The Craft FantasticI am extremely excited. There are four of us going and I’m sure one of is actually going to explode at some point in the run up to the holiday.
As I’ve been before, I’m going to play at being Tour Guide Barbie. I am looking forward to many months ahead looking over maps and marking the plans on.
Happy happy happy 🙂
I acquired a nice big bag of greengages this week and decided to put them to good use by making a greengage and almond tart. I can’t remember where I found the recipe, I just typed ‘greengage recipes’ into google and this one popped up and seemed to say “Make me, make me!” – and it seemed rude not to. I’ve added my own handy hints and tips to this.
50g butter
50g ground almonds
25g caster sugar
1 large egg
12/250g ripe greengages
195g/20cm butter pastry case
Knob of butter (you really don’t need much at all.)
2 tbsp flaked almonds
METHOD: Heat the oven to 400F/200C/gas mark 6. Dice the butter into a food processor (or if, like me, you don’t have a food processor, dice the butter into a mixing bowl and allow to reach room temperature before adding the other ingredients and mixing to a paste). Add the almonds, caster sugar and egg. Blitz into a thick paste. Spread the paste in the pastry case. Halve the plums round their middles, winkling out the stone. Plant, cut-side uppermost, in the frangipane with a little space between each one. Melt the butter in a frying pan and quickly toss the flaked almonds to coat evenly with butter. Scatter over the tart. Bake for 25 min, or until the frangipane is firm and swollen, the plums are weeping and the flaked almonds golden. If liked, dust with icing sugar before serving hot, warm or cold. N.B.- if, like me, you are using a pre-bought pastry case, you do need to be careful of the edges. It was a choice between frazzled pastry case or slightly uncooked frangipane- as you can see I opted for the former. I have since learnt from my mum that you can put foil around the edges of the pastry case to prevent this.
It tasted fab. I reckon you could use any type of plum though if you can’t get greengages.
This time around, the weather was amazing. Hurrah!
We had a nice corner stall, lots of room to display all our products properly:
I think we were all suprised at how well the bowls made from old records did- definitely the biggest seller of the day!
For a while now, along with making notebooks, I’ve been sat happily folding cranes of an evening and turning them into little mobiles. After having a clear out recently and discovering rather a large stash (who knows why) of paper shopping bags, I decided that rather than put them into the recycling bin, I would fashion them into paper crane mobiles. Ta da!
I have found that the little sandwich bags from Prêt A Manger are particularly good.
Whilst trying to find something to do with the heaps and heaps of old videos I have and can’t watch (yet can’t bring myself to throw away- because I NEED to own copies of Airheads, Empire Records and China Town) I discovered the happy world of upcycling. It’s not that it’s a new concept to me, I’d just never thought of doing it myself. I’ve found lots of great websites to help inspire me to make useless stuff I have into useful stuff.
I’m currently working on a few DIY upcycling projects of my own- origami crane mobiles made from paper bags and little Japanese stab binding notebooks with old video covers.
Results to follow!
As if I need a reason to buy any more tea things, today I noticed this range of Alice In Wonderland stuff in Whittard of Chelsea:
Not sure about the key shaped handle though- pretty but impractical?
That’s right people, the next Sunday Arts Market is nearly upon us and The Craft Fanstastic team are busy busy busy crafting away to make lovely products for you lovely people to buy:
We’ll be there from 11am to 5pm, hopefully see you there!
Of course everybody knows how cute bunting is, but it does appear to have grown in popularity of late. There was a point when it seemed like it was everywhere and I actually thought I had seen enough bunting- but never fear, I have been cured of that thanks to this website. Strangely more appealing due to the word ‘kitten’, there is nothing on the Little Kitten Homemade website that isn’t 100% adorable. I officially love bunting once again. I highly recommend a visit.
Due to inclement weather, the heart bunting from the last Craft Fantastic stall got so soggy it had to be thrown away. New Bunting is needed.
Check out the following websites for some top tips on how to make your own bunting:
This weekend I will finish my new bunting for the next craft stall. Result to follow!
