Crafting, Cooking and Caching

Finally finished! :) My "Glace" Tank Top that I started in November as a stash-buster, but halfway through decided I didn't like the stripes. I used Rowan Tapestry, instead of the recommended yarn, to use up some of my stash and unfortunately I had two different dye lots which shows slightly. Hopefully it won't be noticeable once I am wearing it. I'm glad to have finished it - onto my next big project now! :)

I also recently made this handbag charm. The crochet pattern is part of the Victorian Aster in Melody Griffiths' "201 crochet motifs ..." with the addition of some beads and a button.

My son wanted to shrink some packets, so we saved a couple from our Paris holiday and had some fun watching them shrink in the oven last week. I remember doing this when I was a child.
We found that the best temperature was 130'C - 140'C in our fan oven and it took approximately 5 minutes before the shrinking started. Halfway through we had to flatten the packets, with the back of a spoon (beware - hot plastic), as they started to curl and then again when they had finished. To make keyrings - cut a hole, the size of a 5p , in the packet before shrinking. In the kitchen I also did some more traditional cooking! :)
My Mum's Oat Cookies,
Peanut Butter & Chocolate Crispies,

and Bread & Butter Pickles.

I will post the recipe for my Mum's cookies on my recipe blog. The Peanut Butter & Chocolate Crispies I adapted from the blog "One More Moore" and the Bread & Butter Pickles recipe is from the blog "The Quince Tree". We have a glut of homegrown cucumbers so this recipe is a handy one. Unfortunately I can't eat it as cucumbers don't like me!

Sunday, my husband and I did some caching and visited this 12th century church - St Nicholas at Newnham.

I love looking inside country churches and this one had some interesting features, as mentioned on the linked page.

My husband now has two weeks off from work and is deep into DIY around the house. We are hoping for some decent weather so that we can go out on day trips, but this week has been rather wet with the addition of some thunder. Not ideal for country walks! Hopefully next week the weather will improve and the DIY will be finished! You never know, stranger things have happened! lol ;)