Another crafty gathering

Do you remember last year (about August I think) when I had a few friends round for a crafty evening?  Let's see if I can link to that page on the blog.  Well, ever since then we have been trying to get together again.  Firstly we thought it would be Christmas but everyone was too too busy. Then January (in readiness for Valentine's day) but no, then we thought maybe Easter but people were away so eventually we managed to find a date when we could all get together and it was yesterday.

So there was bread baking (actually my favourite recipe - Courtland's Potato rolls which I always make on Christmas eve) the traditional way.  Recipe will follow at some point.

After the initial rising, I kneaded the dough again and then moulded it into rolls and covered them with wet teacloths and put them in the fridge over night.  I remember I used to do this regularly on a Friday when I was at home with the little people so that we always had fresh rolls and homemade soup on Saturday for lunch, and of course they often helped me prepare the dough!  I just loved that time.

Then for my crafty friends there were goody bags to make.  This time I thought I would do fabric bags and make it pretty simple by adding a pot of homemade apricot jam, a crocheted flower with a pin on the back so it could be used as a brooch or added to a bag, a recipe for the chocolate chip cookies I made for them and a scenic postcard from my great photographer friend Dave Newbould.

Here are all the things spread out on my lovely Cath Kidston tablecloth.

the scenic postcards from Dave and recipe cards

 homemade apricot jam

crocheted flowers in colours to match the fabric bags below

here they are all lined up on the piano awaiting collection.  So what else did we do?  In the end only three could come (there were five scheduled) so after arriving around 6.30pm straight from work, we tucked into the meal  I had prepared:  baked camembert with crudites and Asian salad (a Jamie Oliver recipe from Christmas time which happens to be the favourite of the moment for hubby!) followed by a victoria sandwich filled with creme fraiche and homemade strawberry freezer jam and fresh strawberries and chocolate chip cookies!!  it was all very yummy I have to say. Sorry there are no pictures of the goodies to eat but I don't know about you but it gets soooo busy in the kitchen that the last thing I think of most of the time is getting the camera out!!!

Then we set about making necklaces.  One of my friends (the one who is into jewellery making) brought some gorgeous wooden beads and leather string and we had such fun choosing our colours and making up a pattern.  We had agreed that we would each make one necklace for one of our friends (who hadn't been able to come) who was going out on a scholarship to the US to Bible School.  We thought she might be able to sell the necklaces either before she went or over there to raise some funds.  Would you like to see how they turned out?

Then my other contribution apart from the food was to show everyone some rubber stamping techniques so we could make cards to go with the necklaces. Check out the designs above.  We were really pleased with our evenings work.  Let's hope our friend can sell them too.  I must admit I really loved working with these wooden beads - just feeling them was so therapeutic.  I think I might have to make a visit to the bead shop when I am next in London!!!