Lullaby Lodge

Black Park Country Park in Wexham boasts over 10 miles of wood and heath land, tracks and trails.  Best of all, at this time of year is the delightful reindeer trail, situated along the lake path.  The lake was partially frozen from the cold spell we have had and little T enjoyed watching the birds skating across the ice. He made a great game of trying to break through it with pebbles... As we walked around the lake we came upon all of Santa's 8 reindeer one by one.  Reminding me of Clement C Moore's poem... "More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled and shouted and called them by name: Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now Prancer and Vixen. On Comet! On Cupid! On Donner and Blitzen!" But where is Santa's favourite reindeer?  We hadn't seen him yet...  We stopped for a while at the adventure playground until little T had played to his hearts content and then popped into the cafe for a well deserved bacon sandwich and cup

So getting in the Halloween mood, today we had Zombie Meatloaf with Mashed Brains for lunch. We used this fantastic meatloaf recipe by Chef John of Food Wishes and you can watch how to make it here I think our zombie may need the dentist! For the Mashed Brains... Simply boil up a few potatoes with some beetroot and mash.  Add a little cream, a nob of butter and season with a pinch of salt.  Totally gruesome! x

It is always a really exciting time for me when I get commissioned to make a new blanket.  Especially when asked to make one in Cath Kidston inspired colours.  I have always loved her gorgeous fabrics, stunning colour combinations and the vintage feel to her designs.  So here is my Vintage Granny Flower blanket... For this blanket I have used Stylecraft Special Aran and a 5 mm hook.  The blanket measures approximately 110 x 110 cm. Colours used: Pomegranate,  Fondant,  Baby Pink,  Lemon,  Meadow,  Cloud Blue and  Cream. I started by making the flowers.  I don't use a pattern for this but there are many available on the internet as it is just a simple granny flower design.  I just love this combination of colours.  These are my happy colours! Once all the flowers were finished I worked a couple of rounds in Cream, to make them into squares.   The squares were then joined with Cloud Blue.  I used the continuous join as you go method.  You c

Hello lovely people.  Well it just feels like summer again here.  The last few days have been gloriously warm.  I spent the whole day yesterday with little T at our allotment garden.  It was so lovely to just sit and watch the bees buzzing around and listen to the birds singing.  There is nothing more beautiful than the sound of British bird song.  We got quite a bit of work done too, dug up some more potatoes, a bit of weeding, harvested all of our corn (something had totally stripped a few of the cobs, rats maybe?  So thought it had better be harvested before they got the lot).  Little T planted some cabbage and Kale seedlings and some onions and garlic in his garden too... We harvested our largest pumpkin last week even though it wasn't completely ripe (something had been nibbling it).  It was quite a beauty we tried to weigh it and got an EEEE message, too heavy for the kitchen scales.  Tried the bathroom ones next and it came in at just over 2 stone.  Not bad for our firs

Well hello everyone.  It's been a long time again (I know I promised).  This year has just been super busy.  Lot's of blankets selling in my shop and lot's of time spent in our allotment garden.   It has been amazing having a green space for little T to play outside in and also a great bonus being able to eat what we have been growing...  Which to be completely honest, was mostly courgettes (zucchini to those of you across the pond).   Apparently 4 courgette plants is enough to keep a large family going all summer.  We had 11.  Suffice it to say they were coming out of our ears... and they are still growing.  We have had them roasted, stir fried, steamed, we have had courgette soup, courgette pasta, courgette risotto, courgette pizza, courgette fritatta, courgette bread, courgette cake and far too many other things to list.  I even tried making jam with them (it was OK...but not the greatest jam I have ever made). The potatoes also did really well.  I still

Hello everyone.  I must start this post with an apology for being away for so long...  I have been caught up with my Facebook page (I try to post daily there...) and have also been super busy with blanket orders.  I thought it was about time I shared with you all, some of the things I have been up to over the last few months... Now that the weather is warming up, little T and I have been spending more and more time at our allotment.  We even have some plants growing there now.  It's so exciting.  I cannot tell you how happy it makes me feel just being there and watching my "piece of earth" changing from a bare patch to something green and growing.  You can see the photos I took when we first got our allotment in this post  here ... We have an amazing neighbour who has been very kind and helpful, who generously gave us some onion sets, broad beans, strawberry runners and some rhubarb plants from his plot.  We planted them late last year when we first moved in and

Over the last week I have been busy again making more baby blankets.  I love to sit in the evenings watching telly with a nice cup of tea and some crochet on my lap.  Making blankets this time of the year certainly keeps you cosy. The design for this blanket is simply  4 popcorn flower squares joined together and you then continue with rounds of granny clusters, until you get to the size that you want. I then worked an even more simple border of single crochets and chains... I have used a mixture of Stylecraft and Woolcraft yarns.  Both are incredibly soft with good stitch definition and make lovely squishy blankets. Baby pink, Fondant and White Of course I can never stop at just one... Peach, Coral and White Walnut, Fawn and Cream Available now in both my Ebay and Etsy stores.  10% of the sale price of all Lullaby Blankets will be going to the MS Society when purchased via Ebay.  My sister has suffered from this life destr