2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Shropshirelass

Happy Happy birthday Laura, does Long Mynd have snow? We can see the Welsh hills above Chirk, seem to get topped up with white every night. Looking very beautiful.
I also love the idea of decorating a half Christmas/half Birthday cake. I would have loved to make one for my Grandad, born Boxing Day 1880. He was always very particular about celebrating his birthday, and let everyone know he did not appreciate joint Christmas/Birthday presents (he was a bit of a tyrant I'm afraid). He didn't quite make his 100th birthday, but would have had lots of stories for us about his wartime allotment, and his time in the Home Guard. I think sand bags around the local hall where they drilled figured largely in his reminiscences.

thriftwizard

Happy Birthday, Laura! I'd never thought of Christmas cake for birthdays before, but now my eyes are opened there'll be no stopping me...

I too am very glad we still have the Village Hall to gather in. It's been a lovely sunny-but-freezing day down here; I've been over to the allotment - still too soggy to dig for victory, sadly, but I was able to liberate a number of sturdy leeks - to the garden centre for compost - it's not too early to be thinking of planting tomato & chilli seeds - and for a long riverbank walk with DD1. But a nice sit-down, a cuppa & a catch-up by a roaring stove would be a perfect end to the daylight hours.

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

I normally don't really wave my birthday around but I thought people might need a spot of cheering-up. I'm not quite sure how the Village Hall is affected by the new lockdown, but I believe it has a Unique Special Dispensation so that we can still meet up in here... our plans for visiting my favourite knitting shop to spend birthday money, and/or go for a short hike up on the Long Mynd were cancelled by us yesterday morning as it became apparent that just going anywhere for any non-urgent reason was a bit stupid... so at least no disappointment, come the evening's announcement! 

Would anyone like some birthday cake? In true wartime spirit, I haven't actually made a birthday cake, but am re-using the uneaten half of my Christmas cake - I wish I'd thought of decorating it as half Xmas and half birthday, would have been quite fun to do! 

The stove is lit, and the tea-urn is going... pull up a chair! 

Happy birthday, dear Laura.  I hope 2021 brings you lots of joy.

Save me a cuppa and a piece of cake, please.  I am buried in Year End.  Grrrr......  (Never again will I choose to work for a company with a December year end.  It's horrible!)  Should come up for air tonight.

- Pip

Nonnadiluca

Happy birthday Laura!

joedenise

PipneyJane said:

Laura_Elsewhere said:

I normally don't really wave my birthday around but I thought people might need a spot of cheering-up. I'm not quite sure how the Village Hall is affected by the new lockdown, but I believe it has a Unique Special Dispensation so that we can still meet up in here... our plans for visiting my favourite knitting shop to spend birthday money, and/or go for a short hike up on the Long Mynd were cancelled by us yesterday morning as it became apparent that just going anywhere for any non-urgent reason was a bit stupid... so at least no disappointment, come the evening's announcement! 

Would anyone like some birthday cake? In true wartime spirit, I haven't actually made a birthday cake, but am re-using the uneaten half of my Christmas cake - I wish I'd thought of decorating it as half Xmas and half birthday, would have been quite fun to do! 

The stove is lit, and the tea-urn is going... pull up a chair! 

Happy birthday, dear Laura.  I hope 2021 brings you lots of joy.

Save me a cuppa and a piece of cake, please.  I am buried in Year End.  Grrrr......  (Never again will I choose to work for a company with a December year end.  It's horrible!)  Should come up for air tonight.

- Pip

Year end at the end of March isn't much better with Easter being anywhere from mid March to mid April!

CapricornLass

Happy Birthday, fellow little goat!  I hope you have a good birthday, in spite of the lockdown.

I'll have to bring my own piece of Christmas cake ( has to be gluten free and nut free - sorry) but I would LOVE a piece of Wensleydale with it if you wouldn't  mind cutting a piece off and passing it over? 

Sorry to hear about your year end woes, Pip, I used to hate that time of year when I was working -  and I wasn't even working in accounts!

Betharooni

Happy birthday Laura! Hope you had a wonderful day. I’d love some birth-mas cake and a cup of tea would go down lovely. Your repair of your OH’s jumper was amazing btw - without you pointing at it I would not have been able to work out where it was. 

So sorry that you’re having to deal with year end work atm Pip, year end where I work is end of March and it’s awkward enough then and takes us a week or so to get our stuff finalised to pass to the financial accountants (I work in Accounts Payable), let alone having to do it around new year, especially this year as well.

I hope you all don’t mind but I’m going to do a bit of knitting while we eat and chat, this jumper isn’t going to finish itself...

B x

Cherryfudge

CapricornLass said:

I'll have to bring my own piece of Christmas cake ( has to be gluten free and nut free - sorry) but I would LOVE a piece of Wensleydale with it if you wouldn't  mind cutting a piece off and passing it over?  

I was going to suggest that too! Absolutely the best way to have fruit cake and, as was pointed out, fewer calories without the marzipan and icing sugar.

Happy birthday @Laura_Elsewhere and belated happy birthday @PipneyJane.

skogar

Happy birthday Laura. You have made a superb job of the repair to the front of the  jumper. You would never know it had been damaged.

Thriftwizard - its a good sewing machine - now all I have to do is learn how to use it.

Currently I am investigating the mixed colour (brown / beige) wool that was one of the  ones that  my Mum was given. I had found a picture using that colourway on the image of the front of a pattern for that wool and was very unconvinced as to what it would look like although looking at the ball I had expected it to knit up quite nicely. To see how it looked I decided to swatch it but rather than swatching  it to start some wrist warmers - see what they looked like and continue if they looked OK. If not perhaps try knitting a swatch doubled as a chunkier option. The wool is looking nice knitted  up so I will complete the pair of wristwarmers in it and then probably  a hat, however with little warning I also need to make some quick baby hats with no / little notice. Having spent ages looking online trying to work out what type of really nice brightly coloured (but nice and soft) yarn I used for some baby hats some ago - have decided that if I kept some sort of record of patterns / yarns used etc. things might be rather easier if I tried to make another later. Of course annoyingly where I bought it from was a lovely wool shop which unfortunately closed over a year ago so ringing and asking was out.

keepcalmandcraft

Happy birthday Laura! Hope you had a lovely day!