Craft Every Day: Day 11,12,13

Oh gosh I'm not doing a great job with posting everyday. I'm trying to at least make sure I keep up with my crafting and with a couple of hitches I am. Some days all I manage is two lines of knitting but I figure that's better than nothing.  Other days though I do craft the act of getting any where near my computer let alone loading stuff is waaaaaay too difficult.  As it is I'm typing this on my phone so I know the photos won't come through right. Because the app doesn't let you place photos as you go it puts them all at the end. 

Now what have I achieved these last couple of days?

As I said I've done a couple more rows of knitting but it looks pretty much the same as before. 

I baked some Banana bread on thursday night since the act of going out to band was too exhausting.  I've been dropping off to sleep on the couch at 8. I'm absolutely exhausted.  This full time work thing takes a lot out of you. That said I'm loving the job!

I also started getting organised with a pattern to make myself a couple of tops for work.  Or at least we shall see how that goes. My grand plans and all 😀 isn't washi tape the most useful tool? It works so well to keep everything all neat and tidy. The picture of the paper is me taping the pattern together.

I'm also using my new planner a lot.  It's great to see where everything goes and find uses for it.  It's not in full use yet but it's happening.  I will get photos of how I'm using it tomorrow in better light. 

I apologise for this jumbled rambling post today. It says a lot for how my head's been this week a bit everywhere!

Happy stitching,
Caitlin

Homemade Creams

I want to become more and more able to make stuff at home and buying less stuff that is full of chemicals and preservatives. That goes for both food and house hold stuff.

With that in mind I was directed to this really cool website. It's about 50 things you should be making at home instead of buying. I am going to try them all bit by bit.

I started with the moisturising cream. You can find the recipe I used here

 I gathered all my ingredients together. It was really hard to grate the beeswax but once I worked out how to hold it it went really well. Thankfully I had a helper by that point so he could stir while I grated.

One thing I found is it said to let cool slightly... I ended up having to leave it for 10 minutes to cool down before I could add the rosewater. It needs to be starting to cream up and thicken. Once it starts that it goes very quickly. (the time I had to leave it was probably influenced by the temperature here it's quite warm during the day)

 Here it is on the stove as it's creamed up. I'm adding the rosewater at this point... bit by bit I slowly added it.

Now it was only meant to make roughly 2 baby jars full of stuff. But I used some old Lancome jars that grandma gave me (I thought to make them into pin cushions maybe but not anymore) I filled three jars plus a little baby food jar. I thought I'd added a little bit more oil than I should have!

Although reading the comments on the blog some people keep it in the fridge, some don't I think it depends where you live. I will be keeping mine in the fridge because it's too hot here and since we're going into summer it's only going to get hotter.

Also the comments say the almond oil is the moisturising agent and some people say they replaced it with coconut oil or apricot oil with lovely results. I will have to experiment with the coconut oil as I bought some recently to try cooking with it.

I'm thinking these jars of cream will make gorgeous Christmas presents for all the ladies in my family. I will have to see though how I like the cream as time goes on. If you guys make it please tell me how it goes I want to find out how other people fare.

Happy Stitching or creaming :D
Caitlin

It's RAINING!!!

Ohk I'm a little bit excited about the rain. It's been too long with the heat! Three days of annoyingly hot weather though only Saturday was really bad BUT... It's now raining and storming which means the oppressive heat we've had today is GONE!! :D It's just slightly exciting.

I do have some stitching news. I have been stitching a little bit but more importantly I have a new pattern ready to publish.

Unlike everything else I've done this is a biscornu, with NO cute characters but lots of purple. It's a break from my normal. I actually designed it a couple of years ago but never got around to publishing the pattern so here it is :D Check out my purple biscornu. You can buy the pattern at my etsy store.

Please tell me if you like it or not. I'm so excited every time I post a new pattern. I just need to sell some now!

I tried a new recipe for dinner tonight. I found it on facebook when one of my friends posted it and I always intended to make it. So I went looking for it and I ended up with a DELICIOUS dinner that the kids and man both liked as well!

They are potato puffs made with "left over mashed potato" if such a thing exists. I cooked  up the mash the night before for dinner and made an extra big serving so I'd have left overs for this meal!

LEFT OVER MASHED POTATOES PUFFS

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/3 cup sour cream, plus more for serving (I used greek yoghurt)
1 heaping cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons chopped chives or parsley
salt and black pepper, to taste 
3 cups mashed potatoes

(optional) Bacon
(optional) Onion
(optional) Mixed Herbs

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter 8 - 9 of the wells of a cupcake pan - preferably nonstick.

I started by cooking the bacon and onion with a little garlic first.

In a medium mixing bowl whisk the eggs then whisk in the sour cream. Mix in both cheeses and the chives. Add the Bacon and onion to the mix.

Taste the potatoes and season them with salt and pepper if needed. Add them to the bowl and mix well.

Spoon them into the pan filling the cups just to the top or a little below.
Bake 25 - 35 minutes until they pull away from the sides of the cup and are golden brown all over.

Remove from oven and let them cool 5 minutes in pan. Turn them out onto a platter. Serve with sour cream and fresh cut chives

much more at http://.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com/leftover-mashed-potato-puffs.html

 — with Nelly Petersen.

I just thought you guys would like this recipe and it only took about 45 minutes with cooking the bacon and onion. I was impressed by the taste, and they were devoured. It's always hard to get the kids approval.

Many happy stitches.
Caitlin

Christmas Baking Adventures!

Our Christmas baking adventures! I almost forgot to tell you guys about this!

I've always admired gingerbread houses but I have never made them before because it looks so hard. But this year we were looking through cookbooks and found one and I didn't think it looked that hard!

Oh how wrong we were!! We started looking and then went shopping for lollies and stuff to make the dough.

We made the dough then realised it needed to sit in the fridge for 2 hours.

We rolled out the dough and cut out the pieces then had to move them to the trays without breaking them... it sometimes worked!

Then we baked them and let them cool.

Once they were cool we made the royal icing from scratch and started to ice it with make shift piping bags because mum couldn't find the real ones.

We then realised it had to set before we could actually build it into a house.

This whole process took a day and we still weren't finished. I actually collapsed the next day and vegetated I was SHOT!!!!

But come sunday we put it all together and drum roll please!

 The proud decorators... they helped all the way through and loved eating it on Christmas day!

It's very wonky and has been decorated by a 7 and 9 year old but it was extremely yummy and full of good sugars!

That was all the Christmas baking I could handle!

Happy Baking,
Caitlin

We Got The HOUSE!!!!!!!!

Ohk I'm really really really happy :D they signed the contracts over the weekend so we have the house! I am so excited :D it doesn't settle until May 18 so it will be a while before we move :D

Onto other news, work is going along and the super is being dealt with... slowly! But he is now aware some sort of clerical error which meant I haven't been paid super at all this past year. Really bad clerical error!

On a happy note again :D I made rocky road again for easter :D

I had a bowl in which I added all sorts of lollies :D

If you want to make this your self you need. Licorice allsorts cut up so they're not enormous :D

More Lollies :D

I also added malteasers marshmellows and raspberry lollies (though snakes also work :D)
I leave the malteasers in one piece but everything else gets cut up.

While I was cutting up lollies Phill was having fun breaking up biscuits. To make a biscuit base.

He gave up on doing it by hand and got out the blender :D He was having fun :D

If you want to make your own biscuit base do ... This one really didn't work .. too crumbly we didn't add enough butter. Or look up a recipe online.

You put the base into shallow pans and then pour melted chocolate over the base and then put the lollies on before pouring more chocolate over the top of that.

I had bowls of dark, light and milk chocolates (nestle melts) and I poured them over. I needed 4 bags of melts.

Don't they look wonderful :D it was so coated in chocolate it was gorgeous and yummy :D

If you want decadence in a slice you will have to make this for yourself :D

Oh a stitching post will be coming soon I need to take some photos.
Caitlin

Cooking and Boxers

Passionfruit Cake

My Mum's birthday was on Thursday so I baked a cake for her. It is plain butter cake with passionfruit icing. Mum had received a batch of passionfuits the other day to make more passionfruit butter. So I borrowed one with her permission because she wanted passionfruit icing!

I also have an update on boxers:

WIP 12-9-11

It has been fun to work in a colour other than brown! Though those greys are hard to stitch they are so close to each other. He looks so cute!

Caitlin