Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

My pumpkin is enjoying his big night and glowing rather impressively. I forgot to show you the decoration I did for the back. Basically a wiggly line put in with a metal skewer.

When I got home after work this evening The Parent's had been busy decorating bits of the house to give it a spooky vibe. Below is Dad's outdoor owly offering.

And The Mother went with a more traditional table collection of pumpkins, Halloween tinsel and a cauldron of treats! Yum!

Enjoy your evening whatever you may be doing and make sure the ghoulies don't bite!!!

The Day Of The Pumpkins

Afternoon All!! I am thoroughly enjoying my mid-week day off. Last night was very pleasant and relaxed- my bus arrived on time (always a good start) and the tea was on the table when I walked in. I am working on a new stitchy project which I will show you sometime soon, but when I sat down to carry on with it, I discovered a little hitch-hiker in my bag!! Cheeky little snail.

It is very depressing when you have to use the flash on your camera during the day (and apologies for the photo qualities coming up). But today is gloomy and wet, and it has been raining continuously. Ziggy is not impressed and has been forced to spend the day indoors, sleeping on my new jeans!

On my way home last night I popped into Waitrose to pick up a nice big pumpkin, and discovered munchkin pumpkins (actual name) as well! Both sizes ended up in my basket, although I don't intend to carve up the little one, it is just too cute.

This morning, after a nice mug of coffee and a fiendish fancie, I started the laborious job of emptying out my pumpkin. It really can be quite smelly and disgusting. But totally worth it in my opinion.
I stuck to a traditional pumpkin style (similar to that in 2012), unlike last year where I went a bit more avante guarde with my design.

There was only one slip of the knife this year- definitely getting better! Ooo scary!

I always try to make something with the excess pumpkin flesh. Usually it is soup of some kind, but The Mother wrinkled her nose at that suggestion so I decided it was time for something a little different. Cue the Google search!

I ended up going for the Pumpkin and Ginger Tea Loaf (recipe from here) which was a genius decision!! It is absolutely delicious!! Really moist and very gingery.

So now we are all set for Halloween- especially with The Mother's Autumnal felt wreath hanging in pride of place on the door. The photos are awful and fuzzy but hopefully you can still see the prettiness.

Waiting For Brunch

 
I don't tend to see a lot of daylight at the moment. I get up in the dark, get home in the dark and stay inside at work for most of the day. So it was rather nice this morning to just have a few minutes waiting outside in the light, noting all of the colours changes in the trees and the other signs of Autumn.

The yellows are rather lovely, but I do enjoy a good dollop of bright red colour. Either in berry form, or on a postbox!

I wasn't waiting outside for too long though (it's getting a bit nippy for that) and soon some of my girl friends appeared to go for brunch at Bill's. A rather scrummy brunch at that!!

Samantha Bryan

Evening All. Aren't these little aviator fairies gorgeous? So sweet and funny with their inventions. Fairies are very clever you know!
They are the creations of a very talented lady called Samantha Bryan who I first learnt about, ooh, about ten minutes ago! It just goes to show the power of sharing on Facebook as her collaboration with R&A Collaborations (to make a short stop motion video about her work and how the fairies came about) is being shared by designers and admirers all over the Internet! I thought you would all love it too. Definitely take a few moments to have a watch.

Click HERE to see the video. xx

(P.S: I would just like to clarify that I do not own the images I have uploaded to this post, they have been borrowed from the same link as the video.)

Picnic At Firle

It's been a while since I was last picnicking on Firle Beacon so it was rather nice to find myself having some ham, cheese and pickle sandwiches on top of the very blustery hill.

 
Myself and the Parents had just been shopping at a big Asda and picked up a few bits and bobs for lunch, I got very excited about finding a Coke bottle with my name on. Unfortunately it was my full name ( I don't like being called Bethany) but with a careful handhold I could get over that issue.

It was quite lovely snuggled up in the car- where it was warm! I had taken my patchwork quilt up with me to work on but ended up simply admiring it instead.

I'm really excited about how it is looking. Taking bits into work to stitch together during my lunch is keeping the project ticking over nicely.

Beautiful fabrics, nice food and gorgeous views- a brilliant Sunday afternoon!

Then There Was One

I'm afraid I have some sad news today chaps. This morning as I was cleaning out the hamsters I realised that little Pip had passed quietly in his sleep. He had done very well for a hamster, and lived to the grand old age of two and two months which is really very old in hammy years.

He was kind of a rescue hamster, rescued from a house in Leicester that had too many cats, all of whom were agitating the cage and stressing him out. It took a while for him to build up in confidence but soon proved to be a very sweet and gentle little thing who was much loved by lots of people.

And I can't remember if I told you about my little Milo (below), who was found half in, half out of his orange house in August. He was the youngest of my hamsters (just under two), and I had had him from 8 weeks old so it was very sad to see him go.
I still have Patrick of course, who is his usual lively self, although looking increasingly scruffy! He's going for the unkempt look apparently. Just as cute as ever though.

Squares And Stripes

We are halfway through birthday season now (October has the highest number of birthdays in my family, it's just one after the other- so much cake!!) and I am nearly birthday-d out. Amazingly I seem to have coincided my days off with the birthday days so have been able to join in the celebrations. It has meant I have had even less time to be creative and work on my projects, but I have managed to finish my Squares and Stripes patch for my Sew and Stitch quilt.

The little layered squares are really cute!

Starting Up Again

Afternoon All. I have been enjoying my day off today- which also happens to be The Brother's birthday (Happy Birthday The Brother!). It has been a quite pootle-y sort of day, with a little bit of hoovering, tidying, watering the plants- and noting with glee that my Christmas Cactus is about to do its thing and start exploding with hot pink flowers again!! I've had this little plant since Christmas 2011 and it has done marvelously well considering all the travelling it has done between university houses and East Sussex. It usually has two rounds of flowers a year and I'm hoping for a good crop this time as I have re-potted it and treated it to some cactus fertiliser.

I have also started up my Sew and Stitch again. The last time I worked on one of these squares was in June with a lighthouse square. Things then got a bit hectic if you will remember, with the show in London, graduation, birthday, two holidays and a new job, so the piles of magazines and fabrics have just been getting higher and higher. I think I am about 20 squares behind now and The Mother has been steaming ahead! She has even started putting squares together and attaching borders. Now though I think I am settled enough to carry on and will probably alternate this project with my hexagon patchwork. So much stitchery!