Home Grown / Home Made Pumpkin Soup

For the last few years I have grown my own Pumpkins for Halloween. This year was no exception, and I manage to produce 3 football sized pumkins and one slightly larger. I gave 2 away and and we carved 2 for displaying to the trick or treaters.

I was determined not to waste the pumpkins afterwards, so have made some soup... here's how I did it.

Ingredients

Half a medium sized pumpkin

1 large onion (also home grown)

2 carrotts

1 chicken stock cube made into 450ml of stock.

Knob of butter

1. Chop the onion and lightly fry in a knob of butter in a large saucepan
2. Peel and chop the carrots add to frying onions.


3. Peel and chop the pumpkin in to small pieces add to saucepan with the stock.


4. Simmer for 20mins or until the pumpkin is soft and mashable.


5. Allow to cool slightly and transfer the contents of the saucepan to a liquidiser and liquidise to preferred consistancy.


6. Serve adding Salt and Pepper to taste!

Mmmmm...... this was surprisingly tasty!

Sarah xx

Halloween

My daughter takes halloween very seriously. And this year decided to go Trick or Treating as her favourite film character Jack Skellington. We bought face paints from Poundland and the rest we made from old school trousers and sweatshirt and a tube of acrillic paint for the stripes.

All in all the overall effect was great! We spent a good hour with friends, trapesing around the houses in our village that displayed Halloween Decorations and came home with a pumkin bucket full of sweets.

Sarah xx

Felt Hair Slides

Another thing I have come across on my Blog Hopping is normal metal hair slides and clips converted into lovely hair accessories. I finally got around to buying some plain clips this week, and after viewing many tutorials and articles I made some... to my own design.

The top one is the first one I made and like most of the ones I've seen, has the motive on the end. This one is made from the metal hair slides that snap shut! I decided to be a bit different with the middle ones and sew the motive in the middle.

The bottom ones are made with Curl Clips or Alligator Clips. Ribbon is glued around the clip and then the design is glued to the clip.

I think both clip styles are equally effective and I might just make a few to sell on my craft stall!

Here are a few of the web pages where I got my inspriation...

http://www.purlbee.com/rose-barrettes/

http://angrychicken.typepad.com/angry_chicken/2007/06/this_house_is_w.html

http://weefolkart.com/?q=node/293

http://shop.giddygiddy.com/ This last site is selling their Felt hair clips, but the designs are fantastic and vast!

Sarah xx

Misi Monday - Halloween

I've seen Folksy Friday, but as my shop is with Misi... Here is my Misi Monday Selection... I've chosen a theme of Halloween as its only a couple of weeks away!

First item is a lovely Fabric Pumkin

Visit the Misi Shop here

A pair of Horror Finger puppets...

Shop Here

A Set of Halloween Blocks Decoration

Shop Here

And last but not least

A fimo witch bear...

Shop Here

Sarah xx

A Little Bit Of Crochet

I'm not a big Crocheter, but its something I enjoy doing when I'm sitting watching the TV. I found this pattern on http://creativeyarn.blogspot.com/2008/08/white-flower-necklace.html a while back and saved it to my favourites to try out. Well I finally got around to it last night whilst watching 'The Apprentice and Ugly Betty!

I realised when I had finished that I had used the wrong size crochet hook, so it has come out a bit smaller than it should. I also used a 55% wool yarn instead of cotton, so it has a different feel to it. I think I need to practice the leaves as they're not very leaf shaped.

Sarah xx

A Little Bit Of Knitting

I'm not a knitter, I found it tricky when I was a child when my Mum tried to teach me. The best I managed was a knitted teddy in garter stitch. However, my daughter has a go at knitting every now and then, so I have taught myself some basics so I can help her along. Whilst searching the internet for some easy beginners patterns I came across these knitted stockings by Jean Greenhowe http://www.jeangreenhowe.com/patterns.html I always have a go to see how easy the pattern is!



I've got a bit carried away as they knit up quite quickly! The last one is awaiting stitching up! My daughter decided to try the Nittybod on the same webpage!

Sarah xx

My New Sewing Box

It was my birthday back in July, and I told my husband I need a new cabinet to keep all my sewing stuff in! He had to agree as most of my material was in bags stuffed behind the sofa! (or to the side) We've have just got around to buying one....

I spent most of last Friday sorting out all my sewing stuff, being ruthless with fabric I will probably never use and putting it in a bag for freecycle.

The cupboards have room for the rest of the fabric, wadding and stuffing.

Each drawer is sorted in to patterns, ribbons and lace, buttons and bits and bobs, and top drawer is for scissors, sticky tape, measuring tapes, needles and pins etc...

How marvellous to have everthing sorted and to hand!

Sarah xx