Making Inspiration: Ohdeedoh, A New Creative blog and a Crafty Gathering

Well I have been very busy, including working on some new designs that will be printed on tea towels - so fun!  Yikes I'm ridiculously excited about it!  So I haven't been able to get up to my usual Making Monday goodness this week.  But  don't worry I still have plenty of making inspiration for you!

First up, Ohdeedoh shared my sunprints project I made with Yashar in a post 'Get Inspired by Sunprints' yesterday.  Thank you Ohdeedoh!  And if you haven't made sunprints before I definitely suggest checking out the post I did about them and giving it a go - we had so much fun with it - easy and creative for any age!

For more creative inspiration I suggest getting in early on the blog recently started by Alara Hindle (my lovely friend and owner of LOLA children's art studio)  Alara has such a wealth of fantastic ideas for creative things to do with children. She is posting activities once a week - there is already a great art deco one and some fun beach theme ideas.  Don't miss it!

And finally...here's another (all very summer party inspired) instalment of 'Crafty Gatherings'....where the best things to make, gather, stand around looking cool and sip on mojitos  ;)   links below and all photos via the respective websites.

Zoku Pops - this is the pineapple and coconut recipe - yum!
- (found via Design Mom)


Lemon and Fetta Dip -  from Sweet Paul (and the Sweet Paul online mag has just come out...can't wait until I have time to have a look!)

Glow Cones - glowing snow cones.  Fun for a summer's night kids party or rave  ;)  - from Giverslog

Pinata Inspired Party Lanterns - Brenna for Design*Sponge

3 years old...the birthday cake

How are you all?  I have been neglectful of you I'm afraid.   Thank you so much for all your lovely comments and emails!  And sorry to those of you that I owe emails...I will try to get to them very soon!  I have been busy with my new cards and other things, but especially with Yashar's birthday!  Yes, he was 3 on Monday!   Can you believe it?  I can't.



For those of you that have been around here for a while...do you remember this photograph??  This was when he was just 6 months old.  Wow, life is different now!  

We had such a fun party for him on Saturday  - with a bit of a jungle theme going on.  I was rushing around and didn't take enough photos at all :(     I will look at what I did take soon and show you all the little details, making etc!  But first one of the bigger details - the cake!   I'm definitely no professional cake maker...this had the 'homemade' look to it for sure hehehe.  But anyway - it was a hit...because Yashar was so excited about it and loved it...and of course, that makes me very happy.

When I was little, every year I was allowed to pick a cake for my Mum to make for my birthday from the Women's Weekly Childrens Birthday Cake Book.   It is such a fun tradition...   This book is pretty classic 80s I think!  So, with some scanning and emailing of all the jungle related cakes in the book, Yashar was also able to make his choice.  He chose the lion! 

The instructions from the book were just to use packet cake, but I wasn't having any of that ;)     So I did a quick internet search and used this 'One Bowl Chocolate Cake' recipe from Martha Stewart.     It was fairly easy and turned out nice and moist.  I just substituted plain yoghurt for the buttermilk.

The finished cake!  And you can see a peek of the snakes in jelly...eeeewww!

Then there was the icing, oh the icing...which was delicious...but took a looong time.  I used this recipe for Buttercream Frosting also from marthastewart.com.  I followed some of the commenters' suggestions and didn't use as much butter as the recipe suggested.   For quite a while, while I was in my pjs making it an hour before the guests arrived, I thought it wasn't going to work...but I just kept on mixing and finally it thickened up and I had time to quickly put the funny lion face together  :)   Next time I want to try the Magnolia Bakery Buttercream... Mmmmm... sounds delicious and much much easier to make!

The Cookie Experiments

It's getting to that time of year again...the jewel like pomegranates are coming into season...which we love!  We mostly just eat them straight up, but now and then I put some in a salad ..and of course a fresh pomegranate juice is so yummy (and so much better than the juice you buy at the supermarket!)  What do you make with pomegranates?

We are lucky that Yashar is a pomegranate fiend!  And he likes to get quite dramatic about it - closing his eyes and sometimes even throwing his head back in delight - hehehe!


It has also been the weather for baking.  Is there a better combination than this??

I don't think so!  We have been experimenting a little with cookie recipes (ok a lot - you should see the amount of cookies we've been eating!)  Do you have a favourite cookie recipe?  We would love to try it - I hope you'll share.

This is the most recent recipe we have come up with - which I really like - for a lot of reasons - one being that we don't get the electric mixer out - Yashar just keeps mixing with a big wooden spoon the whole time.  They are also very quick to make and I love the little hint of honey through them.

75grams butter (softened)
3/4 of a cup of sugar
vanilla essence
1 dessert spoon of honey
1 egg
1 cup of wholemeal flour
2 cups of oats

a few dessert spoons of chocolate chips

Mash the butter with the sugar with a wooden spoon.  Add the vanilla essence, the honey and egg and keep stirring.  Add the flour and continue to mix, then add the oats and chocolate chips and mix.    The mixture should be very thick and sticky.  Yashar finds it very hard to resist eating the mixture at this stage :)

Put cherry tomato size balls of dough on a greased tray, squash them down a little and bake for about 10 minutes or until golden (oven at 180 degrees celsius).  Leave to cool.  Makes about 24 small cookies...which in our house lasts less than 24 hours!

Have a great weekend!

Making Mondays: Cooking Afternoons

This Sunday it rained off and on, so Yashar and I got busy in the kitchen!  We started with these chocolate and cranberry cookies from the beautiful beautiful book Apples for Jam
- I love that book!   Then we left them to cool as the last few rays of afternoon sun poked through the clouds.

I would feel wrong about putting the recipe here - but I definitely recommend buying the book!  Or you could use any simple chocolate chip cookie recipe - like the one I found online here - and add some dried cranberries.

Then Yashar chopped away - alternating between deep concentration and delight - to help make a creamy mushroom sauce with pieces of sucuk though it to go on some pasta - delicious!

Speaking of delicous food...I was lucky enough to eat at this gorgeous table last week.   I had offered to bring some last minute presents that Hatice had ordered to her house and when she offered to have my husband, Yashar and I over for tea, of course I jumped at the chance.   I didn't know just how lovely it was going to be though - Hatice's food blog definitely deserves to be as popular as it is!  The spiced apple cake you can see in the middle was so so delicious!  And it was wonderful to spend time talking with Hatice - and Yashar had such fun with playing with her daughter that he is still talking about it!

I have mentioned Hatice's wonderful food blog here before -'Portakal Agaci'.  The site is full of wonderful recipes - just use google translate if you need to.   I was also lucky that Hatice wrote some very kind words about my work.    A warm welcome to all the new visitors  - I am so glad to have you here  :)

Stay tuned this week - we have been busy and I have lots to show you...including some beautiful new crochet blankets Sevim has made and some new goodies for the shop.

Verity
xo

right now i'm eating...

this...and it is yum!   Yashar and I are always making cakes...who could say no to that little face asking if we can make one together??

I have a basic fairly low sugar cake recipe (based on a recipe in the beautiful book bills open kitchen) that I use and then add what ever fruits we have available to it.  My faves are with nectarines or apricots. 

Today we went to our weekly local market - the 'pazar' to get our fruit, vegies, herbs etc and the strawberries looked great...so when Yashar asked to make cake out they came!

The basic recipe:
1 and a half cups of flour
3 quarters of a cup of sugar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
180 grams of soft butter
3 eggs
1/4 cup of milk
teaspoon of vanilla

Stir all the dry ingredients together and make a well in the centre.  Whisk the wet ingredients (except the butter) in another bowl and then pour the mixture, along with the butter, into the well in the bowl of dry ingredients.  Use beaters to mix well.  Pour into greased and floured cake tin - for this one I used a banana bread type tin - but it also works well in a low rectangular tin - especially with larger fruits that tend to sink.

Put the pieces of whatever fruit you are using on top and bake in an oven at 180 degrees celsius for 40 mins (you can take it out about half way and sprinkle extra sugar on it if you like).

...then end up eating the whole thing yourself...  ;)

Making Mondays: Cushions and Tomato Lasagne

I made couple of cushions I made a little while back that I hadn't managed to show you yet.  So here they are!   The one on the right (in the photo below) is made from a pillow case and the one on the left is made from an old favourite top of mine and the other part of the pillow case.  I took the photos in Yashar's room (the cushions actually live on our couch though) because the sun always streams in there in the afternoons.

Ahhh....I loved that top, but with Yashar around, I have surrendered to the fact that things will get broken, favourite tops will gets stained, a conversation will never go uninterrupted :)

I'm not going to put the step by step instructions here - because it really depends on what you are using - and you can see pretty much I've done in the photos... the left hand side of the cushion was the bottom of my tshirt (it was pink with a nice big black stretchy bit on the bottom...hehehe I'm sure there is a name for it ...let me know if you know what its called!)   And the little silhouette was a part of the tshirt that I very quickly sewed on with the edges folded under.  Hmmm...I hope that makes sense  :)

And a ps...

I have been slightly obsessed with lasagne lately...leave one in the fridge and I can't stop myself from going in to the kitchen for 'one more bite'!   I have been using the recipes for both the meat and the plain tomato versions from Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros.  I love how the recipes in that book are simple, are the sort of food both children and adults like and all the recipes have so far turned out to be delicious! 

This is the tomato lasagne - so simple - the only ingredients are tomato, oil, basil, garlic, bechamel sauce (butter, flour and milk) and pasta sheets.  I served it with a fresh rocket salad -  I bought the rocket from one of the farmer's trucks that goes around our streets each day and was yum!

Making Mondays: Limonata after Sunset

It's getting very hot and very humid around here.  The forecast for the rest of the week is 35 degrees celsius (95F) during the day, and only going down to 24 (75F) at night.  So after making this Limonata tonight I thought I should post about it straight away!  Perfect for when the sun goes down  - or when the sun is up  :)
  

I looove Limonata and was excited when I found the recipe here from the fantastic blog - Portakal Agaci (Orange Tree).  The recipe is in Turkish, but here is a slightly different version in English.  I will have to ask Hatice from Portakal Agaci soon if she minds me translating her Limonata recipe in to English for you and posting it here - it turned out exactly how I like it!  Make sure you serve it with plenty of ice and mint is yummy as well.  I also put the glasses in the freezer for 10 minutes beforehand too!

I have some more making coming up this week and also the last post about our trip to Italy. And I might even have some new prints to show you...let's see how much I can get done!

A sure sign of Summer

Well, after a return of winter here to Istanbul, with rain that turned the streets into rivers, and trips outside for this ....

...now, Summer has officially arrived.

A sure sign of which is us out on the balcony at around 8pm chopping up watermelon.

Somebody was pretty excited about it!

Have a great weekend!  I'll be back on Monday and will finally have the special Making Mondays project to share with you then!

Very Happy (but also a little sad)

**Firstly a quick note - the sale over at the Light Garden shop ENDS TODAY!  So if you have been thinking about getting something don't miss out!**

I was very happy to see that the wallpaper designs I did for Studio Nommo have already got a little fantastic press - yay!

Tammy Everts wrote a lovely, lovely post over at ohdeedoh.com (you probably already know it, but if not, it's an awesome site with lots of great ideas and design for kids), with an excerpt of the article also featured on their sister site apartmenttherapy.com   I love these sites and was pretty damn excited!

Which was good for cheering us up around here, because Mum left to go back to Australia today :(   We had such a wonderful time with her here.  She helped us to make the most out of every day, to do lots of yummy cooking and baking and to enjoy the little things.  One of the most wonderful things was seeing her and Yashar get to know each other better.  He has been asking where she is many times since she left - wanting her to tell him goldilocks and to play with the puppet dog and reindeer with him.  We will be missing her lots, but we are so happy to have her here for the time we did.

We spent some of last day together at our favourite park, on a rug under the mulberry tree, with homemade apricot cake, and strawberries delivered to us on a fig leaf by the dear old gardener that works full time there.  It was so lovely.

These are the strawberries in the dappled sunlight - even though they are partly white they were totally ripe - and delicious - I googled and found that there are quite a few varieties of white strawberries...I never knew!

Making Mondays: My Own Muesli

I really like good muesli...but the right mix is hard to find!  I tried a muesli recipe in Bill's Open Kitchen (I love this book! - and wrote about it here) which was great.  Then yesterday we decided to make up my own muesli mix and it was so yummy I decided to put the recipe on here!

4 cups oats

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

2 dessert spoons of honey

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Handful of dried cranberries

Handful of sultanas

Mix all ingredients except cranberries and sultanas in a large bowl.  Spread out a large tray (I halved the mixture and spread it on two trays).  Place in the oven for around 20 minutes - moving mixture around occasionally.  Make sure to keep a close eye on it - it can burn quickly.

It was good!

    

Making Mondays - In Season: Strawberry Jam

Wow!  We have been doing a lot of cooking around here!  Including this yummy yummy strawberry jam.   I really like making jam...I think it has a lot to do with the fact that it involves making something that lasts a tiny bit longer than tonight's dinner.  And that you can give a jar to your mother in law and your neighbour.

I also love that it involves using fruit that is in season.    The smell of these strawberries as I was chopping them up was so delicious.  I was in heaven.  The strawberries were sweet and ripe, so I cut the sugar a little and it made a beautiful rich jam.  Yum!

The recipe is from Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros (the book I mentioned last week that I was lucky enough to get for my birthday).  This book is sooo good!  It has pretty much become my new cooking bible.  Just like Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion: The Complete Book of Ingredients and Recipes for the Australian Kitchen and Greg Malouf's Arabesque were in Australia (but that were too heavy to carry with me).  As much as I like being able to look up a recipe on the web, I love books so much more, with beautiful pictures that you can pour over and be inspired by.   And I love the old recipe book my Mum has with recipes collected over the years and all the memories that go with them.  What's your favourite cookbook? 

Back to Basics

Thank you all for your birthday wishes!  It's so nice to have all of you around here!!

One of the birthday gifts I got were the beautiful books Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes and Apples for Jam - both by Tessa Kiros.  Totally inspired, my Mum and I went out and bought a 'minifirin' - a small oven and set to work in the kitchen.  We got back to basics and made pizza and it was so good!...homemade just tastes so much better than bought.  It is actually amazing.  So if you haven't tried it for a while I definitely recommend it.   What's your favourite topping combination?  And by the way, these photos totally don't do the deliciousness of the pizza justice.

We made up the dough and got all the toppings ready and then Yashar got artistic with the toppings.  Pizza is perfect for making with kids don't you think?   I also love rectangle shaped pizza a lot more than round...is that strange? :)  Actually I have a sneaking suspicion I'm not alone with that...???   

And I knew it was definitely a success in Yashar's books when he asked me the next morning for pizza for breakfast. Hehehe :)

Oh...hello!

Wow!  Where did that week go?!  I'm back after a busy time, working on some projects and looking after Yashar who was sick.  :(  But on to the fun stuff... 

Fetta sure is popular here!  It's called 'Beyaz Peynir' which, literally translated, means white cheese.  There are many varieties and I love a lot of them!   My favourite combination at the moment is some lightly toasted bread with fetta, some pieces of walnuts, honey drizzled over the top and some cracked black pepper.  It's delicious!

Although cherry tomatoes, a little olive oil and cracked black pepper is also yum!