Finger Knitted Garland

A little while ago the Nester had a post about finger knitting.  Never had I heard of something like it and neither had anyone I spoke to.  If you haven’t done it and are going to try it then I highly recommend this video on You Tube.  It is the simplest one I have found.

I gave one ago with some spare wool at home and currently it adorns the mantlepiece in the living room.

And of course, then my imagination ran away with me and I decided that this was the perfect adornment for my bedroom window.  At home, we have all wooden blinds and I love them but it makes the windows look pretty plain.  I had a raggamuffin garland across my window (another Nester inspired project), but I get bored and I liked the idea of mixing it up.

I was going to do green, but the choice in the shop wasn’t great so I picked pink/red.

It doesn’t take that long to do and I found it best to watch TV and sit their with my balls of wool.  Note though, its a bugger to start and then stop for a while as you need to find a way to hold the loops in place so make sure you have some spare time and have been to the loo first.

But, when its done it could look like this:

I like the whimsy of it.  I will be changing the colours around again later in the season and I am thinking of a red, white and blue one for the living room in time of the jubilee.

~ Pru

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Jubilee Fever

If you follow me on Twitter then you will know that I went a bit jubilee crazy.  With the Queen celebrating her 60th year on the throne, I took an extra day off from work and enjoyed five whole days of celebrating with my family.

On Friday afternoon, mum and I went into London to wander around (one of my favourite things to do).  We took a trip from Waterloo to Blackfriars Bridge to witness the biggest poster I have ever seen:

Whereas other countries often fly their flags (I see the American flag often shown on other blogs), the UK has a strange relationship with the St George Flag (English flag) and the Union Jack or Union Flag (the Great Britain flag).  Very rarely do you see them flown on buildings, unless a government building.  It has been lovely seeing bunting and flags and lots of red, white and blue adorning buildings in London.

Flags flying at Admiralty Arch.

And St James’s Park had the most stunning crown made from succulents:

I had bedecked the living room in red white and blue and took great pleasure in purchasing napkins, paper plates and cocktail sticks with flags on for a buffet tea which we had whilst watching the concert.  Oh yeah, and there was cake – tutorial and recipe on I Am Baker.

I went a bit crazy with the pom poms (just like the ones we did for Martha Mondays a year or so back).  I made big ones and small ones, tying the pom poms to garden sticks with the pipe cleaners.

Living so close to the River Thames meant that I got to see the boats getting into position before the pageant.  Mum and I stood by the Thames on Saturday morning and then walked along the towpath from Hammersmith to Putney to see more of the boats in the evening.

My view on the Jubilee:  Mainly, I loved it.  I loved the outpouring of love for the Queen and her family, I loved how Prince Charles spoke so beautifully about his mother and his absent father (Prince Philip was in hospital) at the concert and I thought that the whole event went very well.  The Queen was as gracious as ever and amazed by the crowds gathered.  The Mirror quoted her as saying ‘Look at all those people, Philip…look at them!’

There are great videos here:

Jubilee Pageant

Jubilee Concert Highlights

Thanksgiving Service

And it should go without being said, but I will declare that I am proud to be British and I loved having the opportunity to be so proud of my country and its history.

Did you see any of the celebrations on TV?

 

~ Pru

From Where I Cook

I am always intrigued by other people’s kitchens.  I love articles on kitchens, their organisation and I like thinking about other people cooking in their kitchens, like the Martha Monday’s girls.

So, I thought it would be fun to show you where I cook and maybe you might like to come here and show everyone where you cook and bake from (leave a comment if you are interested).

So, here is my kitchen.  It is open plan and needs to be renovated but at the moment, this is what its like:

I took this photo from the stairs so that you could see the general size.  The box on top of the fridge holds all of my baking supplies (and will be the subject of another post soon). 

Everything was moved around a couple of weeks ago and having the kettle and tea and coffee here (above the cups) and next to the drawer with the cutlery is making a lot more sense – I’m wondering what took us so long to make the change.

My little baking section.  The Kitchen Aid has changed the way I bake (for the better) and the recent addition of canisters for flour (the big one), icing sugar (the one on top) and sugar (big glass jar with metal top) make things so much easier.  The other jars contained brown sugar and ground almonds.

All the utensils right next to the cooker.  And two lots of measuring cups now (Martha Stewart ones and Kitchen Aid ones), and the BEST measuring spoons – down to 1/8 teaspoon.

And with spring here, the seeds have appeared – the herb basket was a present for my birthday and it has been such fun watching them grow – basil, parsley, chives and rosemary.

The view from the garden whilst standing at the sink is one of the best places to watch time tick by.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this litle tour.  I’m thinking of showing you the baking box, and the cupboards where everything is kept and also where the pots and pans are kept too.  I’m hoping that you may have some ideas on how better to organise everything.

Oh!  And if you fancy showing off you kitchen here, please contact me.

~ Pru

Living for the weekend

If you are anything like me, then Monday arrives and you groan and then start wishing that it was the weekend again.  My colleagues and I do it and every week there is always one of us who was sure that Thursday was actually Friday.  They are then consoled for the next two days!

 

But I have been thinking about the weekend more this last week after reading Jane’s post and how much burden I put on myself through all my wild ideas for those two days.  I write a list and aim to get so many things done, all the bits that I haven’t crammed in to the week, like laundry and cleaning and blogging and shopping and wrapping presents and cooking.  And the weekend can turn in to a bit of a nightmare.

 

Usually I spend Sunday evening wondering what on earth happened to the weekend!

 

I am entering this weekend with no firm plans at all.  I had had plans to go to see Bugsy Malone with some fellow bloggers but I have cancelled them.  The weekend is resting on whether my grandfather remains in hospital or whether he goes home.  See, there is a plan (of sorts) to go up to Norwich and clean the house.  And I don’t mean just hoover, I mean deep clean it.  I am finding the prospect of doing some deep cleaning this weekend quite therapeutic.  And if grandad comes home, then I will just see what happens.

 

Have a wonderful weekend.

 

Do you have plans and are you like me, and cramming as much as you can into these two days?

 

 

~ Pru