Nanny Bunty's Tablet

As I mentioned in my earlier post about Burns Night I made some tablet. Well today I want to share the recipe with you!

I was a bit nervous about making this as I knew toffee could be tricky, this however was surprisingly easy! The first thing I did was call my nanny Bunty as she always used to make it when I was little! She was thrilled to be passing on the recipe and was keen to hear how it turned out.

Ingredients:

2lb sugar

1 tin of condensed milk

2 tbsp golden syrup

2oz butter

7floz milk

2tsp vanilla

Method:

Put all ingredients in a heavy bottomed pan

Stir it together

Bring to the boil for 15-16 mins

Keep storing to stop it sticking

Prepare a  large baking tray

Remove pan from heat and let stand for 5 mins

Add vanilla

Beat mixture for 5 mins

Pour into tray

Leave overnight to set

Cut into squares

And that's it, really easy and super tasty! 

Linking up today with  Tami's blog
Friday - Creative Friday
Saturday - Weekend Wrapup
                Show and Tell Saturday
                Lovely Crafty Weekend
                Strut Your Stuff
Sunday - Sunday Showcase Party
               Think Pink
               Homemaker on a dime
               Linky Party Sunday
Monday - Motivate Me
                Craft
Tuesday - Too Cute Tuesday
               one project at a time

Wip Wednesday #30

Hello!

Hope you are all well! I have been having a good week so far, been to my knitting group on Monday and then out with girls for a couple of drink last night! The rest of the week is looking good too, tomorrow I'm off to see Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour!!!!!!!!! I am super excited about this! There may be a blog post in the future entirely dedicated to this!

Ok so on to the knitting...

I'm afraid I have abandoned the tie top and the baby blanket for now and really just have one thing I am working on and that's the Baby Yoda

First (and only) Wip - Baby Yoda

Although it is growing it's unfortunately not very exciting as far as wips go. I am hoping this will make it a much more exciting Fo... watch this space...

Well that's it for me today, linking up with Tami

 Show off your stuff party
 Yarn along

Burns supper party

As I have mentioned once or twice we were celebrating Burns night at the weekend. This is something the husband and I have done for years, ironically its not something we did much when we lived in Scotland but since we moved to England we haven't missed a year. Usually its a low key affair, just the husband, me and some haggis. This year though we invited some friends to help us celebrate. This meant that on Saturday we were expecting 10 people (6 adults, 3 babies) so there was lots of planning to do.

I wanted to make sure the place felt a bit Scottish and the atmosphere was perfect. I knew the food would be ok but the decorations could be tricky. The first thing I did was look to pinterest for some ideas and thankfully I was not disappointed! The main thing really was tartan and thankfully I had some ribbon and a scarf that I thought would work. I decided that if I had plain red napkins i could tie the cutlery together with the ribbon and it would look quite effective. 

I was quite pleased with the result. I used the ribbon for a couple of other touches but I'll show you them later. Now onto the food. Husband always does the haggis, neeps and tatties so I got to do the fun stuff. I decided I would make some tablet. I thought we could have some before haggis and then I could give everyone some to take home. Although I have eaten tablet since being a little girl and I used to help by Nanny make it, its not something I had ever made as an adult. So I rang my Nanny and got the recipe and set to work. It was surprisingly easy to make and the result was fab.

I tied little bundles together with ribbon for our guests to take home. I think they look pretty cute!

Next I made the pudding, I wanted this to be a traditional Scottish desert so I chose Cranachan. Again this was quite simple to make but very tasty and looked pretty good too!

I had told our guests that the dress code was tartan but then had the problem that I didn't have anything tartan myself except for some shoes

However, I think Angus more than made up for me

Husband also has his own kilt and I managed to get this very sweet photo of  him and Angus together in their kilts 

And here is the table all set. I used my tartan scarf as a table runner and I think it worked really well. I was really happy with the overall look.

We had a lovely time and hopefully shared a piece of Scotland with our friends. I will blog later in the week with recipes for the tablet and the Cranachan, so look out for those.

Thanks for stopping by

4/52

 

 "A portrait of my son, once a week every week in 2014" 

Angus loves books, here he is reading to his teddy! 

Joining up with the 52 project

Happy burns night!

The day of our party has arrived! As usual there is still lots to do, I'm at work this morning and Angus has swimming with daddy, but then after lunch it's all systems go! I have done some prep and the house is tidy but there are still some finishing touches to do! 

I can't wait to celebrate with my English friends and introduce them to a bit of haggis! If you are doing anything for Burns night I'd love to hear about it! 

I'll be posting about the party later in the week and I even have some recipes to share with you! 

Happy weekend!

Fo Friday - Not another hat

As the title may suggest this weeks finished object is another bobble hat! Ever since I made this hat for Angus he has received compliments on it and several of his friends mummy's have asked if I would make one for them! The pattern is really simple and quick so I don't mind at all but I do think this is the last one... for this year anyway!

So this one was for Angus' friend Elliott who wanted it in a bright blue

And here is Elliott modelling his hat 

As I said it was a quick simple knit and I'm almost certainly going to make more.

Well that's it for me today, I'm off to get ready for our Burns party tomorrow!

Linking up today with  Tami's blog
Friday - Creative Friday
             Fiber Arts Friday
Saturday - Weekend Wrapup
                Show and Tell Saturday
                Lovely Crafty Weekend
                Link Your Stuff
                Strut Your Stuff
Sunday - Sunday Showcase Party
               Think Pink
               Homemaker on a dime
               Linky Party Sunday
Monday - Motivate Me
                Craft
Tuesday - Too Cute Tuesday
               one project at a time

Wip Wednesday #29

Happy hump day!

It's been an ok week here, illness has finally left our house but unfortunately has left me feeling a bit flat, new to find the spring in my step again! Hopefully it will return for the weekend as we are having a Burns party (post to follow!) and I want it to be a good one! 

Anyway onto the wips

First Wip - Tie top

Still in progress, I'm hoping to have the back finished soon, so watch this space...

Second Wip - Baby Blanket

Nothing new to report I afraid.

Third Wip - Baby Yoda

Don't let the title fool you, I'm not actually making a baby Yoda (much to the husbands disappointment) It's actually a little baby jacket! I have a couple of friends who are expecting in the next couple if months so thought I had best get started.

Not much to see at this point but I'm using some lovely Debbie bliss Eco baby yarn in a lovely yellow. My friends don't know what they are having so I decided on a safe yellow, also they are due around spring and yellow just says spring to me! 

Well that's it for me today, linking up with Tami
 Show off your stuff party
 Yarn along

3/52

"A portrait of my son, once a week every week in 2014" 

Angus this morning eating toast sitting at the table like a big boy

Joining up with the 52 project

Finger painting

Angus has been poorly this week, unfortunately it has meant we have been housebound for several days (he's quite contagious!) So after a couple of days it was getting harder to entertain him when I was browsing through Pinterest and came across this recipe for edible finger paint, which I pinned ages ago.

So I decided to throw caution to the wind and just do it! How much mess could it be?!

Actually not only was this super simple to make but really easy to clean up! I had put down some bin bags but even then I was so surprised how unmessy the whole process was! Angus also had a fab time, he was so impressed with his pictures he kept going to where they were drying and pointing to them! Super cute! 

I plan to cut up 5 of the pictures so we can send them as thank yous for Christmas presents. The other one I am going to keep put the date on it and start a file of Angus' art work! 

Have you done anything fun with your little ones recently, I'd love to hear about it if you have! 

Happy weekend! X

Fo Friday - The SOS sweater

As the title may suggest this sweater wasn't always easy, you may remember my post back in September.
Well I found a pattern and quickly set to work so that the sweater would be ready for Angus for Christmas! Well this sweater seemed to be cursed from the start, I'm not sure what went wrong but I had to restart it twice which is never good! Anyway I managed to get all the sections knitted and was really pleased with how it was shaping up! Then came the tricky part, putting it together. I have only ever picked up stitches once (here) and it was quite some time ago so I was slightly nervous. However, I was amazed at not only how easy I found it but how neat it looked! Great I thought hard part done now to see it up! That's when I realised...I only gone and attached one of the arms the wrong way round. I was gutted, I have mentioned before I'm not the best at unpicking and was really worried I was going to loose the whole sweater (I'm dramatic, I know!) bu with some very careful and slow work I was able to unpick, save all my stitches an reattach the arm the right way round! I have never been so relieved!!
So without further ado here it is

 And of course one of Angus in it

What have you been making? Hope it was an easier affair than mine! 

Linking up today with  Tami's blog
Friday - Creative Friday
             Fiber Arts Friday
Saturday - Weekend Wrapup
                Show and Tell Saturday
                Lovely Crafty Weekend
                Link Your Stuff
                Strut Your Stuff
Sunday - Sunday Showcase Party
               Think Pink
               Homemaker on a dime
               Linky Party Sunday
Monday - Motivate Me
                Craft
Tuesday - Too Cute Tuesday
               one project at a time

2/52

"A portrait of my son, once a week every week in 2014"

Thumb in mouth and full of thought, a rare pause for Angus!

 Joining up with the 52 project

Sunday...

This pretty much sums up our Sunday, chilled out and enjoying a hot drink with friends! (Oh how cute is the baby mug they gave Angus?!)

Hope you've also had a relaxing, chilled out Sunday!

Fo Friday

A bear for Angus

This is the first knitted toy I have made and I have to say in quite pleased with it! I did make a mistake with the head and had to start again but after that it was a really quick, easy knit. It's all in lovely garter stitch, I used a merino wool as I wanted it to be nice and soft for Angus, it also happened that I had two balls in my stash that I didn't know what to do with. They were a gift but only 100g each and two different colours, but they were perfect for this bear! The pattern I used was a Debbie Bliss one which you can find on Pinterest. The only thing I found a bit tricky was sewing it together but I'm sure that will just take practise.

Angus seemed quite pleased with it on Christmas morning 

I will definitely be making more knitted toys! 

Linking up today with Tami's blog
Friday - Creative Friday
             Fiber Arts Friday
Saturday - Weekend Wrapup
                Show and Tell Saturday
                Lovely Crafty Weekend
                Link Your Stuff
                Strut Your Stuff
Sunday - Sunday Showcase Party
               Think Pink
               Homemaker on a dime
               Linky Party Sunday
Monday - Motivate Me
                Craft
Tuesday - Too Cute Tuesday
               one project at a time

1/52..

"A portrait of my son, once a week, every week, in 2014" 

This is Angus: 15 months

Today is the first day he has worn Wellies! They have Thomas the tank engine on                 them, his current favourite! 

Joining up with the 52 project

That time of the week again...

Sunday night is alway movie night in our house, for us a perfect way to end what is often a busy weekend! This weekend was no different but it was a great weekend! Although I was at work on Saturday morning we still managed to visit some friends in the afternoon and pick up my new glasses. We had a lovely time with our friends they have a son who is 6 so quite a bit older than Angus but it was lovely watching them play together, Angus desperately trying to do the same things as Isaac and Isaac being so patient with him. It was just nice to catch up after the mayhem that is Christmas!

I was also really pleased with my new glasses, I've gone for a totally different pair than normal but I love them! 

What do you think?

Today was a day I dread, taking down the decorations. I love putting them up but taking them down is so depressing and the room always feels so bare afterwards. Luckily I didn't have long to think about this as we had some more friends popping in to see us for a coffee. These are friends from back home who we don't get to see very often so it was great to see them today. 

The husband and I are very lucky with our friends we have some real gems!

The rest of the day was just spent playing with Angus and his new toys. I didn't get in the kitchen much this weekend but that's ok as we are still eating our way through the Christmas stock! I did start a new knitting project, a little hat for one of Angus' friends, more about that on Wednesday though! 

Well I hope you have all had a good weekend too, I'd love to hear what you've been up to! Hopefully the rest of my weekends this year will be as good! 

Some thoughts for the day

With it being the new year and there being a lot of talk around reflection, plans, resolutions and the like, I have been thinking about my little blog. In the last couple of years I have been quite sporadic with it. I love my blog but carving out time is a challenge, however I see lots of other busy, working mums manage to find the time so really feel like I should too! I feel like part of my problem is that I wasn't really knitting that much so felt like I didn't have a lot to blog about. I think this mind set needs to change, there are lots of things I would like to blog about but feel I can't as the title of my blog has pigeon holed me. So I'm thinking, a sub title or maybe just writing about what I want and not worrying too much about it!

Either way I hope to see you all a lot more in the new year!

Happy blogging x

2014

I hope you have had a wonderful festive period!

 I used to feel a bit blue at New Year, all the excitement was over, just a long winter to look forward to. A few years ago I decided this mindset needed to change so I started making plans and list of things I wanted to do in the new year. I now feel much more positive around this time. Today I would like to share with you some of my plans and thoughts about the next year

             Read 2 books a month

            Finish 12 knitting projects 

                 Drink more water

             Exercise twice a week

                    Save money

               Go back to church

                    Get a tattoo

                     Grow nails

     Make proper meal/ shopping plans

                 Go outside more

             Make Christmas cards

            Finish France scrapbook

                Do a weekly bake

              Learn something new

                  Go to bed early

               Reinstate date night 

                         Travel

These are just a few thoughts, I'm sure I'll have more in the next few days. I have also been pinning some thoughts and ideas on Pinterest so feel free to check that out too! 

I would love to know what your plans are for the year!

Also linking up with the lovely Sophie over at http://herlibraryadventures.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/thirty-fabulous-fun-goals-for-2014.html?m=1

Happy new year! X