Recipe Creation

Today I wanted to bake something that has a lot of fruit in it. I think it's really good to consume a lot of fruit because every time I make myself do it, I find that I have way more energy and do more stuff which means I'm in a way better mood. But these days I'd rather make something out of my fruit, and then eat it.

Here is my new recipe, which I pretty much made up as I went along. It might look like cake with fruit in it, but I prefer to think of it as fruit with cake in it.

I exchanged half of the flour for oats, because I hear that oats are incredibly good for you, and I reduced the sugar by 25%, mainly because I was planning on putting a lot of fruit in it anyway.

First I mixed together four ounces of oats with four ounces of self raising flour, eight ounces of margarine, six ounces of brown sugar and four eggs. Then I put in some candied peel, raisins, ground ginger and ground cinnamon. I didn't measure these out, I just whacked a bit in.

Next I took a banana that I had little intention of eating (little bit old, little bit bruised) and took away the bruised parts. I sliced up what was left and added it to my batter. Then I mixed it in with the electric mixer - I didn't want the chunks of banana to be too big.

Next I lined a cake tin. I would rather do this in a loaf tin, really, but I don't own one, so the round cake tin will have to do. I put in a layer of cake, then a tin of mandarin segments (drained). Then another thin layer of cake batter. If you look very carefully, you can still see some parts of orange.

Next I put in a tin of pineapple chunks (also drained). And another layer of cake.

Finally, I added a layer of peaches (another tin, drained). And put the last of the cake mix on top.

Then I put it in the over at 180. Soon after, I changed my mind and turned it down to 150. Fifteen minutes later I decided to put foil over the tin. Anywho it baked for a total of one hour, thereabouts. So it came out of the oven looking like this.

And I left it to cool for an hour before slicing it up and eating a piece.

Mmmm nom nom nom. This is one of the BEST ways to eat fruit.

Bow for my Hair

Remember this? It's the thing I made yesterday when I was learning how to knit.

Well it's not much use by itself is it? I'd better turn it into something. I start by sewing the edges together to make a loop of knitting.

Then I flatten it and stitch through both layers.

I found this piece of ribbon - I'm going to stitch it to the back, then wrap the ribbon around and stitch it in place.

Now I'll cut another length of ribbon and do this triangle cut this on the ends (secured against fraying with a tiny bit of glue.

This is a blank hair clip.

Not for long though. First I'll tie a length of thread onto the edge of the clip (there's a convenient little hole for this) and I'll make a couple of stitches in the wool. Then I'll wrap the thread around the clip, making more stitches in my bow along the way. Then I just tie the thread in the hole at the other end and the clip is finished.

I quite like this. I think I'll make the next one even better.

Knitting

Today Mummy taught me how to knit. I did plan on showing how in pictures, but it's really hard to take photos of it when you don't have a good camera. It doesn't like to focus and the flash is too bright. I'll take some pictures of how to knit maybe another time.

I acquired these knitting needles a few months ago. Granny didn't want them anymore.

Mummy showed me how to cast on and then how to make the next row of stitches.

Then I was on a roll :)

And after ninety minutes or so I'd done this much!

Yeah, knitting takes a long time. It was about then that I tried to move my fingers and realised that I couldn't. Mummy said it was because I'm not used to it.

So I had a little break and then I carried on.

After a while it occurred to me that if I took my knitting off its needle the whole thing would unravel, so there must be another thing to learn. Mummy called it casting off. It was a bit tricky at first - you have to make two stitches, then pull the first one over the second one and off the needle, without dropping the second one. Then you make a third stitch and pull the second one over it and drop it. And so on. But my fingers wouldn't move properly so Mummy finished it for me. 

My piece took about two and a half hours, and it's not very big. It must take years to knit a jumper! Here's the thing I made.

It would seem that I managed to make more stitches on each row. Maybe next time I'll find a simpler wool to use. This one's got two different types of thread wrapped around each other, which is pretty but not all that good for beginners.

Tablet Stand

Meet Tamsin. She needs a stand. Because what table owner in their right mind doesn't have a stand for it?

So I'm gonna start by cutting this toilet roll in half.

Next I take two pieces of a cardboard box and tape the halves of the roll onto them.

I put tape on the underside of one piece, then I sit the folded piece on top and fold the tape around it to secure the two cards together.

So there is the basis of my stand. Upon testing it, I wasn't surprised to find that it's not strong enough. The back part is trying its best to bend away.

No matter, I have more stuff. I take these straws and trim them to size, then I glue them inside the roll. When I sat Tamsin in her new stand this time, I was surprised to find that the card wasn't trying to bend anymore - I had thought I would have to add in more reinforcements. It did sort of want to stop sticking to the base though, so I added more tape.

Voila! Only thing left now is to make is a little bit prettier. Purple felt, cut to shape.

Corrugated card stuff (I thought it would also help to reinforce the back - it did.)

More felt, and a piece of foam.

And finally, a piece of paper wrapped around the back.

Pretty, eh?