Happy Valentine's Day!

I am happy to share this lovely Treasury that I have been featured in on Etsy - A Parade of Hearts. This celebrates Valentine's Day and is curated by Barbara from BarbaraCrochetStudio. My mini canvas painting and easel,  "Textured Heart" is featured in the middle row on the right, above.

If you want to view the Treasury in full, click on this link and then you can click on any of the individual items to view them in detail: A Parade Of Hearts

Thanks again Barbara.

Home made sweets

I thought I would share some of my home-made sweets with you - not literally, unfortunately, since that would be rather difficult unless you lived nearby and popped in for a cuppa one day!

I made a selection of sweets for Christmas presents this year (2009 actually, so technically last year!) and gave them to my immediate family members in the cute little gift boxes pictured here. I bought the gift boxes flat-packed from Ebay and they are useful for anything that is difficult to wrap in the conventional way, so I will no doubt be going back for more soon!

I thought you might like to see the recipe for these tasty treats, too, so have included them here just in case.

The recipe for White Chocolate & Cranberry Fudge was taken from a free leaflet that came with the shopping one week from Tesco, and it was the first time I'd made it, but it was a huge success so I will be doing more throughout the year as birthday gifts for people.

White Chocolate & Cranberry Fudge

Ingredients:
350g (12oz) granulated sugar
25g (1oz) unsalted butter
175ml (6fl oz) can evaporated milk
100g (31/2oz) dried sweetened cranberries
300g (10oz) white chocolate, chopped.

Method:

• Cut a piece of baking parchment large enough to line a 1kg (2lb) loaf tin. (I used a rectangular shaped lasagne dish, which worked just as well!)
• Put the sugar, butter and evaporated milk in a large heavy based pan. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved completely.
• Bring to the boil, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. It is a good idea to set a timer for this.
• Immediately remove from the heat then add the cranberries and chocolate
• Allow the chocolate to melt (the smaller the pieces, the quicker it will melt) then quickly stir the mixture and pour straight into the tin/dish. It will thicken immediately.
• Spread into the tin/dish (I used a silicone spatula for this) and chill for an hour or so until firm. Cut into squares.
  

I then placed small squares of parchment paper in between layers of the fudge in these little boxes:



These would also make a lovely gift for your loved one on Valentine's Day! (or you could pretend they are for your loved one and help with the eating of them yourself!

Mini Art - latest works

I have been working on 4 new mini art works recently, all of which have been uploaded to my Etsy shop, but here's a snapshot of the latest one, along with the matching trinket box I have also decorated. They go well together but are listed separately in case anyone just fancies buying a miniature work of art on its own, or a trinket box as a gift.

This paritcular creation is called Celadonia.