Back in August I had a first attempt at making some macaroons today I had a second attempt and am pleased to report that these macaroons are tasty and a bit prettier!
I used the exact same recipe as previously so how did they turn out so differently? Firstly as commented by the very lovely monster yarns on my post about my first go, I added more colour…and by more I mean a lot more!
I was going for a dusky pink, I still haven’t got that colour however this current colour is much better that the pinky orange of my first attempt. The second thing I did was I made them much smaller, this has the advantage that I made a lot more but I thought making them smaller would mean the top would be less likely to crack. It appears to have worked.
Here is the macaroon from the side to show off their icing:
I feel very happy with this second attempt, and pleased to report that the flavour hasn’t been affected by the improvement in looks.
Shortly after finishing the macaroons I headed off to my swimming lesson so I placed them safely in the cupboard, away from little one. She is a menace about food and helps herself to anything on the kitchen side, as much as I love her there is no way she is laying a paw on them.
Way back in October last year I had the pleasure of fabric shopping in Monmarte, Paris and selected a whole range of fabric as part of my capsule wardrobe challenge. Last Thursday I managed to get around to actually making up one of the item and today I wore it to work.
Please forgive the photos, it is so wet and dull in the UK at the minute and regardless of what we did Little One insisted on photo bombing me. Here is the dress on:
Firstly with the actual making, I made up view C, although I did not have a contrast band I wanted the band because when I have worn wrap dresses previously I prefer the way the band makes the dress sit. I also wanted the longer length so that it would go perfectly over my winter boots. Clearly the pattern included only options for short sleeve or no sleeves, I know that I would never wear a dress without sleeves and I kind of dislike short sleeves so I nicked the 3/4 sleeves from the Skater Dress pattern.
Overall I am mainly happy with this make, my main issues were the instructions, I felt that they weren’t the clearest (maybe I have been spoiled with indie pattern instructions which are incredibly clear) and the band took me about three attempts to put on, that seamripper is not my friend!
I am very happy with the way the pattern matches across the wrap, this took a fair bit of working out but I am so pleased that I did:
However the pattern on the skirt is ever slightly wonky, massive unhappy face, having clearly defined stripes on the pattern of the material makes this very unforgiving. I also would have liked the ties, which I have no pictures of to be a bit longer, I can fashion a knot that will not come undone, however they are no where near long enough to tie into a nice bow.
Wearing this dress today has however indicated one major issue, the wrap shows far to much breast curve for my liking and I spent the whole day fiddling with the fold trying to feel comfy with the amount of exposure…not a good look, especially when trying to chair meetings. The next time I wear this it’ll be teamed with a vest of some description.
I am very excited to finally share my completed paperdolls jumper:
The fit is perfect so I am really happy that I listened to Lizzylikescakeand didn’t frog it (again a massive thank you to her) The design is by Kate Davies and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it on Ravelry. The knit has been a proper labour of love, it has taken me 13 months to complete(not including the two years it took for me to get around to casting on). The reason for the length of completion time is because it has been periodically got out and then put away again and it is only really from joining the knitting group in Loughton that I ever really got around to finishing it. The paperdolls alone have taken me seven of this 13 months.
But look at them:
They really are lovely. The jumper goes perfectly with my new skater dress too:
I have the Kate Davies book and despite having it as one of my aims for 2013 to knit something from her book I have decided to cast on a different project first; Hetty by Andi Sutherland because I really want to work on something a bit quicker first.
My superheroes alphabet sampler continues to be worked on and today I managed to finish off T for Thor.
I feel that the sampler is really coming along nicely and I am pretty confident that I will get it finished by the end of the year, as was my original aim. Also on the mention of aims for the year I have another swimming lesson tonight, last week I managed to do two lengths of the education pool so I have been told I can go in the big pool tonight.
Seems as I have been a little off my sewing and knitting I have been working on the superheroes alphabet sampler. It is really coming along and I am so pleased that I took this project on and approached it in a slowly but surely fashion. Today I have finished R, for Robin.
This is one of my favourite ones so far, I love the mixture of colours.
My aim of getting three letters on the superheroes alphabet sampler is now two thirds complete because today I completed my second letter, her she is…power girl:
I also took a step towards completing on of my now craft Make and Do aims for 2013, I attended my first swimming lesson. I have signed up for the 12 week course for nervous swimmers so hopefully I’ll be able to look back on 2013 as the year I finally learnt to swim!
Back in September last year I started knitting the paperdolls jumper by Kate Davies. I loved the design but wow is it a challenge! My progress on it has slowed down somewhat and the last time I blogged about the jumper was way back in April when I started working on the skirt of the dolls.
I always take the jumper to the knitting group I go to each month but doing the colour work means I only get about two rounds done there, therefore my progress has been very very slow. I have now added a few more rounds to the jumper and this is how it is currently looking:
Here’s a close up of those pesky dolls, very pretty but very slow going:
I have now decided that I am going to try and get the jumper finished by the 18th September (this year!), it will then be perfectly completed for the winter and will only of taken a year to get there.
My aim for August was to complete three letters on my superheroes alphabet sampler (which forms part of my make and do aims for 2013). Here is my first letter of the month, O for Oracle:
Best get started on P if I have any chance of getting the other two done on time.
As you may have realised my blog was somewhat overtaken by the Tiny Seamstress last week, she is my wonderful ten year old niece and every summer holidays we spend a week together. It provides me with the opportunity to spend some time with her and do a variety of different activities that I would never do without her.
Our first day was participating in the Meet-up organised by Claire at Sew,incidentally. I was initially a bit concerned because although we do a craft project each holiday together (last year we fixed up her Ted) it was going to be quite sewing focused and she would be meeting lots of people I (never mind her) had never met before. She was quite unsure to begin with and asked that we went round the fabric shops on our own. I purchased the following three fabrics:
The top is flamingo jersey, this will become a skater dress, ever since seeing them popping up on a variety of blogs (particularly Lladybird’s) I have been wanting to make one. The other two fabrics I just like, there destiny is yet to be decided. The Tiny Seamstress however came into her own over lunch, she is such a social little thing and was happy chatting away about blogging, sewing and The Apprentice to the people at our table. She also go into the spirit of things with the fabric swap and came away with a variety of fabrics for us to use later in the week. I also came away with a pattern:
I loved view two (which confusingly is the one on the left) but I’ll have to play with the sizing as it is for a 31inch bust.
On Sunday I arranged for us to do something neither of us had ever done before…we went to a trapeze lesson! It was truly exhilarating, I was very concerned that I would not be able to hold onto the trapeze but I actually managed to do this (filmed by the Tiny Seamstress so please excuse the shakiness):
That’s right, that is me on the trapeze! The Tiny Seamstress was much better though and managed to get caught by another person on the other trapeze. It was amazing and The Tiny Seamstress has already asked her mum if she can have trapeze lessons…the answer was no, and despite my muscle ache for three days following the lesson I would love to do it again!
We also made the clothes together that The Tiny Seamstress has already blogged about, including her Batman Skirt, which I would love to have my own version of.
We then went roller skating on Thursday:
I haven’t been on skates since I was fifteen (that is now sixteen years ago) and The Tiny Seamstress found it hilarious when I landed on my behind! Finally on Friday we headed up to Lincoln to The Tiny Seamstress’ Nan and Pops (my parents) for a summer party, where she wore the Batman Skirt…it was an exhausting week but I loved it, The Tiny Seamstress is great fun to spend time with, she is a fantastic niece and I feel very lucky to have her in my life!
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