Hello! We took a stroll this morning and I shot some fun Autumnal photos of E, I figured this is a good enough way to get slowly back into this blog.
She turns 3 in just a couple of weeks, time has flown, we are enjoying the little things right now as life has been (and continues to be) incredibly hectic.

I've had a little love affair with meringues for as long as I can remember, at the age of around 15 I attempted to make them. I failed and never tried again, until today. Not only did I finally succeed in making a very tasty meringue, I went and made them extra pretty too!

How to make your own.

Ingrediants:
4 egg whites
210 grams of caster sugar
food colouring

Plus piping bags and a large nozzle (or you can cut a large hole in the end of the piping bag) and a stand or hand mixer to make things easy!

Making the Mixture:
Preheat your oven to 140 degrees C
Separate your eggs carefully and put the whites into a bowl or mixer. Mix them for 2 minutes on a low speed until they start to look slightly frothy and bubbly, then speed up a little bit for another 1 minute. The eggs will start to look whiter and like something is beginning to happen!

Now get up to full speed mixing and watch carefully as the eggs will start to form soft peaks, push through until they begin to look much firmer.
Stop mixing once you can lift the whisk/attachment and the eggs stick to it without plopping back down into the bowl.

Now add the sugar (make sure it's sieved for no lumps) a tablespoon at a time while mixing on full speed. You'll notice the mix starts to look lovely and glossy. Once all the sugar is incorporated and well mixed, stop!

Now for the colour! Open up your piping bag (remembering to insert a nozzle or cut the end first) and pop it into a tall glass to keep it upright. Use your food colours to either drizzle lines inside the piping bag, or grab a long paintbrush and paint along the inside instead for a more uniform pattern.

I drizzled mine in a random order as I was feeling a little experimental ;)

Now carefully scoop your meringue mix into your piping bag, gently tapping it down as you add more. Once its full, scrunch up the top and twist, you'll notice the colours will have spread along the mixture!

Line trays with non stick paper and you are ready to pipe out any size meringues you wish, I did a mixture of little baby bite sized ones and some slightly larger.


Put them in the oven for 30 minutes, then turn off the oven and leave them inside for 1 and a half hours. This leaves them nice and crisp and light on the outside and slightly chewy and soft on the inside - the perfect consistency in my opinion!

Oh how I love a good teepee, endless hours of fun and such a simple construction. Here's how I knocked up one for Enid.


2 Metres of fabric
Bamboo canes
Yarn
Scissors
Tape Measure
Cotton
You'll also need a sewing machine (or good hand sewing skills!) 


Firstly I measured out how wide I wanted to base to be, then arranged my canes and tried to even them out by measuring the distances between them. I used some tape to hold the tops of the canes while I was still wiggling them, then wound some cotton and yarn tightly around once they were in their finished positions. 


Next step is measuring your fabric. I measured the distances of each side of the teepee - top, middle and bottom of each side - and then used these figures to draw out my triangles on the fabric.
I folded and pinned each side to hem and cut a slit 3/4 of the way up the front panel for the entrance flaps. Then I started to sew each edge.

To tie the panels on to the canes, I cut long rectangles of fabric, folded them over and sewed 4 on each side so I could easily tie the fabric in place. I liked the effect of the little ties hanging down.


To tighten and strengthen it somewhat, I added dabs of hot glue between the cane and the knot on each tie after pulling the fabric taught. Once you tie on the front panel, you're done! So simple and quick and it's ready for playing.

It's been a while, blog. Sorry for the neglect.
So far this year has been quite the rollercoaster, I found out I'll be made redundant from my job in the next month and my focus shifted completely. I've been pouring all my free time into extra learning for my daughter and doing lots of craft projects in any spare seconds. Now it's time to get back on the wagon and pull it together, firstly I've updated the Etsy shop.


Pretty new cloud mobiles, lots of garlands and some odds and sods I've been chipping away at for a while. It feels so good to have a full shop again and I've had some fab custom orders recently which have helped to keep me on my toes.
Happy March to all, off to write some more posts..

On sunday, we celebrated Enid's second birthday. The day went so fast, but was full of cake eating and playing with all the amazing gifts she was lucky enough to receive.
We went swimming the day before and watched fireworks in the evening, she adored both and was thoroughly worn out by the end of the day.
I'd say her favourite part of her special days was probably the balloons, she was obsessed by them and repeatedly tried to eat them much to my dismay. It's a small blow to me that I officially have a toddler now, but the positive side of me is incredibly excited to see what more she will achieve in the next year. We have had struggles with her health but things are on the up with her now walking with determined strength, the next step is talking (she has reduced hearing which we hope to have improved soon) but she has recently been mastering the sign language I am reciting daily.

Enid's favourite things to do right now are feed the ducks, eat broccoli and paint. She's a heart breaker and never fails to make us laugh and smile. Happy 2nd Birthday Enid Rosemary.