Handmade Ring Pillow

So on Easter weekend this year, we made a trip to Canberra for Tim’s brother’s wedding. And in one word, it was BEAUTIFUL!

I had the pleasure of making the ring pillow for the bride, something I’ve never done before but was so excited to do! The wedding was garden themed.

Don’t mind my own rings placed in the ring pillow for this shot, it was all I had to model the ring pillow with at this point :)

I headed off to Spotlight to get some inspiration, slightly stressing about finding an appropriate colour green for the pillow base!

I ended up buying some green satin, white organza, black ribbon and some pearl trim. Ok, I lie…. I actually bought way more, because I couldn’t decide on what look I was going for!Shhhhh… more things to add to my ever growing (and essential) stash ;)

To make the petals, I cut rectangular pieces of organza and then rounded the edges at the top and bottom. I pinched the rectangular piece in half, and then secured at the middle with a couple of stitches. I repeated with about 20-30 more petal pieces until I had enough to make a full flower, securing with more coordinating thread. Also, very importantly, I painted each petal edge with clear nail polish to ensure that it wouldn’t fray!

Then, I arranged the pearl trim in a rough flower shape and secured to the top of the flower. There’s a bit of fiddling around with these bits, I just played around with it until I thought it looked right!

I cut a length of black ribbon and hand stitched this on top of the flower and pearl trim, making sure that it was long enough to be able to tie two rings to, and also drape nicely over the pillow.

Then, the pillow. EASY! I cut out two squares, stitched up the sides (with right sides together) leaving a small opening. I stuffed the pillow with polyfill (you can buy it from Spotlight to make stuffed toys) and then used a ladder stitch (youtube it! it’s a handy stitch!)  to close up the opening.

I hand stitched the flower to the pillow with some tight stitches to make sure it was secure, and there you have it! A ring pillow for a garden wedding :)

Here’s the ring pillow in action on the big day, being carried by the dashing ring bearer!

And how could I not post a picture of the gorgeous bride herself!

Don’t you love weddings? :)

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Crochet Cowl Neck Dog Sweater

Okay, so it’s not winter in Australia yet, but it’s so close!!

Admittedly, we’ve got a pretty poor excuse for winter here with 20 degree average days and sunshine most of the time (I’m not complaining). But with winter nearing, it’s definitely an excuse to bring out the wool and start crocheting!

Of course we had to make Apples something to keep her warm for her first winter. And legitimately so, chihuahuas actually get cold very easily!

Tim made this crochet cowl neck sweater for Apples. Isn’t it cute? She’s usually burrowing herself under pillows and blankets in an attempt to keep warm, but with the sweater she doesn’t need to :)

Tim didn’t use a pattern, maybe the hardest part of the project because trying to measure an easily distracted puppy is kind of hard!

Aside from that though, it took a few hours, and then he was done! The cowl neck folded over at the top was a late addition, I think it adds a little extra!

Now I just need a project for myself to crochet for winter….. decisions, decisions. All of my friends already have multiple blankets, scarves and other amazing projects on the go at the moment, I’m still waiting for some inspiration……

 

 

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Super Easy Meal – Homemade Pasta with Ricotta, Prosciutto, Basil and Parmesan

This is actually the second time we’ve tried to make pasta… the first time… was… difficult. After a heated conversation about ‘whether the dough was too sticky’ and hours of making it and cleaning up, we finally ended up with something to eat for dinner.

But don’t let me put you off making fresh pasta.This second time round was SO easy.The dough was perfect and made some beautiful fettuccine! Store bought pasta doesn’t compare to fresh. You can taste the difference and it’s really worth the effort.

Here’s a pic our fettuccine drying…

…and the finished meal just thrown together, let’s call it ‘rustic’…:)

My biggest tip for making the pasta is to make sure that the dough is quite dry, and not sticky to touch before you put it into the machine. We lightly tossed each piece of dough in flour before rolling through the machine the second time round and it made a huge difference and prevented the heartache of dough getting stuck in the pasta machine (read: more cleaning… no one wants that!).

My other tip, if you’re making pasta for the first time, is to buy a back up packet of store bought pasta. Just in case. For about 99 cents, it’s an excellent insurance policy, and ensures that no one will go hungry if you run into any problems!

So learn from my original mistakes and make your own fresh pasta with the simple recipe below!

Fresh Pasta 

(serves about 4 hungry people, adjust as necessary)

Ingredients

  • 300grams good quality flour (can buy the 00 flour from the supermarket)
  • 3 eggs

Method

  1. Weigh out your flour on a clean work surface, such as a large cutting board or clean bench top.
  2. Make a well in the middle of the flour and crack your two eggs in.
  3. Using your hands, gently swirl around the eggs, combining them with the flour until a dough comes together.
  4. Continue to knead the dough for at least five minutes, sprinkling more flour when necessary to prevent the dough from sticking to your work surface.
  5. Form the dough into a ball, wrap in cling wrap and leave in the fridge to rest for 15 minutes.
  6. Take the dough out and cut into approximately four pieces. Give each piece a little bit more kneading, press flat with your palm, and lightly toss in flour.
  7. Sprinkle a little bit of flour through the rollers of your pasta machine.
  8. Roll the dough through your pasta machine according to the machine instructions and then hang to dry for at least 15 minutes.
  9. Boil a pot of salted water, add your pasta and cook until al dente, approximately 5 minutes. Strain.
  10. Enjoy your pasta! Try what we did and toss in some ricotta and prosciutto and top with torn up basil leaves and freshly grated parmesan. Let the fresh ingredients speak for themselves!

 

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Apple and Banana Pupcakes Recipe

It’s almost been one week since we got our little pup Apples. She’s very quickly taken over the house, and our bed in particular!

Tonight I made Apples some ‘pupcakes’ to eat after she enjoyed her homemade chicken stew (yep, she’s spoilt). I’ve been reading a lot about what foods are dangerous for dogs (so many out there!!) and with what was left, I figured I could still manage to make her a delicious treat ;) I do love making cupcakes, so I was up for the challenge!

Here is the finished pupcake:

And here is the recipe! Also, after cooking for Apple this afternoon, I had a slightly jealous boyfriend, so I have beef and guinness pie cooking and a six pack of beers chilling as I write this post…. recipe for the pie to come ;)

Apple and Banana Pupcakes with Chicken Liver frosting and Beef Liver Sprinkles

Makes 24 mini cupcakes, freeze the cupcakes and thaw and frost as required :)

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup rolled oats (all natural, no additives)
  • 1/2 cup wholemeal flour
  • 1 egg
  • 140g tub of apple puree
  • 1/4 apple, diced
  • 1 medium banana, sliced

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius and line a mini muffin tray with cupcakes liners.
  2. Place oats and flour in a medium sized bowl.
  3. In another bowl, lightly whisk the egg and apple puree together.
  4. Add the apple puree and egg mixture to the flour and oats. Stir to combine.
  5. Stir through apple and banana pieces.
  6. Place a heaped teaspoon of the mixture into each cupcake liner, until full to the top of the liner. As there is no raising agent in our mixture, the pupcakes will not rise, so you can fill more than usual.
  7. Cook in the oven for 10 minutes or until they spring back slightly, or a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Now the best part, decorating! Decorate with Kong Stuff’n Paste chicken liver flavour (I bought this from the pet shop to fill Apples’ kong toy with) and sprinkle with crushed Schmacko’s beef liver flavoured treats. And you are done!! I’m sure Apples doesn’t REALLY appreciate the look of them, but the cupcake enthusiast in me couldn’t resist the decorations ;) 

Here is a pic of Apple enjoying her pupcake :) and a pic of Apples with her toy apple that Tim crocheted for her! Yes, he spoils her as much as I do.

Apples with her toy Apple that Tim crocheted for her :)

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DIY Dog Bed in an Afternoon

As some of you already know, we are getting a puppy very soon (seven more sleeps!) I’m obviously BEYOND excited. We’re calling her Apples.

Until yesterday, we’d organised all of the essentials for Apples….. except a dog bed. The problem was that I was set on making a dog bed by using half of a vintage hard shell suitcase as a base with a pillow inside. However, the search for a vintage suitcase was MUCH harder than I thought…. in fact, near impossible, unless I was willing to spend around the $100 mark to have one shipped to Australia from the US. The other option was to buy a generic dog bed from the shop, but I was really put off by the price (about $70) and the lack of design and colour, like below……

So, I decided to make a dog bed from a cheap piece of plywood from the hardware store and sewed a stylish pillow to match. I bought the appropriate size pillow insert that I wanted to use first, and then based the dimensions for the bed base on that (making the bed base a few centimetres smaller than the dimensions of the pillow, so the pillow fit snugly inside).

Tim constructed the bed base using only a handsaw, some screws, a drill and some wood glue. He put it together in under an hour. I was in charge of construction supervision ;)

I then sanded and painted the bed base with two coats of “hot pop yellow” paint :) (don’t you love paint names?). I agonised over the choice of colour in the paint section of the hardware store for quite a while!

The pillow was super easy, fitted with a zipper so the cover can be taken off and washed if need be. We started after lunch time, and a few hours later, we had a completed chic bed that matches the decor in our lounge room! I’m really pleased with the result, and I can’t wait to take a picture of our new puppy enjoying it :) I hope you like it too! If you’re interested in a tutorial for this, let me know.

Enjoy!

x Tam

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Crochet Golf Club Covers – By Tim!

Tim is my SUPER talented boyfriend, who not only is the handyman around the house, but also an avid crocheter! In fact, he even taught me how to crochet. Although I’m always looking for new projects to try out, Tim is much more creative than I am…. and has a knack for thinking up crazy things, and most of all, finishing them! I’ve got a fair amount of unfinished projects (UFOs!) around the house, so Tim is always a huge motivation to get things done! His latest project was a set of crochet golf club covers, and his blog about it is below :) Enjoy!

x Tam

I’ve always been somewhat of a closet crocheter, something I did in the privacy of my own home for my own personal enjoyment. Whenever someone did find out that I crochet beanie’s, tea cosies, scarfs, etc. it was always met with a ‘wow’ and quickly following by a slight head tilt and look of careful consideration. It’s this ‘look’ that’s always stopped me from sharing my works with more than my immediate social group. But with Tam constantly urging me to make things for her it’s become far easier to do, and I need to spend less of my mental faculty in doing it. So in a way it’s become a way I relax, much like reading a book.

Golf is always something I’ve found quite social and enjoyable, except for one important factor; I’m desperately hopeless at it. Whenever playing a round of golf, there’s always one person in the group that is much worse at the game than the rest. Time after time I’ve found out, much to my own embarrassment, that this person is more often than not……me. But with the onset of 2012 I decided that even if I couldn’t be very good, playing regularly surely couldn’t hurt my form on the golf course. So now that I’m out playing regularly I thought it only fitting to ‘deck-out’ my set in some handmade covers (to disguise the cheapness of my clubs……or maybe it just enhances it…..you can decide for yourself).

The design I’ve gone with employs both crocheting and knitting. The club head cover is a spiral pattern of double crochet, while the collar is a ribbed (knit 2, pearl 2) knitted pattern.

It’s a good idea to have the club you intend on covering with you, as most ‘woods’ will be different shapes and sizes and a snug fit looks much better and hides any imperfections.

1.     For a large headed driver – start by chaining 11-13 stitches, now double crochet into the second chain from your hook. To make an oval shape that conforms to the club head you want to crochet around this the chain, i used 11 chains which meant that since i crochet back into the second form the hook it left me with a chain of 10 (a nice even number i think). you want to double crochet into each chain and when you get to the end you’ll double crochet 5 times into the last one (should be the chain which has the slip knot), now you’ll double crochet once into each of the chain down the other side, and once again you’ll double crochet 5 times into the last chain. You should now have a long oval of double crochet stiches. I like to work in a spiral pattern; i think it makes for a more even finish without that seam of stitches which seem to result when working in rows. So when you get back to the first double crochet you did, just double crochet into it like you would any other.

2.     This part will be a bit of trial and error; the aim is to the increase the size of your oval so that it is roughly the size of the drive head. You’ll do this by doing 2 double crochet into every second or third stitch (with 1 double crochet in the rest of the stitches) so that your ‘oval’ remains relatively flat while getting bigger.

3.     Once they are almost the same size, you want to start doing 1 double crochet into each double crochet so that instead of ‘growing’ outward the rows will curl and start to form a bowl/cup shape. Continue until the ‘cup’ is about the same size as your club head.

4.     Since i worked in a spiral, to finish it off after my last double crochet i do a single crochet and then a slip stitch so that the stitches ‘blend’ back into the previous row.

5.     The head cover is done, now for the collar.

For the collar:

Count the number of stitches in the last rows of the crocheted head cover, and cast on the same number of stitches to the knitting needle. Then assume a knitting pattern of knit 2, pearl 2 for each row, this will give you a ribbed pattern that will stretch over the golf head but have a nice fit around the club shaft. Continue the pattern until the collar is about the same length as the head cover (i personally like the proportions when the lengths are the same but you could do more or less depending on your taste) and then cast off the stitches, but don’t cut the string.

To reduce the number of loose ends and hopefully make it harder for you cover to unravel line the golf head cover with the ribbed section you’ve just made (as in the photo below) and single crochet the leading edge together with the wool you knitted with. Once you’ve done this turn the whole thing inside out and slipstitch or single crochet the ribbed section down its length so it forms a tube. Tie off the end and weave back into the stitching to hide it. Turn the whole thing inside out again and you’re done.

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Mini Origami Envelope Card Tutorial

This is the card I made Timmy for Valentines Day, but you could make this card for anyone, all year round! The card has mini origami envelopes on the front, each with a personal message inside. I was banned (by Tim :P) to post all of the messages that were inside, but you get the idea!! I thought the envelopes were super cute in all the different prints :) Try it yourself!

Here’s how to do it yourself!

Mini Origami Envelope Card

What you need:

  • Mounting squares (for card making/scrap booking, about $2 from spotlight)
  • A pre made blank card (or a piece of thick enough card to fold in half to do it yourself)
  • Pretty paper to make the origami envelopes (scrapbooking paper is great!)
  • Pens to write a personalised message for the envelopes, and inside the card
Cut a square piece of paper and fold in half once diagonally.
Open the paper so it is lying wrong side up, and fold a corner to meet the crease that you’ve made on the diagonal (see below).

Fold upwards again and crease.

Fold the left hand side across, slightly past the centre and crease. Do the same with the right hand side.

Fold the right side back towards in line with the peak of the top piece and crease (see below!)

Open up the shape that you’ve just creased and flatten, so it now looks like a diamond (but is open at the top). Fold down the top flap and tuck it into the little “latch” and you are done!

Cut pieces of paper to fit your envelopes, write messages on them, and fill the envelopes. Use the mounting tabs to place the envelopes however you like on your blank card.

Any questions, just ask :)

Enjoy!

Tam x

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Rekorderlig Strawberry and Lime Cider Cupcakes

Yesterday was our friend’s birthday, and he loves Rekorderlig Strawberry and Lime Cider. Actually, most of my friends are absolutely NUTS about the stuff at the moment (it IS delicious)!

I’ve been dying to try out the oven in our new house (yep, we’ve moved house in the last two weeks) and I was dearly missing baking/cooking while I was away all of last week at university in Toowoomba…… SO I decided to try to incorporate the Rekorderlig cider into cupcake form. Alcohol and cupcakes? You can’t really go wrong :)

I think the end result was really good! I’ve detailed the recipe after the pics.

Enjoy!

x Tam

These were really easy to make :) I used my basic plain cupcake recipe, and substituted milk with cider. The frosting is a cream cheese frosting infused with lime, and of course, a strawberry on top! These cupcakes also happened to perfectly match the brand new cake holder my mum bought me :)

Anyway, here is the recipe!

Rekorderlig Strawberry and Lime Cider Cupcakes with Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

  • 4 eggs
  • 200g butter (softened)
  • 3 cups SR flour
  • 2 1/2 cups caster sugar
  • Half a bottle of Rekorderlig cider (250ml = 1 cup)
  • 500g cream cheese
  • 500g pure icing sugar (NOT icing sugar mixture!)
  • 1 punnet strawberries
  • 2 limes
  • Cupcake liners

Method:

  1. Line two 12 hole muffin trays with cupcake liners and preheat a fan forced oven to 180 degrees celsius.
  2. Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer for 3 minutes on medium/high.
  3. Turn the mixer to low and add the eggs, one at a time, until just incorporated (don’t over mix, over mixing = dry cupcakes!).
  4. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Add the flour and cider alternately, until all has been used.
  5. Divide the mixture between the cupcake liners. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes (may need a bit more/less time, depending on the oven) or until the cupcake feels “springy” to the touch.
  6. Remove cupcakes from oven and cool. Place in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to ice!
  7. For the icing, beat cream cheese in mixing bowl until slightly softened. Add the icing sugar until fully incorporated. Add lime juice from fresh limes to taste.
  8. Add a touch of green food colouring, to get the desired colour :). Fill a piping bag (fitted with round tip) with icing and frost cupcakes with smooth swirls. Place halved strawberries on top.
  9. Sit back with your half bottle of cider leftover from baking (it’d be a shame to waste it! ;) ) and enjoy your cupcakes! :)

 

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Lemon Meringue Pie (+ Recipe)

I decided to make lemon meringue pie yesterday for the first time with the new pastry tin, I think it worked out really well! Here it is….

I made the pastry, filling and meringue from scratch, but if you’re in a hurry and want to cheat…. you can use store bought lemon curd (Yackandandah brand, in the Jams/Spreads section at the supermarket) and ready-rolled shortcrust pastry from the freezer aisle ;) It will still taste delicious.

Anyway, here is the recipe for the full pie (meringue, lemon filling, pastry)!

Lemon Meringue Pie

Ingredients:

Pastry:

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 125g butter (chilled)
  • 3tbs icing sugar MIXTURE (not pure icing sugar)
  • Chilled water

Filling:

  • 1 cup caster sugar
  • Juice of 5 lemons
  • 1/2 cup cornflour
  • 1 tin sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 65grams butter (softened)

Meringue:

  • Pinch of cream of tartar
  • 5 egg whites
  • 1 cup caster sugar

Method:

  1. Place the flour and icing sugar in a bowl. Cube the chilled butter and rub into the flour mixture with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
  2. Add a tiny amount of chilled water at a time, mixing the mixture with a bread knife until a dough comes together (I used about 2tbs water).
  3. Form a ball from the dough and sandwich between two sheets of baking paper on a clear space of the bench. Roll with a rolling pin until the dough is even thickness and large enough to fill your pastry tin (mine is 23cm).
  4. Grease the pastry tin lightly with butter, and then fit your pastry to the tin, trimming the edges to fit. Place one of the sheets of baking paper on top of the pastry and put the tin with pastry in the fridge for 30min to rest.
  5. While the pastry is resting, make the filling. Combine cornflour, water, sugar and lemon juice over medium heat until it boils and thickens. Keep an eye on the stove! It will come together quickly. Stir continuously!
  6. One the cornflour mixture has come together (should look a little bit like kid’s craft glue at this point… but it will taste delicious!), take the pot off the stove and add the butter and egg yolks, and lastly, the condensed milk. Stir until combined.
  7. Take the pastry out of the fridge once rested and place in a 180 degree celcius fan forced oven for 15 min to blind bake, or until slightly golden on the base and edges.
  8. Take out of the oven and fill with the lemon filling mixture. Place back in the oven to cook for a further 10 min to set the filling.
  9. In the meantime, place egg whites in a clean, dry bowl and beat until soft peaks form. Start to add the sugar very slowly until all gone. The meringue should be smooth and glossy, and should have increased in volume.
  10. When the pastry has come out of the oven for the second time, spread the meringue mixture liberally all over the pie. Use a spatula or the back of a spoon and pull away from the meringue whilst spreading to give the meringue small peaks for visual interest.
  11. Increase the oven temperature to 200 degrees celcius and place the whole pie with meringue in the oven until the meringue starts to get golden on the tips, about 6 minutes.
  12. Leave to cool and then serve.

Enjoy!

Tam x

 

 

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Doggy (or kitty, or kid) Bow Ties

This weekend is going to be my first time taking photos of the adoption animals at the RSPCA shelter for their website. I’m so excited that I immediately thought of making ‘props’ for the animals to wear during the photos :) This is a tutorial for a small fabric bow tie, secured with velcro on a fabric strap. Each bow tie only requires one square of material 10″ x 10″, so a perfect opportunity to use some scraps from your stash!

My friend Ang’s dog, Jett, posed for the pictures for me with the three I’d made. Isn’t Jett so cute?! Love him!

It took me a little while to work out the dimensions of the first one, but after that, the only thing that took time was the small bit of hand sewing! If you can sew in straight lines, then you can make this. I’ve never done a tutorial before, so if you have questions, please ask :) So here goes!

You will need:

  • Scissors
  • Cotton fabric square measuring 10″ x 10″
  • Coordinating thread (and needle for hand sewing)
  • Coordinating velcro
  • Interfacing to help the bow tie to hold it’s shape and not ‘flop’ (I didn’t have any lying around so I used some scrap thick fleece)
  • Sewing Machine
  • Iron
  1. Cut a 6″ x 5″ piece from your cotton fabric.
  2. Cut a 2 7/8″ x 4 7/8″ square of your interfacing or thick fabric (so it is a rectangular just smaller than your cotton fabric folded in half).
  3. Fold your cotton in half, right sides together, so you have a square measuring 3″ x 2 1/2″. Place the fleece/interfacing underneath.
  4. If you’re neat and meticulous, iron your pieces flat so you have a crease in your folded cotton piece. Maybe put in a pin or two. If you’re impatient like me…. start sewing!! Sew with a quarter inch seam around the perimeter of your rectangle shape, leaving a small opening. Clip the corners and turn the rectangle right side out, so the pretty material is on the outside. Hand sew the opening closed.
  5. From the remaining material in your square, cut two 2 1/2″ x 10″ strips. These will form part of your strap. Cut a third piece that measures approximately 2 1/2″ x 4″.
  6. Put the two long strip right sides together (pretty material facing inwards) and sew across one of the short sides. You should now have one long strip of material.
  7. Fold the smaller piece of material along the long side and sew up the long side so you have a long skinny rectangle, turn so that the right side of the material is facing outwards. Iron flat (you actually have to use the iron in this part, no cheating!).
  8. With your new extra-long strip, fold in half so right sides are together and sew right down the long side to make a ‘tube’. Using a safety pin, turn right side out. Iron flat.
  9. Now, back to the rectangle we made earlier with the fleece/interfacing. Fold the bow lengthways like an accordian, this will give you your bow tie gathers. Spend some time playing around with this part until you have it just how you’d like it to sit. Once you do, use your coordinating thread to place a few strong stitches through the gathers to hold your bow tie in the desired shape. You won’t see these stitches later.
  10. Take your small tube you made earlier (which should now be flat after ironing), and wrap it around the centre of the bow. Trim to what you need to wrap around, leaving a tiny bit extra to just overlap (you may want the centre to be tight or a little bit looser, depending on your preference). Handstitch together. You now have a bow tie, minus strap!
  11. To add the strap, hand sew some neat stitches from the back of the bow tie to your strap piece. Try the bow tie + strap around the neck of your dog, cat, baby… etc! Trim to the desired strap length, leaving allowance to hem the ends. Hem each end of the strap.
  12. Position the velcro pieces on the strap. If you’re like me, check THREE TIMES just to be sure you put the ‘hook’ velcro on one side and the ‘loop’ velcro on the other or you’ll have to unpick all your work if you sew it on wrong. Sigh!
  13. Sew the velcro on, and you are DONE!!! Dress up your dog, cat or kid and take a photo of them looking posh! :)

Enjoy!

Tam x

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