Summer plans

I'm sorry dear readers, but I have nothing exciting to say at the moment, so I'm going to decorate this post with pretty pictures from my Pinterest. I'm deep in Study Land, emerging only to purchase over-priced cups of tea and glower at the ridiculously overdressed women in George Square library. Someone needs to tell them that appropriate clothing for studying is old jeans, bodywarmer (it gets cold in the library), cable knit cardigan (aforementioned coldness) and glasses. Pashminas, super-short miniskirts, over-done make up and Uggs have no place in the library, for no other reason than you annoy the hell out of me. Especially when you conduct 20 minute 'whispered' conversations with your BFF about how 'my art history exams are like, sooo hard'. I'm going to be super judgemental right now and just out and state, vet medicine = harder than art history. So take your annoying stage whisper downstairs to the cafe.

Source: coletterie.com via Amy on Pinterest

I honestly don't have a problem with art history, just for the record.

Source: purlbee.com via Amy on Pinterest

The online craft world has changed so much in the few weeks I've been offline. Blogger has changed, Pinterest has changed...alright, just those two but that's enough to be getting on with. I'm so far behind with my blogroll and Pinterest, so many pretty pictures and posts just waiting to be looked at! In time, little Amy, in time...

Source: rufflesandrosescrafts.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

In the meantime, this is to officially announce that my Etsy shop is no more. I'm away on my last 3 weeks of placement (eeh! So exciting!) next week so I've taken the opportunity to shut it down for good. I might come back to selling on Etsy in the future but under a different name and with a different product idea so for the moment, Etsy, I bid you adieu.

Source: aforestofapples.blogspot.co.uk via Amy on Pinterest

The Pinterest pictures in this post are my vague plans for 'if I don't have a job and have time to have a life this summer'. Looks like fun, non?

Source: blog.craftzine.com via Amy on Pinterest

Velvet hearts

Just a quickie today, I made a card for my friend Toni who had a baby a few days ago! I'm pretty certain she doesn't read my blog (and even if she does, I'm sure she's far too busy with baby Isaac to be reading just now!) but I don't want to spoil the surprise in case she does, so you'll have to wait and see what I made him!

In the meantime though, here's the card I made to pop in with the present. It's super simple, velvet hearts sewn onto card, but I like how it looks. I'll definitely be making more of these in the future!





It was loosely based on this lovely tutorial from A Beautiful Mess for how to make your own stationary set, but instead of plain rectangles, I wanted to experiment with shapes. I'll definitely be making some with rectangles though, I love it as an idea to show off a scrap of nice or sentimental fabric!

Source: abeautifulmess.typepad.com via Amy on Pinterest

Cartoon moles

Once again, let me preface this with an apology for the crap photos, it was another rush-at-the-last-minute, finish-it-and-straightaway-wrap-it affair and since it was 8 o'clock at night when I finished it, it's rubbish flash photos for the blog! I made this little purse using a great tutorial from Sew Happy Geek, it's a great blog with loads of useful resources and tutorials! I used the Simple Cosmetic Bag tutorial and just shrunk it down a little to make a wee purse instead. I wrapped it in some old wallpaper I've had in my stash for a while, I like the look of wallpaper as wrapping paper but sellotape doesn't stick to it very well! I recently swapped for the fabric for this project over on Thriftstore and I got some adorable animal print fabric as well, plus some awesome dinosaurs cotton! Check out this print though, how cute is that!

Aunty Rita's chocolate crunch

This is a recipe passed on to me from my Mum, who got it from an elderly lady who used to live across from my Gran. Aunty Rita we used to call her, my brother and I would go over to see her when we visited my Gran and she would feed us millionaire shortbread, starting a love affair with the yummy biscuit that I still carry on today.



It's a bit of an 'eyeball until the proportions are right' type recipe but hopefully it's clear enough that you'll be able to work it out.

Ingrediants:
♥ 2 x 200g bars of chocolate
♥ 3 tbsps treacle
♥ butter - enough to bind it all together
♥ roughly 10 digestive biscuits
♥ roughly 10 ginger biscuits
♥ cherries
♥ sultanas
♥ large spoonful of ground cinammon

Method:
Melt the butter and add the treacle, keeping warm on the hob. Melt the chocolate and add to the butter/treacle mix. Stir in together. Crush the biscuits and mix in with the treacle/butter/chocolate, you can add more biscuits now if you don't think there's enough. Stir in the rest of the ingrediants, pour into a greased loaf tin and press down. Refridgerate and cut when set. Eat!



In other bakery news, my friend Danica (of Hedgehog Cake fame) made me an amazing chocolate cake for my birthday yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get any photos of it before we all set upon it like a pack of hungry wolves, but it was yummy! Check out the amazing chocolate hedgehogs and owls from Choco-latte that adorned the top, if you're in the Clerk St/Summerhall area of Edinburgh any time soon you should definitely check out that amazing little shop!

2011 project plans

I'd like to stress that these aren't resolutions, since I might not get round to doing them, but they're definitely plans that I'm excited about trying!

Amy Butler is nice enough to offer some free patterns on her website. I've been planning on trying the fabric necklace for ages so when I saw the perfect necklace to salvage the beads, I jumped on it! £1 from a charity shop, bargain. Now to prettify it...



I have a pair of mustard coloured velvet curtains that for some reason I feel the need to turn into an item of clothing. Will this be super chic or properly granny? You'll have to tune in to find out! I'll be using Suzannah from Adventures in Dressmaking's tutorial for a gathered to waistband skirt.



I loved Grosgrain's Embellish Knits Month. I'm definitely having a go at day 8!



Hopefully these tutorials will help me get off my backside and stop reading about sewing, instead actually doing it!

Remember to enter my 100 heart giveaway! ♥

First tutorial ever!

Just a quick one tonight as I'm miles behind studying for an exam next week, le sigh. Not even started back yet and I'm already behind, lets hope this isn't a trend I'm setting for the new year.

Besides reviews, another ongoing theme I want to start in 2011 is tutorials! I love tutorials on other people's blogs and thought it would be nice to share some of my own. Not that I make anything particularly difficult or complicated but sometimes it's nice to be told how to make a tote bag or resize a sweater rather than having to work it out for yourself. I'm going to have to come up with a cute name for these posts, Tutorial Tuesday for example? Although that doesn't work with reviews...any ideas?

Since tonight's post has to be quick and it's my first ever tutorial so I want to keep it simple, here's my tutorial for...*drum roll*...

CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES!



Lets face it, January is a depressing month. It's dark and cold and damp, the excitement of Christmas and Hogmanay is over and you're penniless and done with holidays until Easter. I find the best solution to this problem is comfort food! Especially anything involving chocolate. Make yourself a batch of these, sit in front of the fire with a magazine (my choice would be Country Living) and a mug of tea (or large glass of wine) and savour the chocolatey yumminess.

Ingredients for the truffle base:

♥ 400g of good quality chocolate
♥ large carton of double cream

Possible ingredients for decorating:

It's entirely up to you!

♥ 200g chocolate
♥ chocolate powder
♥ chopped nuts
♥ icing sugar

Instructions:

1. Pour the double cream into a pan and heat over a medium flame until just before boiling. You don't want it to boil so be sure to keep an eye on it!

2. While the cream is heating, chop or break the chocolate into small pieces, as small as you can make them.

3. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate pieces and stir until all the chocolate is melted. The smaller the pieces, the easier this stage will be.

4. When thoroughly mixed in, pop the bowl in the fridge until set, overnight is best.

5. When set, take the chocolately mess out of the fridge and, using a spoon dipped in boiled hot water, take spoonfuls of the mixture and roll into balls between your hands. You'll get messy but then you can lick it off your fingers later.

6. Once you've formed a ball, cover it in the coating of your choice. You can roll them in chocolate powder or icing sugar or chopped nuts. I personally like to make all my balls, then cover them in melted chocolate. Wait for the chocolate to go solid then eat, the hard chocolate breaks to reveal the smooth creamy centre - yum!

If you go down the melted chocolate route, they can be stored in a jar with a pretty ribbon and given as presents, assuming you don't eat them all yourself of course!

If you make any, be sure to post photos on the Second Fiddle facebook page!

Tutorial links

Well, between Andrew's folks visiting and being away this weekend to visit my Grandad, it's been a quiet week on the blogging front. It's also been a quiet week on the studying front and since exams are just over 3 weeks away now, I predict a quiet few weeks for blogging.

Apologies everyone, I'll be back on form in the New Year I promise and obviously updating as much as I can over the next few weeks and then the holidays. If you're new to my little corner of the blogosphere though, please don't let it put you off!

I've been contemplating making a tutorial for a tote bag for a while now, I've got my method sorted and although it's probably not that different from other ways of doing it, I was thinking a tutorial might be handy for some people. I know I would have loved a decent understandable tutorial back in the day when I was trying to work it out for myself!

Since I don't have time at the moment, watch this space. But in the meantime, here are some other adorable tutorials from other creative blogs, possibly good Christmas present ideas?

Make your own reusable fabric napkins with Tasia of Sewaholic. Perfect for the Christmas dinner table and as she points out herself, very environmentally friendly!



Make this gorgeous Pin-up brooch holder with Mena of The Sew Weekly. A great way to organise and display your brooches!



I'll definitely be knocking up some of these Reusable tea bags from Lillyella in the new year. I love loose tea but I hate the tea leaves that invariably end up in the bottom of your mug. Perfectly practical and pretty solution!