Things what I made and did

Birthday Cake Times.

2011-01-03T20:20:00.003Z

I can't claim to have made this as the cake was actually the creation of one of my delightful friends, but I had a small hand in the decoration, and it's just so pretty I want to post it up.

Enjoy

P.S. we followed a recipe for chocolate butterscotch icing from a book by the Primrose bakery

Enjoy!!

Christmas inspiration.

2010-12-09T21:25:00.002Z

Walking round the garden center I decided to take a few sneaky pictures as inspiration for my own decoration making, I have a terrible habit these days of thinking 'I can make that!!!' rather than buying something and stalking off to look at more 'make-able' things, of course, I very rarely actually do it myself, I guess it's the principle.

(But I could actually make all these things for much less £$£$£$!!!!!!)

Crocheted Beret

2010-12-09T21:20:00.002Z

I enjoyed making this, it's my first official crocheted item of clothing which I've followed a pattern to make.

The yarn I used is from the Palette Series, 120 'Vintage range' (worsted weight) and the colour is Enamel. The pattern can be found here:

http://creativeyarn.blogspot.com/2008/02/puff-stitch-crochet-beret-with-bow.html

and I particularly enjoy making patterns from this designer's blog.

Crochet Birds

2010-06-27T15:22:00.001+01:00

I thought I might post a sneaky peek at my latest making, birds of paradise!

Birthday Cupcakes

2010-06-11T12:02:00.001+01:00

This week I mostly made cocoa cupcakes with a butter-cream icing topped with chocolate shavings and marshmallows, yum yum!

Shown here chilling out on the cooling rack before being packed up..

Amigurumi

2010-03-09T21:12:00.004Z

Sometimes you get to the end of a project that took much longer than you imagined and you just think whyyyy?!!! I shall name him Chuck.

Patches

2010-03-09T16:52:00.001Z

A rather pretty project which I've been working on this week involving much felt and fabric, hopefully more will come of this and I'll report back if it does. Enjoy!!

Fish Cakes

2010-03-02T22:36:00.003Z

Today I made fish cakes!! unfortunately they weren't exactly Raymond Blanc standard in terms of presentation, but they're still in my tummy so they can't have been too bad to eat. The recipe comes courtesy of Mr. Asda and can be seen below:

serves 4
50 mins

600g Maris Piper or King Edward Potatoes
150g frozen peas
300g salmon fillet
2 lemons
2 egg whites, lightly whisked
4tbsp breadcrumbs
2 tbsp sunflower oil

Cut and boil potatoes, add peas for the last 5 mins of cooking time. Drain and mash together.

Put salmon in a dish, squeeze the juice of 1 lemon over it, cover with cling film and microwave for 2-3 mins. Once cooked flake it up with a fork and add to the potato mixture and stir in.

Shape the mixture into little cakes (I think this is where it all went wrong, cakes should probably be a bit smaller and neater than massive great splodges in the frying pan) Asda says the mixture should make 8. Coat the cakes in egg white and bread crumbs.

We put the fishcakes in the oven for a while then finished them off in a frying pan to make them crispy, Asda says pre-heat oven to 200C/180C Fan/ Gas 6, put in a roasting tin with some oil and cook for 10 mins on each side.

Then eat! I had mine with cauliflower cheese.

Button Necklaces

2010-03-01T15:34:00.002Z

I have a passion for buttons, but rather than leave them to fester in a jar with only vague memories of leading a productive life holding things together and... I've made some of them into rather nice necklaces to show off! I've seen these in Accessorise and other high street stores for at least £15-20 which seems ridiculous considering most of mine come from charity shop button bins which, depending of the generosity of the person behind the till tend to be £0.50-£2 for a rather nice sized handful. The best thing of all is I know no-one I know will be wearing a similar combination around their necks.

A Selection Box of Colour

2010-02-14T11:40:00.004Z

I'm on a mission to make a bed spread out of crocheted Granny Squares, here's a selection of those completed so far. I have to admit I much prefer doing this on an evening in than staring at 'ballroom celebrities on ice to the extreme'.

(Notice the crocheted throw I bought from Ikea in the event that this takes the next five years to complete, I'm covered for all eventualities.)

Stripes

2010-02-14T10:11:00.002Z

I actually feel a bit guilty about this one, I'm afraid that I've condemned him to a life of being unable to even scratch his nose if he has an itch, hopefully to lovely bright stripes on his skin (courtesy of Matalan's socks) will make up for this. Also the tail, who wouldn't want a multicoloured dinosaur's tail?

Dougal

2010-02-01T22:13:00.002Z

I spotted an advert on the YCN Creative opportunities website, and after a 3 hour labour, little Dougal was born, I'm very proud to be a parent, although I will soon be sending him off to the mean streets of Cardiff to fend for himself. The details of this venture can be found below:

'Chapter is excited to be working on an exhibition taking place this April, by the artist Helen Frik. The exhibition, entitled ‘Difficult’ will run from 2 April - 9 May 2010 and will feature the installation 'Higher Up, where to', which will fill an entire room of the Gallery. The room will be darkened with a vague light emitting from a greatly enlarged bedside lamp and an array of 'toys' will be trying their hardest to reach the lamp, to soak up it's warmth and energy.

We are in the process of collecting hand crafted toys and we really hope that you can contribute to the art work as we need to gather up to 200 toys! The toys can be made out of any material as long as it is hand crafted, for example fabric, knit, woven, wire, wood etc. The odder the better, just let your imagination go wild! Current entries include knitted critters, colourful fabric monsters and wire dolls.'

I think it will be rather exciting to go on a little day trip later in the year to see the exhibition myself if Dougal is chosen.

Granny Squares

2010-01-12T20:55:00.005Z

I think this might be the inspiration for my next crochet project, my friend has a Granny square blanket which she picked up in a charity shop for next to nothing. So far I haven't been so lucky, so I'm just going to have to make one!

(Imagery sourced from www.weheartit.com)

Crocheted Flowers

2010-01-12T20:40:00.003Z

I'm feeling very pleased with myself this week as over the weekend the snow gave me the time to teach myself to crochet. I haven't attempted anything major yet, but I'm already scouring the net for my first hat pattern. In the meantime I've been playing around with some flowers which I made into brooches (by sewing on a badge pin back) as a gift for my mum's birthday.