Archive for November 2013
Instagram gallery: November 2013
Here’s my Instagram gallery for November – a month when my blog stats went mad thanks to my Cath Kidston travelling craft suitcase! 🙂 Follow me on Instagram – @somanyclare 🙂
Read MoreSticky honey, almond and banana cake
We have friends staying this weekend and I’m a firm believer that there should always be cake in the house when people come to stay. So I made this old favourite – it’s actually the only way me and Tom will eat bananas! I use my brownie pan to make this sticky honey almond and…
Read MoreTutorial: How to make photo cards
Photo cards are really simple to make, and you can customise them for every occasion. I do find myself looking at a view and thinking ‘that would make a lovely card’, so be warned – once you’ve started, you’ll always be looking for that perfect photo! You just need a few simple things to be…
Read MoreLeek, goat’s cheese and crispy bacon risotto
This is a really delicious risotto and it only takes 30 minutes to cook (plus 10 minutes preparation), so it can easily be made on a weeknight for a treat! Tom isn’t a massive fan of cheese but he loved this – we put extra leek in instead of celery as neither of us…
Read MoreWinter sun(flower)
I was out and about today and spotted this gorgeous sunflower! This is certainly not something I would expect to see in Newcastle in November – it was like a little ray of sunshine! 🙂
Read MoreVintage buttons
I’ve known our family friend Madge since I was a little girl, and even after I moved away we’ve kept in touch and I try and write letters to her as often as I can. She’s always been a knitter, but at the age of 93 has had to give it up now. Madge has…
Read MoreTutorial: How to make lined envelopes
Earlier this year I decided to share my trade secrets about how to make envelopes, and I was really pleased with how popular the post was! So I thought it was about time that I do a second envelope tutorial, but this time showing you how to make lined envelopes. They are really good…
Read MoreEve’s pudding
If you’re looking for a bit of sweet comfort food, then look no further! This recipe is from the BBC Food website and serves 6, but we just halved the amounts here (and left out the raisins because Tom doesn’t like them!). We had a huge batch of cooking apples from our neighbour, so I…
Read MoreVenison and ale pie
Venison is such a lovely meat, and I recently discovered that they sell it in our local supermarket. It’s a lean and tasty meat, and as I’d found some diced venison I decided to try out making a pie with it. I found the original recipe for this on allrecipes.co.uk but that one serves 10…
Read MoreFelt Christmas decorations
There are some lovely felt Christmas decorations in this month’s edition of Mollie Makes magazine, and I just had to have a go at making them! They have been designed by Samantha Stas, and she has decorated them in a fabulous retro style. Samantha stitches hers on a sewing machine but I decided to do…
Read MoreCreamy chicken, squash and sage pasta bake
This recipe started out as squash, ricotta and sage pasta bake – a recipe I found on the BBC Good Food website. I thought this sounded really tasty, but the comments at the bottom of the page were pretty mixed and many people had added their own ingredients! So I’ve done that, but a bit…
Read MoreDIY travelling craft suitcase
I’ve been planning this crafty project for months now (as is often the case) and last weekend I finally got around to making it! If I’m going travelling then I usually want to take some sort of crafty stuff to be working on while I’m away, but this usually means that I end up looking…
Read MorePac Man iced biscuits
We’ve had these Pac Man cookie cutters since last Christmas and have been meaning to make them ever since then! This week there was a good reason to do it – our friend Kimberley had an 80s themed roller disco for her birthday, so this was perfect. They are really easy to make but…
Read MoreWatercolour birthday cards
Our lovely friend Rachel celebrated her 30th birthday this week, and I wanted to make her a special card for the day. Ages ago, I got some gorgeous Inktense watercolour pencils from Derwent (we went to visit the pencil museum at Keswick, which was amazing!). I’m not very good at drawing or painting, but these…
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