My Busy Craft Life

Heyhey all, The bf wanted the same apple pie as last year , and it came out so well, I just had to blog about it! The original recipe can be found HERE , but just to make it easier, I have copied it here for you: You will need: 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie 1/2 cup unsalted butter 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/4 cup water 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced Instructions: Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to ...

Hello again! For the final piece of Christmassing this year, I made some knitted baubles. After finding this tutorial a while ago and pinning it for future reference, this was the year that I just HAD to make these :) I had just given my leftover baubles to charity before deciding I was going to make these, so I had to come up with another plan. Enter the Tiger shop in Hammersmith for selling styrofoam balls for fairly cheap. On second thought, I could have just purchased some more baubles at the Poundstore but clearly my brain was not really functioning, LOL. So since I'm not using pre-made baubles, I thought I'd show you how I made these.  Start off with styrofoam balls, wool, and some wire (I got these from the florist) Bend the wire creating a loop on one end Stick the wire through the styrofoam ball and bend the ends outwards on the other side, securing the wire. Glue (I used MP but you can also use hot glue if you want) the end of the wool to the bauble...

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with friends, family, lots of food and chocolate :) I know I did! It was just the two of us but it was lovely and relaxing and I am currently enjoying a few days off.  Even though it was only the two of us, I still had a bit of stress as some of my Christmas projects weren't finished yet and the deadline was Christmas Eve! So I got up early and I got cracking on finishing said projects.  The first project was a Christmas apron. Surely no one can cook a good Christmas meal without one! I had bought some lovely fabrics at Joann's when I was over there and wanted to make a cute frilly apron with it. There were some difficulties as I did this on a whim (no pattern!) so it's not perfect, and I only bought half a yard so I had to sew two pieces together to get a long piece with the print showing up correctly. But in the end it worked and I'm quite pleased with it :) Curious? This is it! Originally I wanted to go ...

Merry Christmas everyone! The tree is up, the stockings are finally done (more about that later) and the apron is finished (more about that later too).  I must be getting old coz I actually have heirlooms in our tree now... But it's really cool to have stuff from my mother and my grandmother in here. Makes you wonder in a way... I even have a Me To You bear :) This is our tree this year. I quite like it although it does take up most of the living room LOL. Oh well, it's only for a few days and it does look very Christmassy :) I hope you're all having a great time this Christmas and can spend it with family and friends and lots of good food. I have some catching up to do on my sewing and intend to sew and eat for the next few days :) Absolutely nothing wrong with that hihi! Merry Christmas and big hugz from London!

Hi everyone! I told you I had done some crafting and while it was not major, it really got me interested in sewing again :) Not I wasn't interested before, other things just got in to way. But once I finished this hat, I was so proud of it, I just had to make more and so more projects are on the way, on top of all of those that I am already working on. I really need some instant gratification projects ;) My work had organised a 1920s Christmas party and everyone was supposed to come in style. Not easy let me tell you! The 1920s style isn't exactly flattering most of the time, and while Boardwalk Empire and Downton Abbey provided plenty of inspiration, as did the Chicago dress as the V&A exhibition which would have been perfect but imposisble to recreate in only a few weeks time. But after a few weeks of searching, I actually found something that was right for me while still having the 1920s style. I discovered that there is a clothing exchange in Notting Hill (around the...

Good morning everyone! I told you I would send some updates :) A friend of mine visited from Dublin the other day and when I wanted to show him Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, it was so full that we had to wait for 20 mins and still didnt get in! Just look at this crowd, the tiny blue sign with the light is the entrance, that was miles away! Well, figuratively speaking of course... So we gave up and I showed him the Harrods Christmas display instead. It was gorgeous as always! Harrods' display was Disney Magic or something this year, and they had all the princesses shown in their finery... Here is Snow White... They even had this Magic Mirror which was amazing.. kind of a hologram thingy? This was Tiana from the Princess and the Frog. The frog was in another window and I did have a picture but it's not great... this dress is lovely though :) Cinderella's shoe was also shown, this is one of my favourite displays :) A Cinderella dress was nearby b...