Gingerbread cupcakes

Hello, hello!

For some time I was looking for recipe for easy and kinda foolproof gingerbread.

Took me a bit to find something what actually catch my eye. On one of Polish webs/blogs I found recipe for Gingerbread Teddies.

As I don't have Polish gingerbread mix (nearest Polish shop means a shopping trip) I decided to use Mixed Spice, which you can find in any shop. My son is not a fan of jam/preserve in mini-cakes, so...

I decided to make cupcakes with no jam in, and my version contains:

* 120 g unsalted butter
* 240 g honey
* 150 g plain flour
* 150 g wholemeal flour
* 2 eggs
* 1.5 tsp baking soda
* 2.5 tsp mixed spice
* 1 tsp cocoa

Line your muffin/cupcake tin with paper cases.
Put butter and honey in little pan and heat it until melted and combined, cool down sightly.
Preaheat oven to 180C.
Mix both flours, soda, spice and cocoa,then add butter/honey mix and eggs. Whisk until combined. Dough will be sticky.

Divide between cupcake cases 

and bake for about 20 minutes - until wooden skewer coming out clean.

Cool them down on wire rack and decorate as you wish.

Here melted dark chocolate and green sprinkles!

Enjoy!!!

Not only Halloween :)

Hiya!

Oh yes, I know Halloween is gone, but..

Over a week before Halloween Dom decided he wants to have carved pumpkin, sooo... he choose one in the shop and ...

My first carved pumpkin :) Hard job!!! And he wasn't happy cause he wanted bat on it... so I carved bat on back of this pumpkin later :)

On Halloween day I baked pumpkin muffins, I used Mary Berry's recipe for carrot cake which you can find here: Mary Berry's Carrot and Walnut Cake, just changed carrot for pumpkin and didn't add walnuts.

Result: very yummy!!!

Meantime Dom was working on Birthday card for his friend Grace.

He's going for her Birthday party this Saturday.

He's also waiting for his school trip to Druridge Bay next week.

That's all for now :)

Midterm break :)

Hello, hello!

I'm very bad with writing here :) Time to add some updates :)

Sooo...

Dom back to school after his Summer holiday happy to see his friends again, he likes his new teacher and he's learning lots of new things.
Last week he had his midterm break... We worked on part of his big homework (Inventors and Inventions), spelling of new words... but also had lots of fun :)

We were on day trip in Newcastle - great day - on pic: St Andrew's Church in city centre.

We had fun on Blyth beach - on pic: birds outside Coastline Fish and Chips Restaurant (we were eating yummy chocolate/orange cake there).

We were in Jarrow Hall - on pic: one of buildings in Saxon village

Dom loved feeding animals - pic taken in Saxon Farm (Jarrow Hall - ex Bede's World).

Plus lots of walks, playing in Ridley Park, etc.

More updates soon! 

Dom and canvas

Hello, hello!!!

Another long break with writing here...

And another post about my little boy :)

He's definitely artistic soul :)

Here the story:

Last week we were in Works shop and I decided to buy little art easel (with canvas) to use it for my cards pics. After back home Dom decided he wants to use it. I told him canvas are good with paints, so he smiled and said: Where's my brush? :)

I placed canva on piece of paper, gave him paints, brush and water to clean brush and...

waited what he do with it :)

Result:

He called it: Circlesies from circle :) Inspiration taken from children's book: Three Little Ghosties.

I asked him if he wants to try paint on bigger canvas and he said: yes.

So...

I bought few bigger :)

And definitely he prefers the smallest canvas :)

That's all for today :)

Summer find

Hello friends!!!

I'm sure you know perfectly well how challenging Summer holiday can be, specially with small children :)

Putting them in a front of TV is the easiest option ever and not the best one I think - kids are addicted to screens (any sorts) these days. We decided to keep our boy as long as possible away from screens - not easy when raining outside.

Dom is crafty boy, so...

Having Paint Maker is one of options to avoid TV :), after mixing paints he is painting and wants us to paint too, so... great idea for nice family time :). Today had to buy more paper cause we run out of it :).
Colouring digi images is other of Dom's faves, 'playing' guitar and singing is brill too :), we also reading a lot - Dom loves our walks to library and choosing new books.

When weather is nice (read: no raining), we are trying our best to spend as much time as possible outside.
Walks, trips... no matter where, but together.

Last Monday Dom said he wants to go to the beach, but not our local beach, so... I took him to Whitley Bay. Our first stop was lighthouse on St Mary Island - tide was high so we only make photo with lighthouse in background.

Then we went for a beach, we had a small walk before had to hide in cafe (little rain) for muffin and drink. Later we decide to continue our beach trip :) We build huge sand castle and then we were collecting beach pebbles and sea glass pieces.

And we found this interesting stone:

Believe it or not you can feel texture under your finger tips!

I shared one of these pics on Instagram with question if it can be a fossil and had answer: yes it is definitely a fossil.

Dom likes this pebble a lot, so I decided to contact Hancock Museum to find out if they can help us to identify what kind of fossil our pebble can be. Man who answered my phone call transferred me to very nice and most helpful lady, Ms Sylvia Humphrey - Assistant Keeper of Geology in their museum, who's specialize in fossils.

After a nice chat I sent these photos to her by email and here what she sent us back:

'Dear Monika and Dominik

Thank you for sending me photos of your fossil. 

You are quite right in thinking that it is a fossil.  From what I can see, it appears to be a piece of fossilized coral preserved in a limestone pebble.  The gently curved parallel lines on the surface of the pebble represent the interior of a solitary coral, possibly Dibunophyllum sp., which is commonly found in Carboniferous limestone, the most likely origin of this fossil. 

I have attached an image of a polished piece of Frosterley Marble (we have a very large slab on display in the museum), a decorative dark grey limestone that contains numerous fossilized corals.  The textures within the corals are like those in your pebble.  The second photo is of two horn-shaped corals, which show what the individual corals might have looked like when alive - with the lower pointed end attached to the sea-floor. 

Your fossil is likely to be around 340 million years old.

Please do not hesitate to contact me, should you require further information.

Best wishes

Sylvia'

Wow, that was mind blowing news!!! We have 340 million years old fossil at home! Not bad holiday/summer souvenir for 5 years old boy!

We're planning little trip to Hancock museum to check more closely their fossil collection :)

That's all for today!

What happened... since May

So busy with my cardmaking blog, but...

This cannot be an explanation for total absence in here! I'm making cards - fact, but not only this!

So... what happened since May? Quite a bit I can say :)

We started dealing with our garden:

I found rather big amount of sea glass on our beach, when we decided one day we need some nice walk :)

Won this beauty on Instagram:

We were in Newcastle and found great place called Greek Grill in Heaton :) Very yummy food plus nice chat with cook and owner of the place - we recommend this place to all Greek food lovers!

This little piece I won on Twitter during #CupcakeHour one Thusday :) It is creation of Joanna Pearce.

You can find and buy her pieces here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MaisyPlum.

Below my first ever ATC (Artist Trading Card) card - I love how its turned out :)

Next - my son's card for his friend (next door neighbour's son)

Dom loves cardmaking :)

And last but not least...

Courgettes and limes cupcakes I made using this recipe: http://www.womanandhome.com/recipes/535633/courgette-and-lime-cake.

Yummy!!! My man wants more of them:)

That's all for today peeps!

Will try my hardest to write more here in coming days :)

Bit busy Tobisia :)

Bad me... again didn't wrote much here for a bit!

Whole month gone!

So.... What happened since my last writing?

Here you go:

I'm a member of Designing Team for Conie Fong Art & Design, you can find her beautiful digis here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ConieFongArt.

Some of my creations with her images:

New release from April: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/511461358/digital-stamp-digi-stamp-digistamp-conie?ref=shop_home_active_7

New release from May: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/528119929/digital-stamp-digi-stamp-digistamp-conie?ref=shop_home_active_5

Card I made for my Mum's birthday and also as my inspiration/challenge for May at Conie's FB group. I used image called: Moonflower Lullaby: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/289136333/digital-stamp-digi-stamp-digistamp?ref=shop_home_active_40

I decided to create new coupon code for my Etsy shop, so if anyone interested, check my current offer: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TobisiasLilThing?ref=hdr_shop_menu and use 40OFFSALE for 40% off on every purchase.

As my son will be 5 soon (tomorrow) and we decided to organize a little party for him, we were bit busy to find good place, make invitation, buy gifts, make card, bake a cake... lots to do :)

Here card for him:

We have some Lego for him :) I spent lots of time to figured out the best cream for his cake cause I didn't want buttercream (to heavy and sugary for my taste) and I found solution :)

Here my first ever fondant decoration for cake :)

I know my Stegosaurus looks bit funny and possibly is bit too big, but... as my old friend said: Bake big birthday cake!

Hmmm... I think that's all I wanted to write today... 

Till next time friends!

Meet Lynn

Today I want you to meet Lynn - owner of etsy shop 'Lynn Hanousek Designs'.

Lynn is member of HandmadeMovement Team - Home of Sneak Attacks ( if you want to know more about this team, check:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/teams/7565/handmademovement and http://handmademovement.blogspot.co.uk/).

Lynn lives in Astoria, Long Island City, Queens, NY in USA.

Tell us more about Astoria - place where you live.

'Astoria is a short train ride into mid-town Manhattan and right next to LaGuardia Airport. So its a handy place to live. Like the rest of Queens County, our neighborhood is ethnically diverse, resulting in a great variety of restaurants and yummy food'.

Above photo of Astoria Park I found through Google search - nice place isn't it? 

My next question to Lynn was: Are you born New Yorker?

She said: 'I was born in nearby New Jersey but have lived more then 2/3 of my life in various parts of NYC so I consider myself a New Yorker. My Mom was born in NY state and 2 of my Grandparents were born in NYC so I suppose its in my genes.'

Lynn has her etsy shop running on etsy since 2007. In early days she was selling vintage pieces and handmade jewellery, also from sea glass.

Are you still making jewellery with sea glass?

'I haven't made sea glass jewelry for awhile but I have jars of glass lining my window sill gleaned from our travels. A great local source is in Astoria Park along the East River. When I walk there, I sigh and think, 'Gotta get back to making sea glass jewelry'.

You can read about sea glass in Astoria Park and Lynn's jewelry here: https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/making-jewelry-from-east-river-glass/.

Currently Lynn is selling her own paintings, here my faves:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/211694568/black-cats-and-birds-blue-horizontal?ref=shop_home_active_2

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/492502640/nyc-new-york-city-skyline-acrylic?ref=shop_home_active_1

Are you self-taught painter or you have school degree in art?

I've been painting since I was in jr. high school (age 12/13). the art teacher told my parents to buy me a painting kit and just let me go to it. Throughout high school and college I received some instruction but I majored in Art Education and teaching was the main emphasis not becoming a professional artist. I guess you could say I am self taught with some help from my teachers.

Lynn is proper cat lover, so I just couldn't not ask about her kitten's muses and had this answer:

'... I get home and I'm greeted by 3 kitties. They are all very sociable and like lots of attention. They hang out with us all day and have a hand (paw) in everything we do. I love cats' eyes. I find them very expressive and that is reflected in my paintings.'

Below Lynn's kitties:

This handsome boy had his birthday on Fool's Day (April 1st) - no kidding!

She's beautiful!

Look at these eyes!

My last question to Lynn was: Is any place in the world you want to see? Why?

I've been blessed to visit many places in the world. One place I would like to see that I haven't is the eastern part of Germany where some of my ancestors came from.

I met Lynn on etsy almost 3 years ago when my shop was Sneak Attacked, but now I can say I know her little bit better :).

If you want to check Lynn's paintings go: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LynnHanousekDesigns.

Hope you enjoyed reading.

Till next post friends!

Day on the beach

We had so beautiful day today, that we decided to spent some time on the beach.

Dom took his bucket and spade, he wanted to build sandcastles :)

Sky was almost totally blue...

I spent little bit of time looking for sea glass - not much luck today, but saw lots of interesting pebbles and shells.

Dom was digging holes with his spade, asking Daddy for water to pour in there and I was working on sandcastle, which we finished together decorating it with stones and shells.

Then we went to Coastline restaurant for hot chocolate, cake and ice creams :) After sweet treat we back to the beach where we could observe high tide. 

Our sandcastle was already gone under waves, but Dom still could dig some more holes and back home with lots of sand in his shoes :)

That's all for today friends!

Till next post!

Chocolate cookies for Dom

Today before I walk my son to school I promised him cookies. Had crazy, bit hectic day, but... my son have his cookies  😊.

After school he checked them and... wanted more then just one allowed before dinner 😊.

Want to make them?

Here recipe (I modified recipe found in 'Cookies!' by Pippa Cuthbert and Lindley Cameron Wilson):

Ingredients: 

250 g dark chocolate (70% min), 60 g cocoa powder, 100 g unsalted butter, 3 eggs, 100 g soft brown sugar, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 75 g plain flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder.

Place chocolate, butter and cocoa powder in metal bowl and place over a pan of simmering water and stir occasionally until melted, set aside to cool. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla extract until nicely combined, add chocolate mixture, mix, add flour and baking powder and mix until just combined. Cover the dough and chill (2-3 hours). Preheat oven to 200 C. Roll dough quickly into small balls, place on baking sheets and bake about 10 minutes. 

Allow to cool and enjoy 😊.

Till next post!

Midterm break

Last week was a little break from school for Dom. I can say that was very interesting time - first time only me, Dom and Tula (Daddy was working).

We had little bit of chocolate fudge I made around weekend

As inspiration for this fudge I had recipe found through pinterest: http://theprettybee.com/2015/11/3-ingredient-dairy-free-fudge.html.

My version contained: 550 g dark chocolate, 1 can of coconut milk and around 3 tbsp of icing sugar :)

We had fun making cookies from Dr Oetker book from 1930.

Dom helped me with finishing this nice card - details you can find here: http://tobicards.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/february-challenge-at-conie-fong-art-fb.html

He also had his time with card making - I received my crafting mag with stepper cards kit as free gift and Dom decided he wants to use it :) He made 4 nice stepper cards with minimum of my help.

Beautiful work isn't it?

We also read a lot and Dom painted 3 new 'masterpieces', we bought some new books and colouring books and spent a little bit of time in Whitley Bay where we had a stop for drink and cake :). We had fun watching Tula running wild in the garden, making new chewing toy for her and trying to explain her that Dom's sleepers are not for chewing (no luck).

Overall - very nice time together :)

Pyramid cookies

Today finally I found a time to check one of the recipes I found in book Mum sent me few weeks ago. This little book unfortunately is not complete - few pages missing. It is Dr Oetker's recipe book from 1930.

I decided to bake cookies which I'm calling Pyramid shortbread cookies.

To make them you need:

60 g sugar, 150 g butter, 180 g flour, 50 g ground almonds, pinch of cinnamon and about 1.5 tsp baking powder.

Preheat oven to 200 C. 'Knead' all ingredients together for nice elastic dough, then roll, cut and bake around 10 minutes (until golden).

Ball of dough before rolling

I used star cookie cutter, but you can use any kind you want.

Cooling down :)

Use jam or chocolate cream between cookies, place on each other as shown above and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Enjoy with tea or coffee!

Tula, baking and watercolour pencils

Shame on me!!!

Wasn't writing for so long here. Dealing with 4 yo boy, puppy, house works, crafting etc is not easy - I can tell it for sure :).
Tula is 12.5 weeks old now and had her 2 jabs done. On pic below our little cutie in her new coat ready for her first walk :)

Isn't she look cute in it?

I have some watercolour pencils from my friend plus received bigger box of them from my man for Christmas... I thought why not learn something new... 

Just one think - I am not good with drawing things ( maybe trees :) ). 

Below pic of my first try with these pencils on Digi stamp from Poolkadoodles.

More about my practicing you can read here: http://tobicards.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/watercolour-pencils-in-card-making.html

Last Sunday I decided to try something new - scones :) Savory scones... Actually

Bacon and cheese scones!

Before landing in oven

Cooling down!

To make these scrumptious beauties you need (in my version):

First preheat your oven to 200 C.

Fry 200 g bacon lardons, put them aside to cool down a bit, in bowl mix together 275 g self-raising flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, pinch of salt, then add 100 g butter and rub it until form breadcrumbs. in other bowl mix together 150 ml milk, 50 ml oil and 1 egg. Then add milk mixture to the dry ingredients, add 2-3 nicely chopped spring onions (can be more if you wish) and fried lardons and mix it together. 

Divide dough between 12 muffin cases and bake for about 20 minutes, until golden/brown and then...

depends from you :) wait for little cool down or just eat them hot ;)

To be honest with you I was very surprised to see my 4yo fussy eater munching on it and asking for 'cupcakes' next day!

Enjoy!!!