B is for Biscuit..... Ball ...... Box....



 

My Little Madame is very pleased with herself. She is learning the alphabet at school and thinks she is the bee knee's! Every week since the beginning of term she has come home singing a new song pertaining to a new letter that they are learning. She also gets homework, this is very new and very exciting, I can only hope that this continues through her school career(I know I was dreadful at doing home work...... I LOVED school , Homework.... Not so much) The homework consists of finding object the go with the letter! Pretty simple when it is 'O' for Orange, or 'H' for Handbag, but not so simple when it is 'Y' for ...... well that week we ignored the homework or 'I' for ........ well she took an Indian outfit that week!

 

Which brings me to the last week of term and the last letter of the term, when I collected her from school she proudly told me the letter for this week was 'B' for bunny, ball, bat, box, bow, barbie(of course), baby, boy,  the list was endless and so the whole afternoon she raced around going "b is for......"

 

Just after B for Bath time..... she popped into the kitchen and said I have another 'B' mama - "B is for Biscuits! Can we make some for the class tomorrow.... please?" "What now at 7 in the evening , its nearly bedtime......." Then I looked at her little face and she did that puppy dog eye thing she does so well and said "Please Mama....." Of course the answer was "Get the ipad"

 

I found a ridiculously easy recipe and had whipped it up in no time at all......

    

 

Ridiculously Easy Peanuts Butter Biscuits

1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Peanut Butter
1/2  cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 1/4 cup Flour
3/4 tsp Baking Powder

And I added a 1/2 cup of Walnuts - Just Because!

Mix the first 6 ingredients together
Add the rest, mix well
Roll into walnut size balls - press flat with a fork
Bake for 10 - 12 min at 180 degrees

Allow to cool (if you can) and apply to mouth! Yummy!

Peanut Butter

Waiting to Bake

Well apparently B for Biscuits went down very well, it was a really popular  piece of homework! Hopefully she got an A for Awesome! xxx 

 

Baked and Cooling

PS:: Will  definitely add these to my recipe book

Lovely London.....

 

I mentioned a few posts ago that LSO was taking me on a trip to my favourite city in the world - LONDON!!! We have done a Daddy/Mommy trip before and it is always like I am leaving my left hand(I am a lefty remember) behind-Little Madame does not take lightly to the fact that we go to London without her, she has been able to tell the taxi to take her to the Disney Store in Oxford Street since she was 3 - so to say she was massively unhappy was an under statement! But after much explaining about how mom and dad need time together - she finally relented saying that she knows we just want to smooch - well, go figure....

 

And so on a very hot summer day we boarded a plane bound for Lovely London! And on a VERY COLD morning we touched down in what I like to call "My London"!  I love the general hubbub of London, and even arriving there early in the morning(6 20am) - things are happening, people are out and about, early morning runners are pounding the pathways, streets are being cleaned, dogs being walked, and sleepy people are making  their way to work..... there is a general air of  well ...... LONDON

 

I am not going to bore you all with a blow by blow account of our week away, a few pictures should do......

  

No 1 :: A breakfast, a before and after........ Yes, I ate the whole plate full!

  

No 2:: I found a group of little people in my bag as I was unpacking... Little Madame sure can make you feel guilty!

No 3:: My first purchase from Waterstones, my favourite bookstore!

No 3:: Me, walking down Oxford Street early in the morning - In my Beloved RED coat!

No 4:: A beautiful Church Steeple and bare winter trees

No 5:: Piping hot Costa's cappuccino - great for warming ice cold hands!(love the brolly)

No 6:: Beautiful old buildings..... Dripping in history

 

 No 7:: Hyde Park's Beauty(even in winter)

 





 

No 8 :: Valentine's Day in London

 

 

No 9 :: Being taken to see Cirque Du Soleil at the Royal Albert on Valentines Day!(LSO sure knows how to make me H-A-P-P-Y)

 

 



No 10:: Secret Gardens

  



No 11:: Unexpected cupids, high on buildings



No 12 :: St James Park

No 13:: Smart elegant guards outside Clarence House

No14:: Long shadows in Tube Stations

 No 15:: Early Morning walks in a still sleeping London

No 16 :: What can I  say about this Picture.....

 



No 17:: Harry Potter World at Warner Bros Studio - AWESOME!!

  

No 18 :: Is Harry home? No 4 Privet Drive

 

 No 19:: Sights, sounds and aroma's of Portabello Market

  

 

No 20:: Breathtaking Sunsets

No 21 :: Crisps and Whiskey in Airport lounges....... Homeward Bound!

 

 

A week flies by in London..... I will always love this city, to me it is the centre of everything. I will keep going back - even when I am old and grey! ...... I cannot remember which poet or writer said it but I think the saying  goes something like this ..... "WHEN YOU ARE TIRED OF LONDON, YOU ARE TIRED OF LIFE" Amen xxx

 

 

"Two Shades Of Grey!"

Do you remember many weeks ago, my late night light-bulb-moment? Let me jog your memory a little, the Japanese flower scarf that was a disaster, that I decided to turn into a granny square blanket....... Remember...... Well here is a progress report on it and I must say I am super happy delighted with the way it is developing.... 

 

Japanese Granny Square

The squares are gorgeous, I chose two shades of grey and alternated them so some squares ended dark and some ended light... and I used every third petal to turn the round flower into a square - absolutely gorgeous - me thinks!

  

The turning of flowers into squares went  really quickly.  I was so very happy with my idea and in no time at all I had managed to do a neat pile of Japanese Granny Squares( this is what I have decided to call them)

Little Helping Hands

Beautiful Late Afternoon Sun

Once they were all done I laid them out on the floor, made sure no two squares  of the same colour were next to each other, pinned them and began to crochet them together. 

 

I had seen a really lovely way to join a blanket together in a magazine and decided to try it out. There was no pattern for it so it was literally a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants thing. It was a simple zigzag and to crochet up the lengths was pretty easy, and I thought that I could just work the widths in the same way....... mmmmm.... not to be!  It was not a perfect square so I had to work slip stitches up some of the zigzags in order for it to work, weeeelll it did not work out to be perfect zigzags both ways but it still looks really nice as you can see from below......

Perfect Zigzags



Not so Perfect Middle - Can You See, Bottom Right Corner.....

 



Once it was all crocheted together I began to work neat little Granny Clusters around and around and around and ...... well you get the idea....

Granny Clusters

Looking More Like A Blanket

 

To get the picture above, I had to balance precariously on a chair, as the blanket is getting too big to stand on the ground and get the whole thing in.  I must say I am totally in love with this blanket(as I am with ALL the blankets I make) It really has been an accidental blanket considering that it all started out many many moons ago as a eternal scarf and then was banished to my craft room for many months, but I do love these flowers, I love the pattern and shape and think that they deserve to be gorgeously on display! My think in using the two shades of grey(LOL my very own  - Two Shades of Grey!!) was that it would be a neutral hue behind all the warm and pretty pinks and purples I made the flowers with! I think it has worked out PERFECTLY!

 

Two Shades Of Grey!

So  now I am madly crocheting, every gap I get, I rush to my blanket and madly hook a few rows. I want it all done for Winter, because as I look at the long shadows that are forming outside every afternoon, I know that the cool season is fast approaching.... So my "Two Shades of Grey" Blanket is going  to be coming in very very handy! Watch out a BIG Ta Dah moment coming soon xxx 

 

PS:: I added the two pictures below. today we played tent-tent again and all the crochet blankets came out! I am always very pleased when Little Madame drags out all the crochet blankets! She always says they are soft and cuddly ....... What more could I ask for xxx 

 

Time to Crochet......

Do you remember those BEAUTIFUL Japanese flowers that I was crocheting last year, the ones that started out as a shawl, then became a scarf , then became ...well a nothing ...... if you don't  - click here!  It just never seemed to work, I think that the yarn I used was too stiff,  in order for the scarf to have fallen really nicely, warm  and snuggly around my neck it should have been done in a soft mohair type yarn! I was sad about it but just not willing to give up on my BEAUTIFUL flowers.... 

 

And so it has just lingered around, moving from my cupboard to the  I-have-to-sort-these-things-out-pile, to hanging on my dummy in my sewing room for ages. Well,  a few days ago  in the dead of night- BAM! An Idea popped into my head - a blanket, a granny square blanket with a beautiful Japanese flower in the middle of it!! I nearly catapulted myself out of bed there and then to try it out.... but.... yawned turned over with a smile on my face and fell fast asleep!

 

I must admit that I only tried my idea out a few days later  and am pleased to say that it works perfectly! YAYYYYY! So now to unpick all the stitching and get cracking on a beautiful new blanket - and I do so LOVE making blankets....... I think I have said before that they really are the best things for me to do, although they take many many many months, once a blanket is done  done and you can snuggle down under  it, all warm and cosy......it is all worth the effort! I also like granny squares because they are very repetitive and I can loose myself in round after round of  gorgeous granny clusters!

I have chosen two tones of grey to make the granny square around all the gorgeous mauve's and pink, I think  it looks lovely and has a vintage feel to it..... Here are a few pictures......

My Beautiful Flowers

The Trial Square

   

The Pretty Greys

 

And so the process begins and I am happy to say that it is going really quickly.... Obviously because the major part of the square is already done, and the 3 rows that make up the square go really quickly! I already have a pile of pretty little squares all patirntly waiting to become a  beautiful blanket ...... and hope to have it done by the end of the month..... but as you all know "time" has a life all of its own ....... but here is hoping!! xxx



Very Valentine

 

Don't you just LOVE Valentine's day - Please do not all groan together! I know its very commercial and that you should not only show your love on one day of the year..... but it is a really ReAlLy Romantic notion... IT IS, don't be so cynical!!!

 

Love is a wonderful and inspiring word.... remember the first time you realised you were in love, I mean REALLY in DEEP DESPERATE love, toe curling and giddy every time you saw him love! I do! And as I have grown up and older, I have realised that love comes in all forms, loving your man, suddenly realising that you love your parents so very much, loving friends, loving your pets and for me the ultimate love of all the love you feel for your child, the kind of unconditional uncompromising and joyful love you feel from the first time you hear your childs heart beat to the moment they are placed in your arms, the first time they say ...... I LOVE YOU MAMA! LOVE LOVE LOVE - have I won you over yet? I sure hope so...... because this post is all about the love that I have for the people in my Little Madame's live....

 

I think I have mentioned before that the school that our Little Madame goes to is a wonderful nurturing and very loving environment! I think that I have passed my love of Valentine's(or Valenstime Day - as she refers to it) on to her!Do you remember my mad flurry last year because she wanted to show "the love" to her teachers (all you need is love) Well this year I was totally on top of Valentine's day I would not be caught out again! So I started to look for things to make a while ago - now as you know my go-to blog is Attic 24, Lucy is so creative that when I saw her  HEARTS I knew I had to make them for the teachers.... well only 2 - whew not too bad! BUT the she announced as only she can - " Well Mama what about Mrs Hughes And Miss Blackman AND Mrs Krummeck.... I love them too!" Oh well, while you making 2 you might as well make 5.....

 

 

 

These heart are pretty simple to make and go really quickly, so I had them done in no time at all - make 2 (the pattern is on Flicker you can find it HERE) crochet them together and stuff them - Easy Peasy!

  

Sewing And Stuffing!

So Sweet

  

Flower Making

 

All Done

 

Love The Colours

Long Enough

 

Perfect!

Each Heart got a little flower in a contrasting colour and I found these gorgeous laser cut words - LOVE, JOY And PEACE ! They are perfect and just finished the heart off! I am so HAPPY to give these as gifts of Love! Little Madame chose which colour was going to go to which teacher! She truely loves each and everyone of her teachers and this makes me happy as it is the first of many "loves " that she will encounter in her life!

  

All You Need Is LOVE!

A Basket Of Love

We decided to wrap a yummy chocolate up with them..... I found chocolate that had I love you written on them, then covered these with tissue and then added a paper doily with a ribbon! Wrapped up the hearts in the same tissue paper and then every thing went into a brown paper packet with another doilys( I Love Doily's) and bit of rickrack...... so pretty! 

Perfect!

Now for the little girls in her class - I found the sweetest free download on Pintrest - A little fish bowl with "so glad we in the same school" printed on them - to that you simple add some gummy fish and pop in a plastic bag (I stamped Happy Valentine's  on the back) and tie with a ribbon, they are perfect! I REALLY thought it was so CLEVER ! Here is the link

 

Free Printable

Gummy Sharks - I Could Not Find Fish!

And Crocheting

  

Three Little Fish

That Is So Sweet

And so we are good to go for Valentine's day - Now you might ask how come I was so organised so EARLY??? (I did all of this in the Middle of January) So I will tell you ..... my very GORGEOUS and very ROMANTIC  Husband( commonly referred to as the long suffering one) is whisking me off to London for a few days of love and  Valentine's romance - now I ask you can a girl be so lucky or so loved....... 

Happy Valentine Day!

So all that remains for me to say is HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY darling peep's, my your day be filled with laughter, love and above all else romance........ love you all xxx