Duilleoga

Brocante Market Ironstone

Driving through the city we were at a loss as to what to do. We had been told of a Brocante Market in Dublin 8′s Food Co-Op but it was late in the afternoon. Thinking it wouldn’t still be on we thought we would skip it but upon arriving we figured since here we may as well go in.

It was lovely getting there later in the afternoon. Much more quiet & less mayhem. Pottering around there was lots of china- cups, saucers & plates galore. But no ironstone :/

Walking through my eagle eyes spot Johnson Brother’s Greydawn Blue… Could it be? Yes, yes it was!

A tiny Greydawn jug & (my first) bowl. Woot! *excitement*

Well the little dusty dirty jug was €3.50 & the bowl €2. Now the bowl is chipped & more for show than use. But I couldn’t leave it behind

What is even more promising is the fact that the lady who ran the stall told me she had more pieces & would root some out for the next Brocante Market for me. Squeeee!

I am now excited for this market… Only 3 more weeks, lol.

Vegan Choc Chip Cookies

It is the May bank holiday weekend & as per the bank holiday weekend standard it has been a miserable Monday *sigh*

When bad weather is about there is only 1 thing to do… Bake. One must bake lots of nice yummy things so that we can have tea and treats while it is raining and windy outside. Ah the joy of warm houses, hot cups of lovely tea & nice things to eat. Cosiness in general is great, especially when it isn’t nice outside.

With that in mind myself & Red pulled out the Vegan Cupcakes & Vegan Cookie books & leafed through the options. He decided on cupcakes and I decided on cookies as I haven’t made any successful ones yet.

We made Fin’s favourite – Coconut Cupcakes to cheer him up & then we attempted the standard Choc Chip Cookie.

Well Fin has sworn off white flour [:/ , makes things even more difficult] so we made the coconut cupcakes with wholemeal flour instead of white flour. They didn’t turn out so well. They taste lovely, or so he says but they don’t look as well. I would stick with the white but since it is for him I guess it will be wholemeal.

For the cookies his swearing off white flour went out the window and Red & I used white flour. This is the recipe we used Post Punk Kitchen’s Chocolate Chip Cookies.

The ingredients are:

1/2 brown sugar
1/4 white sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cups chocolate chips

Bake in preheated oven @ 180 for 8 minutes

Since I bake with a 3 year old I just mix all the dry ingredients & then add the wet ingredients. Mix it all up & then make small ping pong ball size balls. Place them on the baking tray & flatten out to make cookie sized circles.

I know the PPK have another recommendation for mixing the ingredients but I guess they don’t have a 3 year old trying to lick spoons or spill have the mixture onto the countertops. But sure it all worked out in the end. The only way I describe them are Marks & Spencers cookies. All I can say is YUM, they were so yum I ate 4 last night much to Fin’s annoyance but sure it was his fault going to bed early & leaving the cookies uneaten. LOL.

Sleeves, Wonderful Sleeves

I have been knitting Red a jumper since last October. It is my first ‘big’ project actually it’s my first clothing project.

I have loved it but I think I would have loved it more if I’d paid it more attention & got more done in less time. Putting it on the long finger was a bad idea.

But finally I have knitted sleeves. Wonderful glorious sleeves.

While its not fully completed here is a lil snap of what the jumper will eventually look like.

I must say I really am so pleased

Kangaroo

Back in March I went to New York & while there we visited Purl in Soho.
It is an awesome little shop. So pretty & inviting. The people were very friendly & the atmosphere was wonderful, even though we were thousands of miles from home we were welcomed like we popped in every weekend.

I splurged while there. Proper splurged but before I left Ireland I knew I was going to splurge in Purl.

One of many purchases was a kangaroo kit that I figured I would make for Red as he likes them.
I didn’t count on them as being finickity to make. The instructions where something else, page after page after page.

After much encouragement from my craft group I completed the mammy & Joey. As this isn’t the easiest item to make I’m leaving off making the dad for the time being.
Maybe in a couple of months when I’ve forgotten the difficulty of making the mammy & Joey I’ll make him too.

But irrelevant of the difficulty of making it I am very pleased with the result.

New York, New York The Experience

Last month I went to America for the first time and I visited New York. It was amazing. There is always something to be doing and something to see.

For crafty purposes we visited Purl. I got some really nice Alpaca & this awesome kangaroo making kit. But that is for another post when it is complete. The woman I was chatting to in the shop was so lovely & gave us lots of tips for restaurants & places to see in the area.

Broadway Panhandlers was baking heaven. This shop had the most amazing molds for cakes. I wanted to bring it all home but I settled for some smaller items including some icing knives. Fin thought I was mad but they are so handy.

Magnolia Bakery was a must. We spent $35 on cake for lunch one day. We had New York cheesecake, red velvet cheesecake and a slice of coconut cake that was the size of 2 portions here. It was all so amazing. If only the bakery was here…. Actually probably a good thing as I would be the size of a house.

New York is amazing but it is a concrete city. When we got to West Village & Greenwich I was glad to see some trees. Central Park was like heaven. I don’t think I could live in New York I would miss the trees & flowers we have at home.

The 2 best experiences…

Empire State Building at night. When those doors open & you see the city laid out in front of you & all those lights. It is breath taking. I was up on the 102nd floor for a good while just taking in the view.
Lady Liberty. I had no desire to go over to her but I wanted to see her. I am glad I did. Seeing her was amazing & humbling. As we discussed on the boat she must have given such hope to the people escaping Ireland in the famine. She probably still does give that hope to people hoping for a new life.

Anywho, here are some of my favourite pics from the trip…

Playgrounds & Jars

Red is 3. Oh.My.Gosh.

I can still remember when I found out I was pregnant, the first kick during pregnancy and when he was born like last week. The first time I held him is still the best moment of my life. He was the most tiny gorgeous amazing and cutest baby. I remember his first year the big moments like eating food, rolling over, sitting up, his first tooth followed quickly by several more and the biggest milestone, his first step. I remember it all like it was only yesterday.

Now he runs around the house climbing everything only to jump off it. That is his new thing! I blame his father’s genes for that. Red is just like his dad. To sum it up, Red looks like me but has the dramatics of Fin.

On Saturdays I refuse to get up before 8am. Long gone are the days were I would lounge in bed till lunch time. For me 8am is a reasonable weekend time to be up and 10am is a nice lie in. Last weekend he came into me, poked me in the eye and told me to get up as it was sunny. We had to drop Fin to his new hobby – mountain biking down mountains through forests – so we were all up and out of the house very early. It was lovely as once we dropped Fin off we had the morning to ourselves. Some nice mammy & son time.

He wanted to go to the playground so off we went & as we got there at 9.30am we had it to ourselves. This is our local playground….

clondalkin leisure centre playground

Well, Red loves the slide. There is a slide for younger children and I couldn’t tell you how many times he went down that slide. He came down on his bum, then his belly head first, then he tried to climb back up it. We sat in the house playing with the sand and having great chats.

This is what Saturday mornings are about. Playing with Red.

Afterwards we went to the local shops. This is where I came across a great find.

For the past couple of months I have been looking for some glass jars to hold my baking ingredients. The cornflour bag isn’t very good and I end up with cornflour all the press. I checked in some shops but the containers were all silly money for what they are.

I popped into the local pound shop. Yes I know I am in euros but it will always be the pound shop. The €2 shop is just a silly name. I love this shop for its cheap wonderfulness. Sometimes you find great gems… Like these….

I got all these jars for €10, the price other shops wanted for just 1 jar.

Oh how I love a bargain. I just love it. *delighted*

Utility China

Last year I decided to start collecting utility china. Yet another thing to collect in our house that is slowly running out of space :/ So… what is utility china? It is awesome & pretty that is what it is. But here is some more informative info. During the second world war many potteries where forced to close in the UK & only potteries exporting china where allowed to remain open. Exported china was always highly colourful & ornately decorated. (In my opinion not very nice, but then again I am a bit of a non fuss simple plain Jane.) British families & war brides had to make do with the plain simplistic china. And with limited colours all the china are pastel shades of blue, yellow, pink & green. I think it is all so lovely & pretty. I only wish I lived in the UK to collect it as it appears that it is quite frequently found in thrift shops & charity stores across the UK (or at least that is what some blogs will have you believe), not so much here in Ireland. *sniff* EBay is great for it but it can sometimes end up expensive when you get into a bidding war! Utility china is made by the following potteries -

Johnson Brothers : Rose Dawn, Grey Dawn, Golden Cloud & Green Dawn
Woods Ware: Iris, Jasmine and Beryl.
J & G Meakin: Glamour Rosa, Celeste & Sunshine.
Langley
Grindley: Petalware & Lupin
Swinnertons: Chelsea Blue
Barratts: Delphatic Blue
Conway: Lavender Blue

(list is from Utility China) Now that you know a bit about Utility China let me tell you about the most thoughtful present I received over Christmas. Fin’s awesome brother & wife got me some utility china. *squeeeeeeee* I already have a Johnson Brothers Grey Dawn sugar bowl & jug & now thanks to my lovely in-laws I now have 4 cups & saucers. I have a wee set! And I use them as I type this I am drinking some Belfast Brew tea from my lovely cup & saucer. It really is so very pretty. And thank you sooooooo much!

Lemon & Orange Drizzle Cupcakes

Continuing with my baking craze I have made Lemon & Orange Drizzle Cupcakes.

These cupcakes are not vegan & they are from my non vegan baking bible – Hamlyn 200 Cakes & Bakes…

The ingredients are -

150g self raising flour

200g sugar

Grated rind & juice from 1 lemon & 1 orange

3 eggs

2 tablespoons of milk

100g of butter, melted

The recipe is -

Mix the flour & half the sugar & half the rind of the lemon & half the ring of the orange. Add in the eggs, milk & butter. Mix together until smooth.

Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases & cook in a preheated oven at 190 degrees for 12-15 mins.

Once cooked place into a dish & pierce the top with a skewer or fork.

Use the remaining sugar & add the remaining rind of the orange & lemon & mix together. Add the juice from the lemon & orange & mix until the sugar disappears.

Spoon the liquid over the cupcakes little by little allowing the it soak into the cupcakes.

This is a very simple & quick recipe. The result is delish. The cupcakes are very seriously yummy. Plus they are great if you are not in a chocolate mood.

Yay for another baking win

The Daffodil’s Secret

Daffodils have never been my favourite flower, they where just flowers that where always planted in estates & on roadsides.
Since getting into gardening I realised something big about daffodils, something wonderful about them… They are the first signs of Spring.
Once I have daffodils coming up I know it’s spring & I can almost smell summer ahead.
Year on year without fail Daffodils are always the first flowers in my garden.

They are very pretty & lovely in their own way.

The Boyfriend Cowl

I am making a Smuggler Jumper for Red & the yarn I am using is Sublime Merino Extra Fine. The colours I am using are blue, dark grey & green. Yet somehow or another I ended up with 2 balls of “Salty Grey”. Basically it is a lighter shade of grey than the grey I am using for his jumper.

I had no real need of this yarn so it lived in the box of unused yarn under my stairs, being sad. My other half mentioned how I hadn’t made anything for him since I made his blanket so I decided I would make him a nice scarf & I would use my spare Sublime.

I was on Ravelry for a while looking for the right pattern & as per my previous posts about scarves I started one project only to rip back & start on another scarf pattern. The final pattern I picked is called Thierry by Celeste Glassel.

I must say it is a very easy pattern -

Cast on 66 stitches (or whatever width you would like the scarf to be)

K2, P2

P2, K2

Purl

Knit

K2, P2

P2, K2

Knit

Purl

The pattern suggests repeating it 74 times.

I got through 1 ball & realised there was no way I was making a scarf. This project was to use the 2 spare balls I had, not force me to purchase another 6!

So I decided on prudence & changed the pattern to a cowl.

I think my other half was looking forward to a scarf but judging from these pics I think he is happy with his cowl. * knit win*