Its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Getting ready for the market, making new products such as tree decorations and gift tags in felt, or crochet!
BC-Crafts will be at the museumplein in Amsterdam Sunday December the 8th! Visit us!

Hand crochet Christmas tree decoration or to hang at the window.

 Little hearts for tree decoration or great to add a certain je ne sais quoi to your presents as a gift tag.

 Tree decoration in several shapes!

Decorate your house for the holidays with handmade decorations!

The Holidays- Simple gifts

The season of joy and over eating is here! Soon we will all be sharing gifts and stuffing our faces with some delicious turkey. In Holland this season celebrates a double holiday - Sinterklaas (already Thursday!) and Christmas.
Chocolate letters are almost sold out, people are starting to get stressed about writing witty sarcastic poems for their loved ones and shopping in the center will drive you mad in 1 hour.
This year I am going to make christmas shaped cookies put them in jars add some cute decoration en voilá! Gift!

Today was the test trial for my cookie presser I got for my birthday (and only recently realised what it was...)

The recipe is from Martha Stewart cookie press dough

Tips, mild the dough well in your hands before putting it into the presser..like that it is more malleable and the press works better.

DIY Pimp your curtains

Tired of your curtains? I finally put curtains in the living room. The problem was that as soon as you want anything other then simple monotone curtains you need to break the bank. Most of the times they are expensive and you still feel like you are compromising on quality, design or colour. So why not buy simple curtains in the the exact colour and design and then add a little je ne sais quoi?

I decided to add navy stripes to a simple white curtains from IKEA. The idea I got from Pinterest.







I bought the Merete from IKEA (I changed the curtains hanging system),  added the satin stripes with gutter man textile glue. Make the exact measures you want, glue and voila! Unique curtains!

With a ruler and the glue I applied the stripes to the curtain. The result, unique curtains for much less!

New Curtains!

Market day in Amsterdam

Not only its raining, its pouring and horribly windy. The market was canceled, all our things were flying away so we couldn't even set up! It was so cold! We warmed up by keeping close and having to run after our things that blew away with the wind...Its one of those dark grey autumn days that seem to be mass produced specially for Holland.

So anyway, I leave you with some of the things I made for the museumplein market in Amsterdam.. 

Pencil cases

Little cases for makeup or tampons and ST's

Textile and leather Tote bags

All sold with some cute tags and put into a nice bag stamped with the blog's address

Perhaps we will go to the market on the 8th of December!

Gourmet Night

Yesterday I was at home all day so I decided to make something different for dinner and also something I had never done before. The chosen recipes were:

Shortbread Parmesan biscuits with salad
Ricota and spinach cannelloni

Parmesan shortbread biscuits

 

I used a recipe from Nigella Lawson as it had a shorter chill time than the Kitchenaid recipe

150 flour

100butter
75 parmesan
1 egg yolk

Mix all ingredients in a mixer, knead the ball of dough for 3 min. Divide into two and roll into cylinder shape. Chill for 45 min. When chilled cut into 1cm slices and bake in the oven at 180C for 15 min.

Cannelloni stuffed with Ricotta and Spinach

I read several recipes and made my own version...but there are a lot of nice and easy recipes out there!

Spinach and Ricotta stuffing

700g frozen spinach
300g ricotta
one handful grated Picorino cheese
pinenuts
cannelloni
small can of diced tomatoes
basil and garlic

White sauce

White wine

flour
parmesan cheese
butter
milk
cream

Drain as much water as possible from the spinach and mix it with the ricotta and cheese and add salt and pepper. Put the mixture into a piping bag (or a sandwich bag with a corner cut out). Chill while you do the tomatoe sauce.
Pour some olive oil into a frying pan and add the cut up garlic and basil. When hot add the a can of sliced tomatoes. Stir and add half a can of water. Let it simmer for a while.
Meanwhile make your white sauce.
Pour the tomato sauce on an oven tray, arrange the stuffed cannelloni on it leaving a little space between each cannelloni. Pour the white sauce on top and add a few handfuls of parmesan to the top.
Bake at 180C for around 30 min or until the pasta is cooked.

Bon Appétit!

The Demise of Mr Bunny Rabbit

Basil though that the new Mr Bunny-Rabbit was a playmate...and while I was in the other room promptly grabbed him and took him to his bed to 'play'...



Bad dog, bad...

The Bunny-Rabbits

Mr and Mrs Bunny Rabbit are a simple and fashionable couple. They enjoy fine organic vegetables and fancy accessories. This month they are obsessed with the French look.

Mr Bunny-Rabbit

Mr Bunny Rabbit grew up in the country. He now lives in the city with his new wife, works in an office and enjoys quiet evenings, organic carrot juice and cigars.

Mrs Bunny-Rabbit

Mrs Bunny Rabbit has always been wild. She grew up in a big city and loves its fast life and fashion. She is a fashion designer for Oscar de la Rabbit.








They just came back from Paris and live together in a lovely rabbit hole in the fashionable part of town.

The Bunny-Rabbit

Summer holiday preparations

Going on holiday Wednesday!! All the preparations, cleaning the house so it is nice and clean when we get back, putting Basil (our dog) at the breeders for his holiday...washing drying and ironing everything...it is like two weeks worth of house chores crammed into two days! 

But with the eye on the prize -  10 days in Greece. I am so excited! I have 4 books, (one huuuge) so I don't run out and steal R's books like last time...now I just need the latest cosmopolitan mag...no judging ok? Its holiday! Its the time to read crap while sunbathing.

What about you? What is your pre-holdiay ritual? What do you pack? Any guilt-free reads?

Basil the bear

Birthday Brownies

I was asked to bake some brownies for a birthday party, I was delighted! (getting gifts for men is so difficult!) Then I was faced with the 'what recipe to use' challenge. Brownies is one of those delicious recipes that in my opinion, the simpler, lower number of ingredients the better. I saw numerous recipes for brownies online, each with more ingredients than the next...and then I started going through my own cook books..surely there was a recipe somewhere...I found it! In a children's cook book from UNICEF I have had  for a very long time the simple brownies recipe - 7 ingredients, 30 min- delicious results.

Simple Brownies

240 g of cooking butter
350g dark chocolate bar
350g Sugar
4 eggs
240g flour
pinch of salt
walnuts (optional)

Pre-heat the oven at 200C.
In a pan on low heat melt the butter. Add the chocolate. When all melted remove from the fire and add the sugar, always mixing with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs to the mixture and blend them in nicely. Finally add the  salt and flour slowly, and the walnuts. Pour the mixture into a rectangular greased tin and bake for 25min. Remove from the tin and let cool on a wire rack (a cutting board will do fine too).

Keep to the time! Brownies are better when moist inside.

Happy Birthday V.!

Homemade Crisps

When was the last time you ate homemade crisps? My last time was in 1998, when we went to Lisbon to the EXPO98. We stayed with my grandmother and she was waiting for us with a nice plate of home made crisps. Other than the bother of slicing them in the kitchen robot or by hand its so simple!

I fried these in sunflower oil. Hmmm...

The end of Summer feeling

After a few weeks of sun it is always surprising how depressed one can get on the first day of rain and 'cold'.
Its the end of summer feeling, where you long for more of the sunny days and fun days with friends and family barbecuing but also somehow look forward to Autumn. The air is announcing Autumn is upon us...but it actually is more than a month away.
If I was still a school child I would be getting fidgety right now, looking forward to my new school books, buying new notebooks, pencil case and general school supplies. Yes I was that girl... Now I don't have that to look forward too, work is the same during any season, the difference is wether or not you get wet on your way to work - which in Holland happens all year round, and how many layers of clothes you have to wear.
So what better than a nice Beef and Ale stew with home made dumplings to remind us that Autumn and the arrival of colder days can have its advantages.

I followed Jamie Oliver's recipe from his Food Revolution book. Quite simple to cook, but takes 2,5 hours to simmer...delicious though!

After such a dinner I feel like going shopping for some snugly throws for my sofa and updating my to view list of movies.

The recipe can be found here

http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/jamie-oliver/beef-and-ale-stew-recipe

5 minute IKEA hack

Last week I bough this IKEA throw pillow (Emmie Kvist). The problem with bought pillows is that they always look shabby somehow, you can straighten them up but the stuffing never seems to fill the pillow nicely.  Today I had enough so I though of solving it by sewing a seam all around. Like that you also get a slightly different IKEA pillow.

Before

After sewing a seam all around

 Doesn't it look much better? And after you use it, it doesn't look so crumpled!

Sewing days

Owning a sewing machine can be a very good thing. Its always fun to make teh exact curtains you want, or to choose the fabric of your throw pillows instead of falling yet again for the IKEA trap. I have fallen for it many times but I get so tired of seeing pieces of my home in someone else's home..

My sewing machine was from my mother in law, it is quite old. In fact it was the sewing machine used to sew baby clothes for my boyfriend before he was born. It has its days...yesterday was a good one.
I picked up on some old projects and created some new ones, and was glad to find I still have the hang of it.

Strawberry bags

Versatile reusable shopping bags that fold into a cute strawberry.
I once bough one of these at a fair and was very disappointed when after two times using it the thin polyester fabric started tearing at the seams..so I decided to make them myself using sturdier fabrics. They are very easy to close, you just stuff the bag into the corner with the strawberry and pull the strings to close.
Some friends soon saw them, fell in love and asked me to make some for them too. So far I make them in several colours and strap lengths, depending on what people ask. Anyone can mail me and order!
Here is an example:

Yesterday was definitely a sewing day..also made these patchwork placemats for a friend. 

I bought these fabrics in Campo de Ourique, Lisbon two years ago. They reminded me of wallpapers in cute English cottages. I decided to mix match them for some placemats for a friend who loves these colours and wallpaper motifs with tiny flowers.

Happy Bday H!

Strawberry Summer Cake

Summer in the Netherlands is unpredictable and sometimes it doesn't bother to make an appearance at all. This year it has been different. Summer has been with us for some weeks now. And what better way to celebrate it
than to share a nice sunny afternoon in the garden with a friend and a nice piece of cake.

This is strawberry summer cake. Baked with potato starch instead of flour, and has absolutely no butter..making it lighter and perfect for warmer days. Although there is whipped cream - a lot of it. Inside it has a mixture of Chantilly and crushed fresh strawberries.

But we have to celebrate summer right?

As a freelancer I have quite a flexible life. People always romanticise the life of a freelance, but let me tell you, there is nothing romantic about worrying all the time where your next assignment will come from, or wether it will come at all.
As a freelancer I have time to develop other interests. Mine are cooking, and generally improving my house and exercising my giant dog.