Makes!

The new Makes section of Folksy has launched, and we are very excited to be one of the first 'makes' on the site.

Find out how we engraved and printed our little Edgefield print here... And have a look at the other splendid 'makes' from other Folksy sellers too!

Today we have made a rather large batch of teacakes using one of Dan Lepard's recipes, and we'll be spending the rest of the day toasting them on the fire and reading the papers!

Teacakes:
600g strong white flour
125ml warm water
5 tsp or 2 x 7g sachets of quick yeast
150ml milk
75g caster sugar
50g white chocolate or dripping
300g mixed dried fruit
25g golden syrup
3 eggs
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger

1. Mix the yeast with the water and a tablespoon of the flour. Set aside.

2. Heat the milk until it is almost boiling, then take it off the heat and add the sugar, syrup, white chocolate/dripping and the fruit.

3. Beat the eggs and add to the yeast mixture.

4. Sift the flour and spices into a large bowl and then add the milk and yeast mixes. Beat together until it is all thoroughly mixed.

5. Cover the bowl and leave in a warm place for an hour or until the dough has doubled in size. You can knead it if you fancy but we've found it makes no difference to the final buns.

6. Divide the mixture into 14 teacakes. Shape them by stretching the dough and tucking it in underneath itself so you get a neat round ball of dough.

7. Place the teacakes on baking trays covered with baking parchment.

8. Leave in a warm place for 1hr 30 mins. Preheat the oven to 200C.

9. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden on top but still slightly soft.

10. Eat far too many of them, split, toasted and slathered in butter. Yum.

Another treasury!

I managed to snag another Etsy treasury this afternoon... They are so much fun to make!


Click here to have a proper look at lots of lovely prints from members of the Printsy street team!

Memorandum

We usually write notes to each other on bits of scrap paper, but we recently picked up this lovely little 'memorandum' block - the perfect excuse to letterpress some nice cards to write lists and notes on!

Although only special notes - they're too nice for something like 'Jon - remember to put the wheelie bin out!'.
On Sunday we printed loads in pretty blue, purple, a lovely sagey-green and our old favourite, hot pink! Tonight I'm going to sit and package them up ready to take to Clutter City on Saturday - the days seem to be slipping away and I still have a list of things that need to be done before then...

Right, we had better think about making a start on our tea - pumpkin tagine tonight!

Finished holly leaves

This weekend we finished a pile of holly decorations ready to take to Clutter City next weekend. Here they are at various stages -

And here they are finished! We're saving most of them to take to Clutter City, but we have listed a pair in our Folksy shop too...

As well as making holly leaves we've also been adding to our pile of concertina books too. They look so pretty, and we're really pleased with how they have turned out. They're very relaxing and therapeutic to make too - must be all that paper folding. This photo is rather dark (it is a very grey day today), and the colours are much more sparkly and vibrant in person.

This afternoon we are going to letterpress some new Christmas cards, as well as baking a cake and lighting a fire!

Ahoy there!

Today, after sitting and staring at the computer screen for rather a long time, I finally managed to bag my first Etsy treasury! Hurrah! So, here is it - all members of Printsy: Printmakers of Etsy street team.

Treasuries are member curated lists of lovely things, and this one is all about prints inspired by the high seas.

Jump aboard the HMS Printsy here...

Christmas Decorations

Today we have been experimenting with printed Christmas decorations and this is the most successful one. Two holly leaves printed with green ink, sewn together with little red buttons and some red ribbon for hanging.

The design needs a little work, and we need more red buttons and thinner red ribbon - I feel a crafty trip into Norwich for supplies coming on...

Birthday Cups and Saucers

It was my birthday this week, and Jon bought me these adorable little mugs which he knows I have wanted for ages! They are by Alice Garland, and he bought them in Verandah, which is a lovely little shop in Norwich, and now there is one in Holt too.

Actually, Verandah is one of the buildings in the engraving Jon did of Upper St Giles Street - its the shop on the far right of this detail... I'm not sure that'll be much help if you're ever in Norwich, but it is worth a visit!

This week I went to the British Library to do some research. Even though I got there before it opened there was still a long queue waiting to get in, but the library is so vast it swallowed them all up and seemed really empty. It was a very dull day, and it does look a bit monolithic from the outside, but inside is very swish!

I enjoyed looking round the exhibitions - Taking Liberties and the permanent display of the Treasures of the British Library. I kept squealing out loud when I saw interesting things, like the Gutenberg Bible and Jane Austen's manuscript of Persuasion - go and have a look if you're in London, it's free! And there's a nice shop and cafe (always important).

Anyway, here are some lovely ornamental cabbages. I love the colours, and the patterns on the leaves, and I've been plotting how to turn them into a print...

Weekend treats and a little book

This week we had our first fire of this winter! It was lovely and toasty on a cold autumnal day, especially when combined with another weekend treat - Chelsea buns! These are from a recipe in Dan Lepard's book, The Handmade Loaf, which is brilliant. This week we also made cucumber pickle rye bread, with the pickle juice from an empty jar of gherkins - also very nice, although perhaps not quite as good as Chelsea buns...


In a few weeks it will be time for another Clutter City market, so I'm attempting to be organised and make some new prints and other things a few weeks in advance. Here is the first new thing - a little concertina book with lovely covers made from Japanese origami paper. Here it is all folded up -


And unfolded...


I'm so pleased with how it turned out, although the gold colours on the paper is really difficult to capture in a photograph - expect to see a large pile of them on our stall at Clutter City!