A sneaky peek!

Here's a little peek at the new birdy punch  I have designed for Tonic Studios. 
It should be in the craft shops in the not too distant future. 

I sneaked a little play with mine today (although I am supposed to be tidying the house).
Here's a quick thankyou card I rustled up.
I used the Tonic Studio's shape cutters for the swish, and the Tim Holtz distresser for the edges of the greeting. For the little birdys I used a tomato paste tube. You can learn more about that here. 

Coconut pyramids

 

It's time to make a whole load of coconut pyramids again. The last couple of weeks have been a bit hectic. I've been Spring cleaning the house and getting ready for Passover as well as getting ready to put our house on the market. If you'd like the recipe for coconut pyramids, you can find it here.

We eat coconut pyramids to remind us of the straw and mud bricks that the Israelites made to build Pharoh's treasure cities. 

Exodus 1:14 ...and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them. 

However, it's no hardship to eat them...they're yummy. (Although I'll probably not be saying that by day 7!) 

Apple Cake - Yum Yum

Mmmmmmmm! Can you smell this? It's just out the oven - cinnamon apple cake. It's what's for dessert tonight.

Very easy to make and very yummy served warm with a little (or large) scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients...

Approx 5 Granny Smith's apples - (or you could buy your own - joke) Actually any apples will do.

60gm chopped dates

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 chicken eggs - or one duck egg. Just to be different today, I used a goose egg! Yes, really!

150gm of brown sugar

150gm self raising flour

I mixed the flour, egg and cinnamon and sugar together with my electric mixer. Then I stirred in the apples and dates, and chucked the lot in an oiled tin for about 30-40 minutes at around 180 degrees celcius. Tonight, I'll just cut the size of slice we each want and microwave for about 40 seconds per slice on full power, then add  ice cream and eat. Then collapse feeling totally stuffed!

It is best served warm because it is a fat free recipe (apart from the fat in the eggs) and so it is not as moist as some recipes, but it is perfect when warm. All that appley cinnamony goodness! Yummmm!!!!

Here's another cake, as designed by my 4 year old. She says she wants this cake for her birthday in May!  Might be a bit more of a challenge!

Spring has Sprung

I think it's finally safe to say that spring has sprung here in the Highlands- we're always a bit behind everywhere else!  It's thrilling to see the signs of new growth in the earth, and the promise of much beauty to come. 

I have been busy with the decorating and clearing out and spring cleaning. I have much to do, but seeing the blossoms and having the lighter nights is giving me a little more energy. 
I am thankful! 

(Naomi, my older daughter took these pretty photos.)

Silhouette

Here's an easy peasy craft. Silhouettes are all over blog land just now, so I know I'm doing nothing new, but I thought I'd share my method in case you want to give it a try my way.

I've been meaning to do a silhouette of my little girl for a while now, little did I realise that trying to get a decent side-on photo of her could be so tricky! So, this is your first stage. Get a good profile shot against a light coloured wall.

Once you are happy with your image, adjust the contrast with your photo editing software and print out one the right size for your mount. You might need to experiment a bit to get this just right. 

I have to admit, once I had decided on this image and tried to cut it out, I realised it would look better if her mouth was closed so I printed a few more images until I was happy with the result.

I carefully cut around the edges of the picture rounding off the neck area in traditional silhouette fashion.

I then flipped it over and while it was held it in place with a tiny bit of double sided tape I drew around it onto nice quality black paper with a white sharp pencil.

Then I cut out the black paper, adding some wisps of hair with fine cuts made with tiny decoupage scissors from Tonic Studios. They are ideal for this. I also used my knife to cut out a few bits in the pony tail to make it look more authentic.When I was finished,  I flipped over the black paper and it was the right way round again.

Now it was time to decide on papers for mounting my silhouette. I chose some scrap booking papers and a page out of a vintage encyclopedia. I used the oval Shape mates to cut the apertures for the mount. I decided to do a double mount.

I wish I'd had the Shape Mate a long time ago. I once overpaid to get an oval mount cut for a vintage photograph. Now I can do it myself. (Do remember to use acid free card if you are going to mount old photographs.)

I laid it all out until I was happy with the result and then stuck the lot  together with double sided tape.  

I had an old frame that was a bit scruffy. It was once gold but now faded to a dull brown, so I gave it a couple of coats of artists acrylic black paint. 

I'm quite pleased with the result. I might try a few more now.

Someone else thought it wasn't too shabby either. I do wish I'd brushed her hair before I took this photo !!!

A Time Waster!

I was just checking my website and realised I still had this silly fishy pairs game I made from my  fish doodles. Click on the image to take you to the game. Have fun!

The Long Haul/hall - the reveal

The hall is finally finished! Yippee! 

I've been taking a trip down memory lane. When we started renovating this house, I did not think to take before photos of everywhere, so all I have managed to find are a couple of photos of my kids. I don't think they'll thank me for posting these. Here is my son quite a few years ago standing in the hall. (He's 19 now, 20 this year). We started ripping things out of the hall a long time ago, then I had a baby who will be 5 this May, and things never got done until very recently. 

By this time we had ripped off a fancy border, taken down a picture rail and party removed some damaged crown moulding. It was looking really pretty!

We've been living with it looking like this for so long, that we got kind of used to it. People would visit and ask if we were in the middle of decorating and I would answer, "Well, sort of "... this went on for several years!

Here's Naomi who is now 17. Awww wasn't she sweet. Looking a bit bedraggled here after a day at primary school.

So now, very thankfully the hall looks like this.....

Phew! 

That's better, I've been waiting a long time for this. Oh, and a big thank you to Leslie who showed me the wonderful beadboard wallpaper which covered up my terrible walls very well!