Stitches and Thrills

When I was a young baking girl I was terribly unsuccessful in baking cookies. They'd usually end up being very dry tooth breakers. Cakes & tarts however was a different story: I excelled at banana or apple loafs and vegan cheesecake. The fact that I couldn't make a decent cookie did quite bother me (or at least that little perfectionist voice that resides in my head). A friend brought me on the path of baking cookies again when we were choosing to try to get rid of all the refined sugar in our food and drinks. Based on several recipes on the internet and my own experiments I made these delicious soft Chewy Banana Oatmeal Cookies. Chewy Banana Oatmeal Cookies. (recipe for about 22 cookies) Ingredients: 50 gram raisins (= 1/2 cup) 100 ml water (=1/2 cup) 75 gram flour (= 1 cup) 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp baking powder 2 tbsp coconut oil, extra virgin (soft, but doesn't have to be melted) 125 gram oat meal (=2 cup) 2 ripe bananas 50 gram chopp...

As promissed: On reaching 100 followers at my Miss Minoes Facebook page , I will share with all the lovely  100+ of you this knitting pattern I made for a chevron knitted phone cover. Thank you for following! =^x^= Chevron Zig Zag cover for mobile phone. Used materials: - 4 Sock needles metric 3.5 / US 4 / UK 9 - 20 gr colour A, 20 gr colour B (Double Knitting DK yarn) - Big embroider needle. - Button with 4 holes. - Optional: crochet needle (metric 3.5) Gauche for pattern 10 cm (4”) = 22 stitches and 22 rows. (Fair isle knitting can be quite stiff. If you are a tight knitter, you might want to go for a bigger size needles.) You’ll keep the thread of the other colour yarn at the back of your knitting, try not to pull this to tight. Pattern in 2 sizes: Small phone (11.5 cm x 6 cm) Medium phone (13 - 13.5 cm x 6.5 - 7 cm) There is a little stretch in the cosy, so you can pull a little in either length or width to get a snug fit. If your ...

June 20th 2013. Worldwide there were Etsy Craft Parties happening that day. I attended the one in Amsterdam. It was an excellent festive event and networking opportunity, organized by Ka-Ching Collectief , a collective of 5 Etsy sellers at Storm Gallery in Amsterdam. We crocheted, made booklets or cards, but most of all had a lot of fun. The Ka-Ching Collectief also have a cool pop-up store there, with handmade and vintage items, worth checking out. Thank you, Ka-Ching girls: Babette Annabel Maggie Barbara Karin

DAY 1: On the first full day we went to see the fabulous exhibition "David Bowie Is" in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Every aspect in the career of this talented artist was displayed (costumes, painting, lyric sheets, where he gets his inspiration etcetera). I love how the exhibition was put together. Tip 1 : If you travel by Eurostar train to London, you'll get a 2 for 1 discount at the Bowie exhibit, when showing your train ticket. Tip 2 : We were in line for 45 minutes, you then can buy a ticket for a later timeslot. But there is also a possibility to book your tickets on line in advance via the V&A website. Tip 3 : The V&A is free (but for special exhibitions), and would be perfect to spend a rainy day in London. While waiting for our timeslot we walked to the top floors to see the variety/entertainment/theatre costumes. Among other I saw Adam Ant's Prince Charming, but also well known costumes from cabaret and musicals. For Tuesday evening we h...

Here is another delicious result of my experiments in the kitchen. This spiced cake-variation is the result after 2 previous attempts. The first 2 were also very nice, but lacked the exact taste I had hoped to achieve. :-) The quinoa flour was on my wish list for a while already. I made the spiced cake with Coconut Oil Extra Virgin, because that's the healthiest. But if you really don't like the taste of coconut you can also get the one where they removed the coconut smell. Spicy Date & Pecan Cake (no egg / no sugar / gluten free) 250 gram dates (unseeded) 300 ml water 1 teabag Yogi Himalaya tea 100 gram coconut oil (extra virgin) 200 gram quinoa flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 tablespoon milled/broken flaxseed mixed with 1 tablespoon water 50 gram pecan nuts, raw (The coconut oil is more easily processed if it's soft. In my kitchen it works to put the bowl with oil on top of my cooker, the oven underneath spreads enough heat to melt the oil a bit...

Most of you will be familiar with the internet meme Grumpy Cat . I couldn't resist making my signature look-a-like "Boink The Cat" door draft stoppers to look like her. I bet she would be right grumpy if you used her as a sausage cat draught dodger . The first original door draft stopper was designed to resemble the cat Bonke (hence the name Boink The Cat): Bonke found new owners after being in Stevenshage animal shelter. 5 euro of every sold door draft stopper goes to this animal shelter in Leiden.

A couple of years ago I bought a Logitech Headset ClearChat Style. The set was a nice little price and perfect for Skype. And after a few years the headset still works fine. However I did get a problem with the soft ear cushions falling apart. "Easy to fix" I thought, I'll just buy some new ones. Alas: these are not available! A friendly guy at the electronic shop helped me trying if other brands would fit, but we couldn't find the right ones. So I got in touch with Logitech, asking which replacement ear cushions they would advice. But they couldn't advice beyond whether or not the warranty still would apply. I knew my purchase was too long ago for that. But I didn't want to discard a complete headset, just because I couldn't find new foamy ear cushions. So it was time for a creative solution:I made my own ear cushions from organic cotton. Here is the crochet pattern for headphone ear cushions: Material: Big organic Cotton (I used Linea ...