Days of Creation colouring pages

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My first re-upholstered chair!

Been inspired by some of the DIY blogs outhere. I've had a set of these 4 chairs for ages. I really like them, not just the shape, but the fact that they stack! The black plastic has started to split on a couple of them and does not look very appealing with the foam sticking out. Sorry about the picture quality, was using my phone and was either wobbling or had it on the wrong setting!

This is what the chair looked like originally.

Unscrewed the seat pad from the chair, and took off the black plastic.

I kept a piece of the plastic to put on the top of the seat pad as a bit of protection for the foam, as the new cover is cotton and I envisage there still will be spills!

I had a couple of pillow cases that I bought 2nd hand that I had stashed away ready for a project. Laid the foam and the wooden seat on to the fabric, pulled the fabric up and started stapling!

When it was all stapled, I trimmed the excess fabric then drew around the seat onto another piece of fabric.

Placed the fabric over the back of the seat and folded it under, then stapled at regular intervals all the way round.

The finished back.

Screwed it back on to the chair.

Voila! Funky new chair cover!


And just to remind you what it looked like...

Spritz cookie recipie for a Cookie Press

Just received my Pampered Chef Cookie Press and done my first batch of cookies.

Looking online at the different reviews some people seem to have had problems with the mixture and getting it to work correctly.

I printed out to recipes and did a combination of them, and the results were good. It took me a few goes to get the hang of the press. I tried doing the cookies onto a silicon sheet...bad idea! Direct to the baking tin is best. There is enough fat in the mixture to stop them sticking once they are cooked.

Here is my version (I use the American Cup sizing)


Ingredients
1.5 cups or 7.5oz margarine or butter (not the spreadable marg - I used a combination of 3oz butter and 4.5 marg)
1 cup or 5oz sugar (I used Golden Caster)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3.5 cups or 17.5oz plain flour
2 tablespoons water
Pinch of Salt

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375f or Gas Mark 5
Beat butter/Marg till creamy. (I used a handheld electrc mixer)
Add sugar, beat.
Add egg, salt and vanilla, beat.
Add flour one cup (5oz) at a time, beat.

The dough will be soft, this is fine it needs to be.

Fill your cookie press and follow instructions for your own press to create your cookies.

bake for 10-12 minutes until they are nicely golden.

Next time i would like to try sprinkling on some 100's and 1000's, put some allspice in the mixture and try a chocolate and a lemon version. As long as the mixture is smooth there shouldn't be a problem.

Savoury Muffins

I've sort of created it myself so that you can use it with any combi of veg/bacon and cheese.

1 cup of 80% milk or yogurt and 20% oil
2 eggs

BEAT TOGETHER

1 cup of cooked veg (spinach, broccoli, courgette, carrot, mushroom) /bacon/sun dried tomato/olives
1/2 cup of chopped or grated cheese (cheddar, feta...)
1 tsp veg stock powder
Salt to taste, especially if you're NOT using bacon

MIX IN

1 1/2 to 2 cups of self raising flour (depend how wet your veg mixture is are)
1 tsp baking powder

SIFT and FOLD IN (Should be a nice plopping consistancy, not too runny)
SPRAY or WIPE oil into a 12 piece MUFFIN tin
PLOP mixture in
COOK on GAS MARK 6/400f/200c for 20 mins (test with a knife or skewer, should come out clean)
TURN them out onto RACK to COOL

BEST EATEN WARM

Chocolate cake alert...

Oh dear, I have found a recipe I am going to have to try sometime! It's here.
And as we have around 30 eggs in the house at the moment, its a good excuse to bake cakes!

Lemons and Globes

For those of you who know me personally, you have probably had a conversation with me that has inevatibly turned to food, and possibly the famous lemon icecream!

I have become an avid follower of Smitten Kitchen, a fabulous foody blog. And as a fan of all things lemony (I must post my lemon chicken recipe) I had to try this. It is currently cooling in the kitchen. The filling is already a hit with my eldest son, as I had to much mixture for my pastry shell and put the excess in a ramekin dish to cook, that taster is now no more.

The other thing that my friends know about me is that I am a Charity shop frequenter. Love those bargains! And not only that, but the randomness of what one might find. I have been thinking about buying a globe for years, mainly so I could show the children various places in the world, so that they could have a better idea of where countries are and to have a 'global' world view. Well, I finally found one today, not as big as the ones I had been looking at, in fact, just perfect for our already cluttered home. I love it. I have already shown Luke where Haiti is (I had to look it up on Google Maps myelf first!)

Now, who would like to try the easy peasy, lemon squeezy icecream? It is based on one that Nigella Lawson does, I am not sure which book it is available in, I have also seen her do variations on it. Beware, it is thoroughly addictive, and when you start you can't stop. I gave this recipe to a friend and I think she makes it once a week!

You will need...
3 juicy lemons, preferably unwaxed
175g/6oz icing sugar
420ml double cream (or whole tub)
3 tablespoons iced water
Then...

Grate the zest from two of the lemons using a microplane grater (I don't have one of these, so I use an ordinary fine grater, and am careful not to grate too deep). Squeeze the juice of all three lemons and pour into a bowl with the zest and sugar, stir to combine and leave for 30 minutes, if you can, to let the flavour deepen.

Whip the cream with the water until it holds soft peaks, then whisk in the sweetened lemon juice. Turn into a shallow container, cover and freeze - no stirring, crystal-breaking-up mixing or anything needed - until firm. This could take anything from 3-6 hours depending on your freezer.

Let it stand in its container in the fridge for half an hour or so to get scoop-ready.

Enjoy!

When is a blog not a blog?

Perhaps when it has not been updated for over a year!?

I had such grand intentions for this blog, it was going to be a place where I could share my family adventures. The tips and tricks I've learnt, the inspirational thoughts that help me and various other ramblings. I think I got stuck. Too often just stuck on the internet reading about stuff, looking at stuff, and dreaming about the stuff I was going to do. Things have got to change. I have to do more!

So, I'll start with sharing some sweet things my 2 and a half yr old comes out with.

"I hold it" - it is his baby sister.
"Daddy hold it" - it is as above, and usually uttered when he wants mummy's attention and mummy is holding same sister as above.
"Baby Mae sick"
"Baby Mae not sick"
"Baby Mae done poopoo"