Hic! Cranberry Vodka Tutorial

Well I wasn't expecting to be doing a tutorial post yet but this one's coming off the cuff due to me remembering one of my favourite things to make this time of year - Cranberry Vodka!! I made this last year and gave some to my local pub landlord and he swears he's never had a hangover til he had this - enjoy!

You will need:

• 1ltr Vodka (as its being flavoured you can use cheap stuff)
• 300g Fresh Cranberries
• 150g Caster Sugar
• 1 large or 2 smaller kilner jars
• bottles (for bottling lol)

Weigh your sugar and put into your kilner jar (I used two and split the amount between them as I'll leave one to flavour for longer)

Add the vodka to the jar/jars

Prick the cranberries a few times (this is where I get a bit stabby stabby! teehee!) 

Put the cranberries in the jar/jars with the vodka

Look how pretty this looks already! At this point the berries had only been in this jar around 10 minutes

Shake the jars to get the cranberries agitated in the vodka and to start dissolving the caster sugar.  For the next 2 weeks you will need to shake them daily.  Personally I'll be doing one for 2 weeks and the other for about 3 or 4 to see which had the best flavour.

This makes an awesome present if you start it at the beginning of December - you can decant them in to pretty bottles and tie them up with ribbon and tags :)  Alternatively you can just keep it for yourself! 

I hope you enjoy this, I do enjoy making random things - let me know what you'd like to see more of on this blog, if there's something you'd like me to test out I'd love to hear it :)

Happy crafting

xx

I made that!

So, as Royal Fail have still yet to deliver anything I've ordered in the last 5 days and I still need to make a craft 'to do' list I thought I'd have a look back over the last 12 months at what I'd actually made (and remembered to take pics of!) and see what I could recall :)

OK, starting when the snow was down a year ago and I was busy creating something fabulous for the derby wife to wear on Christmas day - we are both all about handmade and to make this even more bargainous the fabric for this was found in the remnants bin at the local fabric store!  We had so much fun making this, I'd made one of these previously totally out of gingham fabric (so retro eh!) and to be honest I'm probably going to make another, its one of my favourite styles!

From there I went on to discover macarons.  Tricky little buggers that they are, my first batch totally stuck to the paper and some turned out the size of the saucer!  However I am not one to easily be defeated and after another bash they turned out beautifully!  ok I make them in some really weird combos (thai curry anyone?) but they are really yummy!

After that, I'd re-ignited my love affair with baking and decided to attempt to get a new business off the ground.  Unfortunately it wasn't to be, however it did lead to some fab creations! 

Including a big 'birthday present' cake and Pirate and Princess cupcakes for Cardiff based roller derby team Tiger Bay Brawlers that went down a treat :)

To be fair, I didn't do much crafting over the summer months, I was a bit busy co-founding the Valleys Roller Dolls, however I did make these rather fabulous helmet panties (if anyone's interested I'll do a tutorial on them, just let me know!)

Now things have settled down a bit I've started again and, well, you've seen what most of I've been upto since!  Oh, I did try my hand at knitting again - I now have vowed to only knit with either chunky wool or that fab frilly stuff, I don't have the patience to do anything else! 

Just a last pic I wanted to share as it is so beautiful! I hadn't made a hair adornment in a while but when I do make them I like them to look classic!  And so I give you 'Margot'  

Well, I hope I've inspired you to go and create something, anything! Don't be afraid of making mistakes, half the fun is in the creative journey 

Happy Crafting! 

Catching up!

Morning!! Apologies for being AWOL these past few days, have been busy with crafty pursuits, public transport round trips to pick up my new skates and catching the dreaded cold I'd managed to avoid til the other half came down with it! 


So, to bring you up to date - I've finally managed to get my head around opening an Etsy store (not that hard I hear you say, yes yes, but I wanted to make sure everything was just right) and although I only have 4 items on there I am very pleased with my little creations - I like poking a bit of fun at 'big brands' and alot of what I do is for my own amusement, hopefully it'll amuse others too, who knows!  If you fancy a peek at what I've been upto my little shop can be found here 

I also tried my hand at fudge making for the first time (as you can see) - I'm determined to crack it! My first batch was Vanilla and I adapted a recipe my ladybrother Gina had given to me.  It didn't turn out too badly,  ok it's a bit grainy but I'm sure the boys will demolish it when they get home later lol.  I've decided I really need to crack it as I found a fab christmas pudding fudge recipe on The Pink Whisk blog that I thought would make a lovely gift for family.  I'm trying to handmake as many gifts as I can this year, whether they'll be appreciated is another matter lol.  


For those of you who've liked my little tutorials so far, thank you! Don't worry I'm working on a new one, the first attempt didn't come out quite right so it's back to the drawing board and it'll be ready in about a day or so :) 


Til next time - happy crafting!