Splodge and the Family Threads!

As my hunt for patterns to use in the backstitching on my chocolate labrador have so far been unsuccessful, I decided to start another project in the meantime =D

This kit was given to me by my friend, Stacey, for my birthday and I love how well it's turned out! He's so cute! I'm planning on framing him and putting it on either my bedside table or my bedroom window sill.

Splodge - A Tatty Teddy design

I've now turned my attention to a mini-project that I'm sewing from issue 199 of "The World of Cross Stitching" magazine (thanks again Jenny for lending it to me!!) I can't show you yet because it's a gift for someone, but I did have a lot of fun searching through my magazines looking for potential projects.

My mum kindly gave me "the family threads" on a temporary unlimited loan kind of basis. The family threads is my mum's collection of DMC and Anchor threads on metal loops, with each colour thread in a numbered bag. She used to be an avid cross stitcher herself (in fact, now that she's seen my chocolate labrador finished she wants to start again!) and she's been collecting the threads as she went along. Some of the threads I wanted for the magazine projects were in the family threads, but a lot weren't.
Fortunately, I found a website that sell DMC threads on bobbins for 38p each - they normally sell for 79p at other stores! As I had 90 threads on my wish list, I think you'll agree this was quite a saving! The website is: www.leisurecraft-tewkesbury.com I ordered on the Monday night and they arrived Thursday morning. Of course, I also had to buy more Floss Away bags to keep the threads in! I got a great deal from www.sewandso.co.uk  100 bags for £4.08! Again, ordered Monday night, arrived Thursday.

The Family Threads (now extended!) My mum also gave me her handy "Thread ID book" I'm very well equipped now =D

P...P...P...Pick up a Penguin!

With issue 207 of "The World of Cross Stitching" came a cute Christmas card design of a skiing penguin. I stayed at my mum's last weekend so, of course, the sewing went with me. I did take my chocolate labrador to work on but it was too big and bulky to get out quietly past sleeping people, so I started the Christmas penguin on the side. 

 

Other than the fact that I ran out of the thread to backstitch with (but I'm sure that was my fault and it wasn't hard to get a replacement match) the design took me a day   to do (and of course, I had to have a couple of Penguin chocolate bars for snacks!) I finished it with the provided aperture card and put it aside for Christmas.

Only thing left to decide: who to give it to??

My Current Work in Progress

I got this cross stitch kit as a present from Tammy (Bren's sister) at the end of July and I started work almost immediately. It's not finished yet, but I wanted to share my work so far because I'm already proud of it! I'm aiming to finish it by the end of August.

I've taken photographs as I've gone along: can anyone guess what it is?

After Day 1

Tonight (August 25th 2013), I finally finished the cross stitch chocolate labrador! It looks just like Millie!

The next thing that I will do is sew the names of all the dogs (which have all been chocolate labradors) with the shape of the tags on their collars around the edge.

Cupcake Class!

My Cupcake Bible!

A little while ago, I baked a batch of my white chocolate and raspberry cupcakes for my friends at my mum's charity evening. Lizzie loved them so much that she said she wanted to be able to make them herself. So, last Friday that's exactly what we did!

The recipe comes from "Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery". It's a basic cupcake mix with raspberry jam folded into the mixture, and the the middle cored out and replaced with seedless raspberry jam. The white chocolate icing is made from vanilla buttercream icing with white chocolate and double cream added in. Raspberries are then used to decorate.

Lizzie did most of the work and I just "supervised". The fact that 2 of us have been able to follow this recipe from scratch and produce such tasty results (even if we did create a rather large icing sugar cloud when we were mixing it in the bowl !) just goes to show how amazing that book is. Great present - thanks Mum! I'd highly recommend it to anyone who likes baking cakes!

Masterchef!

White Chocolate and Raspberry Loaf Cake

I've just finished baking this White Chocolate and Raspberry Loaf Cake. I took the recipe from my newest cake cook book; "The Clandestine Cake Club" by Lynn Hill.

It was very easy to make, took about an hour and looks really good! I haven't actually tasted the finished product yet, but I've had sneaky tastes as I've gone along (don't worry - washed hands every time!). Just waiting for the chocolate to set before I cut it and take some to my friend's tonight!

I daresay that my boyfriend will have a couple of slices while I'm out tonight, although he had best leave me and my mum some for tomorrow!!

Home Sweet Home!

Last night, I finished my latest cross stitch creation. It's called "Mr and Mrs Tooting" designed by Genny Haines from Goldleaf Network. It didn't actually take me that long to do - about 5 weeks on and off? I'm going to frame it and hang it in my hallway =D

Mr and Mrs Tooting!
(I wonder which is which??)

I already have my next cross stitch project lined up in the form of a brown woofer... =D

Hotel Chocolat (or not...)

Every time I've been in Hobbycraft I always looked in their direction of their baking section and saw some products that I wanted to buy but never did. Except yesterday, I did.

Chocolate moulds!

A "Belgian Seashell" mould and candy buttons (light cocoa and white)

The basic idea being you melt the chocolate, pour it into the mould, hit it on the sideboard a few times to get ride of any air bubbles in the chocolates and then put into the fridge to set for about an hour or so. But I wanted to try marbelling some chocolate to get that true "Belgian" effect. You have to be careful not to overstir the chocolates together otherwise you lose the marbelling.

Melting the chocolate over hot water

After marbelling - looking fairly good!

Finished! Not exactly marbel, but still really tasty!

The finished effect wasn't all that marbelled, but they still taste good! I think next time I'll have to try using a piping bag so that the chocolate don't get mixed together as I've trying to coax it out of the bow into the mould. Didn't take very long at all to make though!