C.C.C. Spen Valley. Yorkshire day event. Sponsored by Yorkshire Tea

Twenty four of us from the Spen Valley group of the Clandestine Cake Club, gathered on Saturday 27th July, 2013 to celebrate Yorkshire Day a few days early  (it is actually on 1st August) and we were excited to have Lynn Hill from CCC HQ join us for the event. Even more members had booked but unfortunately two people with guests couldn’t join us due to illness. They did let me know though that they couldn’t come, which is good.

We chose Liversedge Parish Centre for our event. It has a great room with lots of space to move around and a good kitchen. We put up tressle tables so lots of us could sit round together and chat and drink Yorkshire tea (and coffee and soft drinks) and asked for donations in lieu of payment for drinks so we could leave a good donation to the Centre for use of the room. There were comments made of what a great place the Centre was for such an event.

Yorkshire day is actually on 1st August and Yorkshire Tea kindly sponsored our event and sent various items for us. Yorkshire Tea, cups, bunting, balloons and a table cloth.

These are the cakes we enjoyed.

…and photos of the group

Everyone had a good time and there was lots of cake for everyone to take home.

Thanks to everyone for coming and making this event a success and thanks to all who helped putting out the tables and chairs, clearing them away again, clearing up, washing up and vacuuming up the crumbs etc.

The Charcoal Challenge from Moneysupermarket.com

The Charcoal Challenge

I was really excited to be accepted to take part in the #CharcoalChallenge from  Money Supermarket. com      Wonderful!

The challenge was to host a barbecue for under £50 which would be given to me my Moneysupermarket.com.

I asked my daughter Helen  if we could have the barbecue in their garden as the family already have a barbecue which we could use. Also when the children’s bed time arrives they can go to bed being in their own home and the party can continue.

Helen and Rod were happy to have us especially when I was providing the food and drink (courtesy of MoneySupermarket.com)

All of our family birthdays are from October through to March and none are in summer so this was to be the ‘Summer birthday party’ that we have never had!

Birthday cake for everyone!

The bunting went up.

Evie’s special bunting

(All bunting was made by Helen)

The morning of the barbecue day arrived and ‘The Charcoal challenge’ looked as if it was going to be a challenge.  It was raining.

The rain did stop but the day remained cloudy and overcast and certainly not as warm as it had been.

When Rod attempted to light the charcoal, the charcoal presented a challenge and stubbornly refused to burn.

At one point we thought we would have to have an indoor barbecue and so we roasted the chicken portions in the oven.Rod’s perseverance paid off and the charcoal lit!

This is how I spent my £50

Pork fillet, sausages, burgers and chicken

Drinks

Dips, olives and nibbles.

Helen made the  birthday cake and sour dough bread buns

Meat for barbecue, sausages, burgers, fillet pork pieces.   £11

Salad              £4

Beer             £10 ( from Morrisons)

Wine          3 bottles for £10 (from Asda)

Crisps, olives, mayo, marshmallows lemonade etc  £9

Helen made the sour dough bread rolls and cake and I gave her the change (£7) out of the £50 to cover these and other extra store cupboard items which were used.

Click on this link for  Helen’s recipe for the Sour Dough burger buns 

We had lots to eat and drink and lots of drinks left over for later!

Thank you MoneySupermarket.com for our fantastic afternoon.

As it was a ‘birthday party’ I gave the guests cheap and cheerful birthday presents too . These were not included in the £50 which I bought as little surprises for the guests by me.

I made a cushion cover for Greta and added cushion pad

I made a make up bag for Izzy and added a nail varnish

For Helen a chocolate orange and a nail varnish

For Evie a Mini sketch pad

For Richard I bought juggling balls

For Rod a book A fire engine book for Isaac

We played Pass the Parcel too and had prizes of sweets between the layers of wrapping. Evie loved it and of course won the ‘main prize’ in the middle!

Great company and great food.

I was given £50 by Moneysupermarket to spend as I wished hosting a barbecue, after which I had to blog about it.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about it

The Great Yorkshire Show 2013

I remember my early visits to The Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate when I was 11, 12 or 13, over 50 years ago. Once I was with my Grandparents and once with my Dad. I disliked cheese as a baby and small child and it was here when I was 13, I was offered a sample of Caerphilly cheese and realised my tastes had changed, cheese was not too bad and I did like cheese after all!

Was the show held at that time on the Stray? I can’t remember travelling as far out of Harrogate as I did today and in recent years.

I next visited the show at this present showground 7 or 8 years ago with Helen and my late husband David, and then 4 years ago while Helen was on Maternity leave with baby Evie.

This year, Helen being again on Maternity leave was an opportune time to visit the show again and as in previous years we had a great day out.

Its a 3 day show Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We originally planned to attend on Tuesday but when we saw that the weather was to be 28degrees, we changed our minds and chose Wednesday for a cooler day.

Our journey to the show this morning was fine till we reached the turn off from the A61 to the show ground and then it took an hour and 10 minutes, being directed in a long and winding extra long route to reach a car park.

Once in the car park we  were ready for a  coffee and chocolate bun and Helen was a star and provided both for us,  before setting of on what turned out to be a mile trek to the show ground.

Thankfully the day wasn’t as hot as yesterday for both sitting in the car in traffic and the long walk into the Show.

We didn’t need a coat on and it didn’t rain. Perfect!

The crowds were huge! Everyone and their Grandmothers appeared to be there today. Probably because the Show was cancelled due the waterlogged ground last year, everyone had decided to visit this year.

We saw but a fraction of the attractions. We didn’t see the Army Assault course, Show Jumping, Cars, Tractors and if there was any craft competitions, we missed that too!

Its completely different going to the show with children. Negotiating the crowds with a pram and small children, is slower going than a couple of grown ups on their own.

Evie loved all the things specifically aimed at children, planting  sunflower seeds in the Asda tent, making things and playing games in an area promoting The Hepworth, Eureka museum, Yorvik centre etc.

And we all enjoyed looking at the prize winning animals

I particularly liked looking at the food hall, we were tempted into buying olives and cheese and I loved the arrangements of flowers and vegetables on display.

We took a picnic for lunch time although there were lots of places selling what looked like excellent food and somehow we luckily came across the Foster’s tent without a long queue,  just when we needed much needed refreshment.

We all enjoyed the sheep shearing demonstation and seeing the ‘dancing’ sheep.

It was a great day out. It’s a shame we can’t do it all again tomorrow to see all that we missed today!

Groovebulb packaging ‘Upcycle challenge’

The challenge I undertook was to ‘Upcycle’ the cardboard packaging from this great energy efficient, mercury-free, LED Groovebulb.

I chose to have sent the ‘bright’ bulb which has a natural daylight effect but I could have just as easily chosen the ‘warm’ option which looked great too. Both options come in screw or bayonet fitting.

I love the white ‘daylight’ light from the lamp with the Groovebulb. At the moment the bulb is in this uplighter but I will move it to a work lamp where it will be ideal for crafting evenings.

I decided to crochet a sleeve and lid cover to ‘Upcycle’ my packaging and will use it to keep crochet hooks in, so I’ll always know where to find them.

Any small balls of leftover yarn can be used for this and I used a size 4.oo crochet hook.

I had previously crocheted some ‘Owl motif’ Granny Squares. You will find the free pattern for this on Ravelry in the free pattern section.

I added an extra row of trebles at the side of one square, so when joined they were big enough to cover the Groovebulb tube, and crocheted the two squares together with a double crochet stitch. I then added an extra row of trebles at the top and bottom of this tube sleeve. After sewing in all the loose ends, the tube sleeve cover was complete.

The lid was covered with a crocheted granny round

Granny squares, granny rounds and granny stripes are crocheted using clusters of (usually) 3 trebles, usually of different colours for each row.

Here is the Pattern for the lid cover.

Make a slip knot and Chain 5, join with ss in first ch to form a ring.

Round 1   Ch3,  15tr in ring, join with ss in rop of first ‘ch3’  If you are changing colour for each round, fasten off.

Round 2   attach new colour of yarn. Ch3, 2tr in same st as join.  *ch1 miss 1 stitch, 3 tr in next stitch*to end of round, ch1, miss last stitch, join with ss in top of first ‘ch3’. Fasten off yarn.

Round 3 attach new colour of yarn in any ch space, ‘ch3, 2 tr 1ch 3 tr’  in same stitch as join, *3tr 1ch 3tr*for the whole round. ss to top of first ‘3ch’

This was a similar size to the  base of  the Groovebulb container tube so no more ‘increase’ rows were necessary.

Round 4. attach new colour to any chain space. 3chain 1 treble in this space, continue with 2 trebles in each chain space to end and join with a ss to first 3chain

Contine with a further 3 rows of 3 trebles in each ch space from the previous row.

My ‘Upcycle challenge’ was complete.

I was sent the Groovebulb to try at no cost to me but all materials used to decorate this was bought at my own expense and I enjoyed the challenge.