Married and chained to the kitchen...

It's been several months now but I have a great excuse for ignoring the blog, including - a difficult time with two dresses, an overseas visitor, writing wedding vows, a birthday, an overseas visitor, an elopement and a two week honeymoon to far north Queensland. I am glad October is over but am pleased to say that I had the best November ever!

Now the Christmas hoo-ha is over I find myself looking back on the few things I managed to successfully create and from the photos you can see it generally involved a large amount of sugar and chocolate. So much for my strict wedding dress diet, now that I'm a married woman I'm letting it all hang out!

Firstly there was the chocolate peanut butter cheesecake that my colleague Trisha chose for her birthday. I normally wouldn't go for this sort of thing, the large amount of peanut butter would put me off but I must remember to be more adventurous in my baking as this cake was delicious. It is a Nigella recipe and each day we tucked into it at work it just got better and better and it is not too over the top rich or sickly sweet at all.

Next were some goodies to distribute for Christmas. I hate the excessive consumerism at this time of year and always prefer to give something homemade if I'm organised enough (not that it happens often). The gingerbread boxes were fine enough for a first attempt but I made a few boo boos in the construction. The filling consisted of peppermint cherry chocolate balls and coconut cherry balls which were nice, quick and easy no-bake recipes from taste.com.au.

Lastly, the finale was a white chocolate mud cake with white chocolate ganache for Mum's Christmas day birthday cake. It was so delicious that I regret not taking up her offer of carrying a slice or two home with me for Boxing Day leftovers. Oh well, I'm sure that New Year celebrations call for a special cake don't they?

Taking the time

I had such a wonderful day with my mum yesterday, just the two of us and three hours in the best op shop ever. I didn't worry about looking for anything for myself it was all about finding fashion for mum that she wouldn't normally pick for herself. We crammed ourselves into the change room and I became the clothes horse and helped her whip the 20 or so items we'd chosen on and off so she didn't mess up her hair. We had a Trinny and Susannah moment where I tried to show her that if we pushed her boobs closer to her face than her feet she really can still feel womanly and have a feminine shape. It felt nice sharing that time and focusing solely on being with her something I probably don't do often enough. Even better was that she went home with eight lovely items for $40. love you mum x

Ruby's cat

As can been seen from the lack of blogging, crafting has definitely taken a back seat to a hectic life at work and the maintenance of some social existence (something which I need to continually work at to ensure I don't fall too in love with my hermit existence). Last weekend though, I had to lock myself away for a day to make the cat that I'd long been meaning to make for my bosses daughter Ruby. Ruby has become a big sister and I wanted to add something to the usual baby gifts that are bestowed on the mother and baby. It was also a good test ride for the sewing cupboard that I've inherited from my Mum. I will tell that story another day.

Not quite a plumber yet.....

Take two...yesterday I put the toilet in, this morning I took it out again. I had to smash out the concrete before it set too hard. Seems the leak fairy came back again for there were some drips. I think I need a plumber.....

Carpentry and cement

Quite a productive weekend yippeee! So it was a month or so ago that I smashed up our ugly leaking upstairs toilet. I decided to have a go at putting a new one in myself as we expect to renovate the whole bathroom in another eighteen months or so and I couldn't justify spending a few hundred calling a plumber. Taking it out was easy and boosted my confidence for the install. That was until I joined it up for a test run and it started leaking. Lucky I didn't just jump right in and cement it down. So after another couple weeks of pondering, much Googling and another trip for plumbing supplies I finally mixed up the mortar and set it down today. Never having worked with concrete before it was a bit of a guessing game but I think it is going to be ok. The real test will be tomorrow when I get Mr Smith to sit on it!
Next on the list was a picture shelf for my bedroom. I'd seen them at Ikea but I'd need to spend $40 for the length I wanted so with $10 of timber from Bunnings, some glue, a few nails and a little bit of left over paint from the garage I finally made one. Thanks to Ana White for reminding me that I can make anything if I just pull my finger out!!!

Not quite a sculptor yet!

So I've spent a lot of time reading about cold porcelain and finally got my act together to give it a try.  I've had a book lying around for years on cute bread dough characters but I wasn't keen on using the oven for 2 hours (Mr Smith would have had something to say about the electricity) so I searched for an air drying alternative and that's how I discovered cold porcelain.  I made the boy this morning after I tried mixing in molasses to get a skin tone colour (soy sauce didn't really work). I think I have some more prototyping to do before I'd be really happy with the dough consistency, colours and figurines but it is fun and considering that I was scared of sculpting anything (I think I once had a bad clay experience at school!) I feel a great sense of achievement already.

A slow beginning..

As if I need another distraction from my goals I've decided to start this blog.  Mostly it begins as a repository of evidence, to prove that some of my projects actually DO get started (and sometimes finished!).  Lately though, I've also been inspired by all the amazing blogs that consume so much of my time.  I'm not sure I'll remain as committed to this one but let's just take a chance shall we.......