Two Crafty Brownies

Inspired by mini eggs!

Hello dear friends!

Ooo things are warming up here in London town! The Spring has sprung, the sun has been shining a little more and the world is starting to look really colourful. Here in Two Crafty Brownies Land, Jenny and I are very excited about our very first workshops. We are holding them in such a wonderful setting, the Arbour Café at The Boma Garden Centre in Kentish Town. We will be teaching how to make your very own journal/planner on the 27th April and a floral appliqué embroidery hoop on the 8th May. If you are interested in either of our workshops, you can do so and book a place by clicking on our workshops tab above or follow this link! We do hope some of you can make it!

Whilst Jenny has been inspired to decoupage with napkins, yielding beautiful results, I have been slightly obsessed with Cadbury’s mini eggs! Maybe it goes without saying that I love eating them. Over on instagram, I described them as little eggs of joy with speckled, crunchy exteriors and melt in the mouth chocolate centres. This may sound like an advert but sadly I have not been sponsored to write this post although if you are reading this Cadbury’s, you may be able to twist my arm!

I’m mostly inspired to eat them straight away but I did have enough willpower to save a few to decorate some little spring cupcakes. The kids were sooooo happy when they came home from school on this day….

I even speckled the buttercream with sifted cocoa. Look, there’s a mini egg thief about!….

I'm not impressed that Cadbury's don't make a blue mini egg! Surely there should be right? I may just start a campaign. Who's with me?......Not important enough a cause you say? Hhmph!

As well as eating them, the pretty speckled shells of mini eggs has got me crafting. I just love this look. I mean, take a look at these socks,. Don’t you just love them?.........

Also, look at those little feet! They belong to my littlest girl (all the heart eyes).

I find myself attracted to all the speckled yarn and I have to try very hard not to purchase every ball of speckled wool I see! Occasionally though, yarn just has this habit of following me home. Have you been witness to this phenomenon or is it just me? Very strange…..

This yarn is from Rico Design and I bought it from here in cream and peach too as the cream needed a friend. I am in the process of hooking up a cushion cover……….the colours make me so happy as I hook….

I’ve also had the air drying clay out again. I have played with this before as you may know. Check out the tutorials here if you fancy having a go. I made spring themed shapes using these fab cookie cutters from Paperchase....

I painted them using ceramic paint which has a glossy finish and speckled them by dipping a paint brush in gold paint and flicking the bristles with my finger. Don’t they look cute?

I am going to make them into brooches, keyrings and magnets for my little cousins as surprise Spring gifts.

I've also got a bit crafty with fabric paint, a stencil I made earlier (of an avocado stone which looks very much like a mini egg), a sponge, a paint brush and cream cotton fabric…..

I am going to transform the speckled fabric into a pouch! I might have to keep this one……...

Phew! Are you all mini-egged and speckled out? I’m not sure I am quite yet…..

The kids break up today for their Easter hols and I am very excited about the next couple of weeks of pottering and larking about with them and the hubby. Have you got any plans for Easter? Whatever your plans, do have a smashing time my lovely mini-eggs! (compliments indeed!)....

All the love and hugs,

Lucy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxzzzzzzxxxxxxxxxxx

Pottering and Playing....

Hello friends!

For me, the Easter holidays are lovely. The end of term busyness is over, the days are longer, warmer and sunnier, the kids and the hubby (who is a teacher) are off school and work, and the diary is refreshingly empty. I think I may actually prefer it to the Christmas hols (gasp!) and you know how much I love Christmas!!!. For us, the Easter break is so much quieter and event free, so we get to potter around, pootle about and play!

Even though holiday pootling was the aim, I did ring fence (serious business terminology!) a couple of days for Two Crafty Brownies product design and development. However this is a difficult and sometimes stressful task in my household, with no room dedicated to my busyness and business and with my 4 lovelies knocking about, they are in my work space and I am in their play space. I did manage a couple of hours here and there, but what I dedicated lots of time to this hols, which is possible to do when pottering with the rest of the fam, is photography. Photography isn’t a past time I’ve spent a lot of time on historically, but I’ve been practising and playing with my relatively new camera, a Nikon Coolpix S9900, taking lots of pics and some films too.

So this is my holiday slide show but don’t nod off - there is a cool little film of Brownie making with recipe at the end!

When the sun was shining, I took pics of blue skies and blossom….

 

 

 And took advantage of the sunshine coming inside, creating patterns of light on the table…….

 

I took lots of photos whilst pottering about in London, like Jenny, finding beauty in our city….

St Pancras International Station......

 

Tiles on the underground.......

 

 

 

Street art.......

 

We Brownies and our families made our way to Crafty Fox Market, a great market for crafty businesses (we hope to sell here one day!), enjoying London as we went…..

 

We may have had to stop in a pub and rest our weary legs and enjoy a meal and a glass of prosecco…….

 

I loved taking pics at London Zoo, where so much wonderful conservation work is carried out. Amazing colours, animals, setting…….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was taking a pic of this poster I liked, when a mongoose did pop through, but I wasn't quick enough to snap him!..….

 

I did a double take when I walked past the first aid post…….

 

We popped into Brighton and I just couldn’t put my camera away. I loved it! We pottered along the pebbly beach, gazing at the sea, past the beach huts...…

 

 

 

 

 

...the bandstand, the old pier and other interesting sights worthy of a pic or 2……

 

 

 

 

...into town, into Choccywoccydoodah. This, believe it or not, is made of chocolate......

 

I found it difficult to be restrained in Brighton sewing centre ..........

 

and in the reclamation yards and thrift shops...... 

 

The architecture of Brighton Royal Pavillion wowed us.......

 

I clicked and I clicked until the sun went down….

 

Back at home, I did a spot of baking from this book and played about with the short film setting on my camera…..I give you Making Crafty Brownies……

 

 

Please ignore that annoying background music - I can't seem to get rid of it on my camera! If you did play it with the sound on you may or may not have heard one of my children say the word 'bum'! Oh dear, what was I saying about me in their space and them in mine? Moving swiftly on, these brownies are so tasty! Here’s the recipe:

Melt 185g/6.5oz dark chocolate and same amount of unsalted butter together. Cool slightly. Whisk 3 large eggs and 275g/9.5oz golden caster sugar together until doubled in size.

Fold melted choc and butter into this egg and sugar mixture.

Sift over 85g/3oz plain flour and 40g/1.5oz cocoa powder and fold in.

Stir in 50g/2oz chopped milk choc and 50g/2oz of chopped white choc.

Pour into lined (with foil) 20cm/8” square tin and bake for about 40mins (recipe says 25min but I always have to leave it in for longer!) at 160C.

Leave to cool in tin, cut into squares, dust with icing sugar and enjoy!!

 

My lovelies, I have been so excited about sharing my photos with you. Thank you so much for indulging me and sitting through my holiday slide show! Do you have any useful tips to pass on about photography for blogging, social media or in general? I’d love to hear them!

Much love

Lucy xxxxxxxxxxx

Is it Spring yet?

Hello my dears! This is a bit of an ‘around here/bits and pieces/lately’ post from me this week. Here in the UK our school age children have 2 weeks off, and this year it started with Easter weekend. Both my hubby and I were off for the whole weekend (quite often one or other of us is working in our respective hospitals) and the four days stretched invitingly ahead.

To be honest, my lovelies, I am a pottering at home sort of person. I will go out on trips, but now my boys are older and don't require entertaining as much, I really cherish being at home, cooking, baking and spending time in my tiny but oh so precious sewing room.

 

My hubby on the other hand is a real ‘let's go on a trip’ person. He hates staying in all day and will sometimes fit two or three outings into a day! He had forewarned me that the weather would be best on Good Friday, so I hatched a sneaky plan of enticing him out early, and then spending the rest of the day at home!

Lovelies, in my heart I think I am not really a city person. I love the countryside, and I feel far more peaceful there. In the city I feel hemmed in by the buildings, and uninspired by the views. So I find heading out for a walk rather challenging. I start off sulky, I whisper to myself that the streets are ugly and that the buildings are too tall. I realise this is not the best way to make the most of things……. So on Friday morning I decided to look for the beauty in my surroundings….

The streets near my home have rows of these prettily painted houses, and look at that glorious blue sky! We headed down the road to join the Regent’s Canal. It is cool and dark down on the canal path. I was captivated by this pretty house and the Lock Keeper's cottage at St Pancras Lock.

 

A bit further along we came to the Kings Cross Gasholders. These huge guide frames were built in the 1850s. Gasholder No.8 is the largest of these, and was built for the storage of town gas that was manufactured here from coal. It has been moved, restored and turned into this rather stunning feature. Can you see me there?

 

Back home it was time to start baking for my second son's 15th birthday which fell on Easter Monday this year. Lu and I have a go to cookie recipe for when you need a big batch of tasty, crunchy biscuits to cut into seasonal shapes and ice. They are from Kate Shirazi's Cookie Magic and are called Basic Butter Biscuits. I decided to use Spring themed cutters and ice them with Royal Icing. I use sauce bottles that I bought from a catering shop. I mix the icing sugar with water to the consistency of a glaze and colour it in various shades. The bottles make it really easy to ice, I pipe some around the edge and then fill in the middle. You can add spots and stripes and use a toothpick to swirl fancy shapes……

 

My son C’s favourite chocolates are Cadbury's mini eggs, so I decided to make him a mini egg cake. He requested lemon drizzle for the cake, so I used the same Victoria sponge recipe that Lu used in her post and added the zest and juice of two lemons to the batter. I made a lemon/sugar syrup that I drizzled over the cakes as soon as they came out of the oven.

Photo credit - Lu the Other Brownie.....

Making an egg shape was a challenge……. How do you think I did? I filled the layers with lemon curd and vanilla icing from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook (another favourite) and got carving!

Lu and her family came round for a birthday tea, and we had a lovely time. We may have had a glass or two of prosecco to celebrate the Wonders of Motherhood.....

It was back to work for hubby and me after the bank holiday, luckily the boys can now look after themselves……

This is the view as I come into the station near my work. Blackfriars Station runs across the River Thames, can you see Tower Bridge and The Shard in the distance? And here is the view from my lounge. London trying to melt my heart with pretty pink clouds...... well I must admit, London, you did.

Next week we are off to Yorkshire for a few days to stay in a lovely cottage, I can't wait. Countryside here I come!!

Take care my lovelies, and if you are on a spring break, have a good one!

Jenny xxx

Hoppy Spring!

Hello lovelies,

I hope you saw the last of Jenny’s jumper makes! Phew! We’ve enjoyed the first of our ‘take one’ series but I, like Jenny, was glad to move on and it might be a little while before we ‘take one’ of anything else!

Thank goodness it is the Easter hols and this morning we have woken up to the most glorious sunshine! For me, the end of every term is pretty manic. Everything gets scheduled in the last 2 weeks of term and if you are anything like me, with fingers in a few pies, heart in a few good causes, 3 kids in 2 different schools and therefore assemblies, cake sales, performances and meetings coming out of your ears; towards the end of term, your energy, craftiness, patience and CLARITY start to fizzle out. The dark circles start to appear underneath the eyes and you say yes much more than you should. I’m painting a sorry picture aren’t I? Don’t get me wrong, I do so love to be involved and help out, but I think I need to be a little bit more savvy in seeing this coming - after all, it happens 3 times a year!!

 

So, just this week…..

 

I baked 4 Easter themed cakes for 2 cake sales. You can’t go wrong at this time of year with a Victoria Sponge (8oz/225g unsalted butter/stork marg, 8oz/225g caster sugar, 8oz/225g self raising flour, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 4 eggs), buttercream (5oz/150g icing sugar, 10oz/300g unsalted butter, 2-3tblsp water), Cadbury’s mini eggs and Cadbury’s flakes. I have promised to make one just for the kids this Easter weekend. In fact, I think they would really enjoy baking and decorating this one with me...….

 

My hubby, little girl and I went to the Royal Albert Hall, London to watch our boy and big girl sing in their school choirs as part of Camden Music Festival 2016, thanks to Camden Music Trust, for whom David Walliams is the patron. It was absolutely amazing and I was blown away and very moved (a tear or two was shed!) not only by the experience of hearing so many childrens’ voices singing so beautifully in unison (they had me at the first song, Bridge Over Troubled Water!), but by the Royal Albert Hall itself. The building, both inside and out is just spectacular. This pic was taken from our seats at the end of the night when the balloons which had been nestled in the ethers, amongst the ‘mushrooms’ or ‘acoustic diffusers’ if you’re technical (I’m not!), were released much to the excitement of the exhausted but happy children……

 

My boy, with a little bit of help from Mummy and Daddy, made and submitted his entry into the school Eggshibition. I give you Leggo Ninjeggo (you’ll have to look up Lego Ninjago if you’re not familiar!)………

 

My little girl, also with a little help from Mummy and Daddy, made this Spring Bonnet and took part in the school Easter Bonnet Parade…….

 

I made kissing bunny paper chains, which I think will look nice hung up as garlands or to decorate our Easter table. My kids really like them, so I am going to make some more with them as an Easter hols crafty activity - it is good to have some of those up your sleeve for rainy days!.........

 

I also painted bunnies, chicks and eggs onto these cereal bowls picked up for £1 each at a local supermarket, using these ceramic paint pens (check out my tutorial for how to use them)........

 

which the kids will fill up with sparkly, foiled chocolate eggs on our Easter egg trail………

Did you notice the lovely cloth the bowls are sitting on? Jenny and I hand tie-dyed it the most gorgeous flamino pink! Well, as promised at the beginning of this bloggy journey, we are working really hard designing unique products in order to launch our online shop. We are very excited about what we are designing so far, so watch this space!

I had fun making, wearing….oh and embarrassing my kids in these bunny ears for the craft stall at the school Easter Fair….

 

Slight digression with a little anecdote about embarrassing one’s children: On the way to school the other morning, there was a big dog poo on the pavement (where else would it be?!), which we managed to dodge. I warned some oncomers who were on their way to school too, so that they didn’t step in it. A kind deed I thought, but embarrassing for my boy. He said, “Mum, you do embarrass me sometimes, talking to people on the street.” I said, “Sorry darling, I was just telling them about the poo so it didn’t ruin their day….what else do I do that embarrasses you?” “Erm...like when you do yoga when I am lining up to go into class”…..I may just do the odd ‘warrior two’ which makes the kids cringe laugh! What’s he going to do when I make an actual, concerted effort to embarrass him??.......

And lastly, to brighten up my table, I popped some daffs into this vase, which I painted in my Christmas gift tutorial and had every intention of gifting to someone at Christmas but kept it for me instead, tee hee!!.............

Have a Hoppy Easter my lovelies! Lots of love and sunny wishes coming your way from Two Crafty Bunnies!

Lucy xxxx