A new blog

Surprise it is me!

I have been gone for a very long time, mainly because I just never felt like this little blog was what I wanted it to be. In a very weird way it kind of took on a life of it's own.

So, I have started a new food based blog which I am hoping will feel more 'me', please come take a little look around, it is still brand spanking new but I will be putting lots of work into over the next few weeks.

Thanks for everyone who followed this little blog and commented, I really really appreciated it.

Anyway, here is the new link xxx

http://achaotickitchen.blogspot.com/

Trying to be less wasteful

Firstly, apologies for the lack of posts, I have started working and had forgotten how completely it sucks up your time!

While I wasn't working I got into the habit of doing some baking each week for the man's lunch, and so far this is continuing. Mainly muffins, or things that are not to unhealthy, although every now and then I would throw in a batch of chocolate and raspberry muffins as a treat. Anyway, for the last couple of weeks I have been trying to combine this baking routine with the habit of using up everything in the kitchen. I have an annoying tendency to forget about things, and have to throw out food that is no longer edible. This goes against everything I try to live by, so I am trying to fix it and I discovered that by making myself use ingredients that are no longer at their best my baking has become a lot more interesting.

So last week we had banana bread, baked from the good 'ol Edmonds Cook Book, except I added some mixed spice and cinnamon to add a bit of interest. This was surprisingly good as I have never really been a fan of banana bread. My only gripe with this was that by Thursday it had gone mouldy. My muffins always last through the week. I am thinking about putting individual slices into zip lock bags and freezing them. Then putting the frozen banana bread into lunches in the morning, and hoping they have defrosted by lunch. Does any one out there have any experience with this?

This week I have just pulled a lemon loaf out of the oven, and have glazed it and am waiting till it cools to try it. It smells good so I have high hopes for it. I will let you know how it tasted. Again the recipe was from Edmonds (which I use so much as the recipes are straight forward and I normally have all the ingredients on hand. I find a lot of modern baking books ask for all sorts of odd and expensive ingredients, which to me defeats the whole purpose of making lunches at home to save money. Anyhoo.)

Thanks for waiting so long for an update!

My Creative Space

Today I am finishing off a job I have been meaning to do for 6 months now, making placemats and coasters. These are just two bits of fabric with some thin polyester batting, but once finished they should look quite good, hopefully.

Also, I am still working on the booties from last week, I have a finished one here and it shouldn't take too long to complete the next one. Turns out, while I am quite blase about things I make for myself, when I am making something specifically for someone else I become very very anal. I have re-made these so many times I could probably do it in my sleep. I hope they are appreciated!

Lots more lovely (hopefully less frustrated) creative peeps over here.

Making a muslin

Confession time. I. have. never. made. a. muslin.

There I said it.

I think I have mentioned my need for instant gratification before, and muslins just do not provide that. Why would I essentially want to sew something twice?

But, my latest project uses vintage fabric and a vintage pattern, if I get this one wrong I can't just run out to spotlight to get some more fabric. So, today I have started the muslin. So far I have it all sewn up but I do not have the correct size zip so can not finish it just yet but already I have found a couple of things that will need fixing. The most glaringly obvious is that the waistline is about an inch lower then my natural waistline, so that will need fixing. Plus it is way to big...

So, I may be coming around to this muslin business, if I hadn't have made one then the dress would have been ruined due to the waistline alone (this has already happened to me with a different project). But, I am going to reserve judgement till I see the final finished dress.

My Creative Space...

Wow, I have not been a part of this in a few weeks and I miss it! I have started a jewellery course on Thursdays and it has taken me a while to get organised enough to produce a post. So here we go...

This week I am working on baby booties, some friends from America arrive here next week and she is 6 months pregnant with their first child so I wanted to make something little that is easy for them to take back to the U.S.

I found these crochet shoes from here and I think they are crazy cute. Plus I have not crocheted in a while as I ran out of potential projects, but these have got the ball rolling again.

I started trying to make them with some wool in my stash but it hasn't really worked out (I blame the wool, despite trying three different hook sizes I can't get them the correct size) so today I am going to go get some more. I am thinking red with bright green soles (they are having a girl) as you are never to young for your first pair of red shoes. Now I just need to get myself some red Louboutins and we can match...

Image from here

As normal, loads more creative spaces here!

Good things...

Firstly, look what I won from the lovely Cath over at ChunkyChooky:

I never win anything so this was super exciting, and the book is really helpful. I don't know about you but even though you can find all the instructions you need on the inter-webby thing, I still like to have my reference books too.

Also, I planted some herbs a couple of weeks ago and check out my coriander, it is growing so well I think I will have to thin it out and re-plant it! The basil is poking its little head out too, and while there has not been a peep from the others I have high hopes.

Dreaming of Hawaii

This is the dress I got at the Love Vintage fair, the colours really caught my eye, and the cut was really flattering. It is an 80's dress, but I had hoped that with the right accessories I could make it look a bit more vintage. I was thinking along the lines of meeting Elvis in Hawaii...

I think I kind of made it work, I curled my hair, put on some vintage earrings, a chunky bracelet and some vintage inspired shoes and I think I looked vintage. In fact, one of my male friends said I looked like I was from the 40's, without any provocation, so I must have done something right!

I wore this to high tea at The Victoria Room and felt very sophisticated, if a tad over dressed, I needed to be having cocktails really. But, life is always a bit more fun when you are overdressed don't you think?