Circus Fun

My lovely sister came up for the bank holiday weekend and after a morning of football watching  we decided to go to the allotment open day at Haigh Hall.  As soon as we walked in the children spotted the circus skills people and both went to join in (followed by me, I decided that even though all the other parents were watching from the side I really wanted to have a play as well!)  I managed to persuade my sister to join in as well although neither of us were brave enough to attempt the unicycle!  Mr T adored the diablo and spent ages getting to grips with it, really listening and persevering with it until he could do it.

I was lucky enough to be shown how to use the poi.  I have always wanted to learn and the lovely pink haired lady showed me how to do the butterfly and also explained how to make my own sock poi.  I lasted about an hour at home before I made a pair and waited impatiently for bedtime so I could have a longer turn with them!!

On Sunday morning we gave the children some money each and went to a car boot sale and guess what we spotted, a diablo!!  It was exactly the amount of money Tom had and he was so chuffed that he bought it straight away even though he had spent the last half hour walking around and agonising over the merits of a spirograph compared to Escape From Atlantis!!

The Best Banana Cake Ever!

So proud of both children, it wasn't so long ago that Mr T would go nowhere near the mixer but now will use it on his own.  And cake making is much more relaxing now they can work together instead of fighting with each other, I even managed to knit a few stitches while they mixed everything up.

The recipe is from Whats For Dinner by Fay Ripley.  It is what I would call an ordinary banana loaf recipe but with a bar of dark chocolate added (really it should be a bar and a half but I only had one in!).  I always use the Supermarket value dark chocolate for cooking now, its great and less than 40p a bar!

I know it is a bit...burned on top but for some reason I struggle to get the middle cooked before the top gets a little over brown.  No one has complained so far though!

Fuzzy Caterpillar

My parents came to stay last week to celebrate my 36th birthday.  They took the children out to a local nature reserve so that I could catch up on some work and took the pond dipping things to see if they could fish anything interesting out of the lodge.  Apparently there was "nothing" in the water except very smelly snails (!) but both children were very impressed with the fact that they found this little guy.

I really need to get us a decent spotters guide so we can identify the animals and plants we spot on our walks.

New style Wee Willie Winkie Hat

A new design I came up with for Christmas (I know its too early for the C word but this year I am trying to be a bit more prepared!).

Chocolate Raspberry Pin Cushion

Have been dying to blog about this cute crochet pin cushion but as it was destined for my lovely sister for her birthday I had to wait until she had received it.

The yarn is Rico Cotton Essentials in DK.  The pattern called for aran but I had these colours already and thought they would be just the job.  The pattern is from lulu loves and was really well written and easy to follow.

Chocolate Bread

Ok so first an apology, this recipe was sooo good the whole loaf was eaten before I could take a photo!  It's a really simple recipe from A Girl Called Jack blog, although I cheated and used my bread machine to do the hard work.

The recipe is here.  I used cold water and kept my chocolate pieces quite big as I wanted more chunks than chocolate dough.  I also didn't melt the butter, I just bunged everything into the bread machine and used the dough setting, then turned it out and baked it in the oven.  It was heavenly warm but was still really good the next day when the children were let loose on it!

Shop of the Week!

I have been lucky enough to be chosen as Shop of the Week by one of my Etsy teams.  Check out the interview here.

Pumpkin Hats

Last year I sold a lot of pumpkin hats so this year I have decided to get started early and get a few in stock ready for when people start thinking about Halloween.  I have had real trouble finding a good orange yarn so have had to settle with Double Knit and knit with two strands, a bit fiddly at first but I'm really pleased with the outcome.

Fluffy Fancy Yarn

Look what I had a play with yesterday!  Was a bit worried it would be tricky to knit with but it was lovely.  Its for a special request for a lovely photographer and I can't wait to see it being used.