summer muffins

We had a bit of a drizzly day here today. Not cold. But drizzly. One of those days where you are happy to find things to do inside. So we made some delicious summer berry muffins, using frozen berries and dreaming of summer fruit!

Summer Berry Muffins

2 cups self raising flour
1 cup caster sugar
2 pottles (300g) sour cream
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups of mixed berries (we used frozen...)

Combine sifted flour and sugar. Whisk together the sour cream, eggs and oil and stir through the flour mixture. Fold in berries and spoon into 12 medium muffin tins.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 180C. Dust with icing sugar to serve. Yum!

Puffle-icious...

One of my gorgeous nephews, Sam (or Shammy as his two year old brother calls him, much to Sam's disgust!) is turning five. Yes FIVE! I can't believe it, seems like yesterday he was just a little baby. Funny how the middle child slips past you in a flash.

Now I have designed my far share of birthday invitations for these boys, but there has always been a bit of negotiating. They have requested things like Lightening McQueen, and I just don't like doing branded stuff... BUT, somehow, when Sam requested a 'blue puffle' I just couldn't say no... 

Lucy has been following me around all morning telling me she wants a pink puffle invite for her birthday... what have I started!

black and white

I finally managed to get a bit of sewing down over the weekend. As I was selecting my fabrics, I came across some beautiful Florence Broadhurst prints that I had been hoarding (for longer than I care to admit!!). I finally felt brave enough to cut into them, and made a few wee coin purses and pencil cases.

I have listed a couple here in my Etsy shop.

The girls are on holidays for the next 2 weeks. Today was just glorious, beautiful sunshine and lovely warm weather. Lucy and Bella were dancing around the backyard in the togs at 7pm! Roll on summer.

my creative space: buttons and magnets

Lucy and I enjoyed a home day today - our weeks have been so busy lately, it was lovely to just sift about and enjoy a quiet day. We did lots of playdough and painting and cutting and drawing and cooking. Then I did lots of tidying up :-)

I also managed to get a stack of new magnets and buttons made from my scraps, which felt great. It has been on my 'to do' list for ages. That means I will have lots of shiny new magnets at Kraftbomb on Sunday.

Pop over to Kirsty's to see what everyone else is up to today.

oranges and lemons

The girls have been waking anywhere between 5am (when the birds start chirping) and 6am lately. This morning they got themselves dressed and had their gum boots on before I had even opened my eyes! Their plan was too take a basket and pick some grapefruit for breakfast. I am sure the neighbours appreciated the two of them chattering outside at 6am, and then having to have a bounce on the trampoline on the way back inside... I can't wait for daylight savings to kick in so the kids aren't up at 5am each morning!

Lucy and I made a cake this morning to take with us this evening. We were going to use the grapefruit, but ended up with oranges and lemons (as you often do when you have a 2 year old helping you bake!).

We used the basic butter cake recipe from the Edmonds Cookery Book, but adapted it slightly to make an orange/lemon cake.

Orange/Lemon Cake

150g butter, softened
1tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
3tsp baking powder
3/4 cup milk (approx)
1 orange*
2 lemons*

Orange/Lemon Syrup

Juice of 1 orange
Juice of 2 lemons
1/4 cup of sugar

Cream butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour and baking powder together. Fold into creamed mixture. Add grated rind of orange and lemons, then add enough milk to give a soft 'dropping' consistency. Pour mixture into a greased, lined 20cm round cake tin and cook at 180 degrees Celcius for about 30-35 minutes.

Remove cake from the oven, then spoon over the syrup whilst still hot.

*or any citrus fruit of your choice.

creative space: needle books

Lucy had a little rest this afternoon so I managed to finish off some needle books I started a while ago. I spent a couple of evenings in front of the tv hand stitching the round patches on to some vintage linen and denim, then today finished them off with lining and New Zealand wool felt.

Now to get some in the shop !

Check out Kirsty's for more creative spaces.

shop update

I managed to get a huge amount of sewing done over the weekend, I have been neglecting it for a while, and had a lot of patterns cut and ready to go, so it was quite a sense of accomplishment to finally get some of it done!

Now I have the task of loading it all to the shop! I have managed to do a small shop update this morning, including some more of my bias tape.

Enjoy!
Cat

freebies...

How cute are these!?  I love book plates, and stickers. You can download these free from here.

felt... like helping out

Feel like helping out after the Earthquake in Christchurch?

My lovely friend Sarah McLeod of Songbird Designs, has teamed up with another crafter to create Feltaid, an online shop as a fundraising scheme to help rebuild Christchurch. It's still in it's early stages, but people will be able to donate and/or purchase handmade lovelies for sale on Felt. I have donated a couple of items, so go have a peep, and buy something lovely :-)

You can check out their blog or their facebook page for more information. 

How gorgeous is this Spring weather. So lovely to be without jackets. Our house is full of little jars or freesias as the girls find more and more around the garden outskirts!

my creative space: spring bias tape

The weather has definitely changed. It is so much warmer - although I think this happens every year, we get lulled into a false sense of warmth and then get hit by another cold snap!

Today has rained and rained, but it has been warm, almost humid. My thoughts are with those of you in Christchurch, I just hope you have some of the warmth, and not the rain. Keep safe xx

Having just finished a commissioned Echino quilt, I've had bias tape on my mind. I made my own bias tape to bind the quilt and found it such a therapeutic process that I decided to make some for the shop.

I have so many lovely fabrics that are just crying out to be made into trim, including my vintage linen, so watch this space for more to come.

For more creative space goodness, pop over to Kirsty's.

market preparations

It has been a busy week. Lately, I have been busy trying to stock pile for the upcoming market season.  I seem to have over committed myself again this year with markets leading up to Christmas... and thought I was pretty organised (as I had been making excess stock along the way) but Kraftbomb last Sunday just blew all my plans out of the water, it was so busy, and I sold so much that I have been busily trying to get stock ready for tomorrow's Devonport Craft Market, let alone all the others I have coming up!!

This week I focused on bookmarks and keyrings, and have finally managed to make some more of the little mini key rings too! These are super cute, and make me feel good as I get to use up all my beautiful little scraps of Japanese linen tape and webbing.

spring time

Yay for Springtime. Auckland certainly turned on the weather for us today, this first day of Spring. We were lucky enough to have the most glorious warm sunny day. The afternoon was spent at the beach, and we even managed to finally clean the car after school! 

I was very industrious last night and finally did a long overdue tidy up in my shop. It has finally been loaded with some new oilcloth purses, crayon rolls etc.