Three Tatty Sailors

Tonight, I was determined to get this cross stitch finished. I definitely started it in 2016 - I did one of the bears as a Love Quilts square and then started the complete design to hang in my spare room.

I love all things Tatty Teddy, but the backstitch on these designs is so fiddly and time consuming! I did the actual cross stitch in a few weeks or so maximum, but the backstitch requires so much brain power and squinting. I'm certain it's not how it is on the chart, but I'm sure it'll look good once it's framed and on the wall!

DMC Tatty Teddy: Three Little Sailors

My wedding cross stitch project is still ongoing - I'll post some photos of the progress soon! I've also got 2 more Love Quilts squares coming up - rocking horses and swirly heart (both repeat designs but different colours).

Scrapbooking: B is for Ballet, P is for Picnic, Q is for Quiz and W is for Waffles

I've just realised it's been a while since I updated my blog, even though I've been working on several craft projects!

So, here's an update on our Alphabet Adventure - going back some time now!


In May, we went to see "Cinderella" the Ballet at the theatre in town (which was so awesome we're going back to see the same company perform "The Nutcracker" in November =D). As well as using photographs and our tickets, I added the customary label and some diet cut ballet shoes. I mounted them on some tissue paper - which is supposed to look like a shoe box, in case you didn't get that! - and added some pearls and ribbon.

B is for Ballet

In the Easter holidays, my husband, sister-in-law and her husband (my brother-in-law? Does that work? Let's say yes...!) decided to try a pub quiz. Long story short: it was aimed at a slightly *ahem* older audience and we came last. But only just!!! Great quiz though - I'd do it again for a giggle. Remind me to watch more UK TV Gold first though...

Q is for Quiz

One weekend when we were blessed with glorious weather, Bren and I had planned to go out for a picnic. You know, somewhere scenic. Except he became so absorbed in cutting the grass by the time he was finished I was majorly hangry, so we had our picnic in the back garden instead! Bonus was that Millie and Mollie could join the picnic too!

P is for Picnic (and pooches!)

Lastly, we went to the Waffle House restaurant in St. Albans. It's set in an old water mill. They serve savoury and sweet waffles. We both had French Onion Soup to start and then a white chocolate and mousse waffle for pudding (Bren copied me! haha) Was a tasty way to spend an afternoon, even if the queues to get in were long!

W is for Waffles

That's all I have for now. Coming up in the possibly-near-future: J is for Jazz, C is for Carnival and V is for Vintage cinema.

Scrapbooking: L is for London and I is for Ireland

The Alphabet Adventure continues! True to form, we've not been going in order. Where's the fun in that??

L is for London

In February half term (weeks before the terrorist attack), Bren and I took a trip into Central London. We used to spend lots of time in London while he was going to university there, but I'd never seen the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben or Westminster Cathedral. We also had to rescue Bren's bag that he'd left in Kensington the night before after a few too many drinks...!
This was an easy page to scrapbook once I'd chosen the backing paper and label materials, and I had a packet of London themed embellishments from which I chose the flag, bus and tube sign.

L is for London

I is for Ireland

I is for Ireland was far harder to scrapbook. We actually went to Ireland in October half term (it's taken me this long to get the photos printed!) and did a 5 days tour of Dublin, Galway, Killarney and Cork. Long story short, I had 100+ photos to choose from - so I had to edit. Even as I was making the pages I was editing based on lack of space!
I chose the baking paper from a "Wild Flower" scrapbook backgrounds pad that I bought from Hobbycraft on Friday. I like to use the same background for the same event, and there were only 3 of these in the pack so I'd challenged myself to fit the photos onto 3 pages. (All of the other letters so far only have 1 page by the way!)

"Wild Flower" background paper

Then, after A LOT of experimenting, I settled on these pages.

I is for Ireland: Dublin

I is for Ireland: Dublin to Galway to Killarney

I is for Ireland: Killarney to Cork to Dublin again.

Stickers that I found by chance in Hobbycraft - seemed appropriate!

These pages almost don't do it justice because of the number of pages I left out, but I'm still pretty happy with the results.
Also, I took that photo of the sheep as it was standing on a grass verge next to our car, and it wasn't zoomed in at all. We think it was hitchhiking!

I'm not sure what the next Alphabet Adventure will be yet - we still need letters A, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, M, N, O, P, Q, R, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. Post your suggestions please!

Stitch a Photo - Week 1

It's been a week since I started my wedding Stitch a Photo kit. So far, I've got as far as stitching the very edge of Bren's side and my neck and top part of my dress. There are lots of colour changes!

The photo I'm Stitching.

The first few stitches of Bren's suit.

The start of my veil.

More veil!

Such a huge chart for a small piece of fabric!

The start of my dress

Start of my shoulder

Starting to look a bit more like me!

The chart - Page 5 of 9

There's a lot of fiddly stitches at the bottom of the page which I'll tackle this week - I think that's where my bouquet starts. Bren's suit is a lot more straight forward, but I may decide to change the colour of his tie, as it was more blue in the photograph than the purple that it was.

Overall, I'm pleased with my first week's progress! This week is Activity week in school (less marking so more stitching opportunities) and then 2 weeks for Easter holidays (more stitching opportunities!) so I may get this page finished. After that, progress will most likely be slow. I think the original finishing estimate of *years* may still be accurate!

1st Wedding Anniversary Baking

Today is my 1st wedding anniversary - crazy! This time a year ago, we'd literally just been pronounced husband and wife.
So, to mark the occasion, I made butterfly fairy cakes. Aside from the fact that my Nan used to make wonderful butterfly cake, our wedding theme was Butterfly Garden.

Despite the fact that it's a simple recipe, I've never managed to successfully make butterfly cakes. Until today!

 I mixed 110g of self-raising flour, 110g caster sugar and 2 teaspoons of baking powder, then added 110g butter, 2 eggs and 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract and mixed it all together. Then, I spooned the mixture into cupcake cases and baked for 20 min at 180°C. While they were cooling, I made the icing with 220g of icing sugar and 110g butter - mix half the icing sugar with the butter, then add the other half of icing sugar with a splash of milk and more vanilla extract.

 Once the cakes cooled, I cut off the tops, spooned some icing into the middle, cut the tops in half to make wings and put them in the icing. Finally, I dusted them with icing sugar and added sugar pearls - purple to match our wedding theme, of course!

Bren and I have sampled the cakes and agree they taste yummy!

My 14th Love Quilts Square

This square is for a little girl called Olivia who has autism, ADHD and minor heart defects. The chosen theme for her quilt was Tatty Teddy, which I've never seen as a quilt theme before!

I already had this Tatty Teddy kit at home called "Three Little Sailors" so I decided to use that. Because of the size limit, I decided to use one and then add a border.

I googled for the bunting border and found another border that had anchors at the corner, so I merged them together. It looks pretty darn cute if I do say so myself, but the backstitch was a bit extreme. It's all made up of tiny stitches and they're all in between stitches, rather than in the corners that would allow you to use the pre-made holes in the fabric! All in all though, the whole square only took 3 days in half term - and that wasn't 3 full days either!

Love Quilts Square no. 14

 

DMC Kit: Tatty Tatty - Three Little Sailors

So, naturally, I've decided to start the whole kit now - I was going to leave it for a while to have a break from the backstitch, but in the end I decided to do it while my memory on how I did it was relatively fresh. I think I'll leave the lighthouse bear for last though! 

I think now's a good time to share my next ongoing sewing project with you. I say "ongoing" because it is going to be a mammoth task. 

Some of you may know I recently celebrated my 30th birthday. *insert your own age joke here* My mum bought me the most amazing gift. She's had a cross stitch chart made of a photo from my wedding day!

Almost a year ago!

She said she was originally just looking for a photo of my bouquet on its own, but - unbelievably - there wasn't one. Mum's suggested that I keep it as on ongoing project and do other things on the side as well. 

My super organised mummy!

8 pages for the chart and umpteen different colours - think she might be onto something there! Lots of Stitch and Bitch meetings will be needed I feel! I'm excited to get started though 😄 

Macaroon or Macaron?

So today, my husband woke up with a burning desire to bake French Macarons for the first time. I've no idea why, but we tried it anyway. Now, bearing in mind that I don't have any macaron recipes so Bren amalgamated several recipes he found on the internet. Also consider that I've never even tasted a macaron, let alone made one.

All things considered: what's the worst that could happen?? 

Well, they turned out ok in the end. Well, that's what Bren says. I have nothing to compare it to but they do taste pretty good! 

First we made the meringue from egg whites and caster sugar. Then, we added some red food colouring to turn the mixture pink. We made the main mixture from ground almonds and sifted icing sugar, then folded that into the meringue. After that, we piped the mixture into circular discs onto baking trays (covered in baking paper) and banged the trays in the surface to release air bubbles. Of course, the discs are all different sizes, so let's say that's part of the charm! Then, we left them to rest on the side for half an hour before putting them in the oven for 15-20 minutes. 

Soft Peaks!

While they were baking in the oven, we made some strawberry buttercream filling from butter, caster sugar, milk and strawberry jam. Finally, Bren sandwiched the filling between two macaron discs and voilá! 

Bon Appetit! 

 Bren says that as far as macarons go, the mixture is good but the meringue is usually crispier. Again, I wouldn't know! Either way, was a pretty good experiment for a Saturday afternoon!