Yuletide Blessings!

I wish you all a happy and blessed Yule.

Although the shortest day of the year, Yule or Midwinter marks the point of change, when the Oak King wins his fight with the Holly King yet again and our days become longer. Yeah!

It's funny, the excitement I feel at Yule is the polar opposite to the sadness i feel at Midsummer. Knowing that the days are growing shorter, we still haven't had a sniff of summer and the veggie garden harvest feels a lifetime away always gets me down for a while.

So, to the celebrations... tonight we have friends coming over to help us scoff the Ham A La Delia which Jon cooked last night (WOW, ham in coke is the new black, trust me!) and we'll have lots of candles lit and a yule log to stuff full of wishes too.

How are you going to celebrate?

My new little job...

I recently took on an extra little part time job to clear a (not huge but oh so stubborn) debt that has weighed me down for far too long.

Now for 2 days in every week I play shop in a wonderful den of antiques, curios and real pretty things.

So... You wanna see some pics...?

Barbarella. You Babe!

I bought the Barbarella Dvd for Jon last year and we finally got round to watching it last night. Wow, I'd forgotton how amazing Jane Fonda was. The costumes are pretty fantastic too.

If you've never seen the movie Barbarella before (or it was just so long ago you can't remember it) it's one to watch before you die but don't expect the most intellectually stimulating movie ever made. Ignore its (lack of) storyline and indulge in the 60's psychedelia & awesome costumes instead.
Love it ;o)

Ginger & Boo earn their keep

Remember these 2 lil ladies? They are all growed up now and we introduced them to their first rabbit warren today. They had SO much fun!



Hunting with ferrets involves netting off the warren entrances along a hedge, popping the ferrets down the hole and waiting for them to flush the bunnies out into the waiting net where we can then dispose of them.



We were out for an hour or so this moring and they pushed out 4 good sized bunnies in all. We only caught one due to not having enough nets for the crazy amount of rabbit holes we have in our hedges, but the girls did their job perfectly.

Rabbit meat is very lean, very local & completely free and now the girls are ready for work we hope to add it to our winter menu more and more this year.

If you have any recipes that we need to know please let me know!

More giggles...

Need a giggle?

Sewing Class Catch Up...

Oh, I have been bad not sharing my class progress with you all. I haven't actually finished many projects yet due to the laughing/unplanned fabric shopping trips/steep learning curves at each class but here is a quick catch up...

Remember these?The pattern (Simplicity 5063) had to be adapted as it includes a nasty tie thingy on the front (which I'm sure looks adorable if you're a size 8 but I truly don't need any more padding in the tummy area) Barbara showed me how to change the pattern and remove them. I also had to add the strip of blue fabric onto the waistband as they came up too low on me. To balance them out I also popped a blue strip on the cuffs too.


When we were off to France in Septemeber I replicated the pattern (but including the extra waist measurements) in a cute stripey linen 3/4 length trousers. I added the big daft pockets to make them feel a bit different and I really enjoyed wearing them.
They look hopelessly unflattering hanging up here but they were quite cute on. Promise.

Having got the basics off to a flying start with such a simple pattern I wanted to move on to something trickier so may I introduce...

Did you see the waistband? And the pockets? and how about the zip fly??? Piece a cake ;o)

I am making the 3/4 length pair (hey, I like 3/4 length, ok?!) in a black patterned cotton. Not my first choice of fabric to be honest as it doesn't have any stretch but one thing I am slowly coming to terms with is that fabric shops don't stock clothes fabric much any more. Tonnes of upholstery stuff but generally not much for clothes. These trousers are almost finished but when I tried to set mums overlocker up last night with black thread it all went a bit wrong so at todays class I'm gonna request a overlocker workshop. I won't bore you with photos of the 'almost finished' pair of trousers but hopefully will be back soon with them all completed.

I bought the fabric yesterday to make my first ever pair of curtains for our bedroom and have a pile of jersey I want to attack once I am at one with the overlocker.

So many ideas so little time...