Away

Sorry everyone - been away from sewing and blogging and a lot of stuff I normally do due to some unforseen things that have been happening in my life. Just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be back soon - better than ever!
x

Package in the mail

I was so excited to receive a large envelope in the mail today - all the way from the US!

Nope, I didn't order anything. Nor do I have family sending me stuff. But I WAS expecting this package.... because I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a birthday giveaway from the very generous Mellissa from Wondermommy!

In the envelope I found a Fledge/Studio Tantrum Feliz Pattern, a Lil Chef Pattern from ModKids (perfect for my niece!) and 5 Good Folks fat quarters in gorgeous colours.

Thanks so much Wondermommy!

x

Tessuti encounter

Today I wandered down and across a few city blocks at lunchtime and met up with K to check out the newly opened Tessuti Fabrics store in Melbourne. I had heard about the store opening via their blog - I wasn't too sure what to expect as the only other Tessuti Fabrics store I've ever been to is the Chatswood one in Sydney, and I stumbled upon it by accident.

Picture of the Melbourne store courtesy of the Tessuti website
Even though some pictures had been posted on their blog, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of space and light in the store - especially great for taking in all the beautiful fabrics they had on display.

Also exciting for me was meeting Lisa and Colette (author of the Sew Tessuti blog, and therefore a fellow craft-blogger *yay*), who were both really friendly and lovely. There was talk of upcoming sewing classes, blog addictions and how pattern companies have a knack of picking the ugliest materials possible to use to peddle their wares.

I went off a happy camper with a couple of metres of black poly-viscose fabric (I'm thinking a new skirt) and anticipation of future jaunts down that end of town.

Meet Me at Mike's

I received a lovely gift from my great friend KazKaz as a thank you for hemming up her skirt. Totally unnecessary since I quite enjoyed doing it, but it was very sweet of her. The gift itself was very welcome, as it was a copy of the newly published Meet Me at Mike's book.


I'd seen the book around in a few places but hadn't thought about purchasing since it would have meant additional distractions from the other projects I have literally piling up around the house. I instead made do with taking a few sneak peeks whenever I had a few minutes in a bookshop, and checking out Pip's related blog instead.

It's chock-full of gorgeous little projects and the presentation is a work of art in itself.



For those of you who might not have the opportunity to buy it from a local bookstore, you can order a copy from Readings online, where the book is described as:

"From Melbourne’s best loved crafty store comes Meet Me at Mike’s, a cornucopia of crafty fun and inspiration. Queen of Crafters Pip Lincolne has gathered 25 of the best projects from the country’s most creative cleverbods -everything from baby yoga pants and clutch purses to hankies and softies. You can sew, knit, crochet, collage and screenprint yourself into a frenzy! Each cute and quirky project comes with easy-to-follow instructions and full-size fold out patterns. With such a fabulous range of ideas, you’ll find something to make for all your favourite pals. If you’re looking for fun and creative things to brighten up everyone’s day, have a peek inside and get crafty!"


I've got my eye on these pretty fabric coasters for my first project but there are so many other gorgeous things in there I might change my mind a few times over!

Thanks HEAPS KazKaz! ;D

Lemonade scones and hot chocolate

I had a craving for Devonshire tea and Sunday company, so I decided to bake some scones and invite K, J and D over for a catch up.

During my trawls for scone recipes online, I noticed a lot of recipes that recommended the use of lemonade. 'Weird' was my first thought - and then 'I wonder how the lemon flavour blends with jam and cream'. I decided to ignore the whole lemonade part until I met someone last night who informed me that lemonade (or soda water) was key to getting scones that weren't as heavy as rocks. Something to do with the bubbles.

Since there was nothing stopping me from adventurous (is it sad that this is as adventurous as I get these days? lol) I tweaked a couple of recipes I had been looking at and the resulting scones were enjoyed with some strawberry jam and whipped cream by all.

We also had very VERY chocolaty hot chocolate, made with half milk, half cream, and a whole lot of Koko Black chocolate flakes.
We had to wash it down with some tea because it was so rich - so it ended up being the Devonshire tea I was craving *hurrah*

I think when I make them next I am going to change a couple of things - my scones turned out to be mini-scones for some reason, so next time I am going to use a bigger cutter and ensure that they are also less flat before they are baked.

Here are some pics of the left over scones - there were about 14 all up but we scoffed them down pretty quickly.


The tweaked recipe (including the changes I plan on making) is as follows:

SuBoo's Lemonade Scones
Makes 8

Ingredients
* 2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
* 1/2 cup lemonade
* 1/2 cup thickened cream
* 1/2 tspn salt
* 2 tbs milk
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Place greaseproof paper on a baking tray.
2. Place the flour and salt in a large bowl.
3. Add the cream and lemonade and mix to form a soft dough.
4. Turn out onto a lightly floured workbench and knead lightly until combined.
5. Use your hands to flatten out the dough so that it is about 4cm thick.
6. Use a 8cm round cutter (I used the top of a mug) to cut out 8 scones
7. Place the dough cut-outs on the baking tray and brush the tops with milk.
8. Bake for approximately 10-15 minutes - the tops of the scones should be lightly browned.
9. Serve warm from the oven with some whipped thickened cream and strawberry jam.

Enjoy!