Are You Thready?

I spent yesterday mocking up a sofa frame from bits of MDF and garden canes in an effort to find out if a replacement sofa I had taken a fancy to would fit through the front door, up the stairs and around a rather awkward angle into the lounge.

It didn't!

So, to stop myself obsessing over possible sofa alternatives and staring out at the continuing wind and rain, I decided to turn my mind to the more frivolous task of decorating fabric patches.

This is a project that a fellow crafter had alerted me to. It's a competition being run by White Stuff called Are You Thready? It simply asks you to decorate an A5 sized fabric patch in any way you wish. You can either pick up a fabric patch from your local White Stuff store or just measure out your own piece of fabric (14.8cm wide by 21cm high).

For every patch you hand in to your local store or post to head office before 10 March, they will donate £5 to your store's local charity. Each patch is then incorporated into a cushion cover or quilt which is also sent to the local charity. If that isn't incentive enough, each store picks a winning patch, the winner receiving a £50 White Stuff voucher; and each of these patches gets sent to head office for an overall winner to be chosen and that person wins a craft holiday to Italy.

Now, I don't remotely expect to win any of the above but if an afternoon of playing around with fabric can turn into a charitable donation, I'd say everyone is a winner.

I popped down to my local White Stuff store in the hope of picking up a fabric patch but they were completely out. Apparently they had gone in just three days of the competition being launched. Instead I was given a template, but after travelling home amongst my shopping and it then being attacked by the cat, it was looking a little worse for wear by the time I was ready to begin!

Undeterred, the first challenge was to find some fabric to decorate. Not that there is any challenge in finding bits of fabric in this house. No, the challenge was choosing which one (or ones) to use. In the end I pulled out a selection and began playing around with felt, ribbon, buttons and beads.

Again the cat helped out, sending my carefully selected and arranged button embellishments to the four corners of the room, skittering under drawers and book shelves, never to be seen again (or at least not without a lot more furniture moving than I was prepared to undertake).

A thoroughly enjoyable few hours ensued and here are the before and after results.

Now it's just left for me to label them up and drop them down to the shop. In the very least, it will result in an additional £15 being donated to the Cots for Tots Appeal. Not a bad outcome for an enjoyable few hours of sewing and far better than trawling furniture websites for sofas!

Love the Planet

Last week I came across a campaign by the Climate Coalition which is, along with Stop Climate Chaos Cymru and Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, the UK's largest group of people dedicated to action on climate change. The bottom line is they want 100% clean energy within a generation.

To show support for this campaign they are asking people to turn their hearts green this Valentine's Day. You can do this in all sorts of ways but one is to make a green heart. So, that's just what I did at yesterday's craft club gathering.

It took me all week to decide what I wanted to save most and stick on the banner across my heart. In the end I came up with 'for the love of trees'. They are such miracle workers in terms of absorbing carbon, absorbing water to help prevent flooding, anchoring soil to prevent it being washed away in the rain (leaving behind a barren desert), providing habitat for about 50% of the planet's species... to name but a few.

Anyway, here's my heart.

Find out more here and have a very happy Valentine's Day!

Nostalgic Baking

Last week a friend posted a blog about some flapjack she had made using honey rather than the usual treacle. It got me thinking longingly about things I used to bake as a child, flapjack being one of them. I duly turned to my shelf of recipe books and came across the very first one I owned, given to me by my Mum on my 5th birthday. I know that because she wrote a lovely inscription inside.

My first cook book

If you were a fan of Winnie the Pooh as a child, you may recall that he was a lover of honey, getting himself into quite a few tight spots as a result of his obsession with the sweet stuff. I was therefore surprised to see that he (or rather, author Katie Stewart) used treacle not honey in his/her recipe for flapjacks. For reference, my friend says honey works as a brilliant substitute!

Anyway, flicking through the book whilst enjoying a cup of tea, I got quite nostalgic for the cakes and bakes I was reminded of. A particular favourite was Honey Spice Cake and, with the wind and rain showing no signs of let up outside and finding I had all the ingredients to give the recipe a go I set to, albeit with some gluten-free tweaks.

A well-used page!

Having not eaten a cake made with wheat flour for nearly 16 years and probably not eaten this particular cake for many more years than that, I didn't have much to compare it with but was very pleasantly surprised by the results.

For the sake of my own waistline and risking turning into Pooh or even a great big Piglet, I'd better quickly invite some friends round for tea!