A Shot in the Dark

My lovely friend, Miss SK was having a girlie cocktail night on Saturday and I took these home-made Kola Kube and Soor Ploom vodka shots (& some tablet) along:

Here’s how I did it:

• 2/3 (ish) of a bottle of cheapo vodka
• 300g kola kubes
• 300g soor plooms

Put sweets in a bag and bash them down a bit with a hammer then tip into a measuring jug.   Fill up to about 400ml with boiling water and stir them down until they melt.  You’ll be left with a big sweetie lump when water starts to cool – shove in microwave for a minute. eventually you’ll have a much smaller lump that just doesn’t seem to dissolve – just bin it (or eat it). When the sweet mixture cools top up with vodka to about 700ml then taste – add a little more water or vodka depending on how strong it tastes. Put in a bottle and shake.

I cheated a bit with the Kola Kube one as it wasn’t that a nice colour, so added some red food colouring to make it all pretty

Not so pretty are the blisters I got making tablet earlier in the day (I didn’t get hot sugar on them – got them from all the beating with the wooden spoon)!

Thanks for looking.

A Scottish Speciality – Tablet

For any non-Scottish readers, tablet is a sort of fudgy sweet (but so much nicer than fudge) which is a bit of a tradition here.  My Grandma always gave us some for birthdays and at random other times.  Here’s how to make it:

• 1 kg granulated sugar (I use the raw cane stuff because it’s not refined, therefore healthier – a bit of an oxymoron having the word “healthy” associated with this recipe though)
• 1 cup full fat milk
• 110g butter (unsalted)
• 1 tin (397g) of condensed milk
• Vanilla extract

Lightly grease a baking tray.  In a large pan, over a medium heat melt the sugar and butter into the milk, stirring constantly.  Once the mixture is nice and smooth and melted bring to the boil, then add the condensed milk and boil for another 15-20 minutes until a dark golden colour, still stirring constantly.  Remove the pan from the heat, add a few dashes of vanilla extract and beat with a wooden spoon for 15-2 minutes until really thick (almost the consistency of smooth peanut butter) – this will not be the happiest 20 minutes for your arm, so if you can rope anyone into helping you, you’re luckier than me.  When you’re happy with the consistency, pour into the baking tray and leave to cool.  After 10 or 15 minutes score the cooling tablet with a knife – I tend to do squares of around 2.5cm (1″).  When the tablet has cooled quite a bit put it in the fridge for half an hour to help it harden up then remove from fridge and cut into your score marks.  It’s now ready to eat and perfect for sharing with sweet-toothed friends.

Bags of Style

After dipping my toe in the sewing water with the Kath Kidston bag a couple of weeks ago, I have now completed my first “proper” bag (proper being lined and cut from a pattern).

I am insanely proud of this…

I used a pattern from my Making Vintage Bags book by Emma Brennan. The velvet and lining came from a jacket I rescued from my sister’s charity bag and I got the ribbon from my local wool/haberdashery shop (don’t you just love the word “haberdashery”?).

Look how straight my stitches are on the decoration detail, but that flippin rose took me ages to get right!!

Thanks for looking.  Off to rip more clothes apart and see if anyone has any old wool/tweed stuff.

Bargain of the Week

Firstly, I have to admit to having no love of shopping – it’s pretty boring and I can never find exactly what I want, however I do like to nip round the shops on Friday lunchtime.  Because I have to be back at work, it’s always a short, sweet visit – really, as far as I’m concerned, 30-45 minutes is always enough time for browsing the shops.

I bagged a couple of bargains last week.  This gorgeous red leather Osprey bag from TK Maxx (rrp £225, cost £70).  I love handbags and this one is a great size – big, but not too big and fabulous quality.  In my opinion you can’t beat a good quality leather bag, preferably without a ton of blingy branding (this one only has a tiny silver plate, so very discreet).

I also got this Yasmin le Bon necklace in Wallis (rrp £35, cost £2!!)

I also found a lovely dark blue velvet blazer my sister was getting rid of because it’s too small.  Since it doesn’t fit me either (and realistically never will), I’m going to make it into a bag, using one of the patterns from my Making Vintage Bags book, so watch this space!!

Finally, I got some great news that one of my best friends got engaged – congratulations to you & R, Pumpkin xoxo

In the Bag

My regular readers may remember me getting the book Sew by Cath Kidston.  It came with the pieces to make the bag on the front cover.  I decided it was time to overcome my sewing machine fear, so made this (it only took a couple of hours one evening and another couple on Saturday afternoon).  The little button hoop was a bit faffy as the fabric was quite heavy to turn inside out, so I gave up and used a bit of blue microfibre suede-stuff.

It’s by no means perfect, but I don’t think the errors are too noticeable.  Really pleased with it anyway :D

I also ordered these books which came today:

Making Vintage Bags by Emma Brennan

Mexican Food Made Simple – Thomasina Miers

The Art of Polymer Clay – Creative Surface Effects – Donna Kato (I don’t think this one looks as good as the Millefiori Techniques one)

Looking forward to seeing / hearing what everyone else has been up to lately.

Thanks for looking xoxo

Spotless

Been missing in action a bit lately, as I had chicken pox (yes, at my age!).  Wiped me out a bit and I still feel quite tired, but went back to work last week, so definitely on the mend.  Luckily the last of my spots dried up just (as in the afternoon before) in time for going to York.  We probably didn’t do as much as we intended because I didn’t have a lot of energy, but still had a great time and went some fab places for dinner.  On Monday we went to Loch Fyne Restaurant, Tuesday saw us go to The Blue Bicycle and on Wednesday, our last night, we went to Ate O’Clock, which was my favourite of the 3 (although they were all really nice).

Thanks for looking.