Christmas Treats

A long awaited and belated Greetings.

It has been a busy second half of the year, filled with mostly good things and an extra special blessing.

Not much has been happening on the crafting front, except for a last minute dash before Christmas.

There is a table cloth, that may have been rumoured many moons ago...that is finally a work in progress, but sadly will not deck the Christmas table this year...but maybe next, but at least it's no longer just a bundle of fabric...it's now piles of lots of little bits of fabric that have been stitched with "X"'s (all shall be revealed in good time..well maybe not good time, but at some time)

A successful project though that has been completed in time this year is my tins of Christmas treats.
The tins were purchased along with some Christmas napkins and then the biscuits, meringues, millionaires shortbread and Santa's buttons were baked and tucked away into the tins, complete with little "Home-made with love" tags (well 1/2 home made cards and 1/2 bought labels).

And here they are:

With that I wish you all a Blessed and Merry Christmas and all the best for 2012

At long last...

At long last here's an update of the recently completed crafty projects...

 First up is the bag I made for my 21 year old niece. Her bag for her study books is starting to wear through , so I sneakily took it's measurements when I did a repair job on it and used them to make her a new bag. Complete with a lining and an inner pocket which is even sub-divided to take a pen and it has a loop with a carabiner to attach car keys.

And...it is personalised with her name on the front and a little red cross as she is studying nursing. I only sewed the name panel on loosely in three places so that it can be removed without too much trouble if my niece doesn't fancy having her name for all to see :)

Then (a project which was mentioned ages ago in my blog) I finally finished the long awaited baby blankie for my nephew.

It is so soft and snugly that I want to keep it for myself.

It was quite a challenge for me, never having worked with binding and silky/satiny binding in particular...so apart from it being a bit wonky, I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

It has a quilted patch on the front. It's a pity the print didn't have frogies instead of turtles as that would have made it perfect... "Frogs and snails and puppy dogs tails, that's what little boys are made of".

And that's the back :)

Anyway now it has been washed and dried and packed into my suitcase as we are off on holiday to go visit our family back home....Yippeeeeee!

How time flies...

Helloooo

Yes I'm still around though I have been rather quiet on the crafting front...what with financial year end and other paper work relating to applications and planning our next holiday....yippeeee!

I do however have a few long over due projects that I'm hoping to finish in the next week - so don't wander too far away, ok :)

A Trifle Matter

I have had a chocolate cake staring at me every time I open the freezer for the last few months and this week-end I decided it was time to do something with it. When I took it out and left it to thaw, it felt as though it had dried out a bit...
So I now had a thawed chocolate cake staring at me from the counter begging not to be thrown away or left to go mouldy. At this point my other half suggested I turn it into a trifle.

I had a mental picture of a traditional trifle with mixed fruit and jelly and I'm afraid I could not comfortably put that combination with chocolate cake. I believed that a trifle should only be made with a vanilla sponge cake. So I had a mental block about mixed fruit and chocolate cake...I don't know where it came from or why I feel that way, but it's just an inconceivable combination to me.

So I still had a chocolate cake eyeing me out nervously from the kitchen counter, probably hurling abuse at the bin by now.

But then it occurred to me that maybe a single fruit would be acceptable with chocolate...and then the brain wave of Black Forest Cake came to me, but still convinced that the cake was now a tiny bit on the dry side, I googled black forest trifle and there it was...and I just happened to open the Nigella Lawson one first. You can view the recipe here; chocolate-cherry-trifle-recipe

I've never made my own custard (shock!), I always buy the ready to mix powder or even sometimes the ready made bottled/boxed stuff. So this recipe was a little daunting, so I cheated :)

I went and bought the ingredients (including some ready-made-thick-chocolate-custard) and did a little more googling and here is the result...sheer chocolaty-decadence!

And here is how it's done:

1. Ingredients:

1 medium sized chocolate cake

(if you look in the picture, the cake fills a standard dinner plate, and I used just over half of it)

Black Plum Jam

Bottle of Morello Cherries in syrup (I used a 700g bottle)

about 1/2 Cup Cherry Brandy/ Kirsch

approx 3 tablespoons sugar

900g Ready-made-thick-chocolate-custard

about 300ml thickened cream

Dark chocolate to grate on top

1 chocolate flake

2. Method:

Slice cake and spread jam on slices to make jam sandwiches (Watch out for pips in the jam!).

Cut slices into blocks and place in large trifle bowl. Drizzle a little kirsch (I used about two shot glasses) over the top of the chocolate cake blocks.

Drain syrup from bottled cherries into a saucepan and keep the cherries aside for later.

Add 3 tbs sugar and about 3 tbs cherry brandy and stir over low heat to dissolve sugar.

Leave to simmer, stirring occasionally. You are trying to get it to a syrupy consistency (when I did mine, I used a large bottle of cherries to there was a lot of liquid, and I had to leave it to reduce quite a bit). When you are happy with the consistency, remove from heat, add the cherries back to the syrup and leave to cool (you can keep a few cherries to use to decorate the top at the end).

Once cooled pour the syrup and cherries over the chocolate cake-jam blocks

Pour and smooth the chocolate custard over the top - cover with plastic wrap/clingfilm and place in fridge.

Just before serving, whip the cream till thick, carefully spread over the top of the custard. Grate the dark chocolate and crumble the flake on top. If you kept some of the cherries out you can use them to decorate the top too.

3. Enjoy!   

P.S. When I cut the cake it turned out to still be beautifully moist! So we ate what was left of the cake just as cake :)

And...I do not like to waste food and throwing it away was not ever a real option.

Bugging around

"Where have I been" and "what have I been up to" , you might or might not be asking...

The answer is, "here and not much", though I'd love to say I've been busy crafting away and have oodles to show for it, but ...I don't.

Though as I type this, at least my hands are a teeny, tiny bit warmer as I knitted a pair of fingerless gloves. Though I must admit they have turned out a bit too big and a new pair will need to be knitted. The gloves should also not be inspected too closely as I was trying to do them in rib stitch, but kept forgetting whether the first stitch should be knit or pearled, so the ribs go a bit squonkey every now and then.... It took me one glove and 90% of the next one before I came up with the brilliant idea of marking on of the needles with something to identify which stitch to use (blush).

Oh well, so I shall re-attempt to make another pair and hopefully they will be better.

Right ,now I think it's time for a cup of tea.

Cheers for now!

Knits and Bits

A few weeks ago a friend and I went on a material shop hop, but sadly it wasn't too successful as out of the three stores we went, the two Big ones didn't actually exist. Well they must exist somewhere or must have existed at some stage (just not in the present), but they were not to be found at the addresses we had found on the Internet.

Anyway, on our travels we discovered a reject shop, which we simply had to visit. Most of it was the same as you would find at a red dot/crazy Clark's/2 Dollar shop/Crazy store, but I did came across some super soft chenille yarn just begging to made into something...and here that something is...

A hot water bottle cover

Don't look too closely, as the pattern I used had to be altered a little as I started running out of yarn and I gather that the pattern I had would have been for a permanent cover that couldn't be removed and I didn't fancy that.

However, when I started knitting a while back, I thought I'd better follow the instructions exactly and tried my hand at my fist tension square...well it turned out so well, I figured it should be made into something useful.

So I folded it in half and stitched up the bottom and the side. Then I threaded some ribbon through the top and now my phone has a snug sock.

I must admit that that was my first and so far my only tension square, but imagine what you could make with a whole lot of them.

Rainbow coloured order

So I went shopping for more felt material and came home with this...

And when I laid them out on the table to take a photo it came to my attention that if things must be organised, if they have colours, they must be in accordance with the colours of the rainbow...

Jellybeans...and if they had to be eaten, would you eat them randomly or by rainbow coloured order...personally I'd eat them in order of taste - least favourite to most yummy.

Cups

fridge magnets...though I must admit this one was a toss up between arranging by colour or by alphabet (I think alphabetically wins, as the colours are not evenly distributed)

Pens - and if something has to be highlighted then it goes in rainbow coloured order too...obviously!

Clothes, but they don't stay in this order for long...

 And to end this blog off, I recently made myself a pair of rainbow coloured pyjamas...but just realised that they switched the turquoise and olive green around...grrr

So do you secretly arrange things?

Now I realise that this may be considered a hint at some obsessive compulsive disorder, but seriously don't you also avoid stepping on the cracks in the pavement...go on have a laugh :) 

Short but sweet

For a change, I felt I needed to make something quick and easy. So here are a couple of my new felt crafty thingummies. Apart from the cutting out (which is a bit fiddly), they are so quick and easy to make.

The ideas are endless...gift tags, Christmas decorations, create a hanging mobile or a little toy.

The star is machine stitched around the edge, with a loop of ribbon inserted for hanging, and leaving a tiny gap along on of the straighter edges to insert the stuffing. The star was then stuffed and the gap stitched closed (by machine or hand). Then I added some rough embroidered lettering.

Next I made some little critters...

A Frog

And...

My favourite...A platypus

Now I need to go buy some more felt in different colours as there is much crafting to do...

Introducing...Humphrey

With a heavy heart...

Today's post is a happy/sad one, but there is hope and you can be a part of it.


Rhino's around the world are faced with a very bleak future indeed. I've been reading through the rhino conservation web sites, and Facebook posts, and my heart is breaking for them and the men and women who are working tirelessly to try and save these magnificent creatures.


In South Africa alone, over 138 rhinos have been slaughtered for illegal trade during the first four months of 2011.
The Rhino's are killed for their horns which are then sold illegally, so the worst part is that these Rhino's have all been killed for "nothing". Here is why...


Busting the rhino horn medicine myth with science


If you have read/seen any of the stories or been fortunate enough to see a Rhino, then I urge you to spread the world and here is a great link to what you can do to help.


Hope for the rhino's future; what you can do to help


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Now, on a lighter note, in the midst of such destruction...


There has been an addition to the world's rhino population and I'm pleased to "introduce" you to him;

I say "introduce", because an introduction would imply an exchange of names, but he is yet to be named... So you can give your suggestions by leaving a comment below and at the end of the week we will put the names in a hat and draw one out.

The bum shot...if you have ever tried to take wildlife photies, you are bound to end up with some of these.

Thanks for helping my kind

Don't forget to leave a comment with your name suggestion

Sssh....the corriander is growing

As requested, a quick update of how the seedlings from a few weeks back are doing

The highlight for me has got to be this...

Remember the coriander that I couldn't grow...well it's growing!

The Roma tomatoes and red peppers (capsicums) had to be transplanted into bigger trays and may well need to be transplanted into even bigger ones now.
 

And due to my assumption that the coriander seeds that I had harvested from last year were not viable...I went and bought "proper" seed and they have started surfacing...so we should have plenty of coriander...if I can keep it alive.

I think my problem was over watering them...so with a little less water, I'm holding thumbs.

The Rosemary seeds that I had planted may have suffered the same ailment as my previous coriander attempts, as only one of those seeds have germinated. Hmmm, maybe I'll try with the seeds again at a later stage, but for now I've taken a few cuttings from my existing rosemary bush, and with the aid of some rooting hormone, I'm hoping they will do better than the seeds, I'll keep you posted.

On a different note, I have a special post for you tomorrow...

But that's all for now

Cheers! 

Floower-Mouse arrives

As mentioned before, Oatmeal mouse did not wait in vain...

Floower-mouse arrived over the Easter Week-end.

She has three little embroidered flowers on her nether end :)

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Oatmeal and Floower-mouse were knitted and stuffed with polyester fibre filling. They have goggley eyes (which were glued on using a heat gun) and their whiskers are made from black embroidery thread. Their noses are a bit squidgy, but it gives them character...

Having a ball...

Just a quick update...

My knitting "skills" are coming along well and although the projects I've tackled haven't come out flawlessly, I have learnt heaps about understanding knitting talk and when I read things along the lines of...
"K2, (K2tog,K3) twice, S1, P2tog, P1, Sl 1, K2tog, psso" I actually understand what to do, yes I know this must be baby talk when it comes to knitting, but I'm quite happy with myself for my "achievements" so far. As long as I have my trusty Readers Digest step by step guide to Knitting & Sewing beside me, my knitting vocabulary will continue to improve :)

I have finally finished my ball...

I purposefully didn't take the pic from the sides, as my pointy end bits came out pretty diverse :) but it's a ball and I'm happy.

Hope you are having a happy day.

Cheers for now...we are off to go get supplies to make hats for the rugby later today...will try take some pics to share

Mousing around

Hmmm so it's been a while...

I guess you could say I've spent a few days just mousing around :)

Mouse meets mouse

Wishing you a Happy Easter - where ever you are and whatever you do,
be safe and give a thought to the reason Easter is a Celebration!

**Correction**
I've been informed that this is not actually a floower-mouse (though they are closely related). This is apparently Oatmeal-mouse , and he is hopeful that the true floower-mouse may pop in over the Easter-week-end and is busy gathering floower's in anticipation of her arrival.

'Ello Aloe

After a few months of staring at me from the corner of my office ( in its half finished state...), the Aloe mosaic has finally beaten the procrastination bug and is finished.

The work in progress...

Filling in the background was like doing a jig saw puzzle...and required me to take several breaks in between as it was serious eye exercise to match up the pieces.

Next came the grouting...

And then after a long wait for it to dry, and then a bit of sanding and polishing...

Ta DA!

Now it’s time to enjoy a cup of tea (using my new flower coaster)