A triple celebration!

It's turning out to be rather an exciting sort of week!!

First off, there was a very important birthday in blogland on Monday when my dear funny imaginary friend Mrs Locket turned 50 celebrated her thirty-somethingth birthday! Happy Birthday Lucy Locket!!!!

Today is a day for a knees-up in Moogshouse as it's Moogsdad's birthday (36 grumble grumble...pah...I'd rather be 42 anyway....pah).

Yup, the man himself is another year older :)

Happy Birthday Moogsdad!!!! (and if you're reading this hubby just remember you are a bloody idiot and you do smell of poo :) love you) (bloggy friends - please don't be shocked, that's our idea of romantic talk....kind of....)

Mmmm...the cake is ready....

....as is the lasagne....

...and a rather nice red vino plonko. We should have a lovely evening - nice meal, nice cake and wall to wall Hugh as Moogsdad requested this for his birthday :)

After all that excitement you could be forgiven for thinking I would draw a close to this post and saunter off to put the kettle on.

Well no.

It gets even more exciting.

There's another - even bigger and more important - celebration due tomorrow.

This very blog will be one whole year old tomorrow!!!!!!

What a year it's been.

I have loved every single minute of my time (so far) in blogland. I have 'met' (and actually met) some really genuinely lovely people....as well as a few nutters :)

I love being part of this crafty bloggy world.

I love that you'll appreciate gratuitous shots of....

.....crap apple and sloe jelly.....

....my first attempt at sloe gin.....


....chickens.....


....bumble bees.....

......and more bumble bees....


.....a sleeping Moog (for you Mr P, by request)...


...a Moog miffed at being shut out of the chicken run.....


.....and very occasionally, if you're lucky, you might get what you came for....

....a tiny bit of crafty action, like this cute and gorgeous birdcage kit from my lovely bloggy buddy in the southern hemisphere Mrs Ric-Rac.


So although my blogging has become sporadic of late, I'm going to carry on for some time yet.

If you feel up to another year of my witterings - plus a whole load of bragging about chutney and jam - then keep on reading.

To reward you for your staying power I'm going to do a little Bloggiversary giveaway. Anyone who leaves a comment on this very post will go into a totally random draw for a special Moogsmum Bloggiversary prize......as yet undecided and unmade but it will be something nice....honest :)

In other news - the kiddlies have gone back to school today. Minx's first day at Junior school - eek!

I'm back at work too.

Can you tell?

;)

xxxxx

p.s. I'll do the draw after 12noon (BST) on Saturday (6th).

p.p.s. I dare you to delurk and leave me a comment :)

p.p.p.s. preferably a clean comment....

Slaving over a hot stove

The Pickle Factory is in full swing once again chez Moog.

First off, I returned from Mother-in-law's on Sunday with a 5lb bag of frozen plums from her friend's garden - free :)

A trip to the forest on Monday yielded a couple of pounds of blackberries - free :)


Together these freebies yielded 10 jars of jam and just cost me about £2.50 for the sugar.


This morning the Moog woke me (but oddly not Moogsdad who carried on snoring!) at 5.40am with a bout of woofage.

After a cuppa and half an hour with a good book I wandered into the garden.

The slugs have been making free with my tomatoes so drastic action was required.

All the dangly down tomatoes - mostly green ones - that were most in danger of sluggery were picked and well washed.

Result - 3lbs green tomatoes - almost free (cost of a few teeny plug plants) :)

A third of them were reasonable and are now on the windowsill ripening. The other two thirds were duly chopped and turned into 8 jars of green tomato chutney.


Having gotten my pickling mojo I then moved on to a 50p marrow from the farm shop - which yielded 5 1/2 jars of yummy Marrow and Ginger chutney.

You will notice the rather motley selection of jars I used. I have been so tempted to buy some of the pretty jars available from this ebay shop but talked myself out of it in the interests of being green!!

In amongst the pickling action a wee bit of baking got done too - one to eat and one to freeze.

With all this lovely inspiration that I bought home from the library yesterday I daresay there will be plenty more kitchen fun to be had.

I also picked this up at the Works yesterday for a fiver and am looking forward to trying out some of the yumminess within.

I can feel the first hint of autumn in the air and I'm looking forward to the change of seasons....not that we'll notice it after the awful summer we've had!!

I love autumn. We get the forest back after the summer hoards have gone. Long walks with the Moog are in order...and hopefully some foraging for some more free food....I have a yearning to make sloe gin...can't imagine why.....

The chickens have gone into full production too.

For the first time yesterday all four girls laid - Minx was so excited that she managed to drop one of the eggs!

Here's today's offering :)

Bless their fluffy little drawers :)



I found these two chaps whilst tomato harvesting:

'Quick...hide...or she'll turn you into chutney!!!'

xxxx

As long as you don't tell me it's Christmas Eve in a week's time I'll be fine!

I hope you all had a great weekend and that the Christmas preparations aren't driving you totally mad! We seem to have spent our whole weekend ferrying the children to their football and dancing activities. Minx was in a Christmas dance show yesterday and was a real star strutting her funky stuff to the Spice Girls.

They finish school on Wednesday and I can't wait as they are getting impossible to motivate in the morning. The shouting must have been bad this morning as I saw my neighbour wearing ear defenders! (That was a joke by the way;)) (the ear defenders bit) (not the shouting).

Ho hum.

I've been asked by Clothears for a run down on making the fabric scarf so here goes.

Cut two pieces of fabric approximately 146cm by 27cm - this includes 1cm seam allowances. Pin together with right sides facing. Starting on one of the short sides stitch all the way around, leaving a gap of approx. 10cm to turn through. After turning through and pressing, topstitch all the way around.

To work out where to put the button and buttonhole drape the scarf around your neck (if you start to turn blue it's too tight!!). Mark positions of button and buttonhole with pins or fabric marker.

Work a large buttonhole on one end of the scarf and stitch a button to the other end.

Tra la - done. As they used to say on the Generation Game - 'that's all there is to it!'

That was the simplest way. I made my scarf by using contrasting fabrics on the top piece. You could play for ever with patchwork/applique - ooh my, I have a head full of ideas now!! Can you imagine patchworked velvets or appliqued wools?



My lovely friend Kayla came round for a cuppa this morning and look at the fab goodies she bought with her. I haven't tried them yet but I may have to draw straws to help decide which one to have first as they both look yummy. I love the name she's given herself - Mamma K!!


Crafty wise I whipped up this little appliqued and fabric painted fairy for a cushion (don't look too closely at her dodgily painted arms and legs!)

and I finally managed to finish this little lot. These pillows are presents for my two beasties, my nephews and niece. They've been made for ages but I had to sew buttons on and make cushion pads for them today. I may have to buy a good yardage of wrapping paper!

I have also framed Minx's first embroidery and will wrap it for Christmas.


I've checked my list and the only sewing I have to do now is three children's aprons. If I feel the urge I may make some cuddly toys or then again I may try to get my poor neglected house back into some semblance of order!!

I'll post a photo of Monster's 'it'll never get finished in time for Christmas' crocheted blanket tomorrow. I may have to do a few more rows tonight when he's asleep. It's not even half done, it's eating wool and I can't find the same colours at the wool shop - aagh! It may have to be half stripy and half plain and I'll have to pretend that's how it was meant to be ;)

As 'the guvna' I've been invited into Minx's school to help serve and then eat a Christmas dinner tomorrow. Minx has just been dosed up with drugs as she is full of cold and has had a hot flush. She can't miss tomorrow - Christmas dinner and the school disco - highlights of her school year!! I also can't miss the opportunity to don a sparkly Santa hat and serve food to 256 hungry noisy monkeys ;)