Rain, Rain go away......

If you are in the UK, you will undoubtedly know how much rain we've had over the last month or so....unfortunately because of that (presumably) my roof has now sprung a leak.  Luckily my brother has contacts in the building business and knows a roofer, but there's not much to be done till the weather improves and he can actually get up on the roof.

Now this leak, is in my bedroom, not over the bed luckily! and up till last night had only been a slight drip which didn't disturb me, but at 4.30 this a.m. it started to come through in quite a constant trickle, which kept me awake for some time....I eventually managed to ignore it enough to drop off to sleep again...although this did involve lying on my right side which cut off the sound to my right ear a bit, and the left one doesn't hear so good anyway, so it all got a  bit muffled!

I have managed to put the approriate receptacle under the drip though....

The Stresses of Knitting.....

on double pointed needles…..

I've been off work since last Monday, so I thought I’d show you one of the things I've been up to. 

I’ve been making these cute little bunny huggies to a pattern very generously posted by Sandra on her blog Cherry Heart .Now I spent half the day trying to get to grips with knitting on double pointed needles! Never having done it before, I’d watched my mum in the past, and I figured “how hard can it be!”….Wrong!! After quite a long while struggling to figure out how to start I eventually dug out an old magazine with some instructions, and still didn’t get it, but I found out why I had 5 needles instead of the 4 I thought you should have! I was about to throw the whole cat’s cradle across the room but resorted to good old Google and YouTube! 

In the past I’ve always managed to teach myself most things from a book, but this one just escaped me… I don’t have as much patience these days as I used to either! There aren’t any pictures of my progress, suffice to say it looked like a dogs breakfast!

Why did I find it stressful? Well, I was just petrified that one of the needles would slip out of the stitches while they were flailing about as I knitted on just one of them! However, eventually I managed to finish one…and of course it doesn’t look a bit like the one in the pattern. For some reason I had one ear longer than the other…but hey, no bunny’s perfect are they?  The second one (the lilac one in the photos)  was much better!

I seem to have accumulated quite a few eggs of different sorts over the years, and they all get brought out at Easter and displayed in this pretty spring egg holder...hope you like the photos, and thanks again to Sandra for the pattern

More Marshmallow Madness....

Photo from original book...in other words what they should look like!

OK, so I've made my first attempt at marshmallows!  Not particularly successfully, as usual, my first attempts usually aren't very successful. Some of it may be my fault and some of it may be down to the fact that the book is written in "American" .  I don't mean that unkindly, but there are certain things that we don't have over in the UK, or the equivalent is not necessarily the same  as that available in the US.

What mine looked like!

To start with Light Corn Syrup is not easily obtainable, and although Golden Syrup works, it does impart it's own flavour to the finished item, espcially as marshmallows are quite a delicate flavour in their plain vanilla state.   The other thing I had a problem with was the gelatine....now this may be my problem, but the recipe stated 4 1/2 teaspoons of powdered gelatine, mixed with 1/2 cup (125ml) of water.  Now the sachets I had contained 4 1/2 teaspoons but the packet said that a sachet would set 570ml of liquid.

Aaah...I've just re-read the packet and it does say to dissolve the sachet in 120ml of water, so I misunderstood and added extra water because I thought it would be too thick or set too quickly....Oops!

So apologies, the only real problem is the Light Corn Syrup, which probably is available by mail order if necessary. That probably accounts for the fact that I couldn't beat it to what was described as the right consistency, and once left to set, it was still quite sticky in the middle and considerably gooey-er than I expeected them  to be.  Definitely have to try again  now!  I did get quite frustrated with the whipping time, as it didn't seem to be going well.  The book describes a freestanding mixer with 10 speeds, and I only have a hand mixer with 3 speeds, so after almost 15 minutes you can imagine how my shoulders were aching!  All in all not as difficult as I anticipated, and probably a lot  easier if I'd got that gelatine thing right! They tasted great though and I took some round to a friend to be guinea pig, and she and her brother said that they tasted brilliant!



Marshmallow Madness!

Thanks to the lovely Sylvie over at A Pot Of Tea and A Biscuit I am now the proud owner of the brand spanking new book Marshmallow Madness! Which I was lucky enough to win in her recent give away.



It arrived today, and at first look it's absolutely scrummy, but then marshmallows are scrummyness personified.  I've never made marshmallows before, although I've attempted (with some success )  to make Turkish Delight and Halva.  Well the Halva was better than the Turkish Delight which was a bit rubbery although the flavour was good. I suspect as with most things that practise makes perfect!

So I will be dashing to the shops on the Weekend to see if I can find Light Corn Syrup.  I probably won't find it but after a bit of Googling I think Golden Syrup should be an acceptable substitute.  Will let you know the outcome in due course (with pictures if it's successful!)

Nostalgia Strikes Again...

I've  no idea what the woman next to me on the bus was eating but the smell of it reminded me of...and I'm probably showing my age now...

I haven't had them for years (do they even still make them?).  I don't really buy sweeties, except for the occasional chocolate fix. But as soon as I smelt that they popped into my head. They were about the only mint I would eat when I was younger.  I didn't really like peppermints very much....still don't actually.  But Murray Mints had a gentle creamy flavour which I did like very much. Sad thing that I am I also remember the advertising jingle....but I won't torture you with singing it!

And the winner of the best service award this year is....

Edible Glitter
I placed an order with them yesterday just before 4pm, and had an email about 20 minutes later to say that my order had been despatched.  I'm reading it and saying "Really?" to myself.  But lo and behold at 7.20am this morning there was the postie banging at the door with the delivery!  So, a big thank you to Edible Glitter for being so efficient....and heres some pics of what I ordered....excuse if they are not very good, I took them very quickly this morning (made myself late for work too!)

There were these lovely vintage style doilies, and matching fairy cake case....

A selection of decorations...

 Aren't these slightly startled chickens great....

And some pretty little flowers...

Guess what I'll be doing this weekend.....

Proverb of the day....

Never rely on the people at the bus stop before you to stick their hand out and stop the bus! We nearly missed it!

This is because I knew these two were waiting for the bus (there's only 1 at that stop) I knew it was coming down the road because they were standing in my line of sight and said it was coming and they were obviously preparing for it. Then, just as it looked like it was going to go past without stopping (which it will, and there wouldn't be another one for 20 minutes) one of them squeaked and started waving at it. Now normally I would have stuck my hand up anyway, but this time I just let them get on with it...lesson learned!