I know......

I've not been blogging for a while but busy with lots of other things, a husband that has semi retired and a new puppy. She's another Miniature Schnauzer  we have named her Maisie.

We have named her Maisie, so apart from walking and enjoying having her and Betsy there has been a lot of holidaying and working on my textile projects for The Material Girls, so you can always keep up with whats happening over on their sites which I update on a regular basis (well I try)!

The Material Girls have an exhibition at a new venue for us, really looking forward to showing our work there.

June and ....

July came and went, I spent some my time playing with my new camera, taking images of the flowers in the garden.

And Betsy, she's not always a willing model!

A walk in Epping Forest and a lovely lunch.....

More flowers in the garden, sadly this Lupin didn't last very long, it was so tempting to the slugs and snails!

We made another visit to Lanzarote, after many visits to the island we decided we should visit the Cactus Garden, these are just a few of the photo's. I did get a bit carried away, I've limited myself to only posting three images, but those textures!...

More of the island and yes the sea was that colour!

Then a weekend in Shropshire and a visit to Powis Castle and I even added more wool to my stash, oh dear!

And we are in the first week of August already, this year is scooting through.

The Material Girls

Last week Chris and I went to talk to the 'People' at the National Trust to keep ourselves updated on the progress of the restoration work going on at Rainham Hall, this is the venue of the groups next major exhibition. There are lots of research trips being organised and meetings with historians and experts in all sorts of related fields. What with that and other things going on I have even managed to update The Material Girls website click here and have a look, theres still a bit to add so keep checking in.

Last week at class we started making a box, my least favourite thing but I have finished it, no photos until I show it to my tutor. Today the groups were visiting Art Van Go and I was really looking forward to it, I'd arranged for Betsy to be looked after for the day, so no need to rush back. Money to spend and a list of wants, then yesterday afternoon I felt my throat tickling, I had an early night and dosed myself up, but no at 4am I woke up with a sore throat running nose and a thumping headache....... I'm p'd off! I think that's an understatement to be honest. Really needed something to take my mind off things today, but never mind we cope don't we? Tomorrows another day and maybe I'll feel like getting on with some textile things and if I feel better by Thursday I can go to Excel and meet up with friends for a coffee and have a bit of retail therapy.

As I don't like a post without a photo, here's one from last week Betsy with all her walking friends, she's sitting waiting for her turn to get a treat. Mary is the dog whisperer as soon as she walks on the field all the dog flock to her as they know she'll have something special for everyone of them! This is only half the group, the others had taken their reward off to eat away from the gang.

Betsy sitting on the left her sticking up ears give her away!

Sigh........

The doggy group has a new member a White Miniature Schnauzer his name is Yuki, he's a cute little chap. So now Dizzy Betsy's pal has a new playmate. Yuki is second cousin to Betsy, so there was no problem settling Yuki into the rather large group of dogs that we walk with as Betsy has spent a lot of time with Yuki since he came along. These are the photos of Yuki's first outing, Dizzy looked on very protective of his new little brother, Betsy soon became bored, I don't think she can wait until Yuki is off his lead and they can have a chase around the field. I don't think Dizzy is getting a lot of rest at home now a lively pup has joined his family. I must say it has made me think twice about adding another pup to our family, that has made Dave very happy as he doesn't want another dog.

Yuki meets one of the largest members of the group

Betsy is getting fed up with the standing about!

How relieved am I? Very!  Today I handed in my first completed project for City and Guilds, Janice has also taken my Line and Colour folders to have a look at, fingers crossed I wont need to add anything else to them.

One of the inspiration images for the table runner

Table Runner

I have also had my next project approved, so I'm now making a bag................  really out of my comfort zone now, I don't like making bags or boxes. But this is why I decided to do this course I need to stretch myself. sigh....... oh yes and trying desperately to catch up on lots of samples. sigh.........

Where's the Jelly?

There was no jelly and ice cream at this party, but lots of birthday cake, I slightly over indulged on the white wine! I  had two glasses, I honestly think it was sitting in the garden in the heat and not eating enough, well that's my story and I'm sticking to it! George enjoyed himself and received lots of attention and more importantly for a little TWO year old boy, he received lots of presents. So it's fair to say he had a good Birthday Party!!! And when I woke up this morning I had NO hang over, well as I said it was only TWO glasses.....

Just as well I'd made my own ice cream on Friday, then. I'd found the recipe via here then here, a big thank you to them both, isn't the world of blogging a beautiful thing? I did adapt the recipe a bit I substituted  a few things, it's good to improvise.

500g strawberries
150g golden caster sugar (it's what was in the larder)
300ml whipping cream
300ml low fat yoghurt

Clean fruit then put in saucepan with sugar and 3 tablespoons of water, cook on low heat until soft. Then puree and sieve ( I didn't bother to sieve nor did I totally puree, the bits in the ice cream were quite nice), leave to cool completely.  Mix the yoghurt / cream and fruit together. This is now up to you, I have a little used ice cream maker (one of those it seems a good idea at the time things) I took the well frozen container from the freezer ( it's been in there for over a year) and poured the liquid into it, it churned and groaned into a frozen sloppy mass in about 30 minutes. Then I poured it into a freezer proof container and popped it into the freezer, I did take it out after an hour and mixed it with a fork then left it in the freezer again for another couple of hours.
If you don't have a machine I think you need to remove from the freezer and mix every hour do this four times, it's to stop the ice cream forming into a solid lump to quickly ( I'm no expert ) it was well worth the effort. But a thing to be aware of as this ice cream has no additives it won't last as long as shop bought ice cream, such a pity  it needs to be used up asap..... it also sets quite firm if left in the freezer for a couple of days as we discovered after lunch today, but still tasted good!


I'm going to attempt cinnamon ice cream this week, and I'll make it by hand, reading other web sites I understand that custard based ice creams are the best they are creamier because they include eggs, anyone tried it?

Betsy did go for a visit to her friends on a very hot day, they played and romped and then laid in the shade, when we got home she went straight to her bed and slept all evening she didn't even want to go out for her evening walk.

Sometimes I really get fed up with blogger, had real trouble getting the photos in the right place and when I try to put labels on them the image pops up in the top of the post AGAIN???? Giving up......

Feather in My Hat or Cap?

The weather is warm, it's been all BBQ's and going out for lunch with friends or catching up on City and Guilds work and continuing with my work for the Material Girls next exhibition,  I need to finish it as soon as possible. A lot of the time it's been trying to keep myself and Betsy cool, our daily walks have been cut short when it's to hot, she loves  ice cubes and ice lollies. The best bit is spending  days at home  with the windows and doors open, I love the summer.

This weekend was the wedding of my nephew David, it was a beautiful occasion with lots of laughter and a few tears. David was  close to my Mum, his brother Matt (the best man) told a few stories of things that included her in his speech. My brother, me and our families miss her,  she would have loved to have been there to celebrate with us,  although Matt's stories were funny they made us all shed a tear or two. The day was  long and very hot, I along with some of the other guests suffered the heat and wore a hat, oh! how I love a hat........

I made David and Hayley a quilt for their wedding gift, it was a pattern I've used before, and I enjoy making it, but this will be the last one of this pattern I'll make. I don't like doing the same thing over and over again. Thankfully they were both pleased with it, I always have difficulty when I label a quilt I never know what to write! If your a quilter how would you label a wedding quilt? I started making the quilt over a year ago but only put the last stitch in two days before the wedding, that was sewing on the label.

This week it's going to be all about play dates, Betsy is going for a play with Dizzy, I think probably wednesday afternoon. Tuesday I'm going to visit a cousin, her daughter and grand daughter, hopefully I'll get a cuddle. On saturday my god son George is celebrating his second birthday,  it will be jelly and ice cream, cant wait. Hope paper hats will be involved, watch this space.......

What's happened to the weather?

 Apparently the summer appeared and went while I was on holiday! This week has been busy for all sorts of reasons, Monday the electricity was cut off to the house for almost the whole day. No lap top or TV or machine stitching for hours, that meant a lovely long walk with Betsy and then sitting and reading for a few hours, a little hand stitching and I finished off a knitted cushion cover that I started ages ago (image next time).

Tuesday was a Material Girls meeting and Wednesday was C&G's, I took the project I've been working on, Janice says is OK but I still need to do the binding and finish off then I'll show you. The whole class made a book, I need to add a few pages to it then I'll show that too!  Last night it was off to Spitalfields, London to meet up with Marion, Helen, Janette and Becky from the Seeking Artemis exhibition for a meal and a catch up, it was a really nice evening, good food and good company. 

I had a late start this morning and NO it was nothing to do with last night, Betsy and I went for a walk in our usual place but normally we don't walk by the ponds. Today I decided to take some bread and feed the ducks, I'm glad Betsy was on the lead I think she may have tried to join in with the ducks. It's ended up being a nice quiet peaceful day! 

Easter

Easter is proving to be a quiet one for us, just pottering about, Dave is boarding the loft, something that he has been planning on doing for a while, at last he's found the time. It was bright but cold this morning we have even had a little bit of snow! Thankfully it was after we had been for a long walk with Betsy, she had  a run about with one of her friends a Toy Manchester Terrier called Rambo,  an odd name I think for such a little dog. They both chased about the field until Rambo needed to leave we then put Betsy on her lead and headed to  Berwick Ponds. There was lots of bird activity today the swans were very active chasing off the geese I managed to get a couple of action shots. Swans certainly look scary when they open their wings fully I was so glad that Betsy was on her lead and the swan didn't come onto the bank where we were standing.

Swan

Swan

Ducks

Betsy

It was then time for home, Betsy fell asleep after her exhausting walk and after lunch I made and decorated chocolate cake as a contribution to tomorrows lunch. Then it was back to the stitching.......

Betsy and Dizzie on Youtube

Betsy had fun this morning with her friends Dizzie and Monty. Dizzie decided he didn't like her wearing a coat so he took it off her.  click here  to see the fun! I'm sorry I didn't get to film the whole game, but glad she wasn't wearing her posh coat from Jackie  see here.

I'm trying out Graze boxes you can too! If you want to try you can get a free box by clicking here if you do hope you enjoy!

TO DO

Recently I have found my life to be a  TO DO LIST which gradually I'm ticking off, I think that's why I'm not motivated to blog at the moment. We bloggers know that it's not a thing that can be done in just a few minutes, we think about what we want to write. Then we write and probably if your like me edit and then write a bit more and edit again. It is then onto adding images, I'm not happy if my posts don't have at least one image (hopefully more), they have to be edited and with luck they appear in the right place, if not it can take an age to get them positioned in the right place. Oh! there is spell check, and why does blog spell check want to change 'bloggers' to loggers and 'blog'  to bog, log or blag ????

Anyway back to my 'To Do List'

1. Get up to date with City and Guilds Samples and design work- Getting There.
2. Finish work for Seeking Artemis Exhibition - Another three months should do it. - NO GOOD               ONLY 7 WEEKS BEFORE HANGING !!!!!! HELP
3. Pay for holiday in May - Done can't wait...... (hooray some sunshine at last)
4. Book holiday for later in year and decide where to go - Done booked a week in Southern Ireland***.

The list doesn't actually look so bad now I've written it down, I must have left a few things off!!!

A few things that have been done over the last few weeks. Dave and I went to see 'Les Miserables' the show not the film, we both really enjoyed it. I have the feeling that it's a show that's a bit like Marmite some people have said they loved it whilst others hated it, well I don't like Marmite but I loved the show.

Shaftesbury Avenue, London

While we were in London we  took the opportunity to visit the V&A and then the Brunei Gallery at SOAS to see the exhibition of World Eco Fibre and Textile Art (WEFT)  it was one of the best exhibitions I've ever seen. As we had hours to kill we wandered around the Piccadilly area, had dinner and strolled around China Town always a good place for people watching!

China Town, London

I've continued with the cooking of curries, baking bread and trying out different recipes every week. Last Friday the result wasn't quite so good when I managed to slice through my thumb,  it meant a trip to the emergency room, for over an hour it wouldn't stop bleeding! That evening we had take away fish and chips instead of the Mac and Cheese I'd planned. (How did my hands get so old?) No nasty comments to that question PLEASE.

I've changed my shopping habits too instead of having ALL the groceries delivered by Ocado, I've started going to a Butchers, Green Grocer and Fishmonger. I'm staying with Ocado for the time being  it's convenient, but will probably start shopping at the local Waitrose. Going from shop to shop is not as easy as doing the shopping sitting in the living room on the laptop and browsing, but I fancy a change. It has nothing to do with the recent Horse Meat in food situation, I very rarely buy ready meals and Waitrose has not been involved, (I think) but never the less I feel that the smaller individual shops should be used. I can't say local shops where I live since a large T***o opened the two butchers the bakers and the greengrocers have all closed.  I will travel a little way to do the shopping but I'm going to give it a try!

I've  joined a group of people who walk their dogs every morning in the local park/woods/ponds. Betsy is really enjoying it,  until we started meeting this group  I'd not let her off her lead. When I was on my own I worried that she wouldn't come back, so far it's been ok and she comes back when I call her. I think the fact that I have a pocket full of cheese helps. She is having a great time running around with  various sizes of dogs they range from a very tiny Yorkshire Terrier to a Long Coated German Shepherd and a Pointer and of course her best friend another Miniature Schnauzer Dizzie. It has been really muddy and all the dogs enjoy running through the flooded areas she comes home caked in mud and so do I, she then spends a lot of the day sleeping, but very very happy. It's a shame that I can't meet them every morning but sometimes life gets in the way and Betsy and I cant spend two hours running through the park and have a speed walk around the streets, but at least if we meet up with them three times in the week it's good and my walking boots are proving they were well worth their money. Next winter I'll buy some wellies but my boots are warm and I get to wear my hand knitted socks.

Dizzie wearing his coat, Betsy au natural, well she didn't
 want to get her posh coat muddy!

I'm still taking part in the photo challenge I posted about it in my previous post. I do put some of the images on Face book. It is a challenge too, I don't find it easy to keep to the list every day so I don't think I'll carry on into next month but at least I tried.....

*** We had planned to spend a Holiday this year on the West Coast of USA this year travelling up to Canada from San Francisco then to Seattle and finally Vancouver Island stopping along the way. The plan was to spend a few days on Vancouver island so we could visit the gallery where the Material girls and Articulation  will be exhibiting their Bridging Waters work. However we cant spend as much time away as we hoped and so plans have changed.
Be back soon.....

What twice in one week I hear you cry!

Well it's because Betsy and I had a lovely surprise this morning, we had been out for our walk and had just got back when the postman knocked at the door! I looked at the parcel that was being handed to me just seeing the first initial of the name 'B' I was about to say 'no that's not for me'. The postman get very confused here as my neighbours houses are A&B and I'm always having to re post their letters. Anyway back to the parcel, I then saw it was in fact addressed to Miss Betsy Weaver,  we rushed to unwrap it and there was a cute little card from Hetty to Betsy and an absolutely beautiful Harris Tweed Dog Coat made by Jackie Cardy. Betsy was swiftly dressed in her new coat and she paraded around the house wearing it  as though she was in ' London Fashion Week' (now there's an idea Jackie) she looks so cute in it. This is such a generous gift from Hetty and Jackie and Both Betsy and I are over the moon. I'm so glad now that I've booked Betsy in for a wash and cut this weekend, I'm going to have to smarten myself up now too, I don't want to let the side down when we're out walking..........

Thanks again Hetty and Jackie. 

A Lot of Images

The kitchen is finished, well apart from the walls, they need tiling, but us girls can only put up with so much before Christmas (that's me and Betsy). So until after Christmas we'll be happy to put up with undecorated walls, I've hung a Christmas wreath in the kitchen, very glad it didn't sell at the craft sale!

I had a great day at Art Van Go, and a surprise  bonus was when someone said 'Hello Miriam' it was Lynda Monk, she had popped into pick up some supplies and was asked by Viv to give an impromptu demonstration, which of course being such a lovely lady she did......

Lynda Monk

On my way back home from Art Van Go I stopped at Sewfine in Watford and picked up a new sewing machine a lightweight Janome, that I'd ordered  I've not had a chance to play with it yet.

 Kate my God daughter is getting married on the 22nd December and I was invited to her 'Hen Tea' you can read more about it on her Mum's blog. We all had a lovely time and there was soooo much food, and yes there was cake and yes, I did eat it and NO I haven't forgotten my diet.  At this time of year I find it so hard..... Last weekend Rachel came home for a few days, I can't believe that this time last year I was dropping her off at Heathrow for her trip to Australia. Sunday the rest of the family joined us for lunch as it was Dave's birthday. I cooked the first roast dinner in my new oven with no disasters, a good rehearsal for Christmas Lunch. Monday Dave took the day off work and we went out for Lunch with his Dad. Tuesday it was the Material Girls Christmas do, so much food and I just cant say NO!!!!

This year I took part in ALQS7, I posted my quilt to Scarlett in Chile, I've heard from Scarlett that the quilt arrived safe and she is pleased with it. The quilt I received came from Claudia she lives in Brazil, I'm really happy with the little quilt the colours and the work are beautiful, just right for Christmas.

The Quilt I sent to Chile

The Quilt I received

Today we decorated the Christmas tree (last year we didn't have a tree, new puppy and only Dave and I here) To start off Betsy was very interested but then she got tired of it all and went for a lie down but couldn't help coming back  to have look, fingers crossed the tree remains intact until at least Boxing Day!

The Tree in One Piece

That was hard work.....

What's He got?

 You  do know it's raining!!!

Help ME, don't let him take me......

I give in..... wait till I get back, paw prints all over your clean floor!