Festivities Continued...

Finally got onto the computer at home.

I don't really have much to add, but I do have some piccies of us all enjoying the food and Princess Bek's Tiaras.

Woohoo, the camera timer worked. All of us, patiently waiting for Princess Viv to arrive.

One end of the happy Christmas table.

The other end of the happy Christmas table, with Princess Alana making weird faces...

We actually had alcymahol. Preservative free wine procured by Princess Alana, to make sure we could all drink it. It made me too lazy to do any stitching apart from boring mending.

Festivities

Hello hello, here is the first post I have posted in ages. Thank you to Princess Lermily for hosting and cooking delicious chickenandsaladandroastedveggies and flourlessorangecake, and to Princess Alana for making delicious salmonanddillandcreamcheese entrees as well as cranberryandturkyandpumpernickel entrees and also passionfruitmeringues (quite delectable), and to Princess Kate for bringing yummymuffins and to Princess Bek for bringing excellent Princess tiaras (some said "Princess" and some had flashing lights!), and to Princess Viv for bringing silverbeet to be rehomed. In honour of the festive cheer, here is a very fetching image of some of the Princessi looking exceeding regal in their tiaras.

And here are some more lovely photos of some stitching that was happening for Princess Beks' birthday (rather belated gifting by Princess Eleri here, but it would all have been finished before if not for the recalcitrant sewing machine, which decided it was time for an early Christmas break). Half-finished:

And completely finished:

Anyway, festiveness to all :-) Princess Eleri

Long time past

I have been meaning to post this for quite some weeks, as I last hosted back in September. Sorry 'bout that. In fact it's been so long that I can't remember the date...

In attendance were Princessi Eleri, Alana and Emily, and the Princessi Viv and Bek were off being fed by relatives for Jewish New Year. The home-made pizzas weren't quite ready when everyone arrived, so we started with a slice of cake... and then finished the meal with another slice. We were piggies! *oink*

The Lumberjack Cake was the only thing I remembered to get a photo of:


Here's the recipe, from The Essential Baking Cookbook, published by Murdoch Books:

Lumberjack Cake

• 200g fresh dates, pitted and chopped (or dried dates from the supermarket)
  
• 1 tsp bicarb soda
• 125g unsalted butter, softened (or vegan margarine)
  
• 1 cup (250g) caster sugar (or raw sugar)
  
• 1 egg (or egg replacer)
  
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, grated (or any sort of apple)
  
• 1 cup (125g) plain flour (or wholemeal flour)
  
• 1/2 cup (60g) self-raising flour (or plain/wholemeal flour with 1 tsp baking powder)
  
• icing sugar, optional, to dust

Topping

• 75g unsalted butter (or vegan margarine)
  
• 1/2 cup (95g) soft brown sugar
• 1/3 cup (80mL) milk (or soy milk)
  
• 1 cup (60g) shredded coconut

(As you can see, I don't tend to use exact recipes, I use them more as a guide and make lots of substitutions, which are in brackets)

1. Grease a 20cm round springform cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Preheat the oven to moderate 180C.
2. Put the dates in a small saucepan with 1 cup (250mL) water and bring to the boil. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda, then remove from the heat. Set aside until just warm.
3. Cream the butter and sugar in a small bowl with electric beaters until light and fluffy (I do this by hand). Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Stir in the date mixture and the apple, then fold in the sifted flours until just combined and almost smooth. Spoon into the tin and smooth the surface. Bake for 40 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, combine all the topping ingredients in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until the bitter is melted and the ingredients well combined. Remove the cake from the oven and carefully spread the topping over the cake. Return to the cake to the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the topping is golden and the cake is cooked through.
5. Remove the cake from the oven and leave the cake in the tin to cool completely (actually, loosen it before it's cooled completely, as the caramelled coconut topping will stick awfully to the tin), then turn out and place on a serving plate. The cake can be dusted with icing sugar just before serving.

Alas, it's been so long that I've also forgotten which projects we were all working on: I think Eleri did a star, Alana worked on the crochetted bumblebee, and Emily was knitting the neck of her not-mustard jumper. I was working on a quilt. But I forgot to take any photos, sorry!

Here are a few links I've been meaning to post - I don't know how to add them to the bottom of the page, so I'll let the clevererer Princessi fix that if they can...

Magic cast-on for toe up socks. It is easy (after a couple of practices) and it really is completely magic! http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring06/FEATmagiccaston.html

My bread photo diary is on my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10875443@N06/sets/72157602094096047/

Power-house stitchery

Hello everybody - it's me, Princess Viv, bravely tackling my reluctance to blog - yay me.

On the 26th of September, Princessi Eleri, Alana, Kate attended Princess Viv's castle for stitchery, with Princess Emily coming later in the evening. Princess Bek was off somewhere being political.

Golden Austrian Cauliflower Soup was served with home made bread and raw butter, followed by steamed veggies, rice, and bourbon chicken for the non-vegan members.

Princess Alana started on another cool amigurumi animal - this time a pink elephant! We also got to see her bee, bunny, and monkey in person.
Zoe and Megan - junior Princessess got out of bed and were VERY impressed - as Zoe declared, "my have monkey now!".
Alana also got pestered by me to show me how to crotchet. After many attempts, and different colours of wool, I managed to crotchet a boob! Here are the instructions in case anyone is interested:
(from http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=177559.0)
Boobie keychain pattern:
Starting with nipple (pink yarn)
Row 1: Ch 2. 6 sc in second ch from hk. Sl st into first sc.
Row 2: Ch 1. Sc in each sc around (6 stitches). Sl st to join.
Row 3: Ch 1. Sc in each sc around (6 stitches). Sl st to join.
Row 4: Ch 1. 2 sc in each sc around (12 stitches). Sl st to join.

Now for the breast (cream yarn)
Row 5: Ch 1. 2 sc in next st. 1 sc in next stitch. Repeat this all the way around (18 stitches). Sl st to join.
Row 6: Ch 1. Sc in each stitch around (18 stitches). Sl st to join.
Row 7: Ch 1. 2 sc in next st. 1 sc in each of next 2 st. Repeat this around ( 24 stitches). Sl st to join.
Row 8: Ch 1. Sc in each stitch around (24 stitches). Sl st to join.
Row 9-10: Repeat row 8. Sl st to join.
Row 11-12: 2sctog for next st (back loops only for first row). Repeat this around (12 stitches). Sl st to join.

Adding O ring (keychain part)

Ch. 1. Holding the key ring next to your yarn, bring your hook under the ring and yarn over coming back under the ring to bring up a loop. Make one sc. Put hook through next stitch and going under the fing again, yo and make another sc. Do this 5 times. this will secure the ring to the boob. Ch. 1. Sl st through all 5 sc you just made. Fasten off. Weave in ends.



Eleri worked on the last star, Kate kept on with her pretty blue sock, Emmy "may" have been knitting - sorry Em, school holiday brain!

My camera was out of batteries, so I'm afraid there will be no photos. I'll master the photos for my next post.

Recipes:
Vegan cream of cauliflower soup:

1 cauliflower, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
2 leeks, chopped
2 teaspoons powdered veggie stock, or to taste
2 cups carrot juice
4 cups water
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup raw cashews
4-5 good handfuls of spinach

Cover and simmer all ingredients, except cashews and spinach, for 15 minutes or until just tender. Blend soup, put some in blender & whizz up the cashews. Add back to the soup & stir in the spinach.

Chicken
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/3 cup brown sugar - actually I used only a couple of spoonsful
1/2 c chicken stock
1/4 c apple juice
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 minced garlic clove
1.2 tsp minced ginger
500g or so boneless chicken in bite sized pieces

Fry chicken in oil until brown, set aside. In the same pan add everything else, stir till sugar dissolved. Add chicken back & cook gently until sauce is thick enough.

Stitching at Em's Palace

Stitching was at Princess Em's, with Princessi Alana, Em, Viv and Eleri in attendance from the start and Princess Kate arriving after watching Whathisface Almighty (mental blank).

We ate yummy hamburgers and raspberry friands for dessert (with white chocolate). also, Eleri snuck in some great caramel cupcakes. The recipe for the friands for anyone who wants them is:

1 C plain flour
1.5 C icing sugar
1 C ground almonds
5 egg whites
120g butter/marg
1 punnet fresh raspberries (I used lots of frozen)

Sift flour, icing sugar into bowl, stir in almonds.
Whisk egg whites until light and fluffy and fold into dry ingredients with melted butter. Fold through raspberries (and white chocolate...yum...). Put mixture in muffin cups.

Oven at 200Deg C, cooked for 20 minutes

On to the stitching...

Eleri was on the penultimate star. Yay!!!

Viv had a great pile of quilt squares.

I started my not so mustard coloured jumper sleeves.

Alana was working very industrially on Ed's jumper

and Kate was working on some very colourful socks.

Yay!!! It finally let me post piccies.

The art of Amigurumi!

I just finished my second piece of amigurumi and I love the way they turned out. I first made a rabbit who I am yet to name. I think his ears turned out real cute with all the different purples mixed in.



and here is a photo of bunny's behind to show off his cottontail:



I was so happy with the way he turned out and how quick and relatively easy he was to make that I started on my second amigurumi animal straight away. I bought some patterns off Etsy by one designer I really liked and I especially liked her bumblebee pattern so I made it.



I modified her a little by adding arms, legs and a stinger (what bumblebee is complete without a stinger?). She is closer to the true amigurumi style of having a larger head and facial features and smaller body and limbs. I'm not sure what I'll tackle next. I really should get back to Ed's jumper but crocheting is so much more fun and quicker! Here is a photo of my progress on Ed's jumper. As you can see there is still quite a bit to go.



Perhaps I'll make an amigurumi elephant instead!

Stitch and bitch chez Princess Bek

Much exciting stitching happened on Wednesday (I will post photos over the weekend as camera is at home!)

Let's see.

Princess Eleri-fairy finished ANOTHER star, there are now only five to go and I am getting extremely excited about having a lovely quilt, as I have always wanted one, and this particular one is more ace than I ever dreamed of having.

Princess Kate is also working on a quilt. There will be photos of a finished square thingy and also photos of cuttings out.

Princess Alana is making a v. cute animal with purple ears.

Princess Viv started knitting something that may be blue, or may be green, depending on who you think is right about the colour (I say aqua, personally).

Princess Em was sadly absent as she's bushwalking and apparently has insane blisters.

Princess Me was busy cooking about eleventeen different courses, but I did get some more rag rug braided.

We ate cauliflower and carrot soup to start, followed by roasted vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, onion, tomato and garlic) for the vegan Princess Kate, and roasted vegetables with lamb skewers (baa) for the non-vegan Princessi. If Princess Em had been coming I would have done the eggplant separately.

I didn't do dessert, which, lucky, as we may have all exploded if I did.

Photos coming soon.

Stich n Bitch at Chez Auden 29/08/07

It was a small group of SnBers that turned up this week. Poor Princess Bek was off 'Florence Nightingaling' her sick Hugo and Princess Em was too busy with Gem club (which is obviously more important than us! Hrumph!) So Princess Viv, Kate, Eleri and Alana settled in to our various stitchings and Princess Eleri finished a beautiful shrug which she modelled very professionally for us.





However we quickly grew tired off our various stitchings especially when we discovered that Princess Kate had never experienced Rapidoh before. So after a delicious dinner of cheesy (or not so cheesy in Princess Kate's case) pasta bake and fulfilling our bitching quotient we settled in for a quiet game. For those of you who have not experienced Rapidoh before (you poor, pooor souls) it is basically Pictionary except instead of drawing a picture you have to sculpt it out of play-doh instead. So much more fun. After spending about five minutes trying to decide on teams (P. Eleri and P. Viv must be kept separate by all means as they appear to have some weird psychic Rapidoh mental connection) and managing to avoid 'paper, scissors, rock' even though we all secretly wanted to do it, we teamed up with the person opposite which was rather sensible as it meant no one had to move. So it was P. Viv and P. Alana against P. Eleri and P. Kate. Team Red (V and A) didn't do so well although Viv's donkey was a piece of beautiful sculpting even if everyone else thought it was a demented rabbit, but I knew what it was (clearly the tail would be a lot shorter if it was actually a rabbit).




However it was no match for Team Blue's Princess Kate's apple core which was very life like except for the colour of course.



Special mention needs to go to Princess Eleri and Princess Kate for attempting to sculpt 'coach' which proved far harder than initally thought. They began by sculpting a carriage but when that failed to deliver the correct response Princess Eleri moved on to sculpt a bus which can be also called a coach but somehow I just couldn't get past the bus so then P. Eleri sculpted two tennis players complete with rackets and then a third figure without a tennis racket that in hindsight was obviously a coach but at the time I though he was trying to shoot the tennis players which did not help matters. Rapidoh provided a good belly laugh for us all, so much so there was crying involved (it was emotional) and I think the term 'Power Drill' will never be thought of in the same light again, hey Princess Viv!

Recipe for Chocolate Apple Cake:

185g butter, softened
1 1/4 cup castor sugar
3 eggs
2 cups self raising flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1/4 teaspoon bicarb of soda
1/3 cup water
2 medium apples, peeled, cored and grated

Combine all ingredients in bowl and mix until well combined. Pour into 20cm lined round cake tin and bake in moderate oven (180 degrees celcius) for 1 and 1/4 hours. Cool and top with chocolate icing. Delicious!

Skink or Lizard? Mansion d'Eleri 22nd August 2007

OK, so this post is a little out of order, as it was actually Princess Eleri's turn to host S&B three weeks ago on 22nd August. In spite of lovely intentions to arrange a prompt posting (naturally including some rather fabulous photos), all this was put on hold due to the calamitous loss of the cable to connect camera to computer to download photos! In fact, I'm still unable to find it, although Princess Bek has helpfully suggested I scour Ed's wardrobe*

Anyway, photos coming soon, as there was some very good stitching done by all. Bek has done masses of her new rag rug (which, by the way, is yet another excellent exercise in recycling and reusing), and I did a bit of knitting before somehow messing it up and then having to beg for the knitting pro Kate to rescue me and undo a couple of rows (which she seemed to do in a couple of minutes! She is, surely, a genius.)

BTW, we were all missing Princess Alana terribly – she has been absent for weeks and weeks and weeks! Because of this, I have found her an amigurumi pattern site, which has some excellent crochet animal patterns—check them out here: http://amigurumipatterns.blogspot.com/

In other learning, for some reason we ended up talking about the Australian creature which has a tail that looks pretty much exactly like a head. I looked it up and (re-)discovered the name; a) a stumpy-tailed lizard, or b) a shingleback lizard. For picture see here:

Anyway, they’re very cool as the tail-that-looks-like-a-head fools evil predators, so the predators get confused about which “head” to go for and slam into the ground with their sharp pointy beaks, and then stagger around feeling dazed.
I wasn’t sure whether the tail came off (as lizard tails tend to), though, as it is quite, well, stumpy, and then if the stump came off, they would clearly be a no-tail lizard.
So then Bek suggested that it might actually be called a stump-tailed skink, and might not be a lizard at all.

Which confused me, as—due to my British background—I had assumed that “skink” was simply the Australian word for “lizard”.

But no—how wrong I was!
In fact, lizards and skinks are completely different, and apparently there are no true lizards in Australia at all. Skinks are the Scincidae family, while lizards are the Lacertidae (or wall lizards) family. Both are part of the order “squamata”, or “scaled reptiles”.
Skinks look roughly like lizards, but most species have no pronounced neck and relatively small legs. Several genera (e.g., Typhiosaurus) have no limbs at all, others, such as Neoseps, have only reduced limbs. Often, their way of moving resembles that of snakes more that that of other lizards. Skinks usually have long, tapering tails that can be regenerated, while lizards can not only regenerate tails, but can regenerate limbs! Oh, also, skinks have live young, while lizards lay eggses.
How cool is that?!
Now, you be the judge – pick the skink.

Oh, and, on food, I copied Princess Emily’s dessert of raspberry jelly with fresh raspberries as it was utterly delicious (although I did have to do an emergency freezing to get it to solidify before we all ate it and everyone went home), and I actually can’t think of what we had for mains at all…

*As her recent calamitous loss of her cable for connecting camera to computer was brought to a joyous conclusion when she found said cable in Hugo's wardrobe. Impeccable logic, m’lud.

I nearly called off Stitch & Bitch on Wednesday night as I had a pretty bad cold, but I'm so glad I didn't. It was a great night and it's so therapeutic to get into the stitching. I also think that if I hadn't had the push of having you guys over I might not have got around to creating Della's costume before Friday.

Here are the photos of some of the projects - unfortunately I didn't get one of Princess Eleri's stars, which are coming along beautifully. Only seven more to go, I think.

Princess Bek left her red scraps at home, so she started a new pink and denim rag rug.

Princess Emily started a knitting project - it's going to be a really cool jumper, in not-quite-mustard-yellow-and-this-is much-nicer coloured yarn.

I have finished Della's jumper, in record time for any knitting project for me. It took less than two months from the first cast on to ending off the final seam. And yes, it does look much better with the V neck being in the centre and the shoulders at the same height!

And here is Happy Unicorn Della at school on Book Day. I couldn't get the horn to stay upright too well so she was a bit of a floppy unicorn. By the end of the day Della had decided that unicorn horns were uncomfortable and that she didn't want to be one any more - I suspect that the number of bobby pins on her head contributed to that :(

Due to popular demand, here is the old family recipe for Gingerbread:

• 120g butter
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup golden syrup
• 1 cup milk
• 1 heaped tsp bicarb soda
• 2 cups flour
• 1 dstsp allspice
• 2 dstsp ground ginger

Cream butter and sugar, add golden syrup. Dissolve soda in milk, add to mixture. Add the rest of the ingredients. Bake 60 – 75 minutes at 180ºC.

Apple Trees

Well, stitching was lovely last night, and I'm pleased everyone thought the buffet salad avec chicken was delish - such a cop-out, as it was super-easy!
Anyway, for those of you I told about the apple-tree pattern that Cathy likes, it's a Rowan pattern, and this is what it looks like - isn't it pretty?

Stitching 18/07/2007

So we had a record number of stitchers/princessi last night for stitch 'n bitch. There was Princess Bek, Princess Eleri, Princess Viv, Princess Lemily, Princess Kathrine, Princess Kate and the hostess for the evening, moi, Princess Alana. It was very cosy in my living room as this pic attests:



Princess Katherine (apologises if your name is misspelt, I know there is like a million ways of spelling Katherine) was honoured by Princess consort cat Matilda who very rarely honours her own Princessi with a lap sit and Princess Emily (right) was joined by consort cat Moonshe, who is a lap slut



Here are some pics of Princessi in stitching (and sometimes bitching) action




And all the hard work was rewarded with a dessert that my mum used to make for me called:

Chocolate Crunch

Ingredients:
1 cup self raising flour
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 cup coconut
1 cup cornflakes
1/2 cup sugar
150g butter
6 drops vanilla

Icing:
2 cups icing mixture
2 tablespoons cocoa
enough water to make a fairly runny icing

Method:
1. Sift flour and cocoa and mix all other dry ingredients into a bowl.
2. Gently melt butter then mix with other ingredients, add vanilla at this step.
3. Press mixture into baking tray and flatten until approximately 1 & 1/2 cm thick.
4. Bake in oven 180 degrees celcius for 25-30 minutes.
5. Pour chocolate icing over slice whilst still warm.
6. When icing and slice has cooled, cut into bite sized slices (or bigger as I like to do!)



Mmmmmmmmm. Delicious!

As promised, the Giraffe Wheatbag

This is the lovely wheatbag I made for my sis - check it out!


Princess Eleri

And more photos!

Princess Em is hard at work on her embroidered leopard!

Princess Viv is doing patchwork.

As you see!

At last, I remember my camera!

Greetings and salutations, Princessi everywhere!

To your left you see Mousey, who is now an lolcat.

Here is Princess Kathryn, doing some v complex left-handed knitting.

Here is Doggy Freyda. She is not doing craft.

Princess Alana says "Let us eat cake".

And Viv's dolly is all finished.

Last Wednesday

Hi Princessi,

I keep forgetting my camera, so I haven't got photos to upload, d'oh!

I did find a website that has videos of how to knit left-handed for Princess Kathryn though - here it is. Turns out, it's quite a lot more complex than just having the yarn in the other hand - you need to reverse patterns and stuff. Anyway, the website explains and etc.

I believe this week we are meeting at Princess Alana's for a vegan feast/chicken and chips (I shall name my chicken Arthur). I really must find something crafty to do this week that doesn't involve plaiting the hairs of My Little Ponies.

Ahem.

I will try to remember to upload photos tomorrow. Meanwhile, Princess Eleri, where are your finished project photos?

Princess Bek

Missing S&B :-(

I was very sad this week to miss S&B, but I was on ferrying-ickle-sister-Siany-to-the-airport duty. Which, in itself, was also very sad. In fact, much sadness all around.
Ickle-Sister-Siany is home safe and sound and well, though, which is good.
And, in order to make up for the no S&B this week, I was crafty at home instead! In fact, I actually did a complete project! I will leave you on that tantalising note until I get the photos.
More soon :-D
Princess Eleri
PS. What news with you Princessi?

27 June 2007 - Princess Bek's house

Last night the Princessi (apart from those beeatches who are in Queensland, Sydney or studying) assembled at my place.

We ate soup (lentil).










We also ate the legs of several chickens (just so as not to be too hippie, what with the lentils).









Princess Eleri stitched stars. Well, one star!













Princess Em stitched a tiger








Also, she has shoes shaped like kitties. And my kitty liked Princess Em and sat on her lap while she ate dinner.











Princess Viv is making a really cool doll. It has a single dreadlock like Lister from Red Dwarf (whom I always found Strangely Alluring - is that really wrong?)




Princess Viv is also making patchwork. I, alas, was far too slack to do anything last night, having had a day full of administering first aid and working like a drone, so I packed half a box instead. Oh, and made lentil soup and tasty legs of chickens.

Princess Alana, Princess Kathryn, Princess Lynne, and Princess Sian were sadly unable to be with us.

Oh, and we also did a considerable amount of bitching, as is required by our Manifesto.