Adventures in macarons

We had a cake sale at work today, so I decided to be real fancy and make some more macarons - with varying degrees of success!

These plain ol' vanilla ones were the stars of the show - they were genuinely pretty decent, if I do say so myself.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to make some strawberry ones with freeze-dried strawberry powder, which I was disproportionately excited about. Unfortunately, I think that the mixture was too damp - I got a nice rise, and cute little feet, but they cracked horribly and would not dry out.

The last ones were some chocolate ones. They looked... ok. However, I think I baked every last hint of moisture out of them and they were distinctly, well, hard. Very disappointing. Some very kind people told me they were nice, but I think they were simply trying to spare my feelings!

Moral of the story - let's try and get the plain ones down pat first, ok?

Marvellous Macaons

The macaron bug has bitten again!

I made my first macarons about 2 years ago, baking hundreds of them in the space of a month, then haven't been near them since. I was inspired by an abundance of egg whites, and made some this week. I'd forgotten how much fun they were & I'm already plotting the next batch...

These ones were a plain macaron shell, filled with a lemon and lime curd.

If you want to try your hand at them, the macaron recipe was from BraveTart and the lemon and lime curd was from The Kitchn.

Enjoy!

#MandalasForMarinke

I know it's been ages (I think I've been avoiding here as it's a constant reminder of all those ends I need to weave in), but I just had to pop in to share #MandalasForMarinke

Marinke (Wink) of A Creative Being tragically took her own life last week, after suffering from depression for many years. I was a huge fan of her work, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about her all week.

I read about a crochet mandala project being run in her memory by Crochet Concupiscence, and decided that this is something that I really want to take part in.

I know I don't have many (any?) followers, but just in case anyone sees this, I'm spreading the message to raise awareness of the horrific impact that depression can have on individuals and their families.

If I were to make a creating resolution for 2015...

It would be to weave in the ends as I go along!

I am working on 2 crochet blankets at the moment & weaving in the end en masse is somewhat soul destroying... You would think I'd learn, but apparently not!

With grand fanfare, may I present... the complete #100DaysOfNature album!

I realised today that although I had updated the album on Google+ (and Flickr), I hadn't actually made a post here about finally finishing #100DaysOfNature.

So... Here it is!

I've pulled out a few of my favourites to highlight here as well. I'd like to do something like this again (in Spring or Summer though, no more stumbling around the garden in the dark in search of photogenic slugs...)

It's quite funny looking at these all together - I seem to have a bias of placing the subject of the photo on the right hand side. Maybe I need a left aligned challenge?

What's this? Something new?

Ok, so I do Zentangle now. Zentangle is cool (to paraphrase Dr Who).

I bought the other half "One Zentangle a Day" a couple of Christmases ago and he never got further than reading the introduction. My head has been all over the place recently, so I thought, "Hey! Why not give it a go?"

These are some of my favourite so far. These are just quick snaps from my journal - I'm not doing the whole official Zentangle "tiles" thing - it seems a little commercial for something which is supposed to be all about mindfulness. Just my opinion.

Still, it's fun. I am more than a little rule-obsessed - even when it comes to doing anything crafty or creative. I can follow the hell out of instructions - you want instructions followed? I'm your gal. But trying to do something "off the grid"? Well, that's a whole other issue... I like that with the "Zentangle system" you get a series of predefined doodles *ahem* tangles, so I have some structure to work within, but how you apply them is down to you. I feel like it's a good learning exercise for me!

Hexagons are go!

Yes, the hexie blanket is finally finished! Actually, I finished it a few months ago, but I couldn't share it until I saw my sister and gave it to her.

Despite finishing it months ago, I didn't take any photos until the evening before I gave it away, hence why they are not the best!

If there was some way to update blogs via telepathy, I would have about 4 updates a day. I can't tell you how many posts I compose in my head, but never actually get around to writing.

I still haven't finished processing my #100daysOfNature photos - I am pleased to say that I did actually complete the challenge, but the last few weeks were hard - I was leaving home in the dark and getting home in the dark. Trying to find something interesting to capture was interesting. I've processed up to about day 84, but I think I'm lacking the inspiration to do the others at the moment. They will get done at some point...

I am all over crochet again at the moment. I have been making owls like a woman possessed from the lovely pattern at Moji-Moji Designs. I have also decided that blankets are one of my most favourite things in the world to make, so I have 2 of them on the go. More on those to follow...