Greek Orthodox Easter coming...

Hello everyone,

difficult times here in Greece... with all the crisis and political decisions going on ... you never know who tells the truth and where we are going to be tomorrow.

But... the Greek Orthodox Eastern are coming and will be celebrated on May 5th & 6th.
so it was time to make some decorated cookies:

 I made a bit stiffer royal icing for the flowers and made them look more  funky (I would say).

Hope you like them.

thanks for stopping by!

Crochet basket

I love pinterest... it allows me to find easy anything I want... I love the colors, the scheme, the designs, the photos...everything.

And I saw a crochet basket (or few of them) there.

And here is my first attempt at it:

I made the basket first and a doily in red later. I handsew the doily on the front of the basket.

thanks for stopping by!

Doily

I am hooked on crochet.... without any further words - my latest try on doilies:

 Jana

A present...

Few days ago a very good friend of mine had a birthday.
...
Wait. A very good friend... I talk to her, almost every day, I e-mail her etc. but - the extraordinaire is  - I have not met her in person yet - I have not seen a picture of her yet!

But I feel like I  knew her since ever.

She is funny, friendly, always with a smile and sweet, she never gives you a feeling not to want to help or listen or do something.
I truly am happy I have met her few years ago (via my work - meet - I mean via email and phone .... I undersign - I have not met her yet in person). 

So as I knew she has a birthday the same day as my niece - it is easy to remember - I decided that I needed to send her a gift.

I made a crochet bag in happy colors for her and a necklace to go with.

Happy Birthday Stella!

Once a year

Once a year ... it is time to remember the special one
Once a year ... it is time to celebrate
Once a year ... it is time to make his favorite Vanilla cupcakes with Peanutbutter frosting (the fluffy one, please)
Once a year ... it is time that the family gets together to celebrate HIS birthday.

I am talking about our son... the one and only.
this year it is his 11th...
I like the number, I like to make cupcakes and cakes.

so here is his story in pictures:

his b-day cake : Strawberry Vanilla mousse cake... actually just mousse...more or less, the cake became very very tall!

some orange jellies and Vanilla cupcakes with Peanut butter fluffy buttercream

And finally - the slice of the cake... you see how tall the cake became?

sorry for the light on the pictures, it was evening, so ... sorry again.

the Vanilla cupcakes are my favorite - Amy Sedaris' Vanilla cupcakes

the Peanut butter (the fluffy / creamy one) frosting can be found here

and the Strawberry Vanilla mousse cake here.



Happy Birthday!
 

The story of an cardigan

Finally I am proud to present a crochet "something" I made for myself. As soon as it became known to my family I am going to make a crochet cardigan - they said: oh yeah, of course, a cardigan for you... anything for us? ...

let's say - they have just received their crocheted blankets (I still owe you the pictures of them)  and other presents for Christmas. So I told them to be patient for their "next Christmas or Birthday presents" to get....
Sometimes I have feeling - you can't make enough presents, there will always be an opportunity to make a new one.

But  - the time was right to make a cardigan for ME AND ME ONLY!

and because I saw many beautiful ideas on internet using granny's squares I wanted something similar, something colorful.
When my husband first saw the granny's squares - he thought I was making a blanket for a farm house - so colorful it appeared to him (he said even worse thing - comparing my cardigan to a table cloth... imagine, my  husband saying it... of course he meant it good, and it made me to stay on 4 colors only). You know he has a really good taste in clothing so I really like showing him staff and waiting for his reaction. Me on the other hand could combine anything and everything - and the final result could be terrible.

So  here is the cardigan using Granny's Sunburst squares and some knitting on the back and sleeves.

I added also some hand stitches to my hoodie

Thanks for stopping by!
And if you like what you see - I would love to hear from you.

Christmas and more....

I just found out I haven't been posting for a looong time...... more or less because I was ill just before Christmas and got better just after New Years....

But I did some Christmas cookies and few days ago a delicious vanilla cupcakes with creamy peanut butter cream.

But first things first:

Christmas Cookies

And so far the most delicious Vanilla cupcakes (made of my mom's sponge cake recipe) with Creamy peanut butter cream (and some strawberry jelly inside of the cupcake):

4 eggs 
200 gr confectionar's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla 
a pinch of salt
200 gr all purpose flour
100ml vegetable oil (I use extra virgin olive oil)
100ml water (cold)
2 tablespoons baking powder

Beat the sugar with the eggs till creamy, add slowly the oil and the water, and mix well.
Add slowly the flour with the baking powder and salt  and vanilla extract.

Spoon the batter into lined cupcakes cups and bake at 180 C for 12-15 min (till golden brown).

Creamy Peanut butter cream found here 
1/2 cup butter (softened)
2 cups confestioners sugar sifted
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 tsp salt
3-5 tbsp whipping cream (I added just 1 tbsp milk)

Cream the softened butter with the sugar for at least 3min. add the peanut butter and cream till fluffy and smooth. If needed - add whipping cream (or as I did  milk).

This peanut butter is fluffy, not too sweet (what I do not like on the butter creams is the sweetness -  sometimes just tooooo much!)
and its creamy and you taste just the peanut butter - LOVELY!!!!