Never-fail (cakey) chocolate brownies

For all those times you need a simple, yummy something to take along to a party or you just need a whole lot of comfort food, this is a great recipe. It makes loads of brownies, so you may even have left-overs :)

The connection between food and memories comes into play big time for me with this one. I was lucky enough to have a lovely friend living 4 houses down the street from me as I grew up and this was out staple baking treat. Frances, this one's for you :)

Recipe:

1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cups cocoa
1 1/2 tsp bicarb
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup boiling water
chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 180°C

Sift dry ingredients, beat oil, egg, milk, vanilla essence and add to dry ingredients.
Add boiling water and mix well.
Pour (yes, it should look runny) into a greased baking tin (I use a pyrex dish about 30 x 20 cm) and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Icing:
50g butter
30ml cocoa
45ml milk
250g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter and milk
Sift in icing sugar and cocoa, add vanilla and mix well. If you have sugar lumps, just keep mixing.

Tip: When cutting, it can get a bit messy, so my trick is to place some old newspaper under the tray I'm cutting it on. That way you can just fold up the newspaper afterwards and chuck it in the bin.

Wooden pendant and charm necklace - vintage {tutorial}

In my free time, I often find myself trawling the internet for inspiration. Last holidays I stumbled upon scrabble pendants, using both resin and special hooks, none of which I could seem to find around Cape Town. (If you ever want to buy Trivial Pursuit, it is available in just about every charity shop, wooden scrabble pieces, on the other hand, are not!)

My Plan B turned out quite well and now that i do have some (plastic) scrabble pieces I can't decide which ones I prefer.

What you need:
Wood pieces (about 2x2cm) or scrabble tiles
Charms
Chain
3 rings
Pictures to size (or wrapping paper etc)
Wood glue (or something to seal the ink onto the paper-explained later)
Decoupage glue
Paint brush
Kebab stick
Sand paper
Scissors and pliers (optional)
1.5mm drill bit

After many trial and error attempts, I found that the decoupage glue was smudging the ink and causing it to go dull (weird i know!). So, to try and stop this I coated the front and back of each picture with a thin layer of wood glue, using the kebab stick.

While the glue is drying sand off the corners of the wood pieces (right) to give a rounded edge (left).

Cut out two pictures (for front and back) so that they match the size of the wood piece. Glue these down with wood glue. Once dry, coat the pendant thinly with decoupage glue. Do this about 3 times, allowing decoupage glue to dry in between coats.

Mark where you want your hole, about 2/3mm from the top of the pendant, and drill. The trickest step is trying to get the ring through the hole, without damaging the wood. Be careful and watch that the wood isn't getting damaged as you push the ring through.

Slip the chain through the ring. Add a ring to the charm and slip both ends of the chain though this ring. This should allow the charm to sit flat on the pendant (particularly important for a wide, flat charm such as this key). Alternatively, you can just connect the ring of the charm to the ring of the pendant (as below).

Now all you need to do is connect up the two ends of the chain with the third ring and you're done!
(If you do not want the chain to be as long then you may need to use a clasp to be able to get the necklace on and off.)

DIY corner monster bookmarks

- See this post on our new website -

These cute corner bookmarks are great to add to a present to give it an extra touch of uniqueness. (Sorry to any of my friends that may get one of these in their next gift, surprise ruined! :) )All that they require is some scrap paper/cardboard, scissors and some glue. Follow the instructions here.

You can give them as much character as you want, using different kinds of paper, eyes, teeth or any extra add ons that your imagination can dream up.

Past projects

For post number 1 I am just posting two previous projects that I have done. Maybe tutorials will come at a later stage :)

 

Simple, easy and super cheap to make. This is still the thing I wear, that by far gets me the most compliments.

 

Simple fabric bookcovers made with fabric that my mom has collected over many years. It is such an easy way to cover boring books or diaries and hey, you won't ever have an awkward "Oo, we have the same book" moment.

I am the kind of person who loves to use up things that I already have hanging around or find cheap things and make them into something pretty. (My paper file is filled with colour coded pieces of left over paper, which always come in handy.) It's a great money saver!