Tuesday 2 July 2019

Make mine a butterfly....

I think it's so funny really, that when I ask the family what they would like baking, I usually get asked for butterfly buns... and when I've made them, they disappear quicker than you can say 'bobs your uncle!'. 


This was a little batch I made a while ago... and actually, I'm ashamed to say that I haven't been on my old blog as often as I would like to be honest. 

Not any reason really, other than work, time, college, dogs, and nowhere to craft, and nothing to show. My craft room has been taken over by a guinea pig, and the little shells have moved into there too. 

Quick catch up too, the shells - Edie, Jasper and Gypsey - have all been growing well, slow and sure, and greedy little Gypsey is the biggest, Jasper is the smallest. Still cute and starting to have a little more confidence now. At the moment, they are enjoying life with an abundance of different lovely tasting weeds and flowers galore. 

The guinea pig... well, he came from a college friend, and had got a few issues with his brother. They ended up fighting and needed to be seperated. He's a little cutie. Fat Freddie we call him... but it's not a definate name, as he's also been Albert....Piggy.... Spartan (he came with that!) but he is a greedy little thing. 

In addition to these little changes, we still have Truly, Holly and of course, our little Benson - who is not so little anymore! It's hard to believe that he is nearly a year old... he's so full of mischief, but he is adorable and so loving. A proper little cheeky chap, who definately sticks to the 7 second clumber rule!!!

anyway... that's my little catch up for tonight... I have a few things to share so will be back soon I'm sure. xxxx

Thursday 12 April 2018

Sugar Free Lemon Meringue

Lemon Meringue.

Yum.

One of my favourite deserts, and I managed to change up the recipe so that it was sugar free, and although the meringue isn't as 'sugary' as it would normally be, it is still delicious and light.

Here is the finished tart.. as you can see, the meringue is just scrumptious and crumbly (exactly as it should be!)

 



Pie Crust
200g plain flour
50g margarine
50g lard
2 tablespoons granulated sweeteer (I used hermesetas)

Filling
65g cornflour
500ml water
120ml fresh lemon juice
2 large eggs
2 egg whites
1 1/2 tsp lemon zest
65g granulated sweetener
2 tablespoons margarine
2 teaspoons yellow food gel (optional)

Meringue
1 tablespoon cornflour
50ml water
3 large egg whites
4 - 5 tablespoons granulated sweetener
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 175c. / Gas 4

Pie Crust -  
  1. To make the pie crust, add all ingredients into a food processor and blend until it looks like breadcrumbs. Slowly add water until it forms a dough. 
  2. Roll the dough out and press into a 6 inch loose based flan tin. Prick the base with a fork, and line with foil and baking beans. Bake for 15 mins, then remove the beans and cook for 10 mins more until browned. 
  3. Leave to cool whilst making the filling.
Lemon Filling -
  1. Stir together the cornflour, water and lemon juice in a saucepan. Heat to boiling stirring constantly until thickened. Remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly. 
  2. Whisk the eggs and egg whites together with lemon zest and granulated sweetener in a bowl. 
  3. Add a third of the hot filling into the egg mixture and stir to combine. 
  4. Pour the egg mixture into the hot filling and return to the heat for another minute, stirring constantly. 
  5. Remove from the heat and stir in the margarine and food colouring (if using). Stir to blend. 
  6. Pour the filling into the cooled pie crust and allow to cool whilst making the meringue. 
Meringue - 
  1. Stir the cornflour and water together in a bowl and heat in a saucepan until thickened. Leave to cool. 
  2. Beat the egg whites until foamy, then add the granulated sweetener whilst beating until it forms stiff peaks. 
  3. Add the cornflour mixture a little at a time, stirring after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and stir well. 
  4. Spread the meringue over the cooled base ensuring it touches the crust all the way around. 
  5. Bake in the oven for around 10 minutes until it is lightly browned. 
  6. Allow to cool before serving as this will allow the filling to set, making it easier to cut. 
Eat and Enjoy!

Sugar Free Fruit Scones

So sorry for the delay in writing up the recipe for the Sugar Free Scones. I know I promised you the write up for it a few days ago, but things got a bit busy again, and it completely slipped my mind!

Anyway... here they are - and I can honestly say they were really tasty... look at the bottom for the recipe. 

If you try them, can you leave me a comment to let me know what you think? Thanks muchly!


500g plain flour
5 teaspoons baking powder
50g butter
50g trex / lard
2 handfuls of raisins or sultanas
300ml skimmed milk
1 large egg, beaten, for the top of the scone

  1. Preheat the oven to 220c / gas mark 7
  2. Put the flour, baking powder, butter and trex in a food processor and blitz until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. (If you prefer, you can add the ingredients above into a bowl and rub together with your hands.) 
  3. Pour the crumbs into a mixing bowl and add in the raisins. Stir to combine evenly. 
  4. Add the milk to the dry ingredients and stir with a knife until it forms a rough dough. 
  5. Tip out onto your work surface and knead lightly to bring together. 
  6. Roll out to around 3cm together. 
  7. Dip your scone cutter into some flour, then cut out your scones. Bring the mixture back together and knead slightly, re-roll and cut out as before. The mix should make around 12 scones. 
  8. Place the scones onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. 
  9. Brush the tops with beaten egg and bake for around 10 minutes, or until risen and golden. 
  10. Eat and Enjoy!!




Wednesday 4 April 2018

lemon bars cake bake...

As promised, here is the recipe for the Lemon Bars that I shared on Facebook the other day. 

It is a really easy peasy recipe, and I have to admit that these little beauties didn't last long. Be warned, they are very MORE-ISH!!!

Just scroll down after the picture for the recipe. And don't forget to leave me a comment if you make them to let me know what you think. 


For the Crust

225g butter, at room temperature
100g caster sugar
255g plain flour

Filling

4 eggs
300g caster sugar
32g plain flour
160ml fresh lemon juice

How to make it.... 

  1. Preheat the oven to 175c. 
  2. For the crust, blend the butter, flour and sugar - I did mine in the food processor, but by hand in a medium bowl will work too.  Press the mixture into the bottom of a 10 inch square cake tin which has been lined with foil. 
  3. Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes until firm and golden. 
  4. For the filling, whisk the sugar, flour, eggs and lemon juice. Pour over the baked crust. 
  5. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. 
  6. Allow the bars to cool in the tin, then chill in the fridge for around 2 hours until set. 
  7. Dust over the top of the lemon bars with icing sugar. Cut into squares and serve. 


I hope you enjoy the recipe.... 

Introducing the new member of the family...

Hello all...
I really need to get blogging again as it's something that I really miss. Somewhere to write down what's happening, things I'm doing and the pet life in the household... lol.
So, today, I'd like to introduce you to our new little friend. He is a little Oscar fish. {Otherwise known as Astronotus ocellatus}

At the
 minute, he's been part of the family for a couple of weeks and has settled in really well. The photo doesn't do him justice really as he has some beautiful grey and black mottling and some bright orangey-red spots. He is such a cheeky thing though... spoilt as he won't eat his staple food, but likes his treats. 

He is also a bit stroppy. He loves nothing more than throwing his plants around the tank and doing a bit of redecorating. This is the reason why his name has changed... he's been Percy (the original name). He's also Sergeant Oddball.... Stroppy Sydney.... but generally just 'Gorgeous'. 

He has quite a cute character about him... and I can't wait for him to grow up a little to see that character come out more. 

Wednesday 19 July 2017

I've had a break.... again.

April... seriously... is that the last time that I blogged??

Well, I would like to say that I've missed it, but I haven't really had chance to! There's been so many things going on for me that I just haven't had the time. I've been caring for two little additions to our home - a couple of little leopard tortoises. I've also been doing a course at college, which has now come to an end until September. I've been working, and I've been out in the garden growing flowers and weeds.

So.... normal service will resume properly now, and I will be posting a few cards and things I've been making over the last few months.

I hope you've had a little patience with me, and glad you're still here!!!

Thursday 27 April 2017

Dainty dies and roses

Good evening folks... 

I am so glad that you enjoyed the shows on Hochanda yesterday - it's always a pleasure to work with the lovely folks down there. And it's also a joy knowing that you love the selections that are bought to you by ourselves and JoyCrafts. 

The stamps from the shows today were no exception, so I thought I would share a little card or two with some of the products from the show. 

The first card I want to share with you is this little frame that was die cut from red and white cardstock. It's quite a simple card to build up. Basic matting and layering onto the card base which was a 7 inch x 7 inch card, coming down in quarter inch sections. 

The first layer was cut from white - this was the outside edge of the die, followed by a layer of red which had the inside detail for the diecut. 


The very centre die cut was a square from the Card Model we had on the show - these are the ones that make the three dimensional cards, and this section is the lacy middle. It fits, as you can see, perfectly into the middle of the other die. I finished it off with a little rose stamp image that was coloured with copic markers. 


The little card below was an A5 card, and it is one of my favourite ones from the shows. 


You know sometimes when you have an idea in your head for what you want to achieve with a card? Well, this wasn't it when I started.....!!!

I didn't really know what I wanted it to finish like, I was just playing along with the various dies I had out in front of me, and came up with this as a layout, so just stuck it all together and it seemed to work. 


The centre is the circle die we had on the show, and I laced around the centre with a piece of 1/4" satin ribbon. The white middle is the layer that comes with this die set, and you can see you can use it for a layer, or indeed for an aperture if you wish. 

The flowers were from the little sets we had - the embroidery dies - but I just loved the detail that was in there so left them plain, and used a little bit of distress ink to add some colour to those and the swirly bits. 

The outside stitchy edge was another popular set of stamps. These were borders and there were OODLES of them on one sheet....!

I will try to bring you a little bit more inspiration tomorrow... I hope you can join me. 

Until then, Happy Crafting xxx

Wednesday 26 April 2017

Beautiful Sherri stamps.....

Good morning all...

I know I regularly promise to keep this old blog upto date, but things just seem to get in the way (as they do!!)

So... what's happened this last few weeks.. well, to start with it's been Easter, so spent a little time doing not alot combined with some bits for work on and off... I made some wreaths and treats that I will share on another post, had a bit of time with family, went away... had a poorly wooflet that needed a couple of ops, but is now all sorted and running fit as a fiddle. 

And finally I'm back here... to share these. 


The stamps and dies are part of a bundle that I have bought to Hochanda as part of the Joycrafts shows today, and I think they work together absolutely perfectly. They are so sweet. 

The images are by Sherri Baldy, one of my favourite stamp designers I must say, and if you look through my blog, I'm sure you will come by a few of the things I have made with her stamps in the past. She is a lovely lady too - such a sweetheart. Anyway... back to the subject in hand... and as you can see, we had a choice of two stamps available today. The one above I think is my favourite as it has woolly hair that is just adorable. 

I used the no lines colouring technique, by stamping with a Desert Sand Momento ink and colouring in with copic markers. I still love to spend the time adding freckles to the cheeks with gel pens, so this just finishes it off nicely. 

The card below is a larger card, 8x8" and has Graphic 45 papers that I found, and decided to use for the background. The colours were really nice and bright - just perfect for a summery card. Well, I say summer in the broadest sense of the word as we had snow yesterday!!!!


On this card, I used the other lovely Sherri image, and stamped it and coloured with copics again. I chose to use one of the corners from the show to create the rectangular frame that goes around the outside edge of the image. Just by placing them together and overlapping you will be able to cover a larger area with a more squarer format. We did the circular die in this too - and it had some beautiful daisy type flowers in it.. just nip off to Hochanda to check out the shows - they were on today at 7am, 1pm and 3pm. 


Something a little bit different on this one for you... a pencil toned image. Stamped in Tuxedo black and shaded with HB and 6B pencils. I also added a little bit of sepia coloured pencil too for a dash of tone to the image. 

The dies around the image - the bubbles - are coming up at 3pm - and make a lovely background to your designs if you aren't really into flowers and flourishes. 

Well... that's it for today, but I hope that you can check back to see my other posts... I have them lined up and ready, they just need to have the PUBLISH button pressed.. 

Until then... Happy Crafting!

Thursday 30 March 2017

Missing again!!!!

Good evening my lovelies... how are you all tonight? You may want to grab a cuppa and a few biscuits as it could be a long one lol.

Well.... I started off tonight with good intentions of doing a blog post, but with one or four other things to catch up on I didn't really get the time. So. I thought I would sit and have a little natter before I retire to the boudoir! 

I would like to say the past few weeks have been quite relaxing.. but it would be a far stretch of the imagination if I actually said that lol. Apart from last week - where we enjoyed a lovely few days away, just me and he hubs. We really needed a break so decided between my work schedule and halfway towards our main holiday, we would treat ourselves. 

By 'eck.... we had a lovely time too. We went down to Kent - Hawkinge in particular - and stopped in a beautiful property we found on Air B and B. First time we have ever used it for holidays, but we absolutely weren't disappointed. Guy and AnnaLouise who owned the property had a fantastic little chalet bungalow on their grounds, very private, very quiet - apart from the roosters which was lovely to wake up to every morning. And they weren't half as noisy as I expected them to be. They had a couple of horses, donkey, dogs... it was just wonderful. And such lovely people too - I highly recommend their place, and will certainly be going back. 

So... what else have I been up to? Well... we've been back and forth to the vets with various little fur balls - the daughters puppy had a vegetable seed attached to his eye, which caused a few problems - he ended up at the specialists in Derby to have it dealt with.... all well now. The sister in law's cats have been to and fro, vaccinations, denials, extractions and the like... all healed up now. Son had his puppy to the vet as the breeder let him go with conjunctivitis and it was a bit of a sod to clear up. All better now. And our boy Scoobs... had a couple of odd lumps on his lip and gum. He's been in for an operation to take the one off his lip and do a biopsy 'bit' on his gum one... results should be back anytime. 

It was Mothers Day the other day as you know, and it was lovely having all the family together for a meal. It was a tad bonkers with all the dogs in the house... but it was good fun to see both puppies playing together, even if it does stress out the oldies a little. Lol. They are really tolerant of the babies to be honest, but Scoobs is the most unsure when they run round his legs. He is such a softie and won't tell them off. Truly tells them off but wags her little waggler in a playful way, and Holly just reverts to baby after a while. It's cute to watch them all together. 

I've been down to Hochanda too for a few shows whilst I've been missing in action here. It's been a bit busy with JoyCrafts, and we have tried to bring you a good range of variety of products over the past couple of months. This last week we have had farm animals and butterflies - I think two lots of your favourite things as they were selling like hot cakes. I had a migraine on the day of the show and the first hour was a bit of a nightmare as towards the end, my mind went completely blank and i couldn't remember a thing... not good when you are trying to show how to use an envelope maker... !!! 

A few of my migraine tablets, a walk in the fresh air and a couple of cups of dandelion coffee and lots of water sorted me out, and I was back up and firing on all cylinders (as many as usually work!!!) in time for the second show of the day. 

I will come back on tomorrow and share a few things that I've been making.. but really just wanted to say hello to those who still come and read the ol' boglet. It's nearly 10 years old since I've been doing this.... I can't believe how time flies. 

Anyway.. until next time.. Happy Crafting.... xxxx

Tuesday 21 February 2017

I really need to get back into it......

I have missed my blogging.... seriously.... but I just don't seem to have had the inclination or time to do it. Don't ask me what I have been doing - I really couldn't tell you to be honest!

I have been doing my demo's on Hochanda for JoyCrafts, which I am thoroughly enjoying doing. They are fantastic products, fantastic prices and something different in little collections that work together. They're fab.

I've also been baking bits and bobs, keeping all the family well pudded up. Haha. A variety of different makes came from the kitchen - French Apple Tarts, buns, scones, fruit cakes, apple cakes... you name it and it's probably been done.

I will really try to get on top of the blogging again... and will share my makes and bakes like I used to do, but I wanted to let you know that I haven't disappeared all together. I will be back blogging very soon!

Hope you have beared with me during my absence.... and thanks if you have xxx
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