Isn’t this the cutest bag ever? And I made it myself. I’m so happy with it. It took a bit longer to make than I thought it would, because my sewing skills are a bit rusty, but the result is great. I used an old table cloth with bold patterns (and stains that I cut around) that my mom found in a thrift store.
I made the pattern from a bag that I already have, but I changed the height of the bag considerably, so it looks quite different. I also made the bias tape myself, inspired by this post at Prudent Baby. I actually wanted to buy it ready-made but they didn’t have any colors that I liked, so I bought a little bias tape tool like this, and it was actually pretty easy. I’ll definitely do it again, I would love to do it with some patterned fabric.
I even made a little ‘zesti label for the bag with a handcarved stamp.

I made these cupcakes already several weeks ago. I was inspired by a piece of orange poppyseed cake I ate in a little coffee shop in the lovely town of Dalesford, Australia. I was doing a yoga retreat not very far from Dalesford, and on our day off, we headed into Dalesford to indulge in some coffee and cake. I had never heard of orange poppyseed cake before, but was pleasantly surprised by the fresh taste.

Ingredients
125ml milk (I used soy milk)
1/3 cup poppyseeds
180g softened unsalted butter
220g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
Finely grated zest of 3 oranges
125ml freshly squeezed orange juice
375g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder

For the syrup
125ml freshly squeezed orange juice
55g caster sugar
20g unsalted butter
Zest of 2 oranges

Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease a muffin pan or line base with papercups.
Place milk in a bowl and stir in poppyseeds. Let stand for 20 minutes.

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and pale. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Gently fold in zest, juice and poppyseed mixture. Sift flour and baking powder over top and fold in. Spoon mixture into pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Meanwhile, place syrup ingredients in a pan over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves and butter melts. Turn heat to high and simmer for 2 minutes. While the cupcakes are still warm, pierce holes in the top with a skewer and pour over the hot syrup and zest. Serve warm or cold.

I’ve always loved pattern design, whether it’s for wallpaper, fabrics, paper goods or anything else. But in the job I’m doing right now I haven’t really had the chance to do this. So I’ve decided to use my vacation time right now to start up a little fabric collection, that I’m going to get printed at Spoonflower.
Above is already one of the designs I’ve made in the last few days.

I’m also trying to out some block printing on fabric using either self-made linoleum or rubber stamps. I have accumulated a big collection of rather boring plain fabrics over the years and the block prints could make them more interesting. It’s been ages since I’ve done any linoleum cutting, I completely forgot how hard it is to cut the linoleum. The day after my muscles were even hurting, but it’s a lot of fun making them and I’ve already learned a lot. I’ve realized that cutting the stamps out of rubber is much easier and they also seem to last longer. The lino cut I made seems quite fragile and some of the fine lines were already braking after cleaning of the paint

yep, it has happened again. I’ve been too lazy to update my blog lately, even though I have loads of recipes I still want to share with you guys. But I’ll try to make it up to you. My 3 week holiday has started so I should have plenty of time to put everything online

First of all I want to share this amazing Lemon Mint Sorbet recipe that I tried yesterday, it’s soo good and easy to make (no ice cream machine needed), I think I’m already addicted to it. I found the recipe on Jamie Oliver’s website. I had some leftover lemons that urgently needed to be used, and this was perfect, especially with the hot weather. I only made a small batch since I only had 3 lemons and no limes, but it was still so good, and I ate almost all of it already. I think I’ll have to buy some more lemons and limes today

***UPDATE***: I made a new batch yesterday for the pictures today. This time I made it with the limes and it was again soooooooooo good. Seriously, the glasses for the the pictures were empty in less than 30 seconds :-p

Ingredients (for 4 portions)
200g sugar
275ml water
zest and juice of 5 limes
zest and juice of 5 lemons
a small bunch of fresh mint

Place the sugar and water in a pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes, until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a while. Zest and squeeze your limes and lemons and chop your mint. Mix everything together in a plastic or earthenware container and place in the freezer.

Generally a sorbet takes 2 hours to set. Try to stir it around every 30 minutes if you remember



Ingredienten (voor 4 porties)
200g (riet)suiker
275ml water
zest en sap van 5 limoenen
zest en sap van 5 citroenen
een bosje verse munt

Doe het water en de suiker in een pan, breng aan de kook en laat ongeveer 5 minuten koken tot de suiker helemaal opgelost is. Haal van ‘t vuur en laat eventjes afkoelen
Zest en pers het sap uit de limoenen en citroenen en snij de muntblaadjes fijn. Meng alles te samen in een plastieken doos en plaats in de diepvriezer.

Normaal gezien duurt ‘t ongeveer 2 uur eer ‘t sorbet genoeg bevroren is. Probeer er om ‘t half uur eens door te roeren.