Craftiness Whatnot

Etsy shop: Finally

2011-05-07T23:01:00.000+05:30

Hi...

There I did it.. After always wanting to.. With the encouragement of my husband & my sister. I opened an etsy shop .

The name of the shop is "The Real Islander".

Check it out please. :)

For those in Sri Lanka, if you like anything in the shop. Just drop me a mail.

See you later.

BB Out.

Flower mobile - how to

2011-03-17T15:58:00.000+05:30

Isn't a flower mobile the most wonderful, perfect gift for a newborn? Doesn't it become even more special if you make it with your hands rather than buying a plastic one at the store? Yes it does. :) For those newest additions in your life, or the lives of your friends, go on, make some flowers, whip up some butterflies & viola, a flower mobile!

It's simple to make & beautiful to look at. Here's what you need & how to make it. Go on, find some yarn & a crochet needle..

Needed

A few crochet flowers

A few crochet butterflies

A wooden circle. i.e something like an embroidery hoop (I used a Sri Lankan hot pad, made of Palmyra leaves)
A few yards of ribbon
Needle & matching thread
A pair of scissors
Fabric glue

How to

Secure one end of the ribbon to the underside of the hoop with by making a stitch with the thread.

Cover the hoop fully with the ribbon using a bit of glue as you cover it.

Decide the lengths of the strings that you want the flowers hung from the hoop.
Using pieces of threads of desired lengths, hang the flowers & butterflies on the outer edge of the hoop by making stitches on both ends. i.e by making a stitch on the flower & then making another on the other end of the string on the hoop.

Once all the flowers & butterflies are attached to the hoop to your please, attach a loop made of wire to the top. Make sure that the hoop is not lopsided when hung & is balanced.

There you go.. A very pretty crochet flower mobile. They don't necessarily need to be crocheted flowers. In any case, I will put up how-tos on crochet flowers & crochet butterflies later.

And anyway, only babies like flower mobiles. This one, I hung in my room. :D

See you later..

Everything Home made: Strawberry Lip Gloss

2011-01-26T10:35:00.002+05:30

Hi..

This is the easiest ever! A pinch of this & a pinch of that & viola!

What you need (for one small pot of lip gloss)

1 tsp petroleum jelly (Vaseline)
1 tsp of coconut oil
a few drops of olive oil
1 tsp of corn starch
1 tsp of strawberry or any other preferred fruit jam
1 tsp pf honey or golden syrup
a drop of food colouring to match. (Pink or red to match the kind of fruit jam used)
an old lip gloss pot

Black dots are strawberry seeds.

How to make it

Boil the empty old lip gloss pot in hot water so that it will not be contaminated.
In a small microwave safe dish add the first three ingredients & mix well with a very clean spoon.
Microwave for about 30 seconds until the mixture becomes a clear liquid.
Add the corn starch & mix well.
Add the strawberry jam, honey & the food colouring & mix well.
Microwave again for about 30 seconds.
Take out of the microwave & stir until the whole mixture comes together or else the Vaseline will separate.
Pour into the prepared pot & cool for about quarter of an hour.

There you have it. Home made lip gloss with real fruit.

No more wasting money on expensive lip gloss. Any colour with any taste can be made at home. Just use the fruit or candy you like & matching food colours.

yum yum..

Everything homemade: Homemade pasta

2010-09-29T08:58:00.001+05:30

Pasta? Homemade? Really? yep. :)

Here's what you need. For four or five servings.

2 cups of all purpose flour
2 to 3 tablespoons of margarine or butter
3 large eggs
A bit of milk
A handful of lightly roasted sesame.(Optional)

Here's what to do.

Pile the flour on the counter top.

Cut in the margarine in and make crumbs as if you were making pastry. In the end all the margarine should be incorporated into the flour & should resemble coarse bread crumbs.

Lightly beat the eggs beat into the flour mixture with a fork. Add the sesame if using.

Knead well with your hands until the dough stops being sticky & is elastic. If you feel the dough is too tough to handle, add about a tablespoon of milk.

Divide the dough into 4.

Roll out each portion to paper thickness while flipping & sprinkling with flour to prevent sticking.

Hang to dry. Use can use a broomstick or as in my case just hang on the clothesline. :) Dry for about half an hour.

Sprinkle some flour to prevent sticking. Roll each sheet of pasta like a Swiss roll to a tube and cut slices which will unroll to long pasta strips.

There you have it. Homemade pasta.
To cook this. Boil a pot of water add a bit of salt & oil & add the pasta. Cook till al dante. And proceed with as you would with regular store bought pasta.

To keep this, if not using straight away, hang the cutout stripes to dry for about a day or two & store in an air tight container.

Homemade pasta would also make a lovely gift.

rays of green

2010-08-01T10:37:00.002+05:30

rays of green
Originally uploaded by BookBaker

just a pineapple.

What's new on my bookshelf

2010-07-01T10:01:00.001+05:30

Good morning people!!! :)

I bought two books last evening. One of them, I've decided to carry with me at all times.

"The complete cook's encyclopedia of spices" by Sallie Morris & Lesley Mackley.

I was in the book shop trying to decide if I should buy a book about herb gardening which was really costly, when my eye caught this gem. It wasn't all that heavy on the purse & is full of delightful pictures.

I love spices & herbs. Who doesn't right? For many of the dishes I make, I use liberal quantities of garlic (being my all-time favourite spice) and coriander leaves (favourite herb). But I hate to admit that some of the herbs & spices I come across any certain recipes I have no idea of or even if we can find them in Sri Lanka.

This book I believe will be immense help to solve this problem for me. This book not only contains all the necessary information about spices, how to prepare them and how to store them it also carries a variety of delectable recipes and ways to make spice mixtures to liven our food.

Next obstacle? Finding the Sinhalese names for some of the spices.

BookBaker out. Have a spicy day people!

Meet CupCake

2010-06-29T10:07:00.000+05:30

Hello, fellow crafters out there!! It's been a long long while..

Meet My dearest, closest, bestest friend, CupCake.

While being my best friend, she also happens to be a great crafter. I have tasted her food, and yep, they are great. Last time I was at her place, she made the most delicious tofu dish I've ever tasted I' tell you.

While I was loafing around in her house, I also happened to notice a beautiful piece of knit. And she happened to be wearing a summer dress that she herself had sewed.

Her crafty skills are thus endless. But these are not the only things that make her a great person.

She's fun to be with. Extremely caring. When I'm down & snotty she comes to my rescue. Shows me that maybe things aren't as bad as they seem to me & that maybe I'm a little bit too prejudiced. :D

Why I'm sometimes envious of her? :) She can eat as much as she wants & never puts on a pound. & has the biggest loveliest eyes ever.

For my wedding gift, she gave me a hand-made clutch purse that I love. You should try making one. The one I got was BEAUTIFUL.

BookBaker Out.

P.s
So many crafts coming out very very soon on my blog. :)

The prettiest black flower necklace

2010-01-09T12:30:00.000+05:30

Same as the last one. Actually this was done earlier. & the necklace is not crocheted. Just braided yarn. I think the button on the flower looks nice. Don't you?

Book Baker out!

p.s As you can see, I'm using picnik at a rate here to edit my pics. It's a really cool site. (And no, they're not paying me to say it :) )

Simple crochet necklaces

2010-01-06T21:50:00.000+05:30

Oh so pretty! If I may say so myself. Simple crochet necklaces how to.

Not only are these very easy to make even for a person who doesn't crochet, but they're also rather cute.

What you need

1. 2 balls of different coloured crochet yarn. (Or one, or more as you prefer)
2. Crochet hook
3. A string of matching coloured sewing thread
4. Needle
5. Youtube access (if you're like me)
6. Necklace clasp or large bead of matching colour

So Here's how to.

I just crocheted 4 long chains using both white & earth coloured yarn held together as one. If you don't know how to crochet, do what I did before I learnt how to. (Which is not much even now by the way). Take 3 long strands (2 2/1 times to 3 times) of intended necklace size (In this case 3 pairs of 2 different colours held together) and braid them as you would your hair. (if you're long haired)

By varying the lengths of the chains you can actually acheive a really nice effect.Take a piece of thread & sew the chains together at each end. Sew the necklace clasp accordingly or if you're using a large bead instead, sew the bead to one end & sew a loop to the other end of the necklace.

Now the flowers,

I learnt this by going through some crochet flower tutorial videos on youtube. But here's how they basically go.

chain 5
attach the last chain link to the first by slip knot
chain 3 (counting as the 1st doublie crochet), double rochet 9 around the ring and join
to make the first petal, chain 3 (counting as the 1st double crochet), 3 double crochet in the next stitch, chain 2 & slip knot into the next stitch.
Repeat 4 more times for 4 more petals.

Using a smaller hook will give you a smaller flower & using a bigger hook (Err, duh!) & using triple crochet (I think that's the word, correct me if I'm wrong people) will give you a bigger flower.

Trial & error folks. I tried to improvise first, before I thought to look in Youtube & that flower wasn't too bad either. Not great, but passable.

And if you don't crochet, hate crochet, but still like these necklaces, make fabric flowers (Cut about 6 to seven circles of fabric, singe the edges & stictch in the middle with a few beads- More on that later? Information overload eh?) & attach. Fabric flowers rock!

Happy crocheting everyone! :)

BookBaker out!

p.s
I just might give away a crochet flower necklace to anyone who can guess who it is in the pictures. (Or not)

p.p.s
Just so you know, my craft resolution for the month is everything recycling polythene/plastic. Pictures of what I made, later.

Leaves.. Ooohh I love leaves..

2010-01-03T13:01:00.000+05:30

Taken last year at my dad's office. Can't remember the name of the tree..

Old piece of embroidery

2009-12-11T13:55:00.000+05:30

While I was rummaging through a pile of old pics on the pc I came across this table cloth I did years & years ago. Took me months to do it & was my first major piece of cross stitch.
Just wanted to show you guys.

Pics courtesy of MiddleChild. Yep she took pictures then too.

BookBaker Out!

A little black dress for my sister

2009-12-09T11:17:00.000+05:30

A little black dress for my sister. I sew this a few months ago out of a piece of black satin that was lying around.

I know, I know, It's far from perfect. But I think it looks good on her.

It obviously needs to be ironed. And in retrospect, if i were to do this again I would probably change a few things.

1. Use fusible interfacing for hems. ( I've just discovered them & am using them for everything.. :D)
2. Not use so many darts.

But for all the imperfections, in my defense, I designed, made the pattern, cut & sew this all by myself. And my sister looks gorgeous in it. And when I make something for her, that's all I can ask for right?

Pictures courtesy of MiddleChild. Thank you. :)

BookBaker out!. (dorky much? I'm just watching Stargate Universe & it's catchy) :)

Chocolate Crescent Rolls

2009-12-02T16:45:00.000+05:30

I love these chocolate filled rolls. They are perfect for a rainy afternoon like today. Or for any afternoon or occasion for that matter.

I found the recipe at LittleBirdieSecrets and couldn't wait to try it out. Their original recipe can be found here.
I did a few minor adjustments so that I could use whatever ingredients I had at home at the moment and trust me, they were perfect. LittleBirdieSecrets intended these little wonders for thanksgiving. But, as 1. we have no thanksgiving in Sri Lanka 2. These are great for any time of the year, I made these for my sister's birthday.

Ingredients I used (please refer the post by LittleBirdieSecrets to see what the original recipe calls for)

As you will see I halved the quantities for my use.

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
a sachet (2 tbsp) instant yeast
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup powdered milk
1/4 cup sugar
A little water
a pinch of salt

a bit of softened margarine
a few chunks of chocolate ( I used caterer's chocolate, but I guess any kind is fine)

How to

Mix all the ingredients except the margarine & chocolate in a large bowl. It will be sticky. But don't mind it. Let it to rest for 45 minutes. Taking a tip from the LittleBirdies, you can put the bowl in a large kitchen garbage bag, tie the opening & leave it. Or else you can cover the bowl with a wet tea towel & leave it to rest. (I use the tea towel technique when making bread)

After 45 minutes, punch down & leave to rest for another 45 minutes.

When the time is up, break the dough in to a several pieces. I make bite sized rolls. If you want to make bite sized ones, on a floured surface roll out the dough pieces into circles of the size of a dinner plate.

Spread softened margarine on to rolled out dough.

Cut into wedges. Like this

Put a piece of chocolate on the wide end of each wedge and starting from the wide end, roll inwards. Tuck the pointed end underneath & shape the roll like a crescent. Something like this

And yeah, I forgot to shape my ones into crescents. So they're not exactly crescent rolls. anyway, moving on,
place the rolls on a baking sheet & bake in a preheated oven at 400 F for about 10 minutes or till they're golden. My crescent rolls were small, so they only needed to be baked for about 7 minutes.

When they bake, they smell so yummy & yeasty. I love the freshly baked smell of buns & breads. yum yum.

That's about it. My folks loved it. But MiddleChild for whose birthday I made these & exon wished I had put something savoury or spicy in them instead of chocolate. Oh, well.

The pictures courtesy of (as always) MiddleChild. Thank you very much.

Let me know if you make this. :) Happy baking!

Really easy beaded necklace

2009-12-01T22:07:00.000+05:30

This is a simple necklace that's super easy to make & is really pretty. All you need to make this are the following simple things.
1. Crochet yarn or pearl cotton (floss) of the colour of your choice
2. Tiny shiny beads

3. One big bead of the colour of your yarn for the clasp

How to make the necklace

1. Decide how long you want your necklace to be.
Overall, mine is around 44 inches before clasping it, so once I wear mine it becomes 22"& reaches down to my waist.
2. Decide how many strands you're going to have in your necklace.
I made mine with three strands. You can make yours with starting from 2 strands to as many as you want.
3. Add around an inch or two to your overall length of choice & cut the number of strands you want from your yarn.
I used brown pearl cotton & used three strands of yarn of 45"
4. Tie one end of all three (hypothetically) strands together in a knot. Make sure that the knot won't come off, unraveling the necklace.
5. Here's the fun part. Beading.
I used tiny shiny metal beads. But you can use anything you like.
Start inserting the strands of yarn through the beads. (To make beading easier you can thread the yarn through separate needles if you wish)
To begin with insert the only first yarn through first bead, then the first & the second yarn both together through the second bead, all three yarns together through the third bead, the second & the third yarn through the fourth bead & so on. You can mix the order as you wish. See the picture.

6. Continue beading until you come to the other end of your yarn. Like me, when beading you can leave space between the beads or insert beads so that the yarn won't show.
7. Tie the loose ends in a knot & trim.
8. Sew the big bead you selected to one end.
9. To the other end, sew a loop with the same yarn to clasp the bead you attached.

That's it. See how easy it is. I wear mine. So should you. You made it yourself.

Pictures courtesy of MiddleChild. Thank you very much. :D

p.s
I'm sure this can also be made with really thin metal wire & beads. When I make one, I'll put it up here. :)

Shopping alone

2009-11-10T16:30:00.000+05:30

I went shopping in the morning. You can't call it a proper shopping spree exactly but well, I had to go.I had downloaded a few dress patterns & didn't have good fabric to make them with. I saw this shop on Galle road with a nice name & it looked like they'd have a good stock of material. Guess what!! Big surprise! They didn't have anything good.

Well, not anything. I found a lovely crepe Georgette (I still don't know what I'm going to do with it) and bought silk in 2 colours. Maroonish brown & navy blue. I know exactly what I'm going to sew with them. So when I'm done I will post some pics in here. And guess for whom one of them is?

You know how shopping is boring when done alone. You need a partner to go shopping with. In my case if I shop alone not only I tend to shop faster (Who wants that?) I scoot through everything so fast that Im not having half the fun I'd be having with another person. And when I'm alone I don't go to the same shop twice and don't back track. (Oh humanity!)

People I usually shop with.

1. My man
Awww.. He complains. Of course he does. But I think he likes to complain about my shopping & I like him complaining about it. What endears him to me most is when he sits in a shop while I'm parading in front of him in different "costumes" (heh hee...) or browsing through all the shoes/clothes/fabric/paper/jewelry/etc/etc/etc (depending on what shop we are in) and manages to look so bored but answers all my questions in rapid succession, never missing a beat.
(Do you think I'm fat?- No darling, Are you sure?-yes of course, does this make me look fat?- No, maybe you should pick white)
One of the reasons I love him so...

2. Nangi

We have so much fun shopping together. We strategically don't whine about the things we can't have ("Oohh.. Isn't that a gorgeous top?" Look at the price tag "Nah.. The colour isn't all that flattering".
Something I've noticed, my sis & I manage to have the most philosophical conversations while we shop.(Contrary to the popular belief that shopping & deep thoughts don't go together). Sometimes we fight. But there's no argument that a good shopping spree can solve between the two of us.

3. My self (The topic being people I usually shop with, I shop with myself)
sigh...........

Moving on from shopping news, I've decided to have a craft resolution for every month. That's gotta be fun. This is apart from all the sewing & what not.

And my craft resolution for this month?
I'm going to learn wire crochet. :)

Banana Chocolate chip cake

2009-11-09T17:05:00.000+05:30

This is something very easy to whip up with a few easy to find ingredients at home. Although when one thinks about it, bananas & chocolates don't go together, this one turned out to be rather nice.

Ingredients

250 g plain flour
150 g white sugar (No need to be Castor sugar, granulated is just fine)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1tsp ground cinnamon (Or not, according to taste)
120 g caterer's chocolate, broken or cut into little chips/chunks. (The quantity of chocolate can be varied according to how chocolaty you want the cake to be)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup (115 g) butter melted & cooled. (I actually used margarine) (And a little more for the baking tin)
3 ripe large bananas (approx 450 g) mashed well. ( The 1st time I made this I didn't mash them properly & the little chunks of banana in the cake weren't too bad either)

1 tsp vanilla extract
about 1tbs cocoa powder

Method

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C
Grease the baking tin with butter & dust with cocoa powder
Mix all the dry ingredients except the cocoa powder together (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon & chocolate)
Mix all the liquid/wet ingredients together ( eggs, butter, bananas, vanilla)
Pour the liquid ingrient mixture into the dry ingredients & mix.
Pour into the baking tin & bake for 55 to 60 minutes.

Serve with chocolate melted with a bit of butter. (It gives a nutty taste)

Thats' all. :)

And, the pictures, courtesy of MiddleChild. (Who happily gulped down half of the cake)
http://rantsofamiddlechild.blogspot.com/