Nam nam Banan

Or Yum yum banana to the anglophiles ...

I had a desire for banana bread this morning. So I duly went forth and examined my cooking books (of which there are many) and came away shaking my head at what can only be described at overenthusiastic folly. Why why why put lemon and orange and cinnamon and nuts into banana bread. Now that's an awful lot of flavours going on. Or a generous helping of extra dried fruit (banana's were obviously not enough). Or the sacrilege of raisins and currents - shudder.

Undetered I stauntered off to Sainsburys where there is frequently a bank holiday whoopsy on stock control and much stuff is on offer. Frequently overripe bananas feature and indeedily I picked up a kilo of fairtrade lovelies for only £1.

I decided to wing it with the recipe and the result is currently being enjoyed with a cup of tea.

You will need:

2 mixing bowls (1 large, 1 small)

1 bread tin

Mix these dry ingredients in the large bowl:

225g self raising flour (I used white but I think it would be nice with wholemeal too)

1tsp cinnamon (if you adore cinnamon increase this to 2tsp but I prefer my banana bread to taste of bananas)

150g sugar

Wet ingredients - add to dry ingredients and stir with enthusiasm

100g butter - melted

2 medium eggs

450g bananas (preferably a bit over ripe) - mashed up roughly with a fork in the other bowl.

Optionals - I roughly chopped ca 100g of dark chocolate and stirred in at the end.

100g Walnuts or pecan nuts roughly chopped

100g Dark chocolate roughly chopped

I then poured the batter into a bread tin and baked at 180degrees centigrade for 1hr 10mins (but I think I could have taken it out about 5 mins earlier)

I like my banana bread still warm from the oven with the chocolate all melty.

Snail's pace progress

I have pictures of the snail in progress and have been unable get them from my camera to the computer. There is no reason for it to not work it just seems to be having a sulk. Tonight I finally got it to cooperate!

Anyhow the snail is progressing - there is a body (unstuffed) and part of a shell (also unstuffed). Still to make are eyes and antenna things.

I am also in a frenzy of baby hats. The hat for baby T is done and ready for sending off. The hat for unknown sex baby 1 is all done (and knitted in the round which is definitly a much better option than knitting it back and forth). To try to account for either possibility I have made the hat stripey in pastel shades of yellow, green, cream and orange. I need to make another one of these hats for another unknown sex baby - but am going to change the stripes a bit. I'm not very pleased with how the changes worked this time especially at the bottom. This morning I cast on for a blueberry hat for a little baby boy - and it needs to be finished quickly as the child is due in a couple of weeks.

Perhaps there are too many projects now.

Charlotte

WOOO WOOOOOOOOOO

all i will say is that i had a VERY exciting email in my inbox just now the 2010 IKEA catalogue is out online!

life is good!

vanish for my varnish?!?

i will start with a GRRRRRRR, and add a little (*^&$BCSUY(£*&. i started varnished my box of firsts, normally i do quite like the varnishing bit as i guess i am a bit weird and like the uniformity of the a nice even coating.

ooooh yea i had the grand idea of using a mini roller. GRAND. except for the fact that the paint i used is not waterproof (curses i am used to oils) and thus upon my first attempt at the rollering - the colour started running!!! PANIC ENSUED, and i managed to save most of the fine lines, and grudgingly had to pick up a brush. the consolation is that the second and third coats will be applicable with roller so all is not lost.

Except that the bloody brush moved the black paint of the football onto the white parts and i nearly had a varnish-induced nervous breakdown (must not craft when ill). it is moments like these that puts me in mind not to craft, and reminds me why i dont do knitting. had i been knitting (though its saving grace is that at least it does NOT require varnishing) i would undoubtedly have stabbed myself in the leg or possibly strangled myself with the yarn.
As it was i put down the brush (curses later for not washing it thus having to discard it) and walked away and the box survive to see another lay (er of varnish).

Magic yarn

Well I know it's actually magic but it's still pretty cool! It's self patterning and even tho' this is nothing new it's still amazing when you knit and this just happens all on it's own.

Eventually this will be two knee high socks. They're done with a ribbed pattern at the back, and I've got ribbing on the top of the foot too.

This is not OCD

So I made some stitch markers in purple and aqua. And then I made some more in green, olive and gold.

Because I wanted the stitch markers to match the wool I was working with.

You can't really see it on the pic but there are olive and gold tones in this yarn too.

My next project is going to be for a baby and is in a muted pastels (yellow, peach, pistachio and cream) and none of those markers go. Nor will they match the blue cardigan. And don't even get me started on the wrist warmers ....

I knew there was a reason I shouldn't have moved away from using safety pins.

Charlotte

teddy boys

my current bout of summer cold (or is it swine flu!??) obviously has rotted my brain as i now have embarked upon the next project - making a teddy! it started pretty simply but has VERY quickly escalated to a level that really would warrant some sort of sectioning.

instead of making simple teddy - 2 bits o' cloth, stitched together, chuck on some buttons, and knock it up with some stuffing. but nooooooo. no no Ditte is TEEDY MANIAC! so now have made a hundred bits to stitch together and attach to eachother. it is so throughly overwhelming i nearly forgot to make legs! creepy.

i had to sit down and plan in my head - and drew a template, roughly guessed for ratios and have ambitiously decided that there should be bits that are protruding (belly and snout) - made out of the same towelling material i used for the rattle.

needless to say it will either be a rip-roaring success (never to be repeated due to frayed nerves) or a TOTAL failure, which will be put in the large craft box, to serve as a reminder not to attempt anything unless 100% compus mentus.

i have almost finished the head - so far so good, but am now on the worst part which is sewing the two faces together, with the stuffing in the middle. boooring! haven't the foggyest how this will turn out, i guess its a cross your digits kinda time. -d-

sleeping beauty

So, i am trying to keep a very certain vibe going in my bedroom, a room i think should only ever serve two purposes (unless you are lucky enough to have a dressing room) sleeping and getting dressed.for this reason i believe in IKEA - which means storage storage storage! i am lucky to have some ridiculously lovely in-built cubboards - which are almost half the size of the room which means i can keep all my shoes in boxes!




I picked up a whole heap of boxes from lk bennett - nice white boxes which are a bit sturdier than normal boxes and mostly of similar size. i then picked up some thick wrapping paper from paperchase (in the sale no less yay!) i didnt want them all to be identical so have used both a geometric pattern and a flowery motif - a bit kidston-esque. i have only covered one end and left the lid as it is so that i can write the style name (yea i know) or description. i based it on the old favorite of taking polaroids of the shoes, but prefer the unity of this.










In order to keep my danglies untangled i made this little hanging rack for them - using a small frame some pretty paper and some hard paper string (all IKEA total cost about €5). i took out the glass and strung the string across the front - then you just pop your earrings on the string - no more tangled/missing earrings!
















As with most appartments in Paris, all windows are shuttered (thankfully i have wooden ones rather than the rolling metal ones) but it also means there is no space for curtain poles as curtains woudl be superfluous. To resolve the problem of not scaring the neighbours with my nakedness when dressing i knew i had to find a window dressing solution. And where did i go for that? IKEA!!! simple - one of their ready made packs (€19.95) has two curtains - each wider than my windows. So i cut each panel into two, hemmed the sides (by hand - yes i was that bored) - then simply attached hooks, using adhesives, to the tops of each window section, clipped rings onto the curtains and VOILA!! two sets of curtains for the princely sum of €25.00!


I splurged (!!) on a set of silver glass birds, with clips (IKEA christmas decoration 2008 €5.99 for a set of 4) - and use them as tie-backs. At christmas i use pins to attach felt hearts (any craft shop in france will sell these about €1.20 for 10)and large crystal beads (from paperchase £3 for a box of 18) i think one could easily attach silk flowers etc etc. but i like the simplicity as it is.







The latest addition is wall hanging - i am usually unbelievably indecisive about wall stuff as i love images and always have too much to choose from. But then i found a charity shop on my last visit to England, where they sold old vinyl records - and i found two which fit the feel of the mood i was aiming for visually- dire straits and eric clapton (both of whom i love anyway) and then it was as simple as clipping on a ring to each and then just stick a nail in the wall. cheap, easy, and looks great (i think). cost - records £3 and £5 and the clips i cant even remember.

shake, rattle and roll

I have been working on the rattle, as the box of firsts is now nearly done (and thus has now been abandoned) and am at the bit i hate the most - finishing off! yuck

I did all the reverse sewing bit, i even sewed the fluffy stuff to the fabric, which was quite ingenius if i do say so myself. now i have turned it all the right way and have to close the hole - which is BOOOOORING and difficult to get nice looking. the result this far though is rather nice, and though it looks more like a bear than a dog, i think it is quite cool.

As you can see it is only a teensy bit pointy at the bottom - but i should be able to restitch a bit and hopefully get this nicely smoothed out.

Pretty sparkly

Recently I have seen a lot of very pretty stitch markers - frequently for an exhorbitant price! So I thought I'd make some myself.

You can get stitch markers that are made of plastic and ones that are beaded. The plastic ones that I have seen come in bigger multipacks in primary colours. The beaded ones come in various degrees of pretty.

All you need for this project:
1. some metal rings (I have ones which will fit needles up to 6mm)
2. some beads, not too heavy
3. for the tools I have some jewelry pliers but depending on the sort of beads this is not always necessary.

The finished product on a needle

I am making these in pairs - so similar theme but different colours and shape so that I can see which is the start and finish marker easily. In the past I have just used safety pins and moved them up but even when I use different sizes it can get confusing . . .

Charlotte

Sock it to me baby

Yers . . . more sockage.

I am knitting over the knee socks. Apparently not satisfied with the first sock experience I immediately came back for more. Naturally these coming from a Drops pattern they are made for tree trunk legs and the reductions are completely unreasonable. After much swearing (who would have thought knitting would turn the air blue?) and frogging it is however starting to take shape. And it is vaguely leg shaped.

This time I am using an exciting self patterning sock yarn called Drops Fabel. It is sort of magic the way it creates a pattern all by itself!!

The second sock of doom is also in progress - I think I am only about 5 cm away from the heel (akkkakarkk!!! not the heel!)

Hardcore babysitting

This weekend I took care of my friend's (E & P) little baby boy (T).  T is only 9mnths old and looks so Norwegian! 

The things that I discovered were as follows:
1. If it can be chewed it will be chewed (this includes electrical wires and my shoulder)
2. Screaming = communicating
3. Babies do not sleep anywhere near as much as their parents pretend they do
4. The most fun toy is the dustpan handle but the brush is just too scary
5. The washing machine is fine when it is off but when it is on it is tragic
6. Small children are remarkably efficient at removing scraps of wallpaper.
7. Their arms are elastic - they may look short but the reach is phenomonal
8. Let sleeping babies lie
9. When the baby is awake you are awake, when the baby is asleep you are tidying up the mess you made trying to be entertaining
10. I can only play peekaboo for so long and that is not as long as the baby

box of delights - nearly done!!

YAY! nearly done - and it didnt take me all that long - great it means i didnt get a chance to get bored and 'forget' about it. so the following a wee picture essay on the development

firstly, decided to paint the outside green (as mentioned) as i wanted to paint a football on the front. now, the last one i did i used a wide bruch for the background colour, but wished i had had a roller - TADAAA! mini roller (1.95€) and i mixed the green. this can cuase problems if you runout as you will NEVER match the colour. so make sure you mix enough.

for the last box i made i freestyled the teddy bear (that was the cover image on the last one) but footballs are surprisingly harder! so i downloaded a b/w image and traced on baking paper (much cheaper and JUST as effective as tracing paper) and then painted in. easy as pie. the lettering i freestyled though.

as there were no compartments to decorate like the last time - i decided to add a few images inside the box - i chose boyish themes - well transport, i hate to be quite so predictable but there you are. so i plunked for a locomotive and a plane. both of whom i made stensils for as i wanted to see if i could paint them that way. same trick as with the football - baking paper, then made the stensils out of normal paper (good for one careful use only) i had to make 4 layers for the train - here are the results of the first two layers.

the finished result - inside!! inside lid - plane (stensilled) and small wooden beads in the shape of cars, butterflies and dragon flies) i then hand wrote the list of my firsts - trip to tivoli, football match, campingtrip with grandma and grandpa (Mads' maternal grandoldies are avid caravanners) and finally first ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT. this will only makes sense to Mads' mum so no point going into it here. the inside bottom has the train, more wooden beads - this time of teddies, and then a tiny eiffel tower!

outside - the finished football, MADS in large lettters on to and front edge. then around the other three edges i had made another stencil of AbC. on the front and two side lid edges i have stuck more wooden beads (hears, flowers and teddies) this is helpful for grip when opening.

inside bottom detail

the 'bits' - booklets for first song and words (the words one has an additional line for 'translation' as i recently learned from my niece that cheese is in fact called SHYI - no-one knows why but that is what its called in the entire extended family now). the boxes are first birthday (heart shape with wooden teddy bead on front) first holiday - green oval xeample below, first JUL! milk teeth (i want to add some fabric or a little pouch inside. and another random box as you know it might come in handy (see below)

random box - with mini wooden car - i painted road markings on the box too. even if its not used its rather cool and i might just steal this idea for something else.

first holiday box - lots of mini travel related stickers round the edge. green for the globe. next time i will use a round one and try to paint the world map on the top as i think that would look cool

first steps (thanks C) this one is entirely made of card. it wasnt actually too fiddly, but involvedme getting wasted on superglue! excellent! i used three bits of card -its actual size is 3-4 cm in length. then i used a fine point calligraphy pen for the writing.

the complete finished work!!! very exciting! ok now i can start getting out more. ha ha ha

- d -

The sock of doom

I wanted new winter socks - nice sturdy ones that keep your toes warm. Nice traditional socks. I however met the sock patterns of doom.

This sock has been knitted at least 8 times over the past 12 months or so. The first pattern I tried came free with the yarn and was somewhat sparse on the instruction. It told me to decrease for the heel but then said (helpfully) knit the heel into the remaining stitches. Now even a rank amateur like myself could see that either there needed to be an increase in stitches or a picking up of stitches somewhere. Only as this was my first sock I did not know where. So I tried a variety of options and ended up with a sock for someone with no foot - possibly just one very looong toe. I frogged it back to the ribbing.

So I decided to try a different pattern. This pattern had the advantage that it acknowledged the need for further stitches after the reductions for the heel, but no hint as to how the heel and the foot were going to be joined - perhaps I was supposed to sew it together afterwards? Though there was nothing in the pattern to indicate that this was the case. So I frogged it and reknitted from the same pattern paying very close attention to the heel - I ended up with the same result.

Undeterred I located a third pattern, which was for a completely different type of yarn and the whole reducing and increasing bit got a tad complicated. The resulting mess had an interesting lace pattern around the heel which was unfortunate because at least everything was sort of knitted together. Frogged it again and put it away in frustration.

The sock was not going to beat me into submission! I perservered and have infact finally conquered the sock!

Proof that the sock is done!!

Things I have discovered about sock knitting:

There are two ways to knit heels
There are two ways to decrease for toes
The instructions will invariably leave out 1 important tip, which if you haven't done it before will leave you non-plussed and with a misshapen mess.
Some instructions forget to tell you where & when to decrease
Some instructions do not tell you how to knit the heel and the rest of the sock into one piece.

get your BOXing gloves out

alright alright i know, i just couldnt think of anything wittier.

i am almost done with the box of firsts, just have to figureout the final version of the firsts list. i have made the little boxes (milk teeth, first christmas, first birthday, first holiday). i will also make a small book for my first words, and my first nursery rhyme. i am going to steal charlotte's idea about the first steps.

i will also add a list of the following
- first football match
- first trip to Tivoli (thats a copenhagen thing)
- first sejltur op af aaen (thats a Line and i thing he he)
- first trip to Lydolphs Isbar
want to think of a few more but i think this is a fairly decent start!

i have also decided that i want to get a little mini eiffel tower to represent his aunty in paris.

hmm ideas seem to have dried up a bit. will try to post some progress pics tomorrow

- d