Really Easy Fruit Lollies

So, we have quite an abundance of our accidental raspberries without using much else in the way of ingredients as there are lots of recipes out there for fruit lollies and I don't usually have much in stock, we didn't plant them, they just grow every year, so we left them. We are picking a bowl full a night at the moment, I'm finding them too sharp to eat as they are, most people would just eat them like this but I have been looking for other ways to use them. I bought some new lolly moulds the other day and thought I would make some lollies with the raspberries and whatever else I could find. 

Last Night's Harvest

I started by mashing the raspberries up, and putting them in a saucepan, heating over a low heat until it was mostly liquid, this only takes a couple of minutes, don't let it boil. I then sieved the mixture, and pushed through the sieve as much as possible with my spoon. The remainder was mostly seeds. 

It did not produce as much juice as I would have hoped from that little bowl the jug pictured had around half the amount shown as raspberry juice, I topped it up a little with water, this would also help to take the edge off the sharpness of the raspberries. 

As you can see, I carefully measured it out equally into the compartments of the Lolly mould, he he. Oh well, it ended up even after I had leveled them out. I topped them up with a little orange juice. 

I put them in the freezer last night and we had one each tonight, they were great :)

  

                                             

Gromit

Naked Gromit, he is made of plastic. 

Hi

So here is my latest project, as part of the "Gromit Unleashed" campaign to raise money for Bristol Children's Hospital, I bought a "paint your own" Gromit and have been working on him over the last few days. 

I wanted him to reflect my personality, with a few of my favorite things on him. OK I know that the artwork is a little dodgy in places, but I have had fun so far. I have actually ran out of ideas, but I may still add to it before varnishing within the next few days. 

More cheese Gromit!

Forget-me-nots on his right leg, and you can just about see a camera around his neck. 

So Far so good, he has a tortoiseshell butterfly on his left shoulder, just like me. 

A Sloth, A lego lady and Union Jack with Canadian Flag

Music, a Red Phonebox, and Pheobe and Lillie. I think I have room to also add Roo, Geefer and the Fish. All I need to do then is to varnish him and he is done. 

Totoro

Hi,

I have just finished a big project, a huge beanbag.

This is the first piece of furniture I have made, and quite possibly the biggest project I have worked on to date. I had a wonderful new Janome sewing machine for my birthday, which has made my fabric crafting so much easier.

I love Studio Ghibli movies, and My Neighbour Totoro is my favourite, he is such a lovely snuggly character, so I decided to make a Totoro beanbag. 

Being a novice sewer, I decided that the best idea would be to not use a pattern, at all. So did it completely by guesswork and adjusting him as I went through. I wanted him to be completely a beanbag, but as the costs went up in excess of £30 just for the beans, I decided to make a hybrid cushion/beanbag. I used recycled pillows for the base, this also helped with keeping the shape, as well as bulking up a bit to reduce the volume of beans needed. 

I started with two cheap fleeces from a local home store, they were £6 each, I have lots left over so plan to make some miniature totoro stuffies or something, whenever. 

I knew the shape I wanted him to be, roughly the shape of a beanbag seat so he needed a round base with fattish L shapes so that he is the right shape. The big bag of beans purchased online came in a stretchy bag which I topped up, I used this as the liner to keep the beans in, so that we don't leave little beanbag ball farts all over the house. I also used some had to plain fabric to line his tummy for strength.

I worked inside out and ended up with roughly the shape I had in mind with his head being quite flat and nose just slightly pointing forwards. 

Working with beans is very hard!! Omg they wafted everywhere, I was so careful filling him up, but five minutes before Mr P was due home, I realised that my careful pouring had in fact.....missed and there was an avalanche, then I noticed how big Liliies eyes were, before she decided that rolling on the balls was a good idea. 

I hand sewed his face and head to make sure I had the right shape, this fleece material is really easy to sew, which bodes well for me, as the stitches don't show at all!

I used black shoe laces for his whiskers, buttons for eyes, and part of an already sacrificed skirt for a previous make, for his nose and claws on hands and feet. Some White felt for the whites of his eyes.

I was delighted with the end result, although I did make him way bigger than anticipated, I still love him though. I am so pleased that he actually looks like Totoro, and I have managed to get his facial expression spot on. His arms are separate pieces sewn on, as are his ears, stuffed really full to get them to stand up. I used the edges of the fleece to make the detail on his tummy, this was also easier to sew as they were already sealed on one side. 

Total project cost, approximately £30 plus bits and pieces from home, and time. 

Hope you like him :)

I made a giraffe

Hi, 

On a grossly under spending trip to Hobbycraft last weekend, I bought some animal print felt, wondering what to make, it was a no brainer to make a giraffe. Courtesy of your friend and mine....Pinterest, I used a downloadable pattern to cut round to make the giraffe. I also used my new sewing machine, which, I have to add, is awesome, quiet and so far, no tangles or other issues. Hope you like it x 

Minion Hat

Time to complete: around 2 hours

Cost: Hat cost £3, materials approximately £2. 

Hi, 

I am fortunate to live in the town, that is home of the biggest carnival in the world, Bridgwater Carnival. 

Every year, for the last few years, my sister and I have made our own tradition of wearing random hats. This year there are four of us partaking in this tradition. 

I decided that it would be funny if we all went as minions, from Despicable Me. I made my own hat, instructions are as below. 

What:

Yellow Hat:

I found a yellow beanie on ebay, it already had a grey band around the base, which adds to the effect but it is not essential. 

Felt: 

White, Black and Light Brown- I used some of the black as the black strip around the head for the glasses, but in hindsight, thick black elastic would have been better. 

Templates:

To make the eye, I drew around a large tin lid, which coincidentally is the same size as the base of a regular sized mug. 

I also used a large tea light for the inner eye, and a metal eggcup for the pupil. It's trial and error to get the right size, but it didn't take me long to find things in the house that were the right size. 

Grey Socks:

I used the tops of some grey socks as the glasses, the top of the socks are ribbed and worked really well for this purpose. 

Something for Hair: 

The minions have a mixture of hair on the movies, some have a few strands sticking up, you could use pipe cleaners for this, or even some thick rope. I was lucky to find a strange hair band, which worked quite well, as it has black ruffles, that looks like a little crop of black hair. 

Fuel: 

My fuel of choice was chocolate milkshake, and the purple chocolate with popping candy and jelly pieces in. 

How: 

1) I started off by drawing round the circles, to create the eyes. I used a tiny dab of fabric glue to hold them in place to make it easier for sewing later. 

2) I cut strips from the black felt for the strap around the back, you need to be mindful that the hat stretches when worn, so the strap will need to stretch too, my hat needed three sections for the strips. To make sure this fit, the only way to do it is to carefully tack it in places when you are wearing the hat, in front of the mirror... to make sure that it sits right.

3) I placed the eyes onto the hat, with a dab of glue, and also dabbed a little glue either side to hold the black strips in place before sewing. 

4) To make the glasses, I cut the top off the sock, as mentioned before, if you cut again, you can unfold it, which creates a bigger piece of fabric. I had two pieces of this to make the round of the glasses frame. I folded it in half, bringing a piece from the top and the bottom, to sew it along the middle. I then folded it in half again, to create a rope like long length, before sewing the ends together to form a ring. 

5)I then sewed round the eye, securing each element to the hat, and carefully sewed the black band, mostly by adding a stitch or two while it was on my head, trying hard not to sew it to myself. 

6) The final touches are to sew the glasses piece on, and add the hair. 

For Jamie

Our Goddaughter Rebecca has a new little brother, Jamie :)

I made a matching cross stitch, if you track back to January 2011, I posted a photograph of the stitch I made for Becky. 

Minion Phone Case

So, this has been in my head for a few weeks now, but because I was working on a huge stitching project, I didn't allow myself to do anything else until I completed it. 

To make this phone sock, I cut the top off a sock, lined it with some scrap fleece material, and sewed the bottom across as neatly as I can for my dodgy sewing. 

I made sure I had the sock top at the top as it is naturally tighter and would help to keep the phone within the case. 

It was relatively easy to draw a picture with hot-fix gems, having to add the gems one at a time to build the picture up. 

I also got a bit carried away with the sparkly gems and didn't want to stop with the sparklifying. I am delighted at how it turned out :)