Crafty in the Med

I am here to enjoy meeting other bloggers and to share my love of craft ,mostly crochet, my thoughts and my daily happenings here in Alicante,Spain, my adopted country. I belong to a local choir because singing and music makes me happy. Flea markets and book shops are two of my favourite places to be. I read lots......sci´fi/fantasy,buried treasure, and off world adventures. I have a passion for history! I walk and walk and walk for about 10 months per year during the hot months I swim.

Sunday 27 October 2013

A tea party I won't miss!!!



Another year another tea party!!!! 

Mum at Mum's Simplyliving blog has once again prepared a wonderful tea party for us.
Thank you so much Mum for organizing this tea party and for bringing us altogether for this little while. :-)


This year I want to prepare some chocolate and churros for Mum and for her guests.
I've sent Sr P off to buy the churros which also means I have a bit of space now to get things ready. Churros are never normally made at home as you have to have the right sort of equipment to make them.




 Therefore you go to a churreria to buy churros and its going to take him awhile as there will be a queue. Sunday is the most popular time for churros.
 He isn't going to like the queueing and waiting bit but he certainly loves eating chocolate and churros. We usually have chocolate and churros at Christmas or during the big fiesta week in June, but this is a special occasion so we'll have them today too.



They say Churros originated in China and were brought to Europe by members of Marco Polo´s team and they came to Spain via Portugal, where it became a very fashionable breakfast for the aristocracy.

They are also know as Spanish doughnuts but personally I just don't see why they are called doughnuts. I'd say they are more like choux pastry mix perhaps with a softer consistency. They must be eaten hot and dunked...definitely dunked....into hot chocolate or coffee.
I'll not be getting my china out today as it isn't appropriate for hot chocolate and I haven't got a china vajillas de chocolate set. My MIL had a smashing set I had my eye on that and wanted to get something similar but you know what its like....the years went by!!!   The traditional chocolatera pot is not like a coffee or tea pot but something like this:


and large mugs are used or large "cuencos", the same as they use for breakfast.  They like large cups and bowls for breakfast here as they do a lot of dunking.......dunking isn't considered bad manners in Spain but it is in fact quite strange for them if you don't dunk!!!
Anyhow I do have "cuencos" which I usually use for this :


but I think I prefer to use my Portmeirion bowls .... I so love my Portmeirion Botanic Garden dishes which are very hard to find here and very expensive so I always try to bring back a couple of pieces with me when I go home to the UK.



 I think I hear Sr P coming up the stairs and Willie the cat is walking towards the front door so it must be him.He is going to be all over Sr P because that is one cat who loves loves loves churros and he probably smells them already.

How about that then:
sucking up to Sr P to get some "churros"!!!!
 
I am so looking forward to joining in the fun with Mum and other bloggy friends such as:
  I also want to take this opportunity to congratulate Gracie at Grayseasailor's blog ,as her newest grand-daughter,Baby Rose, has arrived. This is wonderful news such a happy time for her family!

I'll be back a bit later with the hot chocolate!!!

and here it is...piping hot

sooooooo yummy!!!

Amanda :-)








Saturday 26 October 2013

Fantasy aka converting beanie



It started as a beanie with a peak and turned into a beanie with earflaps and then a beanie with overlay crochet and then a beanie with some triangles here and there and then some bits that shine,that sparkle and that trill!


The completion of this beanie has probably been the best part of this week for me. 
I have been feeling quite odd health wise with a sickening headache throughout Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday it disappeared and I thought I was back to a normal me but Thursday I had this sicky feeling and had tummy problems all day, not eating hardly anything. Friday I continued with the sicky feeling which was accompanied by sniffs evening time. Today the sniffs have disappeared but my tummy is very upset and I am surviving on yoghurts. I have come to the conclusion there is something incubating in me that is trying to take over but my body won't let it. Soooooo....... peeps lets see who wins ..........

I am a strong believer in keeping oneself occupied and try not to think of the aches and pains of this weary body......dramatic eh!!!!  he-he!


I have made beanies in the past and I just had an idea about converting one and this is what developed I added the extra ...the sparkle bits ....to please my grand-daughter as she loves all those sorts of bits on her clothes.



Cookie baby took the modelling quite seriously and she was very patient with me.  
I've promised to make her a fingerless pair of gloves to match.

It is really funny how this goes as I am not totally impressed with this beanie but I already have orders from other members of the family who like it . However I have told them I'll think about it because it has got to the point that I am only crocheting for everyone else and it's about time I did something for myself.  I also have a very long list of I want to try outs and I don't seem to be able to even start that list.



You may notice that my earlier post presenting my grand-daughter to you via photos has been deleted!!  That is because Daughter Nº 1 finally saw "the risking my all"post and did not like what she saw there at all!!!   In fact it provoked a bit of a tiff but we finally reached a compromise that I could display a few photos of Cookie baby occasionally if I needed a model but said photos had to be vetted by daughter Nº 1 beforehand.


 It has been christened the Manchurian Beanie!


I also have to tell you about a market and about some scrumptious new yarn but...I have this gurgle warning again and I must depart :-)


have a great weekend



Amanda :-)

PS: have you seen Hettie Brown's diary?
I so liked the idea that I'm thinking I might make some changes here on my blog.























Saturday 12 October 2013

promises kept


 Over the last couple of weeks it has been hard work to steal time to pick up my crochet hook and less still complete my W.I.Ps of which I have five on the go well actually four now as I finished one today.
I'd say this was definitely a stash buster make and I plan to pop over to Linda's blog at Linda's craftycorner to add to her stash buster collection.


I've just fulfilled a promise I made to my sister, who lives in Lincolnshire, that I would make her a another pair of fingerless gloves. Once again, as much as my inclination leans more to bright colours and pretty pretty type of mittens, I have to abide by her requirements. They have to be dark and not too fancy! Well as you can see they are dark and not too fancy,aren't they?. However I couldn't resist putting a little bit of something extra on one so I made up a little blue kitten from this pattern I found here.



For these mittens I used crochet hook Nº 3 and my memory because I couldn't find the pattern I used for the first mittens  I made here.  I tweaked it a bit to add the popcorn stitch as an edging. I used the leftovers of a 100gram ball of Red Heart Bella DK Anthracite and the blue from another ball of wool which was given to me.I really don't know the brand but it is super soft and I'm pretty sure its pure wool although I'd say it is 4 ply but it has worked in well for the stripes to break up the darkness of the mittens a little.

A very big thank you to Lucy at Attic24 for her generous mention on her post The Yarndale Bunting and if you haven't read this post as yet I recommend you do. All the hard work of setting up that fabulous bunting and how it came about....great read!!!

I would also like to give a couple of mentions here:
Ellie at Wellies,Crochet and Cows
still somewhat a newbie to blogging but I'd say rising quickly in the charts and in my opinion due to her delightful and refreshing posts. Every time I read one for those few moments that I'm reading I feel all shiny inside,they are a breath of fresh air.I recommend you start your day by reading one of her posts I call them the make you feel positive posts :-)

Claire at Thriftwood   and   Gilly at Gilly makes   many of you will already be followers on Claire's and Gilly's blog but I wanted to tell you about Claire's and Gilly's comment on my post here     Following Yarndale                       
Claire commented: I'm going to try to go next time ... let's all meet up!                                            and Gilly said : how much fun would that be... I think we need to try and organize that for next year! 

I totally agree let's........... how about a  WORLD Craft BLOGMEET at Yarndale next year????????                       
It is a year away enough time to save  ....... :-)


 Hello to my new followers and thank you so much for joining me here. You are more than welcome to pop in and comment , when you have time.


Have a great weekend!!!

Amanda :-)