House Cake

Last week James bought me some silicone cake moulds for my birthday. They look like little houses.

So I made up some cake mix (using my brand new scales that James bought me for my birthday).

And I greased my moulds (using my brand new pastry brush that James bought me for my birthday).

And I put all the mix into the moulds. Turns out they were bigger than I thought. I hope they'll rise.

They did rise :) but in the wrong shape so I squished them with a teaspoon so they'd fill the mould into the corners. Maybe next time I'll cover them with foil to make them rise in the right shape.

And they turned out like this:

After they'd cooled I decorated them using the writing icing we had left over from our Gingerbread Decorating Station.

And then I fed them to James :) he's getting very good at buying me presents.

Roman Blind

This blind came with the house. It's in our bedroom, which is at the front on the ground floor, so the massive gaps in it just won't do. And that's why there's been a blanket covering the thing since we moved in.

 

Time for a new one. One that doesn't have gaps in the first place so they can't get bigger. I'm going to make a Roman Blind.

I need sticks of some kind that will go across the blind horizontally. These are called batterns. I've been to the 99p store and bought this trellis. I need to take it apart. It's held together with these little plastic knob thingies; I just pull them out so I'm left with a bunch of sticks.

They're not long enough so I'll need to stick them together. I glue cocktail sticks inside to make them more stable. They don't need to be very strong - they won't be taking any weight, they're just there to help the blind keep its shape.

And then I trim them down so they'll fit.

I need a big piece of fabric. As luck would have it, we have way too many bedding sets (and nowhere to keep them all) so I can use a duvet cover.

I want my batterns to be 27cm apart, with an extra 4cm above the top one. I turn the duvet inside out and mark where they'll go before gluing them down.

My duvet cover is too wide for the window so I need to trim it down. I trim one side and glue a new edge on.

I found some curtain rings in Wilkinsons, which I'll use as guides for the cords. I'll sew them in at regular intervals across where the sticks are. The rings will be on the outside of the finished blind (on the back). The stitches go around the batterns to make sure they stay put. I do the bottom battern first, and turn the blind right side out as I go.

Next I need to attach my blind to its window. I've been to B&Q for some wood. My top piece is two bits, which I've glued together and cut to size. I trim the corners so it will fit around the picture rail. Then I glue the top of the blind to the wood and staple the corners in place at the back. I glue a final row of curtain rings to the wood and secure with staples. While I've got my stapler out, I use it to secure to join between the two wood pieces as well. And I screw the wood to the window frame.

Now it's in place, I attach the last battern to the bottom edge of my blind, using the windowsill as a guide. This one's made from wood, also from B&Q, because I wanted something a little bit heavier to weigh the blind down. I glue it to the lining then chop off the bottom of the fabric. I glue the fabric to the bottom of the stick. Once it's dry I trim the excess.

Finally, I need something stringy to use as the pull cord. I know! I'll use some string. I get 4 pieces of string and tie them each to a bottom loop. Then I feed the string vertically through all the other loops, and once at the top I feed them all to the left. I tie them just outside the top left hand ring so they'll stay together.

And when I try to open the blind, the top rings just fall off :( I guess gluing them in place wasn't going to do the trick. I need to figure out a plan B.

I went to Wilkos and got these little screw-hook things and screwed them into the wood by hand. And I thread the cords back through and tie them together. To open it, I just have to pull on the cord. To keep it open, I wrap the cord around this bit that was there to hold up the original blind.

Well, it works. It's not perfect; that's because I made it quickly without all the obsessive measuring and re-measuring that you're supposed to do. Maybe I'll be a bit more careful when I make one of these for a house I actually own.

Sporran

In the old days before I used to carry a handbag, sometimes I used to want a pouch on my waist to carry extra things. Now that I do carry a bag I sometimes find it can get in the way if I wanna take my coat off or if I want to move it's position it gets tangled in my hair. So sometimes I still want my bag to be attached to me. So I'm gonna make me a sporran. That means the kind of bag you wear on a kilt.

I found this handbag in the charity shop. I think it will do nicely.

I cut the strap off it and trim it down to be a few inches longer than the circumference of my waist.

I stitch the strap to the back of the bag.

Next I stitch over the ends of the strap to neaten them up. I fix half a snap fastener to one end and half a hook and eye to the other.

I add the hook from the hook and eye further down the belt, measuring to make sure it's the right distance from its counterpart. The I do the same with the second half of the snap fastener.

And that's it. My very own sporran.