Custard Powder

I have a tin of Bird's Custard Powder in my cupboard that really needs to be used up before it becomes an antique. 

So I searched the interwebs for decent custard powder recipes and was led staight back to a book I have on my shelf....

Ah, good old Nigella and her cake-making genius.  The Birthday Custard Sponge recipe has custard powder in the cake mix and in the buttercream.

 

I ommited the chocolate icing, which looked altogether too sickly for my tastes, and just used buttercream for the sandwiching and topping. I then grated some chocolate on top for a little decoration and flavour.

 

Of course I had a little helper to keep me on track.  She's particularly good at mixing!

 

It turned out to be delicious and had a lovely moist puddingy texture. Yum yum.

 

It was also incredibly easy to make - just shove all the ingredients in a food processor and blend!  Then the cake takes 20 minutes to bake, which is great if you need a speedy cakey treat double quick, you can have this whipped up, cooled and iced within the hour.

 

I made it again this morning in fact.  This time I used only 3 eggs instead of the recipe's 4. 

4 seems a little excessive for one cake don't you think?  Not that I want to question Nigella of course.  But it did seem a little lighter this time round :)

 

 

So there you have it! A great use for custard powder, highly recommended, yummity yum x

Granny Square Tutorial

One of my best friends Clair (@clads26 on instagram) is learning to crochet and I promised her a granny square tutorial to help her along.  I've been crocheting for a few years now and can hook up granny squares on a whim, in fact I often do and I have an ever growing pile of the little things made from scraps of leftover yarn from other projects.  One day they will be made into a huge multi-coloured blanket of some kind...but that's a whole other post. 

So, want to learn how to make a simple granny square?  Alrighty...

I like to start with a magic ring, like this...



(Alternatively, you can just as easily chain 4 and join with a slip stitch into the first chain to make a circle.) 

Hold the magic ring steady...

Now insert your hook into the centre and pull through a loop, then chain 3. It can be a little tricky and that first chain might look a little unstable to begin with, but keep going, it will all work out in a minute...

Work two dcs into the magic ring (I am using American terms here, if you are working in UK terms you are working two tr into the ring.)  So now you have a ch3 (which counts as 1dc) and 2dc in the ring...

 Now ch2 and work 3 more dc into the ring (at this point I like to catch the tail of the magic circle into the stitches as I go to keep it secured out of the way)...

Now repeat this twice more - ch2, 3 dc, ch2, 3 dc, then do another ch2.  Then make a slip stitch into the 3rd chain of the first ch3 you did at the beginning of this round.  In the below picture I am halfway through making the slip stitch, I photographed this to show you where the slip stitch should go...

Here's my wonderful Pointy Arrows to help show you the dc's and the chains...

Give that little tail a pull to close the hole in the middle and make it all nice and neat.

Slip stitch in the next 2dc, then slip stitch into the ch2 space.  Ch5 (this counts as 1dc and ch2) and work 3dc into the same space.  It will look like this...

 Next - *ch1, then work 3dc, ch2, 3dc into the next ch2 space. Repeat from * 2 more times.

Here's some Pointy Arrows to show you how the pattern works...

Once you have worked your way around you will see that you still need to complete the first corner...

 

Ch1 and work 2dc into the ch2 space where you started.  These 2 dc's will slightly overlap your first ch3, don't worry though, you can pull them about a bit to make them sit a bit better. 

Now slip stitch into the 3rd chain of the first ch5 you made, see where the "ch3" Pointy Arrow shows you below...

Then make another slip stitch into the next ch2 space, X marks the spot...

Now ch5 (counts as 1dc, ch2) and work 3dc into the same ch2 space. *Ch1, work 3dc into the next ch1 space, ch1, work 3dc, ch2, 3dc into the next ch2 space.  Repeat from * 2 more times.  Ch1, 3dc into next ch1 space, ch1, 2dc into first ch2 space and join with a slip stitch into your original ch5. 

Here's some more Pointy Arrows to help show you the pattern you are working...

Now lets make it bigger! And while we're at it lets add some more colour!  Using your new colour make a slip knot on your hook...

Insert your hook into any ch2 corner space and make a slip stitch...

Ch5 (counts as 1dc, ch2)...

Work 3dc into the same space. Now work all the way around making 3dc, ch1 into each ch1 space and 3dc, ch2, 3dc, ch1 into each corner ch2 space. Finish with 2dc into the first ch2 space and a slip stich into the 3rd chain of your original ch5...

Voila! You have made a granny square!

It isn't until I just wrote that all down that I realise how complicated a granny square sounds, when really it's not complicated at all. After the first couple of rounds it is a simple repetitive and enjoyable thing to do.  And the best thing is you can either make a load of little squares to sew together and make blankets, scarfs, hats, bags, arm-warmers... Or you can just keep going - round and round - watching it get bigger and bigger, utter bliss :)

xxxx

A whole (or not whole) new me :)

*whispers* Hello?

 

Well I certainly did not mean to be away for quite so long, gosh, 10 months to be exact.  Though I DO have two excuses…well reasons rather than excuses. The first is called Instagram. I am sure you are familiar with it. I became slightly swayed by the quick-fire instant nature of this wonderful social networking tool and I am afraid it tempted me away from my blog here on the interwebs. I have added a little Instagram feed on the right over there, so you can see what it is I have been doing all this time.  So if you're on there make sure you say hello! :)



From my feed - @snipsnaphappy :)

 

The second reason is much less fun and frivolous and all together more serious I am afraid. I shall adopt a Serious Face and give you the story of the last 5 months. This story will be more quite wordy without much mention of fun and craft-filled times I’m afraid. But once we are done with this update I can then move on and happier topics can once again prevail. This is not an easy tale to tell, and I am going to share some pictures I haven't showed anybody yet (don't worry, nothing gory.) Right. Ready? Here we go...

 

You may recall, maybe, that back in the early months of last year I had begun to get ill. I have had ulcerative colitis since I was 19 and it was slowly becoming less and less controllable using conventional medicines. I had tried every form of treatment available from steroids to chemotherapy and none of it was working. My hair was falling out, my face was rounded and moon-like from the steroids, I was exhausted, depressed and unable to cope with the smallest of dramas. Then my consultant threw into the mix that if something drastic wasn’t done soon I could be looking at a perforated bowel, or cancer. I didn’t like the sound of either of those you will not be surprised to hear : /

 

So drastic measures were indeed taken. When I say drastic I mean Drastic with a capital D.  On 29^th August last year I was admitted to hospital for a "total proctocolectomy and ileoanal pouch construction". In other words my entire large intestine was removed and my small bowel reconstructed in a complicated 6-hour-surgery. I then spent 9 days horrendously ill in hospital before practically crawling out to get home to my family. For two months I had an ileostomy but it was recessed and stomach acid burnt my skin constantly. It was the most difficult time I have ever experienced and for 4 weeks I could barely even walk, let alone look after my children. There were some days when I couldn’t even summon the energy to watch television, and I certainly couldn’t crochet.

 

My brand new stoma bag, given to me a few weeks before the op full of contents I couldn't coprehend.

The night before surgery, waiting in hospital to get hooked up to all the IVs etc.

The morning of the first operation, waiting to be wheeled down to theatre.  My face is all poofy due to the steroids.

3 hours post-surgery & out of it on large doses of morphine.  Hooked up to several monitors and tubes & a morphine pump.

 

On 24^th October I went back to hospital for a second surgery, this time it was to remove the ileostomy and re-attach my small intestine so that I could start using my new “j-pouch”. It’s complicated but essentially my small bowel has been reconstructed to take over the job of the large intestine. This time I was in for a week, it wasn’t easy but it was a lot easier than the first surgery. Once home I could then properly start to recover and get used to my new internal plumbing.

 

1 hour after the 2nd surgery and NO morphine this time! :)

 

That was almost 3 months ago now. It is still early days and I am still adjusting to the new way my body works. But I take no medications, I can eat most foods and I am NOT SICK. It’s all rather strange, and actually despite the whole thing at the time seeming agonisingly slow it was really all rather quick and I sometimes have to stop and take a breath when I think about all that has happened to me. Life has changed dramatically, but I think it has changed for the better.  So far so good.

 

That should of course be the end of the story, but it’s not. I had 7 months off work to cope with my illness then undergo the two surgeries and subsequent recoveries. I returned to work two and half weeks ago and on Tuesday last week I was told I would no longer have a job. My post is to be “deleted” and I am now in a 30 day consultation period before either redeployment or redundancy (I work for a charity and any redundancy will be statutory so this is not an opportunity to rake in a lovely big severance package believe me!)

 

So that about catches us up.  Sickness, surgery, sickness, surgery, miraculous recovery, new start, redundancy...the rest is yet to come and I have no idea what the future will hold. But I do know one thing - I have the energy, the strength and the emotional capacity to handle it. Oh, and there will be crochet :)

Crochet Easter Basket Tutorial

I do love Easter, I guess I always associate this time of year with my April birthday and my mum's birthday too and general happy times.  And of course now that I am married to a March man and have a March daughter there is even more reason to celebrate!





We always have an Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday, usually in my mum's garden (which is about ten times the size of our own!)  This year I wanted to make some cute little baskets for the girls to use to store their eggs in (the little ones that is, there's no way these baskets are going to hold the abundance of packaging that comes with the bigger eggs!)  At the same time I have been trying to think of projects to use up my leftover yarn - the result is a pattern which uses only a small amount of yarn and is very quick and easy to make! Enjoy!





Crochet Easter Egg Basket


You need:

• Chunky wool (I used left from the Li'l Monkey blanket)


• 6mm crochet hook


• Large yarn needle

Round 1 - Make a magic ring...





...Ch3 (counts as 1 dc) and make 11 more dcs into the ring (12 dc)

Round 2 - Ch3 (counts as 1 dc) – 1 dc in same dc, then 2 dcs in each dc around (24dc). Join with sl st in top of 3ch.

Round 3 - Ch3 (counts as dc), *2 dc in next dc, 1 dc in next dc, repeat from * around (36dc).  Join with sl st in top of 3ch.







You should now have a nice flat circle.

Round 4 - Ch3 (counts as dc), 1 dc in next dc and in each dc around (36), join with sl st in top of ch3. 

Round 5 - Repeat Rnd4 (If you want to change colour for this round, as I have done, just tie in your new colour as close to your work as possible before making the Ch3 at the beginning of the round)

Round 6 - Ch1 (does not count as sc), sc in same st, 1 sc in next 4, sc2tog,* 1sc in next 5, sc2tog, repeat from *around, sc in last st.

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sc2tog

 

Join with sl st in first sc. (31)

Round 7 - Ch1 and turn, sl st in each sc around finishing with sl st in beginning ch1, fasten off (this row helps the top edge sit nicely I find)

One cute little basket! You can leave it like this, or add a handle like I have for the grey one...

Handle:

(Leave a long tail for sewing)

Ch3, turn, 1 sc in 2^nd ch from hook and in next ch.

Ch1 and turn, sc in each sc across (2sc).  Repeat until you have the desired length of handle, fasten off leaving long tail for sewing.

Sew onto side of basket by sewing ends of handle into the tops of the sc row.

Voila!  Cute little chunky baskets ready for your easter egg hunt!  You could of course just display them prettily somewhere to hold jewellery or your keys or loose change. 


Have fun with this and do be sure to let me know how you get on, I would love to hear how you get on with my patterns and tutorials, feedback is incredibly useful!

Happy Easter!

Meadow Party

On Saturday Lillia turned 6 and had a "meadow" themed party at home to celebrate.  There were far too many sweet treats of course, with a few carrot sticks and cucumber slices thrown in to balance it out a bit. But most of all there were plenty of games and fun. I had a lot of fun making crochet bunting and other little decorations. The flower bunting above was inspired by this tutorial and it was perfect for a meadow theme.

I made up the pattern for mini bunting and used yarn left over from other projects to make it...

I was very pleased with this, I really love the colours. In fact all the bunting is still up! I don't think I will take it down until well after Easter is done :) As well as bunting there were many bunches of cheery daffs dotted about the place looking festive...

I love daffodils. Yellow is my favourite colour and they are only 99p a bunch, so at this time of year I can afford to have fresh flowers in the house!

I made a meadow cake of course...

And I also made plenty of butterfly biscuits...

...and toadstool muffins...

...and faced with leftover green buttercream icing I decided to create some "meadow muffins" too...!

Honestly I think I had eaten a ton of buttercream before 10am just from the odd lick of a spoon or finger! Myum myum! Good job Lillia was too busy making fairy rings using pink helium balloons to notice.

Every guest had their own butterfly cookie with their name piped on in icing, and we had little colourful windmills scatted about as well as in the party bags. They looked so pretty poking out, I totally forgot to take a photograph of them all lined up, it was just all so manic getting everything ready!

The vase holding the yellow windmill is one of mine by the way, do you like it?

Then of course we had our paper pom poms adding the finishing touch...

We played Pin the Tail on the Cow, musical statues, musical bumps, Pass the Parcel, we had an Easter egg hunt and then there was Wally the Wicked Wasp - our homemade pinata! Sadly I completely forgot to take a proper photo before he was smashed to a pulp by 6 sugar-fuelled 6-year-olds with a rolling pin. But here he is in action...

 

Lillia didn't want the pinata to be anything she liked, like a bumble bee or a toadstool, as she didn't like the idea of whacking it otherwise! Bless her. So a wicked wasp was the solution! He was stuffed full of chocolates and party blowers, they had a great time!

It was a tiring but lovely day.  Lillia had a wonderful birthday, I just can't believe she is 6-years-old.  Where did that time go?

There is still a bit of cake left so I best get on and help with the eating of it, might be some wine left somewhere in the fridge too :0)

Happy Birthday Lillipops

xx