Pasta Day!!!

We spent a day last weekend making pasta from scratch.

Beastie LOVES making pasta almost as much as she loves eating it!!!

We used the recipe on the back of President's Choices Black Label 00 flour.

We filled it with spinach and ricotta cheese then she wanted to add sharp cheddar (orange cheese) so we added that too.

Beastie was in charge of stuffing and fork marks to crimp the edges closed.

We made heaps of little pillows.

The extra pasta was turned into plain old noodles by putting it through the pasta roller.

We served it with a simple tomato puree and some sausage.

Her noodles were served with ketchup. 

Oh HI!!!!!

Forgot I had a blog there for a little while. Sorry folks. Thanks for hanging in there waiting for new posts. Here are a few things we've been up to this past month. 

I miss blogging!!!

I have sorted my fabrics (most gifted recently in three GIANT leaf bags) into different sorts. A stack of cotton, a stack of jersey, a stack of fleece...... well, you get the picture. Beastie came to the sewing room and asked for pants. I told her to pick one from the fleece pile and one from the cotton. This is what she chose. She's a fashion icon now. Notice the stylish and functional pockets? 

We've baked up some bun-nies..... Get it? BUN nies???? You see what we did there???

First day of school ever and Beastie was struck down with the terrible flu.

Looking forward to trying again next week. I'll stock up on hand sanitizer.....

Boot socks!!! I'm irrationally concerned that her calves may chafe inside her rainboots and am taking action to prevent it! 

We were gifted a bazillion gorgeous organic tomatoes. Beastie was in charge of cleaning them up.

I let her make tomato soup using the fresh fruit. She added molasses and basil and garlic but that was it. So yummers!

Loads of nail art has happened since I've been here and posted. I've particularly enjoyed the moon art that's been requested lately.

So adorable!!!

I've been enjoying the variety of shapes requested too.

More sock knitting! This lace reminds me that I can follow instructions. 

More moon art. These were all done with gel paint over hard gel support nails.

Couldn't decide on one purple...... so she decided on ALL of them.

These are mine this month. I think next month will be squirrels!!!

Found Beastie a real honest to goodness tool set at the antiques market! Can't wait to see what these two get up to. Oh hey!!! There's Mr. Jimmy in his new home sewn shirt too!!!

Well, That Didn't Go As Planned..... And a Bookmark Tutorial.

 I took last week off from the Salon so I could get some Christmas gifts made. We make almost everything. Usually we get a couple of purchased things but the  majority of our gift giving is home made. So.... I was all excited to start making..... And then..... The flu!!!

I'm almost caught up. We have heaps of things made (that I can't show you yet), but I have LOADS more to do. Mostly at the sewing machine. So I guess it will be between clients this week rushing to get it all finished. Really...... Every year I say I'll start earlier next year.....

Wanted to share this gift we made with Beastie.

It's pretty fast and easily made with things you probably already have in the house already.

Here goes...

Beastie Bookmarks:

You'll need:

Cardstock

colour printer

computer to manipulate photos

Photo of child reaching

Packing tape

sharp scissors small

white glue

Embroidery floss or string or ribbon

gauzy fabric

thread to match and hand sewing needle

bead

I took loads of pics like this. I had Momma Beast hold a string WAY up above Beastie's head and told her to reach for it. I wanted a shot that had her face up and arms up with a straight back. If you can get them to jump a bit for the string that works too.

I loaded the pic onto my PC and then onto a site called Picmonkey. Then I got rid of most of the background and made a frame around the pic. I flipped the framed pic so I could have a two sided bookmark. Then I printed it out in a couple of different sizes. Some folks like big books and some like little ones.

I cut out the images along the frame lines. This is helpful for keeping the images lined up. I glued the two mirror images together and let them dry flat. Once dry, I covered each side with some packing tape to make it more durable.

Then I cut those things out! I cut a tiny piece of fabric and gathered one edge with a running stitch and then I used the needle and thread to sew the tiny capes right onto the backs of the Beasties!

These are the beads that we made last year. We used FIMO Kids clay and had a HEAP of fun! I sewed a bead onto the hands of each bookmark using embroidery floss but you could use anything. Thread, ribbon, dental floss...... seriously! Whatever you have is great.

Beastie was thrilled with these!!! She wants to keep them all. I had to wait until nap time to put them up out of harms way..... I left her one so she could fly herself around the house like a tiny superhero.

We've been cookie baking too! These are the tiny tots creations. We added a bit more spice than the recipe suggested. We added cardamom and anise and ginger to the cinnamon and nutmeg. We also used a cookie mold shaped like an acorn leaving an indent in the middle of each cookie. Beastie wanted to fill 'em up with walnuts and chocolate. She is onto something here I think!!!

Wanted to share this recipe. It's from a very, very old out of print cookbook. Hope your Holiday plans are going smoothly and you're avoiding the flu!!!

Ouija Planchette Cookies and Halloweenie Nonsense

I promised more shenanigans were to be had using the bird skull molds I made HERE.

We've used the molds to make whiskey filled chocolate bird skulls for some Ouija board pointer cookies!

I used the non polymer clay use mold to make our chocolates. I coated it with a thin even layer of white melted chocolate and shoved it into the freezer to set. It only took two minutes each time. We made about a dozen in all.

After the chocolate hardened, I filled the mold with spiced whiskey soused chocolate pudding. Just enough to fill below the top of the mold.

Next I used my tiny very clean paintbrush (I use this one for food only) to put a layer of melted chocolate over the top of the mold. I pushed it in a bit at the edges to make sure it sealed.

I made some sugar cookies in the shape of the planchette using a stretched out heart and an icing tip for the hole.

After the cookies were cooled and I had enough tiny skulls, I decorated the cookies with royal icing.

Each one was a bit different.

The most wonderful part was I got to spend the whole time with my bestie! She came to make cookies for her own birthday party. So she made her cookies and I made mine and we got to chat and catch up. I think Christmas cookies need to be made with the same plan! Never enough girlie time!

I managed her a cake commissioned by her hubby. First time for a rosette cake here. I really enjoyed it! It was chocolate and vanilla with chai flavouring and lemon icing.

We didn't get many pics of our costumes this year. Too busy having fun! We went as munchkins from the Wizard of Oz. We got to the party and who showed up? Dorthy, the Tin Man, the Scare Crow and Cowardly Lion! No one planned it! Just happened!

We made James' hair from wool roving stuck on with spirit gum. We coloured it by spraying it with orange hairspray. It was Sooooooooooo easy!!

These are the nails I made for myself for the munchkin costume. I was a Lullaby League girlie and James was a Lolly Pop Guild boy.

Beastie and George have been busy decorating this week.

She has decided that our house needed some very frightening Halloween Ducks!

Beastie is also recently very fond of being a unicorn.

Happy Halloween Week!!!

Making Gnocchi.....

When my girls were wee, I taught them how to make home made gnocchi. Maggie couldn't say it so we all still pronounce it "yucky". I haven't made it for years and forgot how much fun it is to make.....

We decided that it was time for Beastie to learn how to make her own Yucky. She made a few with me. Rolling a one inch hunk of potato dough up the back of a fork to make channels for the sauce to grab onto.

She was soon distracted by the making of potato dough hedgehogs that were dunked into the soapy dishwater...

Here she is laughing hysterically at her dunked hedgehogs..... Oh, the mind of a toddler. 

Our recipe is easy peasy!

One cup of mashed potato

Two cups of flour

One largish egg (or two small ones)

Cold water to make everything a dough

Mix it all together and add just enough cold water to make a dough.

Don't overwork the dough. If you do, let it rest before you try to roll it out.

Cut the dough into palm sized hunks and roll them into worm shapes.

Sprinkle flour over your counter and hands so the dough doesn't stick.

Cut all the worms into one inch hunks and roll them up the back of a fork.

Let them dry out a bit on a flour sprinkled bit of parchment.

Simmer them until they float

Slather in your favorite sauce.

We had pea, bacon and butter.

Little pillows of potato-ey joy.

Om nom nom.....

Betcha can't have just one!

Baby Beast's Bunny Mittens

We've sewn The Baby Beastie some ferocious Bunny Mittens by scaling down one of our very first published sewing patterns. 

Bunny Mitten Pattern

Bunny Mitten Construction

Bunny Mitten Finishing

Squashed a round cookie cutter into a teardrop shape to make these yummy hedgehog sugar cookies. We started by smearing some melty chocolate onto each cookie and loaded broken up sliced almonds onto the back third of each cookie. We made faces with sugar beads.