Stress Free (almost)

I have been under so much stress recently, a large part of which was lifted when mine and Dave's passports turned up on Thursday. I answered the door to the delivery man in my pajamas (it was my day off) and told him he had made my day. Now everything is sorted and I can finally just look forward to our holiday.

After the minion was done I did have a few days break from crocheting. It really stressed me out having a strict deadline and not being completely happy with the finished result. I think I get more judgemental when someone is paying for what I make. I want everything to be perfect!

I picked up my hook again after a short break (can't stay away for long) I just always want to make sure that I don't associate negative feelings with something I love so much.

I'm working on a set of elephants for someone Dave works with. One small pink one ane one large multi coloured one for her grandchildren.

I'm also working on a cow for the son of an old school friend. I just need to sew on his name and then stitch him all together. I might put up the pattern when I'm done if people are interested in making their own cows

P.S. My parents cat has had 2 kittens but can't get a good photo yet. Expect lots of cute kitten photos to follow

A special proposal

It's been a while since I updated, I've had a rush of orders thanks to Alan the Elephant. Dave decided back when I made Emily's glittery pink elephant that it was the perfect size for Steve the Octopus to "ride into battle". Luckily for him I have that yarn in a few colours and Alan was made.

Apparently as soon as he was put on Dave's desk people started asking where he got it, and if I could make them something. 

One of Dave's friends was planning his proposal to his minion loving girlfriend. I then volunteered to make a minion to get the ring to her.

THIS WAS A MISTAKE!

I did not properly think through the amount of work that was needed and the time I had available to do it.

By the time this guy was finished I was a bit fed up with it and wasn't happy with how it turned out, although everyone else seemed to really like it.

He has an "S" on his overalls instead of a "G" because it was for Sophie and her engagement ring was hidden in his pocket.

I've been told that Lewis proposed with an empty ring box, started looking round as if the ring was lost and then said the minion was trying to tell him something! Thankfully she said yes.

Wishing Lewis and Sophie all the best for their future together.

 

P.S Minions like to take selfies

 

 

Wishing you all a lovely weekend x

How much is that doggy in the window?

I'm sure you're all in shock to see me posting again so soon haha! 

This week my sister came to me and asked me if I could make her a amigurumi dog for her trainer at work, as a thank you. I was more than happy to do it and then she dropped the bombshell. She needed it finishing by the next evening and since it was quite late when she asked me it meant I had one day. ONE DAY! Now I'm sure other crocheters will agree, its possible to make something in a day if you just sit and do it and nothing else, but I felt like I didn't have time to do the little tweaks that would have made it perfect. This led to me being unhappy with the finished result and almost reluctant to hand it over. The woman who received it loved it and it got positive feedback on Instagram and Facebook, but I will always have that niggling feeling that I could have done better.

Does anyone else get this?

I originally popped up the photo on the left asking if anyone could guess what I was making. I had a few people say a snowman, which makes sense because I make a lot of snowmen at Christmas time. No one guessed that it would turn into this little puppy!

Hope you're all having  a lovely weekend x

Baking Mad!

I haven't blogged for so long! Going back to work really knocked me for six. Things should be getting better though, I've had the doctor request shorter hours at certain times of the day :)

I have been on a massive baking drive for the last week. I love baking and, not to sound big headed, I am quite good at it. I think my baking skills far surpass my normal cooking skills, I think its because baking is more science-y. Everything has to be measured, if you just guess and throw things in it won't work. I guess something from my degree has stuck with me after all haha.

Here are the cakes I made, I'm pretty proud of them!

All of these cakes are made from the same simple sponge recipe that I use. I believe if you have a cake recipe that you like that you should stick to it and just adapt flavours and toppings. There's a couple of reasons for this

a) the recipe may have been passed down from family or friends and has sentimental value that will make you enjoy baking them

b) if you have a recipe that you like and you know works then you won't be worried about things going wrong. I'm a believer that cakes can sense stress haha.

Here are the ingredients I use to make my sponge

You might notice a lack of butter, I have found that using oil and milk instead make much fluffier cakes. I think its because all of the ingredients are either powder or liquid so mix better together. Also no need to do lots of mixing to try and cream sugar and butter together!

The first cakes I made were the peanut butter and jam ones. I have used peanut butter in cakes before so was excited to try out the peanut butter and jam combo that everyone in the USA seems to love. You can't see from the photo but there is also a peanut butter and jam filing. After the cakes had cooled I cut a circle into the top (around one of my measuring spoons) and scooped out part of the cake. I added a blob of peanut butter and a swirl of jam and then popped the bit of cake back on. The cake doesn't always sit flat afterwards but it doesn't matter and it helps with a height boost for the middle of the buttercream swirl. The buttercream is just a standard one (butter and icing sugar) with some peanut butter added and then jaw swirled on top. I used Hartley's Smooth raspberry jam in a  squeezy bottle and I will definitely use it for jammy cakes in the future. It allowed me to get the lovely swirls on the tops and also get just the right amount in the middle.

I then made some chocolate cupcakes with a strawberry baked in the middle. These were yummy because the cooked strawberry was a bit tart so made a nice contrast from the sweetness of the cake. I filled the cake cases with the majority of the cake mix and then popped in the strawberries and added more cake mix to cover them so they don't burn. I bought a punnet with lots of little strawberries in which fit perfectly in my cake but you can also cut up bigger ones into pieces.
When the cakes come out of the oven they have a little dip in the middle, this is where the strawberry has cooked and become a smaller volume but its easily hidden by the frosting. I made a standard chocolate buttercream and then added some strawberry flavouring. I thought it was a tad too sweet but everyone else loved them!

 This was just a bog standard Victoria sponge with fresh cream that I made especially for my dad. I took it round to my parents house and when I was leaving they said "You're not taking the rest of the cake are you?" They must have enjoyed it haha. The only problem I had with this was that because it was so hot the cream started melting so I was giving it a little top up as I was serving it.

Lastly I made some more chocolate cupcakes with magic stars. The ones on the left have a plain chocolate frosting and the ones on the right have a cream flavoured buttercream that I made by adding squirty cream to plain butter cream. I wanted cream on the top of them but after the Victoria sponge I was worried about them melting, I figured that incorporating buttercream would make it sturdier. It did hold up okay and I was able to pipe it but didn't come out as nice as the chocolate frosting.

That's the end of my baking spree although I already have a list of other things I want to make after discovering this blog http://sallysbakingaddiction.com. Some of the recipes on here look amazing. I can't wait to make the flourless peanut butter brownie cookies and the chewy chocolate chip cookies. Dave has tried to put me on a baking ban for a few months - I think this is probably because we're going on holiday next month. Maybe they will have to wait until September!

Have a lovely day x

Weekend Roundup

Thought I'd do a little post to sum up my weekend, I've seen a few other blogs with similar posts on so thought I would give it a go. The post I put up yesterday was actually finished Friday evening but finished very late and I decided I wanted another proof read before I posted it on Saturday morning. This was following my first day back at work! I was on an 11am-8pm shift which most people agree is the worst shift to work but I was just so happy to get out of the house and see other people! We got home and Dave had his friend round playing computer games so I jumped into blogging and re-doing my template and before I knew it, it was technically Saturday!

My weekends are usually split into 2 types. The ones I work and the ones I get to have a life haha. When I work I don't tend to do much except come home afterwards and chill but on our weekends off (me and Dave have the same after much effort) we follow pretty much the same routine. On a Saturday morning, Dave gets up early (leaving me in bed) and goes for his horse riding lesson with his sister. I normally get up when he gets home around 10 and we spend the day doing things around the house and having a bit of a relax. What this actually means is that Dave relaxes and usually at some point naps while I have a whole list of things to do including making sure all the work clothes are washed and sorting out meals and shopping lists for the following week. Since being off sick my organisation has gone to pot and it really frustrates me. Dave was very confused the other day when I threw a stop and stomped round the house because something in the fridge that could have been frozen had gone past its "use by" date (crazy I know!). So to stop any future strops and as I am back at work I am jumping back on the food organising horse.

What I cook each week depends a lot on what shifts we're working. If I'm not getting home until 8:30 at night I don't want something that's going to take 40 minutes to prepare. The weekly planner that's in the photo I absolutely love! Its like a big notepad where each page is a week so you can plan in everything you need to do. Once I've filled it in it gets blu tacked to my kitchen door for easy viewing.

I always tend to put things like this and the calenders where Dave can see them but I really don't think he pays any attention at all.

I also did some more work on the dinosaur pattern. The pattern I made form enlarging someone else's pattern really wasn't working, it just didn't look right so I have gone back to the drawing board and started my own pattern from scratch. I'll keep you guys posted on how it turns out.

Yesterday evening was spent how we spend a lot of our Saturday nights - round my parents. We all get along really well so its not a chore to go round and see them haha. We only live about a 5 minute drive away from my parents because we live in the same town so we see quite a lot of them. We had fish and chips for tea which was really good as mum and dad have an amazing chippy near their house (its won awards and everything!). My dad spent part of his evening in the garden putting up the outdoor wall clock we got him for his birthday on Monday. He loves his garden and he loves clocks so seemed like the perfect present. 

We then fired up Netflix and watched "Jackie Brown" me and Dave watched it not too long ago but its a good film so we didn't mind it being on again. Dad and Dave tried to keep a tally on how often Samuel L Jackson said "mother f*cker" but I think they lost count because its a lot. Dave loves Samuel L Jackson and there are 2 canvases of him up in our house!

I was bored yesterday afternoon so decided to put my hair up into a beehive (as you do). When I asked Dave what I thought about it, he said he preferred it down. Dave actually likes my hair its natural colour (really dark brown), long and straight. I think its really boring! I personally liked the beehive and it may be making an appearance at work, I tend to wear my hair up because I wear a headset and have a problems with hair being pressed over my ears.

My mum gave me a lipstick while I was there saying that she liked it when she had bought it but now thought it was dark. When she first gave it to me I thought she was crazy. My mum has much darker skin than me because she is Greek (I guess this makes me 1/2 Greek but you wouldn't know by how pale I am) and my initial thought was that if it was too dark for her then there was no way it would suit me. I tried it on and it actually looks quite nice. Its No.7 Moisture Drench in Plum Beautiful. I normally stick to red and pick lipstick, so may have to branch out into more purple tones.

I also returned with this little guy, some of you might remember him from a previous blog.

I've got him back to add some custom touches including a button and the initial of the person he belongs to, just to make him extra special.

On Sundays that we don't work Dave has 2 band practises. One very early in the morning with his Dad and then one in the evening with some friends he went to school with. He again leaves before I'm properly awake and then I potter round the house doing bits and pieces, today this meant re-organising my medicine box, because I have so many tablets (I've mentioned before that I'm not very well) and if they aren't all put in properly I can't get the lid on.

As I had a bit more time, I decided to do the cutting out for my next sewing project. The sewing machine I have borrowed has been sat doing nothing for far too long. I really want to make clothes but I'm not feeling brave enough yet so have decided to make a mole teddy. I bought a Minicraft kit ages ago and hand sewed the original teddy. Before I did it I made a template of the pieces so I could make another one. I'm using an old pair of trousers just to get some practise in with the machine. 

Sunday Afternoons of weekends off are spent at the in-laws house in Sandbach, a small village about 6 miles away where Dave grew up and where we met. I refer to them as my in-laws even though me and Dave aren't married because they mean a lot to me and if I refer to them as "Dave's parents" it feels like I'm trying to emphasise the point that they are his a not mine.

We have Sunday tea with them and then I stay while Dave goes off to his other band practise in Sandbach. I'm lucky that I get on really well with my mother and sister in law so just sit and chat with them for a few hours before Dave comes back and we go home. Sometimes I help Leanne out with her homework, she's 14 and I have technically done it all before but sometimes I have to really sit and think about it! On days when she has done her homework we crochet, its nice to have someone else that I see who can do it too, although she's far to judgemental of her own work (I feel I may be being a bit hypocritical here!).

This afternoon I got to play with this lovely little kitten. She's getting so big and mischievous! 

Now I'm home and to round off my weekend a lovely soak in the bath with my favourite bubblebath

Have a lovely week xx

Special gift for a special friend.

So I can finally reveal what I have been working on for my World Cup Craft project and why it was so fitting. My very good friend Bekki spent a few months of last year travelling round Asia and Australasia, so as her (very late) birthday present I embroidered a cushion with all the countries she went to.

Here it is!

She travelled to Thailand, China, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji so I did them all in their own colours and then just did all the other countries and borders in silver. I then finished it all off with the teal lettering at the bottom.

I started by actually finding a map I could use that was small enough to fit on the cushion but large enough to make it possible to sew. I finally found one and then had to sit looking at another map and make sure I marked off the right countries. I myself am pretty untraveled myself so wanted to double check. In the photo it looks very crinkled from lots of use.

Then I had to transfer the pattern onto the cushion cover. I already had some tailors transfer paper and decided to use the white one because I didn't want to end up marking the cushion, however I made the mistake of not testing it in a corner to check that it would show up. This meant that I traced the whole thing and then realised that it hadn't worked. I then went through the other colours and found that the red one showed up and so traced it with that.

It came out quite faint and its pretty difficult to see in this photo, but it gave me an outline which I then drew over with my purple fabric pen, I did remember to test this on a little bit of fabric on the inside of the cushion to check it faded. Turns out the ink fades very quickly on this type of material, the reason the map is so creased is because I had to keep looking at it for reference and re-drawing parts of the map.

I began my stitching with Australia, I'm not sure why, perhaps because its not got any other countries touching it and therefore in my mind that made it easier.

My first attempt was using a simple back stitch but I soon realised that this lacked the finesse that I wanted the cushion to have

I then moved on to the chain stitch, which really isn't more difficult but I thought looked a lot nicer.

I finished Australia on the night that England were beaten by Uruguay,

 Or so I thought, it turns out that Tasmania is also part of Australia so I had to do that little island in Orange too.

The next day I got lots of sewing done because the electrician came round and turned all my electric off, so he could fix some of the plug sockets in the house. I imagine he thought I was quite odd, sat across the room from him with my headphones in, sewing away. I next attempted China, it was the other big country and I'd already decided to do all the coloured countries first because I didn't want to accidentally sew part of one of them with the silver thread.

China was followed by Thailand

Then New Zealand

And last but not least - tiny little Fiji

I then had to fill in the rest of the map. The reason I chose a silver thread was because I wanted something that would compliment the colour of the cushion but also not stand out too much. I wanted the main focus to be drawn to the countries she had visited.

This was what it looked like when all the countries were done!

The next stage was to add the lettering to the bottom of the cushion. I decided to put "Travelling 2013" just in case she goes travelling again in the future...and I decide to make her another cushion haha.

I picked a font ages ago and began to doubt my decision when I was trying to transfer it onto the cushion cover.

 I stuck with the original back stitching to go around the lettering and then filled it in using satin stitching. This was the only point of my sewing where I started doubting myself and wondering whether it looked good enough. I think there is always a part of a project where I get very critical of myself. Maybe I should have more confidence in what I do because everyone has told me how good it looks.

 And when the lettering was done it was finished. It's the first time in a while that I've done some embroidery and even longer since I've done such a big piece. I really enjoyed it, as much as I love crochet and all the amazing things it makes, hand sewing will always be my first love.

When it actually got round to giving this to Bekki I did start to feel a little nervous in case she didn't like it. It's not like you can pop a receipt in the bag so they can return it. However when I went into her room I saw this on my desk and I realised how silly I had been

This was what I made Bekki for her birthday last year. I spent hours devising a pattern for an amigurumi fox as it's her favourite animal and its right there on her desk. That's when I realised that she would have loved it even if it does have problems because I made it for her, and that the important bit. The fact that I put so much care into it because I was making it for her.It makes is special.

Now that the sewing is done I am going back to one of my many crochet patterns on my to do list. Trying to work out the kinks in my dinosaur pattern. As the picture below shows...it's going well!

I hate using yarn after its been undone!

My crocheting may slow down again because....I've gone back to work. Despite feeling no better at all and still having no diagnosis. I'm pushing myself to go back because I feel like staying at home by myself is really bringing me down. I get so bored! Fingers crossed for a speedy diagnosis and an even quicker cure!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend x

Pretending I'm still a student

Today I had made a student dinner for me and Dave. Pasta for tea which when we were at Uni was fondly named pasta with sh*tloads of cheese. This is because I didn't get anything out the freezer and I was being lazy. To be honest I did cook this morning (eggy bread and bacon) so I didn't feel too bad about not making a proper meal. It did however lead to a phone call with Mum where she very crossly said that I should have told her that I had no food in, I then had to admit to my laziness. To follow our student dinner Dave wanted dessert which lead to the chocolate microwave mug cakes! They weren't the best cakes I've ever made but they definitely did the job.

All the ingredients mixed together in a mug and then a couple of minutes later

Ta Da!

It had deflated a little in between taking it out the microwave and taking the photo haha. If anyone is going to make one (and there are loads of recipes on the web including posh grown up ones) I recommend using the biggest mug you have as they expand quite a bit.

As my World Cup Craft project is a secret I can't post details on it but I can say that I am about 1/4 of the way there so on track to finish it. What I have decided to do instead is to talk about my new embroidery loop that I have been using.

 The one on the left is my old one and probably the one that most sporadic embroiderers will use, it has a screw which I have managed to cut out of the photo (oops!)  Whereas my new one on the right has an internal metal ring that you pull together to move in and out of the pink cover.

I have to admit that when I bought this I didn't need it as I didn't have any impending embroidery projects but I was yarn shopping (a fairly regular past time) and this caught my eye. Admittedly it was probably because it was pink. Its nice having a hoop where the 2 pieces themselves don't become looser as you sew, you still get the slack from the material being pulled but you don't have the issue of needing to retighten the screw as you do with the other one. The only problem I do have with it, and its something that could probably be avoided if I thought about it when I was putting the hoop on. When the hoop is on the material you can only see the pink coating from the front and the metal loop/handles are on the back

My problem is that I get thread caught round the handles. If you notice straight away then its not too bad, however if you don't and carry on stitching you end up with this pointless extra loop of thread that you then have to tie off. Its not the biggest problem in the world but its pretty frustrating. 

The other "exciting" part of my boring Sunday was that my regular shaped candle that I burnt in a star shaped pot

Is now a star shaped candle

I'm very easily amused haha. And on that note I shall round off my fairly boring blog post from my uneventful Sunday.

I hope your weekends were lovely x