Beautiful like a chilli

Not for the faint-hearted ;-)

Photo board

Happy Handmade Monday everyone,

 

This week's project cost me absolutely nothing which was brilliant as I just used up things I had lying about the house. I was inspired by a piece of polysterene found in an old IKEA package...yes you read me right!

I thought that with a bit of glue and some fabric I had left over from previous projects (cat cuddly toy and toy bag), I could turn this polysterene rectangle into a nice photo board for Baby Suisse's room, and within about 5 minutes, I did!

 

I cut a piece of fabric slightly wider than the rectangle, trimmed the corners and carefully folded them over before gluing into place.

And that's how it looked from the front:

All that was left to do was adding two pieces of ribbon and some craft pegs to hold pictures in place et voilà!

Cheap and cheerful! The crowd over at Wendy's Handmade Harbour probably have slightly more skillful projects to share with you :-)

Dragon mobile part II

19/03/2012 Dragon mobile part I

Good morning everyone and welcome to Handmade Monday!

I can't believe it has nearly been 6 months since I first posted about this project. As always, I started with buckets of enthusiasm which somewhat fizzled out very rapidly. I am not even sure why it has taken me 6 months to complete this mobile as it is far from complicated and even though there is quite a bit of hand-sewing involved, it isn't rocket science!

 

I feel that I have to start from the beginning again as March is a long long time away even for you readers who undoubtedly have been gifted with a better memory than I!

I used a polysterene ring covered with ruban to hang my dragons from. That was the easiest (and quickest!) part. Thanks to the wonders of Google, I came across this fab tutorial for felt dragons and my first dragon was born that very same day.

Fast forward 3 months and I still only had one more dragon to my tally as I got side-tracked with other sewing project.

Fast forward another 3 months and Baby Suisse had arrived early and the mobile was still half-finished...not good! Enthusiasm was finally rekindled last week when we had a friend staying over and the mobile was finally ready for its big reveal after a couple of hours work.

All that was needed was some transparent fishing wire to hang the ring to a mobile arm which had been bought second-hand and attached to the bed et voilà!

YEAH!!! Some of you may also spot the new bunting I made for Baby Suisse's room with the same fabric I used for his cot-bumper and toy bag.

Phew... that's me all crafted out for the weekend. I'll grab a cup of coffee and go over to Wendy's Handmade Harbour to get some inspiration from wonderfully gifted peeps :-)

Pink chutney

We are very fortunate to have fruits growing of their own accord in our garden here in Brugg. Although this year's weather hasn't been good for the cherry tree or the fig tree, the plums have done ok (and been nailed by the birds) and our lonely plant of rhubarb has gone wild. I am not a big fan of rhubarb-based puddings and would certainly never make them at home but I could not bear to let 2kg+ of free rhubarb go to waste.

 

Thanks to the BBC Good Food website, I came across a recipe for rhubarb and date chutney which was perfect as I also randomly had dates lying about in the cupboard (and we all know that I am a sucker for chutney!). I must admit that preparing all the ingredients (ginger, red onions, dates, raisins, rhubarb and apples) that went into the chutney did take an awful long time, see for yourself!

First step is to bring the onions, ginger and vinegar to the boil before simmering:

The rest of the ingredients (except the rhubarb) then go into the pan until the apples are tender:

Before finally adding the star of the chutney, the rhubabrb!

Once cooked, I like to use a blender to give it a smoother texture. Et voilà, pink chutney!

As with all chutneys, it is best to leave it for at least 1 to 3 months before enjoying as the vinegar taste may be overwhelming although this pink chutney was very sweet tasting on the day and could be eaten sooner.

Definitely a recipe for you to try at home!

Something to look at...

I must admit that the concept of knitting tea towels seemed very strange, if not pointless, the first time I came across it...surely you wouldn't want to wipe and dry your hands on something that has been knitted...

I then saw pictures of knitted tea towels on Ravelry (don't forget you can click on the Ravelry button on my left handside bar to find me there) and decided to give the Mitered Hanging Towel pattern by  Cristina Bernardi Shiffman a go. That was almost 3 years ago and a few weeks back I completed my third knitted tea towel.

Not that I have changed my mind about drying my wet hands on them...I just like to see them hang in my kitchen but I would never dare use them as tea towels. Is that sad?? (well, actually you don't have to reply to that one).

Am I the only one making things and then not using them as they were intended because they're too pretty?

Hallwyl Wasserschloss

Hello!!

Thank you everyone for your kind comments on my last post introducing the new little man in my life :-)
We have all been away from home quite a bit recently and I haven't had the chance to post on here for a few weeks. Actually, I still have posts from July which haven't been published so today I thought I'd start by keeping you updated on our July adventures and makes before moving on to more recent happenings.

This was one of the last long walks I did with Mr T and Alf while still pregnant back in July. We are the new owner of a car and can now venture further afield at weekends. We decided to explore canton Aargau a bit and took a 20 minutes drive to Hallwyl Wasserschloss.

Wikipedia tells us that Hallwyl castle is one of the most important moated castles in  Switzerland, located on two islands in the River Aabach and dating from the 12th century. Hallwyl Castle was the home castle of the Lords of Hallwyl, who owned the surrounding land and parts of the lake as their personal property.

The castle is fairly unusual and well worth seeing. If your German is better than ours, you could even visit the inside of the castle as tours run frequently during the opening season. We decided to take in the sight by walking around the castle before proceeding to walk to Lake Hallwyl.

The lake is part of a nature reserve and there are many water birds and fish to be spotted on the way...

It is possible to walk all around the lake although I would imagine it to take quite a while and I wasn't up to the challenge dragging an extra 12kg so we just walked for 90 minutes before turning back. Despite it being a short walk, we spotted some interesting things...

 

 

 

We hadn't chosen the best day for a picnic, the weather was grey and threatening for the best part of our trip and we had to take shelter at several occasions to avoid torrential downpours!

We will definitely be back on a sunny day for some more walking as the path around the lake looks pram-friendly!

A Special Handmade Monday

Here is what I made during the last 2 weeks I have been away from Handmade Monday...

Baby Suisse came 3 weeks early and in France on August 1st like a true Swiss patriot!
Now I really need to get that mobile finished...

Pop over to Wendy's Handmade Monday to see some actual crafting :-)