Comfort Food For A Better New Year

Eight days into his battle on the intensive care unit, Joshua is a little more stable but still on the ventilator. The doctors have reduced his sedation and we try to spend as much time with him as possible. Christmas and New Year has gone by in a bit of a blur but we still maintained some of the traditions for Luca. Today we made some comfort food - pancakes with sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice.

I have also spent some time with my sewing machine - in these last days of uncertainty, sewing is like therapy and it is very rewarding to come away with a result, something that brings colours into our everyday life. I will put some photos up in the next couple of days.

In the meantime I wish everyone a Happy and most of all Healthy New Year 2011.

Say A Little Prayer For Joshua

Our little boy Joshua was diagnosed with Bronchiolitis and Pneumonia and admitted to hospital on Christmas Eve. During the course of the afternoon his condition deteriorated and he was transfered to the pediatric Intensive Care. On the morning of Christmas Day he had to be intubated. He is now stable but still fully sedated, we're hoping to see an improvement in his condition in the next couple of days but he is still fighting for his life.

It's Beginning To Smell A Lot Like Christmas ...

Christmas Potato Stamps

We've had a lot of rain recently - I know, a lot of people have had snow but that won't happen in our neck of the woods, but let me tell you we've had rain. A lot. And so we had to find things to do inside. The other thing that has happened is that this year we have none of our Christmas decoration. I don't fancy going out buying a lot of things just for this year so instead we spend time making things. It's a bit limited what you can do with a 3.5 year old - he is really into MAKING things but that doesn't mean you can make the most complicated things. So we opted for potato stamps:

First press cookie cutters into potato halves, about 1cm deep. With a knife take off the surplus of potato that is outside of the cutter shape. I wouldn't recommend using plastic cookie cutters, the metal ones are just easier to get into the potatoes.

Get colours, glitter and paper ready ....

Once finished, let your stamps dry fully.

Cut out and place in a heavy book overnight to flatten them. Then stick around your fireplace, voila.

And if you're still looking for some last Christmas cards, print off some free ones here at Dawanda. Christmas stress? Pah!!  [frantically buys last-minute Xmas presents online with no hope in the world of receiving anything before the end of January]

The Race To The Finishing Line

It's been a bit of a mad month - first I decided to re-open my frogs+sprogs shop and on Dawanda. I didn't really expect very much to happen, but how wrong was I ... several of the lovely snuggly blankets are now in the post, as well as a few of the funky crayon rolls. I hope their new owners will enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Then there was the advent calendar project .... and since I had now dusted off the sewing machine, I decided to go for option no.1 and voila ....

I am quite pleased with the end result - I know it still has a number missing, but the little man hasn't noticed so far, and to be honest I doubt he will. I'm planning to stock these in my shop for next year so I'll soon start working on them.

And last but certainly not least there was the Christmas Swap organised by the lovely Louise over at Sew Scrumptious. I was lucky to be paired up with Louise herself, and the directive was one christmas card, at least one handmade christmas decoration and some Christmas chocolate. Her parcel arrived a few days ago and look what got: (apologies for the poor photo quality, it was evening time and I managed to get photos done just before other half launched himself onto the chocolate):

 

The cutest little christmas stockings with my sons' initials:

A gorgeous fabric wreath:

And some more chocolate ... but that was gone by the time I finished the photos.

My parcel is now on it's way over to her, here's a little preview.

I now have one project to finish before Christmas and am also working on lots of new product ideas for the shop. Surely an excuse for some more fabric buying?

The Crafting Mojo Is Back

With all that has happened this year, I haven't even looked at my fabric stash once. It was just too depressing, so I just buried that subject somewhere, but I always knew that one day I would start again. And voila, I am happy to report that the crafting mojo is back - in fact I have spent the last couple of days scouring the internet and discovering various incredible blogs of fabulously crafty people. More of that next week.

I always had the idea of making an advent calendar for the little man and I doubt I'll have the time to start and finish it this year, but it will definitely be a project for the next year. So far I have found a few that I like, now all I have to do is decide which one to go for.

I love this design, very simple but relatively easy (ha ha I'll probably regret saying that ...). It's from Lina at Linaloo.

This one is probably even easier, all instructions here from the ever inspirational Martha at Martha Stewart.

And last but not least, I also love the idea of these tins on a baking tray, from TyAnne at inspiremecrafts.


Decisions, decisions ...!

Stew Good

Temperatures have started to drop a little here, mind you it is still sunny and about 18-20 degrees during the day so not too bad. But we're a far cry from this:

I'm a big fan of throw-together-what's-in-the-cupboard and this quick stew is perfect for this time of the year.

Chorizo and Chickpea Stew

(this serves about 3-4 people)

600 g Chorizo, sliced into halves
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
good handful of dried herbs (oregano etc) or fresh thyme, whatever you have to hand
1 can of chopped tomatoes
Boiling water
Vegetable stock powder
Half a head of Savoy cabbage, sliced
2 cans of chickpeas, drained
Salt and pepper

• Heat a heavy pan and fry the chorizos for about 10 minutes. Stir regularly as you don't want to burn them. You don't need to add any oil as the chorizo will give off its lovely paprika-coloured oil
• Remove chorizo, gently fry onion and garlic
• Add dried herbs
• Return chorizo to the pot and fry for 5 minutes
• Add chopped tomatoes. Fill the empty can twice with boiling water from the kettle and add to the pot.
• Sprinkle the vegetable stock powder over it, let it boil for about 7-8 minutes
• Add the savoy cabbage, let boil for about 5 minutes.
• Add the chickpeas, stir well and simmer for about 15-20 minutes.

This is best preapred in advance and eaten later in theday or even better the next day. Serve with crusty bread and a nice glass of Rioja.