Flowaah Powaah :)

Tadaa here is a pic of the cute flower jacket (..or cardigan)

We even found flower buttons in different colors \(^__^)/

LiLoPe

Wandering in the world of quilting

I made my very first patchwork project when I was a little girl. It was a pillow case I made in school. After that (reason unknown) nothing...But for few years now I have been following this lovely blog Biscuit and little by little I have started to wander  deeper into the world of cute fabrics, batting and quilt binding (mitered corners all the way!).

My very first project was to make a baby blanket for my brothers first born. I had saved some fabrics from their wedding (I made small pouches for the wedding candy) and when I heard about the baby on the way I started right away to plan this project!

I got the pattern for the pouches from this blog a Spoonfull of Sugar. I just made it a bit smaller. It looks just like a little Japanese bento pouch and my bro was born in Japan so what could be better :D The colors were chosen by the bride :)

The blocks for the blanket I got from a book by Susan Briscoe, Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match. I chose the blocks 17 and 18 (kurume kasuri gakubuchi and kurume kasuri masumon blocks) I got this book from my sister - huge thank you to her :)

17             18

I only had two colors to work with so I made the small squares white in the block 18.

I decided to add some cross stitching...

Work in progress...(so many little pieces...maybe I overestimated my skills...)

For the batting I used Hobbs Heirloom premium cotton batting

I found really nice instructions on how to bind a quilt (with mitered corners!) from a blog called Made by Marzipan

And surprise surprise I don't have a picture of the finished blanket ^^' I really need to start paying attention to archiving my projects better!! Hehe it has nothing to do with too busy schedules and gift wrapping in a slight panic..

LiLoPe

Oh Golly Gosh!

So much stuff so little time! But soon very sooon I'll have some more time to do things I really enjoy! :) My Master's Thesis is almost done! Yay! That means more evenings crafting than reading, analyzing and writing. I have been doing some crafts on the side though. You know those never ending projects that tend to hide (read: I stash them) around the house :)

One never ending project was this raspberry blanket (project started 2012!!...) Now finished!!!

The block pattern is from a book by Melody Griffiths, 201 Crochet Motifs, Blocks, Projects and Ideas. I luuuv this book!

One very dear friend of mine an I also had a project together! A pretty flower jacket for a little girl :) unfortunately I only have pics of the not so ready project but they'll have to do (this pattern is also from the book by Griffiths) awesome book...

I still have some projects hiding/stashed...

LiLoPe

Knitting happiness one stitch at a time

My grandpa passed away last year in the Autumn. He was a cheery old chap who was always polite and thankful. I used to call him my teddy bear. He always had chilly feet and wore wool socks. When he passed away we found out that there were quite a few elderly people in the nursing home where our grandpa spent his last months (and probably in many other places too!) that didn't have relatives or funds to buy e.g. wool socks. This gave me and my best friend an idea to knit as much socks as we could so that we could deliver a little Christmas surprise to that nursing home. We decided that we would have a nature theme and all the socks would be named. We also wanted to make socks that were personal and colorful :)

In total we came up with 8 pairs of wool socks and 3 wrist warmers. The socks were named as follows (starting from the front): Brook Trout, Raspberry, Forest Geranium, Strawberry, Cliff by the Sea, Rowan Berry, Crocus and Apple. The wrist warmers were named: Coniferous Forest, Cherry Blossom and Yellow Waterlily.

In Loving Memory of My Grandpa

-LiLoPe-

Modified Kitty Litter Cake = FUN

We all know that the kitty litter cake is a über fun cake for halloween! But you can easily modify it for other occasions.

What you will need:

• a sponge cake
• a chocolate cake

• 1 package (200g) of cookies with chocolate chips
• OR
• 1 package (200g) of cookies with vanilla filling

• green food colouring (when making it in kitty litter style)
• 5dl vanilla sauce (I have used lactose free vanilla sauce available in Finland)
• 6-12 chocolate candy bars (I prefer these choco bars available in Finland)
• a kitty litter box (unused!!) or some kind of other container ^__^
• a pooper scooper (unused again :P ) or a little plastic shovel of some sort

You can use other recipes for the cakes but here are the ones I usually use:

Basic Sponge Cake

4 eggs

2 dl sugar

1 dl flour

1 dl potato flour

2 ts baking powder

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Grease the cake pan(diameter about 26 cm). Use a electric mixer to mix together eggs and sugar into a light foam. In a separate bowl combine the flour, potato flour and the baking powder. Mix the flour mixture carefully into the egg and sugar foam. Pour the batter in a greased cake pan. Bake in the lower part of the oven for 40 minutes.

Delicious Chocolate Cake

200 g dark chocolate (at least 44% cocoa)

200 g butter (unsalted)

200 g sugar

4 eggs

1 ts baking powder

1 dl flour

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Grease the cake pan (diameter 20-24 cm). Melt the chocolate and butter in a sauce pan over a low heat (stir stir and stir so the mixture wont burn). In a separate bowl use an electric mixer to mix the eggs and sugar into a thick light foam. Use one more bowl to mix the flour and baking powder. Combine the egg and sugar foam with the flours stir it gently. Add the melted (and cooled) chocolate and butter mixture and keep mixing it gently. Pour the batter in a greased cake pan . Bake for 15 minutes. If you want the cake to be a mud cake bake only for 10 minutes.

While the cakes are cooling crush the cookies (choco chip or vanilla filling). Add few drops of green food colouring in the crushed cookies and mix. After the cakes have cooled take a large bowl and crumble the cakes in the bowl. Add the vanilla sauce in the cake mixture. Take about 1/3 of the cookie crumbs and add them in the cake and vanilla sauce mixture. Put the cake "mush" in the kitty litter box. Put half of the chocolate bars in a microwave safe dish and heat until softened. Bury the soft bars randomly in the cake and sprinkle the cake with the remaining cookie crumbs. (Kitty version) Heat the rest of the choco bars and modify the shape of the bars -> poo style! Place on top of the cake :D 

If you are able to restrain yourself the cake will taste awesome after spending one night in the refrigerator!

Here is the kitty litter style cake (couldn't find a pic of the one I made but here's one from Brookage) 

Here's the version I made for my husbands 30th B-day with a little drum kit on top. I didn't use the green food colouring here.

I've also made this so that there was a little pink tractor on it :) Only your imagination is the limit!

Have fun times baking!

                                                                                           ♥LiLoPe

Rhubarb vol. 2

It has been quite warm the past few days here in Finland. Sunshine, rain, thunder..quite like living in a green house – hot and humid. Now what would be a better way to cool yourself than with a icy rhubarb soda. Well there’re lots of rhubarb growing outside in our garden and the freezer is full of ice! Only thing I needed was a recipe since I had only made juice of red and blackcurrant and I guess it works a bit differently with rhubarb. This is what I found from Culinate.

Rhubarb Soda

1½ cups rhubarb, roughly chopped

1 cup sugar

1½ cups water

Sparkling water

Ice

Place rhubarb, sugar, and 1½ cups of water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Cook for about 15 minutes, until the syrup is bright pink.

Turn off the heat and allow to cool. Strain syrup into a large jar.

To make each soda, measure ¼ cup rhubarb syrup into a glass. Add enough sparkling water to fill the glass ⅔ full. Stir to mix, then add ice.

I also made this so that I replaced the sugar with syrup. The color changed quite much..I did use dark syrup so...hmmm well I think I prefer the sugar version-> PINK! The soda can taste a bit sweet (not too sweet in my opinion) but you can easily adjust the sweetness level by changing the amount of sugar/syrup to match your taste. Some like it sweeter than others ;)

Happy times...

LiLoPe

Pomegranates!

I'm so excited! I received a package today containing three Fat Quarter (21" x 18") samples of fabric with my own design!!! The theme is "pomegranates" and here are few pics which I took outside so that I could use the sunlight to show the colors as they really are :)

Here's all the colors together..I really like them all! ^___^ They are going to give a juicy retro vibe to our dark brown sofa -> you guessed right PILLOW COVERS :D

Here's a close up of the "Red Pomegranates" my very first desing! Yay!

Here's the "Yellow Pomegranates" (note that the red one is still trying to steal the show from behind :P) 

And here's the "Green Pomegranates" which I think is kind of groovy!

I already have a black and white design on it's way ^___^ gonna make something nice for someone (not telling who since that person could be reading this! Sneaky me, thehehehee ^___^)

Feeling crafty?? Just go to SpoonFlower and start designing! It's soo  addictive and fun!

Gone totally "Pomegranates" LiLoPe

Rhubarb treats vol. 1

I was going through our freezer and noticed that I had some frozen rhubarb still left from last year.

As there already is a new crop growing in our garden I thought that it's time to clear out the old to make room for the new! (what I good excuse to make something yummy ^-^)

And what goes better with rhubarb than sweet sweeeeet chocolate! So I decided to make a mud cake /drool...

Mud Cake

150 g dark chocolate (44%)
50 g even darker chocolate (70%)
1ts baking powder
4 eggs
2 dl sugar
2.5 dl flour
200 g butter


♥ Preheat the oven to 200 C. Whisk together the eggs and the sugar until mixture is light yellow and foamy (approx. 5 minutes fierce whisking.)
♥ Melt the chocolate and the butter and let it cool a bit before slowly pouring it into the sugar and egg mixture (fierce whisking required!)
♥ In a separate bowl mix together the flour and the baking powder. Then add the flour mixture by gently folding it in with a spatula. I used a wooden spatula.
♥ Prepare your cake tin, diameter approx. 21-25 cm ( I used 21 cm.) You can butter it and use breadcrumbs or flour or line it with parchment paper. The choice is yours :)
♥ Stick it in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes depending on the size of your cake tin, 25cm->12min and 21cm->15min.


Because rhubarb isn't really photo-genetic (looks terrible after cooking some time in the pan...) I thought it might be best to mix it with something...something creamy...


Chef's little helper was keeping an eye out under the table...

Rhubarb Whipped Cream

250 g rhubarb (if fresh chop them up if frozen no need to chop)

cane syrup
2 dl double cream
sugar


Just toss the rhubarb in the pan. If you are using fresh rhubarb you can add ½ dl water in the pan (when using frozen ones there is no need to add water.) Boil the rhubarb and add cane syrup. The amount of the syrup depends on your taste buds, so make sure to taste it and add more if needed. Let it cool (best is to cool it first to room temperature and then put it in the refrigerator for a while.)
Start whisking the cream and add some sugar while whisking if you like...I know I like ^-^ Then mix together the rhubarb syrup and the whipped cream.


Enjoy!

"Omnomnomnomnomno..."

                     

LiLoPe

Melting!

I stumbled across this awesome idea while I was googling for a snowman cupcake recipe :)

The original can be found at The Decorated Cookie and there are very detailed instructions on how to make these funny cookies :) My only problem is that because I live in Finland I can't usually get my hands on all the ingredients mentioned in the recipes I have to improvise a bit.


I had some gingerbread cookie dough in the freezer which I ended up using as the "base" for the snowman. For the frosting I used royal icing (which I made!) I got the recipe from Kinuskikissa. Unfortunately her blog is in Finnish but here is the recipe for the royal icing in English:

Royal Icing (Basic recipe)

1/4 dl egg white (approx. 0.11 cup)

1.5 dl powdered sugar (approx. 0.63 cup)

3 drops of lemon juice

1. Mix together the egg white and 1 dl (0.42 cup) of the powdered sugar in a medium sized bowl with a electric mixer for about 3 minutes.

2. Add the lemon juice and the rest of the powdered sugar and mix until nice and smooth 1-2 minutes.

3. If needed add some color (gel paste etc.)

For the head and the carrot I used white sugar paste and for the orange and black color I used the icing colors from Wilton. The little twig arms are made of chocolate.

Now the only problem is that no one has the heart to eat these little fellows :D

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue ♥

The wedding was sooo nice ♥ Everything went well and most of all the two cuties got to say  ♥ I do ♥ 

As I was telling before I had a secret crafting mission for this special occasion ;) You know those little wedding favors (boxes, little organza bags etc.) which are filled with sweets...well I crocheted 150 of those. I must say it was quite a project and I think I'm not going to do it again any day soon ;) but it was well worth it! The wedding color themes came from snow, ice and the forest and I think the little crocheted favor bags looked like small snowballs.

Quite cute if you don't mind me saying ;) The satin ribbon was icy blue and the tiny crystal like bead made them perfect!

I also had the privilege to make "the bride and the groom" on top of the wedding cake. I knew that a beautiful pair of swans would be just the thing for this couple :) I bought a swan silicone mold and started experimenting..thank goodness I started it wayyy before the big day..

The swans are made of white gum paste (or sugar paste or candy clay...many names for a super versatile stuff!) and they are coated with pearl white edible spray. As soon as I get a pic of these on top of the wedding cake I will post it ♥ 

LadyBugs, BumbleBees...

All Kitties are now ready! Woke up really early this morning and decided that it's now or never ;) And I even got pics! It's really cloudy here but I think they turned out quite nice.
Here is the newcomer LadyBugKitty

It took me some time to figure out how to make the red "flappy" things (I also made pair of little blue bug wings underneath the red thingies.)

The BumbleBeeKitty is always fun to make (it was my very first "bug type" kitty and I just looove those feelers :D) 

Other Kitties that I made were AppleKitty, BunnyKitty and BearKitty. I hope they will bring a sprinkling of cuteness to their new owners ♥

Diamonds and Pearls and Satin Bows, That's what little cute Bears are made of

Here's a little CutiePie I've been working on in between different projects....Drumroll please ^___^

"Uhm...Pssst you're facing the wrong way.."

♥CutiePie♥

CutiePie is made of Drops Symphony and Schachenmayr Catania yarns and It was my very first experiment with this kind of special yarn..and maybe after a looong break I will do something like this again..'cos even though it was very rewarding in the end - words "nerve wracking" would have described my feelings when I was putting this little furball together >__< Well it wasn't all blood sweat and tears. I had extra fun making the satin bows with little pearls and hearts ♥♥ 

Bears and Bunnies Welcome You ♥

Autumn! What a lovely time of the year!! It is so pretty! All the different colors (I think maple trees are the most beautiful trees during autumn) and the dark nights -during summer the nights are well...nightless nights..so there's no use putting lanterns etc. outside because it doesn't get dark and I looove lanterns- Also my B-day is coming up which means PRESENTS! :D Gotta luv autumn!

In celebration of autumn I decided to decorate our wreath according to the theme :) I also made a FunnyBunny and SeriouzBear pattern to Etsy and in the process FunnyBunny-Carrot and SeriouzBear-Marshmallow were created. Now they are keeping guard at our front door so as a tiny hint *it's good to have cookies with you if you are planning to stop by*

♥ Inspiring Autumn for Everyone ♥

★ Magic Ring ★ Tutorial ★

One way to start your amigurumi is to make the basic "make 2ch and then do the required amount of sc in the 1st chain." Then there is the ★Magic Ring/Circle★ which in my opinion gives a much nicer result. I remember when I started making little amis and I had no idea what Magic Ring was AND in the first pattern that I tried to make there were no instructions on how to begin...no "2ch etc." or Magic Ring...just "R1-make 7 sc" and believe me it's quite hard to find the information that you need when you don't really know what you are looking for ^___^'


But I'm here to reveal the secrets of the Magic Ring and here is a little tutorial I made (click on the pics to make them bigger)

I hope this helps the ones who are wondering the mysteries of the Magic Ring :] There are also few good tutorials in YouTube that might be handy for example Magic Circle1 and Magic Circle2 and many more.

♥

Knitting, crocheting and reading

I usually don't have time to do any leisure reading (I only tend to read books that are related to my studies...bit boring..I know...) I think it's because I like "multitasking." Like knitting/crocheting while watching TV. I have not mastered the art of reading and doing handcrafts at the same time..I probably never will :P Is it even possible?! I might start reading a book with superduper enthusiasm but then the unavoidable happens and I start to think all the other things I could be doing. In most cases the book ends up buried under multiple balls of yarn (and when I receive a notice from the library the epic quest in finding the looong overdue book begins.) Maybe I have just been reading the wrong kind of books! This is the conclusion I came up with the other day when I noticed that I had stumbled upon a book that makes me want to read it here and now and also makes me want to crochet and knit like never before! All thanks goes to my mum ♥Love her to bits♥ who brought me this book and said "I think you might like this one." She was sooo right!


The book is called "The Friday Night Knitting Club" by Kate Jacobs.

I have now reached chapter 9 (out of 36!! Still soo many pages to explore♥) And today I also found out that there is a sequel called "Knit Two" AMG I think I'm in heaven :D

Oh Goodies :)

As I told in my previous post I had ordered some sweet sweet things (eyes, noses, keychains etc.) Well all the things arrived on time (...some time ago..sorry for being this slow at posting!!) I got the eyes and noses which I ordered from 6060 's Etsy shop ♥

Starting from front 4.5mm animal eyes, 6mm albino eyes and 6mm triangle noses

All the eyes are safety eyes with washers (noses too) and there is a really handy safety eye/nose installation guide here. Hehe I think the albino eyes are pretty cool and now that it's autumn I'm starting to get all these ideas about creepy little critters with spooky eyes o_O!

I also ordered some keychains, rings, bells etc. from the following online stores Charlotta, Sinelli and Slöjd-Detaljer.

20mm rings, 24mm rings, tiny bells and keychains

I have also done some crocheting (not just shopping :P) I made few FunnyBunnies and SeriouzBears ♥ (I think I'm addicted to these little fellows)

I've even opened a little LiLoPe Etsy Shop as some of you may have noticed the "Mini Etsy." I only have few items there at the moment (it took me quite a while to figure out how to get started with Etsy...still quite a lot left to figure out I guess)


I'm also working on a secret project ♥ my sister is getting married ♥ and I'm making something cute for the special occasion..but it's all hush hush for now :)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

My Kingdom in a Corner ^___^

You know how the stores where they sell yarn and all the other lovely stuff have those colorful shelfs full of balls of wool..well well...Now I haz a little colorful paradise of my own :) I bought two shelfs -which were originally meant for CDs but who cares if they look good- stuck them on the wall and Voilà!

 I think it looks pretty nice :)

I also bought this little basket <3 filled with Schachenmayr Catania yarn (my fav when it comes to making little amis ^___^)

Hmmm I've also ordered some eyes and noses for my amigurumi from Etsy from 6060 :) ooo I can't wait for them to arrive! Got so many ideas already! 

This post should have been named "The Big Spender" :P