Wednesday 26 October 2011

Phew! nearly a disaster!

My DH loves choc muffins, so being the good wife that I am......   I decided I'd surprise him with some homemade ones instead of his normal shop bought ones.  Now, I have made this recipe before and it's easy.  Ok, so I whip up this batch of 12 and pop them in my new oven, set the timer and turn around to start cleaning up.  I spotted the microwave and thought *****!!! , opened it up and there inside was the melted butter that should have been added to the muffins.  Quick as a flash I got the tray out of the oven, it wasn't very hot!!!  then spooned the mixture out of the paper cases into my mixing bowl,  added the butter and blasted it with my mixer on full power.  Then arranged new paper cases in the muffin pan and spooned the mixture back in.  Into the oven once more they went..... timer set again.   Time to clear up the mess, and oh  it was a mess ... chocolate mix everywhere.   I hung around the oven with my fingers crossed............ after 20 mins I stuck a skewer in one and DONE, out the oven and onto a rack to cool.   They looked good! 


And they tasted GREAT!  The recipe is out of this book my son bought me for my birthday.  http://hummingbirdbakery.com/cookbooks/the-hummingbird-bakery-cookbook/



Being pleased with my success in the light of a disaster I decided to make my favourite cake, Lemon Drizzle.  I did concentrate more this time and didn't have any mishaps.  If  you would like my recipe for this cake just leave a comment and I'll get it to you.


Yummy.... it won't last long!        Now I'm back to stitching.....

Saturday 22 October 2011

Two finishes!!!

I am so thrilled ....... I have finished the stitching on my LHN Home of a Needleworker.  It is the first big project I have worked on in cross-stitch and am so pleased I finished.  Now to find a frame to fit, or should I take it to a framer?  A 'do it myself ' would be cheaper, but can I do it?   Only one way to find out...

Here it is,  not a good photo
I know there are a couple of stitches in the wrong place and I didn't get my name spaced out evenly, but it's a finish, so I'm happy.


Well my next finish this week was a small doll quilt, made for a challenge on 'smallquilttalk' yahoo group.  The challenge was to use a four-patch block and there was lots of talk about red and white quilts, so I had a go.  Here's my attempt,  it measures 9 1/2 by 14 inches, and the big stitch quilting was done by hand.  All the fabric I found in my stash, which surprised me as I don't use a lot of red in my patchwork.
 My little mohair bear I made last year seems to like it.




Now I'm starting on Christmas ornaments,  I've just ordered two LHN charts so hope I can get them finished before December.  I'll keep you posted on progress


Happy stitching!

Monday 10 October 2011

Crazy 15 Challenge 2012 - my list so far

I can't believe how quickly time has gone by, I haven't got very far with my stitching since my last post but I did make a start on organizing my Crazy 15..... well, I have 10  on my list, what do you think so far!  I'm looking for smaller projects for the remainder to give me some chance of finishing.  I have 3 kitted up and 2 just waiting for threads........ must do a little shopping for fabric and a few more threads, and maybe a few LHN charts, oh and needles....   I broke one this morning.

Crazy 15 Challenge 2012
Coffee Menu, by LHN
Tiny Linen Pinkeep, by Jane Greenoff
Tiny House, by LHN
Snowflake Biscornu, by Faby Reilly
Espresso Yourself, by Kell Smurthwaite
Hot Chocolate, by Kell Smurthwaite
Tea for 2, by Kell Smurthwaite
Bee Welcome, by Abi Gurden
Heart Stitcher, by à mon ami Pierre
The French Hen, by JBW Designs

Crazy 15 Challenge
Did you notice my little plastic wallets?  I have A4 and A5 sizes, they are so handy for keeping a project together.  Found them at my local supermarket, very cheap too!  So here's a pic of them in my 'WIP' bag, ummm.. so neat.

Don't think I shall get much stitching done tomorrow, my oven blew up this evening just as I was about to put our dinner in!!!  ....... the cooker is not that old, and I have had it repaired twice, but this time DH says 'oh no we buy another one', so that's what I'm doing tomorrow.  Salad anyone?  

Happy stitching