The Winner of my Grow Your Blog giveaway

Hi ladies

I have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in Vicki's Grow Your Blog party, I have met many new friends and have increased my followers. The bonus is I have so many new blogs to read, it has been fun and I haven't finished visiting them all yet.

A huge thanks to Vicki for organising the party and her helpers who gave their time in making sure we got it right :)

I put 86 in the generator because I had replied twice and Tammy posted a PS.

I've used the random number generator and the number chosen is........drum roll.......................................

No 35  Thea http://gizzimomosstitchyplace.blogspot.co.uk/  so if you send me your address I can get your winning present to you.

Thank you to everyone who took part it's been a pleasure looking through your blogs

Keep safe and enjoy your weekend

Peg x

Is the half term holiday off?

No not mine, poor Mr B's, every year at half term he joins 10-14 of his climbing friends from all over Britain. They hire a beautiful cottage in Glen Co and hope the snow has compacted to ice so they can do their ice climbing. It's quite amusing, over the years they've spent their week in a rough and ready 'hut', a small cottage where it's first ones to arrive get a bed the others bunk down on the floor. Now they're all over 55 and going for the comfort factor :) this particular cottage has enough rooms, utility/drying room, 2 sitting rooms, large kitchen, it's not cheap at almost £700 but shared between all of them it isn't much.

The problem is my poor Mr B has a chest infection that is making him feel pretty rough, they sent him home from work yesterday morning. It's pretty much expected he'll be on antibiotics before the end of the week. I'm keeping everything crossed for him he really deserves this break, it's been a tough few months for him too.

I really enjoyed our main meal today, I don't eat fish much at all but decided to give it a go for once. I used cod fillets from Farm foods, not expecting them to have much taste. In all fairness it was delicious, I poached it in a small amount of milk, this is what I made for Mr B to accompany his. I really wanted to use tinned chopped toms but they're in the store cupboard and I can't reach them, Mr B was having a sleep.
I chopped up
3 medium fresh tomatoes
2 cloves Garlic
1/2 Courgette
1/2 Onion
8 Black olives
2tsps Capers
Tsp Parsley
Olive oil for cooking
Salt, pepper
Tomato purée
Boiled spuds
Spinach
Home made parsley sauce












Mine was minus the tomato concoction I don't like capers of black olives, I had the spuds, a small piece of fish and spinach and really enjoyed it. Everything was from the fridge, freezer and cupboard and it cost very little.

There was a good sized piece of fish left over so I put that in the bottom of this dish, put the remainder of the tomato mix on top, a layer of grated cheese and topped with the remaining mashed potatoes. That's in the freezer for another day, he'll perhaps enjoy it with a green salad and roasted peppers the long red ones I can't remember their name.


There was also 2 loaves made in the bread maker today, 1 white & 1 wholemeal mmm delicious.



We got up to it snowing this morning, it was very cold and wet so it didn't settle and the promised sunshine came through at lunch time for a couple of hrs.

I managed to do a little sewing today, I have a lot of blocks made up and left over from making this top.



The blocks are 9"sq so I used 5 across and 6 down I'll add a border, it will make a nice sized lap quilt, I'm hoping to get the border on tomorrow. I really love these autumnal colours and may just make a few patchwork cushion covers. I had my first dabble at FMQ yesterday on a small amount of fabric I thought I may just have a go on a cushion cover. I'll let you know whether its success or disaster lol. The quilting will be simple 'doodling, I'm not being modest honestly when my family were in the artistic queue I didn't quite get my full quota like Dad and sisters! I make matchstick men un identifiable :).

Take care

Peg x



Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

We're back to the cold, windy and very wet weather.

Hello lovely visitors, thank you for popping in despite being so busy. Continuing on from the Grow Your Blog party I've met so many lovely new blogging crafting friends. I'm really enjoying the party and a big thank you to Vicki for hosting it. Don't forget to leave a comment if you'd like to take part in my give away, there's no pressure to become a follower to take part.

It's been a bit of a busy week both on the health and crafting front, I am having tension problems again with Betsy I checked my invoice from the repair shop and according to them the machine was serviced and repaired with :
clean out hook and race
remove damage from driver
reset all timings and tension units
reassemble and lubricate

new parts:
shuttle driver/stitch cushioner

She was having a hissy fit after one seam was sewn, Heather very kindly had a look at her, but she went curly underneath threads again. Mr B suggested the obvious, why not contact the shop who carried out the repairs it was only a month ago and I haven't been sewing on her. I did and all credit to them they replied straight away and asked me to take it into the shop and they'll have a look at it for me.
These machines were the rolls royce of machines and I don't want to not use her so I need to get it sorted.

My freezer is nicely stocked with cooked chicken and chicken stock, the first lot nicely cooked now to strip and use the bones to make stock.

All the chickens yeilded 6 1/2 pts of stock, I also cooked some apricots I'd bought tinned, Co-op's own brand, they weren't very nice very sour and hard so I poached them and later add some crumble mix we had in the freezer baked it and topped with home made custard delicious.

Mr B made the first course Aubergine stack with ham, green salad and new potatoes that he had grown in tubs which we froze when harvested. Well Mr B had spuds I didn't not with having a dessert afterwards.

I managed to cut some of these and am in the process of making 4 patches using Lori's method at http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.co.uk/
 Sorry for the dark photo I took them on my iphone.

 After sewing 2 sq's together down both sides cut down the middle.

I still have more to do of these.

I have a few quilt tops to back but am suffering some unpleasant side effects from the Letrozole so am doing things when I have the energy and when the joint pain is at it's lowest. I didn't think the latter would affect me much already having arthritis, joints replaced but it has and it's not pleasant. I'm not complaining there are a lot worse off than me.

Well that's all for today, I've been popping into some of the blogs on the list for GYB still many to go but I'm enjoying meeting new people and seeing what they're about.

Thanks for popping in

Peg x

Catch Up Saturday

We've had sunshine today yeahhhhhh, after 4 solid days of torrential rain, it tried to rain earlier but the sunshine came back. Thankfully we haven't been subjected to the awful flooding some people have.

Why not pop on over to Lily's Quilts here  and showcase what you've been working on and visit others to see their creations.

Still on enforced rest I've not got a lot of quilting done  but have managed some. I've been able to finish off some socks I had on my needles,

I  made a new bed for the munchkins who are now not happy there isn't room on it for all of them so need to make a couple more. Nemo won first dibs lol

I managed to get another row added to this quilt which is now ready for the border and backing.

I love the autumnal colours in this

I treated myself this week to this little treasure,

 I need to bite the bullet and get some FMQ under my belt. I've started reading it and I'm enjoying it no complicated destructions as my grandson used to say :) Now it's time to dive in.

I've met some lovely new friends through Vicki's Grow Your Blog party and hope to do the same with this sharing. I love reading about the amazing talent out there.

Enjoy your weekend

Peg x

I'm linking with lily quilts