New BLOG

I seem to have run out of space on this blog, so I have travelled over to tumblr...

check my blog out at:

http://surfjewels.tumblr.com/

Bread making

I've been planning on making this fougasse bread for ages, but just needed an occasion when I could make it and it would all get eaten, and last weekend was just such an occasion.

A lovely sunny day, one of the first this year, so after cake making, I got to work making this bread.

It it a bread dough with herbs and chorizo, I do love chorizo. This is the dough when I first made it.

I spread it out and let it rise on a tray by the oven.

This is it cooking away in the oven.

Then out on a cooling rack

Here it is cut up and ready to eat for lunch.

Rocky Road

I made rocky road...

I like to make a selection of cards to always have on the ready for Birthdays, thankyous and occasions, so I have made a new set. I have sewn little flowers onto card.

I hand stamped wishes onto card.

I put these together.

And these are my final cards

Cakes

I have a new recipe book, so have been making a few cakes from it.

I tried this one out, a browned butter and cinnamon teacake, but unfortunately it was so good it all got eaten before I was able to take a pic of it!

I then made some Macaroons and topped them with chocolate, nice and sweet.

And here's them with some daffodils that came out of our garden, very spring like.

Making Biscuits

I made some biscuits.

I piped them out onto a baking sheet.

I then baked them.

I then coated them in chocolate, somewhat hiding all the pretty pipe worked shapes, opps, got a bit carried away with the amount of chocolate.

Making cards

I always like to have handmade cards ready to send to people when a birthday or event comes up. So I decided to sit down and make some new ones as I am gradually running out of the ones I have made before.

I saw a great card idea, of using paper and sewing it onto card.

So I got going.

I drew out lots of pretty shapes, balloons for the boys and then lots of butterflies and flowers.

They looked quite pretty once I had finished cutting them all out, although my fingers hurt and it took a while!

I then got my sewing machine out and got sewing. I layed out the flowers etc roughly where I wanted them and sewed them on to the cards.

I think the results were quite pretty, I just need to line them to finish them off nicely. :o)

Pressies

I got some pressies!! A new set of scales, which will definitely help with my cooking, should be much more accurate than my last ones.

I also got a new book to cook from, so lots of new recipes to test out.

Brogues

I have been looking at brogues for ages and I eventually have got myself a pair.

New Bag

I have just bought this new polka dot satchel! Have been looking for a new bag for a while and this one caught my eye.

I started knitting a new hat

Inspired by all the cold weather and snow recently I decided to make a couple of warm wintery hats.

This is the first, a slouchy beanie which is going to have a nice big bobble on it.

They'll be another pic to come once I have completed it!

New Dress

I found a great new place to buy fabric and so picked up a nice piece to make a dress for work.

I recently made my own pattern that fits me perfectly, after reading a pattern making book, and so this was my first test run of using this.

This is the facing:

The pattern pieces cut out:

And the final dress:

Knitted phone case

I got a new phone recently, so this is the case I made for it. It is cable knitted and I made a flower for it too.

Truffles

Haven't blogged in a while, but these are the truffles I made over Christmas for pressies.

Stall

This our stall while we were setting up.

Fawn

I have made a little sewn fawn. Again for my Christmas craft stall (as everything is at the moment, but only 2 weeks to go now!)

Stocking

Busy busy busy...

I've been making loads of stockings for my craft fair in December. A great excuse 2 make lots of bits and pieces that I've wanted to make for a while.