Making and baking

Hello all. I'm all over the place at the moment. I have so many things going through my head. Things to make, to do, to talk about, that when it comes to blogging about it I find the moment has passed and something else has come along in its place. So I thought I'd show you what I have made lately, be it two weeks ago or today. I often feel like I don't manage to do enough and forget to have a 'yay' for the things I have done and am pleased with.

I was thinking about it while cooking the other day. Despite having a dad who is good at woodwork and DIY and a gran who could knit extremely well, everything I know I have had to find out pretty much on my own. How I wish I had learned sooner! I just haven't got the confidence to try sometimes. I hate failing so tend to stick to tried and tested methods and there is a whole range of things out there I am missing out on! As unlikely a source of advice the My Little Pony Movie is, there is a line that goes 'If you only did the things you were good at, how can you make yourself better?'which even coming from a blue cartoon pony with green hair is very true.

So here we have my making and some baking.

Today was a very rainy day. Both Boy and Girl have been off school sick so I made up a few batches of play dough which is so easy and quite fun too. All you do is put half a cup of plain flour, a quarter cup of salt, a tablespoon of cream of tartar and 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil into a pan. Measure out half a cup of water and before you add it to the pan you add food colouring and any fragrance, which is entirely optional. I added lemon to the yellow, lavender to the purple, tea tree to the green and vanilla to the pink. If you think your kids might be at risk of eating it if it smells too nice then you will have to skip that bit! Put the pan on a medium heat and stir constantly until the mixture forms a ball. You'll know when it's ready trust me! Allow it to cool and knead it a little. If it's a bit dry and cracked put a small amount of the vegetable oil in your hand and work it into the dough and that should sort it. If you store it in an airtight container or plastic bag it should last a good while and you'll never need to buy the shop bought kind again!
Next we have a pair of dolly trousers. Girl bought the doll at a car boot. I don't really like dolls but felt sorry for this one having nothing to wear. I was all ready to do a dress buy apparently dolly is a boy and needed stripy clothes like BoyBaby's. I spent an age looking for patterns but nothing came up so I decided to have a go at making it up as I went. The waist is a bit high but not bad for a first effort. I even put in some short rows to accommodate dolly's ample bum. Just need to make a top next.I've been on the search of a holy grail carrot cake recipe for a long while and this may be it. The cake is pretty huge so I halved the amount and cut down the cooking time. I also only added the orange rind and substituted pecans for the walnuts. I left out the pineapple too, I wasn't too sure whether I'd like it.
And last of all are these Banana Brownies which are more like a traybake than a brownie but completely gorgeous. It's made in a roasting tray and have the ability to wipe out 6 bananas in one go and are freezable too. I can see this becoming very useful to add to my growing collection of banana disposal recipes.

I was also going to blog about what is inspiring me at the moment but time has beaten me again. I may have chance to do that over the weekend as illness and bad weather will keep us in. I was hoping to head to Birmingham for Veggie Pride UK . It's a shame, I really would have liked to have gone.

TTYL