Christmas Fayre

There is a Christmas Craft Fair tonight at Holy Trinity School , Ramsgate 7.00pm - 9.00pm, everybody welcome and yes I know its a bit early but I have been making christmas tree decorations for the last three weeks.

Ramsgate Slipway

My Grandad and Dad used to operate the slipways at Ramsgate Harbour. We were looking through some old pictures recently and came across this one which we thought was quite topical at present.

This picture of the Steam Tug Kenia marked a turning point in the history of Ramsgate Harbour. The reason being that she was the last Steam Tug to be repaired on the slipway at Ramsgate. The companies that owned the Fleet of London River Tugs (Watkins and Ship Towage) decided to have larger diesel tugs built. This meant that they were to big for the slipway at Ramsgate. Later on all the repair work was moved up to Sheerness with the loss of many jobs at C.Halladays and Claxtons, this was around 1960-61.

Lavender shortbread

When we were in the Cotswolds a few weeks ago we visited Cotswold Lavender and tried some Lavender shortbread which was delicious. So I thought I would have a go at making some today.

The recipe I used was one I happened upon in a magazine and it had cornflour in it which is quite unusual but the resulting shortcake just melts in the mouth and the lavender flavour is a fantastic reminder of summer.

Next maybe lavender scones, lavender ice cream, lavender .........

Headless Football

Having just beat my son in the Headless Lego Tournament 7 - 3. He had now decided the game is boring and had wandered off to watch telly and yes I know I am supposed to let him win but it is nice for me to win occasionally.

Cupcake Pictures

I felt the urge for cupcakes today, but not having access to any I had to make do with making some pictures instead.

I was hoping that the lovely colours would take my mind off the weather, is it just me or has it got chillier in the evenings, I have taken to wearing a jumper which is not good for the start of September.

Adult Education Taster day

I decided to try a pottery taster course at Hilderstone today. I am not too sure what happened as we were supposed to make a cone shaped pot to go on the wall, mine ended up as a rather oval type vase. Anyway it was great fun, out tutor was so fantastic I have signed up to do a course. Watch this space for more weird and wonderful thingys.

Outer space cake.

The cake from outer space complete with space dust.

Buttons

I love buttons. It comes from a childhood button box that my nan had. She would bring it out when we were bored and we would spend hours counting and sorting them.

I have started making button jewellery which looks really funky but trying to find the right buttons has been really difficult and expensive. But on holiday I discovered a lovely wool shop in the Cotswolds selling large packs of buttons at reasonable prices hence I have a lot of buttons in lots of beautiful colours.

Trouble is with having lots of buttons is how to store them my others where away in a box but I liked the idea of having them on display so I had some kilner jars which I thought might work - it did.

So now the kids are back at school I can catch up with all the crafty jobs I have put on hold including sorting out my every growing button collection.

Ramsgate Squall workshop

I attended the felting workshop as part of the summer squall event. Nobody quite knew what to expect and all those who attended took home a wonderful felted flower. It was really good fun and very therapeutic as there was a lot of pummelling involved - a great stress buster.

Thank you to Joan Ward for a brilliant workshop and those at Ramsgate Arts for a job well done.

New beads for folk week

Margate

Well haven't had chance to post about my little trip round the Turner centre last week. I thought it was a lot smaller than I expected but they seem very enthusiastic, I enquired what exhibitions we could expect but they are not releasing details until the Autumn but they have planned as far ahead as 2013.

I also asked about parking - they are expecting people to park in College Road Car Park and walk through the Old Town past all the shops. Trouble is I wouldn't park in that car park as I find it very scary and so do a lot of people I have spoken too, hmmm!

So that's another trip to Margate under my belt, next one will be for the Kite Festival.

Broadstairs Harbour

I had a good day at Broadstairs Market today, met lots of interesting people, watched the local kids hurl themselves off the end of the pier, chased litter around to stop it wrapping itself round by tables, ate freshly made doughnuts (haven't done that in years) and generally had a lovely day!

Broadstairs Harbour Market

Off to sell my wares at Broadstairs Harbour market tomorrow, thank goodness the wind has dropped.

My littleun has had a nasty ear infection all week so in between feeding him medicine and given him hugs, I have been trying to make some more jewellery to sell this week, which hasn't been easy.

How do other people manage to work from home? Its very difficult and with the holidays coming up I am wondering how its going to work. The Broadstairs Harbour market will be around all folk week and hopefully weather and stock permitting I will be there, and then we are going on holiday! I think I am going to need it.

How does you garden grow?

I have been making a lot of flower brooches, hair slides etc to take to Broadstairs Harbour Market on Sunday - hope its not as windy as last week, we had to take the gazebo down or we would have ended up in the sea.

We were quite surprised by the amount of tourists we spoke to on Sunday, didn't know they existed in such large quantities, everybody loved the place and the majority said they would be back!

So TDC listen up, stop cutting the tourism budget, the tourists are here and they need looking after.

Cupcakes

This is my very good friend Emma from Ems Truly Scrumptious Cupcakes she is selling her very delicious cupcakes at The Dickens Festival, Victoria Gardens from 10am - 5pm. If you would like some more info on the cakes she makes please just click on this link http://www.emscupcakes.co.uk/

Windy day

The north easterly wind did blow yet again today which made it a really good day for flying a kite but you had to wrap up warm because it was freezing!

Sock monkeys

I have been busy creating again. This time it's sock monkeys - my youngest has already sneaked this one into his bedroom.

This one has found a new home with a friend.

And this one has gone to my eldest's girlfriend.

I was supposed to be selling them ebay and folksy, oh well gives me an excuse to make some more.

Ladies Night St Mildreds School

Ladies Night St Mildreds Primary Infant School

St Mildreds Avenue

Broadstairs

CT10 2BX

£4.00 admission to include glass of wine and nibbles.

Thursday 27th May 2010

7.00pm - 10.00pm

Massage, aromatherapy, jewellery, handbags, iridology, nail bar, hair dressing plus much more

My garden

Just a few photos of my garden.

It's looking quite promising

After the winter I was not too hopeful.

But fingers crossed,

It looks like it might be a vintage year!

Lemon meringue cupcakes

I did a lot of cooking last week, and these were one of my better creations - Lemon Meringue Cupcakes.

I have been wondering whether you could make a lemon meringue pie into a cupcake and strangely enough I bought a cake book last week and there was a recipe for them, so how could I resist.

I tried them out on all the family and everybody agreed they were delicious.

EXhibtion Time

Broadstairs library are staging The Isle of Thanet Photographic Society photo exhibition at present, and my brother-in-law has a photo on show(top right -the one with the crocuses).

All the pictures are very good and worth a visit if passing.

P.S Happy Birthday Louis.

Shelter Update

I received the following reply from Thanet Council yesterday -

'Thank you for your email regarding the above shelter, please be advised that it is on our programme of works to be repaired. Unfortunately, the problem with the roof tiles is due to a combination of high winds, general vandalism and footballs, and has actually been repaired on several occasions. Thank you once again for taking the time to report it. '

 

I was beginning to wonder whether they had received my email but obviously they had and it had been allocated to the right department as well.
 
I think an automated email receipt system would be benefical as people would know whether their email had been received, just a thought.

Help, I need some TLC

My son has been learning how to ride his bike on the prom in the eastcliff area of Ramsgate.
Yesterday I noticed the poor state of repair of the old shelter roof.
The slates look very heavy and some have already fallen off.
I think some TLC is due (or should I say TDC)

P.S I have just emailed the council about this. We shall see what happens.

Easter Holidays

We popped over to King George VI Park earlier this week and had a explore through the undergrowth and an Ice Cream. As you can see it was quite cold and miserable.

Then today what a difference and what a beautiful sign of spring.

We then wandered down the beach and found this poor old crab washed up.

And then - silly me- I decided to get my bike out and have a very small ride, I am soooooooo unfit!

P.S There is a market down Broadstairs Harbour this weekend, Ems Cupcakes are going to be there and her cakes are scrummy.