Anyone for Secret Santa???

Thought I might get into the festive mood of things to come.

Whilst out on our woodland walk this afternoon I had a eureka moment and thought AHHHHH a Secret Santa of the blogging world would be ace. Not sure if this particular venture has been done before and not wishing to steal anyones thunder at all but thought it may be nice to share with fellow crafting/artist buddy types.

So heres the deal..... if you want to join in let me know by adding a comment on this post here. I have tried to create a festive little button to display on your blog if you want to join in.

I will then put names into a wintery woolly hat and match folks up at random. I will let you know who is matched with whom and then we can send little pressies in the post.



So thought some rules should be in order otherwise stress and chaos may pursue.

Santa's instructions......

1. It must ideally be made by your fair selves (ideally something you already have, Christmas is a busy time you know). Or be of a crafty nature.



2. It musn't exceed £10.00 in value or really be too much less than this so nobody is upset that their stocking is empty :(
(Is this an OK value????)



3. It must be posted in time for The BIG DAY.



So let me know what you think or indeedy pass the word, spread the Festive Cheer and respond to my post.

DEADLINE DATE for response Wed 25th. I can then match you lovely folks up.

Any questions drop me a line.

Give a Hat a Home

Hello all,

Just thought you should see what was in my fridge:

I was so excited when my friend Beth bought me this bottle of innocent smoothie with the cutest little hat. Its all in aid of the Age Concern campaign to raise money to help the elderly keep warm this winter. They are available from Sainsbury's and 50p of every bottle with a woolly hat will go towards the charity. How BONZA!!

So if you're thirsty..... in Sainsburys....... go on treat yourself or a friend, thanks Beth X

Tell all TuEsDaY

Well I can't believe it is Tuesday again so quickly, time flies.
Anyhoooooo

The question for today's Tell All Tuesday is :.
Were you named after anybody?......

My answer is: DRUM ROLL PLEASE

Samantha from Bewitched the 1960's/1970's

American sitcom. My mum told me this as a child and for a brief while I tried to wiggle my nose and perform magic but nothing ever came of it.

To play along with 'Tell all Tues' visit Emma at JellybellyJellybrain.

Some magic I have been able to perform though, is the bidding of these little beauties from e-bay which I won hurrah. They arrived today just in time to make more 'pretties'.

Favourite teacup and saucer and pretty lil buttons.

Toodle pip X

Tell all Tuesday

This weeks Tell All Tuesday question is,

When were you last disappointed?

Just yesterday was my recent disappointment, when I received an order from the Next directory for what I thought would be a lush winter coat.

My bubble of excitement has been exploded the aforementioned lovely is being returned to sender. The colour can only be described in true life as dull, drab, dingy and dirty looking bottle grey green (not the bright looking blue/teal green) above. Harsh I know and apologies if you own the coat but I felt very disappointed with the colour it just didn't do what it said on the tin!!Next must have par excellent lighting for the catalogue/Internet images.......misleading little imps!

To play along with this Tell All Tuesday visit here to check out what Emma is up to.

Byeeeeeeeeeee X

Leftovers.....

Had to share this with the world.... well the virtual world??

SPANISH PORK AND CHORIZO STEW (A Delia recipie slightly adapted)

Ingredients (for 4)

450g pork cubed/stew pack

450g salad/new potatoes

110g chorizo (I used a pack from tesco/tesco finest) chopped into 2cm wide chunks or there abouts its not science!

Red pepper roasted off ( i cheat and deseed then chop it up, then cook it off in olive oil till it starts to brown a little). Again Delia uses a posh alternative 250g jar of Odysea or Karyatis roasted red pepers in oil drained and halved.

I fat clove of garlic peeled and thinly sliced

1 large red onion peeled and cut into thick slices

6 sprigs of fresh thyme

1/4 teaspoon of saffron strands

1 tablespoon of olive oil

2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar

150ml dry white wine (drinking the rest is obviously optional)

340g Jar of Siansbury's Siciliana sauce or similar tomato based italian sauce. Delia went on about Tomato Frito by Heinz I personally think she is making it up!, so used the latter.

Small can of pitted balck olives

Preheat oven to gas 1 or 140/150 degrees c

Put pork, chorizo, peppers ('red peppers' just leave them in the cooking casserole pot after cooking off),garlic and onion. Throw in the thyme, seasoning and olive oil and toss together Ainsley Harriot stylee.

Use a teaspoon to crush saffron strands (I do this in an egg cup) add the white wine vinegar to this and stir. Add to the casserole followed by white wine, tomato based sauce, olives and potatoes. Give it a good stir., put lid on bring to simmering point then transfer to the oven she advises 1 and 1/2 hrs i say 2hrs.

Serve with fine green beans.

Another delicious lil meal, even nicer warmed up the second night if there is any left.

Have a fun old week Ciao for now X

2nd Post Sunday

Well just a quick line to show you all what I have made today. I feel quite tired now and have to get ready for work tomorrow still oops. The TEXTILES take over tehe.

A few orders were placed for the lil clutch bags, hopefully they will go down well with the orderee's.

Tulips

Ditsy Daisy (love daisies)

New lil number : Lily of the valley

So off I go to tidy my mess and get into teacher zone. Have fun this week no doubt my posts will trail off again for a wee while. Busy busy.....Ooooh I love the holidays.

The Mission and the Monster

Hurrah!! Wedding Hearts completed well they are just ready for a wee button! Why oh why I work on less pressing projects I will never know. I am still to submit my proposal to the Craft Fair. Yikes so I will press on.

Just wanted to introduce to you Mr Moni Monster. Another less pressing crafty product.....Christmas gift for nephew. Idea was based on the work of Molly Chicken see her tutorial, http://mollychicken.blogs.com/my_weblog/2008/09/hegehog-softie-with-a-pocket.html so cannot take all the credit.

Enjoy your day !

Meet Peter..

HaPpY HaLloWeEn !

Evolution of a theme

Hi again, Im pleased to be able to post so frequently this week, Im sure it will not last (sigh; such little faith Samantha). Oh thats me by the way... I wasn't actually christened Piccalily or Blossom, tehe.

Anyway one digresses AGAIN!

So what's been going down, apart from the white stuff. If you missed out here is video evidence that it did snow on Tues, and yes I am sad enough to stand and video it on the camera.

Technical hitch VIDEO A NO NO SORRY I know you all wanted to see but look closely and you can see white blur's in my pic :)

Watch out Mr Spielberg! Well obviously no competition here.

So what else have I been up to?

I have made these little ladies.

And these Heart shaped Christmas dec's.

Today was supposed to be my second stitchathon day, but I found Laura Ashley calling me as there is 10% off the lovely garments. Well as Im trying to go all vintage thought it rude not to pop in. Much to my moms, erm delight I think...... she has the patience of a saint as she was yes...ing and no...ing to the clothes I was trying on.

So tonight we have had this:

Jamie Olivers CHILLI (note Mr Olivers entourage if one is to read this I am championing the cause).

And made these hence the evolution title, they are the favours for our wedding next year Im just trying to be organised. They started too small, then looked too plain so they mutated (altered) into these babies.

Front Back

Quite pleased so just off to make another 31 thats if my Snow video clip ever loads. Im sure Ill be inundated with viewers for that anyhow????

CIAO X

Pass it on!

What a lovely day!! Bicester shopping village..........LOVED IT.

My friend and I decided to treck along to the Bicester shopping village today, so I started half term off with a bang. Managed to purchase the most yummy winter goodies to finish off the Christmas shopping.

Had to pop in the Cath Kidston shop, felt it was the law! The bag in my hand just wouldn't let me go without her! I was sooo excited quite the billy bargain. Decided it would be the pivotal item to kickstart my new look. I ll see if I can pull it off. Quirky vintage.

Ermm what else.. Well not sure if anyone has watched the Jamie Oliver prog of late but we have been trialling the new recipies from his new book. EVERY single thing we have cooked so far has been DEEEEEEEEEElicious. So just as good old Jamie has instructed I thought I'd pass them on to you guys.

The weekend we had stew,

You will need Stewing beef 750g for 4-6

2 sticks of celery

2 carrots

2 onions

A spoon of plain flour

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

500ml of ale/stout/guiness

3 bay leaves

It was the second time I cooked this, I did think it needed more veg in order to fill up three grown men, so I just added an extra spoon of flour/another tin of tomatoes and veg (celery/carrots).

Chop the veg and simmer for 10mins in a glug of olive oil, add the beef and flour stir through. Add the ale and tomatoes and bay leaves, bring to the boil. Then place in the oven 200 degrees c for 3 hours, or leave simmering on the hob.

Delish with chunky warm bread.

Going to start the making extravaganza tommorrow and wed..... might make some more christmas decorations.

So many ideas so little time.