Happiness is a state of activity

Happiness is a state of activity and I have certainly been active this last week.

Victoria Samplers Alphabet Series

(Please excuse the poor quality of the photograph, I have yet to get all my photographic equipment back out)

I am so pleased that I have finished the third row “M” to “R” of Victoria Sampler’s Alphabet series, only one more row to go. I had to put my stitching away for several months whilst caring for my MIL and it has been a joy to pick up my needle again. 

I have been busy baking and making two batches of chutney, I have had lots of garden produce to use up. We have had  a bumper crop of apples this year.

I treated myself to a bundt pan and have had fun experimenting. The first cake I made in the tin was a spiced apple and ginger which was scrumptious. It then occurred  to me that the shape was very much like a Terry’s chocolate orange so I played around with a marble cake receipe from joyofbaking.com and made a chocolate orange cake. This was a big hit with everyone here.

Joyofbaking.com is well worth checking out. Her recipes are very good and I like watching the videos before baking the recipe.

I went to the WI last week and the wall hanging of scenes from our village is progressing well. 

This is a new contribution which I though was very well executed.

Frazer brought in some Christmas projects and I particularly liked this one.

Ruth Hanke - Millennium Angel

I have decided to stitch Ruth Hanke’s Millenium Angel as my Christmas project for this year. I have placed my order and await delivery. Ruth is a very gifted designer.

My DH has planned a huge bulb planting programme for this winter, over 15,500 bulbs – daffodils, crocuses and bluebells.

The first of three deliveries came in the week and the gardeners have made a good start with the help of Blue and Poppy.

We are having a portrait of the dogs painted by David Sandell a fine artist. This is the working sketch we have approved.

We wanted Millie included and I think that David has done a superb job working from photographs of her. He was able to sketch Blue and Poppy  from real life. He has captured each of their expressions. I cannot wait to see the painting.

Warm Wishes from Stitching By A Cornish Sea Shore Nicola xxx