teapot

Mirrors from Nicola Rowlands

I've been following Nicola Rowlands' blog for a few months now because she makes really cool stuff (what better reason to follow a blog?). I saw that she had these super cute pocket mirrors for sale and grabbed some! They're adorable and motivational! Hehe. 

Cute huh? I've started buying things from Etsy because it's a great way to buy unique local(ish) handmade things from tiny businesses. I.e you get cool stuff and you get to feel good about it too.

xxx

pesto pasta

So, I'm veganing it up nowadays and it's super fun. It's giving me a reason to try new things and I like it! I've seen a lot of funky vegan recipes in the internet but they often contain things that I've never heard of before, in particular 'nutritional yeast'. It sounds crazy and gross but it's actually kinda cool. It has a cheesy taste without all of the fat! Sweet. I had a look in town for some but I couldn't find any. However, We went on an adventure at the weekend and found a really cool shop called The Honey Tree and they had some. Yay! So this is my first recipe using it. I think it's resulted in the best pesto I've ever made.

- Pasta

- Courgette

- Green Pepper

- Some frozen spinach

- 2 cups basil

- 1/2 cup walnuts

- 1/2 cup olive oil

- Juice of 1 lemon

- 2 garlic cloves

- 4 tbsp nutritional yeast

- Salt and pepper

1) Boil the pasta

2) Fry the courgette, pepper and spinach

3) Whiz the rest in a blender to make the pesto

4) When everything is cooked, mix it all together.

Eat it aaaaaaaallllll! hehehe!

xxx

Vegan coconut cake

Coconut cake is my fave! And It's super easy to make too.
- 100g vegan marg
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 2 cups desiccated coconut
- 2 cups self raising flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp corn starch or arrow root mixed with 2 tbsp water

1) Melt the marg, sugar and milk in a pan
2) Mix in the rest!
3) Bake at gas 5/ 190 degrees C for 30-60 mins

It's done when you poke it with a knife and it comes out clean.

Nom nom nom nom nom.
xxx

Macaroons

Macaroons are easy, yum and gluten free.

Ingredients:
- 3 egg whites
- 310g caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp cornflour
- 3 cups desiccated coconut
- 50-100g chocolate

1) Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form
2) Add the sugar, beating constantly until thick and glossy

3) Fold in the rest of the ingredients

4) drop tablespoons of the mix onto lined baking trays and bake at 160 degrees (315F/ gas2 2-3) for 20 mins.

5) Allow to cool and then melt some chocolate.
6) Dip and drizzle away.
7) Eat all in one go because they're super yum and mainly air. I guess you could share them if you want.

Cloud pillow

I've seen oodles of these cloud and mountain pillows floating around the internet and I thought that they were super cute so I made some! (Tutorials can be found here and here, although it's not much more that cut out the shape, sew it together and stuff it!). Fun though!

Nexus cover

I got a nexus for Christmas! (Second hand of course.) So naturally I had to make a cover for it. Good job too as I've been hoarding a whole load of Sewing Cafe fabric for a while and have had no idea what to do with it. Anyway, I made this.

It was super easy to make. I used:

-1 fat quater of pretty fabric
- 20 cm strip of felt
- 1m bias tape or ribbon

1) Cut a 16.5 x 50cm strip from both your pretty fabric and your felt
2) Iron and sew your bias tape in half length ways so you get a long ribbon.
3) Place your fabric right sides together with the ribbon in between them. A little bit should poke through the top edge.
4) Sew most of the way around, leaving a gap big enough to turn it the right way around.
5) Turn the right way out and iron!
6) Get your nexus and fold the fabric so that it covers it. Sew up the edges (I had to hand stitch this as it was a bit thick for my machine). Iron again!
Done!

my christmas

 Montage!
 xxx