Early spring or just a taste of it

After the snow and cold, we've recently had beautiful weather, sunshine and warm temperatures. It's been so nice I went out walking without wearing a coat on Sunday, and I have already seen my first wild primrose!  The photo isn't very good but it's a real wild primrose, growing by a wall on the path I take to work every morning. There's more cold weather forecast for this week so I'll keep my eye on the little primrose to see if it survives. It's quite sheltered by the wall so hopefully it will be OK.

I'm still really busy at work and at home, so I've not had much time to do crafts. I do however have several works in progress - and during the weekend I did manage to make a sweet little felt purse. This is one of the wonderful free patterns on the internet that are there for the taking. I make my crochet patterns available for free, and lots of other people do the same for crochet, knit and sewing patterns. You can also buy them, but I have never done so, as there are so many going for free.

It is nice to be able to walk outside again without slipping on the snow and ice. We are lucky to live in a place that is safe and peaceful and yet only a short bus ride away from an international city and airport. I walk to and from work every day (my office is only 5 minutes away from home!) and try to come home the long way round, especially now that the weather is so lovely. The other day I saw a jay and lots of other birds, they were enjoying the nice weather too.

Ollie the owl

Ollie the owl
Originally uploaded by aishakenza

I have made lots of felt owl brooches, so many that they've inspired me to make some more owlish things. The first one is this owl soft toy that's 15cm tall, and very soft and squishy. I've got a cupboard full of material, including the beautiful red printed cotton that a friend brought me back from Japan. I made the eyes and beak in felt, and decorated it with some lovely satin ribbon.
Now I'm thinking of making a blue owl cushion, but as it's back to work tomorrow, I'm not at all sure when I'm going to have time. Stiggy the giraffe is expecting a sister too. Do you have any ideas of how to fit more hours into the day?

He did it!

As I mentioned, I'd promised my soon-to-be-14-year-old that during the holidays I would teach him how to make croissants. Well, he's done it!  Here is one that I managed to salvage for a quick photo before it was gobbled down with the rest of them!

They turned out very well, nice and flaky, buttery and very moreish! 

On a very different subject, I found a very cute pattern for some tiny crochet flowers and here's what I made:

They literally took me about 5 minutes each flower. I have lots of different colours of nice cotton yarn, so it looks like I'm going to have fun making some more.

Happy New Giraffe!

Here's my latest crochet project, and surely the last one in 2010!
I want to improve it somewhat beforehand, but in the next couple of weeks I should be able to make the pattern available here on my blog.
Do tell me if you have any good ideas for a name for this little giraffe. I was thinking of "Stiggy", as it's a striped giraffe, but we're open to suggestions :-)

Easy peasy pancakes

Yes I know pancakes are never very difficult, but this recipe removes the need to measure out ingredients, and considerably reduces the amount of washing up at the end - always a good idea, in my opinion!  You will need:

1 mixing bowl
1 sieve
1 teacup
1 tablespoon
1 frying pan
1 whisk

Plain white flour
1 large egg or 2 small
milk
water
salt
light oil

Makes about eight big pancakes

I start this recipe by gently heating my frying pan on the hob. However, if you use gas it's probably better to heat the pan just before cooking the pancakes.

Using the teacup as a measure, sift two cupfuls of flour into the mixing bowl. Add a pinch of salt, then break the egg(s) into the middle of the flour and start to mix with the whisk. Graduallly add 1 cupful of water, then 1 1/2 cupfuls of milk, mixing all the time so that you obtain a (hopefully) lump-free mixture. Now stir in one tablespoon of light oil (sunflower oil or similar).

Turn up the heat under the frying pan, add a little oil (I use a wedge of kitchen roll paper to spread it around the pan) and pour in about half a cup of pancake mixture, tilting the pan to spread it evenly around.

Leave it to cook for a few minutes. You can lift up the edge slightly with a fish slice or spatula to check if the first side is cooked and golden. Then flip it over and cook the other side for a few moments before sliding it onto a plate.

For the next pancake add a little more oil to your pan, and continue until you've used up all the mixture.

Eat with lemon and sugar, or honey and melted butter, or jam, or whatever takes your fancy.

Bon appetit!

This time of year

I feel a bit guilty saying what I'm about to say, when I read the introduction to this blog. Yes I know, I said that it's better to do something other than watching TV.
BUT... the thing I like best about this time of year is that they show some really good films on the TV. There's lots of rubbish too, but here in France just this past week I've watched E.T. (my all-time favourite), The Secret Garden (in English!), Jane Eyre (cried buckets), and there are more to come. Tonight there's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, on Thursday a beautiful French film The Fox and the Child, and on Friday another French film called Two Brothers, about two baby tigers. That's about it, and then on Monday it's back to work!
I am doing other things too - some sewing, some crochet, some cooking, some ironing, even. And spending some quality time with my family, though mostly indoors because it's still grey and frozen outside. My soon to be 14-year-old son now knows how to make tuna and egg filo rolls, and I've promised him he'll know how to bake croissants before the week's out.
I'll try to get back soon, with some pics of my latest creations. Bye for now!

Owls

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a friend about owls. She said her daughter collected them, and I thought about making some. A couple of doodles later, and a delve into my felt stash, and here's what I made. It's a little felt owl brooch.  It was great fun to make, so I decided to make some more. This time the owls came out a bit wider; I trimmed them with some ribbon, embroidered the beaks and used press-studs for the eyes. Then I bought some pretty faceted beads and some lace trim from the market. For the later models, I added a tiny bit of polyester stuffing.

In all, up to now I have made nine owls, I have sold    five of them (including all of those pictured here ) and given one away. They are about two inches "tall" and I must say they are very cute. My favourite one is the little orange one with the white lace trim - it looks like an owl in a petticoat!