Make it Monday - Calum's Crochet Ripple Blanket

I mentioned in last week's Make it Monday post that Calum (11) has asked me to make him a blanket too.

 

He wants a stripy blanket so I showed him a granny stripe or a ripple stripe to see which one he preferred.

 

He chose the ripple and I'm using the ripple pattern from Attic 24, which you can find here.

 

He also chose the colours himself: a turquoise blue, a lighter blue and an apple green. It's also going to have the occasional cream stripe in there.

 

 

 

He was very concerned that it should be long enough to have a good overhang on his bed and so when I was doing the foundation chain he kept asking me to make it a bit bigger. And a bit more!

 

Fraser is helping give the scale in the photo below and even though the blanket isn't lying flat, you can see that it will certainly be nice and wide for him.

 

 

 

The Attic 24 pattern is really easy to follow, with lots of clear pictures for those who are more visual learners.

 

 

Sticking with Calum, here's another make.

 

His class had organised a Bake Sale at school last week and this was his contribution.

 

 

 

 

 

Rainbow cupcakes. Made entirely by himself.

 

 

 

 

 

James (14) was calling them 'play dough cupcakes' but that didn't stop him from wolfing down the ones that Calum left at home!

 

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Recipe of the Week - Chinese Style Lemon Chicken {Gluten free & Dairy free}

 

I've been meaning to share this recipe for weeks now as I was so excited when I discovered how to make this fabulous gluten free batter. In fact, since first making this dish I have been on the lookout for other things to cover in batter and deep fry. Yes, I know that sounds very like I'm falling into the stereotyped Scot deep frying Mars bars. Don't worry, I haven't gone that far! I have, however, made some rather lovely onion rings using the following batter recipe. But more of that in another post, as I fear I am digressing too much and still not getting round to this recipe!

 

I first tried out this dish the weekend of Chinese New Year, when I thought it would be fun to have our own wee Chinese style banquet. Chinese takeaways aren't much of an option with all the allergies in our house, and this homemade version also has the benefit of being much, much cheaper!

 

Oh, it was so delicious!

 

There are three bits to this - the marinade, the batter and the sauce - but don't let that put you off as they are all really straightforward.

Firstly the marinade:

Mix

1tbsp sherry

1tbsp wheat free soy sauce

Juice of 1 lemon

And then add about

2lbs chicken breast, chopped,

Leave to marinate for about 20 minutes. You can just leave it to marinade while you get on with mixing everything else together.

 

Now for the batter:

 

Whisk together

2 eggs

6 tablespoons of cornflour

 

And finally the sauce:

 

Mix together

5 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp cornflour

Juice of half a lemon

One lemon, sliced

100ml hot water

 

Now to put all the bits together.

- In a pan with a lid (I use our wok for this) heat up enough vegetable oil to deep fry your chicken pieces. Or you could use a deep drier if you have one.

- Lift your chicken pieces out of the marinade and cost in the batter then deep fry them in very hot oil until they are a golden colour. You will need to turn them to get the colour on both sides. It's also best to cook them in batches rather than trying to tip the whole lot in at once!

- Tip the cooked chicken pieces into a dish lined with kitchen towel to soak up some of the excess fat!

- While you are batch frying the chicken, in another pan pour in your sauce ingredients and gently heat up.

- Once all of your chicken is cooked, pour the sauce over the top. You could serve it up straight away but if you pop it in a moderate oven for about 10-15 minutes the sauce kind of soaks into the chicken and gives it even more flavour.

- Serve with fried rice and prawn crackers.

 

To make our fried rice I cooked our usual amount of rice. While it was draining I fried a chopped onion, added a few handfuls of frozen peas ( if you have no egg allergies you could also crack in an egg or two at this point) then tipped in the cooked rice. Add a few shakes of your gluten free soy sauce and mix it all together well.

 

Et voila! or whatever the Manderin equivalent is.

 

 

 

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Everything for Eczema

Sweet little Fraser has been continuing with his struggle with eczema.

 

Some days it is worse than others, for no apparent reason.

 

 

Despite how sore his skin is, his little personality remains as content and patient as ever.

 

 

 

 

 

Since the start of the year he has been seen weekly by dermatology while they try and get his eczema under control. Every time we go to the hospital he is full of smiles for the nurses and doctors. In fact, wherever we go he is full of smiles for people!

 

One of the most important things that helps him just now, apart from his creams and ointments, are little mitts. When the eczema itch starts it's hard enough to tell someone old enough to understand that they shouldn't scratch! The itchiness of eczema is such that no matter how much you scratch it, the itch doesn't go away. And the scratching just goes on and on until the skin bleeds. Then the risk of infection is greater, which makes the itch worse and it's just one big vicious circle.

 

Over our years of living with eczema we have tried out quite a few products. Recently I discovered the website Everything For Eczema. As well as selling lots of innovative products for those living with eczema they also have a blog with information, tips and links to help you out. It was set up by a mum of a little one with eczema and many of the products have also been developed by parents of children with eczema.

 

When James (14) was small I used to sew mitts onto his sleep suits to stop them falling off at night or him pulling them off. But it's not just at bed time that they are useful, especially on a baby. And I don't want to keep mitts on Fraser all day long as he loves to chew on his fingers and thumb.

 

 

 

 

I was offered the chance to try out these little mitts from Everything for Eczema called Guava Mitts.

 

 

They have little Velcro straps to help keep them from slipping off or being pulled off. The Velcro is a soft Velcro and so if it opens accidentally your wee one can't use it as an extra thing to scratch with! The mitts are made from a mix of bamboo and cotton, so no nasty fabrics involved, and have bright colourful patterns on them. The patterned bits also flip over to a different pattern if you fancy a change too.

 

I've been using these on Fraser for a couple of months now and find them very useful. I keep a pair in the nappy bag if we are going out anywhere and then if he gets itchy I pop them on him. They are also extremely handy for night time when he is wearing sleep suits that don't have fold over mitts on them.

 

I did find that the Velcro lost a bit of its stickiness but that was because it had gathered a few bits and pieces of fluff in it from the washing machine and tumble drier, and once I had cleaned the fluff out they were back to sticking together nicely again.

 

We were also sent some lovely Chickweed & Calendula Cream to try out.

 

It's made with all natural ingredients and, unlike so many of these sorts of creams that I've found in the past, it doesn't contain Almond Oil as it's base oil, which is great in our nut allergy house.

 

Alasdair (4) has really enjoyed putting this cream on his hands. He likes the smell of it and likes to put it on all by himself.

 

The cream is non greasy, absorbed really well into the skin and has a lovely subtle smell. Alasdair says that it doesn't sting his cuts and he likes the fact that it doesn't leave his hands all slimy like his other creams do! I like the fact that he will put it on himself (he's really not a fan of putting cream on throughout the day) and that it is made of such pure ingredients.

 

I've yet to persuade the older eczema boys to try it out. The though of a flowery cream seems to have put them off a bit but I'll persuade them yet. Or if I don't, then Alasdair will!

 

If you are living with eczema, especially if you have a child with it, then I highly recommend popping over to Everything for Eczema and having a look around. Once you start reading the information stories you might find yourself staying there for longer than planned, like I did! They have more for children than adults at the moment but are hoping to add to their range in the future.

 

And very appropriately for this post, I've written most of it with one hand, holding Fraser with the other arm as he rests up on my shoulder and rubbing his itchy face/head with my other hand.

 

 

 

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Make it Monday - Crochet Memory Blanket Update

Time for a rather long overdue update on how my year-long crochet blanket project is coming along.

 

I'm really pleased with how the colours are looking together and how the randomness isn't too random! All the blankets I've made before have been strictly ordered in both colours and patterns, so I was a little bit worried at first if I would like the randomness of this project. Now I'm not worried at all and love the way the colour pallet I've chosen works together.

 

 

 

Now to explain the special squares so far.

 

Here is a closer look at the left hand sight of the blanket.

 

Middle row, far right, is the African flower square I made for my granny's 90th birthday. All female birthdays are going to be marked by this square but not necessarily in the same colours.

 

Diagonally down to the left of that is the multi-blue square for Fraser's baptism. Any special days for the boys, other than birthdays, will be marked by this same multi-blue square.

 

Then on the bottom row, the square with the purple circles is to mark the day my aunt passed away.

 

 

 

 

Now here is the right hand side so far.

 

On the top row there are 3 grey squares followed by two multi squares with grey centres. These are for the week that Fraser had a touch of bronchiolitis at the start of the year. The multi squares are the days he started to improve.

 

The second last square on the top row is based on Captain America's shield and is for our huge Marvel fan James' 14th birthday.

 

In the middle row, two along from the flower square, is another multi-blue square to mark Alasdair's first morning back at nursery since Fraser was born (he only goes two mornings a week).

 

And the light green square was to mark a day a couple of weeks ago that felt almost like Spring.

 

 

 

 

I'm currently 7 days behind but hope to catch up this week and then begin crocheting what I've done so far together. I did a few squares today to fill in the gaps in the top photo. Now just imagine there are another 7 squares after that green one at the bottom!

 

 

It's such a fun project!

 

It's not actually the only blanket project I have on the go though. Calum (11) has asked me to make him a stripey blanket so I have that on the go too. I've told him that he needs to wait till next winter for it to be finished and he's happy with that, but more about his blanket next week.

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A whirlwind 48 hours.

Late on Sunday night we heard the sad news that my Aunt, my dad's sister, had passed away. She had been quite unwell for a couple of weeks so it wasn't entirely unexpected.

 

She was a lovely person, rarely seen without a big smile on her face, despite the difficulties she faced with a lifelong physical disability. Her mobility had become worse over the years and the last time we saw her, when we were home last summer, she wasn't able to talk to us either. She didn't need to talk though, as the way that her face lit up when she saw the boys said enough.

 

 

 

 

Island funerals take place a lot sooner after the death than they do on the mainland and on Monday morning we were told that the funeral would take place on Tuesday afternoon.

 

My brother and I were both keen to attend the funeral. Flying home would have been the simplest option to get there on time but was out of the question as at such short notice the flights cost £390! Our only other option was to leave here at 5am on Tuesday morning so that we could catch the 10.30am ferry. The sailing takes 3 and a bit hours and so when we arrived we would have to drive straight to the funeral.

 

So, at about 4.45am on Tuesday morning my brother called round to pick up me and the two youngest boys. The other boys were more than a little jealous that they weren't getting to go to Granny & Shen's too but were reassured that we were only going for one night. Besides next month we are all planning to go up again for a proper holiday.

 

Everything seemed to be going to plan. Fraser and Alasdair were both asleep in the car, the roads were fairly free of traffic, and then about 2 hours into our journey...

 

The lorries in front of us did a good job of clearing tracks in the snow but they got slower and slower until eventually they got stuck. We waited for what seemed like forever until the snow plough came past and cleared the road. By the time we were moving again we were sure we wouldn't make the ferry.

 

And yet we did! We arrived at the terminal about 20 minutes before the boat was due to leave.

 

 

 

As planned we drove straight to the church and met the rest of the family there. The church was absolutely packed and the singing was amazing!

 

After an island funeral service the men line up on the road outside the church. They then march through the village, taking it in turns to carry the coffin, while the women all stand together and watch. Some might think that it's a bit of an outdated tradition but I think it's a lovely one and I'm glad it's still done. Another tradition is that the women don't go to the graveside but nowadays some women do.

 

After the funeral the family gathered for tea and sandwiches at a local hotel. Although the reason for us all getting together was a sad one, it was lovely to meet up with all of my cousins again. I don't know the last time we were all together before this and we took the chance to get this photo of us all.

 

Three of us had babies, all boys, within three months of each other last year.

 

On our way to my parents' house we quickly popped in to visit my granny (my mum's mum) so that she could meet her latest great grandson, her 10th great grandchild. He charmed her with his smiles for her and his lovely nature!

 

Then, after a rather long day, we were finally able to relax back home at my mum and dad's! Alasdair (4) enjoyed having granny and Shen to himself.

 

The following morning I woke to hear the wind howling. Not good with a ferry journey planned!

We kept checking with the ferry office who assured us the ferry was still running. At lunchtime we said our goodbyes and headed off to check in at the ferry. 20 minutes after we checked in we were told the ferry was cancelled! This meant that we had to drive to the south of the island to catch the ferry that runs from there. The sea there is a bit more sheltered and so it was still running. We don't normally go that way though because even though the ferry journey is shorter and the sea a little calmer, it means having to drive for nearly an hour on the island and the drive on the mainland is MUCH longer and on much worse roads than if we go on our usual ferry.

 

Despite the more sheltered sea it was still a fairly rough crossing. I was glad the other ferry hadn't tried to sail! We were sitting on the top level of the ship and some of the waves were being blown right over the windows. It was like being in a car wash and Alasdair found it hilarious!

 

After the long drive we arrived home a little before midnight, less than 48 hours after we left. I was glad that I wasn't doing the driving!

 

I'm linking this post up with Meghan's 'Things I'm loving' because these posts are all about things we are thankful for. And this week I am thankful for my extended family. I have such happy memories of summers spent with my cousins, popping in and out of our granny's kitchen all the time, playing down on the beach, sleeping out in tents on the croft (apart from the time the boys unzipped the girls' tent in the middle of the night and it filled with midges!), bringing the peats home in our Shen's tractor.....

 

It makes me sad to hear of families who can barely talk to each other and makes me all the more thankful for ours.

 

 

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Hacked off!

Apologies to anyone who visited the blog a few nights ago, Tuesday night I think, and thought I had vanished offline!

 

It wasn't anything planned by me!

 

It began last week when I received an email receipt from Google Play that was entirely in Japanese. I phoned google to discover that my account had been hacked and that someone had spent £17 on apps in Japanese Yen. They spotted the mistake as soon as I pointed it out and are in the process of refunding me. In this technical age though, can't there be a way that flags up the fact that I am in the UK and have never in the time I have had this google account travelled abroad, and that someone logging in from Japan should be a little unusual? Just a thought.

 

Anyway, I reset my password and set up two step sign in, which means that if I sign in on a new device I need a second code that is messaged by SMS to my mobile phone.

 

Then came Tuesday morning when a friend messaged me on Facebook to ask where my blog had gone! I was unable to sign in to my google as they had suspended my account because of suspicious attempts to sign in elsewhere. So, I had to prove I was me, add another new password and thought a bit more seriously about where the problem lay. (Thankfully my blog reappeared once my account was reinstated.)

 

In recent months I have barely used our PC as it was so slow but a couple of weeks ago we had it sorted and it's running much better. I had been on it to check my emails a couple of times in those couple of weeks. It struck me that perhaps there was a virus on it as our antiviral was long out of date. I checked with my techy brother what would be the best free software to use, downloaded it, ran a scan and sure enough there were a couple of bugs. I think something must have sneaked on with some games one of the boys downloaded.

 

So, I'm more than a little hacked off with hackers! I have enough things to try and remember in this baby fogged brain of mine without having to keep changing my passwords around!

 

Moral of the story is, keep your antiviral software up to date, keep an eye on your account usage (I'm checking my google stats daily at the moment!) and back up your blog!!

 

Also, just in case things still aren't sorted and my blog seems to disappear again (I have no intention of taking my blog offline anytime soon) then I do have a Facebook page where I post updates even when I haven't got time to put out a full blog post. You can come on over and say 'hi' here.

 

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A family filled weekend

We had a busy weekend. Busy and filled with family celebrations.

 

It kicked off on Friday, Valentines Day, and also my youngest brother's17th birthday. He came down to visit for the weekend, as did my mum and dad, and so we all celebrated his birthday at my other brother's house on Friday evening.

 

Calum (11) baked him a cake and then James (14) helped him to decorate it. My brother is a big footballer and plays for his local team so the boys made a cake in the colours of his team with his nickname on the back.

 

 

 

 

I had bought some cake fountains to put on the cake instead of candles. I didn't realise they would burn quite so high! They provided some entertainment for all the boys and their cousins though. As well as setting off the smoke alarm!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner the boys and their cousins had some xbox fun with their uncle.

 

 

 

 

My dad took this photo of me and little Fraser after dinner.

 

 

 

Then on Sunday it was Fraser's baptism.

 

It was quite the family afair as my dad took the service and did the baptism. My father in law was involved by leading one of the prayers and my older younger brother led the singing.

 

After the service we had organised for both of our families to have lunch together in the church hall.

 

It was a combined effort on the food front too. My mum, brother's wife, hubby's sister, mother in law and myself all brought different things along.

 

 

Some of the boys helped set the tables...

 

 

My brother, who has a weekend job in a restaurant, tried to teach my mum how they do the napkins where he works....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you noticed there isn't a girl in sight?!

 

 

 

 

 

My dad entertained Fraser while I finished off my food...

 

 

 

 

...which was some lovely Hebridean salmon and salad.

 

 

Pudding saw a return of the Coca Cola Cake, made by Calum; Banoffee Pie, made by James; and the lovely chocolate meringue stack made by my sister in law.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we had cleared up after our food we took the chance to get some family photos. Fraser was changed back into his baptism gown for them, which has been worn at each baptism since my youngest brother's.

 

Firstly with my husband's parents and sister.

 

 

 

Then with my parents, two brothers, sister in law and nephews.

 

 

 

 

And finally with both of our families together.

 

 

Family filled and fun filled.

 

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Make it Monday - Star Wars Cross Stitch

 

Short and sweet post tonight so that I can actually get a Make it Monday post out on a Monday!

 

For my latest craft I decided to embrace the geekiness that fills our house.

Especially the love of Star Wars.

 

It's also not a crochet project!

 

My first crafting love was actually cross stitch. When I was in high school one of the highlights of the week was going to the Cross Stitch club that our lovely Home Ecconomics teacher ran.

 

It's been ages since I last did a cross stitch project though, and I'd forgotten how long it takes! Crochet works up so much quicker and is also easier to do with a sleeping baby in your arms.

 

It was a fun wee project to do but I think I'll stick to crochet for now. Until the days when I have a little more spare time on my hands!

 

 

Whenever Alasdair wants to play Star Wars he pretends that I am Leah and daddy is Hans Solo so it seemed an appropriate craft!

 

If you want to join in the geekiness then you can find this cute pattern, as well as plenty others, on the Geeky Stitches Etsy store here.

 

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Make it {not on a Monday} - Crochet Minion Hat

I was too busy finishing off my minion army to post this last night!

Alasdair (4) has been asking for a minion hat for quite a while now so I made him one last week. Then when David (8) saw the finished product he said that he would like one too.

I didn't use a pattern for these as I have made enough hats in the past to know the basic shape. One day when I have a little more spare time (!) I will sit down and write up this one to share. If you can't wait until then though there are plenty different ones available online if you do a quick google search.

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Recipe of the Week - Chocolate Coca Cola Cake {gluten & dairy free}

I've seen a few different recipes for Chocolate Coca Cola Cakes online, as well as in one of Nigella's books, and have wanted to try making one for some time now. I've never got round to making one before as the only time I buy coke is when I am planning to make ham in coca cola!

 

This week I had ham in coke on the menu and made sure I bought a bottle big enough to have enough left to try out the cake. I made a few changes to the recipes I had read online and of course made it gluten and dairy free.

 

The resulting cake was absolutely delicious. In fact, delicious isn't even a good enough word to describe it!

 

You can't taste the Coca Cola but it just gives it a very subtly caramel flavour and helps to keep the cake lovely and moist too.

 

We had the cake while it was still a little warm for pudding (after our ham in coke!) and then polished off the rest of it for supper the next night. I can't recommend it highly enough!

 

 

For the cake you will need:

 

8oz gluten free self raising flour

8oz sugar

8oz dairy free margarine

3 tbsp cocoa powder

250ml (8fl oz) Coca Cola

125ml (4fl oz) soya milk

2 eggs

 

 

- Mix the flour and sugar together in a bowl.

- Put the margarine, cocoa and Coca Cola in a pan and melt it all together.

- Beat the eggs in with the soya milk.

- Add the melted margarine/cocoa/coke mixture to the flour/sugar mix, then add the eggs/milk and whisk everything together until smooth. You will have a mixture that looks more like pancake batter than a traditional cake mix so don't worry!

- Add to a greased and lined baking tin (I used our square brownie tin, and should really have measured it to help you with this, but it's just an average sized brownie tin!)

- Bake at 180C for around 45 minutes.

 

Now for the icing, which is my new favourite chocolate cake icing. I did a good job of scraping the pan clean after making this one!

 

You will need:

 

4oz dairy free margarine

3tbsp cocoa powder

6 tbsp Coca Cola

16oz icing sugar

 

- Melt the margarine, cocoa powder and coke in a pan.

- Add the icing sugar and beat with a wooden spoon until you have a smooth icing.

- Pour over your cooled cake while the cake is still in the tin. I actually didn't let the cake cool that much - we were too eager to eat it - and it didn't seem to do it any harm!

- Let the icing set a little before slicing up your cake. Feel free to sample the icing you have left round the sides of the pan while you wait.

 

 

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