Janie Wisht Crochet Doll

I wanted to crochet a doll, she had to be Ragdoll like and I have to say that although very fiddly to make I quite like her.

I don’t think that I would make another as my poor fingers ached like crazy whilst making her.

She is made with cotton yarn which may have contributed to the sore fingers as it doesn’t glide so much and involves lots of pulling and tugging.

I cant say it is inexpensive to make because cotton yarn in colours is very costly in comparison to other yarn but you do get a more rigid torso.

I decided all clothing would be in a softer DK baby yarn and her hair is made with a boucle mohair yarn.

I’ve named her after my Grandmother whose name was actually Jenny but my Dad always called her Janie Wisht which always made her giggle.

Full Moon Sea Swim

 It was a full moon Sunday the 22nd August and myself and my Daughter headed off down to our beach for an open water swim with loads of the people that regularly swim there as it was a full moon evening.

We have a wonderful secluded part of the beach between two piers that we swim in, it’s quite sheltered from high waves.

In the above video you can see that there was quite a few of us in the water and yes…. It was very cold tonight, I swam in a rash suite but note to self I need to use my wetsuit on an evening.

It was a beautiful evening and the conversations were flowing, made some new friends too which is always nice.

It’s so pretty, as you can see.

Below is my daughter enjoying the moment

The moon didn’t make its appearance until we were ready to come out but as you can see it was a spectacular picture when it did arrive.

Thankfully we had a cup of hot tea when we were getting dried and changed and it was needed, my teeth were chattering with the cold, all in all a beautiful evening.

Lemon Curd Fault Line Cake

There’s nothing nicer in my opinion than a lemon cake. My Daughter was celebrating her 30th Birthday in May and as a child she would always ask for a lemon curd sandwich, preferably home made lemon curd but shop bought would suffice.

I knew I would need to make a lemon curd cake and thought I would make it a bit special for her.

It was fun getting back into cake decorating although my back didn’t agree with me.

I used the KatySue designs lemon mould and modelling sugar for the lemon and leaves were from the Flower Pro moulds.

It was fun and games as I had never made a fault line cake before but in for a penny in for a pound I would try it. 

It all started off straight forward, all of the lemons and leaves had been coloured before I started so what could go wrong? Actually lots could go wrong, I used far too much frosting on the outer part of the cake and the first layer of sugar paste that I tried just split and slid off haha!

So the moral of the story is, if at first you don’t succeed then try and try again, tadaa!

Open Water Swimming

I’ve started sea swimming again, it was a regular occurrence when I was a child and living near to the sea has always been a privilege to me.

Now the North Sea is far from the temperatures that you get when holidaying in the Mediterranean but if you manage to get in to the North Sea you will find it invigorating.

Safety first, never do it alone, don’t stay in too long, build it up, take a warm set of dry clothes, a hot drink and a snack if you want it.

My partner in crime is my daughter Lauren, as soon as she said she would like to do it I was buying all the gear, shorty wetsuits, shoes, waterproof bags for our phones, changing gowns etc…

This was our first try.

It was gorgeous.

We take a big bucket with us to put or wet gear into for travelling home.

I wont lie, changing into dry clothes was challenging to say the least. I may have flashed once or twice getting changed haha!

I have since invested in a front zipped wetsuit jacket and shorts, much easier to get out of as I have a frozen shoulder. No more flashy me haha!

Our Yorkshire Farm visit.

Those of you that have enjoyed watching Our Yorkshire Farm or read and of the Yorkshire Shepherdess Books will appreciate the excitement I had to visit Ravenseat farm high up in the Yorkshire Dales.

The trip is not for the faint hearted and for most of our journey I gripped the seat of the car and braked several times despite Chris being an exceptional driver it was hairy to say the very least.

Although we weren’t allowed past the gate for obvious reasons one of them being that they were filming that day, we were lucky to see and chat with Amanda and 2 of her girls Clemmy and Annie.

Before I took any photos I asked as I think some can take this for granted.

Clemmy didn’t disappoint us and was as charming off camera as she was on it.

Now what you aren’t seeing here is that I fell over, I was on my crouching to have the photo taken with Clemmy and I wobbled and landed all my weight onto my my fingers and knuckles so decided to sit put and have photos whilst sitting and holding on to my bloody hand.

Thankfully you could get refreshments and there was picnic tables and public loos if you are thinking of visiting.

Annie was such a lovely young lady and we chatted a while with her as her filming was done of the day.

She was helping with the refreshments.

It was lovely so see all of the layout of the buildings that you see on the program and I can see just why Amanda and Clive fell in love with the farm.

Make your Own Chocolate Santa Sleigh

I made these chocolate Santa sleighs many years ago when my Grandson was very young and as he couldn't remember them I thought I would do it all again for this year, I think everyone would agree we have had a very weird Covid year and could do with something to cheer us up.

 

I filmed making these so that you can see how easy they are to construct.

I will place them at each setting for the Christmas dinner but they would be equally fun as a gift for someone.

Happy sleigh making.

Fathers Day - Don't Panic

Who do you think you are kidding!

I suppose you have to be a certain age to appreciate this one.

with printed vinyl you can have so much fun, G.M.Crafts have got you covered with a fabulous selction of printed vinyl like the one I'm showing here the Union Jack.

Dads Army the old sit com was one of my husband favourite and we often end up watching repeats on it. 

So yes he actually loves this T-Shirt and wears it with pride.

I love you easy gift giving has become using vinyl and tailoring a design to an individual means it doesn't get pushed in a drawer and forgotten about.

in all a fairly cheap T-Shirt and a 15 second press to make a personalized gift.

Vinyl used

HTV G.M.Craft Premium Vinyl

HTV G.M.Craft Patterned Vinyl

Mans T-Shirt

Photos on Wood

I was playing around with an idea of putting photos onto wood.

I wasn't sure that it would work for me but I knew I wanted to try it. The first couple of tries were a disaster and the image peeled away. I first tried with good old PVA although it seemed to have worked the glue just went milky and when peeling off the backing of the photo, I lost too much of the image to save.

I next tried with decopatch, this worked a little better but again I was losing too much of the image.

My final try was with a product made by Trichem called Voila, I've had this product for 10+ years and it worked beautifully.

I had to prepare the photo and created a sketch from the photo before printing onto a Matt photograph paper. Once I had brushed the Voila over the chopping board I layed on the image and let it completely dry into the Voila. That's when the fun starts, you have to soak the back of the photo and gently roll away the backing and this leaves the image in place on the wood.

I then let it dry and started to use distress inks around the edges and wrapped string and added flower and then give it a spray with a Matt varnish.

Of course once the above photo of my Daughter on her wedding day was done I needed to go on to my favourite subject of my Grandson with his Grandad.

 

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A Beautiful Day

Oh my, where do I start? I suppose it should start with how happy we all were.

Photo by Inkspot PhotograpChing ching darlings. Peter and Sue from Inkspot Photography are personal friends of ours and they are spectacular.

Oh, wedding favours.

we wanted something fun, vintage in keeping with Natalie's dress and the colour scheme and this is what we plummed for. We may have ate lots during the making of these.

It just made the day even sweeter, if that was possible.

As you can see, it was all hands on deck.

The above was the first day, Adam (now husband to Natalie) came along on the 2nd day to help fill and finish them (not daft).

Next I roped in Sarah Millsop Jewellery designer extraordinaire.

I couldn’t get a necklace to match my outfit so Sarah picked out the Swarovski Crystal for me to make my own.

Of course it didn’t stop there, she had me hooked and I went on to do matching earrings and bracelet.

Then I got to thinking (dangerous I know)

wouldn’t it be lovely to make both my own Mam and Chris’s Mam a set each of Necklace and Bracelet, so that is exactly what I did do.

As you can see I played around with the colour of theirs as I was more confident after making my own.

My Mam wearing hers on the day.

Piece of cake anyone?

I won’t show you the whole cake as yet, I will patiently await the official photographs.

Cake was made by Claire's Artistic Licence Cakes, you will find her on Facebook.

The happy couple are now on their honeymoon and the rest of us are trying to come back down to earth after the most beautiful of days.

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Pain..... it's a pain.

Some days it's a struggle, some days it's good and some days it knocks you sideways.

I think managing pain has to be one of the hardest things to do.

When I was young I thought it was only old people that got daily pain, as you grow into the world you soon realise it can hit anyone at any time.

It even gives you a sense of humour, I have found many people who suffer pain have the biggest sense of humour. The phrase "if I didn't laugh I'd cry" comes to mind.

I decided to write this after suffering a real flair up in my own condition, I suffer from Psoriatic Arthritis and Fibromyalgia. Normally I have it under control and manageable.

I won't talk meds as everyone is different but I do take a cocktail of injections and tablets to keep me right.

So what has happened to give me the flair up that has knocked me sideways... who knows?

I recently had to do an increase on meds to try to get everything back the way is was and manageable again, I get sick of hearing myself moan about the pain and yes sometimes I cry when no one can see me but I try to steer clear of the self pity route but let me tell you it is damned hard when you are hurting.

So double the meds and the feeling of walking through a dream until your body adjusts, wanting to fall asleep every time you sit down, frightened to drive because of the fatigue.

Hearing phrases like "you look well" and thinking if you only knew the half of it.

Oh and to top it all off my gorgeous Daughter gets married in two weeks and I have the favours to make.

So for now I am putting on the happy face and doing the things I can do and leaving the things I can't.

Jak x

Low Fat Meals, My weight loss journey

13 weeks ago after problems with my back again I knew I had to do something, the last straw was I kept collapsing in a heap with pain.

Luckily I have the most supportive husband that anyone could ask for and he came along to A Slimming world group with me.

Of course the weight dropped of Chris and he has now reached his target but he is still coming to group each week to support me.

Some of the meals we have had has been gorgeous.

Starting with my breakfast, I try to have porridge most days, I top it with fruits banana, strawberry and raspberry, alternating.

 

Chris however does a poached egg on whole meal bread.

Lunch has always been my struggle, I try to keep off bread as apart from loving uncut bread that I cut into doorstep size slices, I also tend to add and inch of butter.

So trying to eat different things that will keep me satisfied.

One of my favourites is muffin quiche, 6 eggs, large or 2 small fat free tubs of cottage cheese, extra lean bacon, chopped spring onions, mushrooms and salt and pepper to taste, cook on about 190'c until golden brown.

Jacket potato is another favourite go to.

I use Pease Pudding and lots of salad.

I also tried smoked salmon baby spinach and tomatoes tossed in a low fat dressing

I'll post some of our dinner meals later.

 

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Wedding cards

It's been a busy old time getting ready for my daughters wedding day in August, we got the day time invites all out ages ago and then I realised that I had forgotten to take a picture of them to show you all, luckily I had ours to show you.

I love the pebble embossed satin paper that we used, we also used parchment paper printed and used as a wrap with a beautiful heart to finish.

Tonight we finished the evening cards

Next we will have to sit down and make the favours.

Exciting times.

 

 

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