Sunday 29 January 2012

Sew

DSC05742 by milliemooshu2012
DSC05742, a photo by milliemooshu2012 on Flickr.

Hearts Sampler 
I am very new to cross stitch...this being my first sampler. I came across a lovely pattern in the latest edition of Making magazine and decided to pick up my needle and threads and give it a go. Needless to say (sorry bad pun) its going to take me a lot longer than I anticipated as I rather stupidly brought the smallest stitch embroidery fabric so my stitches are tiny!!. Its quite theraputic though and stops me reaching for the chooclate in the evenings. So its a win, win situation as I hope to have both a beautiful sampler and a smaller waist by the end of it ;). I will post the outcome when I get there. Take a look at issue 17 of Making Magazine for details. The sampler is called Heart of hearts as featured in Sweet stitches from the heart by Anne Sohier-Fournel, Agnes -Delage- Calvet and Isabelle Leloup. Published by David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-307-58688-9

Sunday 8 January 2012

Create

DSC05662 by milliemooshu2012
DSC05662, a photo by milliemooshu2012 on Flickr.

Pretty peony birdcage light
We have a corner table in our hallway that needed a light and centre piece. Rather than purchasing a new light and lampshade I decorated a bird cage (meant for plants in the garden) and decorated it with cute dragonfly lights and silk peony flowers. It looks lovely when lit and everyone makes a comment as they come into our home. I didnt need to spend any money on a new item, I just simply had a look in cupboards as to what we alreay had. Fairy lights are a great way of decorating and adding mood lighting to any room. I have also wrapped some plain fairy lights around a plant in the lounge to add light in an other wise dark corner. It also means the lights are used all year round rather than just for Christmas.

Make

DSC05475 by milliemooshu2012
DSC05475, a photo by milliemooshu2012 on Flickr.
Seashell box.
I wanted to make a few Christmas gifts and came across a bag full of seashells that I had collected from our holiday to Poole and Bournemouth. I decided to make a special trinket box for my Mum, decorating a heart shaped card box with the shells. I made sure the shells were clean and used my trusty glue gun to affix to the box. This photo is the first stage as I then painted with pearly white paint and adorned with crystal gems. I forgot to take a photo pf the finished piece before I wrapped it up so I will have to go and visit my Mum to update you with the finished outcome. My Mum loved it as she lived in Bournemouth as a child so it will give her found memories when she uses it.

Make

DSC05655 by milliemooshu2012
DSC05655, a photo by milliemooshu2012 on Flickr.
Lovebird tea towels
I enjoyed printing tea towels so much that I got carried away and did a few more. I tried to make each one a little different by changing the repeat and colours. These tea towels are so cute, a lovely addition to the kitchen.

Make

DSC05537 by milliemooshu2012
DSC05537, a photo by milliemooshu2012 on Flickr.
Hand printed tea towels.
As part of my Christmas hamper I wanted to print some tea towels. I had a lovely screen printing kit for my birthday and thought it was time to have a good go. I found a lovely chicken stencil and set to printing these cute tea towels. I purchased the plain tea towels online at a good price so I didnt have to worry about cutting out lengths and sewiing. I had great fun printing. The screen printing set came from Speedball on Amazon. I can highly recommend it as a starting point for home printing.

Bake

DSC05675 by milliemooshu2012
DSC05675, a photo by milliemooshu2012 on Flickr.
It was my hubby's birthday on 28th December and he just loves football and Subbuteo even more so. I decided to bake him a cake and took inspiration from his hobby. I simply baked a tray bake cake and then decorated it to look like a football pitch using desicated coconut for the grass and then borrowing a few of his Subbuteo players. The tray bake is a esy and yummy recipe:
Ingredients
4 eggs beaten
2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
2 cups caster sugar
2tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 cup water
125g marg/butter

Preheat the oven to 180
Grease and line a rectangular tray bake tin
Cream the marg/butter and sugar together until pale.
Then mix in the oil, milk, water and eggs until well mixed.
In a seperate bowl sift the flour, baking powder and add the salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mix, stirring well in between each addition.
Once mixed pour into the lined tin and make sure mixture is spread out evenly.
Place in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes.
Cool

For the topping make buuter icing and colour with green food colouring. Spread evenly over the cake. Add green food colouring to the coconut and sprinkle on the top of the cake.
I then used a pre mixed icing tube of blue icing to draw out the football pitch.

To make it a chocolate cake simply add 2 tbsp to the flour mixture.

Enjoy!!

Bake

DSC05653 by milliemooshu2012
DSC05653, a photo by milliemooshu2012 on Flickr.
Homemade Christmas Cake
This ihas to be my most favourite thing about Christmas. About six to eight weeks before Christmas I go to the shops and load my trolly with currants, cherries, nuts and flour and set to baking the many Christmas cakes for our family. Its become a tradition for my Mum and me to bake these delicious fruit cakes jam packed with fruits and generously topped up with brandy. We give them as gifts and everyone loves them. Its a great Christmas gift idea and one thats happily recieved. I would share the recipe but its a family secret. Try Delia Smith's recipe for a close match.

Make

DSC05667 by milliemooshu2012
DSC05667, a photo by milliemooshu2012 on Flickr.
Christmas Hampers
Every Christmas I make some little goodies to send to those nearest and dearest. All the items are handmade by myself. This year the hampers included homemade Sloe gin, homemade damson jam, tomato chutney, berry biscuits and a hand printed tea towel. It was great fun to make them and I almost wish I had made an extra one for me. Had great feedback and requests for more next Christmas!!