Weekend Snaps

What to do when the weather is so awful?!?   We took a trip over to the Turner Contemporary in Margate for the Craft Club afternoon.  It was really good, there were lots of people there and Mimi had a go at finger knitting.  She was really cute, she tried so hard and put so much effort into it but couldn't quite grasp it.  She was better with the knitting needles but she wanted to stay with all the other children.

All this talk of knitting has reminded me about my latest project.  A knitted zebra (although Mimi wanted red and white rather than the traditional black and white!)

I got the pattern from this really great book called Knitted Wild Animals .  The patterns have been well written and are easy to follow.  

Today we had a number of errands to run and then lunch at Mikes parents for Grampy's Birthday. 

Mimi dressed up with the Angelina Bow toasting Grampy's Birthday.

One of my jobs today was to pick up a book I leant to my friend ages ago called  A Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown.  This is an amazing book and was picked out of a hat on Friday for our new bookclubs first read!!!  I would highly recommend this book to everyone.  It is a true story about a young girl in America who ends up in the care system and her route through life, drugs, drink, gangs in LA and how she fought her way to become one of America's top women lawyers.  

Printable animal masks.

Mimi just loves colouring in and dressing up so I have put together some printable animal masks.  Why not print them off and have a go.

Download PDF

Download PDF

Download PDF

Wicked Wednesday # Blackberry Tart

Tonight for dessert with the help of Mimi we made blackberry tarts.  When we were making them I was worried they might be a bit sweet but they were delicious.

I loosely used Jamie Oliver's recipe for torta di more from Jamie's Italy.  We made our own pastry, mainly because I was running short on time, however we did follow the remainder of the recipe.

Pastry Recipe:

5oz/140g  plain flour

1oz/28g  icing sugar

1.5oz/43g butter

1.5oz/43g lard

5-6 tablespoons of milk.

Place all ingredients apart from the milk into a bowl.  Using your fingers rub the ingredients together until the resemble fine breadcrumbs.

Gradually your milk a spoonful at a time gradually bringing your mixture together to form a ball. 

I then placed it in the freezer whilst I made the filling.

From this stage onwards I then followed Jamie's recipe.  You can get his recipe here.

   

Our day that was

I'm not sure what it is about being at home all the time but I seem to get far less done that I did when I was working.  Especially when the weather has been so grim.

However we shouldn't moan.  We really need the rain and all this water has given my strawberry plants a growth spurt and in the brief moments of sunshine the garden is looking good. 

Today I have 

Removed countless socks which have become trapped in the washing machine door.  In what must be the most annoying washing machine ever.  

Refereed between Mimi and Maddie (my mums & dads dog) and removed countless items from being eaten.  

We had Mimi's little friend M over to play for the morning.  But Mimi was seriously grumpy and she took herself off to bed!

I did some baking with Mimi and made a chicken and mushroom pie for dinner.

Played paper aeroplanes in the garden with Daddy and Mimi

Lastly my strange baby has fallen in love with a stuffed door stop in the shape of a dog which has been named "Brother Doggy" (I think she is trying to tell us something!).  Brother Doggy gets taken to bed and pushed around in her buggy and is quite loved.  This afternoon disaster struck and his head fell off!!!!!!

Fab Finds for Kids

At the weekend I was reading the Telegraph Magazine at my in-laws when I cam across this striped towel in a bag by Stella McCartney and I felt the need to share my find with you.

With a price tag of £62 it is currently out of stock on the Stella McCartney website howeveralexandalexa have it in stock at £59.00. If I was a little person I would want to take this to the beach with me.

ABC biscuits.

When I was on Pinterest the other day I came across these really cool scrabble cookies courtesy of When Adobo Met Feijoada.

Image: When Adobo Met Feijoada

Ever since I saw them I have been itching to make some.  Here is my attempt.  I think I need to get a thicker pen.  I made mine a bit bigger as Mimi is a bit too small for scrabble.  

For my biscuits and icing I used a recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly Cookies and Biscuits book.  If you would like to make these then When Adobo Met Feijoada have got an excellent tutorial with step by step instructions.  I think I need to work on my icing skills!!!!! I think that these would make a great treat for Mimi's packed lunch.

Fix it with sugru.

If you haven’t heard of sugru then you are missing out. I first heard of sugru about a year ago and thought it was a groovy looking product but didn’t think much more about it until Mike appeared with a packet he had brought to fix Mimi’s swing.

Last year my Mum brought Mimi a swing for the garden from ELC, however the seat was really slippery. She sat on it once fell off and flatly refused to go on it ever again so this is where Mike had the ingenious idea of using sugru.

A few spots of sugru and off we go! If only we had thought of using this sooner! 

Sugru is an amazing product which will bond to most plastics. You can hand mould it to the shape you want, it comes in a variety of colours and will work in temperatures of -60 upto 180c. It is flexible and if you don’t like it you can remove it. The best bit is it is inexpensive at £10.00 for a pack of 8 colours.


Here are some examples of things other people have done with their sugru.

Go on give it a go. I am now eyeing up all the other things I could “hack with sugru”. I quite like the idea of adding hair to our Lego people.

Rhubarb Muffins

Carrying on with the theme of Rhubarb I thought I would try and make some Rhubarb Muffins.  I loosely used a recipe (from allrecipes.co.uk) I have previously used to make apple and cinnamon muffins.

Recipe

Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees.

Muffin Base
200g Plain Flour
100g Caster Sugar
50g Soft Brown Sugar
110ml Crème Fraiche
80ml Vegetable Oil
1 large Egg
1-2 sticks of Rhubarb

Muffin Topping
40g Plain FLour
20g Butter
15g Caster Sugar

Method

1. Combine flour, caster sugar, brown sugar, crème fraiche, vegetable oil and egg in a large bowl.  Mix thoroughly.  Chop rhubarb in to 1cm pieces and then add to your muffin mixture.  Carefully place mixture into your muffin cases.
2. Make your muffin topping by rubbing together the flour, butter and sugar until it resembles breadcrumbs.  
3. Sprinkle the muffin topping over the muffin base and place in your pre-heated oven for about 25mins.  

I was really pleased with the outcome.  I was a bit worried that they would be a bit sour and not enough sugar but they were lovely and moist.  These would make a perfect breakfast treat.

ABC Series - F is for Flowers

Continuing with our ABC series this week we looked at flowers and the letter F.  I originally came across the idea of trying to dye flowers different colours from an old book I had forgotten I had. 

You can purchase a second-hand copy from Amazon.

You will need:

Some white flowers, we used carnations and chrysanthemums
Some jam jars or pots
Some food colouring or some water soluble ink.

This morning when we woke up some of out flowers had started to change colours.  Unfortunately the Red and the Yellow ones haven't worked as well but the blue ones looked really pretty.  I am hoping that they will go a bit darker.

An artist in the making?!?

Last year I brought a couple of blank canvas’s for a project which I never got round using so I decided to let Mimi paint a picture for the wall.

We have since had lots of admiring comments about her painting so I thought it would be a nice memory to get her to make one each year.

Here is Mimi having fun making this years painting.

 Here is this years painting. I think someone got a bit carried away with the glitter.