Reasons to be Cheerful

Reasons are few and far between at the moment. Then I saw a ravatar for a Rav member called LacyKate. It is this quote:

"Yarn will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no yarn."

What excellent sense. 

Beady Business

I finally used the beads I got in Istanbul.

The blue ones are cultured pearls and it's doubled up. The bracelet is on memory wire and is what my mum always told me were called Tigers Eye. So I feel a bit sentimental about it even though it is the most seventies looking stone I've ever seen. I used a catch on the necklace that I got at one of the Boot Fairs at the weekend. 

Isn't it sweet? It was in a packet of mixed catches. I can't help wondering what the necklaces they came off were like. I used the last few beads on stitchmarkers, along with some tiny heads from Craftacular. 

I think the cross looking one should always be used at the end of a row to show you should be getting on with the next one. 

On Twitter today there was a post about organising your buttons. I do have quite a few buttons. 

Yes, quite a few. And I am quite happy with them, but I read the post about this method and the sentence... 

"Well as much as I loved having a giant box ful it just wasn't working for me in the organized department. I had to root through looking for that perfect set only to find out I didn't have enough!"

.....really spoke to me. This is her photo from that post and on Flickr. Looks good, huh?

I can't decide whether it will be worth it as it will mean a certain amount of stitching onto cards for the loose ones. But then it will make looking at them much easier. And gloating over them. And oggling. I do love buttons. 

Speaking of Twitter, there was on online conference two nights ago which worked brilliantly (#craftsocial)! Just like the cat cafes I stupidly thought this was my idea and had discussed having a knitting one with Nickerjac about a month ago. We are going to do it so keep an eye out for that. If you're not familiar with Twitter it is very easy to use and there is a brilliantly written tutorial here (thought I say so myself)!

Crochet Button Necklace

I made one of these on Friday but am finally getting my self organised enough to post the photos. There are soooo many tutorials for these. I browsed a few before starting but basically you get some cotton, thread on the buttons then start crochet chaining.

I'm pretty pleased with it! It's hard to take a pic of yourself in a necklace so luckily SB was here to model.

I think she's looking a lot like me nowadays. I told her that and she wasn't happy.

The only downside is that it can get a bit tangly. But hey, I can untangle laceweight so I figure I'll cope.

Definitely going to make more.

Mater's Cinnamon Buns

It's tutorial tuesday. And what better than a gorgeous recipe for something warming as the weather turns colder.

These things are fricking awesome. The smell is almost as good as the taste. If you can have made bread before you won't have any trouble. If you haven't made bread before, you'll be fine. 

Ingredients

1lb strong white flour

1 level tsp salt

4tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp grated nutmeg (mum says fresh is best but life is short)

2 x 6g sachets of dried yeast

2oz caster sugar

8oz sultanas

4oz chopped glace cherries (mum's trademark)

5fl.oz. hand hot milk

1.5-2fl.oz. water

2oz melted butter

1 large egg

Glaze

2oz caster sugar

2 tbsp water

Place first 4 items in a bowl. Sprinkle in the yeast and sugar, followed by the sultanas and cherries. Add milk, water, beaten egg and butter. 

Mix into a dough.Knead for approx 6 mins until smooth and elastic. Cover loosely and leave somewhere warm until roughly doubled in size (approx 90 mins).

Press air out and shape into 12 buns on a baking tray covered in baking parchment. Cover lightly with foil and  leave to rise for another half an hour. 

Pop into hot oven (210 maybe - she uses an aga, of course) for approx 15 mins or until sound like a drum when tapped on base.

While in the oven make the glaze, then as soon as they come out brush on glaze and leave to cool. But not for tooooo long....these are absolutely delicious while fresh and still warm with some butter. Mmmmm.

And it didn't end there. She also knocked up this sponge.

The topping is marscapone based which worked exceptionally well - it tasted very fresh as well as delicious. 

The jam is home made, what else. Note also the glace cherry. I am serious - Mum rarely makes a pudding that doesn't include them somewhere!

Weekend Curiosity

This is the venue for Saturday night's dinner. 

That is Mater in the photo. It was pretty amazing which is not surprising when you consider it is owned by the family behind the Miller's Antique Guides, and is actually called 'Millers'. 

It is in Porlock, which is very pretty in itself...

... and the dining room looks out over the sea. 

Pooch was enthralled. This is a really rubbish photo which gives the impression of the just off full moon rising in the sky with the moonlight dappling the water. It was awesome, and that photo is frankly a travesty of it. 

Staying with mother is always excellent as she is a mean cook and has a cat! Artemis is the dog's when it comes to cats. 

She is pure hunter outdoors, and pure softy indoors. It's like a personality disorder. 

She also sleeps with her paw over her nose, which is unbearably cute. 

So not only cats, but also mother's cooking AND two, not just one, but two boot fairs. We don;t have boot fairs in london. No big car parks or fields. Here it seems like most farmers are dependent on renting the odd field out for boot fairs for a living. To the right....

....and to the left.

I scored a large amount of buttons which made me very happy indeed. 

That must be enough for one post so I'll wait til tomorrow to show you what Mum cooked AND share one of her classic recipes. Cinnamon buns dude. They are seriously amazing.