NY Holiday

This year we rented a croft house up in Ullapool for our New Year.  It was one of the best New Years we've had in a long time.  So relaxing and so much fun.

Here we are just leaving Glasgow.... packed up and ready to go!

We picked our friends up from inverness airport and got to Ullapool and settled well in time for dinner.  Popped open the prosecco!

We had dinner on the first night in one of the popular seafood pubs.  It was such a laugh catching up with our friends.  We were desperate for mussels but we ended up with crabs claws and to be honest we were kind of glad the mussels weren't on the menu when the claws arrived. They were really delicious! 

We went to listen to Rhythm and Reel in the Arch bar that night and had quite a few drinks.

The next day we woke up a bit hazy and so went for a walk in the woods.  It was lovely.

 Even Pippa felt the effects of a late night the following day.  I think she just liked the sofa - much comfier than ours at home.  The house really was lovely.  We had an open log burner and lots of comfy cushions to just collapse on.

We drove to the east coast and went to Portmahomack for a walk along the beach and of course stopped into the cafe in Carnegie Hall for our favourite seafood pancakes.

It was lovely.  

We stopped off at the Ullapool deli and the deli at Storehouse of Foulis and bought loads of yummy food for dinner.  We just ate so much that night.... fish, cheese, yummy biscuits, meats.  It was amazing.

The next day we got up early and went up north.  We had a very windy walk on Balnakeil beach.

Pippa really loves the beach

Even when it's windy!

Then of course we stopped off at cocoa mountain for the hot chocolate!  Liquid heaven.

 And on the way back we went to the Lochinver Larder for pie and mash to line our stomachs for the hogmonay festivities.

There was the most amazing rainbow on the way home.  It was actually a doubler, but you can't really see it in this photo

Disco nap and then another bottle of prosecco to get the night cracking.

We went to the ceilidh in the village hall.  It was so much fun - lots of dancing and giggles

On New Years day we went to a concert and then just spent the rest of the week chilling out, playing games and pigging out!

All in all the perfect holiday.  Getting back into the routine of work on the 6th was a pretty big challenge!

Happy New Year.  Got a good feeling about 2014!  What did you do?

Christmas 2013

Well Christmas was great this year.  I reckon one of the best we've ever had.

I had a week off before Christmas and the whole 2 weeks of the festive period - bliss!  Much needed after working all year.

Sandy and I had our traditional cheese and biscuits on Christmas Eve.  We bought some lovely sharp cheddar in Mull in October from the Isle of Mull Cheese place.  It was worth waiting for.  

We opened our Christmas Eve gifts to each other.  I got a beautiful new tartan butterfly piny and oven mitt. Modelled here.

I decided to give Sandy the Star Trek quilt I made for him on Christmas Eve.  It went down very well

Christmas Day was amazing.  I love presents - not just getting them but giving them.  The pup was so excited.  She got lots of new toys and loved bounding around in all the wrapping paper.

I got a trip to Rome!!!  Amazing.  We are going in April for 5 days - I can't blooming wait.

The cracker jokes don't get any better.

The Christmas Jumpers had to come out for our Christmas Day walk along Mugdock reservoir.

The turkey dinner was a challenge in our tiny kitchen but we did the works.  Parsnips, carrots, sprouts, sausages, gravy, roast potatoes, mash potatoes, home made gravy and cranberry sauce!  Phew.  I was ready for a sit in front of the box then.

I felt a bit like this.  

Poor Pips, she was knackered after her excitement, her turkey and her walks

And I made a trifle.  First ever attempt at trifle and it turned out delicious.  Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cream, mascarpone cheese, custard!  And of course the alcohol - I went for blackcurrant liquer.  Yum yum yum

All in all a very good day had.

Real food Weekend

There is something about this time of year, long chilly walks and good old comfort food that just go hand in hand.

We've had a very relaxing weekend.  We went out for dinner on Friday night.  Woke up Saturday and took Pippa for a long walk in the local park

Then we came home and made sausage with onion gravy and mashed potato with mustard and creme fraiche!  Real comfort food.  And I made enough so there would be leftovers for Sunday!  Don't you just love it when you have left overs?

Then on Sunday (today) it was pretty much the same thing.  We went for a walk.... this is us in the car on the way to the park...

We bumped into another tri colour in the park.  Well actually 2 other tri colours.  Which was very cute.  Pippa likes to make friends with other cavaliers

After our walk we came home, took a nap on the sofa whilst watching a movie and I decided to make a apple crisp for after our leftovers

It was de-lush but unfortunately we didn't have any vanilla ice cream or cream to go with it! :(  

And I finished off the weekend with a quick blast of sewing.  I'm getting all my charms ready for the falling charm quilt which is my next quilt top project!

First Attempt at freeform quilting

I've been meaning to try this for ages.  I'm a firm 'stitch n the ditch' kinda girl and that's worked for me.... but it's always good to broaden our horizons.  So I bought myself a free form quilting foot, installed it, watched a few videos on youtube, got a scrap square sandwiched up and thought I'd give it a shot.  It took me a while to get the tension right (it had to go high, 9 on my Janome) and then I got going.  

It may look like a mess - but I'm pretty proud of this ol mess!  I can see how one might get into this.  I think I need quite a bit of practising before I do it for real on my quilts.... I chose dark thread on light fabric so I could see all my mistakes.  Not that they're hard to spot here! :)  

We've all got to start somewhere!

Charms

I bought these rather lush charm packs and I've found the perfect pattern!

Missouri Star Quilt Company have a tutorial for a pattern called Falling Charms Quilt.

This is definitely my next project.  I'm just waiting for some pretty white fabric to arrive and I'm set!

Sewing room

So my next project is going to be sorting our my sewing room.  It's a bit of a riot.

Nothing coordinates, I don't have enough storage and everything is just lying all over the place in various jars and drawers.  I need some organisation in my sewing!  I want, no!  I need to see my stash.  I want my books and patterns to be easily accessible for when I need inspiration and I don't want to forget about my yarn!

So I'm going to have to trawl the antiques shops soon and invest in some more furniture!

What I've been sewing...

So with Christmas fast approaching, the sewing machine has been super busy.  I finished off my Mother's lap quilt.  I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out.  I wasn't so sure about it when I was in the middle of it, but it looks OK.

And I've managed to make a lap quilt for the boyfriend.  I made it from imported fabrics.  He's a bit of a sic fi geek, so I've used a combination of star wars, star trek, spider man, wonder woman fabrics. I think he's going to be made up with this.

And I've also been finishing off the pin wheel table runners I started last year!

Pippa, as ever, keeping me company

I just love this reindeer fabric.  I wish I'd had it a bit sooner as it's too pretty to be on the back - but I guess at least I will know it is there.

They've turned out pretty good

I have a few more to do.  I figure I'll keep one - I made a mistake on one of the corners, so I'll be keeping that one - and give the other away as presents to our family.

It feels good to have actually started and finished these projects in a fairly timely fashion!