Islay finds, makes and bakes...

The boy loves books

It makes me very, very happy. And not just because it keeps him quiet for up to 45 seconds at a time.

I have always loved reading. And I mean I love it, big time. I can't remember when I started reading, but I do remember my parents laughing at me for being so desperate to read something that I always knew the back of the breakfast cereal packet off by heart. I read on the bus (but not the car. Stupid motion sickness), during mealtimes (when I could get away with it) and in bed until stupid-o'clock. Everywhere and everywhen. I remember being absolutely transported by the Chronicles of Narnia, slightly terrified by The Lord of The Rings (possibly should have left that one a year or two longer...), totally entranced byThe Borrowers, and almost as happy reading Sweet Valley High. Hey, I'm a voracious reader, not a picky one (although there is a definite fantasy theme running through my most favouritest books).

One of my favourite 'grown up' books is Gormenghast. I haven't read it for a few years, but the creepy characters and Peake's amazing descriptive powers never fail to send me to a different world. My all time favourite books, however, have to be the Discworld series by the unparalleled Terry Pratchett. Fantasy and hilarity in one neat package (carried on the back of four elephants). The Discworld shelf on our bookcase is two deep (actually, most of the bookshelf is two deep) and my mother always jokes that I could recite most of them off by heart. Possibly I could.

Sadly, I have slightly less time to read now, but it makes me just as happy (well, almost) to see Teddy begin to take an interest in books. I know that there's no particular reason that he should end up the reader that I was (and will be again, no doubt. Just as soon as I can persuade Teddy to extend his reading sessions to 90 seconds or more), but I love the idea that he is getting even a taste of the kind of excitement and joy that books can bring. His current favourite is the wordless Welcome to the Zoo - I make up stories to go with the animals and visitors and Teddy provides the sound effects (including, usually, a resounding "neenaw!" for the imaginary fire engine at about page four), but he also loves being read to, particularly Hairy Maclary (I have yet to see Adam escape without reading all five stories in that book) and new favourite Great big little red train.

 

Good books

I bought both these books last week, and I am completely in love with them!

Handmade Beginnings , by the fabulously colourful Anna Maria Horner has being doing the rounds of the blog world recently, so there's not a lot new I can say about it, but I am loving the colourful quilt patterns and cute little baby goodies. Multicoloured baby trousers!

 The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making, by Jane Brocket (she of the Yarnstorm blog) is one that would have passed me by but for a review on someone else's blog (not that I can, for the life of me, remember which blog that might have been, but it was clearly a good review). The style of quilts in this book isn't one that I would normally go for, but the photography is lovely, and I have to say I'm a complete convert to her saturated quilts, with very little white space.

 I'm not a huge fan of complex quilts with no chance to catch breath between blocks, but her very simple designs in squares and rectangles give the eye something of a rest, and really allow the crazy Kaffe Fassett (and other big colourful designers) prints to shine.

In other news, I finally ordered backing fabric for the sunshine quilt, and perle cotton to quilt it with. The backing is various shades of Kona blues, which I'm going to piece in big squares and rectangles, and the quilting cotton is various shades of yellow. I cannot wait to see this quilt finished, I was literally bouncing when I ordered the backing yesterday. The top is about 60" square now, I'd like it to get to about 80"x96", but I won't beat myself up if I lose interest a bit before then.

In other other news, if you're reading this  blog in Google reader, or any of the other blog reader services, will you come and take a look at my new banner? I wanted to summerify the blog, and I'm really pleased with my new banner, and the profile photo (taken by my sister a few weeks back in Kew Gardens. I won't show you all the other photos of me sticking my tongue out, trying to get Teddy into the picture and generally avoiding having a sensible shot taken).

A little box of WIP

This is what my WIP box looks like at the moment, sitting next to my badly-in-need-of-replacing chair (Adam's mother has a rocking chair reserved at her thrift store headquarters, which I have utterly failed to pick up thus far). Glossing over the fact that I badly need to make a prettier WIP container, there's an awful lot to do there. That box (and the tupperware next to it) contain:

1. A knitted pea coat for Teddy, started during Kids' Clothes Week (the pattern is from Essential Kids by Debbie Bliss)
2. The sunshine quilt (well, parts of it. The quilt top is too big to store in that basket now, so it's upstairs in my workroom)
3. My charm quilt hexagons
4. The River Cottage Family Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and Fizz Carr (I like to have a good look through all new books before consigning them to the bookshelf - if I don't have at least a vague idea what kinds of things are in there I never take them down again)
5. Weekend Sewing , by Heather Ross (see point 4, above)
6. Somewhere out of sight there's two thirds of a pair of socks (both socks are minus their toes at the moment) that I started for my mother about three months ago. If she's lucky they'll be done just in time for a nice warm summer...

I think it's safe to say I've got too many WIPs at the moment. Particularly considering there's half a (machine) pieced quilt top and Teddy's pyjama top in my workroom as well. I generally like to have one hand sewing/knitting and one machine sewing project on the go at a time, but one thing and another has meant that I've totally exceeded this in recent weeks. I'm finding this hugely unrelaxing because it means I'm spending a lot of time making without ever getting the excitement of finishing something and seeing it in use.

I've got a couple of new projects waiting in the wings, including a couple of big week long challenges for myself (which I'm really looking forward too - all will be revealed soon), and also this calling to me from my workroom

Supplies from Kimonomomo and book from the library (but you can buy it here if you want)

Anyway, my point is that before I'm allowed to pick up that sashiko stuff or begin my monster projects, I've got to completely clear my WIP basket. I'll allow myself a bit of leeway on the charm quilt, since we all knew that wasn't going to be a quick project, but I want all the others cleared in the not-too-distant future, and definitely before anything else joins them

With that in mind, I'm off to make my sunshine quilt even bigger!

Little rituals

 Some things start out as chores, but over time they evolve into the rituals that keep me going through the daily noise, lack of plans and general lovely havoc that is my life at home with a toddler (how do people manage with big families? How? We'd better hope we feel complete at two children, because more will mean our home becoming the living embodiment of chaos).

Anyway, menu planning is one of those things. It sprung up originally as a side effect of our major budgeting drive. As I often go on about at great length may have mentioned, we take budgeting to whole new levels in this household. We live a wonderful life - Adam does a job he enjoys, I get to stay at home with Teddy and work on my crafty stuff, occasionally even making some money from it - largely because I am such a fiend when it comes to budgeting. I could go on endlessly about how much lovelier our life is than when I was commuting into London every day and earning a decent wage, but that's a story for another day and another post.

One of the results of this is that I have a whopping £167.89 per month (see, I told you I was a budgeting fiend!) to spend on all our food, which is almost entirely organic. No mean feat, but now a weekly challenge that I (dare I say it?) actually look forward to now.

Once a week, usually on a Tuesday afternoon (or evening, depending on whether Master Theodore has deigned to take a nap), I sit down and work out a menu plan for the coming week. Our food week runs Wednesday to Tuesday because our Riverford organic veg box delivery comes on Wednesday morning. One day, when we finally have the space to grow more of our own vegetables, we hopefully won't need it, but I like the way planning our food from a Wednesday divides the week up. There's too much stuff in every week to make it all happen on a Monday.

I plan our evening meals, the occasional lunch (usually lunch consists of leftovers, which take minimal planning), and the week's baking (I generally bake once or twice a week, depending on how much time/energy I have to spare). Breakfast pretty much takes care of itself - scones, toast or muffins if I've baked recently, porridge if not. You can see my beautifully divided up notepad in the image up top.

 I have a library's worth of recipe books, but my staples for recipe planning are those that are organised by seasons and/or are less structured (e.g. 'take one white fish fillet and some breadcrumbs') - makes life easier when you're eating seasonally (and once you eat decent, organic vegetables in season, you'll never go back to insipid December tomatoes). Number one resource is definitely Nigel Slater'sKitchen Diaries, but here are a few more of my weekly go to books:

1. Tender, also by Nigel Slater
2. Bake, by Rachel Allen (lots of basic goodies that you might never think to bake, like english muffins and bagels)
3. River Cottage Everyday, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. A new addition, but it's shaping up nicely
4. Jamie at Home, by Jamie Oliver. Brilliant pizza dough/topping recipes, among other ideas

I also dip in and out of our two dozen or so other recipe books, as well as regularly borrowing from the library. I've currently got The Cook and the Gardener, by Amanda Hesser, out, and it's a lovely look at seasonal eating with lots of lovely, not too expensive but tasty looking recipes scattered throughout.

(ps, apologies for the poor pics - I have to take them when I get the chance, which is often in the dark!)

A foragey book review

The lovely library has ordered in a book I've been after (I love the library. I may have mentioned this); The Forager Handbook, by Miles Irving.

I haven't read it from cover to cover yet, but a quick skim read suggests it's one of the most comprehensive foraging books I've come across so far. It not only covers most different varieties of every possible edible plant (did you know that there are three different type of sow thistle?), but gives ideas for preparation for most of them. However, it does, I think, assume a degree of knowledge on the part of the forager, as the identification drawings aren't nearly as thorough as those in, for example, Richard Mabey'sFood For Free.

It is also one of the prettiest books I've seen for a long time. You wouldn't think it was a book for frugal foragers, and it would probably look quite at home on a posh coffee table (I don't have a coffee table, so can't tell you for sure).

All in all, definitely worth a read - it's quite cheap on Amazon, or you can follow in my even more cheapskate footsteps and get it from the library (I had to ask my library to order it in, as it's quite a new book and they didn't have it yet).

Now I just need to find some more foraging time...