Martha Stewart's Cookies

Recently I bought Martha Stewart's Cookies from the Book Depository with my pocket money. I love the Book Depository as it has free worldwide shipping and the prices as so much cheaper than buying books here in Australia. It is a great baking book featuring 175 cookie recipes, as well as tips and tricks, and ideas for packaging.

Today I made the cover recipe "Chocolate Cookies" . These rich cookies contained Dutch cocoa powder and were rolled in sugar before baking. These cookies would taste great with a glass of milk.

I plan on making many more of the recipes in the book so stay tuned!

My Mum made the Lemon Squares this week. She used her cricut machine to embellish some for gift giving.

Posted by Sarah

Hexagon Runner

Sadly my life has had little time for creativity lately, apart from some quick paper projects. This week I found a little more time since I am no longer glued to the TV each evening watching Masterchef. I worked on my Hexagon project and have completed a table runner.

I used natural osnaburg for the base fabric, and then added lots of little hexagons in Modern Meadow by Joel Dewberry for Free Spirit.

The backing is a leaf vein print from Modern Meadow. I love how it looked after the quilting. I quilted it in parallel lines, 3/8 inch apart.

It was very therapeutic to get back to sewing again. I can see more hexagon projects in my sewing future but next up I have a quilt top to quilt.

{ Maps and More }

I am always interested to find projects that use repurposed materials. It is amazing to see all the creative ways that old materials can be used to give them a new lease of life. The July edition of Marie Claire Idees (#79) has a fun article on using old maps and globes. Here are a few pages...

Love the Decoupaged Boxes

Great covered notebooks and shelf edging.

Great display of globes. Check out the sweet bunting. 

I have a stash of old World Book Encyclopedias (1975 edition) that I rescued when my parents were doing a clean up at their place. I tore out a few pages featuring maps for some geographic crafting of my own (with a French influence of course!)

First up, I used a map and some Japanese masking tape, to make a fun gift tag.

A map of Paris and an Eiffel Tower die cut were used to make this greeting card. My high school French was given a workout coming up with some French greetings.

Using the cricut, I was able to make up a small gift bag out of a map - perfect for a gift card or small gift for a traveller.

I would love to find an old Atlas at the Op Shop that I could use for wrapping paper. What repurposed materials do you love to use?

The New Addition.....

... to my craft room is a Cricut Expression Machine. After seeing one in action, resistance was futile.

Although I am not a scrapbooker, I have been known to make the occasional card, and love to dress up gift packaging with customised tags and the like. I also love to give gifts from my kitchen and will now be able to make the perfect packaging.

I had a bit of a play around with all the features and made up a few cards for birthdays that are coming up.

The Cindy Loo cartridge has some lovely cupcake wrappers. I can't wait to get over my flu so that I can bake up some cupcakes.

I hope to be back again soon with some of my latest sewing projects. Just before I go, here is a picture of some fantastic coconut macarons with a coconut and white chocolate ganache filling that Sarah made on the weekend - they didn't last long!

Chocolate Treats

The school holidays are flying by - hard to believe we are now in the second week! Sarah and I spent an enjoyable morning yesterday in the kitchen and craft room together. I have already shown you my pear muffins. Sarah prefers chocolate over fruit. She was inspired by her cook book "500 Chocolate Delights" and made up some Chocolate Shortbread, which is the perfect accompaniment to Hot Chocolate.

She also made up some Rich Chocolate Syrup which tasted divine on our ice-cream last night. She had fun customising the bottle.

Last term, Sarah did a unit in ceramics at school. Here is her tomato mug.

Hope to have more opportunities for some Mother/Daughter creating over the coming week.

Pear Streusel Muffins

Pears are plentiful at the moment so I have been experimenting with some pear recipes. Did you know that pears are a member of the rose family; that they have been used as a food source since prehistoric times; and that they are an excellent source of fibre and Vitamin C? These are just some of the facts I have learnt while trolling the internet for pear recipes.

I used a great recipe for Pear Muffins with Streusel Topping from Rouxbe. I didn't have any sour cream on hand so substituted a low fat yoghurt and they turned out brilliantly.

Of course I had to customise the packaging - using the Cricut preserves Cartridge (currently on loan from a sweet friend). I made up some little labels for the baking cases. I love my polka dot baking cases but have always found that when they are baked in, the butter/oil discolours the baking case which spoils the presentation. I noticed in the Julie Goodwin Cookbook that she had layered some new cases on the outside to freshen up the look - I can't believe that I never thought to do this in the past.

Here is a label and tag for an individual box and a larger box of muffins. (I got my plain white cupcake boxes from Cake Tinz 'n' Thingz)

Sarah has also been baking up a storm today. She is putting the finishing touches to her goodies and will be back later with her home baked delights! Don't you just love wintry weekend spent in the kitchen?

Fun with Paper

I spent a most enjoyable day yesterday with some crafty friends playing with Linda's cricut and fantastic range of cartridges. I particularly loved all the little gift boxes and bags you can make - the possibilities are endless. I think a Cricut is definitely going on my wish list:) Thanks again Linda for a wonderful day!

I have been busy over the school holidays with family things - getting my son ready for his school trip skiing in New Zealand, and having lots of teen girls over for a sleep over, among other things. I have found time though for some work on my Hunky Dory quilt,

and for reading. Thanks for all the great book suggestions you have left on my last post. That list should keep me going to a while - it was good to discover some new authors to explore. Check out the comments if you are looking for some reading material.

I have also been playing with my new camera - a Canon Eos 450D. Hopefully you will start to see an improvement in my photos once I get used to an SLR.

Here are some sneak peaks of projects that I am working on for QFD Creative Christmas in July - it is not too late to sign up and join in the fun.

Quilting Fiction

Both of my jobs have been super busy this week which hasn't left a lot of time or energy for crafty pursuits. Coupled with the cold weather we have been having, my evenings have been spent in front of the heater reading The Aloha Quilt, the latest addition to the Elm Creek Quilt Series by Jennifer Chiaverini. This book follows the adventures of Bonnie, one of the original Elm Creek Quilters as she travels to Hawaii, and includes some interesting history of Hawaiian quilts.

The Quilters Apprentice was the first fiction quilting book I read, and I had the pleasure of meeting Jennifer Chiaverini at the Houston Quilt Market in 2000. Since then I have discovered a whole genre of quilting fiction. Some of my favourites are The Diary of Mattie Spenser; the Benni Harper Mystery Series;  and the Persian Pickle Club. I haven't been reading as much in recent years since I have started sewing more obsessively:) I would love some recommendations of other quilty fiction that I should look out for!

Anyway, before I head off to read my latest pile of library books, I just wanted to show you the lovely bibs that Liz from  Lzilulu has made based on my Boutique Baby Bibs tutorial. Love the rural setting that she has photographed them in.

You can find my tutorial for Boutique Baby Bibs here.

Hope to have more sewing/crafty things to share next week. School holidays start here tomorrow and I have two weeks off - can't wait!