Chocolate fishes

Marshmallow and chocolate kebabs, cream fudge, and other yummy things. It’s the time of year when I boil up sugar, do things with an orange that don’t stop with juicing, and make confectionary for Christmas presents.

Why do this? Well, firstly it’s cheaper – far cheaper, to make these things yourself. Secondly it’s fun, and thirdly you know the provenance of the items. I’m not sure it’s super-green because of fuel economy, but it’s not terrible, at least, especially if you save and recycle packaging.

So far I have made cream fudge (the recipe, if you want it, is here), barley sugar and crystallised orange peel (dipped some in chocolate, too – well, not actually dipped, more popped them in the pan and stirred them about, pulled them out, left to dry, rather than the ’skewer each piece on a cocktail stick’ tidy purist method). I’ve made mincemeat (very, very easy, and you can check for what kind of nasty fats go in there), and I’ve covered marshallows with chocolate for stocking fillers.

Tomorrow, barring adventures, I make Turkish Delight, which is such a delicate thing to make, and, like all these things, incredibly easy.

The barley sugar has been taken to friend’s houses for gifts (it’s vegan, which is useful), and the marshmallows have been put away. The crystallised chocolatey oranges have been hidden in the ‘cupboard where the ceiling is coming down’ and the fudge…

the fudge…

The fudge I have eaten. This is bad. There was one bit left, about half an hour ago. I photographed it. Then I ate it. It is (or rather was), and you can trust an expert here – Very Lovely Fudge. It sits on a nice vintage plate that I found for 10p, and which originally was made for a Brexton Hamper.

I have also made a small embroidered landscape with which I know not what to do next. I don’t want to embroider it any more, and so I shall, ummm…paint it?

Seamstress Deluxe

Welcome to my lovely new-old sewing machine. This, as you can see, is a rather sleek 1950’s number, and although lacking bells and whistles and built in stitchery-pokery, does what I want it to, beautifully. It lets me freehand embroider, without the thread breaking every two minutes.

Only had time to draw a doodle on it, and I can’t wait to find some more time to do more. Because lets face it, this is the first machine I’ve had since leaving London that’s letting me embroider, and I have been very lucky to find her (note the way I can just lower the feed dogs with one swift movement! No little tacky plastic overlay plates here!

Cake Bag and Scarf Set

Well, I’ve been fairly busy the last few days, despite sneezy children and sneezy self. Hot Lemon and Honey helped, as it always does.
Some of the pictures show Rosie’s Cake Bag. That’s her own home-made Christmas present, and inside it will be a little baking set, with a rolling pin, board and assorted shaped biscuit cutters. So, it, hopefully, really will be a Cake Bag, or at least a Biscuit Bag (but biscuits aren’t as pretty as cakes, so we’re just going for the path of least resistance here).

Also shown is a sample of some of the long stripey crotcheted scarves I make (and last year, sold). I’ve had a couple of commissions on these, and so made up a sample, which I may or may not put up on Etsy (prolly won’t, because Etsy is slow moving for me, and also I’ve a focus on prints there, rather than textiles, although I specialised initially in textiles, silk-painting, and mixed media.

The blue tree thing (aargle to more Blue Trees) is a multi-media picture (collage, silk, machine embroidery) that I started work on aaages ago, and then, in a fit of grumpy pique, stuffed behind a radiator (how grown-up of me) and forgot about it. Well, didn’t actually totally forget about it, but forgot completely where it was. Well. Here it is, re-surfaced, and I’d love to do some more work on it, and might well be able to because I have found a really good secondhand sewing machine that I think might be up to the not inconsiderable job of machine embroidering through several layers of paper, silk and paint. The current machine I have is a nice basic modern Brother, but it’s just not strong enough to happily embroider, although it’s fine for basic sewing. The one I go to collect tomorrow is a 1950’s sleek green mean machine, and doesn’t do any fancy stitchery, but is more suitable for my nefarious sewing purposes. So wish me, and it, luck, please. It’s also rather beautiful, and I shall call it ‘Mavis’ or ‘Deirdree’. Shan’t decide until I get it home.

I am thinking of building myself a proper website again, rather than relying on Etsy, because I haven’t done too well on Etsy, and if I’m going to have an online shop, I might as well pay commission on the payments software as on Etsy. And I can then put up applique commissions (frou-frou, but I loooooved making that bag) and fabric commissions, as well as print commissions and portraits, for sale, like the bag and the scarf above, because, to be fair, I tend to sell more through commission than from straight prints anyway. Ho hum. Not sure what to do, but I think I’d like to move forward in some way. Will prolly end up hopping around sideways, though.

Walking this morning.

Today was the first really frosty morning, so I went for an early walk up on the fields, and took some photographs. I’m not the world’s greatest photographer, but I did enjoy it, and I’ll use them later.

Then I came home to my warm cottage and finished making two rag dolls for Christmas. Then some work, and then some more work. On Thursday I’m going to make the soap (transparent, with leetle embedded pretties), and I’m going to get crocheting some nice warm scarves, since there’s been calls for them this year. Bit late for the Christmas markets, but never mind.

Back to school

Well, tomorrow my youngest daughter starts school for the very first time. I’ve embroidered her an elephant on her pump bag, made her some button badges with her name on, and she has a fantabulously cute surprise to come from an etsy swap (more on that later, because I don’t want her sneaking a peek).

Today has a real feel of Autumn to it, as well. It’s been a gorgeous day – sunny, but with that goldeny light, and a chill to the morning which I enjoy. We went for a walk up the hill after tea, and all was beautiful.