Victorian Christmas Market, Fairies in a garden, Gingerbread Men & Blackberry Ice cream Recipe

I shall do my little rant, and then I will get onto the nice things.......

Oh !!!what a week last week was, it started of awful with my big PC having the black screen of death , and me thinking, as was DH that the motherboard had blown. Bless him he lent me his, but oh it was so slow and glitchy, and it just wouldn't let me do all the things that I love doing, like making cross stitch patterns, and it also didn't have my Paint Shop pro so I couldn't get and do anything graphics wise. It took me nearly quarter of an hour just to open each email. Nightmare.

However, DH after finding out that microsoft had issued a couple of security patches which some people in the techie world thought were not good, and gave people black screens of death, he decided to ring them, and try and get the PC sorted(but it wasn't that). To cut a long story short he played around with the workings of the PC, and discovered that 2 sticks of memory which he upgraded my PC with some weeks ago, had blown their solder completely off.

Now my PC Lives again !!! and I am over the moon.

What a clever hubby I have.

Then to top it all my 13yr old Stuart was riding home ,on the pavement luckily, an he caught his foot under his bike wheel which made him fall off, and parts of his bike and his glasses went into him whilst skidding along on his face, and shoulder. Luckily he was not badly hurt, just bruised, and grazed badly with a black eye. He had the day off school on Friday to recuperate, and to go and get new glasses, as he can't see too well without.

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Friday morning we woke up to a heavy frost. I went out to help clear the car, and DH's lorry off before work. This was the heavy frost we had glaze the whole of the car.

On Sunday was my wedding anniversary, and I had thought since last week when we went for a little ride in the country that I would like to go to a Victorian Christmas Market which was to be held on Sunday at a little village which nestles within the rolling hills and dales of the Devon Countryside fairly near to where I live. The village is called Stoke in Teignhead, and is like one of those typical chocolate box villages which you see of Devon.

We had a leisurely breakfast, and then went slowly driving down the narrow country lanes. When we arrived in the village there were many cars parked all along every road that you could see. We managed to park, and walked back to the village hall, which was a very new building, but on an old design in keeping with the village architecture.

Inside the village hall there were tombolas for Christmas hampers, wines, and lovely gourmet things..... stalls which were selling small gifts which were very nice presents for stockings, home made preserves & pickles, handmade cushions made from Sari silks, speciality fireworks, and much much more to mention. Some of the ladies attempted to dress in Victorian dress, but not very successfully, however I did find one man who had tried. His photo is below, stood very proud in his bowler hat.

Outside was a man selling Hot roasted chestnuts, a stall where a man was selling hot spit roasted pork which could be eaten in a roll. There were stalls of locally produced wines, and beers, of Barbecued Choritzo and pickled garlic, and a butchery stall where you could buy locally produced meats; sausages of every flavour, some made of pork, and some of venison.

The stall that I made a beeline for was a very Christmassy feeling stall with all sorts of trifles, the pictures of which are below.

Needless to say a lady just has to buy something for her stash, so hubby bought me two reels of the braid that was for sale on this stall.

This was a Stitchery of an Angel which I made into a small quilted picture, and a pendibule which I made for a dear friend Margaret in Australia. I can addthis now as she has now received it.

Going back a day to Saturday after shopping I had the cooking bug, and I made some Gingerbread men and ladies which I yet have to decorate, and I also made a Carrot cake which for some reason this time turned out a bit heavy.

On Sunday I made some delicious ice cream from blackberries which I had gathered in the summer and had frozen.

This is the Recipe

Blackberry Ice cream

250g (8.75oz) Berries defrosted, or fresh

125g(4.5oz) granulated sugar

I tablespoon lime juice

200cc(7floz) cream ( whipping or double)

100cc(3.5fl.oz) whole milk

Clean the berries, or defrost completely. Puree the Berries,with the sugar and the lime juice. Pour the milk and the cream into the mixture. Make sure that the ingredients are thoroughly mixed.Pour into an Ice cream machine that is switched to firm setting and leave to churn for 40-45 mins.If you don't have an Ice cream machine, put in the fast freeze part of your freezer in a suitable container, and mix with a fork every 2 hrs to break down the ice crystals.

Enjoy!!!!!

A Rummage in the Attic, a Finish, and a Giveaway

Thank you to all the ladies who posted a message to my blog last time. All messages are greatly appreciated. To those of you who just come to have a quick peek, just say Hi, I would love to hear from you.

As you can see from the picture above, I have been buying yet more stash. The pattern that you see I bought online on Saturday from a site that is new to me. The lady who owns it is called Fee, and I think, but wouldn't be sure is a fairly new designer. If you click on her name it will take you to her site. The site is a bit strange in the fact that when you get to the site you need to scroll down to see what you have clicked on, after choosing what you want to look at.

I really fell in love with her little star and thought it quite different to the normal patterns for Christmas.

The Hardanger was a snip on Ebay, and the two reels of heavy Braid are what I found when I visited our local recycling centre. I was amazed that anyone should throw that away. All they charged me was £1 for the two reels.

The Stef Francis thread is gorgeous, and I am going to use it to embellish ornaments at Christmas. If you click on her name that I've highlighted it takes you to her website for the most gorgeous of stitching threads, silks, linen thread, hand dyed threads etc., which you can buy online much more cheaply than through retailers.

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I have been driven mad for a while now wanting to find a Deighton's book of patterns that I had bought back at the beginning of the 90's. After turning out every conceivable drawer and cupboard I tuck things into, and still not being able to find it, I decided that it must still be in a box in the attic which I hadn't sorted out when we moved to this house 7 years ago. Much as I hate heights, I endeavoured to climb the ladder into the attic, I just couldn't believe all the boxes of stuff I had made my poor suffering husband Phil, put up in the attic. I sorted through kids toys ,to wallpaper, to boxes of pottery and porcelain, records, and you name it it was there, but no pattern book. I knew exactly what things it was with too. Eventually after turning much rubbish out I was ready to get out of the attic, and frustratedly said to my husband well I expect it is staring me in the face but I can't find it. I just turned to get on the ladder, and it was there right in front of me. It would have hit me in the face getting in the attic if it could have done. So now I am happy, and can do some Italian Quilting..... I believe some people call it Trapunto.


Another treasure I want to share with you is from my childhood. Whilst in the attic I found a little book that my Granny gave to me, as I was sooo into books, fairies and poetry. Alas, I have found out that the little book would have been worth about £250 today "if", I hadn't have drawn dear little pictures above each poem. The book is a first edition of Rose Fyleman's " The Fairy Green". The little book was printed in 1919. Here is a pic of the book and one of my favourite poems from it. I don't care of the value it would have been. Memories of childhood, and the love of a Granny mean more than money to me.

The Fairy Green

Upon the magic green I stood

within the fairy ring,

Close to the little rustling wood

Where fairies always sing.

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I was a little bit afraid,

I kept my eyes shut tight,

While all around they danced and played-

I felt the shining light.

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Nearer and nearer still they came,

They touched my dress and hair;

They called me softly by my name;

I heard them everywhere.

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I never moved, I never spoke

(oh,but my heart beat fast),

And so the little fairy folk

All went away at last.

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To-morrow I shall go again

And seek the magic place,

I shall not be so foolish then,

I shall not hide my face.

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But I shall stay for hours and hours

Until the daylight ends,

And we shall dance among the flowers

and be the greatest friends.

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And I shall learn their fairy song;

And when I come away,

Shall dream of it the whole night long

And sing it every day.

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Giveaway

Whilst searching I came across a cross stitch pattern that I know I will never stitch, as it was when I used to be interested in all things mystical. So I have decided to do a giveaway. If anyone who would like to have the pattern ,put your email address on a message at the bottom of this posting, and then I will put all the names into a Randomiser so that the giveaway is fair. I will do the drawing of the names on Sunday 13th September, and post out the following day.

This is the pic of the pattern, click pic to enlarge:

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My Latest Finish

Unfortunately I had to take the pic through the glass of the picture frame, so if things look a bit cloudy you will know why.

And this is a little stitchery treasure pod I made whilst watching TV