Baby Alpaca

Here is a little baby alpaca I have crocheted using baby alpaca yarn. I made it for my sister and her husben because they are both mad about alpacas. Alpaca yarn is really soft and very nice to work with, making this little alpaca has made me mad about alpaca too.  I found the patten on Etsy from a really lovely shop where you can buy lots of very clever pattens for little animals.  Here is a link to the shop.  PlanetJune's Esty shop

Mince Pie Pastry

Over the past week I have made three batches of mince pies and I used three different recipes for the pastry, some of which can be found in Nigella's Christmas.  Like the mincemeat I have combined some of the recipes together to make the best one.  

Mince meat for mince Pies

Christmas is coming and for me the best things about christmas is eating yummy food.  I love the smells and warming tastes that christmas treats have to offer, like mince pies and hulled wine. Christmas is the only time of year I start to miss home and the English christmas, especially mince pies. 
Mince pies were traditionally made using a combination of minced meats, fruits and spices, the recipe was thought to be brought over from the middle east in the 13th century. New the minced meat is no longer used and they are made using dried fruit and spices however the name minced meat is still used. 
 I haven't be able to find them in Belgium so my desperation has led me to making them.  I found a few different recipes some from Nigella Lawson's Christmas cookbook.  but I couldn't find all the ingredients here, so I combined some of the recipes and added other thing where needed. Here is the recipe I ended up using for the mince meat.   

Computer Pocket

 Living in a yurt does not offer the luxury of space, this only means we need to be more creative with storage and spacing.  For a long time now my computer didn't have a home and when I am not using it I always put it in or on the book shelf.  But this has resulted in one too many fatalities and the death of my old computer. So I have been determent to find a solution, and it came to me one day.  I always sit on the sofa when I am using my computer and so I thought why not make a little pocket that somehow fixes to the sofa for my computer to live in. 

This is what I made; It has 6 straps, 3 attached at the top and 3 at the back so that it ties under the arm of the sofa.   

 It can also be used for putting books and newspapers in. So all in all its is a very useful little pocket.