Felty inspirations

Last year, when Mr PC and I went home to Scotland (it's my 'home' as in where I belong/come from - long story) we went to Hopetoun House for a look round. I actually considered is as a venue for our wedding and although it is absolutely stunning, it was also absolutely out of our budget! Anyway, I digress.

We visited this lovely house on the outskirts of Queensferry and I 'oohed' and 'aahed' at pretty much everything from the gorgeous chairs to the curtains and wall hangings. In one of the bedrooms there was a beautiful four poster bed with newly refitted curtains and a matching bedspread. I was so amazed at the pattern and the fact that it was all hand cut and sewn, I couldn't stop looking at it! I was even more impressed that is was made from recycled linens!

 

It's actually quite simple felt appliqué but it really caught my eye and I've been mulling it over ever since. Mr PC promised to devise me a pattern from the pictures and I've been thinking of sewing a table runner or some placemats. 

It will be a challenge especially as I'm rubbish with scissors and cutting neatly (I must have missed that day at school), but it might be worth the effort if I can replicate this for my own home.

Have you been anywhere recently that has inspired you?

Facebook selling

Today I have launched a new way for people to buy straight from my Facebook page!

This new photo album has photos of items which are available only on my Facebook page. All you need to do is leave a comment on the photo of the item you would like to purchase and then I will contact you with more details!

More items to be added soon so keep an eye out for something handmade and unique!

You can also make purchases from my Etsy shop and if you use promo code 15OFF you'll get 15% off until Friday 1st July!!

Handmade rocks!

Hello and welcome to another Monday! The weather where I am is glorious and just so hot, I hope you're getting great summery weather today too!

We had a great time at the Vintage and Handmade Market in Chelmsford this weekend. It was a bit quieter than usual but we met some lovely people and I even got a few bespoke orders which is great news! Here are a few pics from my stall, I laid it out a bit different and I think it worked well.

PS. If you see anything you like, leave me a comment and I'll let you know if it's still available!

Friday Suppers: Something with apples

Do you struggle to get your 5 a day? Well, do not fret, Princess Crafts has come to the rescue!

This is a great way to get some of your 5 a day... Apple and Cinnamon Squares!

I decided to make this part of the Friday Suppers series as it is great for a Friday treat and technically can count as a pudding. If Friday is Cake Day in your office,  then take these in and you'll have loads of new friends instantly!

This recipe is one that my mum has had for years and we always used to make it when I was a kid. The smell alone is enough to make you swoon...! It is dead easy to make and requires no previous baking experience.

You will see from the pics that there are only 4 squares left, well the recipe makes about 9 generous sized squares but these are so moreish that they barely make it out of the baking tin and into the storage tin, they generally fall straight into my tummy...

Anyway, on with the recipe!

You will need:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar
2tsp baking powder
2 eggs
2tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
3 apples, peeled and sliced

8x8inch tin, greased and floured

To make:
1. Sift dry ingredients and mix well.
2. Add the eggs, vanilla and butter and mix thoroughly.
3. Add the chopped nuts and apples and mix well with a spoon. If you use an electric mixer at this point you'll mush up the apples and nuts.
4. Put the mixture into the tin and spread out to make sure it's even. Don't worry if the mixture feels a bit thick, it's meant to be.
5. Bake at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes.
6. Once cooked, let them cool in the tin before using a plactic knife/spatula to cut into squares. Don't use a metal knife otherwise you'll scratch up your tin!

Best served with a giant mug of your favourite hot drink and try not to eat them all at once!!

PS. Please let me know what you think of these if you try them!

WIP: Organising a food and craft market

People everywhere are making and selling their beautiful handmade wares, and some of them, like me are very keen on promoting handmade crafts as much as possible. So with this in mind, I have decided to try my hand at organising a craft market of my own!

At the moment the aim is to start a regular Food and Craft Market in Braintree which will showcase local crafters, artisans and food producers. This is something that our area is lacking at the moment but there are so many local people with beautiful creations ready to be found! I decided to organise it myself and have a go at creating a really exciting event for all the family.

So this is an appeal to all crafters and foodies, please get in touch if you would be interested in having a stall at this new market, the more the merrier and the more varied the stalls, the better!!

More details coming soon!

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Havering Handmade in pictures

On Saturday, I was at my second Havering Handmade and although it was a quiet day for us all, we had a good time and I met some lovely new crafty peeps.

I thought I'd share some pics of my stall, as each time I set it up it looks different. If you see anything that takes your fancy just get in touch and I'll let you know if I still have it in stock!!

Friday Suppers: Lamb steaks and vegetable cous cous

Here we are again, another Friday is upon us and the weekend is a few hours away!!

For this week's Friday Supper, we're having lamb leg steaks and vegetable cous cous.

This recipe serves 2.
You will need:

For the lamb
2 lamb leg steaks, seasoned
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Olive oil

For the cous cous
3 handfuls of cous cous
1 onion
1 pepper
Handful of mushrooms
Olive oil
Knob of butter

1) In a shallow dish, mix the lemon juice and zest with the garlic and olive oil. Place the lamb into the marinade and leave for 30 mins-1 hour. Make sure the meat is well covered, this allows the it to soak up the flavours.

Marinade ready and waiting

Lamb in the marinade for 30-60 mins

2) While the lamb is marinading, chop the vegetables for the cous cous and lightly fry them in some oil. Once cooked, put to one side so you're ready to assemble the cous cous later. 

Cook the veggies

Set aside once cooked

3) Once the lamb has marinaded, heat up the BBQ or a griddle pan (a frying pan will also do) so it's nice and hot. Then place the lamb in and watch it sizzle!

4) Keep an eye on the lamb as it cooks, and turn it every few minutes so it browns evenly.

5) As the lamb cooks, put a small saucepan on to heat and pop in the cous cous. Stir and allow it to heat up a little bit, then add the butter and keep stirring.

Stir the cous cous in the hot pan

6) Add just enough boiling water to cover the cous cous and let it boil off, about 1-2 mins. Keep stirring so it doesn't stick together. The water MUST be boiling before you put it in otherwise your cous cous will go soggy!

Let the water boil off

7) Don't forget to check how the lamb is doing! Cook it to your taste, Mr PC and I prefer it medium/rare but you can have it well done if you want.

8) Once the water has boiled off and the cous cous is plumped up, add the vegetables you cooked earlier along with some olive oil. Stir together and keep on a medium heat. Then put the pan lid on and allow the cous cous to steam in the pan while you sort the lamb out and fetch some plates.

Stir in the veg

Put lid on and allow to steam

9) Once the lamb is ready serve it alongside the cous cous and hey presto, a yummy dinner!

Grub's up!

WIP: Becoming a bona fide business lady

To date, my biggest (and possibly most scary) WIP is turning Princess Crafts into a proper fully functioning business that earns me some pennies and gives me the job satisfaction I deserve (and have yet to find in a 'proper' job).

For the last six months or so, I've been fannying thinking about with tons of ideas in my head about what I can do, could do, should do, want to do. I'm good with ideas but putting them into practice is sometimes a bit more tricky. It was time to give myself a kick up the bum. So, on 1st May I registered as self employed and now I have to do everything proper and not just diddle about here and there and actually make a huge concentrated effort to make it work. Eek!

I went to the local business development agency in Braintree and was mega surprised to see how helpful these peeps are to folk like me! There's so much support for new businesses out there, I never knew about. I had a chat with an advisor who helped me realise it was time to get my act together and do something about it. Double kick up the bum.

And now I'm doing a business start up course which is FREE! Five whole days of free expert advsie from loads of fab people who have been there, done that and made a business work!! Wowee!!

Yesterday was the first day and I learnt loads. Still got 4 days to go but it's exciting and by the end of it I should have a proper grown up business plan and some firmly set aims and objectives (and hopefully a clue how to go about trying to achieve them!).

Big fat book of things to learn about

Time to get thinking

Figuring out how many pennies I need to live on

Start putting a business plan together

My big fat notebook for important info to remember - a nice freebie from a Spa visit

So as far as a WIP this is my biggest undertaking so far and it will always be a WIP but that's ok because that's how a business should be. I want to be a proper business lady and I'm following my very own Yellow Brick Road to get there.

Finished WIP: Polka dotty hair band

Last week I wrote about turning a bow tie into a hairband, well I found my glue gun and got to work immediately! Here's the finished result, and I must say I'm quite impressed with it!

From bow tie to hair band

Silk covered hair band

And it only cost me £2 to make! Can't get better than that in any high street shop, especially considering it is silk!

Hello Monday

Hello, how are you? Hopefully you're not suffering the Monday Blues like me today. What is it about sunny weekends followed by skanky wet Mondays that makes us want to crawl back under the duvet and stay there til the next weekend...?

So, in order to add some brightness and some cheeriness to this otherwise grey and wet day, I'm sharing some pics I took last week when the sun was gloriously shining down on us. These pics are the newset addition to my growing teaset collection.

Tea for six!

A pile of teacups

A nice big plate for lots of cake!

Now, go have a cuppa and a biccie to shake off the Monday Blues.

Friday Suppers: Pizza

Hello and welcome to the second week of Friday Suppers.

This week has been hectic and time has run away from me. So this week's Friday Supper is a bit of a cheat because I haven't been organised enough. We're having Pizza and a DVD.


You will need:

A phone
Money to pay
Pizza takeaway menu
DVD


1. Find your favourite pizza takeaway menu
2. Choose your favourite, don't forget the garlic bread!
3. Call in the order and get it delivered at an appropriate time.
4. Get the dvd ready and wait for dinner to arrive!
5. Enjoy with a large glass of your fave drink.

Hope you enjoy your pizza, and next week I promise to create something exciting for you!

 

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WIP: Granny Squares - update

In a previous post I wrote about my progress on granny squares. Now that I've finished my giant granny square blanket, I'm ready to finish another WIP which has been on  hold for a while. I ran out of crochet cotton and so did the wool lady at the market where I bought it which meant zero progress was made for ages. I even lamented over the prospect that my blanket would never be finished...

But, after many trips to visit the wool lady, she's got the cotton back in stock so I grabbed as many as £8 would buy (they're only 50p a ball). Woohoo!! I'm just hoping I have enough now to get it finished.

I keep my crochet projects in a box in the living room ready to pick up as and when I get a chance.

I already had a pile of squares I made with the first lot of wool and I worked out a pattern for the blanket based on what I'd already made. The only problem is that now I've muddled up the old squares and the new squares and can't remember how many more I need to make. Oops.

I think I need to make 17 more of the blue/pink/blue/pink ones on the bottom left of this pic. Each square takes about 1 hour and so far I have 23 squares, so this really is a lengthy process. I'm not very good at making up my own patterns but I'm hoping it will come together nicely when it's ready to be stitched together.

What are you working on at the moment?

WIP: Polka dotty hair band

At the last vintage and handmade market in Chelmsford, I picked up a bargainous purple polka dotty bow tie. Now, I don't wear bow ties, and neither does Mr PC (can you imagine!) but I fell in love with it and I've decided to turn it into a hairband. Happy days.

I've unpicked the clasp and detached the bow ready to be put together into a hairband. And as soon as I find my glue gun, I'll get it finished. The glue gun rarely gets used and I think it has been swallowed up into a Black Hole aka the loft....