bunnies, buns & blooms

Hi everyone, I feel that I’m not here very often at the moment and after looking through my photos I realised I hadn’t shared my latest bunnies with you. If you follow me on Facebook you will have seen them there but they never made it to the blog, such is life at the moment! I actually crocheted the bunnies when I was away on holidays and just had to finish them off when I came home.

This little one is June and with her bright colours and flowers she celebrates summer which did arrive with June but sadly seems to have escaped us again.

I’d also like you to meet Flossie Flowerpot who is a gardener at heart and loves nothing better that potting up her summer bedding plants!!

June and Flossie were both snapped up straight from Facebook and are now living with their new families.

Well as you know my daughters wedding is very close now (18 days) and there has been lots of baking this week as we have had lots of lovely people visiting and leaving presents and viewing presents and lots of tea has been consumed. The photo above is just some of the many cakes, cupcakes, pavlovas and pies that have been baked in the last few days, these cupcakes have been decorated with the lovely crystalised violets that I brought back from the south of France.

Some blooms to share with you too, my poor garden has been carrying on despite not getting much attention from me this week. Truth be told I would much rather be gardening than baking! The results last much longer too!!!

So busy times and I expect they may get busier over the next week or so!!

The sun has made an appearance here this morning again, I hope it hangs around for while.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and thanks ever so much for dropping in and for all your lovely comments!

 

Pancakes

The butter, sugar and lemon are ready and waiting!

The batter is made up!

Just waiting for everyone to come home and then I’ll heat up the pan!

Happy Pancake Tuesday!!!

 

B is for Tuesday

Don’t worry I haven’t forgotten how to spell, it’s just everything I’ve been doing today has started with the letter ‘B‘ !

Like making Brooches.

Blanket making.

Baking.

And of course Bunny~ing!!!

However if it hadn’t been for the Blooming rain, I might have been out and about and wouldn’t have had the time for all these things today.

On the bright side though, despite the rain, the temperature is 12 deg C today, now that does feel like pre~spring!

Happy Tuesday.

 

Review of 2012

JANUARY ~ FEBRUARY ~ MARCH ~ APRIL

It was so hard to choose just one photo to represent each month of 2012 as I have uploaded so many during the year! I have tried to cover everything that this little blog is about as well as representing the year that was 2012.

As you know I believe it’s never too early to look for spring and I began the year doing just that, February brought Valentines Day and all it’s sweet treats!!
During March, while playing about with yarn and a crochet hook, I made a rabbit, her name was Lavender Rose, well wasn’t she the start of something, many, many more bunnies followed.
April brought us Easter, my very favourite time of year, bunnies and chocolate, who could ask for more!

MAY ~ JUNE ~ JULY ~ AUGUST

May time is France time and we enjoyed a wonderful holiday in the south of France, while June brought us the Diamond Jubilee in all it’s red, white and blue glory!!
July was spent mostly in the garden and despite some unseasonal weather, flowers bloomed. From the end of July through to mid August we enjoyed the wonderful 2012 London Olympics and at the end of August we had a mini break to Edinburgh where I managed to tick something off my bucket list, seeing a panda in the flesh!!

SEPTEMBER ~ OCTOBER ~ NOVEMBER ~ DECEMBER

Now of course the cats featured many times on my blog throughout the year, this particular photo is of Charlie helping me with my crochet in September. October brought autumn time and autumn crafting.
November as always makes us stop and remember the sacrifice of others.
Then quick as a flash we were in December, where I seemed to spend most of the month crocheting Christmas bunnies!

So here we are at the end of the what has seemed to me the fastest year ever! Generally it has been a good year and we have had lots of enjoyable times. Bunnies always feature on my blog but this year they featured strongly, I have had so much fun making them and thank you for all your encouragement and support. Thank you all so much for being with me during 2012, thanks for your visits, your lovely comments and your friendship, the blogging community is a wonderful thing and I’m so happy to be a part of it.

So a new year beckons and for us personally I expect the first six months are going to be a very busy time as we have our daughter’s wedding in July. I fully intend to keep on making bunnies and hopefully there’ll be lots more cats, flowers, gardening and outings in this little space too. I do hope you’ll join me and if I could ask one thing of 2013, it would be, please go a bit slower than 2012!!

All that remains is for me to wish you all a very happy, healthy, peaceful and wonderful new year!!!

 

Grey November

What a grey month November has been so far, I have to say I really dislike the month of November for this very reason. It’s always grey, the weather is grim and the daylight is in short supply.

These photos were taken in my garden in the middle of the day. Grey!!!

I’ve been in search for something to brighten my day, even dying flowers provide a bit of colour on a miserable November day.

Baking a cake helped a bit too. Yogurt cake using a mandarin yogurt and covering the top with orange flavoured icing. You can find the recipe in this post.

The latest bunny I’m working on is helping to bring a little cheer too!

She’ll soon be ready, I’m just getting her little outfit finished.

I did find one bit of hope in my gloomy garden today, the tips of daffodils just breaking through the soil.

Difficult as it was I did manage to find a little brightness on a gloomy, grey November day.

I still wish it was spring though!!! (sigh)

I’ll leave you on a really positive note, it’s only 44 days until the Winter Solstice and then we can start to reclaim our daylight back!!! Happy days!

 

Sunday Comforts

It’s a grey, damp and very chilly Sunday, time to seek out some of life’s comforts I think. This is the first time in three weeks that we have all been around the table as a family for Sunday lunch as my son has been away on tour with his band. An apple pie has been baked for pudding as it’s definitely a day for comfort eating!

A new book arrived in the post this week, so as the fire is lit a little book browsing is on the agenda.

Just while I’m on the subject of lovely things arriving in the post, I thought I would share my latest purchase from the lovely Mia, I just had to have it! Have a wee look in Mia’s shop to see all her beautiful creations, actually I see she has put another bunny bag in there ~ stop tempting Mia!! Nothing like a bit of fireside internet shopping.

I’m also in the mood for some Christmas crafting after purchasing these goodies yesterday, I know this will come as a complete surprise to those of you who know that I’m never this festive this early!!

I also have some ideas for some Christmas bunnies too!

So looking outside it seems the perfect day for some cosy living and I have plenty at hand for that today. The televison is good this evening too with all the result shows and Downton Abbey (the last in the series, how did that go so quickly).

Hope you’re having a relaxing, comfort filled Sunday too!

 

My Week In Pictures

Garden

It has been a lovely week, weatherwise and I’ve had plenty of opportunity to get outside into the garden. It’s a strange mix at the moment as the leaves are changing colour and the berries are out on the shrubs but at the same time there are still strawberries ripening!

Food

I couldn’t resist taking a pic of these oranges, I love a full fruit basket, I love how it looks however it doesn’t stay like that for very long, it soon gets eaten but then that’s what it’s for! There has been a bit of chocolate cake baking and a bit of toffee apple eating, a bit too much some would say!

Cats

What would a week be without the kits. Clockwise from top left, Charlie, Jessie and Lily.

Flowers

Flowers inside and surprisingly outside too. My cosmos is in full bloom, long may it last.

Nature

I spotted this flock of geese flying over the house yesterday, I might have missed them completely if it hadn’t been for the noise they were making, such a lot of honking!!! The little snail was snoozing in my flower border this afternoon, just as long as he goes somewhere else for his tea! As for the other photo, I have no idea at all what they are. I’m guessing they are eggs of some sort, there were a lot of big slugs round about them but if anyone knows what they are I would love to know.

Crochet

Crochet! A week wouldn’t be a week be without crochet! The bunnies, I know you’ve seen them all before, were out in the garden for a photoshoot for Facebook and I made some new crocheted brooches too.

Well as you will have worked out by now I’ve been having a little play about with PicMonkey today, it was fun sorting out my photos into little groups.

So that was my week, not a lot different to most of my weeks but that’s the way I like it!

I hope you all a lovely weekend, keep warm as it’s going to get a lot colder over the next few days and thanks as always for your much appreciated visits and lovely comments!!!

 

Roasted Tomato & Pepper Soup

I have a glut of tomatoes at the moment they have all decided to ripen at the one time but I suppose it’s better late than never!

So with all the tomatoes and the very wet, wild and windy weather we have been having I decided it was time for soup!!!

From the outset I have to say there are no measurements to these soup ingredients I just put in what I think and I believe with soup you can get away with that.

I put my tomatoes in a dish cutting up the bigger ones so they’re all roughly the same size, then to the tomatoes add a chopped onion, a chopped pepper (any colour) and a couple of chopped cloves of garlic, pour over some olive oil, I used extra virgin and then roast in a hot oven until all the vegetables are soft.

When the roasted vegetables have cooled down put them in a blender and blend until smooth. Add the blended vegetables to warm vegetable stock with salt and ground black pepper and stir through. Now unless you are in a hurry I would at this point leave the soup to sit for a while so that the flavours develop.

When you are ready to have your soup pour in a small carton of cream and warm the soup through.

Enjoy with some wheaten bread. My wheaten bread came from my local home bakery, I could never bake bread as well as they do!

Sorry it’s all ‘a bit of this and a bit of that’ but I think that’s how the best soups are made.

I think we are definitely into soup weather now!

Have a good week and stay cosy.

 

Easter Preparations

I know I’ve said it before but I’m going to say it again, I do love this time of year.

I’ve spent this afternoon getting all my little Easter decorations displayed around the house, I think I may have over done it a bit but I don’t care, never can have too many rabbits in my book!

I have bought so many bits and pieces over the years, I just like to get them all out on display.

Of course there are always bunnies on display in this house all year round, I’ve just got the more Easter-y ones out.

I hope to be back tomorrow with another little lady who is suitably attired for the season!

It must be time for more chocolate, see you tomorrow!

 

Wet Wednesday

As you can see from the little primula in the window box on my dining room window it’s been a bit damp around these parts today! Very mild but grey and damp.

So what does one get up to on a wet Wednesday. Well aside from the boring things and I have to say there have been way too many boring things to do today for my liking!

I have been finishing up a new bag and some new corsages.

No sooner have I finished something and sometimes (almost always) even before it’s finished I’m planning what I’m going to do next! So I have been having a play with some yarn and fabric and beads to see what I come up. I just wish my hands could work as fast as my head (and I didn’t have any boring things to do).

And just in time for dinner, I managed to get a Lemon Drizzle Cake baked. It was still warm when we had a slice after our meal, warm and sticky and lemony (obviously)!

So despite the boring I did manage to fit in a little playtime.

Happy Wednesday, hope yours wasn’t too wet and thanks for visiting.
Slice of cake anyone?