A little bit shady- last completed project for 2013!

I made a lampshade with help from my husband, he knew I had bought a kit at a craft fair in (cough) 2012 (cough) and I had been looking at fabric for it for some time when one night last week he said completely out of the blue “why don’t you do that lampshade, I will help” My response was what I assume any wife that gets offered help out of the blue with no prompting would say “what is the catch?” As it turns out there was not one, best husband in the world right!

Anyway I really enjoyed this joint project and it turned out pretty well for a first attempt

lamp in progress

As it turns out making a lampshade is not as complicated as I thought it would be.

lit up at night

We used Harris tweed, I was a little concerned that the fabric (or should I say weave) would not let enough light through but as it turns out it is just enough light to make the living room feel cozy.

daylight shot

Trouble is I now need a new lamp base as it has never really gone with the room and the lampshade now highlights this- maybe I could spray paint it silver? a new project for 2014? or more realistically 2015 ha ha.

Christmas food

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you all had a lovely couple of days and are now getting ready for the new year.

We have been cooking and baking a lot over the last few days but it has been a relaxing happy sort of cooking not the pressure is on type of cooking. It was a quiet Christmas my husband was at work but my mum came up for a few days and did most of the cooking which freed me up to make desserts.

On Christmas day I made brownie fudge pie :

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1759646/brownie-fudge-pie

From the start this was a bit of a disaster I started to cook the pastry when I realised I had put in way too much butter as I had read the amount for the filling when weighing out the ingredients for the pastry so I had to start again. The mistakes did not stop there I somehow missed out the dark chocolate completely and did not even realise until the next day! Even after all that the dessert was nice if a little too sweet however the dark chocolate may have balanced it out. I normally stick to easy recipes but I would say this dessert was a little more effort due to making the pastry, I would attempt to make it again though as it was enjoyable and could be improved on IF I remember to use all the ingredients next time (No alcohol was consumed while making this dessert all mistakes were my own :-))

The next day I got my Nigella on and cooked her ham in coca cola:

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/ham-in-coca-cola-171

I made this last year and loved it and this year was no exception. Well worth the effort.

My other Nigella recipe of the day was chocolate pear pudding:

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chocolate-pear-pudding-102

This was such a simple dessert all you do is throw all the ingredients in a bowl and make it into a batter, pour over the pears and stick it in the oven and it tastes so good. This one would be good to make with kids, my son loves to weigh things out so this would suit him perfectly.

No pictures I am afraid, we was too busy eating to get out a camera or phone!

What did you cook/bake over Christmas?

Fabric wreath

While on holiday I was invited by relatives to a fabric wreath workshop. Who knew making a wreath could be so much fun? and that making a wreath with scraps of fabric could be even  more fun?

Well quite a few in the group went with the traditional red but for some reason I was drawn to blue with a splash of pink of course

winter wreath

 

 

Night time pictures again, you think I would know better by now, maybe that is something to work on in the new year, my first resolution for 2014 to work on my photography skills?

I thoroughly enjoyed making the wreath, so much so that I bought some items online so that I could make so more! I know what you are thinking, does this girl (at what age is it wrong to refer to yourself as a girl?) not have enough projects on the go already?! well is it not better to have choice and variety I ask you? 😉

Maybe another goal for next year is to finish all my outstanding projects…. ha ha

Now let me get back to my project the wreath took about two hours to make bearing in mind the fabric was already cut out for us. I literally have nothing to complain about or judge or anything I feel I could have done better! I think a big thing with many people including myself is that we can be very self critical and for once I am not going to be (not withstanding the rest of the post about all my unfinished projects that is) I love my wreath, all the wreaths made in the workshop were very different and all lovely. There was also tea and cake provided. I think this rounds up exactly what my perfect evening would look like.

If you happen to be in the western isles pop into http://tigertextiles.moonfruit.com Alison is super nice and very talented.

Are there any workshops you would recommend for a good evening or afternoon out?

Birthday cake anyone?

My son turned three a couple of weeks ago and all he had asked for was cake, so that is exactly what he got (as well as a few presents, I wanted him to have something to open after all!)

ohhh argh

I was lucky enough to have help from my nieces otherwise it would have looked a complete mess, lets just say cake decorating is not my forte.

But he loved it anyway especially the treasure chest filled with sweets

There be treasure

Our holiday in Scotland was just what we all needed with plenty of fresh air and lots of family time

a little walk

refreshing views

I did complete a couple of projects and even managed to start a few more but I leave you today with my favourite moment of the holiday

My son had a party a couple of days before his Birthday so on the day when he woke up I asked him:

“Do you know what day it is son?”

“No Mummy”

“Well today is your Birthday!”

“Oh not again!”

“But you get presents and more cake”

“No I don’t want it”!

Oh dear, sooo not his mothers son, if someone had told me there was more cake and presents I would be jumping out of that bed as quickly as possible 🙂