Mmm...Cheesecake

Besides crafting another hobby of mine is cooking and especially baking. So therefore I deemed that for my Blogtoberfest post today I would show you the cheesecake that Mum and I made together for Dad's birthday. (Happy Birthday Dad!)

I love sweet things (who doesn't?) and as a result I really love collecting all sorts of cookbooks that support my habit. I have around 50 so far and I plan to keep on adding to my collection in the future. They're just so addictive! The beautiful, tummy-rumbling inducing photos, the yummy recipes, I mean even if you don't actually like cooking you can still have fun flipping through them. I particularly love Nigella Lawson, the Goddess of the kitchen and Jamie Oliver. Nigella has the most gorgeous cookbooks and I dare you to read one and not want to cook something! Her chocolate peanut butter cups really are drool inducing.

At the moment I am coveting Jamie's new book Jamie's America. At the first possible opportunity I am so getting myself a copy! Unfortunately that may not be for a while because I spent the last of my money buying Kath Kidston's Make book. Dammit.

The cheesecake Mum and I made is a New York baked cheesecake from the good ol' Australian Women's Weekly and it was goooood! (If I do say so myself.) I was really happy with how it turned out and it was very easy to make it gluten free by using rice cookies for the base. Actually, the rice cookies were heaps tastier as a base than the usual Nice biscuits I use.

I believe everything tastes better when it's home made, and this cheesecake was definitely better than a store bought one. The recipe is one I will certainly use again and besides, who doesn't love an old fashioned dessert anyway?

Does anyone have any favourite retro desserts they couldn't live without? I'd love to hear about them!

Brisvegas shopping.....

Today I thought I might share a couple of my favourite shops in Brisbane at the moment. Unfortunately for my husband, these are two shops that I can not seem to stay away from:

Funky Fabrix

(Photos courtesy of the Funky Fabrix website)

While Funky Fabrix have an awesome online shop and blog they also have a retail shop situated in Mitchelton, Brisbane. The shop is chock full of new and vintage fabric as well as handmade items such as bags, buttons and softies. I just love going in there to take in all the beautiful fabric and be inspired to get sewing.

My other favourite shop at the moment is Nook in West End.



If ever there was a shop created just for me, this would be the place. It has what I believe is the best range of handmade items in Brisbane. Stock has been sourced from all over the and my heart but skips a beat every time I go in there. From Able and Game cards to bags made by local BrisStyle girls Bec & Jade of Beckybean it has something unique for everyone.

8# From little things big things grow.....

Well it been a week since signing up for Blogtoberfest and things are going A OK. It's not too late to join in the fun or should I say insanity!

Today I thought I might share with you the project that got me back into the world of crafting and discovering the amazing online crafting community.

I have always love making things since I was a kid. My first official foray into stitching was due to my 6th grade teacher, who during the year managed to teach us only two things a) how to use deodorant (you know that age) and B) how to cross stitch. All the important things in life!

She made the whole class learn how to cross stitch, even the boys, and we all managed to create a cross stitch Easter Egg for our families. (I wish I had a photo to show but I might have to pop over to the parents and pull it out).

I was immediately hooked and it was not long until I was a permanent fixture down at our local craft shop. I crafted and stitched into my teens but it was here that I began to become disillusioned by the Nana style patterns out there.

It was not until I received this for Christmas last year, from my beautiful husband that I rekindled my love of making my own handmade goodies. Of course there were the requisite holes and stressful moments but I had no idea that I could actually hand sew my own little softie.

I was so excited when I had finished Miss Buttons that I noticed the pattern recommended that you upload a picture of your completed Miss to the Sew Your Own album on their website. After excitedly uploading my picture I noticed just how many other people had done the same thing and from here it helped me to discover just how far things had come in recent years in the crafting community and all the wonderful modern interpretations out there.

I am now officially addicted and can't remember what life was like with out it. Thank you Miss Buttons :)

Holey Moley it's a Sock Monkey!

I know this post is a day late but I swear that I really did finish my sock monkey yesterday, I just decided to hold off until posting today. Really!!! I swear on my fabric stash!
As you can see Mr Sock Monkey looks very "rustic", or as Sarah would say, "shabby chic". Or you could say he's just plain dodgy looking.

There is some truly craptastic hand stitching going on here, and I somehow managed to sew on one ear higher than the other. The stitches on his head give him a lovely frontal-lobe lobotomy look, but he can still read his Mixtape zine so it's all good!

Despite the questionable workmanship, I still love him and his sock monkey adorable-ness.

Has anyone else out there in crafty blog land made any sock monkeys? If you have i'd love to see any pics you have of them!

Op shop fun....

Here are a few of my favourite bits and pieces that I have come across while op shopping over the past few weeks................

These beautiful embroidered hankies may come in handy for a project or two. I have read a few blogs where people have been using handkerchief's in new ways to make some interesting projects, like here at Beach Vintage.

I came across this awesome collection of vintage playing cards, which have the most beautiful images....

and finally this beautiful tablecloth which was an absolute bargain and looks a million dollars as a background and table covering. I love the use of black, pink and white in the pattern, it is really fresh combination of colour.

Birdbrained!

Well i'm so glad todays' topic is birds! I love birds. Whenever I see something with a bird on it I want to buy it. It can get rather expensive. I especially love owls. I mean, how could you not love them? Their big eyes, their cute sort-of-round shape, their lovely hooting, the way they can swoop down and carry off squirrels...well perhaps not the last part. I really like squirrels too.

I especially love how people are using birds in their crafting. From softie owls to bird themed crosstitch patterns, jewellery and paintings, I just love looking at peoples' different interpretations of birds.

One of my recent bird acquisitions is a gorgeous owl tealight holder by Have You Met Miss Jones which was a present from my Mum.


You can't tell from the photo but when you light it up it glows beautifully from within.

Does anyone else out there have a love of collecting birds? Or is perhaps doing any crafting with birds as the feature? I'd love to know!

Oh and as for the sock monkey, I hope to finish him off tomorrow. Watch this space! Hopefully he will come out actually looking like a sock monkey. At the moment I have my doubts.

5# Storage Fun: i.e. how to manage your stash (of craft that is)...

Lately I have been trying to amalgamate all my crafty bits and pieces into a more organized collection(easier said then done). I was over at Mum and Dad's on the weekend, where Mum was still trying to turn my old room into her own little retreat. The only problem is the small collection or should I say hoard of my childhood belongings still laying around. Mum is under the belief that I must have been Andy Warhol in another life because she has never seen someone keep so much crap. I mean, come on, those movie stubs from 1995 are really going to come in handy one day.

I managed to clear out most of my stuff and in the process we came across our old video collection.



Much to my Mum's dismay I was determined to find a crafty way to utilize them. It seemed such a shame to get rid of the videos, when there had to be a use for them (especially the Bananarama video, it had be some kind of heirloom?#).

So I bundled them up to take home and then today I had a thought! What about take out the labels and use as storage to organize my every growing collection of vintage buttons, beads and other nick naks.

As you can see they turned out pretty handy.




I think they are a really great way to store things like buttons and other crafty supplies because they are clear and a label can be slipped into the old plastic lining which previously held the movie label. I'm sure everyone out there has a few old videos laying around the house ready to use.

Now to just make the labels ........

maybe tomorrow.