Chilly

I've written my first pattern
...for fingerless mitts!
It's winter here in the Land of Oz and it has been very, very chilly in the mornings. I have really needed something to keep my hands warm
and I've come up with these:







They are made out of 8 ply wool, although the pattern is easily adapted to 10 ply, they're crocheted in the round so that you can fit them as you go
and they're super quick to make.
I'm planning on posting the pattern in the next couple of weeks (once I've finished tweaking the construction of the right hand glove and when I can fit blogging into this crazy, busy life of mine.)
I haven't come up with a name for them yet. I'm considering something Dickensian ~ fingerless mitts always make me think of Dickens and I actually crocheted one of these while watching (and loving) the television adaption of Little Dorrit. I could call them Little Dorrits, perhaps? I've also thought of naming them Crisp Morning Mitts, which is a play on my name. My pun loving sister came up with What the Dickens. Or maybe I should go with something more sensible like Lacy Fitted Mitts?
What do you think?

I came up with my own pattern after making two sets of Shell Lace Fitted Fingerless Gloves:




This is one of the most clearly written patterns I've ever worked from and really helped me to understand how fingerless mitts are constructed.

In other crafty news,
I received this gorgeous knitted washcloth and soap in a Ravelry swap from the wonderful WendyLew, my swap partner




and Little Red Hen gave me one of her beautiful HANDbags when we met up for coffee:




It's constructed so cleverly and I love the pretty floral fabric.
As well as generously giving me some of her handiwork Little Red Hen engaged me in a really interesting conversation that covered, amongst other things, travelling, teaching and selling art which was very thought provoking. I never usually sell any of my work but after talking about how validating it can make you feel, as an artist, I'm thinking that I might exhibit some of my paintings some time in the not~too~distant future.
Thanks for the inspiration, Dette.

I've enjoyed cooking comfort food during this cold snap. I made a Bread and Butter Pudding for a family dinner that was so nice I came home and cooked another one just for me!





The recipe asks for vanilla beans, and demerara sugar that's sprinkled over the pudding to create a crunchy, caramelised top. I left the crusts on the bread and that made it even crunchier, a fantastic contrast to the egg custard beneath.
Yum. Yum. YUM.
(It was so delicious I had it for breakfast too.)

It's been too cold to do much outside
but my garden's bloomed,
regardless:





Flowers bring me so much pleasure.



I hope this finds you enjoying the comforts of home too.

Blessings.
x

Fresh

I'm sitting writing this surrounded by freshly painted walls and ceilings.
Hooray!!!!!!!!!
It took double the time I expected it to
(the last lick of paint went on the day before I went back to work),
the process felt hellish at the start ~
when it became apparent just how much bigger a job it was than I had first thought,
but
I am soooooo glad I've done it now that it's over.

So, for those of you who have asked,
here's a close up of the french washed wall
(which has more ochre in it than shows up in the photo):

and a shot of the other feature wall:

which, again, doesn't really capture its cafe~au~lait colour
but does show, in the reflection, my pristine white ceiling and cornices
of which I am ridiculously proud!
I'll try and post more photographs, that give a broader picture of what I've done, soon.

Life hasn't been completely dominated by renovations.
In between painting there's been some cooking.
I've been going through a Nigella Lawson phase and have made her One Pan Sage and Onion Chicken and Sausage casserole:

This, by the way, was at it's best on the third day after I'd cooked it, when the flavours had been given lots of time to develop.

I've also made Nigella's Pomegranate Meringue Mountain
which was so quick and delicious I was inspired to go out and buy my own potted pomegranate tree:

There's been a little bit of crocheting too.
I've added a few extra rows to the border of my Easy Daisy blanket:

I'm so happy I have time to craft again!

...and yesterday, with all the painting done, I was able to wander around the garden with my camera in hand:

Despite the steamy heat, it was bliss!

I hope that life
is treating you kindly too,
wherever you are in the world.

Have a wonderful week.

Here Kitty Kitty!

I've finished my little amigurumi cat:

She took forever to sew up
(my sewing skills are rusty)
but I'm happy with how she's turned out.
You can't really tell from the photograph, but she has tabby stripes on her legs and tail.
I drew inspiration from Molly:

(I love Moll's marmalade coloured tum, but, sadly, I am not allowed to touch it under any circumstances whatsoever.)

As I mentioned in my last post, the crochet pattern can be found at Mutts.

I'm still on holiday, which is lovely.
I do so enjoy going slowly and quietly, taking pleasure out of simple things.

I've been baking for my family,
making yummy Oatmeal No-Bake Cookies:

(the recipe comes from Ravelry, so you'll need to be a member to follow the link)
and Apricot and Almond Crumble:

I only have a left over apricot to show as evidence as it was so delicious it was all eaten up before I got a chance to take a photograph ~ truly! Tangy, fresh apricots, a crumble topping with almonds and coconut, and dollops of cream was a winning combination. I will definitely make this again.

I've also been beading:

I'm often seen wearing red~orange necklaces ~ they go with my lipstick!

...and I've been gardening.
I found masses of these sweet flowers, growing wild, when I was out in Fremantle:

Aren't they lovely?
Their delicate appearance belies their hardiness ~ they were blooming, in the middle of scorching heat, in bone~dry sand.
I couldn't resist scooping one small plant out and taking it home:

and, so far, it's doing well.
I wonder what type of plant they are.

Shortly, I'll be wielding a paintbrush too, as I'm getting ready to paint my kitchen and living areas. I've chosen to paint everything white, with a few, pale butterscotch, French~washed feature walls thrown in.
Wish me luck!

Kitchen Goddess

Well,
maybe not...
but I am the proud owner of three, newly aquired, vintage aprons:

I found them on ebay,
inspired to look after seeing all the gorgeous retro aprons that are being shown off in blogland right now,
and I bought them for a song.
They remind me of the aprons my mum, and the other ladies of the neighbourhood, used to wear when I was little.
I love the floral prints.

...and,
seeing as there is a domestic (ahem) flavour to this post,
I'm including a biscuit recipe of mine
(which, actually, is a sort of a Goddessy thing to do, isn't it?)

Kitchen Cupboard Crunchies
So named because the ingredients are very simple ~ the sort you have on hand in the pantry. If you put them in an airtight container, they'll keep for weeks.

Ingredients:

2 heaped cups rolled oats
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup flour
1/3 tsp vanilla essence
1 dessertspoon cocoa (you could substitute with hot chocolate powder)
1 tablespoon boiling water

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius (350 degrees farenheit.)
Mix oats, sugar, flour and cocoa together.
Melt butter and dissolve soda in water.
Mix butter and water with flour mixture.
Add vanilla essence. (If the mixture is too dry and crumbly, add a little more boiling water.)
Put teaspoon sized heaps onto a greased oven tray.
Bake for ten minutes on the top shelf.
Makes approximately 25.

Cup of tea, anyone?

Quiet

Things have been quiet around here.
I'm back at work,
the weather has continued to be hot
and I have been very tired...
the fall~soundly~asleep~on~the~sofa~at~nine~pm~in~the~middle~of
~crocheting sort of tired.
So I have been going really slowly at home
(which, actually, has been kind of nice.)
I've been reading, and thoroughly enjoying, Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.
I've also been doing a little bit of baking, on the odd occasion when the weather's been cool enough.
Here is a photo of some oat gems I made from the ever~reliable Country Women's Association Cook Book:



I added a quarter of a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the recipe.
They are simple but delicious.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the recipe on~line to share here on inkberryblue, but I did find a link to some other, tasty~looking CWA biscuits, which you can find here.

I'm Still Here

I'm still here, taking things slowly in the summer heat.
I've been teaching myself to knit properly. I'm making a top down cardigan ~ the Cavern Cardi from CosmicPluto Knits. It's a case of trial and error ~ lots of errors! Knitting is a very different process from crochet (all those live stitches, crumbs) but I'm determined to get better ~ there are so many gorgeous patterns out there that I'd like to be able to knit up.
And when I require effortless, soothing handiwork I turn to the giant granny blanket I've been making.
Here's Molly, giving the blanket her stamp of approval:






I've been staying close to home, in part, to keep my garden going. After a slow start it has been a hot Summer and lots of the plants in my garden have scorched foliage. This sweet little geranium, that I struck from a cutting last year, now has lots of brown, crispy leaves. I'm giving it lots of TLC, and grey water, to bring it back.

I did brave the weather yesterday, however, and drove down South to catch up with friends. We had tea and yummy, organic cake at Balingup Bronze Gallery, and a delicious home made lunch of pumpkin and baked ricotta pasta ~ thankyou Felicity!

Hot Chocolate, Cacti And Crochet

I've just returned from a lightening visit to the South West. I went, with my baby sister, to visit my older sister and her family. It was lovely, as my older sis loves to spoil. She has green thumbs too ~ look at her gorgeous cactus:

Speaking of being spoilt, we went out to lunch at Xanadu (my family are involved with the winery) which was absolutely delicious. I was too focussed on eating and drinking to take many photographs (I had black bean crusted lamb rump with eggplant and woodear mushroom salad ...mmm mmm mmm.. and divinely dry champagne) but I did take a picture at the very end of the meal. Here it is ~ a snap of hot chocolate with the Xanadu dragon swirled into it:

I wish I could have fitted in the dessert plate ~ a yummy array of parfait, pannnacotta, vanilla bean tart and semillon, but I was way too full. Next time. Definitely.

We also went out for a scrumptious lunch at the Natural Temptation Cafe in Bunbury, where my big sister bought me a copy of their First Temptations vegetarian cook book. (See, spoiling!) Now I'm back at home I'm looking forward to getting into my kitchen and trying out some of the recipes. I've just finished making a scalloped pot holder too, which will come in handy if I can bear to get it dirty.

Salut!

First of all, on behalf of my toes, I'd like to express appreciation to everybody who posted admiring comments about them. Thank you.

Secondly, has anyone else noticed that they have become a little wider around the middle since Christmas? I have developed a muffin top and it is not a good look. Consequently, I've been doing a little research on weight loss over the net and have just bought a book, recommended on the SARK forum (a favourite community of mine), called French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano. I've read about a quarter of the book so far, and I love it! It has a great philosophy ~ savour food, cook seasonally, eat chocolate, drink wine (hooray!) ~ and the recipes are mouthwatering. So, in the spirit of Mme Guiliano's work, I have made myself a simple meal of grilled fish and caprese salad for tonight's meal, using basil and tumbler tomatoes from my garden. What could be fresher?

Incidentally, in October, my tumbler tomato plant looked like this:

(I put it in a hanging basket to keep the snails away.)

...and it now looks like this:

I am really looking forward to trialling some of the recipes in French Women Don't Get Fat. There are some posted on the website, by the way, that sound delicious.
Bon appetit!

Party Toes And Pavlova

Ladies and gentlemen,
*
*
may I present,
for your admiration and astonishment,
my
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
foot:

Isn't it pretty?
This happened on a day of girly bonding with my sister. We also went op~shopping, post Christmas sales shopping and lunching, where we shared an enormous plate of lemon pepper calamari. Mmm mmm mmm.
Fun.

My butterfly embellished toes were supposed to have their debut at a New Years Eve party, but I didn't end up going ~ I find great big parties hard work (although I am always glad that my more extroverted friends invite me to them.) I had a small, family New Year instead. We drank champagne and sang Auld Lang Syne around the piano. It was nice.




In my last blog post I wrote about a pavlova I baked for Christmas and Lisamoon requested the recipe (and also said that she'd like to eat it face first, with no fork or spoon, which tickled me.)
Lisa, here it is:

Pavlova
Ingredients:
Meringue Base:
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup castor sugar
2 tsps cornflour
1 tsp white vinegar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
Topping:
300 ml whipping cream
3 very ripe passionfruit
strawberries
approximately 50 grams milk chocolate

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 C.
Beat egg whites and salt until peaks form. Add castor sugar gradually as meringue becomes shiny. Separately, mix cornflour with vinegar and vanilla essence, and then add to meringue until it disappears. "Stick" a circle of baking paper, with a few drops of water, onto a platter (a 30 cm quiche dish should do nicely.) Pile the mixture onto the circle, and smooth sides and top. Put into oven and reduce heat to 150 C. Cook for 80 minutes. Turn oven off and leave pavlova to cool inside.
An hour before serving, cover meringue with whipped cream, passionfruit pulp, strawberries and chocolate shavings. (I used a potato peeler to shave the chocolate.) Putting the topping on well before eating lets the flavours of the fruit develop and also lets the cream soak into the meringue directly beneath it, making it soft and voluptuous.

This is all in Australian cooking terminology. If this presents problems please let me know or you might like to check out this conversion chart. I'd love to know if anyone has a go!

Christmas And Boxing Day

I love looking at other people's blogs around Christmas time. It's interesting to read about the way people celebrate the holiday season all over the world. (It's also inspiring ~ after reading Northern American blogs I've taken to Christmas baking.) Carola, has written a lovely post about Swedish traditions.

Christmas celebrations are always a team effort for my family. My mother readies the house for overnight guests, we all cook and my baby sister puts up the decorations. Last year we ate Christmas dinner under the stars, with lots of twinkling lights:

This year, my sister decorated with Chinese lanterns:

I made a pavlova, the national dessert of Australia and New Zealand ~ my first:

As you can see, I topped it with strawberries, milk chocolate and passionfruit. It was (she says immodestly) delicious. Nigella has a similar recipe to the one I used (if you take out the chocolate in the meringue) here.

We celebrated Christmas in the evening because it was so hot, scorchingly so ~ Christmas Day was 40.1 degrees celcius. The following day was even hotter, a sizzling 44.2 degrees celcius ~ Perth was the hottest city on the planet on Boxing Day. I stayed inside, underneath the ceiling fans, eating left~overs (Dad's roast chicken, beef and potatoes with red~wine gravy, my sister's pumpkin and pine nut salad, lots and lots of chocolate...mmmmmmmm), watching old movies and , finally, finding the time for some more crocheting (hooray!). I made a Pink Shells dishcloth out of some gorgeous Peaches n Creme cotton that I bought from The Wool Shack.

Christmas was a simple but lovely time for me.
I'm not planning on taking down the decorations any time soon, I'd like to savour the season's memories instead.
I hope that you also had a wonderful holiday, wherever in the world you were.