Saturday, 2 November 2013

Getting Crafty!

Evening all.   a couple of days ago I discovered there was a craft fayre at my local town hall.  I know iv been a little behind on the goings on in my town since iv being out of work. But I am getting back into the swing of the goings on, well of the craft fares any way.  Who knew there were soo many!!!

Today I decided I was going to go to the craft fare and look for things for me. things that were not 'work' related. "How did that work out for you?" I got asked the answer was it didn't lol  I bought some fabric squares (like I needed more fabric) why? cos it was pretty!!!!!  but I also did some networking (yup again on the epic fail scale of no work!) and exchanged some business cards and met some lovely people. 

Here are some of them

The Soapy Cauldron 
Colchesters consultant is the lovely Becky







They make the most amazing handmade (and very yummy looking) bath and shower products, that are suitable for sensitive skin as they don't contain any of the harsh chemicals of regular soaps.  Becky does home parties for theses products, so you can have some good clean fun at home ;op
 Becky I think is going to be my goto for upcoming craft fares!!!


Next to meet a few stalls down was Susan from Cute Enough to Eat



OMG theses were soo cute and soo edible looking! Susan was to be found sitting behind all her items with a sharpie pen in hand colouring in a broach which she assured me, with a grin, was for display purposes. Susan makes the most amazing fimo items. pendants, earrings etc and she was kind enough to give me a few tips on working with fimo.

Sharing the stall with Susan was Laura from 13 Stitches

13 Stitches

Laura makes the cutest Pyjama Bears, she also had a few fabric kits for bunting and other yummy fabricness (I know not a word)  It was this lady that held a gun to my head and made me buy her fabric!!  Laure also gave me a thought about fabric scrap swapping hummmm may look into that!! 

At this point I decided I needed a break and a cuppa and worked on turning the heel of a sock I had with me and had a lovely Pecan & maple pie nom nom nom

 

I had another wander round and stood talking to Becky for a while then decided the weather wasn't looking to good so decided to head home.  on my way out I passed another stall on the landing

I met Allison and her partner. Allison does wonders with recycling jeans into bags, storage baskets. and her partner makes really cool things from old coins, keying's, earrings, cufflinks one Alison has her Etsy shop up and running i'll post the link to it.

I came away with heaps of ideas that im going to put my own twist on.  On my way home I went to see if I could find some staples to fit a very old staple gun.  with no luck I bough a new one came home and made these





Mini ironing boards.  I saw a tutorial but a fellow crafter for one she had made as an emergency one for traveling, and taking to class with her so decided to have a go at making them for myself.  Im a sofa crafter and anything that will make it mean I can work and not leave my sofa im all for and these turned out great!!  need to tweak it a little but over all they turned out to be a success!! 

Im off to work on my socks :)

Please check out my new friends sites they are great bunch of people!!! 

have a great evening

A~X~


Friday, 1 November 2013

Pear fritters!!

Sorry iv been quiet for a while.  Iv been on holiday (will blog about that later) and have been busy working on my latest pattern submission. 

what I just had to blog about today started with me watching Fringe on Netflix.  Walter Bishop is a little obsessed with food and in one episode got bought some apple fritters. this thing was HUGE but looked yummy so I went on a hunt to see if I could find the recipe, and came across this blog post      "A face full of fritter" written by a really friendly Amy.  :o) after a few comments back and forth I decided to put my twist on her recipe and made Pear fritters!  (only cos I didn't have any apples!!)



OOOOOMMMMGGGGG!!! they are great. so I thought id share my recipe with you. It really fast make when you have a craving for something sweet!


Pear Fritters

Prep time: 5mins
Cook Time: 12 mins (6 mins each batch)
Yield: Aprox 14 mini doughnuts
 
 

1 c  Plain flour
 ¾ tsp baking powder
1 Pear (diced)
2 tsp olive oil
½ c smooth applesauce
¼ c milk (regular or soy)
¼ c  caster sugar,
1 tsp vanilla extract
Icing sugar to dust
 
 
 
1).Turn on mini doughnut maker!!
2) Stir together the flour, baking powder, in a bowl. Stir in the diced Pear.
3)In a separate bowl, stir together the oil, applesauce, milk, ¼ cup sugar, and vanilla.
4)Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, and pour in the wet, stirring just until moist.
5)Place a heaped dessert spoon full into each well
6) Close the lid and wait about 5/6 mins till brown
 
BE CAREFUL They produce a fair bit of steam so watch out when you open the maker!!!
 
7) remove carefully with a blunt knife
8)Repeat steeps 5&6 with remaining batter
9)Dust both sides with icing sugar and........
 
ENJOY!!