Sleepless Nights

My sleeping pattern has been all wrong lately, so I am currently awake at 4am.  What better time to plan my next project?  I haven't even posted my last, and I am waiting on a yarn delivery to finish the blanket I am working on, but I know what I will be making next!  My mother-in-law gave me a great book for Christmas with 200 crochet blocks, and I am going to make a sampler blanket with as many of those blocks as possible!  This is going to be a mammoth project.

Simple Peanut Butter Apple Crisp

This has been a very difficult year.  I had many plans to be creative and productive, but dramatic things happened and prevented all of that.  Never mind.  It is nearly a new year and I am going to turn everything around.

I haven’t been in the kitchen in… a longer time than I care to admit, so I am reintroducing it to myself gently.  Peanut butter apple crisp is perfect in the autumn and winter, with its tart sweetness and generous helpings of nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice.  It is simple to make.  The measurements are not terribly important, so I go wild with the spices.  I used to make this so often that I memorised the recipe.  It had been a while since the last time though, so I had to write to my mother and ask for help.  This is a rustic dessert, and doesn’t require fancy presentation, so it is easy to whip up late at night, which is exactly what I did.

The ingredients are: granny smith apples, lemon (for the juice), peanut butter (I love to use chunky), rolled oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, butter, brown sugar, flour and water.

Arrange the peeled and sliced apples to cover the bottom of a buttered baking dish.  Sprinkle with water and lemon juice.

Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, peanut butter and melted butter in a bowl.  I like to add some spices to the topping too, but that isn’t in the original recipe.  The mixture should be mealy and a little clumpy.  Mine looks smoother than usual because the oats were not whole.  I use my hands for this!

Spread the spices on the apples, then the topping on top of that.  I would also normally have more topping than this, but we are running low on supplies here the day after Christmas.

Bake at 375 F/190 C for 30-40 minutes.  I used this time to work on my oh-so-snuggly sock wool blanket.

Remember when I said presentation isn’t necessary with this recipe?  I meant it!  This is comfort food, and I think comfort food should feel approachable.  I don’t want to worry about knocking over towers of apples in the middle of a plate.  I just want to eat it… and eat it…. and eat it.

Green

We went for a nice walk today.  It was sunny and warm for the first time since moving into our new house, so we took the little one out to play, then walked around the area.  We will be happy here.  It is so green, with mature trees.  We had a stunning view in our last place, but it was in a soulless new development.  This is an established neighbourhood with character and history.  I missed seeing greenery, and now we have it everywhere.  It smells clean.  It feels like we aren’t in the city.

The bad news?  I forgot to bring the camera!

Made by Petchy's Bureau

I adore this bureau on Made by Petchy's blog. The way she left the veneer showing for the tree is so clever, and olive and petrol are two of my favourite colours, too!

My first revamp project

This big sideboard was delivered by the charity shop today. I need to do something to it, but don’t know what yet! Any suggestions are very welcome. It is solid wood with a pretty thick varnish. I guess this was a big piece to choose for my first, but hopefully that will make the rest feel easier.

Lush Designs

Lush Designs is one of my favourite brands, if not THE favourite. I wish I could invite them to my home and have it covered completely in their work. It's beautiful, and exactly my style. I have this bag, and it has left me wanting more!

Slow Start

Finally, my first post! I have been planning this blog for months, but I got so caught up with getting it just right that I never actually started. I have called it Woolly Fish because my original plan was to talk about my knitting and fish keeping. I had bought a nice, new aquarium when I registered, and planned to take pictures as it established. Well… It has been established for a long time, I have made quite a few bits and pieces, shifted my focus to sewing (I still knit, though), and have moved house (and fish tank).

My husband is an artist. He can paint and draw, write music, sing, and play instruments with seemingly little effort. Everything he does is self-taught. For years I have been envious of his creativity. I am a musician as well, but I am classically trained and cannot write anything of my own no matter how hard I try. I am not sure that will change, but I am certain there is some creativity inside me somewhere, and I am hoping this blog will encourage me to find and develop it. I will use the first few entries to catch up on projects I have completed since the false start to this blog, and hopefully have more projects to share soon.

I am just learning, so I don’t expect anyone to be amazed by my efforts, but I hope you can see improvement over time, and that you enjoy reading this! I probably won’t be so wordy after this entry, but I might be slow in posting for a while until I get my own internet access in our new house.