An Apple and Blueberry Pie cooling on the window sill

This is just for you Sarah-Jane xx

I just love that we grew oh ok, picked our own apples for these pies. And the blueberries we picked from a local producer in the summer.

Here's my recipe:

Apple and Blueberry Pie (makes 2) - because you might as well go all out while you're at it!

Shortbread crust:

3 cups plain flour

1 cup white sugar

250g soft butter

1 big egg or 2 little ones

about 1 dozen apples - mixture of sweet and tart

4 big handfuls of blueberries

2 sheets ready-made shortcrust pastry

Plonk all the crust ingredients into a bowl and get your hands in! Squish and squeeze till the mixture comes together into a ball. Divide the dough between 2 pie/tart/cake tins and press onto base and sides of tin. Set aside.

Slice up enough apples fill tins - maybe a dozen? [depends on the size of your apples] I usually use a few different varieties - sweet and tart ones. I don't even bother peeling them - more fibre, interesting texture and usually I just can't be bothered peeling a stack of apples - though in saying that I should just get out the twirly apple peeler - I think I'll do that next time.

Divide half the apples between the 2 tins, scatter over a good handful of blueberries, repeat with the remaining apples and blueberries.

Cut shortcrust pastry into strips, and lay over the filling in a lattice pattern - you can do tricky pastry weaving for the top if you want to be fancy.

Bake 180oc for 30-40 minutes or till pastry is golden brown and apples are soft.

Mmmm... delicious! It would be even better with a good dollop of whipped cream - though not so good for the thighs...

look at what landed on my lap on sunday morning...

delicious blueberry pancakes

heart shaped shortbreads

lots of lovely handmade pressies and cards from my darlings

alannah and imogen both wanted to "do stitching" for mother's day crafting - the results: a bag and embroidered rabbit picture from alannah and a pink and purple stitches embroidery from imogen [who at 3 can already thread her own needle!]

what darling girls they are x

hope you all had a lovely mother's day too xx

yes i know i haven't blogged for ages and you all are hanging out to know what's been going on...

being helpful...

being unhelpful...

renovating...

checking out reno progress...

playing with new toys...

getting towed around...

mowing the front lawn...

picking apples...

planting mama some woods...

watering baby trees...

going for big kaboomies onto sweet faces...

firing up the oven in the bakehouse...

baking our first batch of bread...

admiring our first rustic loaves...

piano playing...

hanging out in the schoolhouse...

eating freshly picked apples in your undies...

making fairy gardens...

making more fairy gardens...

mooing at the cows...

looking out the front door...

growing huge pumpkins*...

eating brekkie in bed...

more piano playing...

admiring our gorgeous new view...

*note: our pumpkin is actually the little yellow one in the background.

the huge one was grown by my uncle chris and was the winner of our pumpkin growing contest.

check out more pumpkin news on our other blog pimp your pumpkin

drumroll please...

a couple of candle-blower-outers lined up ready to go::

big blowy breathy breaths::

only one left [according to very specific stop-blowing-when-there's-only-one-left instructions]::

who could it be....

commenter number 4::

yay! Tara [and Janaya] you're the winners! I'll be posting your goodies soon...

thank you to all my lovely readers who left a comment - I've loved hearing from you - keep them coming - I hang about the computer entirely too much checking for comments actually ;)

A Bag and An Owl

1. embroidered tree bag:: a quick-I-need-to-make-a-present-right-now-and-I-only-have-an-hour-and-all-my-fabric-is-packed-away present for my darling aunty Christine [yes - it does get confusing when you are named after your aunty - we have always been known as Big Chris and Little Chris]

2. tea cup sock owl:: a gorgeous quick and super easy to follow pattern from Craft Schmaft - a pressie for my darling sis Mandy

P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway - you've only got till Sunday!

thread sketching clutterpunk style

Inspired by the lovely Gina from clutterpunk, I did some sketchy stitching on my favourite green well-fitting-but-a-tad-boring-ish skirt. I loved her birdy design so much [I do have a thing for birdies!] I was inspired by sort of copied um, pretty much copied what she did [hey when you find something good why mess with it?]
It was so much fun to do and alot easier than it looks - you really must try it out!

P.S. I'm so excited by all the lovely comments for my little giveaway! [you still have time to enter] Who knew I had that many readers!!! Thank you darlings x

STUFF UP FOR GRABS [A.K.A. GIVEAWAY]

Yes well, I know I said a couple of days but whose counting? You should know me by now.

Looky at the goodies:

~Linen tree brooch [made by moi]

~Fabric pouch with thread sketchy stuff [also made by moi]
~Mini tote bag in mushroom print canvas [and you guessed it - moi made it too]
~Antique treasures retro print fabric
~Kikki k stuff: blank notebook, gel pen, coin purse

Ok, the rules for entering:
1. Leave a comment.

That's all you need to do.

I know there are alot of you out there who have never left a comment before, but it's not hard. You just have to click on the title of the post [in red]. Right near the bottom of the page it will say "Post a comment" - click on that. A new window will pop up with a comment box, so just type in your comment, then choose your identity - you don't need a special account - just choose "Name/URL" or "Anonymous". Make sure you've told me who you are though because you may just turn out to be the winner!

I'll give you till 3pm Sunday 21st March [2ish weeks from now] then we'll do the big draw!!!

UPDATE: Here's a close up of the brooch - just for Gina x


THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED - WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON!!!

Guess Whose Birthday It Wasn't...

Ahh, the big three-oh - well not really (actually only 7 and a half due to birthday being deleted from the calendar 3 years out of 4).

It's actually not as bad as I thought - leaving the twenties. Isn't it funny how you build something up in your mind so it seems really big and scary and it turns out to be just fine! What a sook she is, I can hear you saying, it's only another year. Somehow going from 29 to 30 sounds like it's a huge jump. Like now I should grow up and act my age and stop going off with the fairies and actually do sensible grown up things like cleaning the house and ironing. Who am I kidding! Like that's gonna happen!

I got a bit spoilt today with all the lovely pressies and family and fun times. Look at all the pretty things.

 

Anyhoo since it's my not-birthday and I've got a blog that a couple of people read and I've hit the 1000-visitors mark on my hit counter (did you know I had one of those? - it's right at the bottom of the page - and I happened to look at it right when it hit 1000 and I promise I don't look at my blog ALL the time to check the meter so it can't be ALL me)

 

Where was I going with all this? Oh yes, that's right - I thought I'd do a little birthday GIVEAWAY! Yay! I've been busting to do this! I haven't worked out exactly what it's going to include - but I'm sure I can rustle up a cute little package. Check back in the next couple of days for the details.