Gone walking

I took a walk with scruffy gentle dog the other day and for once I had the sense to take the camera with me and look at what I found....

Wonderful, wonderful, white pom poms of dandelions. All dotted far and wide over our local field.

They were looking absolutely gorgeous and fragile with their feathery heads. For what is considered a weed it is an impressive flower. I am trully blessed to have such a magical place to walk our four legged friend. Just look at this 'secret garden' door that borders the field. It makes me want to push it gingerly open and creep through.Even scruffy gentle dog didn't seem to recognise the field as the same one he walks round daily.

On the health front our dear little girl did well and all the chicken pox spots have gone. We only have two stubborn scabs on in her hair. So thank you for all the good wishes.

She has moved on from chicken pox. Yeah that is so last fortnight we now have a cold and could be teething (she was up at 3am and didn't go back to sleep until 7am!!!!). Ahhh the life of a toddler ...fast moving and never the same day twice.

Spots unfortunately not the polka dot kind

My little one has Chicken Pox. She's 17 months old. Too, too young. Although it seems the general consensus from others is that its better to have them young. She has them on her head, around her mouth, in her ears, up her nostrils, under her armpits and between her fingers. Basically anywhere you would prefer them not to be she has them. Her legs and her arms are pretty free of the yucky pussy spots. She is being so good and isn't scratching them too much but oh they are miserable looking.

We are therefore house bound so we are doing lots of colouring, drawing, sticking and reading. I haven't seen anyone other than my husband for the last few days. However he came home early today and I took the opportunity to escape from the confines of these 4 walls and take scruffy dog for a walk and my camera.

Cow parsnips have never looked so beautiful.

Bright big flowers and busy bees

We enjoyed ourselves last week. We were totally spoilt and my parents loved spending time with their grandaughter which meant I managed to get a little bit of time to sew.

So I did it. I managed to finish one of my Cloth Kit dresses. Its quirky. It has mistakes and its slightly on the baggy side (my fault not the pattern). Some might say it resembles a very pretty sack but I love it. I think my little flower liked it too.

The buttonholes were probably the fiddliest bit and I am supposed to put some buttons on the back to make it less baggy but I have decided not to. I'm frightened I might ruin it. However buttonholes aren't as scarey to do as I thought they would be I just need more practice. Roll on the good 'summer dress' weather. Now where is that other kit?

Cloth Kits

I spent some of my Birthday money on 2 little girls dress kits from Cloth Kits to make for my daughter. They came beautifully wrapped in tissue paper and a pretty co-ordinating ribbon wrapped around each dress. So simple and attractive.

The two dresses I bought are:
This apple green baby cord dress kit. I love the colour and the fabric is so so soft. The second dress is very bright. I actually chose bright yellow and red and its so vibrant but I think my little girl will really be able to carry it off.

My daughter and I are staying at my parents next week and my mum is quite knowledgable about sewing so going armed with these dress kits and my sewing machine. I hope to have at least one if not both to photograph and post on this blog by the end of next week.

The bliss of motherhood

She wakes from her afternoon nap. I sweep her from her cot and nussle into her neck. She is warm, sleepy and smells sweet and musty. We snuggle. I savour the drousy moment.

Later we are both laughing as I am tickling her. She is in my arms and we turn to look in a mirror on the wall. We laugh together at our reflection. She then puts her head onto my shoulder and sighs a contented sigh. I wish time would stand still.

For the love of cake continued...

We demolished the Birthday cake. As always it took a lot less time than it took to make.





It was pretty yummy. The beauty of this fruit cake recipe is that it doesn't have to be made months in advance to mature. Here's the recipe if you fancy making it yourself:

350g plain flour
250g butter
350g soft brown sugar
40g whitefat
5 eggs
350g currants
350g sultanas
75g ground almonds
110g cherries
110g candied peel
Small tablespoon treacle
Brandy
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ cinnamon

Rub in the fats to the flour and sugar. Add the fruits, spices, bicarb, treacle, almonds, eggs and brandy. Mix well.

Prepare a tin carefully with one or two layers of greaseproof paper inside the tin and brown paper or folded layers of tin foil ted round the outside and standing higher than the cake-tin top. Spoon in the mixture. Cover the top of the cake with a piece of tin foil for the first 3 half hours of cooking. Bake slowly at 140 degrees celcius for four and half hours, or until ready - the cake should look firm, and when a knife is inserted it should come out clean.

Loving the Gilmore Girls on E4

I have just discovered 'Gilmore Girls' on E4. I love the colours, the houses, the home interiors, the perfectly pretty town of Stars Hollow. I love how all the characters talk way too fast, how conversations flow seamlessly, are all witty and sharp but sharp in a round cornered non-aggressive way. I also love, love, love the fact that my little girl naps during this time and I can sit still for one moment and eat my lunch and become absorbed in a very pretty, harmless world.

I found the Gilmore Girls right in the middle of season 3 so I seem to have missed a bit and apparently the US are on season 7. I just hope E4 has them all.

The Wonder of Wales

My family, Mum, Dad and brother have recently spent a week in Wales celebrating my Dad's 65th. The 6 of us stayed in a really comfortable cottage called Mayberry Cottage set high on the hillside in with views of the Black Mountain's over looking a village called Crickhowell. The views from the cottage were stunning and seemed to change every minute.

Breakfast is always somewhat of a feast when we all get together. Mum brought 5 different types of her own homemade marmalade!!!!

It meant that there was enough so we could spread it thickly onto fresh, soft white loaf from the local(ish) bakery.

Why does food always taste so much better on holiday?

For the love of cake

Over the last couple of days I have been working on my Dad's 65 birthday cake. I always like the decorated cakes I make for family and friends to really relate to the person it is for. My Dad loves cars and has a particular love of VW Beetle cars so it seemed an obvious choice to have him and my mum driving off into retirement in an open top classic beetle car.

He also loves his newspaper so I have made a Telegraph newspaper out of rice paper and used an edible pen for the printing. He is an electrician so I added a real of electrical wire around the base of the cake.

Its probably taken me about 10 hours to decorate. Which I have generally done in the evenings when our little girl had gone to bed.

I'm pretty pleased with the result. I just hope he likes it too.

Excuses, Excuses

Time to write a post which (from what I understand) is pretty familiar in blog land. The post where I apologise for not posting recently. Ooops. I wish I had a fabulously exciting excuse. One which would make you gasp, raise your hands to your mouth and exclaim "well who can blame her for not posting".

But alas there isn't a fabulous excuse. All I have to offer is busy, busy, Christmas, colds, flu, family life, sleepless nights, stomach bugs, bills to pay, blah, blah.... snore, snore.

But I'm back now and I wish to achieve the following during the rest of the year

• Learn more about my camera in order to take better photographs


• Make at least one item of clothing for my daughter


• Finish my daughters quilt which I started in August 08


• Try to make a regular income from home


• Post on this blog at least once a week

So watch this space....

Sew comforting

Life around here after the birth of our daughter is, dare I say it, starting to fall into some form of routine. Our almost 9 months old daughter is doing really well and has learnt to put herself to sleep and now manages to go from 6.30pm to 6am. This means that after dinner I can sit down and do something for me, something creative such as post on my blog or do some work on my new sewing project.


The sewing project I have decided to embark on is my very first patchwork quilt. I previously been a bit nervous of making a quilt. They always looked a bit complicated however after some patient guidance from my Mum who has been attending patchwork classes I have undertaken a random quilt of pink and aqua blue. I am hoping that, once finished, it will be used to keep our daughters legs warm in her buggy come the colder autumn/winter months.


I'm not following any strict patchwork pattern so each 2.5 inch square is placed randomly. I am just enjoying the process of piecing the bright, splashy colours together.

I get a great deal of comfort from sitting absorbed by the careful cutting of the fabric and listening to the gentle hum of the sewing machine. It is really helping me to relax. I can feel my brain letting go of all of the 24/7 mummy worries. Is she eating enough? Is she eating too much? Is she too hot? Is she too cold? For a few precious hours I immerse myself in the sea of patchwork patterns and colours. When I finally emerge from the patchwork waters I feel refreshed and I feel I once again able to give my all to being a Mum. There is also something incredibly satisfying to know that I am making something that will bring comfort to our daughter. I like to think about her all bundled up in it on one of our walks down the lane with our hairy gentle dog.


I had better get a move on as those autumn days are nearer than I would care to admit.

Blackberry jewels

Now I have given up work to look after our 8 month old the only type of blackberry I am interested in are these beauties. They are far better for you than its electronic name sake and far more conduciveto family life.

These juicy black jewels tumble over the wall into our garden. I managed to pick a good bowl full and made a delicious crumble which I served to my visiting in-laws with vanilla ice-cream. Oh it was heaven in a dish! I just wish I had taken a picture of the finished crumble. As it is a bit early for them there are still quite a few little green blackberries-in-waiting. There should be enough for the blackbirds and us as long as the rain doesn't wash them away.

When I had finished I looked down at my hands and was reminded of my maternal grandmother. A country woman through and through. Who often had fruit stained hands from making the best fruit pies and crumbles. She was rarely out of her wellies and was always sending us home with bowls and bags of something she had grown in her garden.

Home For Tea And Cake

There is nothing more comforting than spending an afternoon curled up on a comfy sofa, drinking hot, steaming cups of tea and eatting homemade cake. Its a simple pleassure. The sweet smell of the cake and the hot familiar taste of the tea are quite simply the perfect combination.

Its an opinion we all share in my family. When holidaying in this country as a child we often abandoned an afternoon visiting the local tourist attraction in favour of spending it sitting in the garden of our holiday cottage drinking tea out of unfamiliar cups and eatting one of Mum's homemade cakes which she has carefully transported the 100+ miles. This tradition and ritual continues today and brings me a great sense of ease and well-being.

It therefore seemed natural to name my blog, which I wish to capture the essence of home, family and the simple pleassures of life 'Home For Tea And Cake'. So pull up a chair, grab yourself a hot mug of tea and cut yourself a large slice of cake and enjoy!