I was given a present on Saturday. Yes, a wheelbarrow!!It was put to use straight away on the allotment.
I have been busy knitting dish cloths. I have joined in the Kris Knits "KNIT ALONG" http://krisknits.blogspot.com/ Each month she is posting the knitting pattern for a themed dishcloth. Every few days she posts some more rows, you don't know what it is going to be until you have knitted it. The white one above is a snowman, January's cloth.
This one is February cloth, Love birds?
This is the waffle dishcloth from Homespun Living http://homespunliving.blogspot.com A bit different from the others but more chunky.

Meat balls

Yesterday I went to the butchers and had a good stock up. The butchers is a few miles away so when I go I buy a lot and freeze it, but I have now found it better to prepare some of the meat before freezing as it saves time when you are in a hurry. I bought some mince, which I have turned into meatballs.





I mix up the mince with breadcrumbs, onion, pepper and some dried herbs and shape them into little balls. I open freeze them and then store them in the freezer. When we want meatballs for dinner I just pop out how many we need, defrost and cook them.

Tonight these will be cooked in gravy and served with mashed potatoes and cabbage.

Allotment progress

Last weekend we installed the compost bin, the front and lid were added later. The banana skin was the first item in the bin!


Planting potatoes. Have had fleece on this bed for weeks, planted my first Early's and covered them up with fleece again.
How long should the "chit" be? Mum thinks at least an inch, others say 1/2 inch is fine, as I am impatient I have planted these with about 1/2 inch. Should be ready to eat in 8 - 10 weeks.

CUP CAKES AND BABIES

My friend at work is expecting a baby next month. I have been busy knitting for her and have just finished this set of a hat, cardy and mittens.

I made cupcakes for Beth's last meeting before she goes off on maternity leave. I saw these "baby" paper cases in Hamburg when I went out for the Christmas markets. They have ducks, dummies and nappy pins on them. I got blue and pink baby sugar decorations form http://www.almondart.com/ This cake decorating shop is based in Clacton and does mail order.

The "blue" cupcakes were lemon with lemon icing and the "pink" were strawberry, made with jam stirred through and vanilla icing.

Alice let me borrow the cup cake stand that she had for Christmas and they looked quite beautiful and tasted very nice.