Crafts, baking + extras

 What have I been up to? Slow life stuff

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Fabric Dying process. 

So this was my first time natural dying fabric, using turmeric and spinach leaves. I didn’t follow any particular video or method this time around but here’s what I did.

 

Turmeric:

✦Prepped the fabric in water with salt and vinegar.

✦Boiled water added turmeric powder & root (the root will give more of an intense colour), boiled this for around 1.5 hours.

✦I transfered this water into a container where I could soak my fabric. 

✦The brighter yellow I soaked for around half an hour, and the lighter was around 5 minutes, turmeric seemed to dye very quickly however you lose some colour when rinsing.

Spinach experiment:

I was very impatient with the spinach dye, this was just a fun extra I was trying but I'll note what I did anyway.

✦Chopped spinach, boiled for about 2 hours. 

✦I dropped the fabric into the boiled spinach for a while but this did virtually nothing SO, I started rubbing the spinach into the fabric instead, the spinach was almost a paste-like consistency by this point anyway. This actually seemed to really work! 

✦I think next time I'll maybe grind the spinach into a paste after boiling and then work it into the fabric. I know there are easier and better ways to dye but this was a fun experimental process with cute outcomes!

Magpie cross-stitch

Still in progress, I want to find a small frame for this and thinking of doing a border as well.

I found this great website where you can create your own cross-stitch patterns! It creates a key for you and everything- I also used this for my Miffy cross-stitch you'll see further down.

https://flosscross.com/designer

Date treat 

This was a super tasty & sweet treat:

Squished dates

Peanut Butter

Chocolate 

Chopped pistachios 

& into the fridge!

Dark chocolate would also work really nicely.

Gingerbread - Gluten and Dairy free

Recipe:

I made quite a few batches of this and altered each time but I think this is the one I landed on. I based my recipe and method on this one. I was surprised by how easy this was- I popped them in little boxes with bows and gave them as Christmas presents to my family.

1&1/4 cup Gluten free plain Flour 

1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum

1/4 Bicarb

1&1/2 - 2 Tbsp of Ginger powder

1 Tsp Heaped Cinnamon powder

1/2 Tsp Allspice

50g Dairy-free Butter (I used Stork)

1/4 cup & 2 Tps Sugar

2 Tbsp Honey

1 Egg

 

Flower arranging workshop

Miffy

Finished Miffy for my Friend Parv- 

she always wears navy blue. This took ages but I'm getting quicker as I do more cross-stitch.

I'll be focusing on my garden more over the next few months, but hopefully I'll still have some energy for crafts<333

xoxo