Recipe for Bara Brith

Since I spent St David’s Day slogging my way around the Eastbourne Half Marathon course, I didn’t have time to make Welsh cakes to take into work. Yes, it was a real slog, especially the final few miles! However, I did make some Bara Brith (speckled bread) as it is MUCH less time consuming, and no less yummy.

My mum got her recipe from one of her patients years ago, when she was working as an Occupational Therapist in West Wales. However, when she wrote it out for me and I made it, I totally messed up! This is because it is along the lines of “use some tea to soak the fruit,” “cook for a bit” etc. I like and need some specifics to work towards. Anyway, I now use my grans recipe. I would like to say there is a nice family story behind it, but she got it from This Morning a few years ago, when Bonnie Tyler cooked it 🙂

Ingredients (enough to make 2 1lb/ 450g loaves)

6oz (175g) currants/raisins
6oz (175g) sultanas
8oz (225g) dark soft brown sugar
1/2 pint (300ml) hot black tea
10oz (275g) self-raising flour
1 egg beaten
Optional – 1 tsp of mixed spice (Bonnie and my mum don’t use mixed spice)

Recipe

Measure the fruit and sugar into a bowl and pour over the hot tea. Stir well, cover and leave to stand overnight or for a few hours at least.
Grease and line your loaf tins. I have some fancy loaf tin paper cases which make this step much simpler.
Stir the flour and egg into the fruit mixture, mix and split between the tins.
Bake at Gas Mark 4 / 180 deg C for about 1 hour. If the tops are catching towards the end, cover with some greaseproof paper. They are done when a skewer comes out clean.
Turn out and leave to cool.
Serve plain or with butter. I quite like it on its own.

and here is Bonnie Tyler with “Total Eclipse of the Heart” for you to sing along to. I forgot how terrifying(ly bad) the video is!

Crochet daffodils

It’s St David’s day on 1st March, hooray! Last year, I made a felt daffodil and some Welsh cakes. This year, I’ve made a crochet daffodil. I’ve also made some bara brith, which will be the subject of another post coming soon.

I followed (mostly) this pattern from Attic 24. I’m not great at following instructions, so there is definitely some degree of improvisation going on. I did my middle differently as well – two rows of UK trebles, using slip stitches at the end of each row to make a full circle.The pattern from Attic 24 is really easy to follow, and uses hardly any yarn at all, so it is great scrap buster.

Wordless Wednesday

Picture entitled “Daffodils” from Desafianado

Knickers, model’s own

I recently read this article about a woman called Caroline who has set herself the challenge of wearing charity shop clothes for a whole year. Her project is called Knickers, Model’s Own (in reference to those captions in magazines where they say things like “necklace, model’s own). Over the next year, she is only wearing charity shop clothes from Cancer Research UK, alongside her existing charity shop wardrobe – she’s not buying anything new. This is in homage to her mum who sadly died from cancer last year and used to volunteer in the local CRUK shop. Check out her facebook page here – she posts pictures every day of her outfits, and she has a justgiving fundraising page too.I think this is such a sweet idea, and she seems to have been drumming up some extra business for her local CRUK store with her own rail of specially selected items (shown above). I love charity shops and always have a nose around to find a bargain. I finally know what shape of clothes suits me, and therefore what to look for, and will always check out the dresses, tops and jeans first. I’ll then move onto skirts and other trousers. A lot of my books and craft stash comes from charity shops too. Here are some of my favourite charity shop purchases!

My mustard yellow jumpers and blazer – I LOVE mustard yellow clothes. They’re so bright and sunny to wear.
My stripy dress – pretty much every time I wear this dress, which cost me about £3, I get complemented how polished and put together I look.Bird print dress and jumper – anything with a pattern is good, especially if it is birds! The dress has a kind of robin print to it and the vintage jumper has a sequinned flying bird appliqué.My elephant print dress – I really love this vintage elephant print dress. The elastic waist has gone though, so I need to do some work on it to make it more wearable again. In the meantime, I have to rely on a belt to take it in a bit.and I’ve also has some great practical items, including a brand new running body warmer and my warm and waterproof Superdry ski coat.

What do you look out for in charity shops?

Crochet block of the day

I’ve been off work ill for a couple of days with a horrible chesty cough, but today I finally felt able to do something productive. I’ve started crocheting again. Way back when last year, I was building up a stock of crochet squares to make a blanket. I kind of got side tracked though with other shiny crafts and projects, but I will see it through this time!My block today was number 72 – Ribbed square – from 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws and Afghans: Crochet Squares to Mix-and-Match. It is UK double crochet, but working only into the back loop of each stitch, to make it look ribbed. Next up is a lacy style block, I’ll keep you updated.

Side, Turkey

We’ve just come back from a holiday in Side, Turkey. It was fabulous! Lovely and warm and the town was spectacular. Side is basically built on and around ancient Roman ruins. I dragged my poor husband around for several hours of exploring over a number of days! I felt a bit like Indiana Jones. As it is very out of season at the moment, it was really quiet, so we could potter around the sand dunes, looking at ruined Byzantine churches, deserted Roman villas and palaces, all on our own.

One of the highlights is the 15,000 capacity amphitheatre. There were literally about four people in there visiting at the same time as us, so we more or less had the place to ourselves.
I also had fun finding the unexpected, such as this hidden mosaic, just on the side of the main road into the town. I also loved the flower patterns on this chunk of marble.

Dress upcycle

I was going through my wardrobe and found a long dress which I’ve had for a couple of years. I bought it because of the lovely fabric. It is a really big, bold African print. However, the dress itself was slightly too short on me to be maxi, and I didn’t really wear it much.So I had a go at shortening it and making it into a skirt, which’ll get much more wear. I’m a big wearer of skirts and dresses at work, as I have major problems finding trousers to fit me. The only trousers which reliably fit me are jeans! One day I will psych myself to make my own trousers 🙂To make my skirt, I cut off the bottom of the dress to make the skirt, added a zip, gathered the top edge of the skirt and fitted it into a waistband with scraps. For the waistband, I used this excellent tutorial from Ditto Fabrics as inspiration. I didn’t follow it to the letter, as I’m hopeless at following directions but it did gave me a good steer.

The top of the dress was all shirred, and I cut it so it is long enough for a separate top, but I haven’t had a chance to hem it yet. I’ll post a picture when it’s done. It’ll make a great sun top though for when it is warmer than zero degrees outside…

Butterfly flutterby

My picture for today is butterflies, as I have just got myself this new tshirt from ASOS! Picture from Studio Sjoesjoe

I do promise that I will start posting some more craft soon, but I have been INSANELY busy since before Christmas. I recently started a new job, which I love, but I’m still finding my feet. Oh, and I am also “training” to do the Brighton Half Marathon in February (training in the loosest possible sense, as I just want to finish it. I have no designs of doing it quickly). But this means I am using a big chunk of craft time running…

The joy of achievement

This is so true – what have you made recently that you are proud of? Picture from the Mollie Makes website

My winter sparkle ATC

I received my ATC on Christmas Eve, and then promptly went on holiday, so I haven’t yet had chance to post it yet. Here it is though, isn’t it cute? It came all the way from a very hot Brazil, and from Bea at Juntando Arte. It’s always nice to have post from far away, so much more exciting than bills. As I display all my ATCs throughout the year, Bea made it wintery but not too Christmasy, so it won’t look out of place when it finally gets warm here. Apparently, Bea used to live in the UK for three years and really loved it here. I must be honest, I love it here too (especially Brighton) but I do wish it was a bit warmer and drier…