A month in craft…

Where does the time go? No, rilly, someone in physics please tell me because I need to claw some of this year back and update this blog properly.

In the mean time…

I made this for our sister iPad mag. Kinda love it. Made with left-over fabric from the Tweed bow necklace I did for them a while back (but still available on the Apple Newsstand, peeps). Hubs helped with the cutting (I'm not massively handy with a pair of scissor, which I blame entirely on my being left-handed (and not just crap at cutting), and then it's just a case of a bit of appliqué. Nice huh? Be sure to select some soft fabric or you'll be in for a restless night…

I've also **fanfare please** taught myself to crochet. I know, I know – despaired in an earlier post about those who can attesting to its ease ("Oh but it's eeeeaaassssy!" they'd scoff, which would usually be met with a thunderous look from me).

See that there? That's 40+ crochet hexagons.

It's… not easy. No, rilly. But it Does. Just. Click. All of a sudden. From out of nowhere. One minute all I can do is a chain, and then next, I'm trebling and cackling and getting ever-so-slightly tangled p in my yarn.

I swear, I have no other explanation other than I just kept trying. I also used a slightly weightier yarn than all the other times (Aran), and I also watched a lot of YouTube videos to get it non-squiffy in my head. I think YouTube definitely helped – those stupid diagrams of pencil-drawn hands just weren't cutting it. Crochet is my new love, and (although I am scared of doing anything much other than a granny square – for now) I can't see myself going back to knitting any time soon. I know – I never thought I say it. And me from last year would totally be seething at me from a few seconds ago for typing it. Sorry, Past Me (also, you should really check out YouTube for some tutes, m'kay?).

Anyway, thanks mainly to Pip, Ros Badger and Indie Lovely for their inspiring throws, cushions etc. And thanks to countless crocheting YouTubers. I apologise I didn't make note of your vids…

Knitted bow ring

Remember my knitted bow I did a while ago? Meet its young sibling, the knitted bow ring – gifted this xmas to my BFF, Amy (who is also modelling it above). Nice huh? It's basically a long thin (I think I cast on four or five stitches) strip of stocking stitch, folded over and with the yarn wound around the middle as usual. Then hot glue gun (or tie) onto a ring back and you're done. Cute huh?

Monty Rose's Bread and Butter pudding (or why I am a fat wife)

The thought of bread and butter pudding always reminded me of school dinners. Rows and rows of cheapy sliced white bread, glistening with spread and not much else. Literally bread. And butter. Urgh.

But this Christmas, we popped down the road from our hotel to Quod (I've always wanted to go there but never got round to it) and had their bread and butter pudding with apple and blackberry. It. Was. Amazing. I just had to sample every last morsel to make sure I'd tasted every ingredient so I could try and replicate it later. Quite a few trials later (and with this recipe for help), I think I've just about cracked two versions…

Monty's apple and blackberry bread and butter puddingIngredients

• Nob of butter


• Half a bag of frozen blackberries


• 4 Pink Lady apples, peeled, and sliced


• Couple of squirts of lemon juice


• Cinammon


• A good two dollops of honey


• ½ cup sugar, plus 1 cup, plus 1 tablespoon


• Couple of drops of vanilla


• 4 eggs


• 2 cups semi-skimmed milk


• 1/3 cup Ameretto


• 800 grams brioche (about 2 loaves), ripped into chunks


• Spray fry

To make

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C


2. Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the fruit and lemon juice. Simmer.


3. Add in cinammon, vanilla, honey, ½ cup of sugar. Keep simmering, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes.


4. In a large bowl, whisk together 4 eggs, 2 cups of milk, ameretto and 1 cup of sugar. Submerge the brioche bits in the mixture, and allow them to soak up all the goodness for about 5 minutes.


5. Meanwhile, spray fry the inside of a baking dish. Place some of the brioche mixture in the bottom of the dish. Then spread the apple and blackberry mixture all over, creating a layer of fruit. Cover with the second half of the brioche mixture. Pour in any last bits of milky mixture that hadn't been soaked up. Top with a sprinkling of 1 tablespoon sugar.


6. Bake for 45 minutes, until puffed and golden. Serve warm with custard if you like.

Monty's white chocolate and cranberry bread and butter pudding(More or less exactly the same as the above recipe except…)

Ingredients

• Nob of butter


• 200g white chocolate chips


• 100g dried cranberries


• ½ cup sugar, plus 1 cup, plus 1 tablespoon


• Couple of drops of vanilla


• 4 eggs


• 2 cups semi-skimmed milk


• 1/3 cup Ameretto  


• 800 grams brioche (about 2 loaves), ripped into chunks


• Spray fry

To make

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C


2. In a large bowl, whisk together 4 eggs, 2 cups of milk, ameretto and 1 cup of sugar. Submerge the brioche bits in the mixture, and allow them to soak up all the goodness for about 5 minutes.


3. Meanwhile, spray fry the inside of a baking dish. Place some of the brioche mixture in the bottom of the dish. Then spread half the choc chips and cranberries all over. Cover with the second half of the brioche mixture and another layer of choc and cranberries. Pour in any last bits of milky mixture that hadn't been soaked up. Top with a sprinkling of 1 tablespoon sugar.


4. Bake for 45 minutes, until puffed and golden. Await adoration.

Chain bag

Happy New Year! Are we still allowed to say that? A busy Chrimbletide season for the Monty household. Lots of Christmas crafting, then a certain someone's birthday, plus new year, so I've only really got back into the swing of things now, plus the Mollie team have been busy busy on our latest issue, hence the net silence. But onward!

One thing that's been keeping me busy but is such a pleasure has been crafting for our sister iPad magazine, Gathered by Mollie Makes. You've already seen a sneak peak of the bow necklace from issue 10 and now here's my chain bag from issue 9.

Massively simple, the only tricky bit is cutting (or getting a locksmith to cut) the chain to the right size. Then it's just some glue gun fun. So simple, **I** can do it.

Look out for more goodies from me coming to an iPad near you…

Tweed bow necklace

Super excited about this latest project for Gathered by Mollie Makes (out 21/12 - what a good date!). I've always wanted to do a tweed bow necklace but a combination of not having enough confidence (and not getting my Singer skills on) meant it had been sitting in my head for a while, crying like a puppy left outside a shop. Nice image…

Anyway, it's (again) an easy make. Took me all of ten minutes more or less. You can sew it if you like, but I made mine from hemming tape. Check it out coming to an iPad near you this Friday

12 12 12 12

Oh my gawd, it's 12pm on 12/12/12! If you know me, you'll know I have a thing about dates (we got married on 5/5 after all). But this is epic. We'll never have this kind of date alignment again in our lifetime.

So here are some frivolous sparkly nails…


I'm not usually one for glitter as I hate the texture it leaves, but this one from No7 is lovely and smooth, plus the chunkier glitter mixed with dots of the stuff make it look a little bit nail arty. I load it all up on the tips, over Rimmel's Lycra Pro Anti-fade in Desire, which is a dark purpley brown (I love a fat brush, me).

Christmas bauble bunting

One of the main rules for shopping in Poundland: make sure the thing you're buying isn't faulty. When buying baubles from Poundland (and especially when buying a crap-load of baubles from Poundland) you should rilly make sure they all have little dangle-thread things for which to hang from your tree, no? Shame I didn't take my own advice.

But what to do with them? Well, all my wreaths had been made (which you can see here and here) so I couldn't do a bauble wreath (which actually I was quite glad about - not sure I have the patience for that) and I'd just made a load of paper bunting from an old book so did a bit of crafty maths and came up with bauble bunting – or Baunting if you will. Again, blummin easy, and better than tinsel.