Babes in the Wood

 Hello again! I do hope you have been well and have been enjoying the new season. I have really been enjoying finding lots of Autumn treasures with my Little Sparkles. I am going to show you some pictures we took at Ivy Woods in the New Forest. Here we go! 

(But please don't rely on my identification on the mushrooms and toadstools - I have been a bit blasé in naming them on the basis that I have absolutely no intention of eating any of them edible or not!)

Autumn leaves. Actually this wasn't in the woods, this is the tree I can see from my garden but I wanted to show you!

A pretty dewdrop chandelier

The Blusher (Amanita rubescens)

Sharp!

Not sure what this was but it looked very pretty strung up in the trees.

Autumn textures.

Possibly a  Ruby Bolete (Boletus rubellus or Xerocomus rubellus)

Not sure what these ones were but I wouldn't have been even slightly tempted to eat these ones as they looked a bit slimey!

Babes in the Wood

Saying hello to the New Forest Pony at the end of our walk.

A silver lining.

There, I hope you enjoyed my Autumn treasure hunt. I know there hasn't been much crafty stuff on here lately but I am going to be making some lovely Halloween bits next week, so come back soon!

Amber xxx

Autumn Berry Woodland Walk

Hi all, good to see you again. I have had to put my blog on the back burner for a while but I thought I would quickly share some snaps from the little woodland area and pond that is at the bottom of the meadow nearby. We had a lovely wander and saw many signs that Autumn is on the way!

Beech Nuts.

Cow Parsley gone to seed. 

Arum maculatum, Lords and Ladies or Cuckoopint berries among Holly.

Haw Berries

Elderberries

Sweet Chestnut

Oak galls.

Lily pond.

I spotted a Moorhen that was on the other side of the pond so decided to try to get a little closer.
These are shy birds and as I approached I could see a couple young birds. The mother bird started to tell them to follow her but they didn't really want to so poor Mummy Moorhen had to squawk and tell her naughty children off!

Moorhens.

'But Muuuuuuuum! I don't want to go inside!'

Sloe Berries.

 Sloe Gin Recipe

Ingredients

• 450g/1lb sloes
• 225g/8oz caster sugar
• 1 litre/1¾ pint gin

Preparation method

1. Prick the tough skin of the sloes all over with a clean needle and put in a large sterilised jar.
2. Pour in the sugar and the gin, seal tightly and shake well.
3. Store in a cool, dark cupboard and shake every other day for a week. Then shake once a week for at least two months.
4. Strain the sloe gin through muslin into a sterilised bottle.

There are also some good tips here for making Sloe Gin.

A little Meadow Brown Butterfly enjoying the sun.

A cobweb hammock.

Wild Honeysuckle.

Rowan trees full of berries.

Autumn clouds.

I hope you enjoyed my autumnal stroll. I still have lots going on at the moment but I am sure I will get some Halloween crafts together soon!

Amber xxx

Birthdays, Blueberries and Blackberries.

 Hello again! Last week was Big Sparkles birthday and as Granny was still staying I made her a favourite, Blueberry & Banana cake, which works fantastically well with Gluten Free flour. This is a very moist cake and even more so with ordinary flour. And the best thing about it is, this is the most forgiving recipe ever. You could pretty much chuck in any quantity of each ingredient and you will still get a really scrummy cake at the end! But I will tell you the guidelines I work to for this one.

Ingredients
3 ripe bananas
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of flour
2 eggs
Stick of butter (the original recipe I had said a whole 250g block!!! But there really is no need!)
Optional blueberries - but also try chocolate chunks instead.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease your cake tin and dust with a little flour.

Sift flour, baking powder into a bowl with the sugar and butter. Cream together.

Add the eggs and bananas. Add half the blueberries. I use a hand blender to blend the blueberries into the mixture. Then add the remaining whole blueberries and pour the mix into your cake tin.

Bake for around 30 mins and when the top turns golden brown, cover with foil to prevent burning.

Bake for a further 40 minutes or so. Because this is such a moist cake it is better to do a touch test rather than a skewer test, and the cake should spring back up from a light touch when ready.

This one was still being decorated quite late at night because the paper craft Frozen characters pattern I found online seemed like a good alternative to plastic figures because all the shops had sold out of anything Frozen. Luckily Granny and Hubby were here to help!

Frozen cake complete with 5 sparkler!

But Big Sparkle loved it so that's all that matters. She had a lovely day at Longdown Farm where she got to ride a pony, and then opened some more presents after her cake.

Spot the pony.

Look at all the little sparrows in with the goats!

Name art for Emily

A while ago I had the request for a picture with roses and kittens and fairies so Emily has this picture to hang in her room now.

Blackberries!

 A couple days later we found some blackberries so we decided to pick a few and take them home. We didn't have that many (maybe 300g) so we decided to make a Blackberry Fool or Bramble Fool if you want it to sound posh.

Ingredients
400g (13oz) blackberries. We bulked ours out a bit with some strawberries (save a few for decoration).
3tbsp icing sugar
½tsp lemon juice
250ml (8fl oz) whipping cream
250ml (8fl oz) Greek yogurt (we used fruit yogurt instead).

Method
Tip the blackberries into a saucepan with the icing sugar, lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of water. Over a low heat, bring to a simmer, stirring a few times (the berries should soften but not to stew). When they start looking juicy take off the heat.
Mash lightly to squeeze out all the juice and then pour into a nylon sieve set over a bowl. Push as much fruit through the sieve as possible, squeezing out every last drop of juice so you end up with a thin purée. Cool completely.
Meanwhile, whip the cream lightly in a separate bowl (don't whip it too much as the acidity in the fruit will also help it thicken). When the cream just holds a soft peak fold through the yogurt and half of the purée, until just combined. Ripple through the remaining purée and spoon into dishes. Top with some whole blackberries and serve.

This smelled delicious!

Sieving the fruit

Add the cream and make pretty patterns. Run off with spoon.

Voila! 

This was a really yummy treat and good fun to make too! I hope you enjoy them.

That's all from me this week, see you soon!

Amber xxx

Sequin Stitches and The Very Hungry Caterpillar

 Good morning all my lovely readers! I do hope you are well. I have been recovering after my 'Choppy Neck Op' and keeping myself busy with Granny who has come to stay and help look after the Sparkles. Granny has been a wonderful help and has smartened up our garden too! Well, all except one corner... You may recall that most of my Nasturtiums perished when we went to Cornwall. The remainder have met a sad end when they became these hungry caterpillars dinner. More about these guys in a moment.

They munched their way through ten juicy leaves. But they were still hungry.

The succulents have been separated and the thug plant from the pathway has its own pot! 

Little Sparkle running an inspection to make sure all is well.

My rose, 'A Shropshire Lad' has made a bit of a comeback after all! 

A frilly tutu for a fairy perhaps?

More strawberry flowers have come out too.

And this is the Super Moon. But I think I missed it looking at its most impressive, sadly. It just looked very very bright but not particularly big. And I only took a couple photos as I think my neighbour wondered what my flash was and came out to investigate. So rather than make the situation worse and frighten him with my choppy neck I ran away and hid back inside. It was the right thing to do.

Super Moon

These are a bit more impressive though! Our lovely Sunflowers have finally bloomed.

Is this Sunflower stopping a giggle from escaping?

The tallest Red Sunflower. This one is just under 6 foot tall.

Anyway, after the desolation of the poor Nasturtiums I noticed two little caterpillars (or Cabbage Worms as they are also known) had decided the food was so good, they would go in for bed and board too.

The top pictures show Mr Fivestar inside the sun room. I'm not sure he wanted his pictures done as he was getting changed ...

And Mr Threestar is a bit more outdoorsy. The brown blob there is actually the old exoskeleton and if you look closely at the bottom right photo you can see where the wings are already forming on the sides of his body. I would love to catch them making their grand entrance as butterflies but we will have to see!

A while ago I promised to make Big Sparkle a dream catcher with real crystals. Real crystals are very exciting indeed. And so are dream catchers, so it's a winning combination.

First I wrapped ribbon around an embroidery hoop. 

Then threaded on ten different threads around the outside. Next I tied each thread to the one next to it and worked my way around until I got near the middle. (Don't knot the threads together too close to the middle, keep pulling them together at the centre to see the effect you will get.) I tied a European bead into the centre and left the threads as a tassel but you can trim them off.

Finally I added some real crystal gemstones on using a cotton thread and then tied some ribbons at the sides.

Making the Dreamcatcher

And here is the finished rainy/sunny day project, complete with a rainbow of gemstones. Why not have a go too, you could use any beads instead of crystals to add some colour.

Big Sparkle loves her new Dream Catcher.

That's all for now, I will say in advance that my blog may be a little late next week as I have some super duper amazing lovely friends coming to visit which I am very excited about! I will be back soon though and I hope you enjoy your week.

Amber xxx