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Back to basics knitting fun

Scaft project is go!

Knitting is one of those things I’ve dabbled with on and off (mostly off), every time I have started a knitting project since being a kid, I have tried to get to complicated and ended up with a big mess and quit my project. I’m quite proud to say that this time I went back to basics and am going quite well… I did restart this scarf project about 5 times in the first day… but hey, I am a creature of perfection and it had been quite a while since I had done any knitting.

If you are thinking about starting some knitting I completely recommend grabbing yourself some really fat wool, fat sparkly knitting needles (glitter keeps me motivated) and learning the most basic knitting stitch there is “knit stitch”. This combination makes a beautiful soft and slightly bold texture, I also think it has a nice kind of crafty lady/home made look to it.

There are some lovely video links from this Meet me at Mikes blog post which inspired me and reminded me know to knit!

Tinting Lucas’ Papaw Ointment

I’m a lady of many lipgloss, but when it comes down to it there’s only one which really hit the spot – Lucas’ Pawpaw Ointment. I pretty much don’t go anywhere with out my red tube or tub of liquidish luxury. The only thing I’ve ever felt it lacked was just a little colour. I like to keep my look natural but of course I wouldn’t mind if my it appeared that my lips naturally had a little more colour…

In a moment of ingenious thought I decided I would attempt to dye it, hopefully resulting it it transforming into a wonderful tinted gloss.

Tinted gloss result

So I got a new tub of Lucas’ Pawpaw Ointment and rigged up a way to melt the ointment using a slightly dodgy steaming process. Oh yes, I balanced the tub on an egg flipper balanced over a small pot of lightly boiling water for about 10 mins continuously checking that the tub it’s self wasn’t melting and occasionally stirring with a wooden skewer.

Tinting gloss - step 1

Tinting gloss - step 2

Once the ointment was as liquidy as it would get, I added 10 generous drops of red food dye and mixed it in rapidly. I found it was quite splotchy, this is a result of using water based food colour with the oil/wax based ointment. To be honest I thought I had kind of failed at this point, but once it cooled and I tried it out, I found that the product actually gave my desired result. The ointment slightly tinted my lips and it didnt’ carry over the splotchyness.  However if I re-apply to often I have found that the dye becomes a little too strong for my liking. I guess this is because the dye isn’t fading out before I re-apply.

Tinting gloss - step 3

I would like to find a safe oil based dye and experiment with this again (hopefully with a smoother result) but in the meantime what I have created today will do me just fine.

This worked great for me, however I am making no recommendation as to if or how you do this at home… and I take no blame for incidents relating to egg flippers, wooden skewers or boiling water!

No egg flippers were harmmed in the making of this tinted gloss.

Pumpkin & feta tartlets

If you follow my recipes you would have noticed by now that I am quite fond of those which are ridiculously easy to prepare, with just 6 ingredients, this one is no exception.

My boyfriend (yes ladies, BOYFRIEND) threw these tartlets together on the weekend… I’m simply too impressed to not post them here.

Pumpkin & feta tartlets

Ingredients

Half a small to medium butternut pumpkin
120g feta cheese
2 eggs
100ml thickened cream
3 sheets of puff pastry
1 tblsp olive oil

Method

1. Cut butternut pumpkin and feta into small cubes. Roast pumpkin on baking paper covered baking tray drizzled with olive oil  in 180 degree celcius oven until brown (about 25mins).

2. Cut pastry into pieces and press into muffin trays to create tartlet bases – bake these in 180 degree celcius oven for about 10 minutes to brown.

3. Put 1 or 2 cubes of feta into each tartlet. Evenly distribute cut up pumpkin into the tartlets.

4. Whisk cream and eggs together, pour into tartlets.

5. Crumble remaining feta and sprinkle over tartlets.

6. Bake in 180 degree celcius oven until golden brown (15-20 minutes).

Pumpkin & feta tartlets - simple deliciousness~!

Since we’ve big on baking with puff pastry lately, that is going to be one of my next baking challenges, I must learn how to make it! In the meantime… packet puff it is!

DIY Lightbox for product photos

Being that I’m soon going to open an Etsy store for some of my hand crafted goods, I thought I best get myself a standard process for taking product photos. This will give my store and products a more professional appearance and in turn hopefully help me to sell more.

Here’s a little tutorial, I’ve tried to keep it as basic as possible.

You will need…

A cardboard box
White tissue paper
White paper
Stickytape
Scissors
2 light sources which could include, lamps or flashes (you will get much better results if the light sources are the same)

Step 1. Using your initiative & imagination use those materials to make a box that looks similar to the one in the photo below.

- leave the bottom of box in tact,
- cut one side out completely and;
- cut windows (1 or 2cm from the edge) in the other 3 sides which will then need to be covered with white tissue paper.

Lightbox in the making

Step 2. Setup your light sources on either side of the box as shown in the below photo, use white paper to setup under and behind the product you’ll be photographing.

Lightbox and product setup

Step 3. Start taking some photos! Experiment with your camera and the placement of your product in the box.

It would be a good idea to set your camera settings and white balance appropriately but that’s out of the scope of this tutorial. I used auto settings and it worked out quite well for me but I do plan to also experiment with camera settings and get myself a standard process for those too, I recommend you do the same thing.

Here’s my first homemade lightbox product photo… a Gocco printed Moleskin notebook which I’ve shown in some of my past blog posts.

Lightbox product photo number 1

Now that I know what I’m doing, I’m thinking I might even make a bigger less fragile lightbox soon and use 2 equal light sources for even better results. Good luck with making your own!