ButtonMad

ButtonMad
Teeny Tiny Bird Buttons

Monday 28 May 2012

Paper Heart Decorations


Finding myself without a book while sitting by the fire one evening had me restless for something to do.


I had some pretty paper and scissors on hand and started cutting out heart shapes.


Once I had roughly 40 hearts, I put two paper hearts together...


and sewed a line straight down, leaving a chain stitch for about 3 stitches until I sewed down the next 2 paper hearts.


I had enough to make 3 heart chains.


I finished each one off by attaching an Incomparable heart pendant.


Which is the perfect finishing touch and it adds some weight so they don't move around too much in a breeze.


Next I will try a chain of butterflies...


These are so easy and simple to make and are pretty decorations for a child's room, wedding or engagement party.




Monday 14 May 2012

Baked Cheesecake


I have been in search of the world's best baked cheesecake...and I found it here in London after a long search (my waistline is testament to how determined I was!)...the only problem is that it is rather too pricey to justify my addiction cravings!

So I have had to try out plenty of recipes (thanks to Google) and I think I have finally come up with the combination of ingredients that works perfectly.

To make this cheesecake you will need:
Biscuits and butter for the base (I use Marie biscuits but that is a very South African product - any biscuit you would usually use for a cake base is perfect)
600g top quality cream cheese (I use Philadelphia)
125g castor sugar
1 vanilla pod, split it and remove the vanilla seeds with a knife,
4 eggs, lightly beaten,
60ml soured cream (can be regular cream - both work!),
mixed berries,
1 T castor sugar and some lemon juice to make a berry coulis.

Crush the biscuits and pour over melted butter to line the base of a 23cm springform tin.
Blend the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth.
Add the eggs and cream.
Blend together.
Bake at 140 Celsius for approximately 1 hour.
On the stove, heat some sugar and lemon juice and a splash of water. Add a handful of mixed berries. Crush the berries with a wooden spoon.
Once heated through, sieve the berries and save the the thick berry juice to pour over the cake. I sprinkle a few whole berries on top of the cake for looks.

Put the kettle on, invite your friends over and enjoy...



Thursday 10 May 2012

Reversible Artist's Tunic


While Kate was having a ball downstairs, her brother and sister were upstairs where they love to spend hours in their JenJen's studio on the farm.
The studio is filled with paints, stamps, inks, ribbons, crayons, project kits and buttons (of course). It is my every child's biggest dream.

Needless to say one can't walk away without splotches of colour on ones clothes. Especially difficult to avoid when you are just four!

So I made Luke a reversible tunic to wear over his clothes to keep them from getting spoiled.


I made this tunic by tracing out the shape of a store bought one we had for Emma.
I used a cute fabric with crocodiles on the reverse and trimmed the tunic using the same fabric for bias binding...and put a large matching pocket on the front.


Our new Incomparable fish buttons were the perfect finish around the neckline. They are being chased by our hungry Incomparable croc button in the middle.


Poser!


Time to run off and get messy with the next project.

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Soft Baby Toy


I have just returned from a wonderful trip home. This is a picture of me with my sweet niece Kate at her Christening. 
My nephew Luke insisted that I read a bumper book of 5 Dr Seuss stories to him before he would go and play with all the other children.


I made Kate some soft blocks with her name appliquéd on them. She loved them so much I decided to make her a soft ball in our matching pink & green teddy bear fabric.


The soft ball has a bell sewn inside it and several ribbon and lace loops for her to grip. I dried some of the lavender from our farm in the oven and added it too. So it jingles and smells good, has lots of lovely colours and great touchy-feely satiny strips...appealing to so many senses...except taste...but that didn't stop Kate trying them all out anyway!


I didn't stop at just making the one and had to try out our Incomparable space theme fabric as well as our Teddy bears with red ribbons fabric. Kate couldn't decide which one she loved best.


This yellow, blue and green one below with our Incomparable chicken fabric is definitely my favourite - I love how the colours pop.


The other soft toy in the pictures is something else I made while I was at home but I'll blog about that soon. 
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