Daim Bar Cake

A friend at work loves Daim Bar's

and as it was her birthday,

I made her a Daim bar cake.

Basically it's a simple vanilla sponge

with some crushed Daim Bar pieces in the batter.

Then I iced the cake with 'Caramel Frosting'

(the recipe was found here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/7506/caramel-frosting-i/

I doubled the quantities of the frosting recipe

so that I could put the frosting inside and on top.

Then I topped the cake with crushed Daim bar pieces

and mini Daim bars.

I believe it tasted ok ;o)

*****

I also embroidered a sheep 

in Bullion stitch on a heart as a little gift.

*****

Now I'm making another Minecraft patchwork block

as my other son has his birthday tomorrow....

I didn't measure this one 

so it's a bit of trial and error as to what it will end up as...

A tablet case WAS the plan, but we will see!

Why yes I did!

I did get a bit obsessed with Bullion stitch...

And made more and more 

including some with roses and rosebuds!

And I did make Miss-Kalico a princess dress....

BUT I didn't make a purple one!

So a purple shirt underneath had to do.

And Minnie mouse slippers completed the look ;o)

Bullions and Bamburgh (part1)

My first bullion stitch bee!

I decided to decorate some stuffed hearts

with embroidered roses

I tried a few different techniques

and then I remembered that I had a book on Bullion stitch,

so I tried some bullion stitch roses.... these were my first ones....

And then I changed needles, thread strand quantity etc. 

until I found a way to get them to work for me.

These were before I added the green leaves.

*****

And now on to some of our holiday snaps

We rented our friend's gorgeous holiday home 

in Bamburgh, Northumberland.

This entailed lovely day trips

with lots of walking.

Rockpooling and walking

on this day...

to Dunstanburgh Castle.

Of course I had forgotten our National Trust passes in the car

which was seriously too far to walk back for! so we

didn't explore the ruins, but just had a quick look around.

The walk back takes you to the little harbour village of Craster

where smoked kippers are a local speciality.

The smoked kipper restaurant was closed, but the pub opposite,

The Jolly Fisherman was still serving lunch and what a lunch!

Highly recommended!!!

We sampled the fish cakes and some of us shared the Fish Board

all very yummy.

***

Another day trip took us to Alnwick Castle

where some of Downton Abbey was filmed.

Besides a nosey around the castle including a display of 

some of the Downton costumes etc (no photos allowed!!)

There was loads for the children to do.

One little person found the dressing up worthy of another trip!

Pure ecstasy!

So I have come home 

with grand plans to make Miss-Kalico a 

Princess outfit.

Plans! No action as yet!

Did I say there was loads for the kids to do?

Well there was including Harry potter Broomstick training

and Master (Middle) Kalico

also enjoyed the dressing up

and games and activities...

A great day out (and holiday week) was had by all!

Closing the Stable Door...

... After the horse has bolted!

I like that saying.

It means that even though Christmas is over

I am still blogging Christmas stuff

and doing Christmas crafting LOL.

I was sent these beautiful snowmen for our tree:

They were beautifully hand-crafted

by Kandy.

Thank you Kandy!!

DS1 complained that Santa wouldn't be able to read

his name on the old name tag that hung on his stocking,

so last night I embroidered the boy's names on their stockings...

I just found a font in 'Word' that I liked...

and tried my best to embroider it.

This year I joined the BQL Sewing Santa Swap

again and received a cushion

with my name machine-embroidered on it.

When DH saw it he said,

'Wow, someone's got a fancy embroiderery machine'.

They sure have!

Thanks Mary!

And my little poppet is 10 weeks old today!

The time is flying by far too fast!!!!!!

Let's hope 2012 goes much more slowly!

Dinosaurs & Roses

I have been making gifts.

For little birthday boys...

And boys who now live far away...

And for kind people who look after children until the early hours of the morning.

Kind people even get embroidery...


And then after I had rested (LOL), I remembered how much I enjoyed fabric painting, so I painted some more shirts...

For little boys who like dinosaurs...





And for little boys who like sharks...




Time for another little rest ;-)

Take two!

Roses on hexagons.... (for a rose hexagon quilt)



I decided that I actually quite liked the idea of roses embroidered on hexagons that weren't rosy enough so I tried a few more...



They're not quite as perfect as I'd like them to be, but they are such fun to stitch that I might have a new addiction...

Hospitals, Hexagons, Hearts...

Today I had a post-op consultation at the hospital. I waited for well over an hour for my five minutes with the doctor :-)

Just before I was called in, they tried to send me to see someone else. Someone who would know nothing about my operation or why I was there...
I sat in the waiting room sewing hexagons so to be honest didn't notice how long the wait was...

Following doctor's orders, I came home and took my own dressings off and snipped my own dissolving stitch thread ends. Then I felt sick. I am faint-hearted LOL

Speaking of hearts, I am working on another handwork project as well as my hexagons.



All this tidying up around the house has unearthed these die-cut hearts that my friend Donna sent me quite a few years ago. Donna included template plastic, freezer paper, glue, a demo heart and 85 (or so) fabric pre-cut hearts...


I decided to do them in bed and slightly differently to Donna's suggestion. So am doing the applique method where you draw an outline (using the template) on the right side of the fabric and then as you stitch you push the edges under with your needle. Needle-turn applique without the freezer paper. I would have done needle-turn applique with the freezer paper, but getting to an iron while resting was too much like hard work.


I have now done 8 and half and have 78 (or so) to go :-)





The other applique hearts that I did in an English paper-piecing sort of way while I was in hospital after my operation have found a new home. They'll be going to Clare for Quilts for Leukaemia:



Here's a little secret (don't tell DH)..., but while I've been lying in my bed I treated myself to 2 new books (sshh!).
This is one of them...



And this is my first attempt at an embroidery from the book.


I don't 'do' embroidery or 'stitchery', but I do love roses and I had an idea that I may embroider some of my hexagon pieces that are not rosy enough with a rose embroidery... just an idea...