Chocolate Cake

Miss E & I have just finished baking a chocolate cake.  This cake has been in my life forever - it is the first thing my mother taught me to cook.  I have made it with the girls since they were old enough to stir a spoon and lick the bowl.  I bake it in the cake tin mum used, which she got as a wedding present in 1962.  It is super easy, in 40 minutes you can have it cooked and ready to serve.

Mum's Chocolate Cake (brownie really)

125g butter - melted
1/2 cup brown sugar -mixed into melted butter

Cool slightly

Add 1 egg, beat in until mixture binds
Stir in 1 cup of sifted self raising flour & 2 tablespoons of cocoa
Add a teaspoon of vanilla & 2 tablespoons of milk

Mix well.  Pour into slice tin or square cake tin.  Bake for about 15-20 minutes.

While the cake is baking, make the icing:

1/2 cup sifted icing sugar and 1 tablespoon of cocoa

Add a dash of vanilla and about 1 tablespoon of milk (just enough to make a thick icing)

When the cake comes out of the oven, cool for about 5 minutes before adding the icing.  I like to sprinkle coconut over the top.

Let cool ..... enjoy with a cup of tea!

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I have over the years.

Happy Birthday Mum

It is my mother's birthday today - if she was still with us she would be 70.  It is difficult to imagine mum as being 70, she will always be 48 to me.  I wonder what she would have been like as an older lady, what our relationship would be now that I am a mother, am I the person she hoped I would be?

Mum passed away 21 years ago - it seems like a whole life time ago.  As I make my journey through motherhood, I find myself missing her more now than in the early years. Now is the time that I need her advice and her guidance.  I long for her company.  I have a much clearer understanding of my parents now that I am a parent and I want to thank her and dad for being the parents they were, for giving me the childhood I had, which was the foundations for the woman I have become.

So "Happy Birthday" Mum.  I love you. xx

RTW Tailoring Sew-A-Long

I found this great blog pattern ~scissors~cloth.  Sherry is hosting a Ready to Wear Tailoring Sew-a-Long, which I have decided to do. 

This is the coat I am going to make

I recently got Lady Grey from Colette Patterns, so this sew-a-long has come at the perfect time.  I am now in the hunt for some great fabric, I have red in mind - but time is running short, the sew-a-long starts on 1 April.

I can't decide what type of fabric I want to use.  It doesn't get that cold here, so I am thinking I will look for something quite lightweight, maybe a gaberdine or a light wool blend would be perfect - if I can find some.  I'm going to have a hunt tomorrow - so fingers crossed I come home with something. 

I will post my progress throughout the sew-a-long.  This is going to be fun!

Let's get serious

Ok - I need to get serious about keeping up-to-date with my blog.  Here's a quick overview of the sewing I've been doing.

Last week's challenge was to turn an ugly pattern envelope image into something beautiful.  Not sure I managed this.  I thought this dress was going to be so easy, as I have used this pattern before, and it is supposed to be a 1 hour express dress. 

I spent hours on this dress and sadly, the result does not reflect the time spent.  I had to take the side seams in lots, and the neckline was just dull.  After trying a few different options I decided on a ruffle around the neckline and over the shoulder straps.  I think this saves the dress from being truely awful.  I do love the fabric though.

This is the dress before the ruffle was added.

This is the end result.

While fiddling around with the neckline of this dress I asked myself the question "how long is too long to spend on a project?  Does it matter how long it takes to get something you are happy with?"  I'm still thinking about this, but I think for me I do this for my pleasure, so while I am enjoying the process the time invested doesn't really matter.   Hopefully at the end of the process I will have something I am proud to wear, but as we all know, this isn't always the result we get.

In honour of St Patrick's Day - the Sew Weekly challenge was "Going Green".  Here is my "creation"

Simplicity 2586 is fastly becoming my "go to" pattern.  This pattern goes together very easily, and there are lots of scope to make your own design changes.

Catching up

It's been a little while between posts - I am so slack (actually I don't really have anything of interest to write about!).

I do however, have 2 more dresses & a pair of bloomers to post, as I continue with Sew Weekly Challenges. 

This week the theme was "Local Colour".  I originally planned to do a dress in a green & navy chiffonny stuff that I found last week at Spotlight, as everything is so green after all the summer rain we have had.  Now I haven't had a lot of time to sew this week (busy doing I don't know what else).  Thursday was the designated day to create and sew ..... not so successfully!  This fabric will now turn into a top for next week's challenge (green for St Patrick's day). 

Luckily, I had a dress cut out and waiting (it was my original choice for "And the winner is", so not all was lost.  Here is the result, along with the inspiration I used for my Summer Storms dress ...

Last week was the Getting Ready for spring with Colette patterns challenge.  As the patterns I ordered didn't arrive in time, I made The Madeleine mini bloomers, which is a free downloadable pattern.  Now there is no way I was going to model these, so I made them for Miss A ....

Not a great photo - I had to use my phone, as I can't find the charger for the camera - aghhhh! 

I have received the patterns now, and can't wait to make them up, they look beautiful and everyone who used them last week had only nice things to say.  It is great that an independent pattern maker is getting some credit.  Check out Colette patterns here.

Here is my dress for the challenge "And the Winner is" ......

Inspiration from My Fair Lady.



Spring Palette

Spring Palette by Pomegranite featuring blue tops
This is the palette I had in mind a month ago when I thought about taking up the challenge.  I finally sat down today and devoted way too many hours to working out how to actually create the above image (thanks to Polyvore).

The palette was created around several pieces of fabric from my stash - red floral Japanese fabric, navy stretch cotton and some floral Liberty fabric.  As luck would have it, these fitted in perfectly with the last two weeks of the Sew Weekly challenges.  I posted some pictures of the navy pants and top in my last post, and here is a piccie of my red dress:

To complete my spring palette I plan to make either the Oolong  or Crepe dress,(when they finally get here), and I got some gorgeous navy cotton fabric today, which I think I will make into a top (some fab ideas at Polyvore).

I am having so much fun with these challenges - I wonder what I ever did with my time before???