Half Term & Halloween

What with the revision I'd been doing and the robot quilt I just didn't have time to do any sewing for Halloween. Still I consider it an achievement that I have stuck to my promise of doing the free motion quilting on my robot quilt before starting a new quilting project. I just have half the border to do now, which I'm planning to do on Monday when the kids are back at school.

This half term I've taught a half day Felted Beads and Bracelets workshop, which was lots of fun. We did some wet felted swirly beads, some round beads and basic bracelets followed by some needle felted shapes, which people were able to embellish as they wished. Then it was a quick loading up of the car for a trip to the in-laws.

We had a big party on the Sunday, for which I contributed a Mixed Berry Lime Drizzle Cake. I used the Raspberry & Blueberry Lime Drizzle recipe here. I had bought limes as I was sure I had a lime cupcake recipe but when I looked it up in my recipe book I found it also had coconut in and I didn't have any. A google search combined with checking the cupboards for ingredients and I found I could make this with some frozen fruit I had in the freezer.

It came out lovely and flat on the top!

On Monday we were planning to go into London but the problems with the trains due to the weather would have made it difficult so instead we went bowling. I have no idea how I managed to win, not least because I spent half the game with the kids picking my bowling balls for me (including "too heavy for me to throw" balls and "very light but can't fit my fingers in the holes" balls). We also got the chance to do some child-free shopping, which for me means peaceful browsing of fabric. I was very restrained though, picking up just 1m of Xmas fabric from a remnants section at half price.

We came home on Tuesday but Alan had also booked the Wednesday off work so that we could go pumpkin picking at Farmer Copleys. Unfortunately the tractor wasn't running due to the ground; it was getting stuck. It didn't deter the kids though and off they went in search of perfect pumpkins. For both kids this generally meant the cleanest pumpkin they could find as they "don't like muddy ones". Orla wanted to find "a nice tiny one".

Plenty of pumpkins to choose from!

They eventually made a decision.

And this year we decided to carve them on site. Last year we wanted them to last a bit longer but this year we weren't bothered about that.

I managed to cut my finger doing this. I think it was due to using the cheapy kits that need a bit more pressure than a normal knife and I didn't notice I was doing it so I now have a sore finger which is making it hard to sew anything!

A bit of help from Daddy

Ta-Dah!

On Halloween itself we made some cakes and iced some biscuits for the Trick or Treaters. We had a really nice fun day. The kids watched Casper and we went Trick or Treating when Alan had got home from work. There seemed to be more houses decorated this year and we definitely had more people calling round.

Halloween cakes

Some of the iced biscuits

All ready for the Trick or Treaters