SweetMyrtle

decorating for the holidays

I am lucky that I get to attend tutor evenings from time to time.
As well as keeping up to date with teaching methods and discussing the importance of equality and diversity within our sessions this Friday's meeting gave us a chance to try something new. I think it is so important as a tutor to be a 'beginner' again as it helps us to understand how our students may feel when they first arrive. At this meet the guys from 'the Special branch' showed us how to make willow festive decorations. It was great fun, and my willow star is now on the top of our tree.

this week we have been decking the halls too; our mantle now is feeling wintery, using the clay houses we made a few years ago at a pottery morning. They each have space for a tealight but this year we have used a strip of LED lights to light up the windows, i love how magical it looks. My youngest teen used the tree prunings to add little 'trees and to make them stable we poked each one into a cork.

the tree is up too and decorated with our precious vintage baubles thrifted many years ago and some delicate glass and ceramic decorations bought from  local artists over many Christmasses. To make it a Solstice tree we have added dried orange slices too to represent the sun and have topped it with my rustic willow star.

it is starting to feel wonderfully wintery and festive in our home ...all i need to do now is to finish making the presents!

two September birthdays

As well as my beau turning 50, our quirky smallest girl turned 14 earlier this month.

She started guitar lessons (with an amazing teacher) last year and has been using her dads guitar so we thought it was time for her to have her own. She was very clear about the style she wanted; a cutaway with pick ups for an amp and with a matt finish. We were so lucky to find a second hand guitar that fitted her taste and size from our local guitar shop in excellent condition.

As in family tradition, i also made her a birthday pressie. We recently spied a metre of a cute strawberry print cotton twill in a local fabric store and as she really loved it, it ended up in my shopping bag.  She fancied a pinafore dress so drew me a picture of what she wanted. i took some measurements and set about creating it. We are both really pleased with how it came out and my  invisible zip (at the side) really is invisible (she took a while to find it), so a good result from a pretty remnant.

I really do love making gifts ... i am starting to think about christmas... (not long off), are you?

It would be lovely to share some ideas for homemade gifts. i did run a few posts last year about this but kind of fizzled out in the busy run up to the event. Maybe i should start earlier? anyone up for it? Let me know and we can start sharing ideas and linking up.

celebrations

my beau has just turned 50, impossible as this seems, it is true.

we are stretching our celebrations out and have enjoyed a family party up in Yorkshire, with camp fire, camping, and cake! made by our girls

they used 12 eggs all from our friends hens who were were looking after during the summer.

'crumb coated' it before rolling out and adding the icing.

they then set about decorating it; all those times watching food nation and the cake programs really helped!!

the raised bed is based on the vegetable one we have in the garden . they used tunnocks wafers for this, with choc butter icing and crumbled flakes for soil. the fence panels were ice cream wafers with the posts in mint sticks.

my youngest modelled their dad in modelling icing, complete with quiff and Magic the cat even got a look in in his favourite spot in the long grass.

i think they did a fantastic job and so did he!

We also all took a family outing to his football club (yes, even me ) for the first match of the season.

Met up with some old friends for drinks in London and we also had a family party tea.

50 is quite a landmark birthday so we are going to continue to celebrate as much as possible throughout his 5oth year.

 

pesto

our basil has been growing really well; my man seeded a few trays of it in the greenhouse and has been keeping them well watered.

our youngest teen loves pesto and asked if she could make some. after many trips to the shops when we forgot to get the pine nuts we finally suceeded and she set about making some.

the ingredients you need are as follows;

basil - large bunch or more

parmesan - 50 grams

olive oil - 70 - 100mls

pine nuts - 50 grams

lemon juice - 1/2 a lemon to taste

garlic cloves - 1

salt and pepper to taste

 

There are many recipes online for pesto. my girl and her dad followed one in our food processor  book (as above,  but altered the quantities to suit as it was too oily using 100mls). They also added more than one bunch of basil and a little lemon juice which was not in the original recipe.

Process wise it's super easy; wash and pat dry the basil leaves,. Peel and crush the garlic. Some recipes suggest toasting the pine nuts but they didn't bother. Basically put everything in a food processor and blitz. I would suggest adding the oil slowly  to judge the consistency and adding the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.

Some of the pesto was put in a tub to take on our camping trip and the rest was put into ice cube trays and frozen for later.

i have just enjoyed spaghetti and some defrosted pesto for supper : )

50th Birthday Celebrations

my big sister turned 50 this weekend.

she is an amazing, loving, generous, funny,  very sweet sister and we are so lucky to have her in our lives.

she treated us all to a meal out at BrasserieBlanc.

the food was delicious and the ambience, just perfect. my man took a photo of his coffee : ) a great time was had by all.

so Chris, may you have a wonderful 50th year and i look forward to treating you on our spa day soon!! (exciting for me too) yay for birthdays and celebrations!!!

17 years

today i have been married for 17 years, it seems amazing really,

amazing and good!

after this long coming up with a gift idea to celebrate the occasion gets harder. 1 - 15years of marriage  all have well documented traditional gift ideas as well as a  modern ones if you do a quick google search.

but really now, apart from the main ones, with a 5 or 0 on the end then there isn't much suggested. the only reference i could find to a gift to celebrate 17 years together was furniture! yes, really, i thought it odd too.

so as that didn't excite me i decided to make a bag for our bread.

my beloved makes bread everyday, it's his thing.

so an anniversary present to us both that means something and will get lots of use.

we are both happy : )

and i was allowed to make the bread today x

birthday gifts..

a few weeks ago i celebrated another birthday and this blog also turned 4

i would like to share a few of the lovely  gifts that i was lucky enough to recieve.

firstly a scarf made by my friend Sarah in the most perfect colour and in the softest yarn;

 

this fun button mug  from my girls; (CT look away now!)

a gorgeous card sent from a dear blog friend, you can find them via Jen's shop;

My lovely ceramicist friend and fellow tutor at the art centre Lucy Burley gave me one of her wonderful turned vases;

 

and my sister jacky made me this pretty spiral wire and bead necklace;

I received lots of other kind and thoughtful gifts including another beautiful necklace from my eldest sister and another wonderful scarf from my parents. I really was very spoilt.

I was also made 2 birthday cakes (the above one gluten free, made by R & the girls) and some cupcakes, all with candles.  So three wishes, lucky me x

drawing

my girls really enjoy drawing. my youngest in particular has an instinctive talent for 'looking' and for seeing 'details' in everything. she has produced a wonderful piece of homework about Roald Dahl for a school project and i just love her illustrations and wanted to share them here with you.

at school they have been celebrating Dahl's work and a few weeks ago they had a Roald Dahl day. i was lucky enough to go and help make 'Nish Nobblers'. ( click on link for recipe )

the children also looked at Quentin Blakes wonderful illustrations and practiced drawing some of the characters in Quentin style.

Grand Witch - The Witches

The BFG

Matilda

she created these illustrations for her project and positioned them around a giant peach which contains all the facts that she wanted to include.

i then dug out this little book by Quentin Blake & John Cassidy that i had brought some time ago.

i was waiting to get another one or even two so we could all have one but us older girls decided that smallest would actually enjoy working through the pages so we gave it to her for working so hard on her project.

the book contains many differrent drawing exercises and has partially drawn pages which you can have lots of fun filling in.

it engaged the girls for hours, so much so that they almost missed the start of X factor! now that should tell you how great this book is!

a walk in the woods

i love to walk in the woods and it was wonderful to take a 'Memory' walk with my family last Sunday to raise money and awareness for the Alzheimer's Society.  here are some images of what i saw in the woods...

fairies

hawthorn berries

the turning of the year

fungi

nature's miracles

fly agaric

patterns of light through the trees

my wonderful family

x

small girl turns 10!

hello again ~ it has been a lovely Summer here but life as usual has been busy ~ good, but busy. since i last wrote we have had a great tomato harvest, a camping holiday on the isle of wight, various days out and a really successful family fundraiser for the Alzheimers society organised by my mum for which i made a teddy for guess the name of the teddy.

the girls have now returned  to school and i am preparing for some time alone next week when my husband also returns to work. i know i will miss them all but i also know that i need to have some clear head space to plan and prep for the hectic term ahead. we have lots of workshops scheduled in and i have finally updated news about them on the aliceandginny website here.  all our courses take place at the fabulously friendly and relaxed West End Centre arts centre in Aldershot, Hampshire. It is a real privilege to be involved with such a great place and if anyone who reads my blog is local, do check out their website and ring for a brochure as there are some amazing  gigs, comedy and workshops coming up, not to mention a burlesque night!!

September also brings two family birthdays, my husbands next week but we are not to mention that as he is now closer to 50 than 40 ~ sore point! and my smallest girl's.

Today smallest girl turned 10!! we really cannot believe it.  she is our  little ray of sunshine and really very dear. she is quirky, spirited, stubborn, creative, bright, funny, extremely loving and always right. we love her to bits.

 

i was up late last night printing out photos of her from birth to aged 10 and assembling them in a special book. i did the same for my elder daughter when she was 10.here are a couple of cute ones i included ...

camping age 3

modeling for a 'folkydokee' brochure. this one didn't make it in but i love it !

today we had a party for her.  her sister organised the food,  shopped for it with her dad  and iced the cake i baked.

we had a simple party at home  with a pass the parcel and proper forfeits. does anyone else do this? , games and a  party tea of sandwiches, cake and jelly and ice cream. oh and decorated biscuits. (made by girls ).

(message to grandmother myrtle ~ there is some jelly left for you for tomorrow!)

when the girls were smaller i used to theme the parties (with their input and ideas) and more often than not they were fancy dress parties too. now  they are older they like to go 'Crafty'.

i bought some inexpensive canvases and provided paints, buttons, sequins and felt pens and they created mini art pictures. i think they came out great. i am itching to do one myself now!

so tonight i am relaxing with some wine and resting up as we have our annual family sponsored Memory walk for Alzheimer's tomorrow. you can read read about last years walk here and the post i wrote about my grandparents last year too here. if this is a charity close to your heart i have reopened  my just giving page and you can donate easily straight to the charity if you wish.

wishing you all a Happy September and a gentle return the different rhythm that this time of year brings. i am thinking of a new knitting project for the autumn. i have learnt a little more about shaping this year with making  toys from this book but i would like to make myself a beret style hat. can anyone recommend a  simple but stylish one to start off on and any good places to purchase lovely yarn ~ i am thinking soft dusty lavender...

g x