*Happy Halloween*

Come Wizards, come Witches,
come Goblin & Fae
The time is nigh for Magic & Play

The Candles are lit and gleam in the Night
It’s time for all Broomsticks to rise
and take flight

Come dressed in your Cloaks,
fine Hats & array
And Drink & Be Merry ‘til night turns to day!




I love Halloween, so of course I love to dress the house in Halloween style!
Here are a few examples of the Halloween spookiness that is going on in our home.
Oh and the above little ditty was part of something I wrote last year for our Halloween Party invites!

The first photo is of a little primitive stichery I made and is hanging from our fireplace.
The little witches boots & hat I made last year, they are made with calico and then painted black once made up and then grubbied with a scented cinnamon & apple mixture ~ I found they still actually still smell delicious when I got them out for this year!



This is a bat that I made in the same way and he has red beads for eyes! He is hanging from the mirror in our living room!



Here are some bottles and jars that I made up last year too, all in the style of witches potions ~ these are standing on our dresser in the dining room.

Not to forget the trick or treaters we have lots of sugary goodness for them on a pumpkin plate waiting in our hallway, the sign is handmade by me too.

My broom is propped in the hallway also and my wonderful velvet witches hat is sitting close by too ready for me to take flight at any moment!

Anyhoot have a wonderfully wicked Halloween everyone & enjoy yourselves!

x

*Willow Hearts*

Just a quick post to say that we now have the small willow hearts back in stock!

*Small Willow Heart* £3. 50 each.



*Large Willow Hearts* £5.00 each.



These willow hearts are very popular and they make lovely gifts.

I know a lot of you buy them for decoration for weddings which is so lovely, and a lot of people buy them for wedding gifts too, along with our *Rosebud Hearts* & *Love Letters*.

I also think these willow hearts are a wonderful idea for decorating your home with at Christmas. You could add a bit of ribbon and hang the little ones from door knobs and the larger ones would look lovely hanging from ribbon on door fronts/backs.
You could decorate the hearts with ivy,holly or berries for a wonderful festive winter look.

Of course they always look lovely just stood nicely on fireplaces or dressers. My sister has a large one just hung on the wall in her dining room, which looks so simple yet beautiful.

Whichever way you choose to display these simple hearts they always look wonderful and will always receive a pleasing comment from guests.

*A Sneak Peek at our Autumn Loveliness*

I thought I would share a little sneak peek at what Autumn loveliness is going on in the Vintage Amethyst home this October.

As you can see above we have some wonderful gourds on display in the living room. I absolutely love it when these beauties (or should that be uglies) arrive in florists & boutiques in the Autumn months. These here were such a bargain at 50p each too!



Of course we have our ever so cute mini pumpkins on display again, aren't these little cuties adorable? They are so fairy-tale like & delicious.
They sit in this bowl on our coffee table in the living room and they always get a comment from guests. People can't believe they are tiny dried pumpkins!



And here is a snippet of the fab fabric leaves I picked up in Hamburg last year.
Lovely to adorn tables and fireplaces with.



Here we have a little Autumn pot-pourri mix that I made up from dried orange & lime slices, bay leaves, tiny dried chillies, dried rose hips, sticks of cinnamon & a few conkers thrown in too.
This all sits in a lovely hand-turned wooden bowl in our hallway.



Yay, conkers! Well it wouldn't be Autumn without conkers would it! This is a selection of conkers that we picked up last weekend over in Appleby in Cumbria whilst we had a lovely Autumn walk by the river.
I must admit I can't resist a conker lying on the ground, I do love these little fellas don't you?



And lastly here is a hanging chili heart that I made which hangs from the dresser in our dining room. I love the colour of these chillies as they are so orange & teamed with the raffia I think it looks so rustic & Autumnal.

Hope you enjoyed the little sneak peek into our Autumnal goodies that are decorating our home at the moment, eeek it won't be long before the Christmas lovelies will be adorning the home will it?
Well until then enjoy the beautiful Autumn days everyone.
x

*Eeek, the Darker Nights are a Coming!*

*Clock available in the Vintage Amethyst Boutique*

Don't forget to turn your clocks back tonight everyone in the UK!
Can you believe it is this time of year already?
Ooohhh those dark nights are definitely upon us now, but of course we get another hour of sleep tonight, so stay cosy & warm everyone and I hope you all have a lovely lazy Sunday morning.

*Sweet 'n' Spicy Butternut Pie*

Whilst whiling away a few spare minutes looking for seasonal recipes I came across this delicious sounding recipe Sweet 'n Spicy Butternut Pie.
I absolutely love Butternut Squash and doesn't this just look scrumdiddlyumptious?
Obviously being the kind gal I am, I thought I would share the recipe with you ...

Ingredients

250g butternut squash, peeled weight, cubed
250g shortcrust pastry
¼tsp ground cinnamon
¼tsp ground ginger
¼tsp ground nutmeg
100g light soft brown sugar
2 large eggs
142ml pot single cream
Icing sugar, to dust

Method
1 Simmer the squash in just enough water to cover for 10 minutes until tender. Drain, then blot on kitchen paper. Allow to cool slightly. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6.
2 Roll out the pastry and line a 23cm flan tin. Prick the base, line with foil and weigh down with baking beans. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove foil and beans. Put in oven for 4 minutes more. Reduce heat to 180C/Gas 4.
3 Purée the squash with the spices and sugar. Whisk eggs and cream together in a large bowl until well combined. Whisk in the squash purée and pour the mixture into the pastry case.
4 Bake pie for 30 minutes or until just set in centre.
Cool.
Dust with icing sugar and serve.


Mmmmmm, this would be wonderful for an autumn dinner party or even a Halloween party treat wouldn't it? Something a little different to impress your guests with.

*Haunted House Cake*

Oh my, how utterly amazing is this Halloween Cake from Martha Stewart!?!
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it, I just love it don't you?

I'm not sure I'm up to making something so wonderful, eeek it just frightens me (well it is a Haunted House Cake I suppose!) but if you want to have a go yourself for Halloween find the recipe *here*.

*A Cosy Night In*

As James was going out on Friday night with friends I decided to have a cosy night in!
I was actually invited to go out too but looky looky who would go out when they could stay in curled up on the sofa with these goodies!

Instead of going out I decided to treat myself to a copy of Ideal Homes Complete Guide to Christmas (ooooohhhh yummy) some Kshocolate chocolate (obviously I need to have 2 different flavours to test 'Honeycomb & Vanilla' and 'Lemon & Pepper') and a bottle of red wine!

Mmmmmmm, so there I was all snuggled and cosy on the sofa on Friday night with my wonderfully delicious treats, and after the wonderfully festive read, I watched 'The Devil Wears Prada'.
Just what a girly need with these chilly nights drawing in on us.
A perfect cosy night in!
x

*Halloween Treat Balls*

Eeek, can you believe Halloween is only next week!
I absolutely love Halloween and love decorating the house in Autumnal & Halloween lovelies.
Oh and I do love getting 'Trick or Treaters' I love getting all the sweeties in ready for them and hearing those little knocks at the door don't you?

Anyhoot thinking about 'Trick or Treaters' I found this really cute idea from Martha Stewart Halloween Treat Balls, don't they just look so cute and imagine handing out these on Halloween ~ every little trickster would be over the moon wouldn't they?

Well if you want to have a go yourselves here is the what to do part!

Cover small balloons with one layer of orange tissue paper and then one layer of yellow.
Cut out your own shapes, or download and print these *silhouettes* then trace them onto black tissue paper; cut out each shape.
Affix the silhouettes to balls with diluted glue.
When dry, make a hole big enough to pop some sweeties in then fill the balls with goodies and paste a circle of orange tissue paper over the hole so that the balls are complete again.

Then all you need to do is sit back and wait for some little tricksters to come along and make their night!

*Food Glorious Food*

The first weekend in October brought a Food Festival to our town.
Now I know I've mentioned before we live in a market town and so we have a wonderful market tradition but over recent years the markets visiting have been wonderful.

We have the French Market which visits us twice a year and is in town for four days this weekend too so I will definitely have to pop along and try to take some photos. We have the Christingle Market at Christmas which is fun, and filled with Christmas sounds and smells! And then of course we have the Market Spectacular, which some of you may remember from a post a while ago where lots of stalls from around the world visit.
And on a regular basis we have the normal market 3 times a week and a craft market (which some of you may remember I used to attend!) which is once a month and a farmers market once a month too, and also a pottery fair which visits a few times a year.




So at the beginning of the month we had a food festival which brought lots of food stalls to the market square ~ yummy!
Also there was a huge marquee with a stage and demonstrations as you can see in the photo above. All the seats are empty at this particular time as we had just missed a demonstration and so all the audience were at the side sampling the food!



Lesley Waters from Ready Steady Cook fame was at the festival too, but we didn't see her unfortunately. Ed Baines was meant to be there but I don't know what happened to him as he certainly wasn't & I was really looking forward to seeing what he would be up to! *sad face*

There were a lot of food stalls indeed though, and it was really hard to take any photos at all as the whole festival was soooooo busy, well saying that we did visit at midday so I'm guessing there were a lot of hungry people about!



One of my favourite stalls though was this stall above, which I did manage to get a photo of quickly between people. It is the Mad Hatter Tea company and the man was dressed in a wonderful Mad Hatter outfit. His hat was huge but I don't think it came across very well in the photo!

I do love visiting all the wonderful markets that come to our town and I think we really are so lucky that we have such a wide variety of markets too.
I'm so looking forward to visiting the French Market again this weekend and seeing all the lovely french wares and hearing all the french people talk! Oh it's the simple things in life for me. *giggle*

*Festive Goodies at Vintage Amethyst*

Well just lately I have been thinking 'goodness where has this year flown to?' haven't you?
I can't believe it is the middle of October already!

Anyhoo as you know I've been thinking of the festive season for a while now, well having a shop does that to you, but you know me I love Christmas so it really isn't a chore in the slightest.

But at the weekend we managed to get some festive goodies added to the shop in a tiny new collection called *NOEL* so I hope you will pop on by a take a peek!

I am hoping to get a few more things added also, so keep checking the collection for more festive goodness.
Oh and whilst you are there I hope you will notice the lovely new front page too!

*Please don't eat the Daisies*

Just because sometimes you need a little cheering up with a cute song on a dreary, rainy, grey Autumnn day!

Thank you Ms Day.
x

*Chocolate Week*

Mmmmmmm you know what this week is, yep you read the title right it is National Chocolate Week!!! Yum-my! Do you think it means we can eat chocolate-y goodness for every meal, ooohhh wouldn't that be nice!

Anyhoot, Chocolate Week starts today and runs until Sunday 19th October.

To read more about Chocolate Week and see which companies are involved and where all the goodness filled events are click *here*.

***

So just to go along with the chocolate theme here is one of Rachel Allen's recipes which was featured on Rachel Allen: Bake! Has anyone been watching this, ooooohhh I loved it ~ I will definitely have to try this recipe.


Chocolate Cake


Ingredients

For the cake

125g dark chocolate
3 tbsp Milk
150g Butter, at room temperature
150g caster sugar
3 Eggs
200g plain flour
1 tbsp good quality Cocoa powder
1 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
cocoa powder or icing sugar, for dusting (optional)

For the chocolate butter icing

75g Butter at room temperature
1 tbsp Cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
175g icing sugar
1 tbsp good quality Cocoa powder

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180/gas 4. Butter and flour the sides of two 20cm sandwich tins and line the bases with greaseproof paper.
2. For the cake: place the chocolate and the milk in a bowl sitting over a saucepan of gently simmering water and heat until the chocolate has melted. (Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the surface of the water.) Set aside to cool slightly.
3. Beat the butter until very soft then add the caster sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then fold in the melted chocolate.
4. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and the bicarbonate of soda, and fold in gently to mix. Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean.
5. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to sit for five minutes before turning them out of their tins and placing them on a wire rack to cool.
6. For the chocolate butter icing: beat the butter, cream and the vanilla extract until very soft. Then gradually sift in the icing sugar and the cocoa powder, beating all the time, until it is all added. Continue to beat until very soft, then whisk the mixture until it is light and fluffy.
7. Once the cakes are cool, sandwich them together with the chocolate butter icing. Place the cake on a plate or a cake stand and dust with cocoa powder or icing sugar if you wish.

Cook’s note: Add the finely grated rind of one orange to give the cake a chocolate orange flavour or replace the vanilla extract with one tablespoon of instant coffee powder for a mocha flavour.
This can also be turned into chocolate cupcakes if you wish – the recipe will fill 12 paper cases in a cupcake or muffin tray, and will take about 18–20 minutes to cook.


***

Enjoy chocolate week everyone.
x

*Awards, Sevens & a Random Scarecrow*

Ok, so there is the random scarecrow out of the way ~ I wanted to post a photo at the top of the page that I hadn't posted before and here he is in all his glory!!!
We found him one day in the Summer at Helmsley, and isn't it marvellous! I love him!

Anyhoo on to the awards, well I have to say a wonderfully big thank you firstly to the ever adorable Tracy at Pink Purl for this award ~ so Thank You! (hey now that's big!)



This as you can see if the One Sweet Blog award ~ sweet and along with this award comes a tag, and this Meme is about 7's so here goes ...

7 Things I plan to do before I die:

1. Have children.
2. Have grandchildren (of course children willing!)
3. Visit San Fransisco
4. Learn to Drive (yes that's right I don't drive, eek!)
5. Live with my family (see number 1.) in a lovely country home with a huge garden
6. Open a Vintage Amethyst shop (bricks & mortar shop that is.)
7. Open a tea-shop (I plan & think about this all the time!!!)

7 Things I do now:

1. Run my own business (yay!)
2. Day dream about the future
3. Sit with one leg up & generally under me (yes I'm doing it now!)
4. Touch Type (yay for GSCE Typing along with Business Studies!)
5. Read lots of books
6. Like to have a good moan about things!
7. Drink wine (no I'm not doing that particular thing at the mo, oohhh but now I'm thinking about it!)

7 Things I can't do:

1. Drive (as previously mentioned)
2. Play the piano
3. Let things go (oooooh if only ~ oh but then I wouldn't be able to moan see no. 6 above!)
4. Leave the house without makeup (a little bit of mascara, a touch of concealer in the right places & a lick of lip balm does it at the minimum but no never without anything!)
5. Eat meat (I am vegetarian ~ does this one count??)
6. Walk very well in high heels (I do wear them whenever we go out in the evening as I'm only 5ft 2" but I'm not one of those people that can just nip to the shops in high heels oh goodness no it would take me forever!!!)
7. The splits (anymore!!!)


7 Things that attract me to the Opposite Sex:
(eek I'm married don't you know ~ well I suppose James has all these qualities so it doesn't matter right?)

1. Humour
2. Kindness
3. Intelligence
4. Good Manners
5. Quiet Confidence (not cocky!!)
6. Honesty
7. And just all round generally loveliness!

7 Things that I say most often:

1. James
2. Delicious
3. Oh my word (when am I from the 1950's!)
4. Lovely
5. Oh-Oh (yes really!)
6. Blimey
7. What's all that about???

7 Celebrities that I admire:

1. Drew Barrymore ~ as she picked herself up from a troubled teenager to working as a waitress & auditioning for roles to becoming a successful actress & production company owner.

2. Paul Newman ~ for donating all profits from his 'Newmans Own' sauces to charity.

3. Brad Pitt & ...

4. Angelina Jolie ~ for all the charity work they do & according to tax records, the couple donated more than $8 million to charity in 2006 alone!

5. Sharon Osbourne ~ for building a huge business empire and being a pioneer in celeb docu-soaps (love 'em or hate 'em!) and overcoming cancer in the public eye and founding her Cancer Programme to help others with colon cancer.

6. Robert Redford ~ for what he has done for the independant film business, he was the one you created the Sundance Film Festival and works to promote independant films.

7. Doris Day ~ I admire this wonderful lady for a number of reasons, one for overcoming a heartbreaking event in her early life, being in a car accident which curtailed her prospects of being a professional dancer to then picking herself up and going on to be a wonderfully successful singer & actress. Two for having to cope with another heartbreaking moment when she found out that her husband had sqandered all her earnings which left them in tremendous debt! And thirdly for her Animal Welfare work. She has also had a number of terribly difficult marriages and yet we only ever see this wonderful 'perfect' happy lady ~ a true lady.

7 Favorite Foods:

1. Feta (oohh lovely!)
2. Black Olives (Mmmmm could eat them all day!)
3. Hummous (mmmmmm yummy especially with pitta breads!)
4. Garlic (can this be classed as a food? Anyway I love putting garlic in anything!)
5. Pizza (you know those yummy thin crust ones that seem so light, mmmm!)
6. Pasta (especially with ricotta & spinach or rocket anything like that)
7. Chocolate (well it had to be on there didn't it!)


7 People who need to do this:

1. Catherine at Mollycupcakes
2. Anna at All Things Lovely
3. Kim at Ragged Roses
4. Kimberley at Tallulah House
5. Marrisa at Dawes in New Zealand
6. Priscilla at Priscilla's Cottage
7. Jenny at Everyday is a Holiday

Sorry cutie-pies if any of you have done this before and I've missed it and please feel free not to do it if you really don't want to, I won't be offended 'k?




Righty ho then, this leads us on to my second award which was kindly given to me by the adorable Victoria from Vintage Tea.
Thank you sweet girl for this.

So I have to pass this on to 7 of my Super Commenters, but seeing as you are all super super commenterts & obviously I can't choose, I am passing it on to all of you, so if you haven't had this award before feel free to pop it on your blog and pass it on to 7 of your Super Commenters.

Thank you again to Tracy & Victoria for my lovely awards. I love you girlies loads.
x

*Walking in a ...*

Eeek, that's right over here at chez Vintage Amethyst I am walking in a Winter Wonderland already ~ busy busy getting products ready for the festive season!
*see a sneak peek above*
Hopefully I should have some festive goodies up on the website sometime very soon, fingers crossed.

I feel as if I have been thinking about Christmas for ages now and yes I must admit I have started my Christmas shopping. I do always like to get an early start on that, no last minute shopping for me, oh goodness no! I will have to get a start on making my Christmas cards soon too so at least that will be one more thing crossed of the 'festive to do list'.

Anyhoot ta ta for now & sorry if I have you singing that' song now!
x

*Neopolitan Dreams*

I am loving this cute song at the moment and really how adorable is this girl?

She is called Lisa Mitchell and she is a tender 17 years of age ~ find out more about her *here*

Play to enjoy the cuteness.

*Rachel Allen: Bake!*

I do so love Rachel Allen & so I'm really looking forward to a new show tomorrow night ~ Rachel Allen: Bake!
This show is brand new and exclusive to UKTV Food, Rachel Allen: Bake! is a master class in everything from basic cookies to simple, stunning occasion cakes!

In the first episode Rachel cooks stylish cupcakes with the Primrose Bakery and makes Lemon cupcakes, Peanut blondies & Lemon and passion fruit tart ~ doesn't this just sound mouthwatering delicious!

It really isn't what I need to be watching as I'm trying to lose a few pounds (aren't I always!) but I do so love these new bakery shows that seem to be cropping up lately and seeing as this show is the really sweet Rachel Allen combined with baking, really how could I not watch it!

Anyhoo it is on UKTV Food Weeknights from Monday 6th October at 9pm.

*More Devon Delights*

I'm so glad that you all enjoyed seeing the photos of Cockington Village in the last post, so really if you aren't too bored here are a few more photos of our trip to Devon!

We visited Buckfast Abbey which is a beautiful Abbey and also home to a community of Benedictine Monks. Photography was not allowed inside the Abbey so nothing of inside to show you I'm afraid.

In the Abbey grounds there are also gift shops which of course we visited but one of the newest additions to the Abbey grounds is this, which is the Monastic Produce Shop which gives you the opportunity to see crafts & products that are produced amongst the Benedictine monasteries and convents throughout the world, many of which are made by the monks and nuns themselves.

This is the Monastic Gift shop below, you had to cross over the little bridge to enter the shop and in the water was a Loch Ness Monster which was made out of some type of moss or grass!
I bought a huge bar of honey soap from the gift soap which smells just divine, and on our way out we dropped a few pennies into the water and made wishes as many had done before us.



We also visited Dartmoor which is just the most amazingly beautiful place.



We loved these rocks, they were huge ~ of course James climbed to the top!



There is so much natural beauty on Dartmoor I could have spent all day just taking photo's, the colours are just amazing and the differences you experience travelling from one part to the other are unbelievable.



We drove past Dartmoor Prison and by this point the weather was so dark and damp, mist was covering everywhere. You certainly know why the prison was built there and why so many writers have took inspiration from the moor.



As we drove further on through the moor the weather changed so dramatically the sun shone and it was so warm, such a difference from earlier in the day.




We also visited Widecombe-in-the-Moor, as its name suggests, is positioned in the heart of Dartmoor. The village is well known for its church, known as "The Cathedral of the Moors", due to its large size in such a small village. It is also known for the Widdecombe Fair.



And I shall leave you lastly with these couple of photos of where we used to sit upon the rocks and look out upon the wonderful view with waves lapping right by ourside.



We visited many more places in the week and took many more photo's but I am aware that you really must be bored by now, so I am restraining myself and not becoming a holiday bore (unless that is far too late of course! Eeek!)
x