Boy It's Cold Outside!!

Well, another frosty morning yesterday had me hunting frantically through my drawers for my thermal leggings and shirts. It gets very cold at the market in winter and thermal undergarments, while not especially glamorous, are pretty much essential. The last few days have been quite sunny but bitingly cold and I'm now up to three layers of clothes and a sleeveless puffa jacket meaning that I resemble something along the lines of a Michelin man! Still, if it keeps me warm I don't really care how ridiculous I look. After 3 or 4 very quiet weeks at the market, this week has been a very good week. It seems that the people of Cornwall are now in Christmas present buying mode and quite frankly, it couldn't have come at a better time. I discovered yesterday that the water treatment system that we have in the loft, that makes the water we get from the borehole safe to drink, has stopped working and I am now having to boil all my drinking water before I drink it. It's not really such a hassle because most of it is used in tea or coffee so it's boiled anyway and I have just nipped out and bought some 5ltr bottles of water for actual drinking water for me and the dogs and cats. The problem is that it's going to cost at least £500 to replace the system so I'm going to have to wait until after Christmas to get it fixed. Never mind, in the greater scheme of things, it's a trifling matter and things could be a lot worse ..... gosh I'm philosophical today :-)

It's starting to feel quite festive at the market too and you can always tell when it's getting close to Christmas because one of the lovely ladies at the market suddenly turns into this mad, wreath-making lunatic who runs around the place armed with secateurs and bags of foliage constructing gorgeous wreathes form holly, ivy, tree branches and pretty much any other greenery she can get her hands on. By Christmas eve, her hands are chapped and sore and full of holes from being pricked by the vicious holly leaves and she is totally sick of the the sight of wreaths. Last year, she made almost 400 in the month before Christmas!!

She basically turns this 

This 

 And this

Into this

And then this 

All in about 10 minutes :-)

I've asked her for a wreath with carrots and sprouts and broccoli on it this year and I get the feeling she isn't quite sure if I'm joking or not ..... I'm not :-) I really want a quirky wreath this year and I can't think of anyone better to make it. 

Oooooo and guess what arrived in the post on Thursday morning, right before I left for the market ....... my printable fabric. I am so beyond excited to give it a go I can't tell you but so far, I have been utterly thwarted in my attempts to have a play with it. People kept buying loads of stuff from my market stall on Thursday and Friday and I had to spend both evenings frantically sewing like a mad woman to make more things to sell. I will be putting everything on hold on Monday, though, to print my first piece of fabric. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it. I will of course, be posting pictures of whatever comes out of the printer ..... good or bad ..... hopefully good so fingers crossed :-)

Mid-Week Frustrations

Well, It's been a frustrating week so far. My iPad, my lifeline at the market for checking facts, reading the paper and general online boredom-reducing activities when the market is quiet, has had to go back to be fixed ..... TWICE!! It sort of freezes if you touch the screen too fast and then I can't turn it on or off. Despite the fact that I paid an extra £58 for an extended warranty, they didn't actually fix it the first time it went away and when I got it back, it lasted a grand total of 7 minutes before it froze again while I was trying it out. It went back again the very next day and it's due back again this afternoon so I guess we will see if it's fixed. I intend to video the opening of the box and the testing of the iPad this time because I got the impression that they didn't believe there was anything wrong with it. 

I'm also still waiting for my printable fabric to arrive. When I ordered it from Amazon, I didn't realise that it came from America. It was only after I had paid for it that I noticed the delivery date was quite long, a major giveaway that it's coming from far away. I do think that they should make it much clearer up front when the item is not coming from the UK because if I had realised, I would have chosen another company to buy it from, a UK based one. I have so many ideas that I want to get started on and it's frustrating to be waiting for it to arrive. I know .... I'm too impatient :-( Trust me, I do realise that these are all very small and petty things in the grand scheme of things but added to everything else that's gone wrong in the last two weeks, these just feel like the last straw. 

I'm also starting to panic about Christmas. I can feel it rapidly creeping up on me and I'm nowhere near ready for it to pounce. There are Christmas adverts all over the TV, the shops are full of Christmas gifts and toys and cards and food and booze and not 1 but 4 Sky Christmas Channels have suddenly appeared in my movies package ..... it's all very disconcerting! I'm not a Grinch ....... honestly I'm not, but when I have very little money, like this year, I find Christmas very, very stressful indeed. 

And, to top it off ....... I have rats in the garden! They have taken up residence in the bank that houses the borehole pump so I am now faced with the task of getting rid of them! I live in the middle of the countryside and as such, I know that there will be rats and mice and bugs that I don't particularly like and I accept that but, although I know they're there and although I know it's part and parcel of country living, I'm sorry but I don't want them in my house or even my garden if I can help it! Luckily they aren't near the house at the moment but it's getting a bit too close for comfort and I need to sort them out before things get any worse. I spoke to a farmer friend of mine who said that the weather had been perfect rat-breeding weather this year and that there had been a bit of a population explosion. I am loathe to put down poison so, unless I can man up and bring myself to kill them that way, I will need to come up with a plan B. Maybe humane traps. I don't know. The only thing I do know is that they have to go! Actually, any helpful tips from you people out there in Blogland who have dealt with this kind of situation would be very much appreciated. 

So .... that's been my week so far, what have you all been up to? Hopefully yours has been a better week so far than mine :-)

First Frost of This Year

Well, the weather has finally turned chilly. I woke up this morning to a crisp, white frost and brilliant sunshine. I love days like this. I don't mind the cold at all but I do dislike grey, wet weather. Give me a freezing, bright, frosty morning over grey, drizzly and damp any day of the week. As I nipped out to check on the llamas, I grabbed my camera to snap a couple of photos. I love the shapes of the lichen on my field gates and was trying to get some pictures of it when Leo wandered over to check out what I was doing. The boys are very inquisitive and always wander over to investigate what I'm doing.

Look at those amazing frost crystals ..... beautiful.

Even nettles look lovely covered in frost.

And despite the cold, my rosebush is still flowering. It never ceases to amaze me. This bush has been flowering since April. The flowers smell fabulous and there have been dozens of them throughout the year. 

I also felt the need to bake so I found a lovely recipe online and set about making some delicious gingerbread cookies.

Gingerbread Recipe.

· 125g butter

· 4 tbsp golden syrup

· 100g light demerara sugar

· 320g plain flour

· 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

· 2 tsp ginger

Melt the butter, syrup and sugar together in a pan. Sieve the dry ingredients together into a bowl. Add the warm syrup to the flour mix, and stir well to form a dough. Cool, cut and bake at 180 degrees for around 10mins until the edges begin to brown.

Delicious gingerbread cookies with drizzled icing and sprinkles ..... you can never have too many sprinkles ..... or fairy light for that matter :-) 

Admittedly not the neatest cookies in the world but absolutely scrumptious. 

Market Munching

It's been a slow week at the market this week. The weather has been awful. It's been really wet and windy which always seems to discourage people from venturing out to the market. Not that I blame them, quite frankly, if I could have stayed at home and hibernated on Thursday and Friday I think I probably would have! Saturday, however, is entirely another matter. I love Saturday at the market. On Saturday, we eat. On Saturday, we each bring something along to the market and basically we spend the day eating. It's lovely. It's the only time that I don't have to cook for myself and it's bliss. Yesterday we had croissants with plum and rum jam for breakfast. The jam is from AJ's, one of the ladies from market makes it and it's delicious. She makes loads and loads of different flavours of jams, marmalades and chutneys and a whole variety of delicious cakes. For lunch we had home made leek and potato soup with rolls and then home made lemon and raspberry roulade washed down with a taster of raspberry vodka which one of the other market ladies, Bridget, has been making for a few weeks now and she wanted our expert opinion on how it tasted and whether or not it was ready to drink. The verdict ....... delicious and totally ready for quaffing :-)

 Lemon and Raspberry Roulade ...... Delicious 

How cute are these teeny little cups!

I will most definitely be having a go at making raspberry vodka ..... which actually tastes nothing like vodka, it tastes like raspberry cordial and is totally delicious with a real kick. I found this recipe on the internet and it's very similar to the one that my friend Bridget used. I'm sure you can use strawberries or blackberries instead of raspberries, in fact, I'm sure you could probably use lots of different fruits to make delicious flavoured vodkas. I'm not sure I will be able to wait 3 months to try it though :-)

RASPBERRY VODKA

Makes 1 large bottle

Shopping list

1 x 1kg Golden Caster Sugar

1 x 70cl Medium Quality Vodka

1 x 195g Raspberries

1 x Clear glass bottle with stopper or a mason jar or similar.

Method

1. Sterilise your airtight glass container either in the dishwasher or for 20 minutes in an oven (130C).

2. Weigh out 200g of golden caster sugar.

3. Pop all of your raspberries into your container.

4. Pour your sugar and vodka into the bottle.

5. Shake well and leave in a cool, dark place for at least 3 months. (Give it a jiggle every now and again to dissolve the sugar.)

6. Strain the mixture to remove the fruit and decant into a freshly sterilised bottle or jar and enjoy :-)

Horrible Weather.

Well, the weather is horrible! It's raining again and it looks as if it's set in for the day so I guess it's time to get crafting. Do I sound a bit reluctant? Well, that's probably because I am. I have to make catnip fish today ..... 20 of the little buggers and I really, really, reeeeeeally hate making them. I don't know why exactly. They're innocuous enough, just little fishy shaped bodies stuffed with wadding and good tablespoonful of organic catnip but still, I really dislike making them. If I had my way, I wouldn't sell them on my market stall at all but unfortunately, people know that I have made them in the past and they keep coming back and asking for them. I know I should be happy that they like the product so much and that they're selling well but I resent each and every little catnip fish that I make :-) ..... and don't get me started on lavender chicks, the other bane of my life :-) I guess it all boils down to the fact that I could be making more interesting, exciting things like these cute little holly brooches. I finally managed to get the darning foot attached to my sewing machine and this was my first attempt at freehand machine embroidery. It's going to take a bit of practice before I'm any good at it but I did enjoy making them.

And I have even more exciting news. I have ordered some printable fabric!!!!! I am probably way behind the times and everyone else is probably already familiar with it but I only found out about it last week when a friend at the market told me about it. I have so many ideas buzzing round in my head for when it arrives that I can hardly concentrate. I can't wait to get printing and sewing. I would be very interested in hearing if any of you out there in blogland have used printable fabric and if it's easy to use and what the results were like. So exciting :-)

Not Time to Become a Hermit Just Yet !!

Where has the time gone? I have been so busy with the market and with adjusting to being by myself after my youngest daughter left for university in September, that time seems to have gone by in a flash. I have enjoyed keeping up with all the blogs I follow though, and in fact, it's all those wonderful blogs that I read that have inspired me to get posting again. I couldn't decide if I should carry on blogging or whether it was time to close down my blog completely. I always feel guilty when I go for long periods of time without posting anything and it nags away in the back of my mind and somehow makes it harder to actually begin blogging again. So, I sat down and had a good hard think about it and came to the conclusion that I really, really need to force myself to go out and about and find lots of interesting things to do so I can start writing again because, quite frankly, I am in real danger of becoming a hermit!! 

Sooooo what have I been up to? Well, lots of sewing for the market. Lots and lots of cute little hand made mice made from upcycled woolly jumpers, tweed jackets and vintage lace and fabrics. So cute and lovely to make and it's really nice to be able to sit on the sofa and do some hand sewing rather than being stuck in front of a sewing machine.

I've been snapping away like mad with my camera, a habit I got out of lately but definitely something I'm going to start doing again, especially after I captured the beautiful colours the other morning as I took the dogs out.

I have been experimenting with freehand machine embroidery. I managed to get hold of a darning foot for my sewing machine so I will have some photos to post soon of the little things I have been doodling on and on today, I nipped along to a lovely shop at Mount Edgcumbe house called The Upcycled Home (Link to Facebook page). A whole shop full of wonderful, gorgeous and amazing things to buy. So much to see and so much inspiration and I couldn't resist buying one particularly fabulous cushion.