katy'sClutter

Elbow Grease

 
I have a love of Raleigh Cycles, and I've spent ages looking for a large wheeled bike that fits my leg length (short)! I wanted a retro 70/80's style and had a few options in my head, it was just a case of finding one. I searched gumtree, local ads and finally came up trumps, or Bob (man of the house) searching ebay did. Purchased for £25, we drove to a recycle centre to retrieve my Raleigh Honey! To be honest, we where slightly worried to just how bad a condition it was in...

After lots of elbow grease, rubbing down, washing and polishing and a few retail items, I have fallen in love!

The basket is my second option, I bought a proper bike basket from a car boot sale and it was too big, this is a cheap waste paper basket attached to a basket support and to the handle bars wth repro straps! The pump is not Raleigh but ONS from an online store. White pumps are really hard to find at this size (12 inches) and with car valve attachment.

This bike is an 18 inch frame with 24 inch wheels so it's a little smaller than an adult bike, I did have a Raleigh Nova (Shopper)

but with small wheels so was hard to keep up with Bob on his Mountain bike!

Have you got a vintage bike? Would love to see pic's if you have!

* ONS Old New Stock

Baking...

My friend Binnies Dad sent me some plums and apples from the tree's in his orchard. A few plums got a bit bashed and bruised in transit because they're so ripe! So it's off with the bad bits and into the pot to make a yummy plum pie...

The rest will become Jam and a few jars will go back to Binnies Dad, this is our second year of trading and long may it last!

Water proof Pom-Poms how To...

I've recently been aware of the new trend for paper pom-pom flowers, they appear everywhere and I have to say I'm rather glad they do! I love the odd pom-pom or jam jars alight with candles, strings of fairy lights and anything that has the ability to turn a grey concrete slab or a less then tidy garden (cough) into a magical wonderland. My only fear of the paper pom-pom is the great British weather and its tendency to bucket down at a moments notice, with this in mind i've been playing.

I've collected a random selection of carrier bags, this took ages as I always use my own bags when shopping!

peg them altogether to create a neatish pile

trim the sides, this should also loosen the bag gussets

pull away the bag gussets, leave the pegs attached to one side and concertina, as if your where making a paper fan

find the middle and tie the centre together with plastic sandwich ties are good, string too, or just some left over carrier bag. Snip ends to your own style and liking

Pull out the concertina into a pleasing ball shape, add cotton or plastic cotton and Ta-dah you have a weather proof Pom-pom, marvellous enough to bring cheer to any garden. 

If you can, collect bags of the same colour, Sainsburys do and nice orange and M&S clothing do a good quality green one as do John Lewis.

I believe it's about to rain!

 

Sunny...

What a difference the sunshine makes to a weekend...

Even my messy bedroom looks better in the sunshine!

Enjoy it while it lasts :)

It's been a long time...

The last few months have been a mixed bag for me and  my family. We've lost a much loved and much missed member of our family unit, nan. At ninety years young, time finally caught up with her and she slipped away in her sleep after a few bouts of hospitalisation. We'd had a really special afternoon with her 3 weeks before she passed. We sat round drinking  tea, eating cake and biscuits and just chatted about her life, what she'd done at school, work and during the war, about her mother and how she coped as a single parent. She passed the eve of the Royal Wedding, she would have loved to watch that. She loved the pomp and circumstance. I saw my nan at least once a week for my entire life unless I was on holiday, she had a collection of dire souvenirs as memories from such trips! She also had a head strong will that could not be shifted once she had made a discussion, good or bad. I've stop bursting into tears at anything and everything and life has started to move on.

Mum has moved into a lovely new flat for the over 55's (how did we get there!) I'm a little jealous as it has a lovely balcony, so no grass to cut or slugs and snails to cope with!

I've been to a lovely wedding in London, the reception was held at the RIBA (Royal institute of British Architects) building in Portland Square in central London, a beautiful day to celebrate a lovely couple uniting together.

I've also started crafted again, so things are getting better.

                   The Happy Moments - the newly weds 


                   The crafting - Tea Jacket

 

Peek-a-Boo Bunny

 
Last week we went to pick up a bicycle (another one) that Bob had won on that well known auction site from Southampton. We made good time until we hit the outskirts of the town centre and thanks to Gas works and us going the wrong way a few times this added an extra hour to the journey. We did however go past a comedy place to live " Benny Hill Close", how great would that be on your gas bill?

After collecting the bike and on our way home realising we where both in need of "Refreshment", so stopped off at a moto services, which I have to say was actually quite nice ( as services go!).  We sat down with our coffee, I chose the seat in the window by the radiator - typical woman always cold. While we chatted and sipped our coffee I was reminded of a book we'd both read about a man so fed up with life he ran away. After a while his car broke down, he walked to the service station, he's car couldn't be fixed and he was told  to follow the path round the back of the services and it would lead him to the village and somewhere to stay - his adventure started from there. Ever since then I've always viewed them as micro communities, we always look to see if that path is out there leading to a small village.

But this time when we looked, can you see what we found?

 

 

Peek - a -Boo!

Cake Love

 

I love cake and cake loves me, not my belly, my bum or my hips, but it does loves my lips. So while the armchair football coach was assisting his team into triumph last night, I baked cake!

 

This is a very simple recipe and should not look as flat as this or as singed, but i didn't have the right size cake tin! 

It's Raspberry Bakewell cake and really easy

Shopping List...

140g softened butter, plus extra for greasing

140g ground Almonds

140g golden caster sugar

140g self raising flour

2 eggs

1tsp of Vanilla extract

250g Raspberries

2 tsbp Flaked Almonds

Icing sugar to serve

and a 20cm spring form tin or one with a loose bottomed

Method

Add butter, ground almonds, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla into a food processor and blitz till soft. Line the bottom of the cake tin with grease proof and lightly grease pan. Add half the mixture and smooth over, add raspberries and cover with remaining mixture. Sprinkle with the flaked Almonds and cook at 180 for 50 mins.

Leave to cool and decorate with icing sugar…eat!

This recipe is from Anthony Worrall-Thompson in the Saturday Express magazine and very nice it is too!

In the Dog House

Actually that should be "Dog in the House" as I've been making again, this little cutie is being wrapped up just after I've finish writing this in some lovely paperchase paper for a birthday gift.

I've much admired Jenny B Harris and her allsorts blog and her lovely fresh creations and ever since I saw the pattern for this we fella I've wanted to have ago,  then I found the perfect thing to do it with Spotted felt.  (This was purchased at Hobby Craft but I'm sure could be found in all good little craft shops too)

The legs where a bit tricky as I'm not the best at sewing, but after some swearing, tea and cake I finally got it all together. 

The Pattern can be found on her tutorial section on the right hand side of her blog, but do have a good look round at her lovely work :)

Bunting Card - How too

I made this card for my friends birthday, she's a modern kinda gal and wanting my card to reflect that.  Firstly this post is more of a "what I did" rather than a "how too!" But I'm sure you'll get the gist of things.

1 Drew lightly with a pencil to give three pleasing bunting swags across the card.

2 I cut three sizes of triangles (bunting!) from my paper, these are from a christmas    magazine. I kept it to three different shades, which I then roughly laid out to check they fitted around the swags.

3 I cleared them aside (making sure you keep the sizes in groups, unlike me) with a sharp needle  pre-prick holes into the card, using your pencil swags as a guide, try to support the card as you do this as it will crease easily.

4 with  a nice contrasting thread, I used embroidery cotton two strands thick, and then stitched into the pre-pricked card using double type stitch so it looks like a sewing machine has done it. 

5 Next I stuck all the bunting on with general paper glue in a radome pattern of colours.

6 A few vintage buttons from my stash to add a bit of form and colour stitched on with another colour cotton thread. Just for fun I added a self adhesive bird decal, you could add anything or just leave it to the buttons.

7 My greeting has been added by the use of some old letraset (remember that stuff from school!) a stamp, handwriting or a sticker would do just as well.

 

So there you have it, a nice modern card with a bit of recycling of crafty materials. Cheap as chips!

 

A little bit of card crafting

I took a little break from the taxing task of the TAX return (err) to do a spot of crafting therapy to revive my brain cells, why can I never find the crucial piece of documentation when I need it?

My Craft of reviving choice, card making with a touch of crochet and stitching thrown in for good measure.

 

The flowers are basic quickies and Lucy at attic 24 has these on her site, the buttons are vintage and out of my ever growing button box, the sign is hand stamped. I can't remember the name of the fabric but I Love it!  I hope she loves her card too!  Right back to the TAX return :(

Sorry about poor light x