Baby, it's cold outside...

The snow came down as forecast and all is pretty for the time being.

It's clinging to the plants in the garden making it all very festive out there.

I know where I'd rather be...

...my house is looking all twinkly and warm.

With a few added splashes of colour this year, courtesy of Habitat. They had some wonderful Christmas decorations, as usual. These pick out all the colours of my glass bunting that I made a couple of years ago.

Including this beaded light curtain that I had hankered for then finally purchased at sale price two whole weeks before Christmas! It was meant to be mine. Thank you, Universe!

For the teenager in the house, there is the perfect bauble.

And for when cooking for 21 - yes, that's right, 21 - on Christmas Day, one for me!

Dino boys...

On one of my excursions around Ravelry, I came across Owlishly. I fell in love at first sight!

I knew 2 boys who would love Luke in the Dinosaur Suit for Christmas.

Both made from yarn from my stash. In different colours so they don't get muddled up, of course!

I know the boys are going to love them! When they visit, they go round my house collecting up all my hand-made things to show me!

I'm developing quite a passion for dinosaur crochet...

A spectrum from my stash...

Ever since I bought this book, I always wanted to make this pencil roll.

Being new to quilting though, I didn't really have enough suitable fabrics to make it without buying each coloured piece specifically. Now that I have been buying fabrics for various different quilts and other projects, my stash has grown and yielded the requirements for this project.

Then I found some bargain pencils in the summer sale...

...and a linen jacket being put in the charity shop bag round at my Mum's...

...and I was in business.

I found some gorgeous ribbon here...

...then raided my button stash...

...decided to use bright pink thread for my top-stitching (do you see how wonky my stitching is?!)...

...and I have made not one...




...but two pencil rolls for two little girls for Christmas.

Make a selection...

Sorry for being a spoilsport! I kinda forgot to show what arrived after I wrote this post!

Some of you guessed it! It was made in 1962 so is older than I am by 5 years!




It used to cost 10p a go, but I've got it on freeplay cos I'm generous like that!

There is something for everyone - how about a bit of Dusty?

Or David Bowie?

Make your selection - the buttons have a nostalgic twang to them.

May I present my Juke Box:

My Dad bought it for my Mum's 40th birthday - I remember it coming in the house to wide eyes! It seems to fit perfectly into my living room - as though the space was just waiting to be filled.

It's all about the pompom fringe...

I was powerless to resist such gorgeousness.

Such colours.

That went perfectly with a bag of scraps I had from my nieces quilts.

So, here we have three cushions for three girls.

For Jasmine - simple 2" squares.

For Rio - my first log cabin.

For Tia - 4 log cabins!

All made with a simple envelope back because I hate putting zips in.

Remember this?

My job for today is to sort this lot out!

I couldn't have one without the others...

Another slice of watermelon...

My third and final Christmas quilt is finished and ready for wrapping. I actually finished this a couple of weeks ago - I spent the whole of the first week I was out of hospital hand-quilting it. A nice recuperative job for me to do to aid the healing process. This one is for my middle niece, Rio, who shares a bedroom with Tia so it was important that their quilts went together. Some of the fabrics are the same, but each quilt has some some exclusive to it too.

I used a bright pink gingham for the backing that I originally bought for this quilt because it looked red when I bought it online! Then I spotted the zingy lime binding on a trip to Liberty.

Seeing these three quilts neatly folded is giving me untold joy at the moment. Only equalled by the stacks of fabrics for my next two quilts that I will be starting as soon as Christmas is over.

It is a simple brick-path quilt, probably the easiest quilt I have made so far. I found the pattern here. The light in November was dreadful for photographing this quilt so apologies for terrible photos...

I love the lines of hand-quilting, either side of the seams.

Of course, there were lots of scraps left over so the girls are going to have a little co-ordinating something to have too... I'll show you those tomorrow!

Cupcakes...

I've been making cupcakes for... oh, years, certainly with a passion since Nigella brought out Domestic Goddess. Over the past couple of years though, they have become more and more popular and so I have been searching for the ultimate cupcake recipe.

I think I may have the right combination at last. My cookery book shelf is groaning under the weight of books - a lot of which I have bought just for the cupcake recipe.

I used Nigella's recipe for many years but always hated that little bump in the middle that they always made (why? The bump, not my dislike of it!). I used to cut it off in the days when I used royal icing so as to get a nice flat top.

Earlier this year I bought the Hummingbird Bakery book and made their cupcakes several times with mixed results. Sometimes, they would spill out of their cases and no matter how carefully I tried to put the same amount in each case, they would vary enormously. Although to be fair this could easily be disguised by the frosting, using more or less to get a uniform plateful of cakes.

I raved about this book in this post and now tried out the cupcake recipe. It is a winner! It is a generous recipe and the mixture does exactly what you'd hope - rise nicely and evenly. The cakes are just the right density (I think) and come out of their cases in one piece. First I tried the lemon cupcakes with the lemon buttercream. They were delicious but the buttercream was a little thick for my liking and difficult to spread.

I love the frosting from the Hummingbird book. It is light and frothy, not too sickly, and with the addition of a little milk and 5 minutes (I set my timer) of beating, easy to spread or pipe on.

So, for my second attempt, I used the coffee cupcake recipe from the Primrose book but with a coffee frosting from the Hummingbird book. I believe I may have cracked it! They were absolutely scrummy!

As a finishing flourish, I grated on some coffee chocolate but have my eye on some chocolate coffee beans. I think they'd look great in the dark brown cases too.

I think I will make some Christmas cupcakes - how about orange and cranberry?