Ripple ta-dah!

Do you remember the miserable cold dark days of February, when it felt like winter was going to last forever and I started a mammoth ripple blanket to keep us warm on winter nights...?  
Well, it's been a while since those days and the weather couldn't have been more different lately! 
I rippled away during the last days of winter and merrily into spring and then when the sunny days arrived, I put my blanket to one side for fear of overheating under the weight of the thing!  
Well, it's been a little bit cooler of an evening lately, enough for me to pick up my blanket once more, finish off the last few stripes and weave in all those ends and now it is finally finished!  

It's a bit colourful to say the least but my main intention was to use up lots of odds and ends.  I usually stick to a much smaller, more neutral colour palette so actually it's been lovely to go with the flow and use colours I wouldn't usually choose together!

Hopefully it will be a while before we will need it to keep us warm at nights but it's tucked away by the side of the bed ready to pull on when it does get chilly! 

Love is in the air

Lately, I've been working on some lovely wedding papercuts.  It's definitely wedding season and who doesn't love a good wedding?!  

Never one to need an excuse to celebrate all things romantic, I was inspired to design a new papercut that I hope you all like.  Each letter is made up of little tendrils of foliage, each leaf measuring about 2mm so it's quite a delicate piece. 
I'm thinking the design would translate well with lots of different song lyrics and sweet words.

Weddings, weddings, weddings!

Just checking in to tell you about a lovely blog I have recently discovered - BeckaBonce

Each week Rebecca features a themed collection of lovely handmade items around the webosphere.

This week the theme is 'Weddings' and you may just spot a little something from yours truly in the collection....

Previous weeks have included foxes, tea and stripey items and there's always bound to be something included that gives you a bad case of the havetohaves!

x

Save the bees!

All future orders will include a little something extra... for our little buzzy friends! 

Adventures in cordial making

The elderflowers are on the trees for such a short time, about three weeks in total, and as a lovely friend of mine has an Elder tree at the bottom of her garden, we decided to take advantage and try our hands at making elderflower cordial.  

The process is as easy as pie and so satisfying; we're already talking of it becoming an annual tradition!  If you fancy having a go (and I thoroughly recommend you do!), here's how we did it....

Firstly, using slightly wonky scaffolding, we picked around seventy heads of flowers.  They had a good wash to remove any bugs or debris and placed into a very large pan.  

We added the zest of eight lemons and then chopped the lemons into thick slices and this all went in the pot with the elderflowers.  

In a separate pan, we disolved two kilos of sugar (yes, poor teeth!) to three litres of boiling water and poured it over the elderflower / lemon mix along with 100g citric acid (available from lots of online shops), covered it with a lid and left it overnight.  The smell when the hot water hits the elderflower and lemons is wonderful!  

I forgot to take any photos the next day but it was very simply a case of removing all of the lemon pieces and large elderflower stalks from the water, then straining the remaining mix through muslin into a large jug to be poured into sterilised bottles.  
It will keep in the fridge for a couple of months and can be frozen if you want to keep it for longer. 

 

It is really tasty mixed with just still or sparkling water but is utterly delicious when mixed with gin and soda water!  

Cheers!  

 

Sunday snippets

It's been a while since I wrote a 'Sunday Snippets' post so here we are with a few excerpts from my life over the last week or so... 

Visiting one of my favourite coastal places and these wonderful pastel beach huts

A sweet little commission I've been working on.  This papercut was personalised with their names and wedding date and then mounted onto the front of their wedding guest book.  It was stuck down using double sided tape, a sheet of acetate was placed on top to protect it when it was being passed round the wedding guests to sign and a border of fabric washi tape was added.  I think I held my breath the whole time I was doing it but was so pleased with the way it turned out.   

A little purchase of fabrics from Fabric Rehab for a few little projects I have in mind... 

Beautiful ranunculus from lovely friends that came to dinner last weekend 

It's been such a perfect week weather-wise up until today.  Today is a day for snuggling up with hot chocolate and a good book!  What Sundays were invented for!  

Vintage cameras

A new papercut just up in my Etsy shop, inspired by my ever growing collection of them!

Remember the days of having to choose reeeeally carefully which 24 photos you wanted to take?!.... Then being really disappointed when only 12 of them came out right!  
It all adds to the charm though!  

Summer garden party

All this beautiful summer weather had me all inspired to create an Etsy treasury today. 
Enjoy!  Hope you're all having fun in the sun!

Adventures in bread baking

Over the bank holiday weekend, we went to Mayfield Farm Bakery in Old Harlow to attend one of their bread baking courses.  It's something we've always fancied trying our hands at and it was our Christmas present to each other.  We decided to wait for a lovely Spring day to enjoy it! 

There were sixteen of us in the class and we arrived at 10am for tea and coffee before being introduced to Nick the baker.  He told us all about the history of bakers within his family.  He comes from a long line of master bakers so it most certainly runs in his blood. 

Then we were set to work mixing up a dough.  With only five ingredients, it was a simple recipe - a far cry from the long list of ingredients found in 'plastic' bread in our supermarkets. 

Once kneaded together for a good ten minutes (this sure is a good workout to banish any bingo wings!),  it was left for its first proving while we gathered together around the industrial mixer to mix up a huge batch of dough to be divided between us later.  

By then our doughs had doubled in size, so they were knocked back, removing all the air bubbles, split into two and left for a little while again to rise.  Once the dough had risen a bit, it was time to shape the two loaves and add filling to one, transforming it into a speciality loaf.  Stilton, walnuts and raisins were added to one and the other dusted with flour and slashed with a cross pattern on top.  

We'd worked up a pretty good appetite by then so were led through to the cafe for our lunch which was included in the price of the workshop.  I was so hungry that I forgot to take a photo of our main course (a goats cheese and fig tart) but here is our lovely dessert - blackberry and frangipan tart - so delicious!  

The afternoon was spent shaping the large batch of dough into various shapes - cobs, bloomers, plaits and a knotted bloomer. 

As total novices we were a little worried about how they would turn out and were amazed when they appeared from the oven twenty minutes later looking like pretty professional loaves! 

We each got to take home five loaves - here is what we brought home... luckily we'd had the forethought to clear some space in the freezer! 

We're just coming to the end of the loaves now and they have been absolutely delicious.  I'm excited to try baking our own now, maybe using some granary or wholemeal flours and I'm already thinking of all the different fillings to try...

Yes, that's it! Said the Hatter with a sigh, it's always tea time!

Home sweet home

I hope you're all having a good weekend, whatever you're up to.  This weekend I've been working on a new Home Sweet Home papercut for the shop

I've just received a very exciting commission which I can't wait to get started on and I'm also working on a little collaboration with someone very special too so my scalpel is going to be very busy!  Just the way I like it!    

Have a lovely Sunday evening and I'll be back soon to tell you all about my recent bread making adventures! 

Jo x

Dinosaurs didn't read

I have never needed much excuse to bury my nose in a good book, it has to be said, but if you're in any doubt, this may just make you think twice. 

If those poor dinosaurs only had access to a local library, things may be very different around here these days....

The cure for anything is salt water...

We have just returned from a holiday on the Kent coast.  It was a week of blissful weather, our patient wait for the cold and snow to disappear was rewarded with blue skies and warmed skin for the first time in a long long time!  There's nowhere quite like the Great British seaside when it's sunny!  

It was a week of ambling, exploring and recharging.... here are a few snapshots...

I came home with a notebook filled with ideas and am very excited to get started on some projects I have in mind...

Jo x