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Fairy cake semi-fail

Mr V and I made some fairy cakes today (mini cupcakes). They taste great, but my attempts at icing (after Mr V had gone to bed) aren't quite so great:

I iced them all and then tried to put the sprinkles on. Turns out that doesn't work too well. I had to poke each tiny sugar star into the icing. So, next time it's ice-then-sprinkle, ice-then-sprinkle, ice-then-sprinkle etc, etc.

The recipe is from Easy to Make! Cakes and Bakes (Good Housekeeping). First one I've tried from there, but so far, so good...

Musings on me (and this blog)

When people ask me what I do for a living (or what I used to do "before I started a family", which annoys me on many levels), I always mumble something about IT. I am utterly hopeless at explaining what it is I do (I'm a community manager), so I don't even try.

I confess that I am often envious of friends who can say "I'm a teacher" or "I'm a lawyer". Everyone gets that straight away. Even my family are clueless about my career, even though I have spent quite some time trying to explain what it is that I do.

So, this got me thinking. Perhaps I can't explain it because it's not really what I want to do. Or maybe I think it's not a 'real' job? Or maybe I'm just really, really bad at explaining things. Overreaction Man teases me a lot about not being able to explain what he does (he's a Product Manager), so it could just be that.

But I wonder if I actually just want to do be something else. In my spare time (outside of looking after Mr V and doing community management work), I like to read blogs (craft, mainly) and make stuff. Mostly read, if I'm honest.

I like to say that I enjoy writing, but if that were really true this blog would have way more posts, wouldn't it? Actually, I'm a bit hung up on what to post here - I kinda feel I have to post completed projects, but is the blog police breathing down my neck? I don't think so. (Just in case they are, the next post will have some craft in it. Phew.)

I would definitely like to blog every day, like Lloyd and Lauren. Perhaps I should aim for that and see what I end up posting about. I'll worry about the career angst later...

Rabbit Rattle

My friend has had her baby and while I haven't given her the presents yet (Mr V and I are holed up with a bad cold), I can share my latest makes with you because she hasn't mastered being online and breastfeeding just yet. First up, a crochet rabbit rattle.



Over-reaction Man (new name for hubby, hereafter known as ORM) took the photos outside for me. I think the one in the tree came out best, but it makes the rattle look deformed, hence sharing both images. (Side note: if only the weather was like that now - it's hideous outside today, storm central.)

The pattern was from Crochet Today May/June '09 by Vicki Howell and should have looked like this:



Mine came out quite differently, as you can see. But as a wise woman
once said: "There's no such thing as the crochet police". So there.

I'm back and I'm crafting again

I'm not going to apologise for not posting - it seems every second blog has such a post - but suffice it to say that I'm back and I'm making stuff. Not right this second, of course, but later today and yesterday and no doubt tomorrow as well. I can't share what I'm making just yet, because it's baby stuff for my friend whose due date was yesterday. Hopefully soon!

Little update on what's happening Chez CCL: we've moved down to the Kent coast. I feel like I've come home (I'm from East Kent originally). We've rented a lovely large top floor flat which overlooks shared private gardens for local residents only (how posh!). I've set up my own business and am working from home. Hubby has got himself a swish job in the Big Smoke (yes, where we just moved from, doh!). And Mr V has settled into nursery after several false starts - he only goes three afternoons a week, but that's enough for now to give me time to get my work done.

All very exciting. Hopefully some crafting news soon :)


Photo of a local park back when we had snow (taken by Hubby).

The Saga of the Broken Back

Due to popular request - well, OK, just Lauren then - here is the saga of my broken back.

Shortly after I started my new job in central London, I rediscovered the "joys" of travelling on the underground. For some strange reason I just didn't enjoy being packed into heaving carriages like a giant sardine, nor did I relish being late for work every damn day when we were inexplicably held in the tunnels. So, I hatched a plan.

Having seen lots of people with very cunning folding bikes on the train into London (yep, we chose to live in the sticks), I thought that I should get me one of them. After a day's careful research I decided on a badged Dahon (or perhaps it's de-badged), which is basically a really good folder, but made for another company and sold cheaper. Just 100 Great British Pounds later and I was the proud owner of said bike.



I merrily cycled from London Waterloo station to work each day for nearly two weeks. It took me a while to learn the route, but I was starting to get confident and would bore anyone who took even a vague interest with tales of my travels. But alas, this biking mania was not to last.

On March 3 I was patiently waiting to cross the road to my office, when traffic came to a standstill and a nice lorry driver beckoned me across. Across I went, but sadly did not have the sense to check the bus lane first. Bam! I was hit by a moped and deposited rather unceremoniously onto the tarmac.

I knew something untoward had happened, because I could hear myself moaning very loudly, but was powerless to shut myself up. Lots of policemen turned up - rather an excessive amount actually - and I was eventually taken to hospital.

To cut a long story short, I have a compression fracture of the 11th thoracic vertebrae. I can walk, talk etc, but I'm not allowed back on the bike yet, nor am I supposed to pick up the baby. I have been doing that lately quite a bit though and everything still works.

Silver lining to this was that I had to stop breastfeeding at night and within 3 days of Dad being in charge, VV started sleeping through the night. Who knew it could be that easy! After nearly 11 months of next to no sleep I am now a new woman, albeit one with a sore back. Hoping to get back in the saddle soon - the bike fared much better than me and is sitting, folded next to my desk at work, begging to be let out again.

Baby Cardigan

It's been a long time, I know, but at last I am proud to present a finished project - a baby cardigan. "Baby" being the operative word, since it's tiny and much too small for its recipient. Damn and blast.

Still, I am rather pleased with how it turned out. I made it from Baby Crochet: 20 Hand Crochet Designs for Babies 0-24 Months by Lois Daykin. It's the first garment I've made and it was pleasingly easy to do. Lot of ends to weave in (why I leave them all to the end, I don't know), but no actual difficulties.

I blocked it - another first for me - but even that sneaky stretching didn't perform the much needed miracle. Ho hum, next time I'll check my gauge twice and then still use a larger hook to be sure.

If there are any readers left out there after my four-month hiatus, hello! My new job is going very well, as evidenced by a total dearth of posts. Had a horrible cycling accident shortly after I started and broke my back, but that's healing nicely now, so no long term harm done. Sounds worse than it is/was, honest!

Change is a-coming

I've been thinking about the form this blog should take, because changes are afoot in the cactuslover household - I'm going back to work! Not only that, we're moving to the UK and Hubby is going to stay at home with VV.

I'm both excited and scared about going back to work after nearly a year of being at home with my lovely VV. I'll miss him like crazy, but I'm looking forward to having some brain exercise.

All this means that I will have way less time on my hands for crafting. Boo! Hiss! That's been true for a while now, since VV got mobile, but it'll be evenings-only come February. I can see crochet becoming even more attractive to me, since I can be sociable (and watch TV) while I do it.

So, either my blog goes all quiet for ages between projects (rather like it has since Christmas, while we've been packing and organising) or I go to plan b. Plan b is to continue blogging my creations, but also flag other cool craft stuff I come across. That should keep the tumbleweeds at bay.

I've been wondering (from the start, really) whether I should write more about the happenings in my life, but my internal jury is still out on that one. Whatever happens, things will change and change is always interesting. Stay tuned!

Someone might actually be reading this!

Perhaps because I am still stupidly chuffed about this and thus haven't quite got over it, it's taken me a whole 18 days to get round to reporting that Lauren mentioned my blog when she received the Uber Amazing Blog Award. This means that someone (ie Lauren) actually reads my blog and she isn't family or anything!

The rules of the Uber Amazing Blog award state:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post. (Check!)
2. Nominate at least 5 blogs (can be more) that for you are Uber Amazing. (Check!)
   
3. Let them know that they have received this Uber Amazing award by commenting on their blog. (Will do)
4. Share the love and link to this post and to the person you received your award from. (Likewise)

So, what are my fave reads? Before I name names, let me say that I am a Google Reader addict. I'm currently subscribed to a somewhat ridiculous 92 blogs (and I'm massively behind on my reading - 769 unread items to be precise!).

But of course I don't read them all religiously. Most of them get a quick scan before I'm on to the next post. But there are some that I always read and if time is tight, like it has been lately, I'll cherry-pick the following:

Lloyd and Lauren - the minutiae of their daily lives brighten up my breakfast every day.
The Hook and I - Amy is a crochet genius, blogging from the far reaches of Alaska and by all accounts, a mean cook too.
this mama makes stuff - tftcarrie refashions thrift-store finds with great style, often for her children who must be the coolest kids on the block.
laughing purple goldfish designs - more great crochet, with a thrifty-twist.
Today we are... - seamstress joleo hails from south-east England and her blog helps me feel less homesick.

So, there you have it. All of the blogs I love have one thing in common - personality. They are all written by people who tell you a little (or a lot) about their everyday lives and I like that. Craft and/or real people = happiness, at least for me.

Matryoshka Keyring and a Daft Badge

I made this quick keyring to go with the Matryoshka pouch that I made the other day, which is now lined:



The lining isn't exactly professional, but it's not too bad and doesn't catch on the zip, at least. To make it, I just followed the directions for the pouch, but omitted the zip. Then it was a not quite so simple mater of sewing it to the outside (I used dark thread in the bobbin and light up top so that the stitching didn't show too much).

Since this was a birthday present for my oldest friend (we've known each other since we were babies, she's not that old) and she's about to go on maternity leave, I wanted to make her something baby-related too. So, here's the daft badge that I whipped up:



I used scraps of fabric, some cardboard and a safety pin to make it, along with the lettering stitch on my machine that I've been dying to try out. The lettering is on some bias binding and I've zig-zagged the edge of the middle layer of fabric. It's all stuck together with iron-on hemming tape, although the base fabric (some orange needle cord left over from a dinosaur I made for my nephew) is attached to the cardboard with stitches, as is the safety pin (not shown).

As I was writing the card it suddenly occurred to me that "not long now..." could be misconstrued when sent as part of a birthday gift :)

PS Please excuse photos - had to use the camera phone at night (which is pretty much all the time here in Finland).

Patriotic Baby Booties

These have to be the fastest booties I've made so far. The Hubby announced that his friend had just become an auntie and since he also knows the friend's sister and husband, could I make something for them? The catch? Just two days before the friend came to collect the gift before making the trip to Amsterdam to visit them.

I took a chance and made a start on some booties I've not made before, knowing that this could very well end in boots fit only for the tiniest baby ever (I crochet very tightly). I don't know about you, but even if a pattern works out really well, I always want to try something new when I pick up my hook. I even get bored making the second bootie of a pair. I chose the "victorian aster baby's booties" from 201 Crochet Motifs, Blocks, Patterns and Ideas, but left out the aster flower adornment and the second row of embellishment around the top. These were for a boy, after all!

I used some white yarn form my stash (Red Heart Dallas) and worked my little (OK, freakishly long) fingers off. I didn't quite make the deadline, so Hubby's friend had to play with VV for 20 minutes while I finished them off (I don't think either of them minded). I added a bue ribbon to make them a bit more boyish. It was then that we noticed I had made very patriotic Finnish booties. And when I quickly wrapped them in some orange tissue I had (in yet another stash), we realised that was a very Dutch colour to choose. Almost as if I had carefully planned it all.

The booties looks a little Wellington-boot like to me, but I think the shape is good for fat baby legs and feet, so they might actually stay on. And they are probably too big right now, which is an achievement in itself.

Boxy Matryoshka Pouch

Finally made a start on my Christmas presents, with this practice boxy pouch:



I used three bear's excellent tutorial and fabric from Japanese specialist nuno.plus. I found the ebay version of the nuno.plus shop quite by accident and only noticed that its the same shop mentioned in the tute later on. Yet another spooky coincidence.

I think I'm going to do lined versions for the actual presents, but in a non-properly way, just by using two pieces of fabric together. That will still put the seams on view on the inside, but it will make the pouches a bit stiffer and it will keep the make-up time short.

Right, better get on with them then! Now that my get-up-and-go has come back (it went away for a week or so, I know not where, hence the silence), I'll be in a veritable making frenzy. At least that's the plan...

Pass the Pigs - crocheted!

Brigitte over at roman sock has made the most amazing crocheted version of Pass the Pigs, which she's named Pass the Piglets. Look at how detailed and cute it is:





Strangely, rather than spurring me on to make fab handmade Christmas gifts myself (as is my plan), it's thrown me into the doldrums. There's no way I could make anything that cute, dammit. And certainly not two things exactly the same - none of my booties have really been true matching pairs so far...

Hopefully Pass the Piglets has the opposite effect on you, so go and check it out for yourself now. I'd certainly love to receive something like this as a present: Brigitte's friends and family are lucky indeed.

Thread-Catcher Cube

"What's this?" I hear you ask. "A slightly wonky fabric cube, in a cute colourway?" Well, yes, but that's not all...



See that stuff on top? That there be threads, caught neatly by this, the all-new, ingenious Thread-Catcher CubeTM!

I had a "eureka!" moment when I was clearing up after a sewing session the other day and noticed that my trousers had threads stuck to them. It was but one small leap from that to a custom thread-catcher, with fleece as the grippy fabric of choice. The dotty fabric is a tea-towel, the fleece from an old top.

Up until now I've been chucking the threads in origami boxes made from magazines, but now I'll use the cube ("Use the cube, Luke, use the cube...").

From Runner to Clutch

This clutch bag started life as a table runner, which I bought back in July with a load of other fabric. As soon as I saw the runner I knew I wanted to make it into a bag, but it's taken me until now to get round to it.

I used a pattern from Making Handbags: Retro, Chic and Luxurious Designs, finally assuaging the craft book guilt I always have when I've bought a book and not made anything from it.

I'm quite pleased with the way it looks, but in reality it's a bit soft and squishy, so I'm not sure it will be all that great in use. And the question is - with or without the tassel?

Mohair Capelet

I finally got round to doing something with the excess Schachenmayr nomotta idena Mohair Lux I have, although there is still a lot left over (see here for why I have so much. And yes, I abandoned The Tapeworm). Since I couldn't really see myself wearing anything made from mohair, I let my husband choose from three shawl patterns. He chose Cold Shoulders from Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker.

Using two strands together to get an approximation of the correct weight of yarn, the pattern worked up really quickly. I also got to make my first pom-poms (the first since childhood at least, and that was a looong time ago).

And here's the finished project:



I actually really like it (although I think the pom-poms are a little large), but I'm still stumped on what to wear it with - any suggestions greatly received! I know that all things wooly are currently in vogue, but I'm not sure if I have the guts to wear it with my normal casual clothes.

And still the question remains - what to do with the rest of the mohair?

The crochet crocs are finally on their way

I finally got round to buying the extra buttons and finished off the crochet Crocs. I didn't have a suitable box to wrap them in, so I hacked up a box we already had and wrapped that. I also used some fluffy packing material that came with something we ordered recently (I forget what). So, while I didn't do that great a job with the wrapping, at least it was recycled.



Now if only I could find my other friend's address, I could post the bear booties as well...

Aalto Origami

Ok, not Alvar Aalto origami as such, but rather a beautiful Iittala Aalto vase filled with box origamis.



My husband received this vase as a present for 10 years' service to his company and we wanted to have it on display. However, a clear glass vase gets rather lost with nothing in it and since it's a long time before anything grows here in Finland, flowers are out of the question.

We both looked at the vase together, chorused "origami!" and so the idea was born. I've just spent a couple of hours maniacally folding the boxes. Note: very few of my attempts reached the vase when I threw them, so I shall not be giving up my day job to start a career in a basketball anytime soon. (My husband points out that the vase's shape means it is harder to slam dunk than a hoop, but he has to be nice, he's my husband...)

Celery and Cashew Soup

Having a bit of an excess of celery in the fridge, I decided to make some soup. Celery and Cashew might sound a bit odd, but it is very tasty. Of course, if you don't like celery (like my husband), you won't like this, but you don't need to love the stuff to enjoy the soup. I now have three lovely portions in the freezer ready for future lunches. All in all, a nice creative couple of hours while VV was asleep.

Sorry there's no photo, but the soup wasn't very photogenic and I missed the ever decreasing window of daylight here in Finland.

I can't reproduce the recipe for the soup here, since it's from a book, but I can tell you the book - New Covent Garden Book of Soups: New, Old and Odd Recipes. I've made a few of the recipes in the past and they've all been very tasty (I highly recommend the Pistou).

EDIT: I read up on copyright law and I *think* I can publish the recipe, so here it is:

Celery and Cashew Nut Soup

Ingredients

• 75g (3oz) butter
• 2 heads of celery, roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 150g (5oz) unsalted cashew nuts
• 1.5 litres (2.5 pints) vegetable stock
• To garnish: 50g (2oz) unsalted cashew nuts, chopped, and celery leaves

Directions

1. Melt the butter and cook the celery and garlic gently for 20 minutes in a covered saucepan, without colouring.
2. Grind the nuts finely in a food processor and add to the pan along with the stock.
3. Cover, bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
4. Cool a little, then puree in a liquidiser.
5. Pass the soup through a sieve into a clean saucepan.
6. For the garnish, put the cashew nuts into a frying pan over a high heat. Shake frequently until the nuts brown. Cool.
7. Reheat the soup gently and serve garnished with toasted chopped cashew nuts and chopped celery leaves.

My First Beanie

And it turns out that the title is more accurate that it first seems. How so? All will be revealed in good time!

I decided it was about time I tried my hand at a hat and thought I would make one for my brother, who has recently started up his own business doing flat roofs. Not quite sure what that involves, but I think hot black sticky stuff features somewhere along the line.

So, out came my trusty Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. Flicking to page 125, I started in earnest on the Boy Beanie by Laura Killoran (check out her own site here - I rather like the look of her Applejack Cap, as it happens).

Merrily I crocheted away, sitting on the sofa drinking tea, as is my custom. And I was pretty pleased with the result. That is until I tried it on. It's like wearing some kind of mediaeval torture device! Luckily there is one small-headed person in my family and it fits him just perfectly - six-month-old VV. And here it is - both mine and his first beanie:



I suspect it was my yarn choice - leftovers from the Rabbit Slippers from the same book, plus some random orange wool - that was the culprit, helped in part by my super-tight stitches. Oh well, it was about time I crocheted something for my son. The hat was a doddle though, so with the right yarn in hand, I'll try again sometime...