out of the frame: April 2012

Crochet Hero 3KCBWDAY3

I'm a bit behind with these blog posts! Life is pretty hectic these days. But here we go with Day 3 - Crochet Hero. Pictures like this one of amigurumi dolls made by Elisabeth Doherty are what inspired me to start making amigurumi. Her dolls have so much personality and each one is unique. You can see more of her dolls if you click here. She has actually stopped making amigurumi now and has started to make other dolls. You can see them if you click here. She has published a book of her amigurumi patterns and it was that book that helped me get started in making my own patterns for my dolls. You can buy the book from amazon if you click here.

Photo Challenge 3KCBWDAY2

This is Eco Bunny, and he, like me, lives in the beautiful country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Unfortunately some of the countryside in this beautiful country is messed up by rubbish - plastic bottles, plastic bags and other stuff like that. Eco Bunny is made from and stuffed with plastic bags and is leading the recycling revolution in our neighbourhood. Here he is just across the street from our house in a pile of cardboard boxes.

Here he is again in the bombed out house across from our house.

And once again visiting another pile of rubbish. Unfortunately these pictures only show the bad things about Bosnia and Herzegovina - but for the photo challenge I think they work! But - please take some time to look at some of my other blog posts where you will see how beautiful the country really is, and if you ever get the chance, you really should visit!

This blog post is for day 2 of Eskimimi's Knitting and Blog Week.

To nominate my photos for the photo challenge prize please click here.

To see more photos from today's photo challenge copy and paste the code 3KCBWDAY2 into google.

Colour Lovers

This week I am taking part in Eskimimi's Knitting and Crochet Blog Week . Today's theme is 'colour lovers'. This is a picture of my wool stash and you can see I have plenty of colours! The top left shelf is the skin tone colours, top right is eyelash yarn for hair, then yellows and greens, blues and greys, reds, oranges and browns and last of all pinks and purples.

I often start making an amigurumi by choosing 3 or 4 balls of wool in a colour combination I like and then finding a complimentary combination of eye colour and the colour of felt around the eyes. The personality of the doll then develops from those colours as I make it.

Looking back over the dolls I have made I've discovered that this combination of skin, hair and eye colours is the one I've used most often. It's funny because, if I'm asked, I always say that pink and purple are my favourite colours, but when I asked a friend to do a critique of my Etsy shop recently, one of her comments was that there wasn't enough pink in it, and I looked in my wardrobe the other day and realised that most of my t-shirts are green. I'm starting to think that perhaps pink and purple aren't my favourite colours after all!

What is your favourite colour?

3KCBWDAY

And the waiting is over...

After our workshop on Monday the army of babushkas in my living room now have faces :)

Waiting for Faces

There's a slowly growing army of faceless babushka dolls in my living room! Preparing for next week's workshops...

Raspberry Smores Cheesecake Recipe

It worked this time! So here's the recipe as promised.

Pie Crust:
185g biscuit crumbs
70g melted butter
55g sugar
a pinch of salt

Add the biscuit crumbs to the melted butter and stir until the crumbs are coated in the butter. Add the sugar and salt and mix well.

Press this mixture into a 24cm flan tin and refrigerate for 45mins.

Interesting Fact: Biscuit crumbs with milk is popular for breakfast here in Bosnia and Herzegovina so you can buy them ready made - there's no need to buy biscuits and smash them for recipes like this!

Cheesecake Mixture:
250g chocolate cream cheese
1 egg
50g sugar
2 tbsp sour cream
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
40g melted marshmallows
120g raspberries

Chocolate Cream Cheese - another local ingredient!

Instructions:
Whisk the cream cheese to get some air into it. Add the egg and keep whisking. Add the sugar, sour cream and vanilla and mix well. Add the raspberries and stir them into the mixture. Melt the marshmallows and then pour them into the mixture and stir well.

Pour the mixture into the flan case and bake for 20-25mins at 180C

Leave to cool on a wire rack. When cool, refrigerate for 1 hour and then serve and enjoy :)

Raspberry Smores Cheesecake Fail!

Last week I experimented with a new recipe - which, as you can see from the photo, didn't really work. The marshmallows started to burn so I had to take it out of the oven before the cheese had set so it ended up a watery, gooey, but yummy mess! I'm going to try it again today with a few alterations. If it works I'll post the recipe here on my blog asap.