Share the Handmade Love Wednesdays - Food!!

This week I'm sharing the handmade love with food.

I ♥ food!

I love cake and coffee and Mexican and Italian and Japanese. I love cookies and chai and pizza.... yum! When I'm on the ships I can't cook for myself and the food can become a bit samey. So as I am going back on Friday... here's a little food tribute!


Left to right, top to bottom:

Fresh Strawberry Marshmallows by calabasascandyco
Red Velvet Cake Truffles by lollidreams
Butter Cookie Black Tea by NOTJUSTTEA
Mustache on a Stick Cookie by FairytaleFrosting
Mississippi Mud Organic Flavoured Coffee by katherynmd
Green Chili Pork Taquitos by athyme2bcomforted

Rainy Craft Fairs and new stuff...

Today, my mum and I went to the Weald of Kent Craft Fair. It rained all day! We had a good time and spent lots of money anyway! It gave me lots of ideas about where I want my stuff to go and how I could display my wares if I went to a craft fair. We also went into the supplies tent and I bought some Angelina fibres to play with. I'm planning on making lots of sparkly stuff!!

Also, I now have a shop on Folksy, the UK handmade marketplace. Please go check it out and let me know what you think!

And now some of my crafts! I mentioned my Rock belt before, back in February when it was National Embroidery Month. It was quite difficult to get good photos of this piece because it is quite long and the embroidery is fine. But after a photo shoot with my dancers, I think I cracked it!

My Rock Belt is made from the waistband of an old pair of jeans that my best friend cut up for his Hulk Halloween costume. He gave them to me to add to my stash and this is what I made from them. It has frayed denim and chains hanging from it and is hand embroidered with rock symbols and words. I drew each of the symbols myself and chose bright colours to realise them on the belt. I imagine this piece being worn low on the hips, maybe with a band tee and some dark skinny jeans. I think you could wear it casually during the day to punk up your outfit, or out with your best threads to a gig!

Share the Handmade Love Wednesdays - Buttons

This week's Share the Handmade Love is about buttons. My button box now holds four generations of buttons. I have my Great Grandmother Parrish's buttons, my Nanny Donn's buttons, some of my mum's buttons and some of my own. I have a HUGE box full to overflowing! On that note here are some items made from buttons - enjoy!

Top to bottom, left to right:

Seaglass junk bracelet by Deezie

Blue Handmade Beaded Necklace by TheRetroRainbow

Ever After Button Bracelet by magpieandbutton

Circle Cell Ameoba Hand Embroidered Quilt Square Applique by KBKExtras

Upcycled Button Ring by jennifermagnesi

Secret Garden Button Necklace by SmallButtonBigHeart

PS... Salvaged Mutiny is now listed at the Home Based Jewelers Showcase here

Let Them Eat Cake!

I’ve been working on a present for my friend Julie over at The Life of a Cupcake. I can’t show it to you yet though, as I have to send it to her and I want it to be a surprise! Instead, I decided to give you a recipe for scrummy chocolate cake to tide you over!! I found this recipe for Double Chocolate muffins online a few years ago and now use it all the time. Don’t worry that it has coffee in it – it doesn’t taste, it just makes the cake moist. And if you wrote the recipe, send me the link to it so I can credit you as I can’t remember where I got it from. I use it to make a big cake, not muffins though ;-)

Ingredients

Cake:

9oz/225g plain flour 

3tsps/15ml baking powder 

3oz/75g cocoa powder 

9oz/225g granulated sugar 

6oz/150g butter, melted 

12fl oz/300ml black coffee, cooled 

3 large eggs

Buttercream Filling:
2oz/50g butter
1oz/25g cocoa powder
5oz/125g icing sugar


Chocolate fudge icing:
4oz/100g milk chocolate, roughly chopped
2tbsps/10ml milk
2oz/50g butter
2oz/50g icing sugar


Method 

Combine the first four ingredients in a mixing bowl. Stir together well. Add the melted butter then, in a mug, beat together the egg with the cooled coffee, and pour on top of the butter. Whisk briskly with a fork until all the ingredients are just combined. Share out into two sandwich cake tins and bake in a preheated oven at 200C/Gas Mark 5 for around 20 minutes.

While the cake is baking and cooling make the filling and icing. For the filling mix together all ingredients until smooth. You may need to add more icing sugar for taste. For fudge icing heat the chocolate, milk and butter in a saucepan, stirring until melted. Removed from heat and beat in the icing sugar. As with the filling, add more icing sugar according to taste. With the fudge icing you will want to chill it for at least an hour until it is solid enough to spread… unlike I did on my first try above where it was a bit runny!

When the cake is cool spread the buttercream on one half and sandwich on the other. Swirl on the fudge icing to finish. The cake can be eaten as it comes or is amazing with cream too!

I made this with my 2 year old nephew, we had a lot of fun!

And just to keep you happy, here’s a sneak preview of Cupcake’s pressie….

When It Rains, It Pours and Sun Bleached Beauty Necklace

Nothing seems to be going right lately. As I have said previously, I’m currently not on my cruise ship as I came home for my Grandmother’s funeral. It all went very well, thank you for asking! However, I’m now stuck at home because of the volcanic ash cloud crisis. “But Joanne, the ash cloud has gone away!” I hear you all cry. Yes, I know, but at the beginning of the week my employer decided it would be safer to keep me at home for two more weeks to save me getting stuck somewhere. This decision and new flight bookings were all made before BA pushed the first flight through! Ah well, more time for crafting I say! And to top it all off, my other Grandmother is now in hospital with a suspected heart attack…. When it rains it pours apparently! To cheer me, and you, up here’s some new crafting…

When I picked up this piece of shell in St. Kitts, battered smooth by the power of the ocean, I knew it had to be made into a necklace. I wire wrapped the top with white coated wire, then chose beads that reflected it’s colouring. I chose a pallet that made me think of wood or bones bleached in the sun on a hot dry beach. I used frosted white glass beads found in New York and pale wooden beads from Miami Florida. I strung the whole thing on pale hemp to give it that washed ashore feel.

I think the neutral colours and simplicity of this piece will work well with many outfits. It is currently available for sale in my store here.

Share the Handmade Love Wednesdays - Noo Friends!

This week's Share the Handmade Love focuses on some people I just met on Etsy. While I have been home I have made the effort to get involved in the community. The free internet is the main cause, I have to say! I have been spending time in the UK Etsy chat thread and met some fab people, who are the focus of my treasury today...


Left to right, top to bottom:
Wildflower Necklace by Lazygiraffe see it here
Highland Mist Whisky Marmalade by Marmalady see it here
Roller Disco Bear by Clarebear see it here
Pink Flowers Wall Hanging by OneLittleHouse see it here
Real Bird Tweet British Kingfisher by Feltmeup see it here
Turtle Neck Poncho by Moocowhandknits see it here

ps.... the treasury frame here was developed by Haptree. Check out the blog here

Deep Blue Sea Necklace and Happy Birthday Dad!

I got a little bit of time to myself this weekend, so I overhauled my site and added new items to my Etsy store. Leave a comment to let me know what you think of both!

See my website here

See my store here

And now for some new craftiness...
I found this chunk of shell in Aruba and it reminded me of a pelvis bone ;-) I liked the bleached quality of its colours, but also liked the negative space created by the central column. Rather than combining it with just pale beads I opted to use it as a base to showcase brighter colours… like the blue of the sea where I found it.

The shell is wire-wrapped with blue coated wire. It is accompanied by wooden beads from Miami, Florida and glass beads from New York and Germany. The harmonising sea grass coloured hemp and blue green beads bring the power of the ocean to this piece.

This necklace is currently available in my store here

And finally, it's my Dad's birthday today. So everyone say Happy Birthday to Mr. Donn!!