Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Wreck it Wednesday: The 2 minute pages in 'Wreck This Journal' Part 2

Wreck it Wednesday: a page from one of my journals.

Quite a tidy handbag that day, not a receipt in sight!
 
Again with the cutting and sticking. Yay!

Yeah, I set fire to it. Risky much.
 
Veg prints with cucumber.
 
Thanks Henry.
 
Literal much.
 
Love my stationary supplies.
 
Added some of the boy's stickers to it afterwards.
 
Not left handed. At all.
 
My own negative comments - not something I usually give any credence to.
 
Some of them are rude...
 
'Dream Big'.
 
Ripped it out, floated it, taped it back in.

 
When asked by a 6 year old what the hell I was doing, he of course insisted on joining in.
 
Almost impossible for me to read.
 
Ripped page out, wrapped Bean's foot in it, taped it back in.
 
Smushed some playdoh into the page, which made the pages completely stick together when it had dried.
 
I obviously wasn't feeling flexible enough to do my own feet haha
  
About 'Wreck This Journal' by Keri Smith
(Description from Amazon)
It is book for those who've always wanted to draw outside the lines but were afraid to do it. For anyone who's ever wished to, but had trouble starting, keeping, or finishing a journal or sketchbook comes Wreck This Journal, an illustrated book featuring a subversive collection of suggestions, asking readers to muster up their best mistake - and mess-making abilities to fill the pages of the book (and destroy them).
Through a series of creatively and quirkily illustrated prompts, acclaimed artist Keri Smith encourages journalers to engage in "destructive" acts - poking holes through pages, adding photos and defacing them, painting with coffee, colouring outside the lines, and more - in order to experience the true creative process. With Keri Smith's unique sensibility, readers are introduced to a new way of art and journal making, discovering novel ways to escape the fear of the blank page and fully engage in the creative process.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Tempting Tuesday: Pear & Cardamom Tart

Tempting Tuesday: trying not to kill my family with my experimental cooking.




My love for a good frangipane inspired this recipe. Think I just love ground almonds, and therefore bake with them as much as possible.

Ingredients:
Pastry case
15 cardamom pods
100g butter
100g caster sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of ½ lemon
3 eggs
100g ground almonds
35g flour
2 small pears


 Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C (170°C fan).
Crush cardamom pods with a pestle and mortar.
Remove the shells and grind down the seeds. Warning, this is painstaking.
Blend butter, sugar, lemon zest & cardamom seeds together. Add eggs, one at a time, then flour and ground almonds.
Pour the mixture into the pastry case. I made my own (I admit, I'm a bit of snob and have yet to buy a pre-made pastry case, but I kind of suck at making it still).
Peel and core both pears, slicing them into quarters. Score the tops, length-ways to make stripes.
Put pears into a small bowl with lemon juice and mix up so they are all covered in juice.
Arrange the pear pieces around the top of the tart. The original recipe had way more pears, but I couldn't squeeze them all on. It also had three pears which were to be left uncored, with the stalks still on (basically for show) which I was having none of. Can you imagine biting into that? Or at least having to faff with your pudding. No. Just no.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until the middle is almost firm.




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Friday, November 25, 2016

Friday Inspiration: Harry Potter Wands

Friday Inspiration: a picture of anything that makes me want to get creative.
Ok, so I stole this image from a friend's facebook post, but I looooooove them and they look so easy (if not a little fiddly) to make. Watch this space...
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Thursday, November 24, 2016

#tbt: Ed's Half Birthday Cake

Throw back Thursday: taking a look at stuff I've made in the past.
Ah, the joys of being first born. You get half birthday cakes when you're six months old.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Wreck it Wednesday: The 2 minute pages in 'Wreck This Journal' Part 1

Wreck it Wednesday: a page from one of my journals.
I attempted to fill in the page numbers in order of page completion, but I didn't start it until I'd done enough pages to forget what order I'd done them and got confused.
And after my fun with collecting the letter 'W', thought I'd add lots of numbers too, which were almost stuck in in numerical order until I decided to stop being so freakin anal.

My shoes weren't muddy enough.

Much harder than you think it'll be.


With a kitchen knife.

Ripped it up, and as the next page instructed me to glue it to the last page, I simply stuck the ripped bits back down.

Giant paperclip, a piece of lego and my ukulele strings.


Ripped it out, crumpled it up, taped it back in.

Made the airplane, threw it across the living room, taped it back in.

Wrapped a random toy up, gave it to Bean to unwrap, taped it back in.

Includes dentist trip stickers.

Paper chain.

I used mud from a houseplant.

I used this page to give the boy's pen drawer a clear out.
So it turns out sewing a page that is still attached to a book is a freakin nightmare. I just stitched in some applique stuff I had in my stash.

About 'Wreck This Journal' by Keri Smith
(Description from Amazon)
It is book for those who've always wanted to draw outside the lines but were afraid to do it. For anyone who's ever wished to, but had trouble starting, keeping, or finishing a journal or sketchbook comes Wreck This Journal, an illustrated book featuring a subversive collection of suggestions, asking readers to muster up their best mistake - and mess-making abilities to fill the pages of the book (and destroy them).
Through a series of creatively and quirkily illustrated prompts, acclaimed artist Keri Smith encourages journalers to engage in "destructive" acts - poking holes through pages, adding photos and defacing them, painting with coffee, colouring outside the lines, and more - in order to experience the true creative process. With Keri Smith's unique sensibility, readers are introduced to a new way of art and journal making, discovering novel ways to escape the fear of the blank page and fully engage in the creative process.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Tempting Tuesday: Orange Butterfly Cakes

Tempting Tuesday: trying not to kill my family with my experimental cooking.

I think I found this recipe in an Asda magazine one Easter. Never tried it until now.
As it stands, it only makes enough for 8 nicely sized cupcakes, which is not enough for my house. I'll be doubling everything next time.

Ingredients:
125g butter
125g sugar
2 eggs
Zest of 1 orange
125g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
Curd filling:
Zest & juice of 1 orange
40g sugar
2 eggs
50g butter

 Method:
Heat all curd filling ingredients together in a pan very gently and stir until thick. Just like with lemon curd, do not stop stirring.
Leave to cool.
Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C  fan).
Blend butter, sugar, eggs and zest together.
Then sift in flour and baking powder and mix well.
Bake in cupcake cases for about 20 minutes.
Once cool, cut out the tops, add curd filling and gently place the ‘butterfly’ tops on.

I totally baked mine too hot. The tops burnt before the insides were done. And the curd filling recipe originally had the juice of half a lemon, leaving it super runny, which meant that it didn't sit nicely on the tops.

Also, I decorated mine with candied orange peel, but if you want to do that, for goodness sake just freakin' buy some. I've spent days on a whole batch of the stuff and it's still rather inedible. No idea why.
Free printable recipe card. Just right click & save as.

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