17# Shake and Bake

Today for the first time in awhile I actually had the time to take it a bit easier and fit in some baking. I have had the Crabapple Bakery Cookbook by Jennifer Graham for a little while now and despite drooling over the pages had not actually had a chance to make any of the yummy cupcakes.

So with the time and the fact that I have been invited to the Brisbane Brown Owl meeting tomorrow I decided to get baking...........

It was great to have the time to make something a bit special. Since my husband was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease last year I have had to really be creative and cook most meals from scratch. I have been lucky to find some great gluten free packet mixes for cakes but today I thought I would try a normal cupcake recipe and simply replace the normal plain flour with gluten free plain flour. This was with some trepidation I must admit.

I was actually quite surprised with the final result. I have found particularly when making pikelets that the gluten free flour can not rise quite as well as normal flour but the cupcakes rose really well, almost too well. I also found the texture to be a lot more lighter and fluffier with the gluten free flour.

Please excuse the icing though it was my first attempt at using a piping bag :)

My Creative Space

Well, seeing as it is my turn to post I thought i'd be a typical little sister and follow Sarah's lead by showing you all what i'm working on at the moment.

I am part way through the super-cool cross stitch pattern by LoungeKat which is featured in the latest issue of Mixtape. I have just finished the lettering and am now trying to figure out the best way to tackle all of the the outer detail.

I haven't done any cross stitching in forever as I hadn't really been inspired by any patterns but when I saw this one I just had to do it. I love its uniqueness and quirkiness- you don't see many cross stitch charts with skulls in them!

I am now on the hunt to find other cool patterns. It would be great if there were more cross stitch patterns like the ones that Sublime Stitching have for embroidery... which brings me to my new endeavour- learning embroidery! I have totally fallen in love with the gorgeous designs on the site, especially those from the Artist Series. I have also swiped a Sublime Stitching book from Sarah so i'm pretty well set! I've never really embroidered anything before as i've always thought it was too hard but now that i've seen all the cool designs out there I can't resist giving it a go!

If anyone has any pics on their blog of any projects they've embroidered or cross stitched i'd love to have a peek!

My creative space

Wow I can't believe we are up to Day 15 already, time flies when your having fun (enter tired sigh here).

Today my creative space is the craft project currently occupying (or should I say engulfing) my dining room table. I have decided this year to to try and get a head start on some crafty projects for Christmas. Did she just mention the C Word, I hear you all crying out. I know, I know it is still early days but most years I always have grand plans which end up falling by the way side. It is hard with a full time job to try and fit it all in but this year I am going to triumph!

During all my blog surfing lately I have come across some really beautiful projects all revolving around creating garlands. This tutorial at dottieangel is just stunning and inspired me to maybe make my own garland. Another blog (do you think I can find it) used paper to create a similar effect. It used a technique similar to this.


As you can see from the photos I have recycled some old Christmas shopping bags from last year, particularily one from Crabtree and Evelyn. Using some cookie cutters as templates I managed to cut out lots of different shapes with different patterns. All I can say is thank god for the movie length Jonathan Creek on Sunday night which gave me ample entertainment while cutting most of them out (whose stupid idea was that anyway!).

I am hoping to use some baking paper to sew each individual cut out into a beautiful Christmas garland. I promise more pictures to come, stay tuned.

What's Hot and What's Not

HOT:

1. Roller derby
On Tuesday we threw caution to the wind and went out to the movies on a school night. We saw Whip It and it was well worth trip. It made me want to go out and see some derby here in Brisbane and break out the skates. Go Girls!


2. Wednesday Market Day at UQ
I'm very lucky to have a market appear every Wednesday right at work. It is something to look forward to, in a normally uneventful work week. I especially love this time of year when the most delicious strawberries are on offer. (Please excuse the quality of the photo I was afraid that if I had waited until tonight there may not have been any left to photograph).


3. Holidays
In just a few weeks time it will finally be holiday time. We are lucky enough to be heading off to Japan for 8 days and I can't wait! The autumn leaves, all the cute fabric and stationary. What more can you say.

Photo courtesy of Kamoda on Flickr

NOT:

1. More Dust !
Today another dust cloud made it's way into Brisbane. While it was not as bad as the red dust of previous weeks it is still a major pain especially with my asthma.



2. Holidays
The fact I still have 12 days left at work before the above mentioned holidays!

Macrame Owl Goodness!

I got the coolest surprise today when I opened my letterbox and found two super awesome owls from Ange!

I just love their cute retro-ness and they now have a happy new home in my room.
However I'm now thinking they would look rather lovely hanging over my sewing desk instead so they will be relocated once I (okay, my Dad) has put some hooks into the wall!
So a BIG thank you to Ange for the new resident owls, I just love them!

12# Eye Spy My Favourite Corner of the house.......

I was having a look around blogland today (don't tell my boss) and came across this post by Pip. I followed the trail back to Cindy at bugandpop and discovered eye-spy sunday. So even though I'm a bit late I thought I would play along.

Since moving into our new little home, my favourite place would definitely be the small nook behind our front door.

When we bought the house there was a built in desk and cupboard but since then I have made a few little renovations.....

(i.e. ripping the guts out of it )

It is a great little spot to store all my stationary and to do small crafts like stamping. The window provides lots of light and makes it a very cheerful place to sit. I just adore the glass cupboards built into the wall. They are perfect for housing my collection of bits and pieces and is a handy spot for storing vases and candles all in one spot.

Crafty book goodness!

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I have acquired a lovely new crafty book by Cath Kidston called Make! It is full of Cath's famous fabric designs that you can photocopy and use in your own projects. I particularly heart the bird and star designs. The book is mainly concerned with the decoration and application of embroidery and designs onto things like bags, towels, socks and clothes. The pictures are gorgeous and colourful and very inspiring- the little pink songbird socks are especially adorable!

The coolest thing about the book is that you get a plain tote to use and decorate as your first project. I think I might cover mine in little multi-coloured stars. Watch this space to see how it goes. Knowing my hand sewing skills it's sure to be interesting! (Read: dodgy).

And the good news is that Cath has another book called Sew! coming out in a couple of weeks for the die hard sewers out there. The book also includes some of her trademark fabric to make a bag with. I can't wait!