New Challenge at Lets Get Shabby.

The new challenge is up at Lets Get Shabby and it is ......"denim and lace ." What springs to mind when you think of these two things together ? For me they are almost opposites.........grungy but pretty

                          some attitude with a softer side

                          my daughter 

If you would like to have a go at this challenge, hop on over to Lets Get Shabby for all the details.

Tea On Tuesday..........Red Plums and Yellow Peaches

The stone fruit that has come our way this year, from friends' trees and our own has been so abundant that I am running out of ways to use it up...there is only so much stewing, jam making, pickling,and sauce making one is up for. Any way I have talked about this delicious plum cake before, I have made it so many times this year, thought I would pass on the recipe and hope you enjoy it too. To join us for Tea, visit here.

Nigel Slater's Plum Cake  

                                                                                                                         

150g unrefined caster sugar

150 g room temp. butter

3 large eggs

                              75 g plain flour                                           

                                          1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder                

                                  100 g ground almonds                           

                50 g walnuts, chopped                                             

                                                       16 or so plums, stones removed and cut into quarters 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

You will need a 20cm. square or 23cm. round cake tin about 6 cm. deep. Line with baking paper. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.   With electric mixer beat butter and sugar until very pale and fluffy. ( about 5-7 min. ) Break eggs into a jug and lightly beat. With mixer on medium speed, gradually pour the egg into the butter sugar mix. Add a spoonful of  flour between each addition of egg. Sift remaining flour and baking powder over the bowl and carefully fold into the batter with a metal spoon. Then fold in the almonds and walnuts. Scrape mixture into prepared tin and place plums close together all over the top. Bake for about 45 min. Test with a skewer in middle of cake, if there is no mixture stuck to it then it's cooked.   

                                                                    

Another colourful recipe you might like to try comes from the lovely Sophie at The Invisible Cookbook...........she has a recipe for Chocolate Beetroot Cupcakes.

 and speaking of baking and colour......
is'nt this the most beautiful KitchenAid you have ever seen ! Photo by Ree Drummond at The Pioneer Woman.

White With 1.. February Challenge.

I really like the challenge blog White With 1. Here you can use only a colour scheme of white + 1 other colour, + 1 other requirement, such as an element,a technique, a product type etc. The challenge for February was:                                                                                                 WHITE +BROWN + A VINTAGE ITEM (S )                                                                                        I have  used a vintage photo of me and my ( much older ) brother. I'm not going to tell you when it was taken because that would just be giving too much away lol. Other vintage items used are some old lace, book page, bookplate and photo corner.       w

Altered Book....some more

These next two pages are what I've called the "Luuuuve " pages, this month being February and every thing. Some stencilling, inking, misting ,stamping etc. I have also cut into a big wad of pages and embedded a small heart made of shell, I then secured it with gold metallic thread. Added random bits of lace, pearls and some satin ribbon tied through the pages to keep them together.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend everyone. xx

123 Feb. Challenge......".Upcycling" ??

This is a page made for the February " 123 Challenge ". 

The 3 criteria for this challenge were.........

1. Colour = CREAM

2. Word = ABOUT

3. Technique/Theme/Idea = UPCYCLING......repurposing a material that is usually disposed of.

This was definitely a challenge for me. I think I am ( sadly ) a real " material " girl. I LOVE PRODUCT, the newer the better, so for me to use " old stuff ", stuff that is not really designed for scrapbooking really pushed me out of my comfort zone.

I also tried to be more minimalist; to use less. Collage is really my love, and I have an uncontrollable urge to add more and more to my page, ( you know, so I can use up all my product I have on hand ) Anyway I tried to keep it simple.

I have used a brown paper shopping bag, cut in half and used inside out;   packaging from Prima Ribbons;  muslin bandaging;     crochet cotton;  a tasselled cord that was on a dress tag;  a paper serviette;  some lace from an old costume;   and some Chinese Joss paper ( you can't really see the gold of this on the embossed card in the photo ) plus some 'regular ' scrapbooking products.  

Summer Fading

We are in the last month of summer and this is the last of the hydrangeas. I took this photo a couple of weeks ago for no real reason except that I liked how pretty the flowers looked next to the candle stick:--------- Now , I am very much a novice when it comes to photography and editing and am totally intimidated by photoshop etc. So, I was interested this morning while visiting Kimmies blog where she had some very cute vintage Valentines Day cards. She had used a free Photo Effects site to add a vintage look to the cards. So, I thought I would give it a go. This is the result and I think it is nice but better still it was so quick, simple and straight forward. Go to Rollip.com...........you don't need to be afraid .

Tea On Tuesday.......COLOUR

Tea today is especially for my lovely fellow Tea on Tuesday participants in the Northern hemisphere who are living in a white and grey world at the moment. ( white and grey can definitely be beautiful too, but I hope my little splash of "brightness" will warm you up ) I know you spell colour with out the 'u' so just ignore the spelling. I'm having Green Tea with Mint out of beautiful Moroccan glasses I bought from my fave shop in Melbourne T2. ( have just got back from visiting my daughter) The colours are so deep and rich.Hope you are enjoying your tea where ever you are, and if you would like to join us for Tea on Tuesday visit Kimmie here.

The plates I am using for my tea today are designed by an artist from Western Australia called Anna Chandler. She does lamp shades, wall tiles and china. Her designs are Asian or Middle Eastern inspired, often with birds and flowers but always rich in colour.The plates came as a boxed set of 4, each with a different pattern.

Along with my Green Mint Tea, I am having a slice of Almond,Plum and Apricot cake. I have made this cake several times this summer as we have had an abundance of stone fruit. It's easy to make, is full of ground almonds, chopped walnuts and you can really use any fruit on the top. The fruit sort of sinks into the cake and its very moist and gooey in the middle.
Now I don,t really consider myself to be a " name dropping high end fashion consumer", but I do love colour and my friend Alison who works in fashion retail and is the best on-line bargain hunter found this wallet for me... oh ,I would have been happy with just the box !