Category Archives: Make, Do, Mend

Craft, Home Decor, Refashioning, fun

May 14, 2013 · 7:00 am

Make,Do, Mend: Frothy coffee at home

coffee makingYou might have caught on that I like a good cheat recipe or a tip! It makes me feel like I’m beating the system :) Maximum results with minimum effort.

Warning: If you’re a coffee enthusiast you might want to stop reading now.

We don’t own a fancy espresso machine with milk frothers and all.. and to be honest it would probably get used twice a year so there’s no need for us to own one anyway. But every now and then I get a hankering for a good milky frothy coffee, and usually at a point when it would take serious effort to go out and get one from a coffee shop.

So I discovered a way of making super silky smooth foamy drinks at home – with the help of a cafetiere/french press.

All I do is make my coffee a bit stronger than usual – either just in our Chemex or, if we have espresso, in our stove top pan.

cafetiere milk

Then I heat up milk in the microwave (remember it doubles in size when frothing so you only need about 1/3 mug) until nice and hot (not burned though!)

After this I pour the milk in the Cafetiere and pump it few times (try not to do it too briskly otherwise the milk will squirt out of the pouring bit) until I have the right amount of foam. Dead easy.

froffy coffee

Good way to have a nice frothy coffee at home without any expensive machinery!

Enjoy!

-Hanna

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April 30, 2013 · 7:00 am

Make, Do, Mend: Healthy (fake) ice cream

This is another one in the cuckoo health kick series that I’m still plodding along with (with varying success).

blended banana

After the success of the two ingredient pancakes I decided to give this one ingredient “ice cream” a go. It’s not officially ice cream, it’s frozen-banana-blended-like-crazy-until-it-looks-like-Mr-Whippy. If the real stuff isn’t available or too calorific this is a good alternative!

All you have to do is slice a banana or two and put in the freezer (we had three bananas between two people and the portions were pretty huge – I reckon one banana per person is best). Once frozen, pop the slices in a blender (and add a touch of milk or water just to help the blender along a bit). Now the world is your oyster – you can add coco powder (I added 1 tbsp), peanut butter (I did this but reckon it’s better without), chocolate spread or just have it as it is.

blendedbanana2

(Excuse my half melted final product, I took my sweet time taking a photo of it).

It’s yummy and dairy free (that is if you don’t add the splash of milk).

- Hanna 

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April 23, 2013 · 6:00 am

Make,Do,Mend: From Tea Towels To Cushions – Guest post!

We have a very crafty friend called Sarah E. She makes all sorts of lovely things and has agreed to grace our humble blog with this amazing tutorial on how to make cushions from tea towels! Here it goes…

Tea towel Cushion Tutorial

A quick and easy tutorial for making two square, envelope style cushions from a supermarket pack of three teatowels!

1 Teatowel pack

Step 1. Find three coordinating tea towels (the pack I used was £5 from Sainsburys)

2-lay-out-ttowel

Step 2. Pick a tea towel for your first cushion and lay it out on a flat surface, pattern side facing down. Fold it back on itself to make a square (measure your square to check!)

3-use-2nd-ttowel-and-overlap-and-cut

Step 3. Take a second tea towel and lay it on top of your square with the pattern facing up. Overlap the two tea towels by about 3 or 4 inches and chop off the end of your tea towel that hangs off the edge of your square. This is what your cushion will look like when you’re finished.

4-turn-inside-out

Step 4. Fold the whole thing over turning it inside out as you go. I found the simplest way to do this is to hold on to the middle point where the two fabrics overlap, and then flip it over. The front and back patterns should now be facing each other and the reverse of the tea towels are facing out. Double check that it’s still square!

5 pin and sew

Step 5. Pin your square and sew round the edge (you don’t need to sew along the side that’s folded). Leave a wide enough hem to make sure you sew through all the layers of tea towels (my tea towels weren’t all quite the same size).

6-trim-corners

Step 6. Chop off the corners. This will mean you have nice pointy corners to your cushion. (make sure you don’t cut in to your line of stitching!)

7-stuff-cushions-and-repeat-with-remaining-ttwoel

Step 7. Turn your cover the right way out and stuff it with a cushion (a 45cm x 45cm insert worked perfectly for me).

If your cover seems really baggy then turn it inside out again and sew another row of stitches inside the ones you’ve already done. This will make the cover tighter.

Repeat with your remaining tea towel and voila! Two smart new, coordinating cushions.

7.-finished-cushions

Step 8. Smug.

-Sarah E.

Thank you so much Sarah!

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April 16, 2013 · 7:00 am

Make, Do, Mend: Healthy two ingredient pancakes

TwoIngredientPancakes

Now that Spring is around the corner and layers of clothing are starting to come off I realised there needs to be a few pound shred before I’m ready to show these pegs to the world. This happens yearly, I just can’t help gaining a few pounds in the winter… If you can keep your “fitivation” up during the winter months you’re a better person than I’ll ever be!

Anyway, the health kick has started, with the help of an iPhone app I’m counting calories (zzz) and trying to get some exercise in too. Nothing drastic just a pound a week loss should get me back on track and, most importantly, still allow me some chocolate!

Because of this kick I’ve been on the look out for low calorie treats and when I came across these two ingredient pancakes I knew I had to give them a go. All you need is 2 eggs and a banana. They’re not as filling as normal pancakes but taste yummy which is the main thing!

EggsBanana

Here’s the recipe:

1 large ripe banana

2 medium eggs

1. Use a fork to mash the banana into a mash

2. Combine banana and eggs and whisk for few minutes (I used a Kitchen Aid to get maximum air in – it makes the batter more substantial. If doing by hand,consider it a workout!)

3. Melt a little butter in a pan and cook as you would normal pancakes (keep the heat a little bit lower as normal as these burn easier. Also don’t get despaired if the first few go to the pancake gods – I’ve come to accept this as the norm.)

4. These babies are quite sweet so natural yogurt and fruit are a great companion for them!

Hoping to walk a little lighter into the Spring…

-Hanna

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April 4, 2013 · 11:42 am

Make Do Mend: Raised Bed.

So the warm and fuzzy thoughts of living in community and growing all your own veg has led me to actually trying to make a communal veggie patch happen.

The key, so far, to a communal veggie patch is people. First I spoke about it enough to other people that they made sure I could make it happen and I got a River Cottage book for Christmas from the veggie gurus Hanna and Jon. Then got my lovely friend, and guest blogger,  Jonny to help make it happen. It was never going to happen if it were down to me. So grateful for community making it possible.

We went scouring for pallets.

pallets

We smashed them up.

apart

Stopped for a little coffee break. Coffee and Ikea cinnamon buns (no horse.)

coffee break

Put them back together.

back together

And after a whole day of scouring, smashing, nail removing, sawing and drilling this is what we created. Proud.

raised bed

The best part about this is that so far it has been entirely free!!

Now all there is to do is make the rest of it happen and pray for the snow to stop!

- Celeste 

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February 28, 2013 · 1:53 pm

Make, Do, Mend: Alternative pesto pasta


 Nettle pesto

I’ve got spring on the brain. I’m so ready for the sun to start warming these cold bones, however, the weather hasn’t quite co-operated with me yet – C O M E  O N  S P R I N G!

So while we’re waiting I thought I’d share an alternative for the easy weeknight favourite that is pesto pasta. It’s not possible to make this yet in the northern hemisphere, but it’s worth a wait. You see, this pesto is not made with basil, but with nettles. Yes, those stingy little devils that everyone hates.

Nettle pesto 2

But try them in a pesto and you might just change your mind about them! Added bonus is that nettles are packed with all sorts of goodness and taste brilliant in a pesto.

I got the recipe from this website.

_MG_5084

So when the sun starts to warm us up and you see those little buggers raising their stingy heads – pick them up (the younger the better apparently), boil and smash into a tasty dinner! (oh, maybe just avoid the ones near sidewalks… other wise you might have dog wee as an added flavour…)

Just remember your gloves, oh and don’t go picking wearing flip flops (proving once again that  i’m never practical with footwear).

- Hanna 

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February 14, 2013 · 7:00 am

Make, Do, Mend: Will you be my pair?

WillYouBeMyPair

Though me and my husband are not huge fans of Valentines day we still tend to give each other a little card or a present, but don’t really make a fuss out of it. I don’t know about you, but the idea of sitting in a restaurant full of couples makes me want to run for the hills!

So in the name of keeping things simple I made a little card for him.

Pears2

I turned to our fruit bowl for help and took a picture of a pair of pears. I found some good free fonts through this brilliant blog and put them to use.  The line I ended up with was “Will you be my pair?” (it reminded me of primary school when we had to choose a pair to walk to the swimming baths with). The result is a super simple but sweet card with not much hassle at all.

We’ve said it before (Remember our Blue Valentine?) but I’ll say it again – in Finland Valentine’s day is called a ‘friends day’ so let’s share the love with all those special peeps in our lives!

-Hanna

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January 10, 2013 · 1:30 pm

Make,Do, Mend: In Praise of Craft Chocolate – Mast Brothers

Image

The week before Christmas, I was awoken by the Hub, proclaiming an elongated and loud ‘Yesssssssssssss’ as he ripped open a packet that had just been delivered.  Curious about what could illicit such delight from the man who is rather sedate any time before 2pm, I came out to find sitting him with some  beautifully handprinted, handwrapped chocolate bars from craft chocolate makers:  The Mast Brothers.

Image

Not only does this bean to bar chocolate look beautiful, but is delicious in a dark, strong way  (not, however,  for the milk chocolate lover, our 5 year old nephew declared it was ‘poison)’.  It is so rich that a tiny square will do, so our collection is lasting us a long time and thus far the winner in our house is the sea salt and Almond bar, salty, sweet, crunchy, rich bitter, bright all in a taste.

However, I am as taken by the story of these two Brooklyn based chocolate makers and their great love for their craft, as much as I am taken with the flavour of the chocolate. Watching this video, leaves me inspired by the wonder, enthusiasm, joy & fascination of these bearded brothers for what they have given themselves to – it seems so full of delight it almost looks like playing.  I reckon I can taste that in every bite!

If you are lucky enough in be in Brooklyn, you can pop along to their factory shop, but for those of us separated by the sea, you can find some over here:

Image

“Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”  Emerson

Enjoy!

-Sarah-

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December 20, 2012 · 5:25 pm

Make, Do, Mend: Last Minute Christmas tree

CraftyChristmasTree

I’m sorry for the silence – the last few weeks have been a chaotic whirlwind. Not only am I finishing a school placement but we’ve also had some crazy renovations at our house. This means that we haven’t been able to deck it out with all the usual decorations to get us ready for the festivities :(

However, the builders are now gone and things are almost back to normal, so yesterday I got home from a long day at work to find a crafty christmas tree on our table (my husband had been busy).

It’s so easy to make. Just build a christmas tree “skeleton” with sticks: One vertical and  about 5 horizontal ones crossing over and getting shorter towards the top. Tie them to place using string and pop the base into a tin (we used old chopped tomatoes tin) and finally wrap lights all around it. Our lights are quite long so some of it is bundled on the table.

So if you haven’t got a real tree (I so miss having one) get yourself involved with this.

-Hanna

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December 18, 2012 · 4:09 pm

Make Do Mend: Christmas Garland

It is but a 7 days til Christmas! Which gives you plenty of time to rustle up some last minute Christmas garlands for your house OR as a pressie!

joy

I got a little excited about Christmas so made these in October… a tad too soon for Christmas decs!

All you need is:

Butchers Twine

Felt Balls (chuckle)

Cardboard Letters

Needle with a large enough eye

Threader

and … for the sake of your fingers… Pliers

I ordered my butchers twine and felt balls from Ebay and then cut ‘Peace, Joy, Love’ out of cardboard.

Thread the butchers twine through the needle (obvs) and then through the felt, that will be tough and without pliers take some time and perserverence.

I find that a Saturday night with a friend, wine and curry make for productive garland-ing!

saturday night

Add the letters when you want and hey presto!

garland

Add any words you like and make these as a little pressie for someone spesh this Christmas!

Happy shopping, wrapping, caroling!

x

Celeste

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