HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!

I can't believe how long it is since my last post. In case you wondered, I haven't been sitting around doing nothing. I have, as every other year, left everything to the last minute, (I think I work better under pressure). And here is the photographic evidence to show that I HAVE done something. I have made another box of these .......... And quite a few more of these .....
And a couple of these .....

But I've finally finished. My cards have been made and written and posted and are out of my hands and into those of Royal Mail. Shopping has been finished, and presents wrapped, and other than making Brandy Butter I'm done. Brandy butter being one of my favourite festive foods - you can keep your "perfect roast potato" hints, and recipes for "how to cook brussels for people who don't like brussels" (why bother??? Just don't eat them, they're poisonous, the devil's food) In fact, don't tell anyone, because I'll be thought of as ungrateful, but my perfect Christmas meal would be a turkey sandwich, followed by a bowl of brandy butter. Anything else is just extraneous.

So can I wish you all a very Happy Christmas, and leave you with a seasonal photo, taken on Tuesday. (I've driven past this sign so many times and couldn't wait for it to snow so I could take this picture.)

PS - I bought a sensible pair of boots yesterday. Well, reasonably sensible for me. But, if I was considerably younger - I would have bought these. They are so beautiful, I considered buying them and just wearing them indoors as slippers, but in the end, common sense prevailed.

However, if Father Christmas is reading this and is still looking for the perfect present for me, I'm a size 7.

Success!

Had a very busy day on Friday - I drove to Suffolk with a friend to do a day's tuition on Photoshop with Sarah Brownie, who we contacted via the Computer Textile Design Group . It was brilliant and we learnt loads, and I certainly feel that I know enough now to experiment by myself. Sarah was a very patient teacher, answered all our questions, and tailored the tuition specifically for us - a really valuable day.

Having got back home it was round to Val's to set up for our Coffee and Cake Craft Sale. (Although I didn't do much of that, Jill and Val had more or less finished by the time I got there. Then back home to bake my 'signature dish' - white chocolate and raspberry muffins. Fortunately, unlike my initial flapjacks - I didn't forget they were in the oven and burn them to a frazzle, and they turned out beautifully, even if I do say so myself.

Up early Saturday morning, to put the last finishing touches to our tables. Val's knitted scarves, hats, mitts and accessories ...
Jill's beautiful cards and paintings .... and my stitched stuff (if you look closely at the Lavender bag label, you may see evidence of the Photoshop course)

The table for coffee and cake looked pretty (please note - my second batch of flapjacks are a much better colour)

with masses of cakes waiting for customers

It's always a worry whether anyone will come - but at exactly 10am the doorbell rang and our first visitor arrived. We had loads of people in the morning, and were really busy, then it slowed to a steady flow in the afternoon.
We sold lots of stuff, and the refreshment money raised just over £100, which we are going to donate to a Breast Cancer charity - hence the abundance of pink .....

MUCH less work than last year's craft fair, and more successful all round. Still have some cake left (in spite of my best efforts!) but they will hopefully go when I get to work tomorrow.

Thank you to everyone who came and supported us, and to those who were happy to make donations, even though they weren't able to come and sample my cakes. (Or maybe BECAUSE they weren't able to sample my cakes?)

Charcoal, anybody??

Some time ago, my Mum asked me if I could find a use for these little bags for detergent tablets in the washing machine. I couldn't, but I don't like to see things thrown away, so I saved them. I gave it some thought, but until today I hadn't come up with a use for them. More of that in a mo.I was busy in the kitchen this morning, baking for our Coffee and Cake Craft Fair on Saturday - (I hate cooking) making biscuits and flapjacks. While I was in the kitchen, I saw the reason why the birds nuts are disappearing at an alarming rate - the pesky squirrel is back!

There's no point in chasing him off, he goes about five yards down the garden, turns around and sneers and then sits there until I close the door then comes back, so I just give up. Anyway, back to cooking ..... the biscuits turned out ok - they are called Keddie's cookies, because I got the recipe about 30 years ago from my friend's Mum, and she was called Mrs Keddie. Oh, and they are supposed to look like that, before any of you criticise the fact that they look a bit mis-shapen. I went off to sort out a couple of other things, and unfortunately, completely forgot about the flapjacks that were still in the oven.


Which is why they look slightly less successful ......

It didn't help that as I was scraping the burnt crumbs out of the tin, Delia bloody Smith was on Woman's hour, endlessly banging on about how to cook the perfect turkey, and the crispiest roast potatoes, and how delicious home made pork pies are, (I'd better not tell you what I suggested she do with her home made pork pies) and how much cheaper home baked mince pies are compared to shop ones. Of course they're cheaper you daft bat, you don't have to go through all that aggravation of weighing stuff, and making pastry and burning yourself and washing up. Incidentally, Delia, I've seen the price of football socks and we don't see you surrounding yourself with yellow and green wool to knock out countless pairs for the Canaries, do we? Have you thought about how much cheaper it would be?!?!?



So, to come back to the washing bags - I decided they'd be perfect for holding charcoaled lumps of flapjack, to hang up for the birds.

So that's what I did ......And, I have to say, since I've hung them out, I haven't seen hide nor hair of the squirrel or the massive fat pigeons that plague my bird feeder. And that gave me an idea....................

To Duncan Bannatyne and Peter Jones

c/o Dragons Den,

Dear Mr Bannatyne and Mr Jones,

I am looking for £500,000 of investment to produce and market my all-new failproof squirrel deterent.

To give you a breakdown of the costs, I need about £100 for basic ingredients, about £200 for the little bags, and the rest will go towards the cost of having a couple of fire tenders on standby for when the inevitable happens.

Yours hopefully

vintagerockchick x

Come and Eat Cake!!

You may remember that last year a couple of my friends (Jill and Val) and I organised a Christmas Craft Fair in Hertford. We toyed with the idea of doing the same this year, but it took a lot of organising, and so instead, we have decided to hold a Coffee and Cake Craft Fair, at Val's house. We will be selling handmade knitted, stitched and painted pretties, and serving up coffee and cake. In fact, there will be ten, yes TEN, different kinds of cake. (You'll be ok, I'm only making three of them, and I'm quite happy to point out which ones I'm responsible for, for the benefit of those of you who don't fancy playing Russian Roulette.) We are donating all of the proceeds from the refreshments (did I mention that there will be ten different kinds of cake?) to a Breast Cancer charity.

Please come if you are anywhere near - I know the full address isn't on the poster, (we didn't want Val targetted by internet ne'er-do-wells) but email me at vintagerockchick@hotmail.com and I'll give you the full details. Hope to see you there.

Second Post today!!

How about that, don't post for a week, then twice in a few hours. I've been dyeing buttons this morning, and for those who have asked about it, I thought you might want to see the results.

The purple worked really well, the turquoise less so, so I added a bit more dye and 'cooked' them for a bit longer, and the lime was good......The orange and the pink worked well. Even the buttons that didn't take the dye very well, that were going to be rejects, look a bit more interesting when all mixed in together.You need Disperse Dye - I get mine from Art Van Go (Apparently there ARE other art shops, but the staff aren't so lovely) Put half a pint of water in an old saucepan. Oh sorry, I forgot the first step - spend about half an hour trying to find where you put the old saucepan. It was in my shed, to ensure I didn't inadvertently use it for food. Although, to be honest, if you're eating something I've cooked, the fact that I used a saucepan that's been used for dyeing, is the least of your worries.

Put a smidgeon of the dye powder into the water. A smidgeon is a tad more than a pinch. I suppose if you wanted to be exact, I'd say a quarter of a teaspoonful. Add the buttons, bring SLOWLY to simmer, and then simmer for 2-3 minutes. And that's it - done! Just rinse, dry and admire.

Some button materials work better than others, and I really can't say what works and what doesn't, you just have to experiment. And presumably, if you didn't like a bit of experimenting, you wouldn't be dyeing buttons in the first place. Unfortunately, those lovely mother-of-pearl buttons don't seem to take the dye, although the cheap pearly ones do. Just try it, and I swear you'll never thrown another shirt button away again!

There's enough dye in each jar to dye about half a hundred weight of buttons, so you could club together with some other barmy mates, and get a selection of colours, and all dye together. (Please make sure you spell the invitations correctly though, don't want people getting the wrong idea)

Swinging Sixties

I've been meaning to go to the Fashion and Textile Museum for ages - it's the one that Zandra Rhodes set up, in Bermondsey. Then, while I was at the National Portrait Gallery seeing the 'Twiggy in Photographs' exhibition last week, I saw a poster of this exhibition which is on at the moment.....As luck would have it, the retirement do I was going to last night, happened to be at Blackfriars - not a million miles from Bermondsey - so I decided to visit the exhibition before going on to the drink. I am so glad I did - it was brilliant. Apparently Marion Foale and Sally Tuffin were students at Walthamstow College of Art. Coincidentally, at the same time as they were studying there, I was being born in Thorpe Coombe Maternity Hospital, which is just across the road! They went into fashion design, and had their workroom over a shop in Marlborough Court off Carnaby Street, then when the shop downstairs became vacant they took that over too. The exhibition was set out in the same way - laid out just as the shop was downstairs......Upstairs there was a replica of their workshop, with old Vogue magazines, the pattern blocks, and more clothes. Added to which, there was great sixties music playing. If you are even slightly interested in sixties fashion, I really recommend going - it's on until 24th Feb - I might even go again, and take a sketchbook this time, rather than just a camera. A bit sad, I know, but one of the exhibits that got me most excited was the original Sindy doll from 1963 - apparently they designed some outfits for Sindy. This one belonged to Sally Tuffin..... and this one is mine! I think mine is in better condition - no box, but her hair is all there, she's got both plimsolls and her Tam O'Shanter. (I'm not sure I spelt that right - maybe I should have just said 'beret')

Actually, I've struggled with my conscience about posting that last picture. I just KNOW that my sister is going to bring up the fact that she no longer has HER original Sindy, as she was badly defaced.

Well, how was I to know that felt pen didn't wash off plastic doll's faces??? Anyway, I think the glasses suited her, and I'm sure the spots would have faded eventually. Sorry again sis.

Having spent a couple of hours at the exhibition, I headed up to the Thames Walk, and wandered along the south bank, up to Blackfriars bridge. I really, really love that walk - especially at night, with all the buildings lit up, and twinkley boats going up and down. I should go more often.

And, I think you should be impressed - despite a long day yesterday, a few hours at the retirement do, and a long journey home - by 7.30am I had got up, showered and dressed, done some handwashing, cleaned the bathroom (including washing the floor!) and had breakfast. Hero, or what?!? Maybe I should say that I was only drinking soda and lime, which helps. Not very rock'n'roll I know, but to compensate for that, how about this great photo of Keith Richards looking wasted after a Stones gig. It was in one of the other rooms at the museum, a massive photo which I loved - but way out of my price range. I wrote the title down, in case I could track down a print - "Naughty But Nice" by photographer Christopher Simon Sykes.

Then, when I got down to the shop, in a display of about half a dozen, I saw the same photo in an A5 postcard for a quid - so I bought it!

Busy, Busy, Busy.

I don't know about you, but I was really pleased it poured down with rain all day on Saturday. It gave me the excuse I needed to stay holed up in my sewing room all day. I finally finished a shirt that I started a while ago. Admittedly there won't be too much call for a sleeveless gingham shirt over the next few months, Indian summer, or no Indian summer. But I'll be ready if we have a sudden heatwave. I also spent several hours, sorting stuff out in readiness for the decorator who is due to come and re-decorate my sewing room with some lovely bright pink and cream wallpaper at the beginning of December. Who, incidentally, doesn't think I'll manage to clear it out in time, and I DO love a challenge.

Anyway, I went through loads of old magazines, and articles that I'd saved for various intended projects - most of which looked pretty hideous now - my tastes must have changed. Certainly, I no longer have the desire to wear an oversized red sweatshirt showing a smiley-faced robin wearing a length of tinsel. Although, I do have a vague recollection of making (and wearing) a similar red sweatshirt, decorated with holly leaves and poinsettas in bondawebbed lame (I don't know how to put one of those little accent-y things over the 'e', so I'll just have to trust you to pronounce it correctly) I'm sure I've got a photo of me wearing it somewhere, so if you're all VERY good I may post that at some point in the future.

Fortunately, the rain stopped in the evening, so I didn't get wet walking up to the pub to see the band that I manage (in a very low-key, non-profit making way, you understand)

And here IS the very same, "SWEET SISTER" available for weddings, parties, and all manner of corporate events and social functions.

On Sunday morning, I thought I'd better at least do some semblance of housework, so I sealed the (new-ish) hall floor that I should have done weeks ago. Trouble was, then I couldn't walk on it for six hours, which meant that was as far as I got with the housework. FORTUNATELY, as luck would have it, I'd got my sewing machine and various other necessities in the kitchen, so as soon as I'd done the floor, I took myself down the garden to my posh shed and pottered the day away.

As one of the blokes at work said yesterday - "Isn't it sad, we've got to the age when the description of a great weekend includes the word "pottering"

So, I stitched some cards for the forthcoming festivities (I'm still not saying the word until December)....

and some for other occasions .......
I'm hoping they might sell at our forthcoming Craft Fair and Charity Coffee and Cake event at the beginning of December. I know, I know - I said I'd never do another one, but this is going to be held at a friend's house, and it gave us an excuse to get together this evening and drink mulled wine and eat kettle chips and cake.
And in case you're wondering why this post is entitled as it is - my itinerary today was.......
4.57am - Out of bed just before the alarm.
5.45am - Leave for work
6.30am - Arrive at work
10.30am - Leave work, stopping off en route to go to the supermarket so I've got something to eat other than sweets
12.15pm - Arrived home, unpacked shopping, had two slices of stale toast whilst standing up in kitchen, washed down with a glass of water (I'm sorry, I know you must be envying my stylish lifestyle now)
1pm - Met Lucy in town for knitting and coffee
2.45pm - Dash to car park, swap knitting bag for guitar bag
3pm - Guitar lesson
3.30pm - Dashed home, folded washing, sorted the recycling, and washed up and re-filled the bird feeders
4.15pm - Walked back into town
5pm - Appointment to give blood. (The nurse looked a bit puzzled when I said, "I've really been looking forward to this, it's the first chance I've had to relax all day)
5.30pm - Tea and biscuits.
6pm - Popped into library (the logic being that if I HAD left a bit too quickly, it would be better to faint in the library than on the way back up the hill)
6.50pm - Back home, then quick turn around to get to my friends for 7pm for the aforementioned 'Craft Fair' discussions.
9.30pm - Back home, and I thought while I was on a roll, I may as well fit a bit of blogging in.

P.S. If anyone wants to know what I'd like for a present next month - please can I have a secret two weeks that no-one else knows about.

P.P.S - For my Mum's benefit - I'll promise I'll eat vegetables tomorrow.