Toadstool house...

I finally finshed !  It's been over a year in the making.  Ok,well it's spent most of that year sitting in the cupboard waiting in various stages to be completed.  But now it's here, and I'm so happy, I love it !

Want to take a peak under the roof ?

Isn't it sweet !

I bought the kit from here and it included everything you need to make this little Toadstool house.  Their website also has a video on wet felting for the roof too, which I watched a gazillion times before I had the courage to actually do it!  The roof was my first ever wet felted project, and I went in blind, except for the video.  Must say I was pretty pleased with the result!

Here's my little needle felted toadstool, just made this last night, my first attempt at felting a 3-D object , a bit tricky, but oh well.

And finally, some needle felting onto a piece of felt.  The fleece is included in the kit, but it's a 'design your own' thing. - Another reason why I took so long to do it - had no idea what to put on my design!  The bees and snail are my favourite.

I've decided to keep this for Ruby's birthday in June.  So next project will be to make some little people to live in the toadstool and make it a home !

Can't find any Autumn Leaves...

My friend lives in Canberra and recently put some photos up on facebook of her son playing in amongst the autumn leaves.  The colours are stunning.  I showed Ruby the pictures, but it's all a bit foreign to her.  Here I am trying to explain that it's Autumn, and in many places the leaves change into beautiful colours of yellow, orange, red, rust, brown and gold.  But, she just doesn't get it.   When she goes outside, all she sees is green, none of these other colours, and the trees aren't loosing their leaves !  She's probably wondering what on earth I'm talking about.  We've looked everywhere around here, and we can't find any autumn leaves anywhere.  So I've decided to make some and bring a bit of Autumn into our home.

I gathered some Autumn coloured wool fleece to make a wet felted mat...

and layed them out in 3 layers of blended colours on top of a piece of bubble wrap (bubble side up). 

The top and bottom layer were layed horizontally, the middle layer vertically. 

Next I put a piece of netting over my fleece and poured a bit of hot water into the middle. 

I then squeezed the water outwards, making sure every fibre of wool was wet, adding more water as needed, but not too much, and added a few drops of dish soap.

Then I gently patted the fleece down and rubbed it until I could see that the fleece was starting to felt.

I replaced the netting with another sheet of bubble wrap,  bubble side down this time!

Then I rubbed in circular motions all over the place...to get the felting process in motion.

Finally, I rolled the bubble wrap up in the towel, like sushi, and rolled back and forth, for ages, and ages, turning the felt piece by 90 degrees every 50 or so rolls. 

The felt will shrink in the direction you roll it, so you need to change the direction to keep your shape even. 

When you think you're done, keep rolling! and then keep rolling some more !!  Your felt should shrink and be about 1/3 the original size.

When you are done, rinse your felt out in cold water and leave it to dry!  This is the front...

and here's the back...I think I'll be able to cut some nice leaves out of this when it dries !

Creme Fraiche Pizza

My sister went to France a few years ago, and after dining in Strassbourg, up near the German border, she came back with this amazing pizza topping.  It was something I'd never heard of before but after we made it once, we were hooked !  Have you ever put creme fraiche on you pizza before? 

Well, after buying creme fraiche once, I was glad to find out you could make it at home, because it is pretty expensive !  And this pizza is so yummy, you know....so...

 1 Litre of Cream  +  1 Tablespoon of buttermilk = creme fraiche,

well almost.  Mix them together well in a jar.  Put the lid on, and  leave it on the bench for 24 hours.  Then put the jar in the fridge and leave it another 12-24 hrs and it will thicken up even more.  Delicious !  I love it on cake, or any dessert really, on pancakes, and yeah! on pizza !!

Here's the creme fraiche after 24hrs on the bench and another day in the fridge.  Beautiful !

And here's the pizza.

To make it, spread a good layer of creme fraiche over your pizza dough.  Then add a layer of very thinly sliced raw potato, and sprinkle over some diced bacon.  Cook it in the usual way and serve it with some fresh ground pepper and a nice green salad.