Public Service Cat Prints

I went to the Renegade Craft Fair in London last year, i missed it this year but see the adverts for it last months did remind me of these brilliant public service cat prints by Brooklyn Grand that i bought last year. Theyre just too cute and i love the colours, the little ginger cat peeking at the scraps always makes me smile :) although i should probably pay attention to the 'dont over feed' one since i have a giant cat!!

Button Baubles Christmas card

Sorry if its too early for Christmas posts but I have to try out handmade stuff in advance to fix all the problems! I really like how this card has turned out (apart form the fact i cant spell merry!), its cute and not too Christmassy so i think i might make a few more for some good friends and possibly family this year. Hope your Christmas prep, if youre doing any, is going well too!

Rob Ryan 2013 Calendar

I know its a bit early for a 2013 calendar but my lovely sister bought me this and its just so beautiful i cant help sharing it. I love Rob Ryan and his beautiful, whimsical paper cuts so the idea of looking at a new one each month is just brilliant. September and November are my particular favourites

Balloon girl necklace - completed!

I finally got round to buying some chain for my girl with a balloon necklace and finished it off. I love how it turned out, its just the right size and looks really cute with a simple tshirt. I think she might have a tendency to flip over because the chain going to her lower hand is a bit too low, possibly should have attached it to her pony tail, but i dont think it'll be a problem when its on. All in all, i l-o-v-e her!

Mango sorbet - sugar and fat free

More frozen food! Well the ice creamer maker was already out so itd be rude not to make use of it :)

I do love ice cream etc but it can be really calorific so i thought id try making a fat free and sugar free sorbet. I used a sweetner called Splenda and found this recipe on their website. It was super easy to make, just whizzed everything up in a food processor and popped it in the ice cream maker. Again it was an amazing texture, so smooth and light, but im not sure i was totally sold on the flavour though. Mangos arent my favourite fruit and ive never had sorbet with egg whites in it so im not sure if those two things were colouring my opinion... It certainly wasnt bad though and lovely BM didnt notice it was made with sweetener rather than sugar which must be a good sign! I think i'll try it with some different fruit, possibly kiwi or watermelon and report back!

Blueberry frozen yoghurt

Yum :) I love ice cream and frozen yoghurt and sorbet, i even love just plain ice cubes. Im a bit of a ice lover basically! Lovely BM bought me a fancy ice cream maker last christmas (love you BM!) and it is amazing. It makes the most beautifully textured ice creams so i thought it was due some usage.

The ingredients are just a large tub of fat free greek yoghurt, a big punnet of blueberries and a couple of tablespoons of sugar. Whizz them all together in a food processor and check the sweetness. Always make frozen stuff slightly sweeter than unfrozen food as freezing dulls some of the sweeteness. You can strain the mix then to remove all the skins but i quite like the different texture it adds. Although if you use fruit with hard seeds then i would definitely strain the mix. Chuck it all in the ice cream maker and away you go :) You can freeze it in the freezer too if you dont have an ice cream maker, just give it a stir every hour or so to break up any big ice crystals and improve the texture.

Enjoy!

Crochet/Lace seam tshirt DIY

I cant confirm or deny whether i have put on a few extra pounds recently (eating all the lovely things you bake does seem to do that) but i did find a tshirt from a few years ago that was a bit snug. So when i saw this fab crochet seam tshirt at Trash to Couture i realised i could probably make the snug tshirt a little more forgiving and a bit sexier all in one go - win win!

I love the finished effect, i'll wear it with a pretty bra underneath if im feeling brave or a vest top if im not feeling so brave!

Living with snakes - the reality!

I do love my snakes and really theyre very low maintenance pets but one thing i hadnt really appreciated at first was how much room they'd take up!
Every room in my house has a snake in it (except the kitchen and the bathroom obviously) and every possible flat surface has a snake vivarium on it! I think there's probably zoos with less snakes than we have...

So my dining table is currently a snake nursery - 20 baby corn snakes (above) and my living room has an adult corn snake, 2 adult pythons and 5 more baby corn snakes (below). You can just see the carpet python on the right, draping herself across some logs - shes a gorgeous specimen!

And this doesnt even include the python in the master bedroom and the corn snake in quarantine (possible respiratory infection) in the spare bedroom! God knows what we'd do if another one got poorly as we havent got any rooms left to quarantine them in! We're going to need to move house if we get any more!

Floating shelves DIY

Been doing a bit of minor house renovation this week and i put up some great floating shelves. Theyre from Argos and were only £10 each. I think theyre great and finally my sock creatures get a place to live! (FYI this is what this end of my house actually looks like, in case youre wondering why its such a close up of the shelves - not exactly photo worthy!)

Handmade baby shoes

 

When i saw these little beauties via pinterest i just fell in love with them, and what with the ongoing friends baby boom i knew some teeny tiny feet would soon arrive to wear them!

The turorial is super easy to follow and doesnt need a lot of sewing skills, you could probably hand sew then too, since theyre so tiny

 

I could just eat them theyre so delicious!

Baby boom blanket - Samuel James Pearson

And the baby boom continues!
Samuel James Pearson was born on 4th October, a beautiful little boy for Julie and Mark
and this is his blanket :)

(i did iron it before i sent it!)

Sourdough - loaf and pizza base

I saw this fabulous recipe over at Annie's Eats for sour dough pizza. Ive always loved sour dough bread but never got round to making any myself so i knew i had to try this

The starter needs to be made the week before you make the bread and the dough itself needs a long proving period so its not a quick process. But none of it is very difficult, its just a lot of waiting around!

So this is my loaf and my pizza just prior to baking. I put mozarella and sausage on my pizza - yumington!



and this is them after baking :)





The loaf is probably slightly darker than i wanted but it didnt seem to affect the tatse - which was brilliant BTW! The pizza especially is a real winner, i'll be making this again soon

Baby boom blanket - Marsya May Fensom

And the baby boom has began!
An as yet unnamed but totall gorgeous baby girl has arrived for Sian and John Fensom - born on 4th October and this is her blanket xx

Lots of love to the brand new family xx Update - she was named Marsya May :)

Chocolate chip cookies

I've changed roles at work (hence the absence from blogging as thats been taking up my time) and to say goodbye to the lovely folks in my old department i made them some cookies

The recipe is by Two Twenty One and theyre amazing! Chewy and soft and just delicious, cant recommend them enough :)

paws...

 

check out the size of those paws! totally love this cat xxx