WHAT I'M WORKING ON - CROCHET BLANKET

It's been two months since I started this crochet blanket, and if I didn't constantly get distracted by other projects and things, I'd probably be finished by now. But alas, it's still a work in progress! It now measures just over a meter each way, though I haven't quite decided how big I want it to be yet. Time will tell!

On a completely separate note, Graeme arrived last night and will be staying here for almost three weeks. Very exciting! We'll see how much crocheting gets done in that time!

BLUEBERRY APPLE CAKE

As I was baking this, I realized that the apple and blueberry combination is probably actually more of an autumn combination, isn’t it. Which is funny, because after this long winter it’s finally starting to feel like spring is on its way, with little snowdrops and crocuses popping up in my garden and the temperature finally going above the 0 mark. But regardless, I had a craving for apple cake, and when I went to buy some apples I came across some lovely blueberries and realized my craving was actually for apple and blueberry cake. I was also planning on visiting my grandmother to wish her a happy Easter, and figured it’d be a good idea to bring some cake on my visit. She likes it when I bring cakes, and I like excuses to bake cakes.  

This is a really simple cake, based on a classic Norwegian apple cake recipe, a popular choice when having people over for kaffe og kaker. I’m not entirely sure where I got the recipe from, as it’s been handwritten in my recipe book for years, but I would assume I probably got it from my mother’s recipe collection. In other words, if for whatever reason you’d like to omit the blueberries, just take them out and throw on a bit of cinnamon. Nom, nom, nom!

Blueberry Apple Cake recipe:
300 g flour
300 g sugar
1 tsp baking powder
300 g butter
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
100 g apples (about 2 or 3, depending on how much of it you'll munch while you cut them)
150 g blueberries (around there, depending on how many of them you'll munch while you cut them)
extra sugar as topping

Directions: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease a cake tin. Combine flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Crumble inn the butter and mix. Add the eggs and the vanilla essence. Pour the batter into the pan and use a spatula to smooth it out so that it's relatively even. Peel the apples and cut them into segments. Arrange them on top of the cake, and then push as many blueberries as I can into the empty spaces between the apple segments and sprinkle the rest on top with some sugar. Pop in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown and baked through. Serve with some ice cream while it's still warm! Or take it with you when you go visit your grandmother.

GRAEME'S OLYMPUS TRIP PHOTOS

So, a month ago, I handed in two 35mm films to get them developed, printed and put on a CD. Long story short, after four weeks and four phone calls (where I was told three times they’d contact me when my film was ready, and then finally that my film was ready and they must have forgot to contact me), my film was finally ready. Or so I was told. When I showed up at the photo place however, it turned out they had only developed the films and then printed one of them, and added a little note asking if I wanted to get the second roll printed as some of them were shot with a square format (using a Diana mini. Which I told them as I handed in the film), and if I did then they would have to send it off again. No CDs either. How this took them over four weeks, I’ll never understand. I guess 1 hour photo services have left me spoilt!  

Anyway, rant over. Here’s a couple photos of the photos (ha!) Graeme took, from the film that actually did get developed. For these photos, he used an Olympus Trip 35.

I currently also have a 120 and a 110 format film that I’ve just finished and needs developed, but something tells me I should probably find a different seeing as this place couldn’t even handle regular old 35mm film. Anyone happen to know of any decent places in the Stavanger area?

SCRABBLE TILE NECKLACE DIY

Scrabble. Probably my favourite game. I was at a party at a friend’s place when I met this girl who was wearing a scrabble tile necklace with the letter H. I think that's actually how we got talking, seeing as that's my first initial too. A while later one night I was perusing items on eBay, I came across a seller in China that was selling a pack of 100 wooden scrabble tiles for £1. Lightbulb! I quickly clicked buy and had they arrived in the post not long after.

This is how I made my scrabble tile necklace.

For this project, I used wooden scrabble tiles (obviously), an eye hook, wood glue, an awl, and a chain. You can buy chains in various craft shops, but I had a little trouble finding a chain in the right colour, so I ended up using one from an old necklace.  

Directions: Step 1: Use the awl to make a hole at the centre of the top of the tile. Step 2: Dab the eye hook in the wood glue, and screw it into the tile. Let it dry. Step 3: Attach chain. Done!

Seeing as I bought a pack of 100 scrabble tiles, I think I’ll be making one of these for all my friends… and then still be left with far more tiles than I need. Do you guys know any other projects I could potentially use my tiles for?

FEBRUARY ON INSTAGRAM

I know it's a couple days late, but I spent the weekend travelling so didn't get a chance to post my favourite Instagram shots from February earlier. But fear not, here they are! It's been another month full of sunshine and cold weather. Graeme came for a visit, and I had a weekend trip to the snowy mountains and did some skiing. It was also my birthday, hence the birthday cake. And as always, I took lots of pictures of skies. The last picture is me on my way to a dinner date with Graeme in Aberdeen. I flew there rather than Glasgow this time, so Graeme came and picked me up and I treated him to a meal as thanks. Hope you had a lovely February as well!