Nordic Shawl Ta-Dah!

Good morning, my lovely creative friends, and apologies for the delay in my Bloomin’ Crochet-A-Long post. But I just couldn’t write another blog post until this WIP was complete:

Ta-dah! Da dee dee dah! La dee dah! Yep, my pretty Nordic shawl has me singing with joy!

I spent yesterday afternoon weavi n g...i n...zzzzzz....

Oh, sorry, I drifted off - by the time I finished, the daylight was gone. 

How I would love to show you soothing images of me relaxing in my garden wearing this beautiful shawl...artistic, well-lit photos of this pastel item draped casually over the back of a garden swing...but this is England, this is February, this is the stormiest, greyest, wettest winter in ages. So...

Here is Little Flower, my sleepy little model, watching the rain in her pyjamas.

She loves this shawl; I might have to make a mini version for her!

I’ll keep it short n’ sweet today...I need to give my littlest sweetheart some cuddles. And I need to catch up with what you all are hooking for the CAL this week, too! Please link up below!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Love,

xoxo Chrissie xoxo 

An InLinkz Link-up

Easy indulgence

Valentine’s Day is Friday? This Friday?

Oh dear, but it’s bucketing down with rain! I have a little one home from pre-school! I have 1,001 things that should have been done yesterday! There is no way I’ll be able to go browsing around the shops for a lovely little gift for Darling Husband...

Never fear, I have the absolute easiest chocolate truffle recipe *ever*, with storecupboard ingredients.

Take one large bar of chocolate (100g), either milk or dark; about 80ml of condensed milk; and a teeny splash of either vanilla or almond extract.

Optional ingredient: a few teaspoons of Cointreau, Amaretto or other liqueur.

Melt the chocolate and milk in a saucepan over very low heat, stirring gently once the chocolate starts melting, until you have a thick, creamy, smooth mixture (add a touch more condensed milk if chocolate is too thick, like dough).

Remove from heat and add any additional flavourings, then chill in the refrigerator for two hours.

Meanwhile, gather some coatings, such as these:

When the mixture is firm, scoop and roll into bite-sized balls, then coat decadently in preferred toppings

Chill until firm, then present lovingly to your sweetheart(s)! This recipe makes 10 truffles (okay, 11...but the cook must test one for quality control!). 

The children love the milk chocolate truffles, my oh-so-sophisticated palate prefers the dark chocolate...but what I love best about this recipe is that, surprisingly, the truffles aren’t overly sweet or too terribly rich. Very moreish! My mother made these at Christmas by the bucketful, and we gobbled them up! So of course I found another suitable holiday for indulgence...

Bon appetit, sweeties!

Chrissie x

Stitching Sunday: Slow and steady

To counter the maniacal pace of my crochet this week, I stitched whatever I fancied, whenever I fancied, and didn’t worry about finishing anything. It was lovely.

I’m at the piping stage of the sewing machine cover. This is the trickiest bit for me after the tiny patchwork at the beginning. I’ve only done piping one other time, and it was under the watchful eye of a seamstress friend, and I was basically doing as I was told!

I’m pleased with the results of my first attempts at piping solo. Don't look too closely - I still haven't sewn on the side panels that will even up the piping line. I used the pink fabric that I will use for the lining of this cover, fabric that was leftover from my Happy Spring Quilt.

It should come together quite swiftly now, just ironing on some interfacing and sewing all the parts together. Then it’s on to another practical sewing project, here’s a little peek at the materials involved:

I’m pleased to say that Sam has his eggs and ham, all ready to serve up to picky eaters:

The stitches have ranged from long-and-short stitch, stem stitch, back and split. Then I did the black markings in the ham with a scatterbrained hodge-podge of them all! I wanted thicker, scribbly looking lines, like the illustration in the book, and I found sticking to just stem stitch was too neat and orderly, so I simply stabbed away until I got the look I wanted. You don’t always have to follow the rules!

In other stitching news, yesterday Bunny and I discovered the latest pattern from wee little stitches – Elsa and Anna from Frozen!

We downloaded it faster than you can say “Do you wanna build a snowman?”, and Bunny started practicing her cross stitch on a scrap of fabric, because she herself wants to make this sweetly sentimental cross stitch for her and Little Flower! I'm going to buy her some Aida fabric tomorrow so she can get started.

So I set Sam aside – he’s waited this long, a few more days won’t bother him – and I started this awesome dragonfly kit I’ve had in my stash a little while:

I know, I know, I’ve only ever cross stitched this tiny rose, but I couldn’t resist the sparkly thread and peacock colours! I dipped my toe into the cross-stitch waters, and like so many other crafts I enjoy, I proceeded to dive in head first!

And it’s so fun to have a craft to share with Bunny that we can do side-by-side, and chatting as we go along. Slow and steady, calming for both of us.

Happy crafting! Please share your stitching below!

Chrissie x