Just one or two cards and a cake for good measure.

It's been a busy week on the crafting front really. Eighty wedding invitations all made (thanks to my sister-in-law) and 8 other handmade cards done as well. Not to mention the baby blanket I was knitting for a friend finally completed after a couple of months. And a baby hat knocked up for good measure with the left over wool.

The baby blanket was the worst. It took every ounce of determination I have to finish it and I have no idea why. A simple knit - corner to corner in garter stitch - what could be difficult about that?? But it wasn't my favourite thing and I found myself distracted by other projects. Maybe next time I'll try something a little bit more complicated and it might keep me interested.

I have also successfully made a chocolate sponge cake which didn't sink hurrrah! Well, it did dip a little bit in the middle but nowhere near as much as my last attempt. This was a recipe not from my beloved Bero book (a must have for anyone who likes a bit of homebaking) but from a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall book (Family Cookbook) A very simple recipe with no numbers to remember or work out. Basically weigh your eggs - shell and all - and then use the same weight of flour, sugar and fat. It works. I just substituted about 25g of flour for cocoa powder and threw in some milk and white chocolate drops for good measure. I'll let you know how it goes down later when it is shared out.

There will be a few pictures of my cards later when I get round to uploading them to the puter, but until then I have banana chocolate pancakes to make for a hungry toddler and a brew and Private Practice for me!
TTFN

Baking at 7am? What's that about?!

Yes, you read it right. I was baking at 7am this morning. Partly thanks to the rubbish bananas we got from the supermarket this week which were already on the turn after only a few days. Now I am trying desperately to stop wasting food, and did not want to throw them away (well I wasn't going to eat them...anyone who knows me knows I can only eat bananas when they are the right shade of yellow and without any blemishes at all!) and although my lovely daughter is rather fond of them, I'm sure even she couldn't eat 4 in a day.So the only solution it seemed was to turn them into something.
God bless Nigella. Banana Muffins. Although I'm not 100% sure it is her own recipe, but it was on her website.I can highly recommend these. Easy, relatively quick (bit slower when you have a small child pulling at your pyjama'd leg though!) and delicious.
 http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=12572
The other 2 bananas will find their way into banana pancakes in the morning.

A completed project!

Here's my first completed project, a headband for my little girl:

And here she is wearing it:

I had some fun creating it. I didn't use a pattern, just followed some ideas in my head and it went better than I expected. I was particularly pleased with the crocheted flower. A few months ago i couldn't crochet at all!

Finding the Goddess inside.

I have always had a bit of a creative streak, admittedly more in my head than in my hands. In my mind I can see lots of projects I want to make, or write but in reality I am just not that physically dexterous. Either that or I procrastinate too much!

I think there is a bit of the Domestic Goddess about us all, somewhere, however deeply hidden. My New Year's Resolution (this year, and last year, and the one before that!) was to find her, dust her off and elevate her to the pedestal she truly deserves. And I have finally got round to opening the cardboard box that has become her home since adulthood and all it's responsibilities took over from the carefree, crafty, knitting, baking, sewing little girl I once was.

She has had the odd foray into my world over the years. Baby cardigans knitted, buttons sewn on, cakes baked... but her stay was never extended and off she went back to her box with the unfinished Jumper for my husband and the oddments of yarn I always meant to turn into something but didn't get round to. But now, one pink, sweet smelling - and noisy - toddler later, I find she is making her presence felt more often and although i have even less time to entertain her now, I find her company more and more calming and inspiring.

This is my journey getting to know that domestic goddess I once knew so well!