Things handmade

I have so much to write about but my head is bursting with all of it. I think I'm going to tame it down and just give some more pics of what I've been up to with brief captions. I decided to make all of my Christmas gifts by hand this year and so my month of November will be a very busy one.

Starting with this wonderful bag I made from Bend-the-Rules Sewing. The Pleated Beauty Bag. I whipped this up in a couple of hours and I just LOVE it! Too bad I'm giving it away.

I must admit I did make one for myself but it's my diaper bag for now. I will make a more toned down one just for myself at a later date. Don't mind the fluff, Ayla's blanket was resting on it today before I took the pic and I was too lazy to pick it all off. =)

I've a whole list of things that I'm making for everyone from that book including some knitting that I must get started on pronto if I'm ever going to finish! I still have yet to complete my scarf but I just bought yarn to make mittens to go along with it since I was shown how to knit with 4 needles! My coworker and I are going yarn shopping next weekend hopefully to buy some more stuff for my gifts. I can't wait.

My next update will include some softies! I'm making the Olive doll by Hillary from Wee Wonderfuls for my nieces for Christmas. I've had my eye on that doll for a long time. I wanted to make it for Ayla and I will but first things first. I decided not to make Archie because they're twins and would probably fight over who has Olive and who has Archie. I don't want to cause any problems so two Olives it is. I'll also be attempting to make them the two quilts using the Lap Quilt pattern from Bend-the-Rules Sewing, we'll see how that works out. Fabricland got a lot of business from me this weekend with all the fabrics and notions I ended up buying for all of this. But so far so good so I'm not complaining!

On to food! I've still been cooking up many things and my cookbook also arrived in the mail! It's a nice thick hardcover book that I can't wait to dive into. I've only made one thing from it so far. I like to read my cookbooks cover to cover before I make anything in them. Yes I know... But I get so into the little stories behind each recipe and it makes me feel like I know the author or authors just a little bit better.

So I went to a Home & Gift party on friday at my coworker's house and I brought these chocolate cupcakes. They were a real hit and the frosting is made with tofu. Recipe for the frosting came from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I used the Fauxstess recipe again from VwaV for the cupcakes, subbing applesauce instead of oil.

I also made the Sunny Blueberry Corn Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance. They're so yummy! I'm trying to tone down on eating all these great desserts so I only have them for breakfast. I also realized that my baking powder is losing it's effectiveness on seeing how little these rose so I bought some more today. Hopefully I'll have fuller muffins next time.

I tried the Black bean, Quinoa and Mushroom Stuffed Peppers from VwaV. I couldn't put mushrooms in there so I just upped the quinoa. It was the best stuffed peppers I've ever had! Not that I've eaten many stuffed peppers. I thought I wouldn't like it because I'm not too fond of bell peppers but it was great. I had it with steamed jasmine rice.

I also made a variation of a recipe from Veganomicon, the Spicy Marinated Tempeh except I used tofu and the Spicy Cajun Fries from VwaV except I used sweet potatoes. With a side of steamed green peas. I thought it turned out really well. I must confess I'm getting addicted to those little peas I've had them with many meals this week.

Since I'm on a chocolate binge I've decided to also make truffles this year to include with some of my gifts. But I'll most likely only be making those once I get to Montreal so maybe there won't be any pics.