my first time

Last night I finally bit the bullet and made Croquetas.

It wasn't as difficult as I'd imagined, even though I made the bechamel a little too runny and the majority of them ended up looking like chicken nuggets.
At least now I think I understand the concept and feel confident to try them again.

I used recipe number 66 from 1080 recetas de cocina (I think this is like the Spanish equivalent to Stephanie Alexander's The Cooks Companion).
I have also seen it around in english with very cool illustrations.

To half the batch I added blue cheese and the other bacon (I know, sacrilege!!).
The finished result was very yummy (especially the ones with the blue cheese), if a little too bready (as in too many bread crumbs on the outside).
Mari Carmen's tip for this is to use some flour, as in dunk them in flour then egg then bread crumbs (this is when your making the bechamel into little balls). Instead of dunking in bread crumbs then egg then back in bread crumbs like the recipe says.

One of my 2010 new years resolution will be to cook more from this book.

yum.

Snowing

This morning we woke up to snow.
I can't get used to it snowing outside of my window, I still get so excited!

These sparrows were playing in the fig tree in the courtyard next to one little confused fruit.

Screen Printing

Yesterday I printed some more t'shirts with the Loggerhead turtle.

As I've been using a paper stencil I had to cut out another one, as each time I wash the screen the stencil is ruined.
Luckily in the end cutting a stencil never takes as long as I think.

The dye worked out really well ... a great yellow and really even.

I also finished off these two beaded brooches.

yellow

A new brooch ready to be beaded with small brass beads.

T'shirts in the pot being dyed yellow for more Logger head turtle prints.

The yellow centre of my first crochet rug .... I'm still working through the blue.

Brooches from a Japanese Craft Book

I've neglected my blog completely this week.
After the long weekend (last weekend) the week has flown by and now I can't believe it's friday again!

This morning I finished these two crochet brooches.
The patterns are from my new crochet book called Marche Special Crochet Goods (from here) and like all of the Japanese Craft Books it's full of great ideas and gorgeous photos!

The text is of course in Japanese, which I can't read : ( , but the patterns and stitches are described very clearly through diagrams and photos.

on a t'shirt

This is the final print on one of Alvaro's old t'shirts.

I've been a bit unsure about using paper stencils for screen printing as you obviously can't get the same detail as with photo emulsion.
One day I'd love to start doing photo emulsion again! I've seen some blogs describing how to set it up in your home studio (like this one), but you still have to buy all the bits and pieces.
I'm still too crazy about crochet to commit to something new : ) also I'm really happy with the end result of the paper stencil!

The blue dye turned out uneven ... like water.

on my desk

On my desk at the moment are little boxes waiting to be finished and tiny screen printed elephants, for which I have two projects in mind.

I printed the Loggerhead turtle this afternoon and it worked really well!
There wasn't enough light left to take photos so I'll have to show you tomorrow : )

Loggerhead Turtle

This morning I cut out this paper stencil ready for screen printing
(tomorrow I hope!)

It's of a Loggerhead Turtle, which is a beautiful big sea turtle now classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of nature.

When I was younger I found one washed up on Caves Beach in Newcastle
... well I think it was one as it was a very strange place to see it!
Even though it was dead, it was amazingly beautiful and huge!
There was no way I could have moved it alone.

I took photos and later did a painting that I gave to a friend.
I haven't seen the photos for years! I think there packed away somewhere in a cupboard at mum and dad's house with the rest of my stuff.
I'll have to remember to find them next trip to Australia then I'll be able to see if it really was a Loggerhead or not??