Christmas Cupcakes

These are so pretty, and so easy to make, I use this recipe from Kootoyoo, which hasn’t failed me yet, I don’t like coconut so I substitute with half a cup of ground almonds instead, I also add a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice to the milk to increase the lemonyness*. Itti bitti cupcakes like this take 13-15 minutes in my oven (my oven is hot, I set it on 150 non fan) and bigger normal sized cupcakes take around 20 minutes. They are so delicious and cupcakey* without even having to beat the butter to a pulp before getting started, which is perfect because I don’t have an electric miximajig*.

To add a little festive Christmasyness* I divided the mixture in three and added red and green food colouring, then made up a butter icing to turn them into butterfly cakes, and they are about to hit the table for Christmas Eve afternoon tea, with ‘spiders’ (two crackers, sandwiched with peanut butter or cheese spread with pretzel sticks for legs and sultanas for eyes) and salmon and cucumber sandwiches (which probably won’t get eaten).

*This blog post is dedicated to all the magical made up words out there.

Happy Christmas to Me

A Christmas Dress for ME, yes that’s ME! Based on the pattern from this blog, sewn with Sooz at her fantastic Tessuti class.

 

EB Secret Santa Received

Here is what I received from Rose in the EB Newbie Quilters Secret Santa :)

Some sewing goodies (of course, it was a sewing swap)– FQ of Christmas Fabric, a big reel of neutral thread an unpicker (what are you trying to say Rose ;)) and a great big pack of quilting safety pins (exactly what I needed :)).A super cute mug filled with… some very popular choccies, sneaky little fingers, don’t think they’ll last long.

Thank you to all the ladies who took part in this Secret Santa, and of course, especially to Rose.

Secret Santa Sneak Peek…

I am involved in the EB Newbie Quilters Secret Santa…

Here’s a sneak peek of what will be going into the post this afternoon. I hope my partner likes it.

I can’t believe Christmas is coming up so fast, with some major changes going on in our house and family arriving Christmas eve the list of things to do is getting longer and longer! I’m glad I can cross this one off.

Self Portrait

Blogtober 13th

As mandated by Tinniegirl, blogtober the 13th is Self Portrait day.

Only half there today ;)

My Tinkerbell

My mum always called me Tinkerbell as a child, and now I have my own.

We bought the Tinkerbell DVD set for Christmas but daddy misunderstood and gave it to her straight away… anyway, mitigating TV viewing with related craft (to ease my conscience) here we have a most beautiful pair of fairy wings.

Macroscopic

I’ve been playing around with taking macro pictures with a reversed 50mm lens. Great fun, and I REALLY want a macro lens now :) OK, so the pictures aren’t great but as a proof of concept I was pretty happy with them.

No more naked

Blogtober 10th

New clothes for baby, reversible elastic waisted skirt (spotty dotty on the other side), and a rather dodgy t-shirt with matching applique.

B trying to get them off already…

I’ll have to have another go at the t-shirt, the neckline is baggy, and it’s a couple of sizes too small, but it only took about 5 minutes as Miss B was losing interest by then (didn’t hem the neckline/sleeves or bottom).She helped cut the fabrics and sat on my knee while I sewed and was very happy with the result.

I’ve been meaning to make baby some clothes for ages, there will be more I promise – maybe in time for Christmas?

Getting my supplies together…

Blogtober 9th

Supplies for making some felted soaps like these.

from www.colourstreams.com.au so unbelievably soft. (well probably not if you know about that sort of thing but it seems that way to me).

Hopefully there will be a finished product to show off soon.

Row Row Row your boat…

Blogtober 6 (late)

The end of the internet?

Blogtober 8th

Oh wow, I really must get off the computer and get on with real life.

* I’ve been introduced to google readers ‘next’ function (by kirsty who got it from bec who got it from… well you know how it goes… if you use google reader and you haven’t tried it yet go here for a good run down on how it works.

Remoulded Crayons

Blogtober 5th

Break up old crayons in cupcake wrappers, pop in the oven, and hey presto, new crayons, even the littlest person in the house can make her mark with these pretty cupcakes.

Build them up…

and knock them down

 

Another Imke (or two)

Blogtober 4th

An Imke (from Sewing Clothes Kids Love) is apparently the perfect top for jumping on your sister’s bed in. Two hoodless versions, red with long green sleeves and stripy cap oversleeves, and a t-shirt version in stripy pink knit underneath.

“Oh Beehave” Block for Gina, Sneak Peak

Blogtober 3rd

I’ll put it in the post next week Gina! Hope it’s OK. This was such a fun block to do, I miscut slightly so there’s a couple of extra seams in one of the borders, but I think it adds to the slight wonkiness quite well. Hope it fits the brief correctly.

Nappies

Just the pictures of some Nappies I am selling through EB trading boards.

1. Woolly Butts Frilly Capris and matching Butterfly t-shirt (Bonds size 00), waist unstretched 43cm approx, length 34cm, rise 46cm. EUC, only worn a couple of times as wool and me just didn’t get on, washed but needs lanolising.

2) Possum Pouches/Possum Knits Colours of Australia Soaker Waist unstretched 48cm, Length 27cm, Rise 53cm

3) CGR Medium with matching singlet, Good used condition, lightly used for around 6 months as part of a large rotation.

4) EUC Woolly Butts Z is for Zebra Shorties and T-shirt (Bonds size 0) set. Waist 40cm, Length 34cm, Rise 50cm. Never actually used as a nappy cover, just occasionally for daywear.

 

5) EUC Jaybee mermaid print with two set of boosters. I don’t think these are made any more, but they have a snap in inner and a booster that sits inside the inner, the theory is that you use the outer twice (like you would a cover) as it comes with with two different inner/booster sets. It’s a really beautifully made nappy and a cute print. 

6) EUC CK Auriel size 2, Fleece is a little pilled, but would improve with a bit of a brush.

7) EUC Wild Child Cloth Addict, MCN Anonymous Special Co-op nappy, only used 3 or 4 times, just never fit well :(. Size M/L

“Oh Beehave”

Oh Beehave is the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild’s first Quilting Bee. My month has kicked off the Bee and I asked for these square blocks with a 6inch central square made up of geometric shapes such as triangles, squares and rectangles, and two borders. I provided 6 5 inch charm squares, a strip of brown fabric, and a scrappy border strip and asked everyone to choose the width of their two borders themselves.

 

The first three blocks I pieced to give examples of what I was hoping to receive.

And I have received 3 more back so far, and there’s still 2 weeks until the deadline :)

From Gina

 

From Jotsmum

From Frogdancer

Apart from the brown solid and the kei honeycomb dots all the fabrics came from my scrap pile.

Blogtoberfest Day 1

Today is the first day of Blogtober, a months long blogging festival hosted by Tinniegirl.

I’m not committing to blogging everyday, but I’ll do my best.

This is the most delicious bread I have ever eaten. Mmmmm.

The girl and I were making dough shortly before 7 this morning, after our early morning walk! And what a beautiful 5.30am it was this morning, fresh but not cold, sun rising and sparkling on the calm waters of the bay and a little person to chat with on the way, “where is the moon mummy, what’s that noise mummy, I see the boat mummy, is it moving mummy, it’s moving, it’s moving (no it’s not) where is the moon, there it is (excited voice), moon’s gone (behind a building), what’s that in the sky (hot air balloon), I see a dog…, I like birds, what’s that noise (parrots), I don’t like parrots, where are the parrots, me see, me see, where is the moon, moon is awake, grandma sleeping (I told her when the moon disappears it is at grandma’s house in the UK)” and so on and so forth, we shared a very pleasurable 40 minutes.

Anyway back to the bread, recipe from here, inspiration from here. I understand why people buy bread, although there isn’t much time involved, you really do have to set aside the whole morning to allow for rising and cooking, but having eaten this (I’ve only made Pizza dough and focaccia before) I can also understand why people do make their own bread.

My/her first IMKE

The IMKE shirt, from the Sewing Clothes Kids Love book.


The first but certainly not the last. There are 5 more cut out/part sewn in the sewing room.
Sewn as part of Kids Clothes Week