birthday – CraftyGuider

Great British Bake Off – Cakes

The Great British Bake Off is back! Episode one is over, the first star baker has been crowned, the innuendos have come thick and fast, The Berry has had her alcoholic fix, a new mudslide cake has been invented and the twelve are down to eleven.

I thought I’d try and do a mini bake-along to see if I could try some new things and step out of my baking comfort zone. Having had the stress of a baking competition myself but the great experience of adding to my repertoire, I looked up the three bakes from this episode to choose something to attempt myself.

It was Mr CG’s birthday this week and he mentioned that he liked Black Forest gateau. My favourite gluten free Cake Angels book had a Black Forest roulade recipe so it was a done deal.The cake is baked in a swiss roll tin and doesn’t contain any flour. The ingredients list looks like it would make a sweet, chocolate omelette, but the resulting sponge turned out well. I dutifully followed the instructions and left it overnight covered in baking paper and a damp tea towel.Once constructed the next day, it needs to be left rolled and wrapped up in the fridge for at least a couple of hours. Cue the Craftyguidelets to lick the spoons, scrape sponge off the paper and generally hoover up everything they can.And this was the final result. I didn’t use kirsch as it was going to be eaten by the Craftyguidelets, but it still tasted delicious. We eat dairy so I used whipped double cream rather than the dairy-free equivalent in the book. It was even nicer the following day when we finished it off.

Next week is biscuit week. I’m not a fan of biscotti and I’m not sure I could do a gluten free arlette. A biscuit box with 36 biscuits inside seems a bit of an excess for a family of four so I might scale that down and attempt my first ever gluten free biscuits.

Have you been inspired to bake something?

World Thinking Day 2014

I’m shining a light for World Thinking Day 2014. Happy birthday Lord and Lady Baden Powell and thanks for the adventure.

January Review

And just like that, it’s the 31st January! One month of 2014 has passed and the next 11 months are stretched out ahead, full of promise. On the whole it’s been a good January for me. I’ve felt a lot better (apart from putting my back out in the last few days), I’ve made decisions on what I want to do with the business and my blogging, and I’m in a positive frame of mind.
January started really well for me. A couple of days after my birthday, I won a retweet from Theo Paphitis, and my twitter feed exploded with new followers and good wishes.
I managed to get my craft on and make cards, get some scrapbook layouts made, finish some decoupage and get some sewing done. It’s the most creative I’ve been for a long time.
I’ve also started crochet lessons which is something I’ve wanted to do for a couple of years now. My doubles and trebles lesson was a bit more successful than my tea gloves lesson. Perhaps it’s because I don’t drink tea, I just don’t have the tea gloves gene in me.
Probably my greatest achievement is to get more organised. My magazine mountain is now a foothill, and several WIPs have been completed. I’ve got a long way to go still, but with each mini breakthrough, I feel more weight coming off my shoulders.

How was your January?

Getting my craft on

I have a lot of craft stuff as I have many different crafting interests. I am an expert at packing it away, but this causes problems as I never know what I have, or it is so difficult to get at I never use it. This week I have a had a sort out and tidy up as in 2 months, 18 days, 6 hours and 19 minutes (at time of writing!), a certain bearded, rotund, elderly gentleman will be doing his rounds.

My ribbons are more organised, although I still have 2 disorganised boxes of scraps, lace, ric rac and “miscellaneous”. I have also sorted my embellishments for card making so it is easier to select a box of flowers or some crystals to use on projects.

I’ve had a few family and friend cards to make including supervising these 3 for my dad. From left to right, created by eldest Craftyguidelet, youngest Craftyguidelet and me. Having access to all my stamps again meant a stamping frenzy.

The sewing machine has also had an airing.

I’ve been meaning to make these holsters for the Craftyguidelets’ water bottles for some time. When they travel to and from school they have all sorts of luggage including book bags, PE kits, music folders and cardigans, and it’s come up as a problem at the school parent forum. Perhaps I can sell these at my next craft fair.

Having posted a picture of my Rainbow unit’s latest batch of ‘patrol’ badges, a Rainbow leader on twitter requested some for her unit too. She loves them and hopefully the Rainbows will too.

And now, those with delicate sensibilities should look away. I am about to use the C word.

CHRISTMAS!!!!

Christmas card production has started.

I have made 23 cards and glued together 14 decoupaged toppers. Fortunately I have lots of pre-prepped bits and pieces so at the moment it is full steam ahead. Needless to say it will slow down when I start on the stamping and colouring.

I have also started a bit of Christmas crafting.

These angels came in a kit I bought and didn’t get round to making last year. The instructions were poor but I managed to adjust them to make three decorations for my Christmas tree this year. I also tried to finish making the leftover fabric pine cones that the Guides had last year for their Christmas craft. The aim is to put them up for sale to put the funds back into the unit, like everything in my Craftyguider shop, however I ran out of pins so it’s back to the shop I go for more.

I am really enjoying this flurry of crafting. In a tough week health-wise, it’s kept me going and I’m ticking off the WIPs.

Have you started your Christmas crafting yet?

Linking with Handmade Harbour’s Handmade Monday linky party.

Who gets your cards?

As someone who makes cards to sell, I should use this post to try and persuade you to buy everyone you have ever known a card for each wedding, birthday, anniversary, thank you, RSVP, new school, exam good luck, exam congratulations etc. etc. etc. It would generate a good income for my Guide unit and I could happily craft away all day and all night.

However, I am having a dilemma. As I make cards, people expect handmade cards from me. I can just imagine family members thinking “This is a shop bought card. Why don’t I deserve one of her handmade cards? Couldn’t she be bothered to make me one?” However, I know so many people through school, university, work, family, friends, their kids, their grandchildren… I was there when they got married. Each date gets religiously entered on my fruit phone and set up to remind me every year of the date. Can I really keep coming up with original cards for every occasion (and also remember which ones I sent them last year)?

Where do I stop? How many anniversaries do I send cards for? Do I keep sending cards to a friend I haven’t spoken to in years, who never sends me cards and whose kids I’ve never met? “Mummy, who is Louise on this card?”

I’ve made a decision over the last few months to stop sending cards to most friends’ kids once they’ve had a couple of birthdays. My friends don’t send them to my kids so I’m sure they won’t notice. Equally, I think I’ll cut back on the anniversary cards. We just got cards from our parents, one relative and a friend this year. We’ve been married 8 years now so it’s not a big anniversary.

I’m sorry dear friends and family. I do still think of you on your birthdays. Hopefully you’ll all get a handmade Christmas card this year (or at least one of those school fundraising cards drawn by the Craftyguidelets and printed), but perhaps I won’t be sending a card for your second cousin twice removed’s decree nisi.

Having said all of that, please do support crafters who hand make cards. They can usually create personalised cards to a specified theme in a few days for around the same cost as the celestial hog lot, and to a higher standard. And you know that there will not be another card like it on their mantelpiece for their special day.

And obviously I would like to put in a special word for my Craftyguider online shop. 100% of the profit goes to my local Guide unit to contribute to running costs, and the postage cost is a flat fee so no matter what you order, you only pay £1.50.

How many cards do you send out each year?