and ready to send first thing tomorrow with a home-made card.

I hope you have had a lovely start to the week.