Where has the time gone??? ....and fruit infused alcohol!

Firstly let me apologize for this post.  The time references are all wrong because I wrote it up, saved it with the intention of adding some photos and then complete forgot to post it!  So now that two weeks have passed, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their family and loved ones!! 

Wow I can't believe that in just one week it will be Christmas! (see apology above) This year has gone by so incredibly fast and so much has happened!  We settled into a new area, my husband spent 6 months in Afghanistan, I got a new job and now we're planning on moving again!  No wonder I seem to have more grey hair than ever these days (thanks for covering it up, Max!)

So I don't know about you, but I am the biggest kid at Christmas time!  I am SOOOOOO excited!  I know exactly what I'm getting (tell ya next week), and I can't wait!!!  (Taking photos with the photo my wonderful husband gave me for Christmas!!)  And I just love giving too.  I'm so excited for my husband to open up the gift I bought him (even though he knows what it is too) and see how excited the dog gets when we start ripping open paper!  (Mental note...must go buy him the biggest bone the shop has!)  I've also spent the last several months preparing fruit infused alcohol to give as gifts.  How the interest started is we spent a long weekend in the Cotswolds for our first wedding anniversary and the hotel supplied us with a small complimentary decanter of homemade sloe gin (which they topped up daily!!)  I was a bit reluctant to try it as I don't like gin...but I'm so glad that I did because it was delicious!  After a long day of walking in the countryside, it was so nice to put our feet up and sip sloe gin.

When we got home I ordered some sloe berries through a guy on ebay - I could have just gone out the country and picked them myself, but £7 saved me the trouble..not bad really. Once all the ingredients were in the jar, we were really good about shaking them daily and then weekly...even tasting occasionally to see how they were progressing.

As I was then on a role, I found other recipes online for fruit infused alcohol and settled on raspberry infused vodka (because that is hubby's favourite fruit) and then cranberry and orange infused vodka....which we also would religiously shake (and taste).

After about 2 months everything was ready to be bottled.  We've kept quite a few for us, but I've also given some out at work as Christmas gifts for colleagues.  My boss was thrilled! (brownie points for me!)  I just think sometimes a homemade gift means so much more.  I hope everyone enjoys drinking them as much as I enjoyed making them!  This project is definitely on my list to do again very soon!  Maybe I should rename this blog "Fancy a tipple?"     *smile*

We're saving the last decanter of sloe gin (photo above) to enjoy in the new house!  I can't wait!

Finished Top Down Sweater

So after months of being delinquent again, I decided to log into blogger and consider possibly maybe catching up with another post..and see drafts sitting there! ????  I apparently logged in months ago, wrote a couple of posts, saved them and then must have immediately forgotten about them. Yeesh!

So here is my first one.  Another lovely FO!

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I think I bought this particular pattern by Per Amore Designs a few years back.  I had good intentions on doing it right away, but as I do with knitting, there are soooo many projects that I want to do that I get completely sidetracked.  I bookmark so many and get overwhelmed with all the choices!

Finally last year when wanting a super easy knit I could do in the car on the way up North, I remembered this top down pattern.  And as I'm trying to work through my stash, I grabbed some inexpensive acrylic I had.  It was super soft and a stunning colour.

Unfortunately though (insert curse here) so many things I make come out too big!!  I even started this, pulled it out and started it over again in a smaller size and it still came out too freaking big!  Damn!

So I couldn't really bring myself to pull it all out again and start over, so I packed it up and mailed it to my mum. *smile*  She loved it of course (as she does the several others I've given her over the years!)

Doesn't it look great!!??  I think the colour is just so flattering and she's almost colour coordinated with the azaleas in the background!  Never mind that it was super hot and she complained about having to try it on in 80 degree weather!

(I must remember to tell her the date on her camera is completely off!)