Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Chevron Tote Bag for Mrs W

I love making bags, and I am getting better and better one bag at a time.  I have also recently discovered (I dont know why it took me so long) that I love making things specifically for a person.  Without being too grandiose, I think its the whole having a "muse"thing.  Anyway this bag is for my friend Mrs W, her taste is very contemporary and stylish where as mine is more confused eclectic collage.   I don't
think she is into too much craft on craft but I think she will love this fabric.  Plus it has lots of pockets and every Mum loves bags with lots of pockets.

Mrs W's bag
Front pocket, I call this pocket the Lauren Pocket,
 after  Lauren  who whipped one up when on the Great British Sewing Bee .
Inside lined with white linen and with pockets.

 I love it and am a bit temped to use it a few times before gifting it on!!!


Sunday, May 26, 2013

Savoury Cheese Biscuits

I have a lovely neighbour named Arlette.  (I actually have lots of lovely neighbours but this post is about Arlette.)  Arlette makes these delicious savoury cheese biscuits and they are just devine.   They are the perfect kind of biscuit that are great fresh or you can store in the freezer until you need to whip out something impressive.  Arlette made up a couple of batches for our Purple Day High Tea, and quite a few people asked after them, so with Arlette's permission here is the recipe...


Arlette's Cocktail Cheese Biscuits

250g Plain Flour
1 teaspoon salt
250g chopped cubed chilled butter (I dont have a food processor so I grated my butter.) Put the butter into the freezer while all other ingredients are prepared.
250g grated (approx. mix of cheddar 2/3 and parmesan 1/3)
baking paper
* additional flavours - see below

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees for a fan forced oven.
2. Put all ingredients into a food processor and mix until a dough forms.  Then pulse a little.  The less you handle the dough the better.  I dont have a food processor so I mixed all my ingredients in my mixer until it formed a dough, it took a bit longer but it seems to work.
3.  Take out and separate into two halves to make it easy to handle.
4.  Place two pieces of baking paper (approx. 20 cms long) on the bench and place half of the dough onto paper.
5.  Roll each piece into a cylinder on the baking paper and roll up in the paper so you have two wrapped logs, (again trying not to handle too much.)
6.  Let rest in the fridge until firm - at least 15 mins.  Line trays with baking paper and slice logs into biscuit size discs.  Place on tray and bake for 10 to 15 mins.

* add 1/2 teaspoon (or more) of chilli or cayenne pepper if you like a kick
* add fresh chopped herbs like thyme and Rosemary
* or anything else your heart desires and dont forget to let me know what combo you come up with

All ingredients mixed to form a dough.
(Best to use a K hook not the whisk like I did.)

I tried one log with cayenne pepper, one with freshly
 chopped rosemary and one with fresh thyme.
So hard not to devour straight off the
 tray but they are better once cooled.
Ta Da, my tasting crew unanimously agreed that the
Rosemary were the best but that was only
  because they had to choose.
Let me know how you go...

Footnote from Arlette - Please be careful not to overdose on these, Arlette did once and it took her 4 months before she could even look at one of these babies.




Thursday, May 16, 2013

Wooden Button Girl Brooches

Are these just the most awesome wooden buttons in the world... I think they are.   They just scream BROOCH to me.  These little girls were sitting in a jar at Tangled Yarns just waiting for me to buy them.  I think the were about $2.50 each and they sell out pretty quickly so grab them fast if you ever see them.  Miss S has taste just like mine so after we fawned over them and decided which one we would be if we were a button girl, we threaded the button holes with coordinating embroidery floss and glued on brooch backs.

Which one would you be?

The perfect accessory and our new favourite little gift for girls.


Monday, May 13, 2013

The Never Ending Shrug

This shrug just keeps going on and on and on.  I have learnt that I do not have the stamina or the attention span for big projects.

5cms to go but its just so hard to motivate myself to do them.
I am procrastinating so much that I even made a special bag to
keep this project in.  It was a very nice distraction.
 I am determined to finish this baby, this week!