I'm back and I'm making stuff!

Helloooooo-ooooo!

Hope everyone is fine and dandy!

I'm back!

I've been very busy lately - but have been keeping up with all of your lovely blogs, and even finding a moment to leave a comment or two! But, I have decided that it has been too long since I last posted a blog ... so here I am!

Here is a little birdy toy I have made for Baby Plum ... I am planning on making some more with different fillings (sand, rice, beans, bells...). She liked it and put it straight into her mouth! I used a cute little pattern from CK's "sew" book.

Lavender Cupcakes

Again, not the best pic - but here are two of the lavender cupcakes I made for the girls at my Baby Massage class this week!

I was a bit dubious at first, but have to admit that they did taste rather lovely!

Naughty Victoria Plum Does Some Baking

I have had to cut down on my baking!

I was baking cakes and eating (most of!) them. This wasn't helping my attempt to lose the 'Mum Tum" (ahem! and the rest!!)

But I love baking soooooo much!

I was given the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook for Christmas - and decided that I would bake some cupcakes to take to my Baby Massage class on Friday morning.

I opted for the 'Black Bottom Cupcakes' ... initially I thought the recipe sounded a bit fiddly...but it wasn't at all. Oh my goodness! Dark choc sponge, with a dollop of cheesecake filling (did I mention the chocolate chips?) topped off with cream cheese frosting ...

D E L I C I O U S!!!

And went down very well with the girls at Baby Massage.

I'll be making the Lavender Cupcakes for next week's class!

Pompom Pixie Scarf

A scarf to match the Pompom Pixie Hat!

(A Bit Early!) My New Year's Resolution

I've woken up on a snowy, icy Sunday morning feeling a bit glum as we had planned a lovely family Christmassy afternoon - but I think that the roads will be too treacherous for my parents to drive down to London ... snow is only good when you don't have to travel anywhere. I'm really hoping that we will be able to get to my parents for Christmas ... I have been looking forward to spending Christmas with them since last Christmas (with my inlaws! ha ha ha). Actually, I have been looking forward to Christmas with my parents since the last Christmas we spent with them in 2008!

Anyway ... having relinquished my side of the bed to a 4 month old cutie pie, I am sitting in the living room with a steaming cup of tea reading a few blogs and thinking about the last few Christmassy things I need to get done....and planning my 2011 craft projects!

My new year's resolution for 2011 is ... to make a patchwork quilt!

Just the one resolution ... and am prepared for it to take the whole year ... but I just need to lay my hands on some lovely fabric ... hmmmm

The lovely Retromummy is having a fabric giveaway over at her blog - fingers crossed for me!

Go over and have a look!

Lebkuchen

On 1st December, Ruth over at The Pink Whisk began her Twelve Days of Christmas recipes ...

On the first day of Christmas the Pink Whisk sent to me ....

Lebkuchen

The plan was to make these biscuits and give them to friends as pressies....but I have only just managed to get them done (with a bit of sparkly glitter!) so I will take them home to my parents next week ... if there are any left!

Christmas Cake!

Here's my glittery holly Christmas Cake! The glitter looks a bit yellow in the pic ... but looks all lovely and sparkly in real life!

I had some help with the decorating ...

How are your Christmas preparations going?

Christmas Stocking

Here is the Christmas Stocking I have finally got around to making for Baby Plum! I can't wait until Father Christmas fills it full of goodies for her!

Blackberry Brandy

I have made Sloe gin for the last couple of years and thought I would try something different this year ...

I put equal measures of blackberries and caster sugar into a jar ...

And topped it up with the cheapest brandy I could find (Sainsburys Basics was under £8)

As with my Sloe gin, I will shake the jar regularly and leave to steep for about 6 months ... I hope that it will be worth the wait!

Vintage Pixie Hat For Baby Plum

Here is a bit of knitting to show you ...

A "Vintage Pixie Hat" from my "Vintage Knits for Modern Babies" book.

I started this hat back in October - but as with most of my projects - when it comes to sewing it together ... it ends up at the bottom of my pile!

I used some odd balls of Rowan Cashsoft Chunky yarn, which is sadly now discontinued and I don't have enough to make some matching mittens. I will have to have a hunt around for something similar. I lined the hat for extra cosiness. I think it looks very pretty.

The only problem is that the strap isn't long enough to get round Baby Plum's chin!! Ha Ha Ha ... will have to attach some ribbon, methinks.

I will post pictures of Baby Plum modelling the hat tomorrow!

Jumping On The Christmas Pudding Bandwagon!

Blogland has gone Christmas Pudding crazy!!

Crafty Helen has posted a tutorial to make lovely felt puds ... but I only had a little bit of brown felt left (and had decided to have a day at home after two days of dragging Baby Plum out and about!) ... so I have made these lovely little slightly padded tree decorations. I'm very pleased with how they have turned out and am about to hop over to The Felt Fairy to order some more felt!

Pompom Pixie Hat

Here is Baby Plum modelling the very cute Pompom Pixie Hat which I have made for my friend's baby ... doesn't she look cute!!

This hat was so quick 'n' easy to knit - I managed to knock it up in just over a week. I did make one little mistake and have sewn the strap on wrong - but I don't think it will matter!

The pattern is from The Knitted Nursery and I will be making a matching scarf to go with it!

The pattern suggested using ggh Big Easy yarn - but this was impossible to get hold of (even in London, shock!!) so I have used Rico Creative Cotton instead - it works a treat!

Peach Crumble Cake

Having managed to put on another half a stone since delivering Baby Plum in August (don't ask how* - I thought that breastfeeding was supposed to help you lose the 'mum tum'?!) I finally realised that enough was enough and that it was time to go back to Weight Watchers .....

On Monday WW released a new version of their programme "ProPoints" where all the components of food are taken into account, not just the calories and saturated fat. It seems to make sense ... and I am sticking to my 51 points (sounds horrifically high when you are used to being on 18 or 20 points a day!). I'm doing it online at the moment as it is easier for me .... I lost 4 lbs in my first week - am hoping that I manage to lose something this week!

I've got my NCT friends coming round tomorrow for tea and cake so have knocked up a Weight Watchers cake - Peach Crumble Cake. I have never made it before, it looks ... ermm ... interesting! I have recalculated the ProPoints and it is 5 points a slice. Not bad eh?

I thought it looked suitably stodgy for a blustery November day ... I'll post the recipe once I have tried it!

[* living off chocolate digestives for 6 weeks probably didn't help ... and then there is all the cake, cake, cake, cakey, CAKE!!!]

Blackberry Jam

I didn't manage to pick many blackberries myself this year ... but luckily a friend of my parents kindly gave me a couple of pounds of berries! So I made a little bit of jam.

An update from Plum Cottage!

Where does the time go?!

I'm a little behind with my posts as have been busy with Baby Plum and enjoying a lovely 10 days in the country with my parents. Feeling rejuvenated by 10 days worth of fresh country air and my mum's scrummy food ... it's time to stop sitting on the sofa feeling brain dead and start to get on with things!!

First things first ... Christmas Cake!!!

You may remember me making my boozy fruit back in September ... I have been stirring this lovely concoction of fruit and sloe gin since then and finally got around to making the cake! You can find the recipe for the cake on The Pink Whisk blog. This is the first time since I started baking Christmas cakes (back in 2002, I think) that I have not used Delia's recipe ... and sadly, the first time that my house has not been filled with the beautiful smell of Christmas as the cake bakes. Not to worry, I'm sure it will taste divine - and there will be plenty more opportunities for Christmas smells, I'm sure!!

I have also been avidly watching Jamie's 30 Minute Meals (the joys of being at home at 5.30!) and decided to whizz up some frozen yoghurt. Yum Yum and so easy to make.

Get some yoghurt

Get some frozen fruit

A bit of honey

Chuck it into the mixer and whizz up

Delicious!

My eighth marvellous make has been some sundried tomatoes .... not my homegrown ones obviously (yes, still a little bitter about those!)

Last year I had a fabulous family holiday in Venice

While meandering around the tiny streets, over bridges and down dark alleys, I picked up a packet of sundried tomatoes.

They have been languishing in my cupboard ever since!!

That is ... until the day Mr Plum decided to knock up some pizzas!

Unfortunately I didn't realise that we couldn't just bung a couple of the tomatoes onto the pizza! They needed preparing first....which is what I have now done!

In 15 days time we will hopefully have a jar full of lovely tomatoey-garlicy-basilly goodness!

52 MMMC Week Five: My Best Ever Cup Of Tea Cake!

Here it is ... perfectly risen - no sunken middle or peak this time! Made for friends who had trekked all the way down from Hull with their (gorgeous) 2 year old to visit us and Baby Plum.

You can find the recipe here

52 MMMC Week Four: Knitted Teddy

I started knitting this teddy back in August when I had nothing else to do except sit and wait for my baby to arrive! I managed to finish the actual knitting quite quickly ... it was the sewing together which took me a while. So, this morning while Baby Plum slumbers in her bouncy chair, I finished sewing and placed her teddy next to her. I have added a lavender sachet inside the teddy's tum which I thought would be a nice soothing addition to Baby Plum's cot!

52 MMMC Week 3: Sugar Crusted Fruit Scones

Having watched The Great British Bake Off I was intrigued by the "Sugar Crusted Scones" ... I LOVE scones, but don't think in all of my many afternoon teas that I have ever had a sugar crusted one ... and my fail safe recipe does not include this crust either ...

So, off I went to The Pink Whisk and tried out Ruth's recipe ... my first mistake was to assume that the recipe made 9 scones (the recipe I always use does ...) so the scones turned out a little small (the recipe should make 6). And, to be honest, I'm just not sure about the sugar crust ....

With crust, or without crust - what kind of scone do you prefer?

52 MMMC Week 2: Scrummy Coffee Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

Baby Plum and I have started to get a "sort of" morning routine going ... when she takes her early morning nap, I have an hour to get into the kitchen and do a bit of baking!

So, here it is ... week two of my Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge ...

another cake ... Coffee Cake with Chocolate Buttercream.

Mmmmm Mmmmm

You can find the recipe here

I made this cake to take to the first postnatal meet up of the friends I made at the NCT class. It went down very well! I think I will make another carrot cake for the next one!

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge Week One: Carrot Cake

Having had my first week at home on my own with Baby Plum I have decided to join in with The Thrifty Mrs's 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge! Yes, maybe a little crazy ... do I not have enough to do looking after a 4 week old baby?

We have had a good week ... Monday was a bit stressful and I cried when Mr Plum went off to work. The week has improved, apart from a minor meltdown on Thursday when Mr Plum made a mad dash home at lunchtime to check that I was okay! (I was, just had had a morning of Tesco Delivery, NPower Boiler Service and Crying Baby ... a bit much for me!)

But ... I did manage to knock up a carrot cake on Thursday morning while Baby Plum was having her early nap (before "The Meltdown") ... so, I thought that I would incorporate it into the 52MMMC! You can read about the challenge in more detail on the Thrifty Mrs Blog ... but the general gist is that you make something (anything!) every week for a year ... there you have it, the 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge!

I LOVE carrot cake ... but have never, ever made one myself! I had visions of having to peel loads of carrots and it being a bit of a faff ... actually, it wasn't too bad at all! I used this recipe.