Handmade Thursday - 10 minute hair clip

Do you remember melting your bic pen over a bunsen burner in the science lab?
Then here is an opportunity to use those long forgotten skills!

To make this hair clip you need several circles of polyester fabric and a cigarette lighter (or a bunsen burner if you happen to have one - I'm guessing most people don't.)
You need to carefully melt the edges of the circles by holding them over the flame, this makes them turn up slightly. This is very satisfying.

Then you make a little pile of circles and sew a button through the middle to secure them. I also added a couple of circles of net fabric.

Then use a glue gun to secure a circle of felt and a kirby grip to the back.

Ta-dah!

More handmade Thursdays at www.whitelilygreen.blogspot.com

Little Bootees; now I need a baby to give them to!

After finishing my sweater I needed a little project so I made these little boots from some leftover yarn.

Aren't they sweet? I think I will give them to a friend who is expecting any day soon.

Pattern available here ; just scroll down the page to find "Oh baby bootee."

Unseasonal knitting

I've finished my winter jumper! And actually it's not late because I only started it in March. 

I bought the yarn (King Cole Dreams chunky) in the sale hoping I'd be able to knit something by the time the cold weather was due to return. Four months is actually pretty speedy for me - I got bored about three quarters in, but I would not let myself start anything new until this was finished!

 It's a raglan sweater with side button detail. This is actually the first time I did a raglan style, and I'm very pleased - no nasty picking up!

And one last photo - one of me feeling rather warm wearing a woolly sweater in July!

Mini Cheesecakes

I made these using my basic cheesecake recipe from this post but I divided the mixture between 12 muffin cases and reduced the cooking time to 20 minutes.

The topping is simply double cream whipped up with half a punnet of raspberries. You could add some icing sugar if you wanted a sweeter topping.

Lemon cupcakes

I don't usually bake in imperial measures, but this is a variation on a cupcake recipe a friend gave me.

In a large bowl measure out 3oz margarine or butter, 8.5oz plain flour, 10 oz caster sugar, 1 rounded tbsp baking powder and mix until you have something which looks like sand!

In a jug mix 240ml milk, 1 teaspoon lemon extract (or some lemon juice) and 2 large eggs (or 3 small ones!) and pour gradually into the sandy mixture, mixing it in as you go. Mix until the batter is smooth.

The batter will be very runny, so pour it into a jug.

Fill cupcake cases about 3/4 full and bake for 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees until springy.

I've decorated mine with lemon buttercream icing, a little lemon jelly sweet and a sprinkle of caster sugar.