the easiest fudge recipe in the world…ever!

My dad asked for fudge for his Christmas this year and, after a very bad experience trying to make it the conventional way, I resorted to a tried and tested method of considerable ease.

Are you ready?  Here it is:

~ Put 1 can of condensed milk in a microwavable container (quite a big one).
~ Add to that 1lb of chocolate chips (or break up some chocolate bars).
~ Pop it in the microwave on high for 1 minute.
~ Take it out and stir.
~ Alternate 30 secs in the microwave with stirring until all the chocolate has melted.
~ Pour, or spoon, it into a suitable pan/dish/whatever is to hand and place in the fridge to set.  A top tip here would be to line your dish (the one you put in the fridge) with cling film.  It’s easier to remove the set fudge that way.
~ Cut into squares/triangles/circles/whatever.

All done.  Yes, it’s that easy and while it’s not quite authentic fudge it is a pretty good substitute and a whole lot less stressful in the making.

embroidered mushroom ornament

This post is copied from our new blog at www.madestuff.co.uk.  When I say our, I mean Alasdair and I.  We have decided for one reason or another to post collaboratively on our craft adventures.  Who knows, one day someone might want to buy some of this stuff and make our house a bit less cluttered.

The following piece won’t be for sale as I don’t hold a licence to reproduce it for commercial use.  You can get the pattern yourself though and give it a go…it’s very easy.

Anyhow, here it is:

Is it an ornament or is it a pincushion?  Well, it could be either.  In this case it’s an ornament because the intended recipient doesn’t sew.

The pattern for this was from Little House by the Sea, who very kindly shared her pattern.  The embroidery was mostly my own creation, although the general idea was also taken from the one’s made by Little House by the Sea.  The stitches used are back stitch, running stitch, bullion stitch (which was new for me on this piece) and something that I know as lazy daisy, although I’m not at all sure that’s its correct name.

felted sweater bird wristlets

Remember the bird tutorial?

See anything familiar in the wristlets I made this week?

felted sweater appliqued bird wristlet (try saying that after a few drinks)

Well I attempted to felt an old cardigan, without a lot of success I might add.  I don’t think I put it through enough washes.  Still it felted enough to not fray when cut.  Once felted, I cut the end of the arms off…a bold action for me…and sewed them into a wristlet sort of shape with the help of my handsome assistant (it’s very unnerving having pins stuck in a garment while you’re wearing it).  At this point I was very dissatisfied.  It hadn’t taken me long enough and I felt as though I was shortchanging their intended recipient.  The answer, of course, was to embroider a tree on them.

Er, wait a minute, that’s not a tree!  Let’s take a closer look…

nope, definitely NOT a tree

Well no.  You see the tree looked naff when drawn out on paper.  Looking through my box of bits to find some inspiration, I came across the original template for the bird and decided to applique a bird on each wristlet.  I quite like them although they are perhaps a bit twee for most people.  The other one is a mirror image of the one shown above.

I have loads of this cardigan left so if you want a pair of these let me know in the comments and we’ll sort something out (whether that be payment or a swap for something of equal worth).  They are very, very warm.

da-da…the bag in all it’s finished glory

It was actually completed last week but there’s a daytime blog posting problem again and now I can only blog in those 5 minutes that Alasdair gets up from the PC to make a cup of tea.

Getting good pictures of this one was an absolute nightmare.  The fabric goes all swirly under the flash and we’ve had such terrible weather this past week that the light has been really poor.

Anyhow, here it is for posterity’s sake.

Embroidered pillow case tote bag (with just a little touch of felt)

and an arty shot just to show off

Instructions (sort of)

This bag is made from a pillow case cut about 5 inches from the top and 2 inches from the left hand side, before being sewed together into a case shape again.

Do the same with a plain pillow case for the lining.

Insert lining into embroidered pillow case and secure handles between layers.

Sew around the top to secure the cases together and hold the handles in place.  I quilted the handles which I think looks rather good .

Should you be drooling onto your desk and want me to make one of these for you…forget it (or send me a cheque for several hundreds of pounds).  There are far too many hours of work in this and I reckoned it would be worth at least £100 in my time alone.

Amusingly I spent so many hours sewing the spirals onto the tree that I can’t stop sewing spirals on everything.  It’s like my brain is stuck on spiral.

not just for beginners dotee swap

Now that my lovely partner has received her dotee I can show you the whole package…

Here she is all wrapped up in her box with her reading material

And isn’t it always the way?  You’re ready to go and someone needs to go to the toilet one last time so you have to unpack!

And then she wanted to play in the tree…huh!

I’m pleased to report she did eventually get back in the box and another box and was taped up well enough to survive the USPS.

well that went down like a brick

Yesterday was Alasdair’s birthday.

We have a tradition in our family that says you get a cake made for you on your birthday.  Well, Alasdair is the baker in our family and makes wonderful cakes out of practically nothing.  I slaved all day on Tuesday looking for the perfect recipe (OK, not true.  I spent ten minutes looking for the perfect recipe).  I stopped by the supermarket on the way home and got the ingredients for a ginger loaf with butterscotch coating…yummy.  I don’t know why but on the way out I suddenly thought to get a bag of premixed chocolate sponge cake.  You know, just in case.

You see where this is going?

Turns out I was right.  I really did slave all day yesterday to make this wonderful, beautiful creation.  One that a wife should be proud of, one that a husband and kids should devour and remember forever and ever as the best cake in the world.

Except…when I went to cut the cake with a sharp knife, one of our very expensive and very sharp steel knives, it wouldn’t even mark never mind cut.  Oops!  It appeared I’d made a brick for Alasdair’s birthday.  Not only that but when I did get it cut the insides were raw!  How does that happen?!?!

Still at least it looked nice and it kept us warm for a wee while as it burned on the fire.  Thank goodness for the backup cake mix…

By the way, if you decide to try any of this you should note that butterscotch morsels and Werther’s Originals are not the same thing.  Also, Werther’s Originals don’t melt when heated…nope, they bond together in a huge messy lump that you can’t get off the plate you put it on out of the way so that you could make chocolate topping instead…just saying, not that this is what I did or anything! <walks away whistling>

curses to whipup

I check Whipup every day for ideas of things to make.  You’d think given all of the WIPS I have I’d give it a rest wouldn’t you?  I don’t because I’m scared I might miss something really cool.  Something worthy of dropping everything I’m doing and making that instead.

There have been a few over the past week that have grabbed my attention and this one from Little House by the Sea is going straight to the top of the list.  Handily for me (or not) I ran out of the green thread I was using for the embroidered tree last night and will have to wait for the weekend to get more so I have some free time to pursue other avenues.  Hmm, one small problem is that the felt I have is for Iona’s felt food…slapping my wrists as I write this.  Must not use Iona’s felt…must finish making felt food before I use the felt for anything else!  Maybe, just maybe I could felt some jumpers to use instead.  I have a grey one and a red one…nobody would notice them missing would they?!?!?!

Something else that I saw on Whipup this week that is just excellent is boxes made out of old aluminium drinks cans.  I’ve been making boxes for my swaps out of cardboard and have been enjoying it as a quick and easy way to package the more fragile items.  Making them out of aluminium though appeals to my sense of creativity and frugality.

In other news, Alasdair and I are in the inception stages of a new arty/crafty venture.  If we can get ourselves in the same room for long enough without the interference of the kids it may well just get off the ground.  Announcement on that one possibly in the new year…or maybe even sooner (who knows!)

twit twoo

So, at 5:18am today we were blindsided by illness when we were awoken to David coughing and then screaming.  Perhaps you can guess what had happened.

David spent the next 7 hours chucking up every so often and watched a ridiculous amount of Transforners on You Tube.  The poor soul (and us) thought he was getting better around mid afternoon until the Calpol wore off and he looked like death warmed up again.  He’s off to bed now with his bowl and some more Calpol so we’ll have to see what tomorrow brings.  Chicken Pox is doing the rounds in our little village and, whilst David has had it twice already, we think he might have it again without the spots this time.

It actually worked out ok because this allowed me to get some more of the embroidery on the tree done while Iona and Alasdair napped this afternoon.  It’s almost done now, except I just know I’m going to run out of the shade of green I’m using before the end, necessitating a trip to Hobbycraft…what a shame.  I bet you all feel sorry for me – yes?

Last night as Alasdair napped his few pints away I decided to try my hand at whittling again and this is what I came up with.  It still needs a coat of varnish.

I’ve reached the conclusion that I’m not patient enough for whittling.  I would have liked this piece to be owl shaped but gave up on all the sanding in favour of a cup of tea!

really bad example of acyclic paint on wood

Also, I finished dinner time #2.  Just one more to do and it can be on it’s way back across the pond.

“Dinner Time #2″
collaged photographs and watercolour on card

I’m really happy with the tree on this one although the old adage know when to quit was well and truly ignored which meant it’s not as good as it was two coats of paint before this one.

Finally, whilst on the subject of You Tube…enjoy this from my youth and perhaps yours too:

dinner time #1

As I write this it is about dinner time here at naughtystep towers.  Alasdair has gone to the pub to watch Scotland hump Canada (current score is 41-0) and he kindly made soup before he went out so I don’t have to do anything with it…yippeee!  Iona has gone for a nap because the kids had a friend round to play which delayed her nap.  I thought we could sweat it out until bedtime.  It’s become apparent that the 4:30am rise this morning has done her in so off to bed with her.  David’s watching Bob the Builder…

…what else is a woman to do when the kids are occupied and dinner is taken care of?  Why make a dinner time of other sorts of course.

Taylynn from Nervousness sent me an envelope full of paper scraps with instructions to make three ATCs and send them back to her.  I must admit to being well and truly stumped last night…collage isn’t really my thing…but I am pleased at what I eventually came up with:

“Dinner Time #1″
photo, envelope and watercolours on card

The tree is part of an old photograph (rocky ground), the owl is part of the envelope that the scraps came in, and the rest is watercolours.  I chose not to water down the paint for the trees, grass and rabbits but I’m not sure I like the effect.

Just in case it isn’t totally clear (which Alasdair thinks) the owl has it’s back to us and is watching the rabbits eating the grass.  The rabbit on the right has obviously noticed something amiss and has sat up to get a better listen.

Dinner Time #2 to follow shortly…along the same lines but a bit closer!  Then, if I can pull it off, Dinner Time #3 showing the inevitable.

another one bites the dust

It’s been quite motivational for me to write down my WIPS and join various swapping sites (which then forces me to finish things I’ve started).  This one wasn’t on my WIP list because I hadn’t even started it when I wrote that list.  How good am I to have started and finished something in the same week!!!!

Last night I finished a Christmas gift for David, because Santa’s elves are busy, busy, busy and couldn’t cope with my insistence that they should try and pretty up that camera he’s going to ask Santa for.

This was really easy to make…just put the camera on top of the felt and cut round it, then sew up the sides, adding a loop and button as you go…OK maybe not that easy but if I can do it without a pattern anybody can and the picture will explain it far better than I ever could.

felt camera case

Also, I promised a little sneak peak at the bag I’m making mum for Christmas (she doesn’t even know I have a blog never mind read it) so here that is.  At the moment it’s a rather elaborate pillow case, but it will become a tote bag in due course…just as soon as I’m finished embroidering spirals on the tree.

recognise those flowers from somewhere?

I am pretty sure felt will become my new favourite sewing medium…it’s just too easy to make nice things without having to worry about seams and straight lines and all that other stuff that I can’t do.