köttbullar

Being in Stockholm and often hearing the locals rave about them, we just had to try it for ourselves - köttbullar (Swedish meatballs) topped with lingon berry jam at the Ikea restaurant. Very tasty. Almost AUD 60 cents per meatball. It's worth it. You can also buy meatballs, such as those by SCAN, at the supermarkets. It is a staple food like bread, eggs and milk.

My first Etsy feature

I saw a whole lot of new hearts to my Etsy shop today, wondering why, I went to craft cult's heart-o-matic, perhaps I was in a treasury.

How exciting to find out my Emerald and Jet Trinity earrings had been selected by marymary to be in this weekends' Etsy Deals Guift Guide, and on page 1 too! Thank you!

Vanilla sugar cookies - yum!

Pulling out what I had in my fridge and pantry... and taking inspiration from this Easy Sugar Cookies recipe this is what I used (without measuring utensils):

11 tablespoons of plain flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons of white sugar
block of butter, about 3cm x 5cm x 2cm (1 1/5 x 2 x 4/5 inches)
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C (375 degrees F).

Cream the butter and sugar until smooth, I use a tablespoon to squash the butter against the sugar, squash squash squash until both are well blended together so you can't see one for the other. Then over this, crack the egg and mix all together.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and sugar. Into this put a few tablespoons of the butter/sugar/egg mixture, and mix. Gradually adding and blending all together.

Flour your tabletop or surface and roll out your dough to about 6mm (1/4 inch). Sprinkled a generous amount of vanilla sugar onto the top of your dough and pat down.

Slice up the dough to your desired cookie size (or use cookie cutters).

Line a baking tray with baking sheets (alternatively you can grease your tray, I like the convenience and cleanliness of baking sheets). Place your cut cookies on top of the baking sheets.

Bake for about 10mins, or until golden brown if you prefer.

Let the hot cookies stand on a wire rack to cool for at least 2 minutes. You must resist, it will be worth it.

These are sweet, soft and crumbly. Very very delicious.

Tweet Tweet

I started making these little amigurumi birds for fun and to hang around our house for that extra dash of colour. I received lots of positive comments from friends and family, 'so cute!' they would say.

Then, on twitter I stumbled upon this competition hosted by moonfruit (a site where you can build your own website for free). I customized a bird to replicate moonfruit's mascot. And, wouldn't you know it, I won a creative prize - an iPod Touch, 2nd generation too!

And another hooray, I received an order for 15 today - mixed colours!

I'm happy others enjoy my lil tweets as much as I enjoy making them. Let me know if you would like one too :) They are also available in my shop.

Beautiful morning walk

It was a beautiful sunny day for our morning walk today. Here's an example of the stunning architecture in Stockholm - at the corner of Hantverkargatan & Scheelegatan (Kungsholmstorg) in Kungsholmen. Just a 5 minute walk from our city apartment.

What I did with Swarovski cubed crystals

Into my Etsy shop today, I listed this old favourite design of mine. I feature 4mm (1/7 inch) cubed Swarovski crystals on the ends of various lengths of silver plated chain, to create a waterfall that is feminine and modern.

I think the single light rose cube adds just the right touch of colour to the jet blacks. What do you think?