CrafterNoon Tea

The last few months have been wonderful. I am settling in well...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 14:59:26 +1100

The last few months have been wonderful. I am settling in well to San Francisco and following through on my mantra of going to a new suburb/destination store every weekend. It has been so much fun exploring but suffice it to say, my blog really has suffered! After a wonderful hike through the Tilden Regional Park (up the hill from Berkeley) I felt inspired to come home and make something healthful to satisfy my need for sustenance. Over the past few weeks I have been reading through the petite kitchen blog and found some wonderful recipes. It is great to see recipes from home and now that I have been in the US for a while, I am getting used to what ingredients are in abundance and what I need to substitute in the kiwi recipes. These cookies were originally lemon pecan cookies but I had limes and almond butter so it made for a nice substitution.

just under 1 cup wholemeal flour (you could use almond meal for gluten free)

4 tbsp organic almond butter (you can use any type of nut butter)

1/2 cup shredded coconut

4 tbsp honey

zest of 1 lime

juice of half a lime

1/2 tsp baking soda

a pinch of sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350°F, and grease a baking tray with coconut oil or line with baking paper.

In a food processor add flour, almond butter, honey, shredded coconut, rind, lime juice, baking soda and a pinch of salt. Process until a dough like texture is achieved. You may need to scrape down the sides a little.

Using your hands (I like to dip them in to water a little to prevent from sticking) form small balls and place them on to the baking paper, a couple of centimeters apart as they expand a little.

Using a fork (you can also dip this in water to prevent from sticking) press down on each ball to flatten in half.

Place in to the oven and bake for 6-8 minutes or until nice and golden on the outside. Leave to cool completely.

Makes around 25 cookies, they keep for around 3-4 days in an airtight container.

All I want for xmas…. For my first US christmas, I went all out...

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:33:00 +1100

All I want for xmas….

For my first US christmas, I went all out to make sure it was white. Winging across to Denver on christmas eve I was launched into festivities with food, fun and family. The christmas eve gathering was big with nearly twenty so much bigger than my usual family gatherings. It was brilliant, we had a laugh with the grandparents, watched some VHS footage from the 90’s and all jostled for position in the white elephant. To top off the evening it snowed!

When thinking about embarking on my christmas adventure, I was acutely aware that I really wanted to make a contribution by making a cake. Based on my recent vegan, no sugar ways, I wanted to make an effort to replicate nanas xmas cake with a few substitutions. We ate the cake on xmas morning and as fruit cake is not a normal tradition, I was happy to have introduced something new to the family in the holiday season.

Nanas woolies cake

1kg dried fruit chopped (four packets of trader joe’s dried sultanas, cranberries and blueberries)

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup brandy (nana uses sherry)

Zest of lemon

200gm vegan butter (earth balance)

3/4 cup agave sweetener

4 eggs

1 tsp organic vanilla essence

250gm flour

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300degF and line a 23’ springform tin with parchment paper.

Put fruit, zest, walnuts and brandy in a bowl, cover and leave in the fridge. Overnight is best. Cream butter and agave. Add eggs one at a time. Stir in remaining ingredients. Decorate with fruit and nuts.

Bake for an hour or longer if needed.

Thank you to the Stines family for a wonderful ‘White’ christmas!

If you aren’t in you can’t win…. Being...

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 09:25:22 +1100

If you aren’t in you can’t win….

Being Christmas party season it is always great to attend christmas parties, reflect on the year that was, remember moments that you shared with old or new friends and look forward to the new year. This years work Christmas function is catered but there happens to be a dessert competition!

One of my favourite things about the parties is always the food. While it is lovely to eat at wonderful restaurants (i was lucky enough to go to cotogna yesterday) there is nothing better than the satisfaction of contributing something you have made yourself. After a long and busy day, I knew there wasnt an option for me to buy a dessert for the work christmas party. I mozied off to Trader Joes in the hope that there was a pre prepared graham cracker base and I would just simply whip up chocolate filling and plonk it in. No such luck.

Armed with graham crackers and a full suite ingredients, i set out to make a vegan, no sugar pie. I think about the combination of words I just used but I swear this pie is worth it.

Graham Cracker Base
2/3 of a box of graham crackers (about 9oz)
4 Tablespoons vegan margarine (Like Earth Balance)
3 Tablespoons unsweetened almond milk

Combine all ingredients; press over bottom and up sides of 9-inch pie plate. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes.

Chocolate Filling
3 cups unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup agave syrup
3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon peanut butter
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
raspberries for garnish

In a small saucepan off the heat, combine 1 cup of almond milk with the cornstarch. Whisk together until cornstarch is completely dissolved. Put on the heat while whisking lightly, add peanut butter and agave and combine. Whisk in the remaining almond milk and cocoa powder. The cocoa will be clumpy at first, but will cook down during the process.

Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking occasionally. Reduce heat to low and bring to a rolling boil. Cook for 7 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture has reached a pudding like consistency and add vanilla extract. Pour the pudding into the cooled pie crust and lightly tap the sides of the pan to release any air bubbles. Let cool for 5 minutes.

Cover pudding pie with a piece of parchment paper to prevent film from forming. Cool for 10 more minutes at room temperature.

Move to refrigerator and chill for at least 3 hours, even better, over night!

Settling in.. After three months in a suitcase I have FINALLY...

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 10:03:32 +1100

Settling in..

After three months in a suitcase I have FINALLY got myself an apartment in San Francisco. To be honest it is all a bit surreal right now as I started to find comfort in living lean and portable and from homes to hotels. Now that I am starting to explore my new city and my new neighborhood has twigged some influences of the food culture. The one that stands out the most is the Steve Jobs vegan influence. Wholefoods is the bourgeois everything organic and interesting store but there are also a whole set of local vegan slash organic providers that supply to the local marts. I got a few bits for the vegan carrot cake from my local mayflower market and other than the fact that they have a great range of everything, they are just a nice bunch of people.

Please excuse the pic as the cake was in my bag on its way to dinner at my colleagues place. She kindly offered I stay over as we both had to take an all day call at 5.30am (yikes)

Vegan Carrot Cake

1 1/2 cups standard flour (you could use whole spelt flour)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger powder

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 1/2 cups grated carrots (actually just a bit more)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (I used a little more)

1/2 cup brown rice syrup

1/2 cup almond milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

3/4 cup Walnuts

Pre-heat oven to 330degF and line your cake tin. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices into a large bowl; use a whisk to stir well.

In another bowl combine the olive oil, maple syrup, almond milk, vanilla, whisk until emulsified and stir in the grated carrots (I added a few more carrots and it was all ok). The recipe also calls for a dash of salt here but the cake was a little salty so I left it off.

Then pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined. Fold in Walnuts and then pour into your cake tin. Note that it won’t rise like a normal flour cake so if it is all the way to the top that is fine :)

Place in oven and bake for an hour. Remove from oven and allow to cool a little before transferring to a wire to cool completely.

Dont forget the glaze…. My lovely hosts whipped up a glaze as topping that went particularly well with the cake.

A shot Rye Whiskey

1 cup Confectioners Sugar

squeeze of Lemon

enough water to make a syrup

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer off until slightly thickening.

Pour the glaze generously over the cake and sprinkle with extra walnuts if you have them!

There is no excuse for no cookies I have broken a promise I made...

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 20:02:00 +1000

There is no excuse for no cookies

I have broken a promise I made to myself to write in my blog at least once a month. August was spent in what my soon to be new home, the US. From the fall I will be there on a more permanent basis but for now I am back and forth visiting, scoping out the neighborhood and meeting colleagues I will soon be working with. During the month, I exchanged blogging about food and my surroundings to just taking it in and figuring out what the transition will be like. When I settle back in to my new home I have no doubt that there will be plenty of things to blog about, especially since my blog idol Heidi from 101 cookbooks lives in the city I am moving too.

During my stay I did manage to whip up some cookies after being inspired by snacking on a snickerdoodle. Wow cinnamon in a shortbread style cookie is totally yummy but I had a craving for chocolate chip cookies…Hitting up the all recipes app “best chocolate cookies” popped up. The sceptic that I am made me think they were a bit full of it but with a description of crisp edges, chewy middles and a stack of great user ratings go a long way so I tried it. They weren’t quite verbatim ”best chocolate cookies” but they were still pretty awesome.

Best ever cookies, with a few extras

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons hot water

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and chocolate chips. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.

Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

The end of a My-T-Fine era So the time has come for me to pack...

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 23:30:35 +1000

The end of a My-T-Fine era

So the time has come for me to pack up and ship out of the fine city of Sydney.

My entire morning was spent at the US consulate in an overwhelming – welcome to your new life – sort of moment. The whole experience was surreal and satisfying all at the same time. The security line just to get to reception was an hour long, the queue to get through the first checkpoint was a good half hour, the pre-interview ticket queue was a speedy 15min, the interview queue was about an hour and the interview itself was about 2 minutes. I am still struggling to work through the feelings and emotions about the whole ordeal – or more just that I am a bit sad to be leaving Sydney. After a long while of having no idea if I even liked it or not – I finally decided that I really do. I guess it is one of those places you just have to get to know the nooks and crannies!

The penultimate evening was spent the way that I like it – a home cooked meal. The other reason why this evening was random and special was that it included a few items that needed using up from my food cupboard. Enter My-T-Fine. It seems like a fitting end to a nice 18 month chapter in my life. I am looking forward to my many new adventures and I cant wait to write about them!

The Vivid festival is an annual event here in Sydney where city...

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 21:10:55 +1000

MAKE - iPad Case Front

MAKE - Side view

MAKE - Fastening

The Vivid festival is an annual event here in Sydney where city buildings are transformed into the back drop for graphics to be projected onto them. The scale of it is pretty amazing really, there was a picture of a woman being projected onto the entire side of the opera house! While the festival is named after the lights, it is just one part of the wider vivid festival, branded ‘Where art, commerce and technology meet’. I took a look at the series of ideas workshops being hosted at the MCA and spotted a talk and panel session with Jake Nickel the founder of ‘Threadless’. Jake was great, a self confessed petrified public speaker but he did a really good job. He told his story through anecdotes of how to bring creativity into every day of your life. Every anecdote had the term MAKE in it with the overarching topic being ‘the universal human need to MAKE’.

I went to the talk to understand an adjacent and outside perspective on managing or ‘doing’ innovation as I am going to be writing a lot about this in my new job. Something I didn’t expect was to leave feeling a small sense of achievement from things I have been doing most of my life. and you know what, it felt good. I don’t have a MAKE everyday mantra, but I do have an everyday ideal where I will do something I haven’t done before, try something new or indeed MAKE. It might be walking a different route to the office, trying a new coffee shop, preparing a meal I haven’t cooked before. In todays case making another iPad case. My last iPad case has had quite a bit of wear and I felt like it was time for a more winter type arrangement. Having some swanndri fabric left over from the jacket I recently MADE was ideal so now to explain the doing.

Cut 2 large pieces of card around the edges of the iPad so that the card pieces are the same size as the iPad. Place the card lengthways on top of the fabric and lay the second piece of card next to it with a 1cm seam in the middle. Leave a 1cm seam around three of the sides and on the final side (a short seam) leave a 12cm seam. This long flap will be used as the fold over and the bottom of the stand.

Cut out 2 triangle pieces of fabric and turn in one seam. These will be used as the corner casings. The fabric will be in the shape of a rectangle so place the corner casings on the top edges of the rectangle and place the right sides of the fabric together. Make sure the right sides of the fabric are together and the casings are in the middle. Sew around the three seams leaving the last seam open. Snip the corners and turn through.

Insert the card lengthways, it should just slot into place but if there is too much room just make the seams a bit smaller on the inside. Sew a dividing seam along the first piece of card and slot in the second piece of card. Sew another dividing seam. Now for the flap.

Attach the ring side of the velcro to the inside seam toward the end of the flap, you should be able to stitch this in place without the stitching showing on the outside. I used stick on velcro that makes life a whole lot easier. Turn the top seams under and stitch together. The only thing left now is to attach two pieces of velcro on the front of the case. Place the iPad inside the case and lay the case flat (picture). Attach the soft side of the velcro to the ring side and reveal the sticky side of the velcro. Carefully pull the velcro over the top of the case so that it attaches to the underside (this is the velcro toward the middle in the picture). Cut another velcro piece of similar length and place it at the very edge - this will serve as the stand part. I hand stitched these final pieces of velcro down to make sure they stayed in place.

Okey there we go - another weekend goes by an another thing MADE

When a ‘Swannie’ is all you need… It has...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 15:31:03 +1000

When a ‘Swannie’ is all you need…

It has started to get cold in Sydney, I don’t mean just cold - I mean COLD! With all the moisture in the air, 14degC at 530am feels like its less than 10degC. I know I shouldn’t really be complaining as I lived in Wellington for many years but I have definitely become accustomed to the warmer climate. It is weird weather really because you don’t need a massive warm jacket but a waterproof coat just doesnt cut the mustard. Thinking through the options, I resorted to my fabric box and whipped out my swanndri material.

‘Swannies’ or the swanndri is a waterproof, woollen bush shirt that is synonymous with kiwi farming. The swanndri has been around since 1913 and if you asked any kiwi, they will be sure to know. I needed a jacket that would keep me warm but weather the random scattered showers that frequent sydney. Something made from swanndri fabric was perfect.

I cut the pattern off a comfy old Huffer hoodie to make sure I stuck with the casual swanndri style. Oh and kept the comfy-ness factor. I doubled the material to make it a little thicker (the material I had was relatively thin and I wanted something a little more durable). I allowed a 1.5cm seam and just cut the shape as if I was making a hoodie. Back, 2 x front pieces, sleeves and hood.

I won’t bore you with a long winded process because it was just so simple. I followed the cardinal process of sewing. First I put together the hood and french seamed the front sections. I often french seam if I don’t want a raw edge, the finish is so much nicer. Next came the shoulder seams, followed by sleeve casings, underarms and side seams. I attached the hood in 2 parts, first to the inside seam of the jacket and the finishing seam for the hood was turned over on the underneath of the hood.

I considered finishing the hems on the sleeves and the waistband but they looked really great flat and exposed - so i just didn’t!

There is my salute to KiwiLand - I will need a few more as I get ready to pack up my life and move countries - again - very soon. Looking forward to the adventures and challenges that come with a new city and new country. More on that soon in any case. Id love to hear your thoughts - what should I make next. I am thinking a matching swanndri iPad cover?!

If you want to know more about me.......

Tue, 29 May 2012 18:21:28 +1000

If you want to know more about me.......

There actually IS an App for that Recently a few friends have...

Sun, 13 May 2012 21:13:00 +1000

There actually IS an App for that

Recently a few friends have invested in iPads…then comes the question…well what apps do I need?

I have a few app gems but they are only gems to you if you use them. Any app with an asterisk can be used offline.

Most used - ‘mostly’ self explanatory

Skype

Facebook

Tunein Radio - great for streaming any radio station but you need to ‘turn off’ the app when you are done as it drains the battery.

ABC iView

Flipboard - A great aggregation viewer. Gives access to FB, Twitter, google reader and offers other noteworthy feeds.

Safari

iBooks*

Converter* - A random everything converter, especially good for baking

Discovr Music - The ‘Discovr apps’ app is great too it works on the - if you like this, you will like this proviso.

Good Player* - You can load up any file types into this app to view on the go, particularly useful for long-haul flights.

Work Folder

Dropbox

Evernote - I have been voice recording any sessions that I don’t want to miss, very handy

Sketchbook Pro - I draw concepts to articulate how trends interact

Webex - Meetings on the go, great

Chatter

Linkedin- The new iPad app has a good news roll function

Travel

Trip Advisor

Expedia - great for booking hotels in the US

Sydway Walk - A collection of Sydney Cycleway maps

XE currency

Food

Reference

Banking apps NZ and AU

Amazon Mobile

Strawberry Net

Games - I have a lot of these…my top picks are the basics

Easy sudoku*

Spider Solitaire*

Tetris*

Bejeweled*

Bubble shooter*

Scramble free

mostexerent: “educated monkey”.. (Taken with Instagram at The...

Tue, 08 May 2012 18:42:03 +1000

mostexerent:

“educated monkey”.. (Taken with Instagram at The Eathouse Diner)

apparently!

You don’t live in a city for the weather, well...

Sun, 06 May 2012 22:00:00 +1000

You don’t live in a city for the weather, well that’s what my friends in Melbourne tell me.

The most european of Australian cities, I always love to visit Melbourne as it just exudes culture and the people are so welcoming. It helps that some of my best friends in the world live there too. With the weekend weather turning atrocious coupled with my new found ‘sensitivity’ of the cold weather, we decided to venture out only to provide a feast at home and spend the afternoon inside in the warm. A trip to the South Melbourne market was in order.

I have fond memories of a Melbourne soujourn a few years ago when I first encountered the wonders of the south Melbourne market. At the bottom left corner, there is a wholesome Greek deli with a cheese room. That’s right a cheese room. My favourite memory is the small Greek lady with diamontie glasses chit chatting away about all her favourite cheeses…and she was still there! My friends wandered off in search of the meat, ham and salmon and I sought out the cheese lady. Low and behold, she was still there. Smiling ear to ear and eager to take me into the cheese room for another dose. I felt like a Havarti, i asked her favourite and said ‘ill take it’. She offered me a slice, although I already implicitly trusted her judgement. Divine.

After a good grazing lunch session through all of our market wares, we started on part 2 of the afternoon. Well Dave did actually, Cheats Sticky Toffee Puddings. He used a trusty Donna Hay recipe but we added a figs courtesy of the market.

100g chopped Dates, we added fig for texture

2/3 cup boiling water

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

30g softened butter

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

2/3 cups self raising flour

Preheat oven to 160 deg.

Place Dates, figs and baking soda in a bowl and set aside for 10 min. Process the date mix until smooth.

Add butter, sugar, egg and flour and process until smooth. Pour mix into 4 well-greased 1-cup (250ml) ovenproof bowls or small pudding basins and place on a baking tray. Bake for 25 min or until skewer comes out clean.

We ate the puddings warm with natural yoghurt - Yummy, thanks Dave!

Wounded Soldier Baking always tastes better when there is an...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 20:58:52 +1000

Wounded Soldier

Baking always tastes better when there is an occasion. This occasion was not a particularly pleasant one, with a good friend of mine breaking a limb that needs surgery. With a request for baked goods and the thought of surgery tugging at the ol’ heartstrings I decided to bake a much loved favourite - ANZAC biscuits. A yummy and fitting tribute to a trooper!

This recipe is one of my favourites and comes from ‘Grans Kitchen’ - recipes from the notebooks of Dulcie May Booker. This book has a collection of old style kiwi classic baking with other things like Cornish Pasties and Peanut Brownies. I halved the recipe here as the batch is quite large.

ANZAC biscuits

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup plain flour

Just under 1/2 cup raw sugar

55g butter

1/2 tablespoon golden syrup

1/2 tablespoon boiling water

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

In a saucepan gently melt the butter then add the golden syrup and heat, stirring until thoroughly combined. Place baking soda in a cup then pour the boiling water over. Pour this foaming mixture into the warm butter/golden syrup mix and stir - it should get foamy.

Add the wet to the dry ingredients, stirring with a fork to combine. This particular mix was quite crumbly. When forming the biscuits use a scooped hand place enough mix in your hand to make a mound and squeeze together.

Place handfuls of mix on an oven tray lined with baking paper, this batch made 10 biscuits.

Bake at about 190 degC (again with oven and no temperature gauge) and when they’re brown they’re done - about 12 min.

NB* He hasn’t tried them yet so will wait for the verdict tomorrow - Good Luck in surgery G!

After a trip home to Nu Zullund I was feeling rather refreshed,...

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:31:35 +1000

Stolen Rum

Rum & Walnut Tart

After a trip home to Nu Zullund I was feeling rather refreshed, so much so that I have gathered back some of my quirky creativity in the umbrella skirt eco bag as well as picking up some quality NZ spirits in Stolen Rum, from duty free on my way through.

The Stolen Rum was a bit of a must have and is a pretty great story, two good kiwi blokes looking for something to fill in their time (other than playing tennis of course) and thought why not make rum. If you don’t know about it definitely check it out. I have to say it is pretty yummy with ginger beer and the friend of mine who introduced me to it will attest to that!

Aside from that , I am at the other end of two shortened weeks. It feels rather good to have so much of a break but I am itching to be productive both at work and with creative projects. This has lead to two outcomes, one starting to read an enveloping and productive non-fiction book and the other being creative in the kitchen. Kitchen creativity was sparked by reading a Stephanie Alexander contribution to the Sunday life newspaper insert.

Hello Walnut and Rum Tart!

1 quantity shortcrust pastry, I made the pastry using a Jamie Oliver recipe from his American roadtrip cookbook.

½ cup smooth fig jam, warmed.

Filling

250g freshly shelled walnuts

250g caster sugar, I used a combunation of caster, raw and dark brown sugar and whizzed them together in the food processor.

4 free-range eggs, separated

100g softened Unsalted butter

2 tbsp whipping cream, I just used full cream milk

100ml rum, hmm I was a bit over zealous here…

Icing

100g best-quality dark chocolate

30g unsalted butter

Roll out pastry and line a 28cm loose-bottomed flan tin. Chill for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 200ºC. Line the pastry case with aluminium foil and fill with baking weights, dried beans or chick peas. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove weights and foil and brush base of tart with jam. Reset oven to 180ºC.

For filling, process walnuts until quite fine. Beat together sugar and egg yolks until thick and pale. Add ground walnuts, softened butter, cream and rum. In a clean, dry bowl whisk egg whites until soft peaks form, then gently fold into nut mixture. Pour filling into tart shell. Bake for 45 minutes until filling is golden and feels springy when touched lightly with the palm of your hand. Remove tart from oven and leave to cool before icing.

For icing, place a bowl over a saucepan of hot water over medium heat (the bottom of the bowl must not touch the water). Add chocolate and butter and allow to melt. Stir until smooth. Pour over cold tart, tilting so mixture flows evenly.

It has been raining a lot lately other than the blissful easter...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:51:02 +1000

It has been raining a lot lately other than the blissful easter weather… Sydneysiders will know what I mean.

There was stretch in which I wore my cute wee gumboots three days straight! Thinking about all the rain we had and that I was constantly carrying an umbrella got me thinking. Along with an umbrella, something I always carry in my handbag is an eco sac or a parka nylon shopping bag. It is tightly wrapped up so it takes up minimum room and it it very handy for not only carrying groceries but high heels home from work. With there being a relative glut of umbrellas and particularly those that are no longer in working order I resolved to resurrect an umbrella skirt and use it for an alternate purpose - an Eco sac.

I snipped around the top edge of the skirt to detach it from the metal shank in the middle, then I had detached the umbrella skirt ready to make use of.

I laid the skirt flat with the outside facing inwards. I then just made a judgement call on how wide I wanted the bag. I ended up discarding four pieces of the skirt from the body of the bag. I kept two of these pieces and unpicked the seams.

I re-used these pieces to become the handles of the bag. They were attached to the main body of the bag in the centre with the skirt edges together. It made a diamond shape with the triangle skirt section it was attaching to.

From there, I just free form machine stitched the size of the bag that I wanted as well as making a tiny turn over seam around all of the exposed edges. I made sure I ran around the underside bag seams a number of times to reinforce them.

The final component was pop button attachments to adjust how much I could fit in the bag. It has been pretty useful so far for smaller things. I am not usually a recycle type person but I am pretty proud of my green efforts. One less thing that goes to waste.

My personal association with technology and craft comes when I...

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 08:01:09 +1100

iPad Cover & Matching Cushion

iPad Cover

My personal association with technology and craft comes when I mix work into my personal life – most recently in the form of a homemade iPad cover. While technology and craft go together like carrots and strawberry jam, I think it works well in this case.

The iPad cover was a special interest project in that I had searched everywhere for an interesting cover but all of the covers I had seen were masculine and boringly practical. I wanted something with a splash of originality and if it was out there for sale in a shop it would likely be a one off anyway.

iPad Cover

2 pieces of Hard Cardboard (20x25cm)(I used old shoe boxes)

4 Pieces of Felt (20x25cm)

Clear Elastic (approx 35 cm)

PVA glue

3 pieces of Fabric (any fabric is fine)

1x(44x27)

1x(24x27)

1x(22x27)

Glue the felt pieces on either side of the card and leave to dry.

Lay the 22x27 piece of fabric right side out and cut the elastic into quarters. Overlay one piece of elastic diagonally on each corner of the fabric. There should be a triangle shape on the corners. Pin in place.

Join this section to the 24x27 fabric with right sides together and sew a 1cm seam along the 27cm edge. Iron the seam flat on the wrong side.

Lay this joined fabric piece out and lay the 44x27 fabric on top, right sides together. Sew around three seams, the two longer edges and the 27cm edge with the elastic, leaving the other 28cm edge open. Trim the corners and iron the seams. Also iron an inside fold into the 1cm open seam.

Insert the card and push it in. You may need to trim the card at the edge so it slides in snugly. Push one piece of card right to the end. Insert the other piece of card just to the edge of the ironed fold and pin in place.

In the middle of this seam loop a 9cm piece of shirring elastic and attach at the edge of the seam with a strong stitch. I used shirring elastic because I had some lying around but you could use any type of thin elastic. The final seam was hand sewed closed but you would be ok with a machine running stitch, very close to the edge. The loop of elastic should be sticking out from the seam.

The last thing to do is attach a button on the top. The best thing to do is check the size of the elastic loop and attach your button where it will be sturdy. Hand sew the button on with a button shank stitch.

Voila a relatively practical and original iPad cover!

Is Pinterest the next Facebook?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 07:39:00 +1100

Is Pinterest the next Facebook? :

Reading an article in fortune tech got me thinking about social associations…

Having just had a great ‘cup of tea’ catch up with an old friend and one of the main inspirations for my blog, gave me a crafty resurgence. Although brief, our chat encompassed Pinterest, how could it not really when the adoption rate is so high. The preface of our mutual Pinterest - interest was the ability to connect and share crafty ideas.

Pinterest connects users of similar interests through ‘things’ they find interesting while Facebook is a mechanism to connect users agnostic of interest. In parallel to this, I would suggest that my sewing machine connects me with my interest in craft and sewing and to hang out with other crafty type people I would head along to a craft fair. I definitely don’t think all of my Facebook friends share my interest in craft so my crafternoontea blog posts will be shared on Pinterest.

The Price of Fruit A bargain hunter by nature I am always in the...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:45:00 +1100

The Price of Fruit

A bargain hunter by nature I am always in the market for thrill of the purchase and of course the good deal that goes with it.

On my journey home from work yesterday I had to make the unavoidable excursion to the supermarket. My suburb is not known for having a substantial chain style supermarket so we have a selection of smaller and relatively extortionate smaller versions. These smaller substitutes serve the required purpose and without having a vehicle I am relatively hamstrung for choice. Yesterday was a pleasantly surprising exception, with the price of fruit and in particular peaches.

I hadn’t ever seen stonefruit that cheap in Australia and was surprised at the abundance and quality. With my love of a good bargain I put a good food few peaches (just under a dozen) in my pull along basket. Spending all of $2.84 on my peaches I was in post bargain hunter purchase bliss…but what to do with all these peaches?

A quick trawl through my favourite baking blogs had me unstuck so I reverted to good old google. It took me a while but I found a Peach buttermilk pie. Having trusty old buttermilk in the fridge from making a cake (Julie Le Clerc - Pear and Ginger Cake - yum) for my workmate last week, as well as some left over flaky pastry in the freezer, I was all set.

Peach Buttermilk Pie

Frozen shop bought flaky pastry

1 cup brown castor sugar

2 tablespoons flour

2 eggs

1/3 cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons butter melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups peaches, sliced - I got a bit liberal here

A dash of cognac

Instructions

Prepare pastry in pie dishes - I have small ceramic ones as well as small pie tins.

Combine sugar and flour in a large bowl and mix well. Stir in eggs, buttermilk, butter, vanilla and dash of cognac. Finally stir in the peaches. Cover top of pie with remaining pie crust.

FYI - my oven doesn’t actually have a temperature gauge but knowing that pastry goes in a hot oven I put mine in for 20 min or so and that did the trick. The old ‘when its brown - its done’ worked well.

The pie was served with a dollop of thickened cream! What a lovely Valentines day treat.

Arriving in Sydney early last year, it took me some time to find...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:21:00 +1100

Arriving in Sydney early last year, it took me some time to find my groove, well my ukulele groove.

I first picked up a uke in Nu Zullund when my flatmate at the time, Vorn (world famous in NZ) was playing his uke in the sun outside my room. Im not quite sure how it all happened but it went something along the lines of; Vorn handing me the uke and saying ‘here you go - its easy’. I have a memory of him walking away and grabbing his accordion to accompany me. Following this, some time went by when I just dabbled on Vorns uke with the start of a craving that got satisfied that christmas. That year santa gave me a yellow uke with pineapples on it - coined the pinakulele.

Since the acquisition of the pinakulele, there have been may great adventures. A number of beaches, west east and even south beaches of NZ. A stint on border patrol coming into Auz a number of years ago and the uke even came on my recent southern US tour. When heading to the Blue mountains fest, I thought it would be rude not to bring all of the ukes I now own, a tanglewood and a beautiful dancing ladies uke (both with pick ups) to the gig.

To give some context to the blue mountains Uke gig, I have to share how I found my way to the group. Having had music and the uke around me at home I had a craving to get back into it. I started by heading up to the main street and busking. That didn’t quite do it for me and I wasn’t getting the kind of feedback I needed, well other than the odd Newtown weirdo coming up and singing along. I did once play a Jimmy Barnes number for a rotten drink NRL fan…I digress. I did what anyone would do - I searched the net for ukulele gigs and concerts. I didn’t just find a gig, I found a workshop. Knowing that this would be a great place to start and that I could meet like minded Uke type people - we are known to be a little quirky and off the cuff. I eagerly set off for the Addison Road Arts Centre and the Fringe festival Ukulele workshop. It was a great afternoon with some old classic songs learning a few blues riffs and having a jam session at the end. The organiser Dennis mentioned the Petersham Uke group meet up once a month at the pub and I made sure to remember the day.

My first uke club meet up was great! I loved meeting uke type (well my type) people and had a great time playing a good cross section of songs that people had bought along to the meet up. There was an open mic section at the end of the meet up and of course in my gung-ho aries way I jumped up and played a random song that came to mind. After that I went back over the next few months and ended up catching up with a few of the monthly uke crew on a more regular basis and practising for the blue mountains fest.

The Blue Mountains fest was awesome. Thank you to the crew from Sydney that came up and jammed on my ukes and made the weekend what it was! There were a few other key things that topped it off. One, I hadn’t been to the blue mountains before and wow it is a pretty great place to hang out and two, there were three venues for the festival in a town of 7k people. I pulled a blackboard spot for ‘Vanessa the shredder’ at the the city bank hotel at the bottom of the Carrington Hotel. The rest is history.

The Heads were the only band on that scene that had a groove.

- David Byrne

Where my love of southern cooking began - Busy Day Cake

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:15:42 +1100

Where my love of southern cooking began - Busy Day Cake: