Princess Pancakes

Hallo Bloglanders

I hope you are having a blast of a Friday.  It is pouring wet in Sunny SA and I will have to stay indoors. (Not that I mind).  I got most of my admin done yesterday and will be crafting away once I've shared my princess pancake recipe with you.  I got it from daughter-in-law-to-be and neither she or I claim it as our own BUT I'm sharing it because it's so easy and turns out perfectly every time.

This is what they look like:

Now for the recipe:

Princess pancakes: (makes 6)
1 Egg
1 cup of selfraising flour
1 cup of milk
Mix everything together with a whisk and start baking!
No standing time needed.
If you want a thinner batter, just add an extra dash of milk.

I've also done them in a wheat free version and it works perfectly.  From the wheat free flour, it only makes 4 large pancakes.

And look who came over for a visit:

Have a great weekend and please come back to play.  I'll be back to share my crafting fun with you.

Take along Barn Part 2

Me again Bloglanders

Let's try again to show you what my finished Barn looked like. If you missed how I did it, just scroll down to my previous post.

BACK:

SIDE:



TOP:



OPEN TO PLAY:

OPEN TO PLAY:

AND PACKED TO GO:

When I've finished my doll's house, I'll share with you.  I hope you ejoyed my project.  I loved doing it and how it turned out.

Today I have to do some mending, shorten pants, file away the month's invoices and write a letter to our local council. Yak!! Maybe if I get going, I'll have time to fit in some fun stuff as well.  Please come back to play!





Take along Barn Part 1

Good morning Bloglanders

It is nearly the end of the week so hang in there - just one more day and you'll have some time to spend playing.

As promised, my version of a take along Barn.  My son used to have one when he was small and he took it everywhere. We had it stocked with some little toys and wherever he (we) went it tagged along and it kept him busy for hours. It's not easy raising an only child!

Well, when I saw the idea at UK lass in the US, I just knew I had to make one for a friend's little boy. I think hers was bigger and she used wood inside. I adapted mine to the size of our original (25 years old!) and used mesh that you get from craft stores.

I made my patter for a tin of similar size as the barn I wanted to cut a pattern out of old newspaper.

Cut every pattern piece out of fabric, lining, iron on batting and the mesh.

I appliqued everything like the dam, road, windows and doors onto the pattern pieces.

Now for the sandwich. Remember - you have and outside and inside - my picture is of a dolls house I'm currently working on. (forgot to take one of the barn).  I sew the batting onto the mesh and then iron on the fabric pieces.

Now start sewing. It if basically a little house with a lining. I kept the back seam open to turn it inside out.  My barn closes with strips of Velcro that I've sewn onto the front flaps as I find it works better for little hands. I didn't do any top stitching and only ironed on the seams to keep everything flat.

OK, my pic's of the finished product doesn't want to load - I'll do a separate post!  Keep reading.

Some more cards

Hallo Bloglanders

I have made a carry-along barn for a little boy and tomorrow I'll share with you how I did it.  Want to peek?

I'm sure you still remember the card I made for the CPS challenge (bottom left) and if you read my blog regularly, you will know how I hate cards without family.  So without further ado - the rest of the siblings:

I only used offcuts of paper and what was left of a sticker sheet used in another project.  The one I'm submitting for The Old Back Porch card pickup week 34 is this one:



The frame I used here is actually the backside of what was left after I took out the die cuts used in the bottom two cards. Hop over to The Old Black Porch to see what the rest of Blogland came up with. Just click here.

While you are out there, hop over to Scrap RDV and see my take on Aurore's card.  Mine was actually chosen as Alexandra's fave!!

Remember?

Please come back tomorrow to see how my barn turned out.  My instructions are Afrikaans but I'll kindly translate for my foreign Bloglanders. See you tomorrow!





Necklace for me

Good morning Bloglanders

Today I'm here to share the latest addition to my summer wardrobe - a necklace I made from bits and bobs I had on hand.  Here it is:

The wooden heart came from a nicely decorated pressie I received a while ago and the necklace is actually only chiffon ribbon and string in black, green and white.  I think it will look great with my new black top. Remember, we are heading for summer and we are currently enjoying beautiful spring weather here in Sunny SA.

And the colors of The Play Date challenge of the week:



I'm hopping over to The Play Date Cafe right now to submit my contribution. If you want to see what the rest of Blogland came up with - click here.

I'm off to have another cup of coffee on my "stoep". (sort of a porch but more South African)  It is not only the nice weather that is keeping me out there - my neighbor's cat decided that it is the sunniest place on the block for him.  After losing my cat earlier this month, it's great to have him around.  I call him Gabriel (don't know what his real name is) - like the angel!  So, bye-bye from me.  Please come back to play as I'll be back with some crafting fun tomorrow.

Birthday Layout MME Challenge

Hi there Bloglanders

It's a brand new week - stuff to do, places to see, people to meet and pic's to be taken!  I hope that all of you will have a great week.

This is my Birthday layout for 2012:

My family all have their birthdays within a month!  A few years ago I decided to make one layout capturing everything we did on the different occasions. Of course, if we have a big "do" I'll do a separate page but for now this works for me.  I'm submitting my layout to the My Mind's Eye August challenge.  The idea is to use holiday goodies in a different way. 

Now, my fellow South Africans will tell you that getting nice goodies down under is a huge problem for us.  At first I decided that it will just not be possible for me to participate as I don't have any MME holiday goodies.  I went through my stash and I'll show you what I found!

I belong to a scrapping club and every Christmas we receive a freebie.  This is supposed to be folded into a gift bag.  As I like all my pressies to be wrapped in the same way, this got filed into my card making stash.  I loved the colors - dark brown and blue and most of the sentiments on the tags worked with my birthday theme as well. 

Also from different kits came the following ex MME's holiday / other ranges that went with my color scheme:

I used my good old Cuttlebug to die cut all the music notes, stitched the lines for the music and added a few buttons from MME as well as from my sewing stash. Where I had some Christmas words, I just covered it with dates and some sub titles. You will see that I added a vellum pocket to the bottom right corner.  This was where my journaling was supposed to go but my page got too "busy" and I opted to hide the journaling. You will see it peeking out just right of the envelope.  I like the way it is but might change my mind in future and fill the pocket with something.

I know you don't like (my) layouts but I'm rather proud of myself for making this one out of the minimum of supplies.

That's it from me.  Enjoy the rest of your week and please come back to play.

Flower Brooch

Good morning Bloglanders

I hope you are having a fabulous Thursday. Hang in there - the weekend is almost here!  I hope you can still remember the flower hair clip that I've made a while ago.  If not, click here.

While I had my felt out, I decided to make some more of these.  This is what my brooch looks like:

And I made some more to give as pressies to my girlfriends.

Now for the good news!  I have decided to send one to each of my blogs followers!  I will be contacting you shortly for an address and your brooch will be on its way.  Then, wherever you are in the world, I hope that my felt flower will bring a bit of sunshine and happiness to you whenever you see it.

That's it from me for the day.  I'll be back right here to share some of my crafting fun.  Have a great day and please come back to play.

The Play Date Cafe card

Hi there Bloglanders

Here is my card for The Play Date Cafe challenge of the week:

Actually, it is a beautiful card and I love the colors - just my photo taking skills letting me down.  I'll come back to this post with a better picture later. And here is the inspiration:

See you later!

OK, I'm back with (hopefully) a better pic:

And you know how I feel about cards without family.  So I made one for The Old Black Porch out of what was left on my craft desk:

And the small piece that was left went into my year in review file as a reminder of a coffee date with a friend:

And it all started out with this card:

Now I have another set to add to my Xmas pressie stash and I only used one sheet of paper!

See you tomorrow!

Make a car out of a carton

Hi there Bloglanders

To all my non-South African followers - I live in a country of extremes.  Yesterday I heard about an eleven year old boy who had to make a car out of a carton.  To me this is straight forward but not to him and his family.  Nobody in his family knows what Google is, they have never worked on a computer (not even at school) and they don't have money to buy glue.

So, yesterday I helped him to make a car out of a carton.  Not that I have the technical know-how but at least I have a computer, glue, carton and know that my friend Google will be able to help.  This is what our effort looks like:

And this is where I got the tutorial. Actually, it is only a box, 4 milk carton lids for wheels, 2 buttons for lights and a bit of effort. Oh!! I forgot to mention the straws for the steering wheel! 
Not much to me and you but to the little boy - he thought it was magic that I actually had all these goodies in my stash.  I really enjoyed helping him and will surely do so again.  Tomorrow I'll get back to my own work and crafts.  Please come back to play.

Hazel

Alternative packaging

Hi there Bloglanders

I had a wonderful weekend and finally stopped crying over the loss of my cat.  It was my birthday and my husband spoiled me with a weekend away. Today have been busy - trying to catch up on work, getting some creative stuff done and  the house and laundry up to date.

I had to deliver a pressie to a little girlfriend and even though I bought a stationary set, I decided to make a pink, flowery, fabric gift bag to go with. Here it is:

Sorry about the quality of my picture but my son borrowed my camera and I had to make do with my mobile phone. I really wanted to share with you before I gave it away.

Since this light depression hit me, I decided that I'll just keep myself busy and creative and things will eventually turn around.  So I've been making lists!

I plan to slipcover my living room furniture (over the years my cat has turned everything into needlepoint);   revamp my bedroom; do curtains for my dining room and kitchen and a blind for my son's flat.  You can watch this space - I have already printed the instructions for the slipcovers and plan to start on it over the coming weekend.  It's on Pinterest and you can find it here.  I'll report back right here if you want to see my progress. 

These are just the big stuff. Of course I've got a long list of smaller projects starting with this jacket that I'll be making this week.

Maybe I'm a bit ambitious but I'll rather aim for the stars - at least I know I'll miss my toes.  That's it from me.  Please check back to see my progress.  Have a great week!

Hazel

Flower Power

Hi there Bloglanders

Me again!  This is actually my Friday post but as I don't do scheduling (yet?), I'm sharing it now because I have a lot of office work to do tomorrow.

I'm still on my "flower" theme and you might remember that I'm stocking up on notebooks and cards for my pressie stash.  It won't be ordinary - they are hand made and beautifully decorated so I decided to zuss up a pen to include in my gift bag.  This is what I did:

And a close up:



They even look better in real life but this is as good as my photo taking skills can go.  I have used organza scraps left from evening dresses when the girlfriends were still in the dress-up stage (everything is small and black nowadays).  I just burned the edges on my stove, inserted a bead in the middle and covered the pen with florist ribbon.  I have two on my desk and use it all the time - they make me smile every time I use it.

If you want to know how to make them, I'll gladly share the pattern with you. Please contact me or leave a comment.  I'll be back right here to share some more crafting fun.  Have a great weekend!

Did you see???

Good morning Bloglanders

Did you see???  Since the beginning of this year I participated in the weekly Play Date Cafe challenges and even though I only get inspiration from there and never win or even get mentioned my little flower hair clip from earlier this week did it!!!  I had such an awful week and these little flowers were in my hair every day to cheer me on.
For those of you who missed it, just scroll down and you'll share in my crafting fun.  I've had requests to show how I made them and will do a tutorial over the weekend just for you.

For all your messages and support during the week, thank you so much.  I really appreciate your friendship and sympathy. I'll be back tomorrow with some more FLOWER POWER. Have a great day and please come back to play.

Something to Do

Good Morning Bloglanders

Thank you so much for your support.  Yesterday was a horrible day but today I'll just get back into what I do best - some crafting! Also, my office work is behind and I'll have to catch up on that as well. I'm still working on my theme of the week - flowers.  Today I'm sharing some book page flowers that I use on gifts and gift card envelopes.  This is what they look like:

I got the flower ex this tutorial from Monika Wright and whenever I have some book pages left, I punch out some circles. When I have 8 circles I add a brad and put it in my "jewellery" box - ready to be fluffed up whenever needed.  I also give these away unfolded as kids just love them and they are so easy to do.  I have done them with newspaper, magazine pages, colored copy paper and it all works.  Just make sure that your paper is thin enough to be scrunched up.

For those of you following me on Pinterest - Monika's flower is on my "Scrap" board if you want to hop over and check it out.

I did the gift envelopes in Photoshop, printed, cut, folded, added some twine and the flower. Easy Peasy! I hope you are working on your Christmas pressie stash as well - I plan to have mine done and packed at the end of October. Then I can sit back and enjoy the year-end festivities.

I'll be back with some more flower power tomorrow. Please come back to play.

Some "ME TIME"

Hi there Bloglanders

I'm so sorry to say that I'm unavailable for a while - I had to have my 20-year-old cat, Tossel put down and it's a HUGE thing for me. I'm still not sure whether this will put me into a total depression or be the inspiration that I need to diversify me / my crafts. We will see ............................ She has always done everything with me and I'll sincerely miss her.  I already do! and do! and do! OK one last time, I DO MISS HER AND ALWAYS WILL!!!!!!

I'll be back soon - she would have wanted me to be!