Com-For-T. The grand opening of a new venture.

Alan, the Chef/Owner at Com-For-T has been busy in his own home for a while making Chef standard "heat-it-up-at-home" style food, which is delivered to you on a weekly basis.   So, it was nice to hear that he was opening a unit - had outgrown his home kitchen and was going to take the big step to getting a premises.

He opened that premises on Friday.

I meant to ask him if "Com-For-T" means 'come for tea' or 'comfort'.  Maybe a bit of both as good home cooking is proper comfort food isn't it?

Anyway, here is Alan, stirring his pot and looking mighty pleased with himself - although it could be relief that opening day was finally here.

He put on a wonderful array of foods for the opening event.  If you were to judge a man by his Garlic Bread then this guy is right up there, the GB was pretty delicious.

I asked him what Com-For-T was all about.....

I've been asked many times what the plans are for COM-FOR-T HQ.

We will be doing yummy breakfasts, "sandwiches" homemade soups, homemade cakes, pies, pasties,
a daily hot dish & ready meals to take home.

The plan is awesome simple delicious food on a constantly changing menu.

Then there was pizza.... and not teeny weeny portions either, proper man-sized bits.

I didn't try any of this... too busy taking photos of all the pretty offerings... and chatting, as you do.

Tipple was on offer too, well it would have been most rude not too accept a small glass of red.

I just LOVED these cute wooden spoons to eat the stew with, I didn't have any stew, but I did want a spoon, but I thought  I couldn't go stealing the guys spoons, especially on the first night  ;)

Home made tortilla chips to scoop up the stew too.

It was a lovely event, really interesting to find out Alan's future plans and I look forward to seeing him succeed.

So, if you fancy trying something different for Tea, get yourself down to Atlas Works in Denton Holme, to Com-For-T, and see what is on offer that day.

You can find and follow Alan on Facebook HERE.

How to make a Doily Angel Christmas Card

A good one for the youngsters.  Get them to make this years Christmas Cards - you get half an hours peace & quiet, they get a crafting session, all the relatives will love the cards - it's an all round win-win situation!

• So, all you need is a pack of blank cards in whatever colour, size you fancy - although probably not much smaller than 5" square or the Angel might be too big.
• A pack of paper Doilies - oh, how I used to love a doily.  Did your parents ever bring them home from parties for you to colour in the next day?  Or was that just mine?
• A metallic felt tipped pen.
• Pritt Stick
• 1cm circle punch
• 2cm circle punch
• Gold Card

Ok, so first of all take a doily. (sneak one to one side so you can colour it in later if you wish)

Section it off as shown in the photo.  I used the waves on the bottom as a guide to where to cut.

Trim off the tops of the thinner pieces so they look a little like this.

Now, grab the metallic pen, mine was gold, and colour in some bits.  You can colour it all in if you like.
(I do realise I sound like I am totally obsessed with colouring in doilies right now!!)

Do some artful colouring on all three pieces.

Next, take your card and Pritt Stick one wing to the card as shown.

Add the second wing.

Then the body part on top.  (now, I have noticed that I have gone completely skew-wiff on this - blame the wine ((it was late in the evening when I made this, not early morning, so don't worry!))

Now for the head.  Take the gold card and the 2cm circle punch and cut out a circle.

Now grab the 1cm circle punch and cut a circle out of your circle - voila!  A halo!  See, how clever are you?  (pop the small circle in your craft box, I am sure it will come in for something.)



Glue the halo to the card as shown.

Now, cut another 2cm circle - if you are lucky the gold card will be white on one side, if not you might have to go and find some white card too.
Glue that circle in place as a head, gold side down.

Draw some sleeping eyes on - or a whole face if you feel the need.  But for the artistically challenged, eyes are good enough.

And there you go.  Fun, easy, effective.  And who wouldn't love a hand-made card this year?

And below is the You Tube tutorial, set to some funky music  :)

Enjoy!

ps:  this content contains affiliated links, which basically means, if you click and buy, I might earn a couple of pennies.

Hayfield Flower Blanket - a work in progress

I started this blanket way back in July when I needed a smallish project for a trip away.

I was really enjoying making it, the pattern, once learnt, is quite easy...but, I came home, put it away and forgot about it.

I don't often buy patterns, usually I make them up as I go along, but I had stared too much at this one in a shop and thought that I would probably end up reproducing it from my head, so why not buy the pattern and give the designer the credit she/he deserves.

So, what should I do, keep it for the next trip?  Or dig it out and get it finished?

The pattern is number 7257 and you can find it on Amazon HERE if you like it.  It has the flower blanket, like I am doing in the photo, and a motif style pattern too.

I am using Stylecraft DK Yarn in a mottled green, sunshine yellow and a pinky purple shade.

Now.... where did I put it?

Button Tree art canvas

Adults like to play you know..... it's true, crafting is theraputic and allows you to relax and chill.  (As long as the craft you choose isn't too taxing on the mind of course!)

The Button Tree Canvas class I did in the summer achieved just that, a relaxing, mindful, calming couple of hours, with a nice wall art to take home at the end of it.

We started by drawing a simple brown tree, I find that being really mean with acrylic paint on the brush, and dragging it over the canvas thinly, you can create a bark like effect without any effort at all.

I also take a hair-dryer to these classes to dry of the paint before we start sticking the buttons in place.

Some people had colour schemes, look at the grey and yellow, doesn't it look great?

And some people just took the buttons that grabbed their eye and used those.

Little flowers were added at the bottom of some.

And butterflies on others...

And all the ladies had a lovely work of art to take home.  

You don't have to be an artist to make these button trees - just a little time and space to let yourself chill and create.

Try it yourself...  (ooo, did that sound a little like Neil Buchanan off Art Attack?  Whatever happened to him?)

If you fancy doing a class with me, I will be running this workshop in Brampton Community Centre on Friday 11th November 2016.  Shout out for more details.

I get by with a little help from my friends (and family!)

Often, when I am devising a new class or workshop, I need help.  Sometimes I just need something made for a photograph, other times I need samples, and most importantly, I need to test the craft out to see if it is something that non-crafters can do.

I do get people who come to my classes who want to start crafting, and we don't want to put them off by giving them something achievable do we?

So I use my friends, family, anyone who makes the mistake of visiting, as unpaid testers.

This is Hubster, doing Needlefelting for the first time.  This was a "Young Folks" class, so I thought if he can do it, they can do it.  

He managed not to stab himself too!!

(Now, if you have never stabbed yourself with a needle felting needle, don't be in a hurry to try it.  The tool is barbed, it hurts so much more on the way out than on the way in, and you usually just jab so it is out and in before you realise, and boy, does it sting..... for ages after too)

So, thankfully in this case, no blood on the felting wool.

Using a cookie cutter to protect those fingers, and to give the shape of the piece, he got to work making a duck.

Didn't he do well for a first attempt, I was rather impressed.

A couple of days later my son, Iain, came for tea  (I'm Northern, the evening meal is Tea, not Dinner as my Southern Hubster keeps insisting it is called)

And guess what?  He got a crafting job.  "Make me a dinosaur", I asked.  "No" he said.  "Then I won't have time to make your Tea", I said... so he did.

I'm thinking that this 25yr old, father-of-one is a little too pleased with his dinosaur, don't you?

He made me a fish too - Hubster made the butterfly, and I cooked Tea.  It seemed like a fair deal.

Ruby takes a swim... and hates it!

So, our big brave bullbreed Ruby (Staffy, Boxer with perhaps some Mastiff thrown in for good measure) does not live up to the bullbreed reputation at all!  In fact, I have yet to meet one that does, but Ruby is fearful of everything new... EVERYTHING.

Especially water.  She likes to drink from muddy puddles, but go paddling, swimming, no way jose!

So, when we met with friends a few weeks ago and took both of our dogs down to the local river for a walk, we were more than surprised to see Ruby venture into the water with her new friend Riley.  Knee deep she went, although only knee deep.

We wondered if it was time to show her that water is really nothing to be scared of.

I booked a half hour session at a local doggy swimming pool, called Paws to Splash and off we went, full of expectations that we would have a fully swimming dog by the end of it.

Haha.  Dream on.

It took a lot of persuasion just to get her through the door, what was she scared of?  The smell?  No idea, but she held her own and refused to budge.  Eventually, we managed to get her through a different door - she must have thought she had won that battle and trotted half way through the second door before anchoring down, but we were ready and one swift push of her bum with my knee and she was in the room.

Didn't like it, ears were down, tail was under, even the rubber duck (which she likes to decapitate usually) didn't even tempt her.

The very nice lady, who she liked very much, managed to get her onto the shelf, so only her feet were wet.  She stood there for a while, shivered and shook and was generally very unhappy with the whole experience.

A lap of the pool followed - seriously, I have never seen such an splashy, noisy, water-jumping-out-of-the-pool, swim in all my days as a dog owner.  So unladylike and very inelegant.  Paws were out to the side, little head bobbing over the waterline with eyes that switched between "I hate you" and "Please help me".

After two laps of the pool, with a rest on the shelf in-between, it was decided that she hated it so much - her heart was thumping and she was getting distressed.   We agreed it wasn't a great idea after all and after 8 minutes, we called time on the experience.

Now before you feel sorry for her, there was a lovely walk in the woods just beyond the swimming pool - she enjoyed that lots.

But Mummy, I want a Bear too....

Way back last year sometime, not sure if it was a birthday, Christmas or a Mother's Day, I bought my Mum a gift of a book - 'Knit-a-Bear'.

I also bought her bear coloured yarn, patterned yarn, stuffing, buttons so she could make herself a bear - nothing like a birthday gift that you have to make yourself is there ?  ;)

Anyway, she made herself a bear, beautiful it was, then she made my sister a bear.  Then she made my Granddaughter Hope (her Great-Granddaughter of course) a bear.  Then followed Granddaughter Ellie (still in the womb at this point) she got a bear too.

Shona had a bear, in fact the only person that didn't have a bear was me!!

I WANT A BEAR, I shouted rather loudly.

The making of said bear might have been a secret if it was not for the fact that she had not surreptitiously asked me for "bear coloured yarn" from my stash.  To be fair though, the glittery purple dress was a secret.

A little while later I was presented with my new bear, and how cute it was, with her lacy purple frock and matching hair (ear) bow.  She was just a bit too cute.

Someone else loves it too, but she's not having it - it's MY BEAR!!

(Seriously, could anyone love a bear as much as this?)

By the way, this bear book is a fab book if you are a knitter, so many very cute bears to choose from.  My sisters had dungarees on!!

You can find it over on Amazon by clicking HERE.

My YouTube Channel

I have had my YouTube channel for ages now and all I have had on it is a tutorial of how to make a paper snowflake, and a few videos of Ruby when she was a puppy.

So, time to start using it properly I think.

I have uploaded a few tutorials, just so I could get the hang of editing the photos to make a video etc.... I found a great little app called Splice by GoPro, it's really easy to use and upload - which is useful for me!

The tutorials I have just put up are step-by-step photograph ones, with some instructions along the way. I fully plan to do moving videos too, but one step at a time   :)

There are a couple of Christmas themed crafts on there, and some Kid's crafts too, would love your feedback on what you think if you have time.

Click HERE to view my channel, if you like  :)

It's been a while....

I totally feel as though I have abandoned my dear old blog...  life has just gotten so busy with Grand-babies and lots of classes, things to work on, people to see - I am sure you know how it is.

I have keep reminding myself to pop back in and write up some stuff, but then I get distracted by other things and never get it done.

To be fair, nothing much has happened to report, except the usual classes and workshops,  and I am sure you are sick of seeing those time after time - just how many times can you admire a pin-cushion?  (probably a few, but you know what I mean)

So, what have I been doing?    Well, working on lots of new ideas for classes.  I am seeing similar faces to my classes now, so need to offer something new as they are surely not going to want to repeat stuff they have already done.  This takes considerable time as I have to think something up, make it up, write it up, then plan a class around it.  It's at least a full day's work for a new 2 hour class.  But I am totally enjoying thinking of new things to teach, it keeps my brain alive!

I have also just had a hugely busy weekend working in London's Hampton Court Palace at Kirsty Allsopp's The Handmade Fair.  I thoroughly enjoyed that, but was shattered once I got home - it has taken me a few days to grab some energy back.  I will blog more about that later, as I have some photos on my phone somewhere.

So, you haven't missed an awful lot... just a bit of this, a bit of that and a bit of the other.  But I hope to be back up to speed soon, bear with me   :)