Here they are Lavender Scones with cream and lemon curd.

Firstly you need to make some Lavender sugar. I buy bags of dried lavender buds from my local health food shop. I fill a small container with caster sugar, I think it holds about 10-12 ounces. I then add 4-5 decent tbspns of lavender. Pop the lid on and give it a good shake. ideallly leave it in the box at least a week before starting to use it.

Scones.

8 oz SR flour
2 oz lavender sugar (shake the box first)
1 tspn baking powder
2 oz butter
1 egg
4 oz milk






Rub the flour, bp and butter together, add the sugar. Beat the egg with the milk.

Add some of the egg milk mix and start to pull the dough together. Add more liquid and keep mixing.

Save a little of the liquid.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board, knead a little but be gentle.

flatten out with your hands to about 3/4 of an inch thick, cut into triangles.

Brush the tops with the remaining egg/milk and sprinkle on a little more lavender sugar.

Bake at Gas mark 6 for 10 -12 minutes.



when cool slice open and topped with whipped,thick cream and a dollop of lemon curd.

well Hello happy campers, my room looks like an explosion of colour,paper and fabric with the odd glue stick thrown in. I am still making bags...

20 tote/long handle bags DONE !

now I am making some drawstring bags. I am also making a wedding album for my cousins wedding at the end of August, hence the mess in here, so much so I can't see the desk. So instead of a desk shot here is a peek inside my fibre boxes, these are just some of my fibres, there are other boxes and bags around the house. But these ones live in my craft room, usually up on a shelf.



I am having problems with my laptop keys, 3 have broken and another 3 are sticking, so as it is only a few months old it will have to go back. I have been backing up photos from it onto disc and also onto the external hard drive so I can send it off and not worry about losing stuff. As I have been sorting and backing up I came across a few of my cross stitch photos. For 10 years I ran a weekly club, with 24 members, I got fed up towards the end and got someone else to take over...well actually it took 4 of them to divide up all the jobs I did for 10 years on my own! anyway, I never intended to leave, but I took a bit of break and just never got around to going back lol then I got sick and spent 4 years having operations. That was 5 ish years ago, and I haven't really stitched in all that time. I do have lots of embroidery stash, I wouldn't give it away as I feel in my heart I will get back to it one day.

So here are just some of my finished pieces.

I gave 7 away to friends and to the charity shop a couple of month ago as there are just too many to hang up in my house lol



Have a great week.

Hello Wednesday Wanderers. Hope you like the new look of the blog, I spent all day a few days ago revamping it, messing with the html till my brain was truly broken lol

Bag Update...14 bags finished and another 6 half done.

Since last week I have made another mini, the last one was blue,brown and green for a male friend's 40th, and this one is in pinks for a female friends 30th.

Again following instructions from Laura's page I love it when people design great stuff for me to have a go at.



I have loved making these two, and was able to pack a lot of photos into them, this one has *I think * 26 photos in it..can't check as it has been mailed out to her.



Each tag has a photo, and a title or a journal sticker. also a few of the pages have blank journalling areas for her to fill in.




Tomato watch...see how tall my babies have grown.

Just lookie!!! I am so impressed lol

Desk watch...machine set up, pile of bag straps and linings and a small pile of fat quarters which are to make a bag for myself at an upcoming sewing day with friends. hmmm now how did that can of cider get in there lol

Must get on with bags now, and also need to start a wedding album.

Speaking of which where can I get 2 silver coloured metal rings from, wedding ring stylee and NOT joined together....actually I could do with about 8, if I can get them cheap enough. If you know anywhere that sells them please let me know.

have a great week. x

Carrot and Ginger loaf with Cream Cheese frosting.



4oz plain flour
4oz wholemeal flour
2 tspn ginger
1 tspn cinnaon
1 tspn bicarbonate of soda
4 oz butter
6oz black treacle
2oz molasses
1 oz sugar
1 med carrot grated
zest and juice of half an orange
2 med eggs beaten





In a pan gently heat the sugar,butter,treacle and molasses, and orange.
Combine the flours,bicarb,spices and carrot

Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Add the eggs.

Mix all really well, turn into a buttered loaf tin.


Bake gas mark 4 till firm but springy, approx 1 hr ...to ...1 and 1/4 hours.







Top with cream cheese frosting




4oz butter
8oz icing sugar
4oz philadelphia cheese
juice of half an orange

Hello wednesday bloggers, no shot of the desk today, nothing much different on there, sewing machine is set up and there are bits of denim everywhere...and I do mean everywhere lol

I made this little photo album this week for a friend who had a 40th a few weeks back that I couldn't get to. The destructions are on this blog HERE. Love her books,do check out her blog for some great tutorials.



The papers are K&Co.


It is basically pieces of chipboard (covered) that wrap around a bunch of envelopes that are stuck together.



In each of the envelopes is a tag, I've used photos that other friends took of the party to fill the tags.




So now onto my main task this week. The bags...thankyou to everyone who sent good wishes last week, and especially to those who donated, money and fabric..

For those who enquired about buying the bags, sorry but they are not for sale. The children that the aid is going to have absolutely nothing, and while the vans will be full of furniture and nappies and clothes and dried food etc it's important that the kids have a little something just for them...last year I made toys, this year bags...so the bags are not being sold to raise money they are going direct to the kids. They will each be filled with colouring books,toys and sweets.


Here is the design I chose to do, its a pretty simple tote bag. Using denim from the legs of the jeans, plus a pocket stitched on the front.




The straps are made from the stripped out seams of the legs, the fastener uses the section from the button fly.

The back is more denim, here you can see where I have pieced it together.

and here are the first 9 done. I have stitched enough linings for another 11 bags, and will hopefully have enough denim. So fingers crossed I will get 20 done, anymore will depend on what fabric I can get hold of.

Here you can see all the different linings. It's been a great excuse to use up pretty much all my old fabric.

Going out today for coffee with my Romanian friend, so will get around to some blogs tomorrow. Have a great week.xxx

Strawberry Cupcakes

Chop 1 punnet strawberries into smallish quarters,wash

8oz SR flour,
2tspns baking powder
5 oz sugar
1 tspn ginger
5fl oz oil
3 tbspns orange juice
2 eggs
2 small gala apples, peeled and cored
Few digestive biscuits and ginger biscuits

Put apple pieces into food processer and whizz till finely chopped, add dry ingredients, mix.
Whisk oil,juice and eggs, add to other mixture
Drain strawberries, squeeze them ever so slightly, and add liquid to mixture,




Add a spoonful of mix to each cupcake case.

Put 4-5 strawberry quarters in each one, top up to 2/3 level with cake mixture bake gas 5 for 15 mins till firm
Decorate with cream cheese frosting, sprinkle with crushed biscuits and top with more strawberries.

So my desk this week, well as you can see I was able to get near my desk, thats because I had a good tidy up of the floor lol This photo was taken a couple of days ago, it is a huge pile of jeans.

Right now I have a pile of legs, a pile of pockets, a pile of waistbands and zips, and a pile of seams and discarded bits...




and why am I cutting up jeans? to make bags of course, silly question really!

Those that have read my blog for the past couple of years will know that the previous 2 years I have made toys from socks to send on a convoy of aid to Eastern Europe, to deprived children, one parent families and orphanages.

My good friend Pete is going again this year, and I didn't fancy making a ton of toys I decided to make bags instead. It is not just a case of asking for donations, though Pete does have to do this, he also has to raise money for the trip. He is solely responsible for filling his van with aid, as as I type this he is doing a 170 mile walk to raise money.

This is Pete's JustGiving page if you can spare a couple of pounds, it would really help. The convoy goes in September, so I have till then to make bags.....aside if anybody wants to send me their old jeans to make bags that would be great too..(sorry I cannot offer postage) I plan to line the bags with various oddments of fabric, if you have anycotton or poly cotton fabric in colours suitable for boys/girls in pieces no smaller than 14inches x 14inches then be assured they will go to a good home.

The other day I was having a discussion with my friend Sue, about how we bookmark favourite websites of things we would like to make...and then promptly forget to ever look at them again, she suggested making a creative board and printing out pics from websites....so here is mine. It is a huge cork board, not very pretty butiti does the job. I gave it this title as all the things on it are from websites. On most of the pics i also stuck the website.



what's the bet it will get totally filled with pictures but i won't actually get around to making any of them???

At the moment it is propped up behind my cricut, as there really is nowhere else for it lol


On Saturday we went for an ice cream and a wander on the beach. My friend Effie is always on about her beach game that she plays with a friend...

The Rules:
1.find a bit of string
2.find a stone with a hole in, tie it on the string, this is now the weight that hangs down
3.find as many interesting things as you can, they must all have holes in to be able to tie them on
best/most interesting wins...

Ian wouldn't join in, can't imagine why....actually he picked up a bit of wool, discarded it then gave up in favour of taking photos. So I went off collecting on my own. As you can see i wandered quite a long way, it does look like I am taking a small dog for a walk, but it was in fact a kettle!



I got a babies dummy/pacifier, a shoe,a metal ring, some plastic rings,a cup,an iron and a kettle!

I also saw a printer,some washing up gloves,a bin and a couple of camping gas bottles, all you could need to set up home lol

Needless to say I wasn't allowed to bring my treasure home, had i done so it would now be a wonderous piece of art....ah well, c'est la vie!

Recipe for you today, these Banana and Peanut Butter cupcakes.

Sounds weird??? well they are really lovely, but you do have to like peanut butter lol


Makes about 8

2 bananas
pinch of salt
1tspn baking power
1tspn cinnamon
2 oz plain flour
2 oz wholemeal flour
zest of 1 orange
zest of 1 lemon
2 oz butter
3 oz sugar
1 egg




Mash 1 banana, add flours, baking power,sugar,butter,salt,cinnamon,orange,lemon...mix well

beat the egg and then add to dry mix, you may need to add a little milk at this point. use your judgement if the mix is too dry.

chop the 2nd banana, fold into the mixture.

line muffin tins with paper cases and 3/4 fill with mixture.

Bake gas mark 4 for around 15-20 minutes till firm but springy.





turn onto a wire rack to cool...

2 oz butter
4oz icing sugar
4 tbspns smooth peanut butter

mix well together and pipe over the cupcakes.







yummerific!

Ok so the drawing from the last post..thanks for your comments, but I am by no means an artist, my drawings are very childlike, but I get to play at colouring in and that's all that matters lol






Here it is half coloured..






and finished..




I then used distress inks and a wet brush to fill in the background, I think I spoiled it a bit.. should have left well alone...but too late it was done. I then matted it on blue paper and then onto a white card.






Before adding stickles...

and gems...

and finally printed out this poem and stuck it inside.



you might be forgiven for thinking this was for a little girl, but no it is for my auntie who is 60 lol I don't do grown up stuff very well, but it is from the heart so I hope she loves it.