Time keeps on Slippin'

I never intended to stay away for so long......and now it's marching on towards Christmas.  I've been in my job now for 6 months, where has the time gone?

Once again this blog post sees me with no news, or progression on pattern writing.  Full time work is really just that.....full time, with what always seems as no let up.  Trying to always catch up on sleep before catching up with anything, anyone or anybody!

I have made one decision that has turned out to be a good one.....a cleaner.  This has freed up a little bit of time for me and for the first time in what seems like months, I have started to finish some long overdue knitting as well as just knitting items, because I can.  Also a large stash of white Fuzzy Wuzzy came my way via Canada, so I spent a few nights knitting up little Kitty Kat hats....some of which are still available in my Etsy store.....there will be some more to come as I have a lot of this yarn to knit down.

I also spent a considerable amount of what little time I had throwing, donating, gifting and selling off furniture, clothes, books and crockery, as well as throwing years of long held sentimental items.....I just felt it was time to let all of these things go.  I've refreshed some of these items.....new sofa,  bed, chairs, storage for my stuff as well as wool and some new bed linen(s), with a few more things to come, but it is true what they say, you do feel lighter when you're not smothered in stuff and clutter......well I do anyway, and it was a good decision in the end.  Even though it sort of didn't feel totally right at the time.

The only other thing I've done is to put up the Christmas tree......a new 3ft white tree, that sits of the side table filled with beautiful vintage ornaments that I've been buying and stashing over the last few years.....these ornaments weren't cheap but they are so lovely so I figured I needed to get a few extra weeks out of the tree.

Well that's all my news, I promise I won't stay away for too long next time.....fingers crossed the next post will be all about 2 new hat patterns....Purdey bonnet and Purdey earflap......which leads me to say as well how overwhelmed I've been with current pattern purchases.....Clover seems still to be the pattern of the moment, and I just marvel at the beauty of them all when I look at Instagram.....there is literally 100's of them using the tag #cloverearflaphat......so thank you to all who have purchased a pattern or two and I hope you'll all get just as much joy out of Purdey when it's out just before Christmas.

Thanks again


Vicki x

Have You Seen The Poppets?

My dear friend Jen, sells Poppets.....Mermaids, mermans, pirates, leggy girls, geeks, cowboys, geishas, bunnies, santas, reindeers.....Poppets, the affectionate name given to the array of hand made softies that this talented lady produces from her little home studio in Toronto Canada.

Every little softie poppet is unique in fabric selection, no one poppet will ever be the same....that's the beauty of these little guys.

Jen happily also does custom work when she's able and those who join her newsletter get priority, so if you're looking for something special, Jen can design you a poppet to suit your child.

Take a look at some of the beautiful work that Jen has completed.

What do you think?  Aren't they the cutest little poppets that you ever did see.  All triple stitched, with all ribbon adornments hand sewn, so little fingers can't remove them, eco filled, 100% cotton bodies, and wool felt faces and accessories and hand stitched embroided sweet little signature smiles.  At the moment, Jen has some "Ready to Ship" stock available which is really unheard of, so I'm letting you in on the poppet secret.  There are some little sea themed items in her Etsy store as we speak, as well as some cute little long legged girls with bows in their hair.

For more information about Pikelet Workshop you can find them on Facebook, or pop over to Jen's blog and read all about Jen's adventures of an Aussie family living in Toronto, Canada......Oh I forgot to mention that, Jen is from Perth, West Australia, where all the talented crafters come from in Oz!!

Just to let you know this is not a sponsored post....I truly love Jen's work and it is too beautiful not to share, so stop by and say hi to Jen, and tell her that Vicki @ dover & madden sent you, and when you're thinking of gifts think hand made first.


cheerio,

Day 2....Something New

Something new.....my quilt.  Something also new, but old at the same time...vintage christmas decorations purchased online from Etsy.


#FMS photoaday
Taken at 11.33am 31st Dec 2012

See You On The Flip Side

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings to you all.  See you around the 27th.

Image courtesy of Lettres d'un Inconnu .  More info on that after my first letter from a stranger arrives.



Vic x

Thank You....

Popping by to wish you and your loved ones a very Happy Holiday Season........Thank you for stopping by and staying around here, it's been lovely to see my little blog getting busier by the week.

As for 2013, after the tragic events of last week, I'm praying for a happier, kinder and safer year.  I live in hope.

Warmest wishes,

Vicki x

PS.  This picture above was taken in the neighbourhood of West St Kilda where I live.  It was taken very late at night, thus the darkness.  It was using a new camera lens, a 35mm 1.8 lens on a Nikon D3100 camera. There was no flash used on this image....as natural as you see it.

Time Keeps On Slipping.....

Yes indeed....where has the time gone!!  Sorry I've been missing again for a week or so, but I have had masses of work to do, knit wise and pattern design wise. My casual job has also been requesting my presence for a large part of every day so there really hasn't been much spare time at all.

Here are a few things that I finished this past week....and a new little hat pattern I'm messing around with and some beautiful grey and cream alpaca for some babies that are arriving in March 2013.....just don't know quite what to do with it yet.....and another pair of booties!!

Hope you're getting into the festive mood, and for those that celebrate.....It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!  Enjoy your week.

Oh and one final thing I forgot....a new piece of Pyrex from Vancouver Canada.....my collection is slowly growing!!

Vic x

A Christmas Message......

Wishing all of you the warmest of wishes for the Christmas and Holiday season. May you enjoy this time with your family, may you not over indulge, may you drive safely, may you stay warm if you're in the Northern part of the world, may I wish you sunshine if you're holidaying in Australia, and if you have to head out to the shops in the next 24 to 48 hours, I wish you good luck and I pray you get a great parking spot!....but seriously thank you for all your love, laughter, kind words and friendship since starting this blog and may it continue through 2012. Vicki xx 

 

To Tree or not to Tree.....

Living here on my own I always get to this time of year and wonder if it's worth putting the Christmas Tree up for me to sit and stare at for the next month or so.....the reason being....My little one bedroom apartment has become a wool storage facility first and home second, I now don't have room to house the rather large tree and it's 100's of decorations so they have been moved down to my parents place for storage in their super dooper storage facility, otherwise known as their 4 car garage that stores junk not cars!

When I purchased said Christmas Tree I really didn't think of the size of it, I was just thinking of the price....a $400 Christmas Tree purchased mid January from Kmart on sale for $50....an amazing bargain for the most beautiful life like Pine Tree, with just a hint of snow on its pine needles......The tree is about 7ft high and incredibly wide and very very big, for my teeny tiny living room.  The huge tree with its mass of decorations and lights takes ages to put up and ages to take down as each decoration gets lovingly put back in its packet or  box, or re-wrapped in tissue paper and stored in large plastic tubs....One year it stayed up till April because the job just seemed to be so massive.....I know, I know it's sort of lazy as well, but the tree was so beautiful that year it was a shame just to have it up for 30 days or so.

Anyway I figure I've got till next week to decide what to do, and it's a possible excuse to go down to my parents and test out my new camera on the beautiful Victorian coastline whilst trying to find the tree in the junk room...whoops garage!!....In the mean time a few pics of my Christmas Tree a few years back....this being my sisters, tall and skinny tree in all it's red and gold glory.....this particular year we swapped trees to see if each of our trees suited our different living spaces better.....but we both agreed in the end we preferred our own trees, so we swapped back!

So there you go.... To Tree or not to Tree? That is the question.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

My love of Christmas or Fruit Cake is nearly as big as my love of custard tarts (but that's another blog!)....A few years back I made my first forray into the world of the christmas cake....I did a lot of research....If I'm going to do something I'm going to do it properly.  I knew just one thing....I wanted the cake to be dark...I didn't want one of those light coloured fruit cakes.  It had to be rich, dark and full of fruit....The world of the fruit cake is a complicated one....some people add this, some people add that, everyone wants to tell you their recipe is the best...I looked at them all.  I asked a lot of questions and I did a hell of a lot of googling.

In the end I decided traditional was best.... I didn't want all those added extras like jam, dates, apricots, pecans....So with that in mind I ruled out a lot of the Jamie Olivers, Bill Grangers and Rachel Allens of this world as they were the worst culprits for popping in those things that I didn't want.  So I looked back to the Margaret Fultons and Delia Smiths of this world and Delia Smith won out....Raisins, currants, sultanas, peel and glace cherries....bit of brandy,sugar, butter, flour, eggs, nutmeg, all spice, lemon & orange zest, almonds and molasses for that deep rich colour....Simple.

Anyway to cut a long story short, the cake was a hit with everyone. We loved it and it was a talking point for some time.....our family is easily pleased....to think a cake kept us all happy for so long!!  The cake went into hibernation for two years....no one has had a cake as a gift since, and I've been asked many times to make some more christmas cakes so I thought I'd start early this year.

I made two this weekend.  The first one was a little over cooked....I was using an oven that was unfamiliar territory to me....it was an electric fan forced fancy thing....I'm used to a gas guzzling old clonker that I know and love and it never lets me down....anyway, the second cake is perfect....and here tis.......

I'm pretty proud of it....but here are a few photos of how it came about.

I soaked all of the fruit for 24 hours prior to making the cake, you can soak it for longer and I have but it works just as well for the shorter time.

I was pretty organised this time and measured out all the ingredients first.

I won't bore you with the details, but beat sugar and butter, slowly add the eggs until whipped light and fluffy, add the flour, fruit, almonds and molasses and lemon and orange zest. and into the tin, and then decorate with blanched almonds if you desire....I personally love the almonds on top, but some people prefer to ice their cake, not me...I hate cake icing so almonds it is....a pretty pattern is required here.

The next step is quite important...you have to line the top of the cake with silicon or baking parchment so it doesn't burn on the long slow cooking process and I also like to wrap my cake tin in brown wrapping paper so the sides of the cake are protected in the oven....reminds me of one of those dogs with the cone around his head!

Three and a half hours later....

I did cut the cake that I kept for myself....I had a sneaky piece last night with a cup of tea....it was delicious.... you can see how dark the cake is and so full of fruit....there is only 225g of flour around a cup and a bit, so not a lot of batter at all, more fruit that anything else....just how I like it.

And with a little festive ribbon it turns from a fruit cake into a christmas cake.

If you would like to make your own cake the recipe is here.  I will add fruit cakes aren't cheap to make if you buy your dried fruit from the supermarket....although I was lucky all the dried fruit was on special at Woolies.  The best thing to do is take your recipe to a market and have them measure out the exact requirements you need, then there is no wastage.... at the end of the day what are you really going to do with half a bag of mixed peel and some leftover glace cherries!!

This cake lasts forever.  You do need to keep feeding the cake, so every week you open it up from it's little bed of grease proof paper and foil and feed it....that means poke holes in it with a skewer and drizzle a bit more brandy down into the holes....keeps the cake incredibly moist and gives it that beautiful smell that is so familiar of fruit cake.

I hope you give it a go.....now the fruit mince pie, that's a challenge I want to conquer.