Allo

Over the weekend I whipped up this little fella, the worm from the film Labyrinth. I made him for my sister who loves the film as much as I do. Her favourite character is Ludo but I haven't managed to find a pattern for him yet. I used a free pattern which I found on Ravelry designed by Caroline Lord to make him.

Totoro Canvas

Hello, I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and New Year. Here we did our usual Christmassy things, parents visiting us on Christmas day morning, us visiting them, it was nice and quiet.

Today I finished off something which I made a start on last June. I began to make a simple canvas painting of Totoro for Little L's room but as I started to put my paint way I dropped the brush on it. I wasn't sure if I would be able to cover it or remove and put the canvas away until this week.

It did cover easily though with a good coat of white acrylic paint.

It is now hanging in Little L's room ready for when she comes home from school.

A Quick Catch Up

This week Little L returned to school after her bout of chicken pox only to come home on Wednesday with a high temperature and sickness bug which is also doing the rounds at the school. Hopefully she won't pick up any more bugs before Christmas.

Craftwise, I've only made a couple of quick things. This small wire Christmas tree which I'm not sure does actually resemble a tree or just a beaded twirly thing

and this tree garland made using old music sheets. Little L helped with this by drawing the tree shapes out using a biscuit cutter. We only put it up today and I'm thinking that it looks too plain so I might take it down and let Little L loose on it with her glitter and sequins.

When Little L perked up later on this afternoon we got out the shrink art plastic and made these using a template from the Gingermelon Dolls blog. 

Last Week

Little L caught something different than her usual coughs and colds last week. She came home with chicken pox. For the first couple of days she had a sore throat along with the spots but now besides being extremely irritated with the itchiness, she is very bored. We've been watching lots of films and she made these Christmas ornaments with air drying clay which are just waiting for a coat of varnish. We'll be doing something Christmassy with paper this afternoon. Little L loves cutting things out.

Coco, our rabbit is in the house for the Winter. Considering she is meant to be a miniature Rex she doesn't look far off a full sized one to me .... I think we've been had.

Craft wise, I've not been up to a great deal. I made these felt cats, a key ring for Little L's book bag and two magnets

and this pocket bunny for Little L from a Gingermelon pattern. 

A Nice Surprise And Good News

Yesterday I was delighted when this book, Simple Printmaking arrived which I was lucky enough to win in a give away on the Cut Out And Keep site.

The book contains various household projects using different types of printing methods which can be done at home. Block, lino and stencil printing are just a few which are featured. 

The projects in the book range from decorative papers and cards to printing on cushions, bags and curtains. All the templates for the projects are included with clearly written instructions.

Some of the projects are suitable for Little L to join in with such as marbling and printing using potatoes and leaves plus Caleb's art class is just moving on to printing at the moment so the book may come in handy for him to use as well.

A free tutorial for a tote bag project featured in the book can be found here.

My good news part comes from a college visit with my eldest son last night. It was an open evening for parents and the children who had already applied for one of the courses had an interview with their tutor. He had chosen an electrical installation course and was offered a place which he will be starting in September. I'm so pleased that he has got what he wanted, I could burst. I rang my Gran ( who is 90 ) this morning to tell her the news and she was ecstatic. My Grandad was an electrician and my Dad used to be an auto electrician so maybe that is why she was so happy. Anyone would think it was me and Gran starting this college course because we are so excited.

New Recipes

I've not been doing anything crafty lately so I thought that I'd share some of the recipes which I have been trying out recently.

This onion and bacon tart , I made at the weekend. It is more like a yorkshire pudding with onions and bacon added than a tart, it was nice though.

These oven roasted sausages and potatoes I have made a couple of times now as the children will eat it with no fuss as they all love smokey sausage.

Pizza muffins is definitely a favourite in this house at the moment. Even my Gran has asked for the recipe. I've made these about 6 times and they can be frozen but they never last that long in our house. Little L says that she loves them so much, she could take them to bed and cuddle them. A bit of an odd thing to say about a savoury muffin but she got her point across that she really likes them.



The Chestnut Incident

They say that you learn something new everyday well yesterday I found out that chestnuts explode and make a right mess doing so. My sister had sent me some chestnuts along with a recipe for me to try out. I began weighing ingredients out with the chestnuts already in the oven and that's when the banging started. I ended up spying on my oven from the hall way through a crack in the door ( I'm not fond of loud noises ). The chestnuts were taken from the oven when I was brave enough to venture back in to the kitchen where a couple more exploded. My oven was splattered with chestnut as was my work tops and kitchen floor. This also teaches me to read recipes properly before I race ahead and start, I should have put slits in the chestnuts before roasting.

After cleaning up I was left with a bowl of butter and broken chocolate which was ready for melting so I popped on to Pinterest to find a recipe. This is what I ended up baking, chocolate fondant cakes. They were lovely eaten both warm and cold.

At least now I know to prick chestnuts before roasting, that's if my nerves could take handling them again.