Freya & Fred (Book Giveaway)

First of all I have to say I'm totally devastated. I just spent half an hour writing a blog post about this giveaway and when I went to post it I lost it all. This is the third time blogger has done this recently :o(

I know I've teased you about this and I had hoped to post this yesterday but time just ran away with me.

Here it is

Freya & Fred

written by the lovely Janet Clare

One of the loveliest, cutest, sweetest most adorable sewing books I've ever seen. It's like a childs story book but for an adult - if that makes sense? I feel like I could get away with reading it to one of my friends kids and pointing at the pictures and they would get as much enjoyment out of it as me.

The book  centres around Freya and Fred (above). 

The idea is you use them as templates for applique and embroidery projects on your quilts, or whatever you wish. 

Janet has drawn out lovely simple patterns throughout the book.  Not only that but she has provided simple step by step instructions, accompanied by photographs, on how to applique and how to embroider.  

What can I say that her sons Joe and Henry havent ....

This is a beautiful book. 

You know you want it.

And as luck would have it I have a copy to giveaway.

If you can't wait and want your own copy now you can purchase it from Janet's etsy shop here.  The book is only available there.

If you want to win a copy

Just leave a comment below this post. 

I don't mind if you follow my blog or not (although it would be nice). 

Just share a link to this giveaway and support a fellow blogger. 

I will draw the winner on Monday 10th October.


In the meantime have a lovely weekend.  I have a few posts ready for next week.  I've been busy working on some commissions, one for a celebrity chef!  I've also been busy with my workshops and making plans for an open day at my cottage - all will be revealed.

Wooly products

image source

Those of you that have been following my blog for a while will know that I am involved in our local town festival The Roscommon Lamb Festival.

Last year we organised a Wool Craft Village.  The marquee was brimming with all sorts of yarn and knitting notions.  Not to mention interactive demonstrations in spinning, weaving, knitting and crochet and we even had some live sheep shearing!  This year we're hoping the Wool Craft Village will be even bigger and better so I'm trying to source all wooly-related products produced locally and/or in Ireland at least.   During my search on the wonderful world wide web I've found some interesting/quirky (ok some tacky) items.  I don't think they will make it to the Wool Craft Village but they certainly made me smile so I'm sharing them with you.

How about a lovely knitting themed watch?

available from this site.

I'm adding this to my wishlist.  It's so funny.

I found it here on amazon. 

Here's a cartoon from the book ...

How about some knitting charms from here?

Then there's lots of stuff to chose from here

Including this bag, which I think we could all do with :O)

One thing I didn't find much of is knitting themed cards so I've designed some of my own :O)  They will be available to purchase at the Wool Craft Village but if you can't wait until April I'll have them up in my etsy store soon!!

Inspiring Reading

Very excited, I've just pre-ordered Kirsties' book online ... only 35 days to go :o) I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks they could probably write this book but I'm still going to buy it as I just loved the show.  I hope it's back again this year.

image from bookdepository.com

Of course whilst I was online I was teased with even more books, which of course are all on my wishlist.  Ok, maybe one of two simply fell into the shopping cart, accidentally of course!!

Cath Kidstons' Stitch (only 57 days to go!)

Amy Butler's Style Stitches

Need I introduce this one.  I think half of blog world has already got it :o)

Selina Lake's Romantic Style & Bazaar Style

 

and this is just too cute.  Little Birds with lots of patterns from some blogs you might recognise.  You can view a trailer for the book at one of the contributor's blogs here  

And this I can't wait to get ... because you know how much I just LOVE Christmas :o) Knit the Season by Kate Jacobs.

and finally Embroidery companion  from Alicia at the lovely Posie Gets Cozy

So what books are on your wishlist?  Any recommendations? 

Brown paper packages tied up with string

Brown paper packages tied up with string ...

(Ok it didn't have any string but it was in a brown package)

... these are a few of my favourite things

I ordered this book the other day from BookDepository (cheaper than amazon and free shipping !!) and it's already arrived!

If you haven't got it you really have to, it's fabulous!  The recipes are divine (although they do use alarmingly large amounts of sugar!!) and the pictures are equally as fabulous.   If you do buy it, or have it and haven't made anything out of it yet, I suggest you check out this link, especially if you're making muffins. 

I made the blueberry muffins which are just deeeeeelicious!!  If you're making them make sure you use large muffin cases.  I used normal ones and ended up with 26 muffins as opposed to the 12 it's supposed to make.  I'm not complaining though :o)

Meanwhile the snow is still falling and it's bitterly cold so I'm heading back to the fire to my knitting.

Baking

Yesterday I had a day of baking. Mostly down to my girls laying lots of eggs :o) but also due to the most delicious mince pie I had on Tuesday. After scouring all my cookery books I finally put together a recipe that is almost as good.

Of course, I couldn't stop there.

I then made some nutmeg biscuits
(2oz butter, 4oz sugar, 6 oz flour, 1tsp nutmeg)

some delicious olive & sunblush tomato cupcakes with pesto
(recipe is from Kate Shirazi's gorgeous book Cupake Magic).

and some lovely walnut bread
(recipe here)

Finally by about 4.30 yesterday afternoon I had used all the eggs

Sew! Cath Kidston

I got home from college the other day and finally my copy of Cath Kidstons' new book Sew had arrived.

If you haven't got yours yet, which I doubt very much as I'm sure I'm the last on the planet to get mine, go and get a copy now.

It's just gorgeous.

There's even material provided to make the bag on the front cover. And it's full of ideas and inspiration and easy to follow patterns.

Sun, sea, sand and back to college!!

How typical. After decorating my bathroom I cleared out the cupboard and threw out all of my sun creams thinking there's no way we're ever going to get any sun at this stage and then ........

The sun beams for the past few days.

I'm not complaing though, it's been heaven :o)

I've just spent two fabulous days in Galway with friends and we even went swimming at the beach yesterday! Unfortunatley (or perhaps fortunatley as I'm not sure you want to see me in a swim suit!) my camera battery failed (why does it always happen when you really want to take pics?) and this was the only shot I got.



Today has been another glorious day which I have spent most of in/on the hammock, in between putting on three loads of washing, which is now all dry and ready for ironing ...eughhh!


I've just started reading this book (which is just lovely and very fitting for me as I too am disheartened with modern day men after a series of disasterous dates) and catching up with this months' Country Living (not so perfect as it's all autumnal but still full of beautiful country cottagey images as ever).


I must now go and decided on an outfit and pack a bag as tomorrow is my first day back at college!

I've taken the plunge and decided to do something I've always wanted to do ... I'm doing an Art & Design course.

I can't wait ... although I'm slightly nervous too. Wish me luck!

What's on your bedside table ?

I came across this tag on Janet Clare's blog and thought I'd give it a go. It originally came from doolallysally's blog (great name by the way).

So here's what's on my bedside table ... or rather my dressing table as that's what's beside my bed.



Before I start with what's on it let me tell you a little about the dressing table. It's one of the first pieces of furniture I bought for my first house that I bought in with my boyfriend at the time. I absoloutely adore it, even though the drawers stick and most of the handles are falling off. I bought it for £65 at Greenwich from a little second hand shop. Alas the relationship didn't last but I still have the dressing table which has moved with me everywhere and always seems to fit.

So on my dressing table:

My lovely pink notebook (received free with Easy Living Magazines) for those eureka night time ideas (aka remember to buy catfood or bring back library books)

My ipod - I LOVE music and always have this on as I'm going to sleep. If it's not music I'm listening too is a meditation cd or Paul McKenna getting me to think myself thin. The problem is I THINK I'm thin until I look in the mirror :o) My favourite music at the moment is on my blog - I have a playlist called "blog music" on my ipod !!

My touch lamp - I live in a cottage on my own and like Janet Clare have an open fireplace in my bedroom. I have a fear of bats coming down the chimney at night so the minute I hear something (light sleeper) I love that I can just tip the lamp and it comes on. Even better, it has three different light settings so it doesn't dazzle you in the middle of the night. By the way, the fear of bats comes from the house I grew up in. One morning I was woken up by my little sis screaming and there was a bat flying around our bedroom !!! I know they are harmless but scary nonetheless!

My earrings (some of which are hanging on the lamp) and jewellery. I LOVE accessories. I have so many earrings and necklaces and scarves and bags and shoes ... this is what happens when you aren't able to fit into top shop's clothes - you accessorize like crazy. You get the 'buzz' of shopping without necessarily having an entire new wardrobe and the added bonus is you can wear them with so many other outfits so really I've been saving money all along ... yeah right!!



Books - I just love reading. The problem is that I have so many craft projects on the go I seem to find it hard to fit in reading time. However, I have the advantage that I find it hard to sleep so reading tends to help me with that. I am a typical Gemini in the sense that I flit from one thing to another and am often reading several books at once, which I am now.

At the minute though I'm really enjoying The Knitting Circle. I gave a copy of it to everyone in the knitting group I was in in New York, Friends in Stitches (ladies you need to update the blog)before I left New York.



What's lovely about this actual copy is that Amy bought it for me and, apart from the lovely story, Amy has placed punched out hearts in random pages that fall out when I read it. How lovely is that. Thanks Amy x


The other books I'm reading, or wanting to read next are:

Courage & Craft- this was recommended to me during a writers workshop I attended with Gotham writers in New York. It's fantastic. I've read it twice but keep going back to it, it's fantastic. Amongst all the knitting, sewing, card making, reading etc etc I just love to write.
Got you Back I read her other book, Getting rid of Matthew. Good beach reads, no thinking required.
Comfort Food - I received Kate's first book Friday Night Knitting Club from Eva as a going away present before leaving New York so, like The Knitting Circle this has fond memories for me. I'm hoping Comfort food will be as good.
The Dirty bits for girls - this is on loan from a friend. It's got all the bits from the books you used to peek at when you were in school. Very funny.
Over You - I read a review of this and logged onto Amazon immediatley and ordered it. I hope it's as good as the review.
Life Begins - Another review impulse buy!
Knitting & Needles & Pearls - they are knitting related - that's all I know about them so far. How bad am I !!
After you'd gone - Another purchase as a result of a review.
">This year it will be differeint - This is the last book chosen from the book club I'm part of. It was before Christmas when we chose it, I better finish it before the next meeting!
Craft Inc - This was an amazon recommendation.
Lessons in Heartbreak - this was a christmas prezzi from my friend Barbara.

Sorry that was a little longer than I expected! I better get tagging.

Here are the rules of the tag:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write a post entitled "What's on your Bedside?"
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.


I'm going to tag the following:

Posy
This is love forever
Belladia
Elfie & Me
fine and dandi
homebug

Enjoy!

Lemonyliscious

I finally got my taste back at the weekend which was perfect timing as I had a delicious lunch at a friend’s house on Saturday.

I even got dressed up for the occasion, despite the lashing rain and tornado wind speeds I decided to wear my 'tea party' skirt.

I made these lemony buns which were exactly as described - lemonylicious!

The recipe came from this gorgeous cupcake book I got at Christmas (Thanks Trish!). Click here to see the fab website of the lady who wrote the book. If you love baking or just like looking at pics of cupcakes this is the book for you :o)



I finished mine off with dollops of marscapone cheese mixed with lemon rind and lemon juice ... deeeeeelicious :o)

Lovely things

Inspired by my egg and soldiers the other day I started on some Easter projects :o)

I started out with the idea of knitting a bunny egg cosy. I say started out as I went a bit off the rails after that. As you can see in the pic below I was scribbling out a pattern and sketching out my ideas before I went a bit mad !



Once my colouring pencils came out and a couple of hours later, an actual knitting pattern, I progressed to chicks and now have all sorts of ideas up my sleeves :o)



I'm so engrossed in the 'cosy knitting' that I brought it to the hospital with me today (check up after my op) but for once, how typical is this, I had less than an hour to wait so I barley got a full one finished. So disappointing. But on the plus side my nose is getting better :o) Alas I still can't smell or taste a single thing but it's on the mend so that's what counts.

After that I headed to Galway town for a spot of shopping. Not so great as it's at that in between stage where the sales are on and some of the new stuff is coming out. However I came across a darling shop called Lola Rose. It's full of lovely things and also stocks wool (aka yarn). Best of all they sell their products (and wool) online. Alas the website is a little disappointing as the shop is so beatiful but I believe it is work in progress and once you look at the products themselves you will see what I mean.



I bought this gorgeous book there. I've been wanting it after seeing it mentioned in Crafts Beautiful. Unfortunatley the projects are quite basic (for me) but this would be a really lovely book for anyone new to crafting or a little girl. Despite that it's a gorgeous little book to have with lovely pics and well worth 10 euro when you think it costs an average of 7 euro for a craft magazine in Irealand!





I got this 'M' hook too.



I seem to have a bit of a 'thing' about hooks, I love them. So far I've managed to use them all but I think I need to stop before it gets out of hand. This one I just couldn't leave. I also have a 'thing' about letters and words. What I'm trying to say is I'm a shopaholic ... there I've said it. Ohhh but it is fun :o)

After all this shopping my friend and I went for dinner and despite not tasting it I really enjoyed it. The coffee at the end was fabulous though ... again I couldn't taste it but it came in a cup (bonus points!) and with a really cute little jug. I so want one! Where can I get one???

Ok it's after midnight I'm off to bed!

Baking

I've been inspired by Rachel Allen's Bake series on RTE at the mo so I got my cookery books out and had a weekend of baking.



I made delicious mini lemon buns using my new silicone bun tray (totally fabulous by the way) and my really cute mini polka dut bun cases.





As always I made far too many so I wrapped up a a dozen of them for mum and dad.



and made these cute labels "with love from the kitchen of Michelle" ..



I didn't stop there.

I then made these deeeeelicious lemon biscuits. They are sooooo easy to make and I've just had one today (Wednesday) with a coffee and they are still as crunchy and scrumpscious. I don't think I'm going to buy biscuits again!!