Here is my choice for this week’s Scenic Sunday – a photo from the Chinese Garden of Friendship, Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia.
Author: Anne S
Brightening my life one stitch or one card at a time, and sharing my joy of needlework and card-making.
Chocolate Cake recipe
This is mainly for my Mum’s benefit 🙂
Those in my family who know me the best will know I’m a crappy baker – one particular cake I tried making (an orange cake, from memory) sank nicely in the middle and had a heavy texture. Dad loved it! And afterwards asked me to make another “sad cake” ‘cos it was so lovely … I’ll never forget that “sad cake” 😉
Anyway, last weekend I had a HUGE urge to bake something … not being a baker, this was EXTREMELY unusual, as I just don’t bake anymore – but even MORE unusual is the fact that it turned out to be the best damned cake I’ve ever baked in my life (and those good ones can be counted on one hand with a few fingers left over!) … and I’d even go so far as to say it was one of the best damned cakes I’ve ever eaten in my life! Yep, BIG words!! Anyway, I thought I’d share it online so Mum can try it out – I should really try it again myself too to make sure it wasn’t some kind of huge fluke that it worked out so nicely!! 😛
ALL-OCCASION CHOCOLATE CAKE
1 cup (250ml) water
1 1/2 cups (330g) caster sugar
125g butter
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour
2 eggs
Grease deep 19cm square cake pan, line base with baking paper.
Combine water, sugar, butter, cocoa and soda in medium saucepan; stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil, simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Transfer mixture to large bowl; cool 10 minutes.
Add flour and eggs to mixture; beat with electric mixer, on low speed, until smooth. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake in moderate oven (180-190C / 350-375F) about 40 minutes. Stand cake in pan 10 minutes; turn onto wire rack to cool.
Top cold cake with 1 quantity Fluffy Cocoa Frosting.
FLUFFY COCOA FROSTING
50g butter
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
3/4 cup (120g) icing sugar mixture
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
Combine butter, water and caster sugar in small saucepan, stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved. Sift icing sugar and cocoa into medium heatproof bowl; gradually stir in hot butter mixture; cover, refrigerate until thick. Beat with wooden spoon until a spreading consistency.
Cut and serve and may the drooling commence … 😀
Photo Hunt – Bags
PhotoHunt
Home of a Needleworker Too
Yesterday I ended up coming home from work due to feeling nauseous and hypersensitive hearing – as it was a ‘theme day’ at work, there was much hilarity and it finally sent me over the edge and I ran screaming for the hills. I guess I’m still not 100% over these darned bugs, as it’s been a real struggle at work this week. Oh well, it’s the weekend again, thank goodness, so two more days to chill out and relax 🙂
Once I did start feeling a bit brighter yesterday afternoon in the peace and quiet of home, I managed to get some stitching done, and managed to finish off my Home of a Needleworker Too. I really like this one – I did change one thing, and replaced the Crescent Colours Old Blue Jeans thread with something lighter – the Old Blue Jeans skeins I have in my stash are just revolting, and I really didn’t want my house stitched in it. Rather than buy more threads, I just found something that would be suitable in my existing stash – I like it soooo much more than that manky Old Blue Jeans 😀
“Home of a Needleworker Too” by Little House Needleworks
Stitched on 28ct Vintage linen by Wichelt
using recommended Crescent Colours threads with one exception
– replaced Old Blue Jeans with Crescent Colours Blue Moon
That now means that I can use those scroll bars to start Mirabilia’s Enchanted Mermaid in the Large/BAP rotation slot … all I need to do now is to blow up a big working copy so I can highlight over the stitched sections easily – might take a run over to Officeworks tomorrow and organise that 🙂
Winter in the Square
I finally managed to put the final stitches into Just Nan’s Winter in the Square tonight – and I am sooooo in love with this finish, it’s ever so pretty 😀
“Winter in the Square” by Just Nan
stitched on 28ct ‘mystery’ Cashel linen, tea-dyed
with recommended threads (DMC)
Even in the late hour of the night, the photos didn’t come out too badly – I’m so glad I decided to tea-dye the fabric, as it’s added just the right level of colour to the linen and makes the white thread stand out so much more.
The next slot in my rotation is supposed to be “Large/BAP Projects”, and I’m supposed to be started Mirabilia’s Enchanted Mermaid next, but I need to empty the scroll bars first, so I’m finishing up LHN’s Home of a Needleworker Too first up, as those are the scroll bars I need. I managed to finish up the little spool of thread, and most of the letter “H”, but that’s all so I didn’t bother taking a progress piccie. Fingers crossed this weekend I’ll be able to put a few more stitches into it and perhaps get that one finished off 😀
RIP Graeme Ross
I was sorry to hear of the death of the designer and artist Graeme Ross this weekend – he was the creator of Ross Originals designs, and had an incredible designing talent. If you want to read more about him and his life, feel free to wander over to the Ross Originals website for more information. I personally adore his bird and wildlife designs.
One of my all-time favourite stitched pieces was a Ross Originals piece – this is one of my very first ever XS projects, stitched on 14ct Aida back in the days when I didn’t know anything called linen was in existence. Here is my Ross Originals’ “Tiger” in all its magnificent glory. Actually it looks like I scanned the piccie years ago, as I notice the right-hand side in particular is a bit cropped off – oops!
I’ve always wanted to get this piece framed, and have never managed to get it done (in fact I’ve never managed to get much framed at all … I can probably count on one hand the number of XS pieces I’ve had framed) – but now I have a real urge to finally pull my finger out and get him finished. I want to learn how to do my own framing, and this one will definitely be added high to the top of the pile to be done. I’ve had a mat-cutter for years now, that I bought in the US at the Heart of XS shopping mall way back in 1999 – and I just bought the beginning kit for the staples and frame straps to start framing at our recent craft show in Sydney, but just need to buy some cut up pieces of frame ready to give it a go … I really do need to do this soon and start building up my confidence!
Of course, I still have two pieces in particular by Ross Originals that I still have to stitch – one that is currently sitting in UFO status, that I was stitching as a SAL with Carina (who has since disappeared off the face of the earth), and one that is very very high up the list of wanting to stitch. Both of these are being stitched over-one … probably why the Macaw is currently sitting in UFO status! Of the two pieces, my absolute favourite is the Rainbow Lorikeets piece – but I started the Macaw first, as that was the choice of Carina for us to stitch together. Perhaps now that I’m not doing a SAL any longer I should just ditch the Macaw and get the Lorikeets done first – life’s too short … and I can always return to the Macaw again afterwards 🙂
Here’s the Macaw chart, along with my current pitiful progress where I left it a couple of years ago:
And here’s the beautiful Rainbow Lorikeets chart – I just adore this one!
The world has lost an exceptionally talented designer and stitcher – but his name will continue in the finished works of those of us who adore his designs. RIP Graeme Ross!
Ruby Tuesday
Here is my choice for this week’s Ruby Tuesday – I was surprised when I went hunting for ‘red’ photos by just how many I had … I think it would have to take a close second to one of my favourite colours behind blue!
Blue Monday & Just Nan Progress
First up is Sunday night’s progress on Just Nan’s Winter in the Square – this should be finished in another couple of nights, as the cross stitch is almost completed, then it just leaves the specialty stitches and backstitching to be done. As more and more stitches get added, I’m remembering just why I fell in love with this piece in the first place 🙂
Here is my choice for this week’s Blue Monday – this is a rustic-looking urn I found while walking around Timbertown, near Port Macquarie, NSW. Once again, I’m not sure whether I’ll continue doing this meme, but I’ll give it a go for a couple of weeks 🙂
Scenic Sunday & WIP progress
I managed a tiny bit of stitching tonight while catching up on a bit of recorded TV – after a couple of episodes of Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds and City Homicide (no girlie shows for me! LOL), here is the current progress on Just Nan’s Winter in the Square – at 1am, a crappy photo as usual … and oh boy, am I looking forward to the end of all that white stitching, pretty though it is!
Here is my choice for this week’s “Scenic Sunday” – Ashcombe Lavender Gardens in Melbourne, Australia … with a little touch of spring in the air. I’m not sure how often I’ll continue with this photo meme, but I thought I’d give it a go and make a start anyway … and seeing as it’s technically Sunday, I’m posting early! 😀
Audible Offer & Reminders
If anyone is interested, Audible.com are offering a 14-day Free Trial for friends that I refer to them – this includes one free audiobook. I also receive a $10 credit for anyone that stays on as a member beyond the free trial, but I’m not particularly interested in that.
If you are keen to try Audible out as an audiobook provider, this is a really good opportunity to trial the service – if you want to, please feel free to leave me a comment, ensuring you include your email address, and I’ll complete the form and send off for you.
Note, the offer ends 6 November to sign up for the trial 🙂
I have to admit I’m pretty biased towards them – I’ve been a member for a couple of years now, and I absolutely love them! Unfortunately not 100% of the books on the site are available to Australia for downloading, but I’ve had a pretty good success rate on the books I’ve been looking for in particular. I was stunned to be able to download Diana Gabaldon’s Echo in the Bone a week or two ago, and for a SUPER cheap price thanks to a special member’s offer (I’m talking approx $11 here for the unabridged version, which is approx 46 hours of listening pleasure!!).
Anyway, leave me a comment if you’d like to sign up for the trial, and I’ll complete the form for you 🙂
Also, while you’re at it, don’t forget that the PIF (Pay It Forward) offer ends at the end of the month, and I still need one more person to make up the three – details can be found in the original blog post HERE 🙂
And … lucky last … don’t forget to put your name into the hat if you’d like to go into the drawer to win 1 of 4 beaded scissor fobs for my 4th Blogaversary Prize Draw – just leave a comment on the original post, which can be found HERE … there are 10 fobs to choose from as your preferred winning choices.
Feather Stitching 