Pumpkins

Well here are this years pumpkins. I've had a fun time in the kitchen carving these this afternoon. I'm a real big kid at heart.

These are last years pumpkins. I managed to take a better photo of these. I can't seem to get a really good pic on the candlelight setting on the camera this year.

And some Halloween pics I've collected.

I love this vintage one!

I hope everyone is having a spooky Halloween! I have a couple of friends popping over later for a glass of wine and to watch X Factor, hopefully John and Edward will get the boot tonight.

Spooky blessings

Pixie xxxxx

Happy Halloween - Pumpkin Soup Recipe

Greetings witches and wizards. I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen yesterday whipping up

some lovely warming pumpkin soup to eat with some homemade fresh bread later today. I did have a bit of a taste yesterday to sample, :o) here's what i did........................

500g pumpkin, skinned and cubed

1 med onion

1 med potato

1tsp dried cumin

1 tsp dried coriander

150g spit red lentils

1.2l veg stock

2 tbsp sunflower oil

chop onions and fry in the oil until just soft, add the spices, chopped and skinned pumpkin, potato, lentils and veg stock. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer. Simmer with the lid on for 3o mins. When cooked blend with a hand blender or put in a food processor, return to pan to reheat and season to taste. yummy!

I had enough pumpkin left to make pumpkin puree too. You can never seem to get pumpkin puree in the shops and I've so many lovely recipes that require it.

Pumpkin Puree

Put 500g pumpkin skinned and cubed in a pan of boiling water, when tender drain, then pat dry with kitchen paper, then blend to a puree and refrigerate until ready to use. This make approx 300g puree. I'm hoping to make a nice pumpkin pie later. Even after the soup and puree I still had a little pumpkin left which got put into yesterday lambs stew which was scrummy.

hubby and I went for a lovely walk in the woods yesterday with the dogs. Beau has only been allowed to start going out this week and he's loving it, so many sniffs lol :o). (Isn't he growing fast).

My boys!!!!

I love the autumn colours in this pic. Woody blends in well. I think Beau is a winters snowy day kinda dog lol.

I hope to be back later to show you my ginormous pumpkin that I would have calved. :O)

TTFN

Pixie xxxx

Throwing my toys out of the pram!!!!!

I've been desperate to get back into crafting and sewing again, so over the last couple of days I've been planning lots of things I'm going to make and I've had all my sewing books sprawled across the house. Over the weekend I started to make a tall angel from the latest Tilda book. I'm pleased with how the angel has turned out, so now the fun part (or so i thought) making her lovely dress.

I sat at the dining room table, picked a lovely piece of fabric, drew my pattern on, pinned the bodice and arms, stitched the bits that needed stitching and cut it all out, including a large square for the skirt. I put the skirt section to one side and began to attach the sleeves to the bodice...........I thought it was going too well. For starters trying to work out how the sleeves attached to the bodice was a headache, then I finally had the light bulb moment and figured it out.....eureka.....so began to stitch them in. One disaster led to another and although one sleeve is in perfectly the other won't fit after many attempts......so the ******* bodice and sleeves are gracing the floor on the other side of the room. To top it all off, whilst I was stitching, Beau puppy had decided to steal the skirt section and hubby called from the lounge saying ''did you want that piece of fabric the puppy's got''. AAAAAHHHHHHHH the fabric is fine, but will need to be washed and ironed again. The air was seriously blue in our house last night I can tell you. I thought sewing was supposed to be a relaxing pastime! This morning now that I've calmed down, I may attempt the dress again, and IF!!!! I get it finished today I'll post up a pic.

On a lighter note, I'm having a few hours out with my mum today. Its something we never do so it should be quite nice. We're going to visit Cheselpeake mill and possibly Garsons to check out the Christmas displays and have a spot of lunch out. When I return I should be calm enough to tackle operation angel dress! lol.

Also the lovely Mel Mel has given me these awards, thanks so much hun! xxx

I'm to link to Mel Mel, pop the awards in my sidebar, tell you all seven things you don't know about me and pass the awards on to a few deserving bloggers, so here goes.

1. I hate the sound of people brushing their teeth in front of me, it makes me go all goose bumply



2. I'd love to be a housewife and never have to go out to work again



3. I hate Marmite BLEUUURRR



4. I'm mad as a box of frogs



5. I have terrible trouble throwing things away, especially shoe boxes as they may come in handy for something



6. I can't decide if I'm indecisive or not!



7. I'm counting down the days until the next twilight film (new moon) is released, I'm soooooo excited!

Well that's my seven, I couldn't think what to put, but I'm sure that will do. I'd like to pass these awards to..........

Karen

Yarrow

Tina

Well thats all for now folks, hopefully I'll be back later with some after pictures.

TTFN

Pixie xxxxx

E-bay Naughtiness

I've been a naughty little Pixie this week and have bought a couple of things on e-bay that I'm dying to show you all. Firstly my new most treasured possession, a king size Cath Kidston Rosalie for Ikea duvet cover and four pillow cases. I've been after this set for ages. its not made anymore but you can often find second hand sets on e-bay, but King size doesn't come up that often, so I was really chuffed to spot this, especially as it comes with four pillowcases too. But the best bit is that this duvet set was merely advertised as a king size Ikea floral duvet set, so didn't reach the stupidly high prices that CK normally does on e-bay. I'm sure we all type cath kidston into the search and see what comes up. I guess sometimes it does pay to look a little bit harder. Needless to say I am a very happy :o) pixie.
My other special purchase from e-bay this week has been this .......................

Don't you just love these old movies.

My favourite of which, is this.

I'm still whistling and singing the tunes. ''I've just flown from the windy city...........uuummm what's the next verse??????

I hope you all have a lovely weekend folks.

TTFN

Pixie xxxxx

Birthday Cupcakes

Firstly I'd like to say a big Happy Birthday to Mr Pixie, love you!!!

And these are the birthday cupcakes I made last night for him to take to work today. It's customary to take cakes in on your birthday where he works :o), so I made these vanilla sponge cupcakes with marbled milk and white choc topping. I did sample one last night and it was scrummy and I still have a little chocolate left in the fridge to snaffle :o).


Yesterday, I treated myself to Country Homes and Interiors magazine, as I couldn't resist the cover page which was of this house. Isn't it lovey? I just love all the little pumpkins darted around.

and that aga is to die for!!!

I just love the pine cupboard in the bathroom, If only I could win the lottery so we could move to a lovely country home like this. I mean we have the springers and the tractor, all we need now is the house and smallholding :o).

TTFN

Pixie xxx

Sunday Musings.....

Firstly I just had to share this pic with you that a friend of mine e-mailed me, it had me in stitches. :O)

And this is hubby's new project. He's wanted a tractor to restore for years and he's now got his hands on this beauty, the back wheels are as tall as me. I'm so glad his parents have a smallholding as we have nowhere to store it at ours, but apparently once its done up he's going to occasionally drive it to work, that's gonna look hilarious rolling out of our close ;o).

Had a trip to the new Range today, its quite good, but mainly bought things we needed for the house like a new autumn weight duvet now the nights are getting a lot chillier. Of course hubby's moaning as apparently it isn't cold and he'll be too hot...... never mind :o) Also had a trip to my favourite place Cheselpeake mill and got two gorgeous t-towels for 1.99 each in beautiful floral fabrics, they are destined to be cut up for makes though.

Well off to cut up some runner beans and spuds for dinner now, and maybe have a look through my fabric stash later.

TTFN

Pixie xxxx

Time for something sweet....

I haven't been out of the house at all today, and it's been lovely. Hubby took the dogs out this morning and has taken Woody for a walk tonight, so I've spent the whole day in my slogging about clothes, don't you just love old t-shirts and jogging bottoms? This afternoon I really fancied something sweet and there's no naughty stuff at all in the cupboards, believe me i checked twice :o(, and looking like I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards I had no intention of venturing to the shop. So whats a girl to do???????

Well make some cupcakes of course and test out the piping bag kit that my SIL bought me last year.


This is the result. Six of the cupcakes are vanilla sponge and the others are chocolate, all with a pink butter cream icing.


scrummy, but all that icing is a bit sickly, but never fear, I have two bouncy springers waiting to help devour the icing.

Of course I couldn't even think about attempting to bake until puppy dog was like this! I can't get much done until he's in the land of nod.

And once he had woken up full of springy bouncing beans, whats a pup to do??? Well bite and hang on poor Woody's ears of course.

And then settle down to chew on his raw hide bone.

before going for another nap in his bed.

This bed is the cats old one and it was two big for him 2 weeks ago when we picked him up, now look at him, growing at the rate of knots.

I didn't get any sewing done today but I have started reading through the new CK ''Sew'' book, which I'm about to carry on with now.

I hope every ones having a good weekend, TTFN

Pixie xxx

Happy Birthday Woody 5 Today!

Its hard to believe my little man is 5 today, it only feels like yesterday that we went to pick him up and I had him on my lap on the way home in the car, and now he's the handsome boy pictured above.

I better make sure he gets lots of extra cuddles and loves today. xxxx

Thank god its Friday, this weekend just couldn't come quick enough this week. I'm soooo tired and looking forward to a weekend of pottering around. My Cath Kidston Sew book arrived in the week and I'm hoping to get a chance to put the bag together that comes with the book, as well as all the other crafts on my to do list. Also this week the posty bought our tickets for the Country Living Christmas Fair. I'm trying so hard not to buy anything until then, as I know we'll be spoiled for choice at the fair and want to take it all home with me.

Hopefully I'll get something made over the weekend so i can put a pic up on my blog. :o)

Have a good weekend folks ...

TTFN
Pixie xxxx

The End of a Springy Week

The end of another week is upon us, so we're feeling a little sad tonight, with the Monday morning looming. Its worse because Hubby and I had last week off, to settle in our new Pup Beau. I'm dreading tomorrow when its back to work and I have to leave him a few hours. I will really miss my new little bundle of fluff and razor sharp teeth :o).
Woody and Beau seem to be getting on really well together now. Just look at them snuggled on the sofa together. They've also started to play together a lot more. Beau bites Woody's ears runs around the back of the sofa while Woody goes to get him, but he sneaks around the back and bites Woody's bum. Its so funny to watch the pooches, they've had me in stitches this week.

The little pickle keeps trying to chew the bark off my clematis.

The boys are mid play in this pic.

Beau taking a nap in Woody's bed.

AAAHHHH

Woody giving us his Eeyore look.

I grew this squash. Out of the two squash plants I had, this is all i got ;o(.

Had a nice lamb dinner tonight with runner beans from the garden, and I'm enjoying a glass of wine before I go upstairs to iron my work uniform for tomorrow. I'm hoping that the posty will bring me the Cath Kidston Sew book tomorrow, can't wait to make myself the bag pictured on the cover, but I seem to have a lot less time of late ;o).

Have a good week folks

TTFN

Pixie xxx