Berry Picking and Dyeing Fabric

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I spent this weekend at the farm, and Sunday morning I went out to take some photos and to go berry picking, as there were some lovely brambles/blackberries ready for picking. I had two reasons for going berry picking, the first one to eat them of course, and the second one to try my hand at dying some cross stitch fabric (aida this time) with some natural ingredients. Surprisingly enough I wasn't even remotely tempted to eat as I picked the berries, and so I came home with about 1.5 kilos worth of berries. Don't they look lovely in this bowl. Both my grandmother and my mother were surprised at the quantity of berries I brought home. I didn't even pick the majority of them, because they were too far into the brambles, and I didn't feel like getting my arms all scratched up, so I only went for the easy-to-reach ones. So after lunch I grabbed about 50-100g of these lovely berries, which by the way were really delicious, and put them in the machine to liquidize them. I got the consistency to a thick paste and then went to get my precut fabric. The first piece I tried is used seeds and all and poured a generous amount onto the fabric in a bowl and then had some fun spreading the past all over the cloth to make it even. When I was satisfied I squeezed all the excess paste out of the fabric and gave it a light rinse in water to remove as many of the seeds as possible. I then experimented with adding more water and put the rest of the paste through a sieve to use only the liquid part of it. The results are these pieces of lovely coloured fabric. I already have ideas on how to use them, and I'll be using some pink silk that I got from Stoney Creek in a bag of threads and some light coloured DMC/Anchor floss. I've been having a go at designing my own patterns and I'll most like be using them to make some gifts for Christmas. By the way, the fabric still has a lovely smell to it from having used natural product instead of dye. Using the berries wasn't my first attempt at dyeing though. Some time ago my mum cooked some beetroot and I decided to give it a go, but the fabric didn't come out as nicely as I thought it would, seeing as the water was a gorgeous deep red. The results can be seen in the photo below, they're just a beige colour with a slight pink tint to it (not really visible in the photo)

Have already planned on dyeing some more fabric with the berries, especially the darker colours, so will need to go through my stash and find some smaller pieces or otherwise I'm going to have to cut up some of my big pieces.

Cattitudes by Margaret Sherry - Cultured

This is the first of two Cattitude designs by Margaret Sherry that I'm making for my aunt. I've only worked on this for 4 days and am close to finishing it already. Haven't really had too much time to stitch lately, so this might still take some time to finish, hopefully I'll have both this one and the other one finished by the end of the month so that I can start on some more baby things.

Weekend at the farm

So I spent this past weekend at the farm, and the weather was fantastic, so I spent plenty of time playing with the dogs (all four of them) either outside or inside, although mostly inside because it was way too hot in the afternoon. On Sunday I took a walk around the farm and took some really nice photos. These sunflowers don't seem to know that they're supposed to be facing the sun, but it doesn't seem to be harming their growth, they're slightly over 2 meters high and are about 40-50 centimeters in diameter (on average).

These cacti used to be just one and they used to "live" at my late grandmother's house. The cactus was growing along side the 3 story house, and it was already at the 3rd floor, so well over 6 meters, as these pieces here are about 1.5 meters high. My dad is busy planting them all over the farm, but in the meantime they're being housed in these pots, which doesn't seem to be bothering them at all, because as you can see they're flowering already

While working away my dad found this bug, now this looks like a preying mantiss to me, but I'm not 100% sure, anyone out there know what it is? This one was about 10cm long/tall.

Baby Items

I sent these baby items to my friend in Holland on Tuesday, and lo and behold she received them today. Now it usually takes at least a week for things to arrive (personal experience), but this time they arrived in only two days. She absolutely loved them. I should have sent them ages ago, but I never got around to it, and then on Tuesday I happened to come home for lunch, and I saw them lying there, so I packaged it all up and took it with me to the office. Having it at the office I then have more chance of popping into the post office, which is like 5 minutes down the road, and I had some other stuff to send, so off it went.

I made these items, the towel, bib and bootees for my BFF Angie's baby boy she gave birth to in June, so he's just over a month old. The important thing is that Angie loved the items, and it's up to her whether or not she'll use them, but I'm positive she will.

On another note I finally managed to deliver the Baby Blanket I made and the parents were in awe and loved it. It's already hanging up in the baby room. I just need to go visit now and see for myself.

First Scissor Fob

Here's the first ever scissor fob, except I've attached it to my thread cutter, so that I can take it with me when I travel. I used another one of Gazette94 (http://www.gazette94.blogspot.com/) quaker style designs and added my initials. The back is exactly the same except that I added the year instead of my initials. I couldn't find any more purple ribbon, so I used this bright pink ribbon that I'd cut off a top some time ago because it was annoying the hell out of me.

Quaker Style Ornament FINISHED

Here is the finished product. Front and back. This is the quaker style ornament that I made several weekends ago. Because I don't know whether or not I'm going to keep it for myself, I ended up not adding my initials. Sorry for the red background, but the photos on the table didn't look good.

New Family Additions

These two cute little Yorkshire Terrier puppies are the latest additions to our happy family. The one on the left is a little boy named Rusty and the one on the right is a little girl named Zara. Rusty has found a home with myself and Dakota, while Zara found a home with my parents and their other dog Jojo. I went to get them last week Saturday and it's been fun and games since their arrival. Dakota loves playing with both of them, and Jojo is a bit more stand-offish, but plays when she feels like it. Both of them are currently undergoing potty training as they're going to the toilet absolutely everywhere. They're nearly 3 months old, and soon will be able to be going for proper walks outside once they've received all their shots. You'll be seeing loads more photos of these little ones as well as Dakota and Jojo of course in the future.

Quaker Style Ornament

I completed this little ornament this past weekend, that's to say I've completed the stitching part, I still have to put it together. I got the design from one of the freebies from Gazette94's website. I'm also in the process of making a little scissor fob to match, but I haven't taken any photos of it yet. I'll show off the finished pieces some time in the future.

Project 117 Completed

I've finally finished the sampler and made it into a wedding anniversary for my parents. I'm going to have it professionally framed at a local store.

Baby Gifts

These are two gifts I made for a very good friend living in Holland who had her baby a month ago. I still haven't gotten around to sending them yet, but this weekend I'm working on finishing a whole lot of stuff between playing with the dogs and tidying up the house and these little gifts will be sent to her next week.

Giveaway at Dip Diddly Designs

There's a giveaway on Dip Diddly Designs website (http://dipdiddlydesigns.blogspot.com/2009) for a gorgeous La D Da designs. Jolene is being extremely generous with this giveaway including some hand-dyed Gloriana thread, the Linen and the needles to make this piece. Go check out her site, she has some really gorgeous stitching and other interesting photos.

117 - Au Bonheur des Filles UPDATE

So here it is finally, I only finished it yesterday because I've not actually been working on it much at all due to the high work load at the office and then being to tired to do anything when I get home. I got this as a freebie from De Fil en Aguille website (http://defilenaiguille.fr/). The moment I saw it I knew I had to make it for my parents to hang up in their farm, as it is all about the farm. I decided to make it into a wedding sampler to personalize it, so I added my parents name and their anniversary at the top. Now all I have to do is iron it and have it framed, which I'll try to do some time this month. I'll give it to them on their anniversary this year.

Circuito da Boavista

Finally found some time to write again. So it's been a hectic couple of weeks since I last wrote and I went to help out at the farm during a weekend, because my mum broke her arm. Anyway, I missed the first weekend of Circuito Boavista (more information can be found on the official website http://www.circuitodaboavista.com/) but seeing as I was more interested in the "historical" car races I didn't mind too much. So last weekend I got up cleaned the house and then after lunch on Sunday I got Dakota, my camera and some water and started on our walk from my house to the location of the races, which really isn't that far. I arrived at one of the corners of the track just as the Porsche race had begun, so I wasn't able to cross the bridge they'd constructed especially for the race to get into the Parque da Cidade (City Park in Porto) where I knew I'd have an excellent vantage point. So I stood at the bus stop watching the race which lasted about 20 minutes. Actually didn't get to see much of the race, because a lady walked up to me and started talking to me about pets. Really I usually don't mind, but I was there to watch the race and ended up not seeing much of anything. So the Porsche race was for any type of Porsche of any age, of course I liked the older ones much better than the new ones, as you see the new ones out on the street. The older ones were the original Formula 1 & other Race Cars used from the 50s onwards.

So the real reason I went to the races last weekend was to see all the "Old Timers" or "Historical" cars, however, I didn't find them. That's to say there was a tent where there were about 10 cars, but not like two years ago at the last races when they were all lined up on the street. This year I only found the Mazda MX-5/Miata's and Ferrari's lining the street. I was a bit disappointed for not being able to see the vintage cars, which I love, I have one myself as you can see in the previous post. I did enjoy myself though, I'm not usually much of a car fanatic, but this is something that I really like, especially because they use the original track they used to use in the old Formula 1 races when they were still held in Portugal. I regularly travel along this track as it's just a regular road the rest of the year.

The photos as the top were from this year and two years ago. The one on the left shows the cars lining the street this year, like I mentioned just the Mazda MX-5/Miata and the Ferrari's. The picture on the left shows the street two years ago lined with the vintage cars, much more my style.

World Volks Wagen Beetle Day

So this past Monday (June 22nd) was World Volks Wagen Beetle Day, and I really wanted to take mine out for a spin, but unfortunately there's something wrong with it that won't allow the battery to charge, so it's just sitting in my garage until I find the time to have the mecanic come and get it.

This car is very special to me, my grandfather bought it second hand in the 70s, I even have pictures of me in the car, which was a grey/beige color then. After my grandfather was no longer allowed to drive due to health problems, it just sat in a garage for years and years, and ended up rusting slightly, so I had a mecanic friend of my godparents take the car apart and do a complete overhaul on it. One of the back parts covering the wheel had to be replaced as apparently the first owner (not my grandad) had smashed it and had done a really lousy job of fixing it and when they went to remove the rust the piece just fell apart. So anyway it took about 2 years to complete as he wasn't working on it full time, and he had a retired friend of his working on it on weekends as well. Actually his retired friend was the one that took the engine completely apart and cleaned every last bit of it before putting back together again, the only thing that was replaced there was a coil that had completely rusted away. I didn't like the original color too much, found it a bit boring, so I asked the mecanic to paint it in a light blue with a hint of turqouise. This is not quite the color I wanted, but it suits the car just fine, and I can totally live with it. For the interior I chose a grey fabric and pleather, so now I just have to be careful with Dakota's nails when she comes with me. Now that summer is finally here, I definitely want to start driving this little guy during the weekends, so I guess I'm going to have to get to the mecanic real soon.

117 - Au Bonheur des Filles

This is the latest project I'm working on. It's already number 117 since I started keeping track of all the projects I make in 1991. I guess that's not really a lot in 18 years, but considering I was still in school in the 90s and had a lot of studying to do I don't think I did too badly. Also I was into making big projects, now I quite like making small ones as well as they're quick finishes.

This is a freebie from Des Fil En Aguille a French site. I started it last weekend while at the farm. During this week I've worked mainly on the top part. I still have to finish the farmhouse and then I'm going to start on the alphabet in the middle. I'm making this for my parents as they live on a farm, and this goes nicely in the dining room, or wherever my mum decides to put it. I'm making it for their wedding anniversary, which is only in December, so I have plenty of time to finish, but the way it's going I'll have it finished by the end of July.

So I'm stitching this with Anchor 1006 on white linen, which I forgot to dye first. I have no idea what kind of linen it is as it came in a Linen Grab Bag I purchased from Marilyns.com several weeks ago. Seeing as the design itself is only 164 x 164 I have quite a bit of Linen left at the top, so I'm going to cut it off and stitch a small design on it, maybe the duck or one of the piggies, and then try dying it after the stitching to see how it turns out. If it turns out ok, and the red doesn't bleed too much I'll do the whole piece. At the moment I think the linen is just too white against the red. Will have to see how the finished piece looks and make the decision afterwards.

Well that's basically all the stitching news I have for now. On another note, my only remaining grandmother went in for a hysterectomy on Friday and all went well, she's now recuperating in the hospital and should be released on Monday. I went to visit her today and she wasn't doing too badly, she said she had no pain whatsoever, but she wasn't able to keep any food down, but my aunt came as well and stayed with her to make sure that she'd get something to eat, as it's very important for her to get her strength up. After her hospital stay she'll be going to the farm and staying there for some time, as she's not allowed to overexert herself at all as they also had to sew her bladder into place as that's what was causing her health problems.

Office

So this is me at work. I have no direct sunlight, but that means that my work place is fairly cool in the summer and not too bad in the winter time. I have a map of Europe behind me and in the conference room there's one of the world. Dakota decided to absent herself for the photo, I guess she's had enough of me chasing her with the camera that she wasn't too pleased when my colleague decided to pick up my camera and go around the office taking some photos. The desk wasn't actually too bad, usually it's covered in papers and I'm lucky if I can find anything. Will be back there tomorrow.

Farm Oddities

Here you see my mum holding one of 3 giant mushrooms she uncovered under a whole bunch of bramble bushes she was cutting away. I kid you not, this thing, the biggest of the 3, is about 25cm in diameter if not bigger (didn't get a ruler to measure it). The stem is about half the size it was originally as my mum accidentally cut it while removing the bramble bushes.

In the background you see some plants that still need to be planted and a tub full of water with some water plants that will go into our pond, when we get around to deciding where it's going to be.

Ok, so we all know what woodworms are, they're those nasty little critters that get into our wood furniture and eat it all up. Well, ever seen one that's been allowed to grow and grow and grow. No, well, just take a look at the picture to the right. Yes, you're eyes are seeing it right, you're not being deceived here, the worm is as big and as thick as my index finger of my left hand. This wasn't even the biggest of the lot that my dad found while digging around in the soil. He was digging around a rock in the backyard and uncovered a dead root which he tried to remove. When a piece broke off, he uncovered about 6 of these "beasts". You can just see its little legs while trying to dig itself back into this chunk of wood.

Will see what kind of new sight I see this weekend. It's supposed to be good weather again, and I'm off to the farm again, so will go do some hiking around to see what I can find.

Life is Good Ewe - Finished

So remember the Life is Good Ewe by Bent Creek I managed to finish some time ago, I couldn't decide how to finish it off, and then after speaking to my mum and gran about it and throwing around ideas, we all decided that a bag would be best, so then to chose the fabrics. Well I remembered that on a shopping spree in Galveston, Texas in 2006 while my dad was at a conference, my mum and I did some fabric shopping at Walmart who had a sale on all the Christmas/Winter fabric. So my mum bought the fabric used for this bag, and it goes really well, because the back has sheep all over it and the front comes back in the other fabric. I have two pockets on the inside, one for my mobile and another one slightly bigger, for my keys.

We finished off the bag by adding these wooden buttons which I'd bought some years ago at a yard sale. They came in a tin full of wooden buttons that I got at a bargain price of just 0.75 euro cents.

Presents for my Mum

Here's the finished piece I made as a Christmas present for my mum. I'd given her the option to make it into a bag to put potpourri in or into a pillow, and she chose to make it into a pillow. the design was a freebie by Kristin Edwards, but can't remember where I downloaded it from. The writing on the left I made up myself. This was one of the first things I tried to stitch on Linen, and I actually quite liked it. You can't see it on the picture above but it's all stitched 1 over 1, it's a bit clearer on the close-up below.

The picture below shows the Christmas present and the Birthday present together on a chair in my parents' bedroom. The reason that they're on the chair is to avoid the dog getting them dirty. She won't jump onto this chair as it's a rocking chair and so it moves when she jumps.

Having seen this work, my aunt hinted that she would like something similar. I've already started thinking of what to make for her for Christmas.

EMS Rose SAL - Update parts 4-6

So this is how far I am after working on it during my week off. It only took me the first weekend to finish the three parts that I'd set as my goal to finish throughout June. Might pick it up again before the end of the month depending on how quickly I get done with the other things I'm working on right now. Actually managed to get a lot done during my week off, and even found some time to get a slight sun burn on my back while stitching outside, completely lost track of time and only when my gran came out to ask if I wanted something to drink did I realize I'd been outside for over an hour in the sun.

Week Long Vacation

Well I'm off tomorrow for a week long vacation at my parents farm. Here in Portugal we have two public holidays next week, namely Wednesday June 10th - Portugal Day and Thursday June 11th - Corpus Christie, and so Friday we have a bridging day. However our offices in Lisbon are closing the office completely due to the overload of vacation requests for that week, and the majority of my colleagues here in Porto also wanted the time off, so we too are closing our offices. Some people will still need to wor, because there are client meetings, but I'm taking the whole week off. Dakota and I are going to be spending the whole week with my parents, and we've persuaded my grandmother (the only I've still got now) to come along. Wednesday I've got some friends coming over as well, as we're planning a big BBQ (hopefully it won't rain). So after writing this entry I'm going to get all my stuff together, and just in case I made a list yesterday to make sure I don't forget anything, because I'm not coming back for it. In other words, I'm taking way more than I actually need, but at least I'll have plenty of things to do. Oh yeah, I'm also going to try out making this cute little box that I saw today. You see we all just got new business cards, and they came in these cute little boxes made out of corrugated paper, I was really sneaky and undid one of the boxes and made a template of it, so now I'm going to try it out with some plain old paper first and then if it works out ok, I'll make it in some cardboard. I'll let you know how it goes, and if it's a success I might even post the template her so you can give it a go yourself. Well, see you in about a week and a half when I'll be sure to have loads of photos to show, either of stuff I've made, or things I've done on the farm, because I'll definitely be roped into helping out with something or other. Have a great weekend.

EMS Rose SAL

Last year Ellen Maurer Stroh offered up a 12-month Sew-A-Long (SAL) on her website (http://www.maurer-stroh.com) and I started it off almost imediately, but I had to pack it along with my other cross stitch stash when I moved to Portugal. I did remember to download each part every month along the year, but I never got around to unpacking the actual cross stitch piece until last weekend. Seeing I'd finished the baby blanket I'd been working on for the last few months, I needed a bit of a change, so I decided to dig this piece out and restart it. So the photo above shows where I left off last year. I'd managed to complete parts 1-3, and was waiting to download part 4, but then I moved.

So this is it now after having worked half a day on sunday and then monday evening on it. The rose is actually part 6 and 9, but I wanted to complete the whole thing before continuing with the letters. My goal is to complete part 4-6 of this SAL by the end of June inbetween making some more baby things. Depending on how fast I complete the baby things, I might try to complete parts 7-9 as well. We'll see, I might just find more things in my stash that I want to do first.

106 - Baby Blanket Completed

Here it is finally!! I finished it on Saturday, now all I have to do is add the back which is a fabric with small little cars on it. Will have to whole week next week to help my mum to finish it. I've removed the name of the baby to not give away who it's for, just in case the parents happen to come by and read this post. I used only Ellen Maurer-Stroh Designs from the three baby books she gave out as freebies on her cross stitch board ( http://www.cross-stitch-board.com/forum/cmps_index.php) for members only. Will try to remember to take photos of the completed thing with backing next week.

Cherries, Olives and Grapes

The picture to the right shows the grapevines full of fruit which we'll be picking in September, if the birds don't get to them first.

The photo above shows the olives which will be good for picking towards October / November this year, they don't look it at the moment, but they're all black olives.

A close up of the cherries and then a pic of part of the tree. When I took these photos they weren't too ripe yet, but my parents went cherry picking this weekend, and they're ripe and delicious.

Friends visit from Holland

Two weekend ago we had some friend from Holland over. Actually they used to take Portuguese Lessons from my mum until we moved to Portugal, but over the years (probably 14 years since we first met them) we've become close friends, and so when they said they were in Portugal on vacation we of course invited them over. So last weekend they came over and we had a good time. These are just a few of the many photos I took. Dinner time on the saturday, if you look closely Jojo managed to get in the photo as well, as she was obviously begging for food, even though she'd eaten already. The rest were taken on the farm, by the chestnut tree, by some really tall ferns and by a tunnel leading to water which comes from our land but goes to our neighbours.

I joined in on the walk around the farm on the Sunday morning (hence these photos), but after lunch I stayed behind, and my mum took my place as they were taken down to view the river. I've done that before and going down there is no problem it's walking back that's the tricky part, it's all uphill, and some of it is fairly steep. Besides we didn't want to leave my grandmother all by herself with the two dogs.

Thanks for coming for a visit dear friends, and as we said before you left, you're always welcome.

Wildlife at the farm

I don't particularly like creepy crawlies, especially not inside the house, but being at the farm and helping my dad out on occasion, I've gotten used to tolerating them. I still don't like spiders, and the one at the top is quite large, thankfully it didn't come towards me, or I might have run screaming in the opposite direction.

I do like the grasshopper though, it just quietly sat in this branch of a plum tree, and let me and a friend take photos without even moving, it was about 5cm(2 inches) tall/big.

113 - Life is Good Ewe

So after talking to my mum and my gran to get their opinions, I've decided to make a small bag out of the Bent Creek Life is Good Ewe kit I made recently. Well actually my mum will be making the bag for me as I don't have a sewing machine and won't be getting one for some time, am saving to try go on vacation towards the end of the year. Anyway, after having decided what I was going to do with this little project I remembered this fabric (the one with the sheep on it) that my mum bought when we were in Galveston in 2006, and then we found the checkered one which matches the other one, also bought in Galveston in 2006 while we were there on vacation. Really my dad was at a conference and my mum and I tagged along, so we went shopping and sightseeing. Ok, when the bag is finished, I'll post another pic so you can see how it turned out.

More Dakota & Jojo

This is my little Dakota when I'm sitting behind my computer. She used to fit in the small basket, when she was 3 months old and still have some space to maneuver. Now she just about fits in the basket, so I got her a bigger basket and my mum even padded it to make it softer, and yet, she still prefers the smaller one. Guess it's cosier, although when Jojo is here, they'll both sleep in the big one.

So this is Jojo, posing for the photo, although she's always got her eyes closed, and I wasn't even using a flash. She turned 3 years old a month ago, and still very active. Basically anyone goes outside at the farm, and she's got to go with. The only time she doesn't like going outside is when it's pouring down with rain.

And here are the little darlings together sitting on an old bed that my mum has upstairs in her craft room, just for this purpose. This way Jojo can lie comfortably on the bed while my mum is working on her sewing machine. Yeah right, she's usually got her head on my mum's feet, and on occasion even gets the machine going by herself, because she lays her head down on the pedal. Dakota on the other hand prefers to fool around with the toys, on the bed, off the bed, wherever, as long as she can chew on something.

Dakota at 9.5 months

Here's some photos I took over the last couple of weeks of Dakota. She's now 9.5 months old, and quite well behaved. Especially seeing as I take her to the office with me every day, and she doesn't bother anyone. Actually she's the one that gets "bothered", there's two colleagues of mine who love to play with her, and regularly chase her around the office. They really like catching her down stairs where we have wooden floors, and she doesn't have that great a grip and slips and slides alot, as you can imagine she's not too fond of that, she prefers playing upstairs where there's carpet and she's got grip and can run without staying in the same location.

The photos above show her enjoying a brand new bone, I give her one about once every month, because otherwise all my money goes to her bones. Actually found a new type of bone made from plastic with a chocolate flavor which is guarantees to last months if not years so she's got that to chew on at the office. The remainder of the photos show her enjoying the sunshine by the balcony. While I'm not there to supervise her she's not allowed out by herself, am afraid she might jump up trying to catch one of the many birds that fly around here, and as we're on the 3rd floor, wouldn't want her to go over the side. So while I'm not with her, she's got to stay behind the windows, when I am around she gets to step outside. Off to my parents' farm tomorrow, so she has all the space to run around chasing birds and Jojo will see if I can't get some decent shots of the two together.

Life is Good Ewe by Bent Creek

This is Life is Good Ewe by Bent Creek, a small kit I'd bought some time ago online, and which this past weekend I couldn't resist picking up and making. It only took saturday and sunday afternoon to finish. Having hardly worked on Linen it was a bit of a challenge, but I quite liked it and it came out beautifully. The next time I have a bit of extra money I'm definitely going to be buying some more of these type of kits with linen and overdyed thread. It does require a bit of different stitching to what I'm normally used to, but I don't mind too much as the results are fantastic. The colours don't really come out too great on the photos, they're much lighter in real life, but it was slightly overcast on Sunday morning when I took the photos (above) and pouring down with rain by the time I finished the piece and took the photo below.

Haven't quite decided how I'm going to finish this piece, but was thinking of going through my mum's fabric stash to see if I can't find something cute to match it and then maybe make it into a small handbag, if anyone has any ideas, let me know, always up to new ideas. Thanks.

Quick-to-make Chocolate Cake

I first want to say that I was absolutely horrified with what happened on Koninginnedag (Queen's day - 30th April) in Holland last week. I really don't know what the guy was thinking to want to crash his car into the Queen's bus on such a joyous day (or any other day for that matter). Instead he killed 4 innocent bystanders and injured a lot more. I really wish every one of those families affected by the tragedy last week my sincerest condolences. Ok, no stitching updates, and I took no photos at all during my stay at the farm last week. We had a long weekend, because the 1st of May in Portugal is Labor Day, so of course we don't work. Well that's to say, I did work, quite a lot actually on my parents farm. You see they have a load of fields that are completely overgrown, and because we have about 4 or 5 natural springs in several locations on the land where the water flows freely, we have an overgrowth of plants. So last week Friday my dad wanted to clear one of these fields that gets plenty of water, so I went to help out. It was a great day, sunny and warm, but because we were mostly working in the shade, we didn't feel the heat of the day that much. We managed to clear more than half the field of all sorts of weeds, and mostly stinging nettles, which we had to be carefull of. My dad cleared and I collected everything on a pitchfork to put in piles that will later be used for a compost heap at another location on the farm. We also cleared a path for the excess water to run so as not to flood the field all the time. While my dad was doing that, I was chopping away at roots to remove them. Did you know that the stinging nettle roots also sting!! Well I didn't but I found out the hard way. I did have working gloves on, but I didn't want to get them wet, so I put my hand in the water to remove a chuck of the root I'd managed to work free and got stung for my effort. Well that won't happen again. I really actually enjoyed helping out, and next time I'm over if my dad needs help with something I'll go out and help again. So now over to the subject heading of this entry. On Sunday my aunt came over to celebrate Mother's day because my gran was also over at the farm. My mum took care of the main course which was fish, some salmon/trout type fish, and I'd promised to make the desert. Well I couldn't be too bothered to spend to long in making a cake, so I decided to try out this recipe a friend of mine gave me. And let me tell you it works, so for those people who are reading this and see that it only takes 5 minutes to cook in the Microwave, just trust me, you get a lovely cake. So before sitting down to lunch I made the cake. This is an excellent recipe to use if you suddenly get some unexpected guests show up. I should mention though that the cake is small, and maybe only good for 8 portions depending on the size of slice you cut. So if you get a really large group, you might have to make more than one cake. Anyway, so below the ingredients and how to make the cake.

INGREDIENTS:

4 eggs

200 grams sugar

150 grams cooking chocolate (at least 70% cacao)

100 grams flour

120 butter (or margarine)

PREPARATION:

1. get a pyrex/glass, microwave safe, dish which is a good 10cm high (you'll need it) and make sure to grease it up really well and then add some flower to cover all the "grease" (I use butter for this)

2. mix together the eggs, flour and sugar in a bowl

3. break the chocolate into small pieces as well as the butter and put them in a bowl and put in the microwave to melt for 1 minute and 30 seconds (no more)

4. Add the melted chocolate and butter to the rest of the ingredients and mix well together until you have a smooth mixture.

5. pour your mixture into the pre-greased dish and put in the microwave at the highest voltage/power for 5 minutes

This cake is supposed to be moist. Once the 5 minutes are up, remove the cake from the dish immediately onto a plate and let it cool down before serving. I usually serve it when it's still a little bit warm (about 30-40 minutes after I made it) with either some vanilla ice-cream or some whipped cream, whatever you prefer.

Like I said, I've made this cake on several occasions now and it really is only 5 minutes in the microwave, and everyone who's tried it has absolutely loved it. That's why I always have some cooking chocolate in my pantry as well as all the other ingredients, just in case. You never know when you're going to need to make a cake in a hurry. Let me know when you've tried it out if it's not easy to make and absolutely delicious.