Everything Changes Part 2

Hey

The first project I selected to do was my small trug. I wasn't planning on painting it as I love the lettering on it, so I thought it would be perfect to start with.

As one of the corners was coming away, I started by trying to just knock the wood back onto the nail, using a hammer. I hammered over a folded up tea towel to protect the wood. Just hammering didn't work, so then I used a bit of wood glue.

I also had to use a bit of wood glue to fix a little bit of wood that was lose from the top on the opposite end.

I cleaned my trug using a brush and then a slightly damp cloth. I used a bit sugar soap but not a lot as the wood is rough and I didn't want to risk the lettering coming off.

To protect my trug, I used a clear satin vanish. I had to vanish it in two goes. I painted the inside and then the bottom and allowed it to dry upside down, before vanishing the sides.

 

 

It isn't the most transforming up cycle but I love the trug the way it was, and just wanted to protect it and keep it in it's natural form.

 

 

I think I will end up using my trug to home herbs in my dream house, when I eventually buy a house.

 

 

 

xxx





Ball O' Yarn

Hey

I was asked if I could create some cupcakes for a knit and knatter fundraiser, so I used that inspiration for the top of my cupcakes. I used the recipe from Mary Berry's Cookery Course book for the actually vanilla cupcakes. I haven't bought the book but I kept the recipes that were in the You magazine when the book was first released.

For the decorations I selected buttons and balls of yarn to top my cupcakes. I have silicon mould that I used to make the buttons. I made my balls of yarn but first forming a ball, then rolling icing into thin sausages so that I could wrap them round and also to leave a thread lose at the end.

I piped my butter cream in two different ways. I piped swirls up to place my trio of buttons on, and piped swirls across to place my balls of yarn and "k"s on.

xxx

I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl

Hey

This week saw the return of The Great British Bake Off for it's fourth series. It always remind me of summer although it tends to start towards the end of it.

I love the show as it has a tendency to highlight bakes that you don't always come across - I never knew that you have to cool a angel cake upside down. I also love the tent that the contestants get to bake in, I hope to have blue work counters like they have in my kitchen when I eventually have a house.

I can't believe how many blue plasters were visible in the show this week - who knew that baking cakes was so dangerous. The last time I can remember cutting my finger with a knife was when I was a Brownie and we were making fruit salads.

I honour of the start of the series I have been trying out some new recipes for my little cake stall - coconut cake, coconut pyramids, fruit malt cakes and sultana loafs.

If any one can help me out, I would love to know what the name of the colour blue Kitchenaids that they are using in this series as that is the colour I hope to get for my Kitchenaid as my graduation present.

xxx

Life of Surprises

Hey

For a friend's early birthday meal, I prepared some chocolate cupcakes because you can't have a birthday without cake (even if it's early). I started with plain chocolate cupcakes. As I didn't want to just ice them, I decided to fill them with some raspberry butter cream (that I used here).

I first made a small hole in the middle of the cupcakes by twisting a thin knife 360 degrees in the middle. I then used a filling nozzle that fitted into the hole and squeezed in butter cream until it started to come out of the hole at the top.

To top the cupcakes and hide the filling I made a chocolate butter cream and used a large star nozzle to swirl the icing on top.

To decorate them further so that they weren't just brown, I melted some white chocolate and piped it across the top.

I always seem to make too much butter cream, especially when I've made the raspberry butter cream. However, I tend to use any leftover butter cream by spreading it on to the top of digestive biscuits whenever I fancy a sweet nibble.

This will top a lot of biscuits

xxx

Buttons and Bows

Hey

My bows finally arrived at the end of last week. I ordered them from Magical Ribbons back in February as a treat for myself on completing my degree. I was hoping they would have arrived before my trip to Paris but they didn't (my fault really as I didn't include a need by date). I'm so pleased with them. The pictures of them don't do them justice.

I ordered:

• CB Little Town Belle
• Ever After Rapunzel
• Esmeralda
• Mini Belle Library
• Mini Something There Belle
• Mini Toulouse
• Vidia (for a friend's birthday present)
• CMS POCT B (for a friend's birthday present)
• Mini Mermaid Ariel (for an adorable little girl)
• Cinderelly on a headband

I also ordered a mini Pascal bow for my sister as part of her birthday present but she had already had it so it wasn't included in my pictures.

These will definitely be coming with my on my next trip to Disney whenever that will be.

xxx

Strawberry Ginger

Hey

I was looking for a ginger cake recipe to use up the crystallised ginger my Stacey has left to sell on my little cake stall, and I found this one by Rachel Allen after spotting it on her cake diaries at the weekend. I do like summer as the food channels have baking shows nearly every weekend.

The original recipe uses stem ginger but instead I used 100g of crystallised ginger.

First melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a pan.

In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients - self raising flour, ground ginger and bicarbonate of soda (I don't like to add salt to cakes as I don't want to have too much salt in my diet). Make a well in the middle then set aside until needed.

While the butter, sugar and syrup were still melting, I chopped the crystallised ginger roughly into quarters (depending on their size).

Once everything has melted, and cooled, stir in the milk, ginger and eggs.

Tip the liquid mixture into the well of the dry ingredients and mix together until a running consistent is formed.

Tip the mixture into the prepared lined loaf tin. The mixture makes a 2lb loaf, but I made a mess pouring it in, so instead I ladled the mixture into 2 1lb loaf tins. I still made a bit of a mess with one of the loafs (but no photographic evidence will be  shown).

Cook in a preheated oven 180 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

Once cooled, Enjoy!!! I think the cake worked well using crystallised ginger.

xxx

Everything Changes

Hey

I have also been interested in redecorating old furniture as I love to watch all of Kirstie Allsopp's programmes. Also the pieces over at Chelsea's Garage are so inspiring but I will never be able to buy anything being all the way over here in the UK. So instead I am going to have a go myself at reloving old furniture into something new.

Over the weekend I picked up two treasures. One was from Snape's vintage market - an old saddle maker's trug/box. I love the fact that it is from Ascot as it will add a touch of my story to wherever I end up. My sister tells me now I just need to find from Beccles.

Find from Snape

The next piece I picked up was an old crate from Toad Row Curious at Henstead Arts and Crafts Centre. It only cost me £20 which I think was a real bargain as inside of the lid it has a print with the date 1939 and a label with the date 1944.

?1939 Crate

My mum has also bought me a telephone table for me to do up as well but I have yet to get a photo of it.

I think I know how I would like to do each piece I just need to decide on the exact shade of blue and purchase some. I believe I will end up trying to get Annie Sloan chalk paint for my projects as you don't need to use primer or everything before had, and it seems to be the choice of most people up-cycling furniture. So I'm going to do a little series of posts showing how these three projects turn out. Hope you enjoy :)

xxx

The Nest Is Best

Hey

When it's very hot outside, I can struggle to decide what to cook especially as my sister will moan if I pick something hot. So this week I selected a dish from my Little Paris Kitchen Cookbook. I cooked nibs de tartiflette served with a salad so that it was a combination of hot and cold. The book suggests serving these little potato and cheese nests with a salad to make them a more summery dish.

I don't have a 6 hole muffin tin, so I used some small pudding basins as my muffin tin looks like it wouldn't be big enough. The pudding basins worked well as there were 6. I don't know if in France, their muffin tins are bigger, but if they are, I may have to keep an eye out for a tin at the Snape vintage market this weekend.

Before cooking

After cooking

Mine didn't turn out as crisping looking as those in the book, but they still tasted amazing. I would definitely recommend.

Dinner is served

I haven't cooked much from the Little Paris Kitchen yet, but I can't wait to work my way through this book.

xxx

Sure Shot

Hey
 
Since my sister got her new camera for Christmas she has been very interested in producing pictures for her blog that are more creative. So for her birthday she got a new lens that automatically focuses and in the process creates a blurred background (as long as you are further enough away from it). She also got a photography course, which I have been informed that I will be doing along side as I will need to know the skills as I am her photographer when it comes to her outfit of the day pictures.
 
So one sunny weekend, we decided to take her new lens for a test drive at a picnic down at the quay.

I was further away the tree

 

 

You can see my first hand work with the new lens at here on my sister's blog. Once she actually starts her course, I'm sure I will have lots more photos to share with the majority being highlighted on my sister's blog.

 

 

xxx