Fabulous Family Outing

 Once a year we rally the troops and head out to Klondike  farm outside Ceres in the Western Cape to pick fresh cherries... We were introduced to this fabulous outing a few years ago by one of dad's friends who has celebrated his dad's birthday every year with cherries. As you can see the farm is beautiful and well worth the drive! We picked about 15kg as we always share the juicy red love with friends ans faily who are unable to join us on the day...


As far as a reasonable day out goes it's pretty good value: R15 entry fee per person and then we paid about R600 for cherries and juices for the drive home... 


We've dished out the gift cherries and still have a giant coolerbox-full to make preserves for deserts for the year to come... Someone suggested freezing them to eat on hot days as mini icies so i'm going to chuck 2kg into then freezer for that! 


But enough of the blogging - I've got cherries waiting to be tasted :-)

Happiness Is...

Heading into the garden with my cup of tea yesterday morning I couldn't help but feel like the luckiest girl in the world! How can you feel anything else when you share your morning cuppa with the chickens, bunnies and such pretty flowers and exciting new seedlings? 

After the upheaval of moving the garden from one suburb to another, the veggie boxes are finally installed in their 'forever homes' and filled with straw and chicken litter and potting soil (the idea is that the chicken litter breaks down and the veggies on top grow like they're on steroids!)

The beans are 4 days old and looking strong

The bath full of carrots is looking so promising!

Lettuces just showing their faces in the first veggie box

Lettuces and Beans in the first veggie box

Creative Pasta

So, after the longest of creative droughts I am finally writing about something yummy AND meaningful once again :-)

The pictures were taken on my new toy: a Nikon D90 which has made me ecstatically happy and takes the most amazing pictures. Unfortunately the pics were taken my an over-zealous fourteen year old who is only starting to learn about composition and the like (you understand when you see them)

Fresh pasta is something that happens often in our house. I've got it to such a fine art that I can make, roll and boil it in under 45 minutes! I haven't had a wedding so I can put a KitchenAid KSM150PSWH Artisan Series 5-Quart Mixer, White on the registry list so the dough still has to be mixed and kneaded by hand (the fourteen year old is really good at this part so we share the duty when he's feeling cooperative) I bought the pasta roller when I did a pasta making course a few years back but it's only started being used regularly since we got the chickens ;-)


The recipe is very simple: 


100g flour per egg - use 1 egg per person (I always make extra as there are ALWAYS unexpected guests and if it doesn't get finished on the day it makes for the best lunch or freezer meal) Mix the two together and knead into a dough. If it's too hard, add another egg or water and if it's too sticky then add a little more flour. I divide the dough into manageable balls to knead and roll out or else it's a real challenge...

This time around I decided on Raviolli with butternut and Ricotta and another with spinach and feta.

So it's been a while, a very long while since I've managed to post anything, let alone something valuable or interesting... It's not that there's nothing happening in the kitchen or urban farming project, it's actually that there's been too much on the go!

I dealt with an infestation of lice in the chicken cage - I was away for the weekend and got a pannicked phonecall  from my little boet saying I had to come home immediately... I told him to relax and I'd deal with it after my mini break :-) The solution to lice isn't a fun one and neither is it particularly environmentally friendly... I cleaned out the cage completely and then dusted the ENTIRE thing with some chemical concoction called Karbadust (which nurseries no longer stock as it's a nasty insectacide - I found it at the farming co-op agrimark in phillipi). My internet research said that I'd need to dust the chickens too - the instructions suggested putting the chickens in a plastic packet with their heads sticking out and shaking a little to get them covered in the dust... I laughed out LOUD when I read it. I then called my mom and read it to her and we laughed hystirically together... you see, there is absolutely no way to get a chicken into a bag without injuring it and yourself, not to mention that it'd have to be one flipping sturdy bag not to get shredded by the chicken's kicking claws!!! I worked out a much more efficient method: I simply sprinkled powder onto the chicken's back which resulted in a flustered chicken who kindly ruffled their feathers, thus distributing the dust all over their bodies... I also got covered in the process (and I seem to have read that it's toxic to humans on the instructions) but I had a ball and was absolutely certain there could be no lice on me by the time I was done :-)

We're busy building a compost heap system - three divisions as there's quite a lot of composting material coming out of the garden and chicken cage... I'll post photos and designs once I'm done :-)

There's so much more to share but I haven't put the photos onto my computer yet and somehow photos tell a much better story than my less than colourful words :-)

Sustainability ideas

Sustainability Ideas. From the idealist

For some time already I have been intrigued by the concept of self sufficiency. It only takes one meal in a nice restaurant for me to head down this path even more enthusiastically… Went to one of Cape Town’s finest for my birthday (his treat) and I realized there’s something very wrong with the way we live: Starters were from R85-110 and the line fish I decided on was R158! Let me not get onto the bottle of wine… Had a cheap bottle in another reputable joint for mom’s birthday - I really liked it so went out the next day to buy a couple of bottles for the house. We paid R105 (remember I said cheapie!) on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning I picked up a bottle whilst doing grocery shopping for R42… I understand that restaurants have margins to make, etc. but I feel like we’re being taken for a bit of a ride!

The cost of living makes me cringe. We’re probably not great examples but I’ve looked around at the people I associate with and we’re all in the same boat. We shop at woolies often, eat out a couple of times a week, are guilty of picking up ready made meals for work lunches which come with a mountain of extra packaging, each drive our own cars without hesitation, have wardrobes big enough to clothe an underprivileged school, etc.

Let me not get onto the topic of Eskom or any other para-statal  on which we find ourselves dependent. As for grocery store chains, we’ve  become completely dependent on the convenience of having what we want, when we want it and where we want it (I never have to drive more than 5 minutes to get to either a convenience store or mega grocery store). This comes at quite a price. We think we’re getting a good deal when we grab a ‘special’ but explore a little further and you’ll see we’ve got something horribly wrong! If I grab salad ingredients for two from woolies it’ll set me back at least R100. That same R100 can buy an entire boot-full of fresh produce at the Epping Market.

Some of the ideas I’ve been thrashing out in my head are:

• Solar geysers. This is twofold: firstly, Eskom has increased my electricity bill much more than the 24% they advertised (apparently I’m a high consumption domestic user). Second, I think it important to reduce my carbon footprint. For now, Eskom’s electricity is ‘dirty’ belching out tons of carbon every time I switch on a light. Until we’ve got cleaner sources, I’d like to boycott their service.
• We’ve installed a closed-combustion fireplace and burn wood which is carbon neutral and the ash is very useful in the garden – some of it is used to deter snails and the rest goes into the compost heap. Ash is nutrient rich and a waste product which makes it free.
• Rain water storage tanks. This is something I haven’t convinced the sponsor to install yet (he says my building project has run out of funds…) I checked out the calculations for how much water you can collect and was stunned: for every 100m² of roof, you get 1000l of water per 1mm of rain that falls. Given a house of about 500m² of roof that’s 5000l in a flash! Our area gets about 2000mm of rain a year there’s more than enough water available to be stored. We just need to store it!
• Growing our own veggies. Given the abundance of water, favorable soil, sunshine, etc. in Cape Town there really is no excuse not to try your hand at growing some! I’ve been messing around in the garden for a couple of years now and cannot honestly say that I’ve grown enough to feed a family but as I get better at it, I’ve got more produce and much more variety! The things that have worked really well are beans (lazy housewife), carrots, beetroot, onions, lettuce and tomatoes. The gem squash and marrows were not quite as successful but we did get to eat some :-) The potatoes and sweet potatoes were sublime but I’ve realized I have to plant many more this year.
• For the veggies I can’t grow, it is my intention to buy in season and preserve or freeze until needed. This works in a number of ways: the carbon footprint is reduced as I’m not buying imported produce, local is lekker, and my money goes 50% further.
• Growing fruit. This requires much more patience than the veggies (a couple of weeks to harvest) as the trees have to mature. We planted 24 trees last year and had to take the fruit off last summer to give the trees a chance to establish themselves. Some of them are big enough to produce fruit this year but some of them need to still use all of their energy to grow sturdy branches. You may be thinking that you don’t have the space for an orchard so this doesn’t apply to you… Not so! If you have space for a pot you can plant a citrus tree. It’ll stay compact but if you look after it it’ll spoil you back with plenty of juicy fruit.
• Apart from Bananas which form much of the sponsor’s staple diet and have to be available at all times, I try to buy fruit from the Epping Market. It’s dirt cheap. 8kg of 1^st grade guavas cost me R30 the other day. Boxes of apples or pears are the same. The beauty here is that you’re buying fresh produce. Most fruit can be preserved in some way: freezing, jam, canning, etc. not forgetting how delicious fresh fruit salad is!
• Chickens, ducks and geese. I mention all three as they all perform very different functions in the urban farmyard. Chickens are the most common and most people know something about them. They’re our primary source of white meat and available everywhere in the world. Their eggs are farmed either free-range or in chicken batteries and are a fantastic source of protein. Try to bake anything and you’ll be reaching for the eggs first! Chickens are scavengers and will eat anything. Including your seedlings, veggies, fruit, etc. in short, they’re a pain in the vegetable garden. They need to be suitably housed. In return for food they’ll provide you with much entertainment, eggs, meat and rich compost. They’re useful for clearing a veggie patch for the next planting (they really know how to clear!). Ducks are snail catching machines! They don’t scratch like chickens do and also won’t kill your plants. They graze on grass and eat every snail they can find. A lesser known use of the duck and my main reason fro including them in my urban farming plan is their superior fly catching skills.  The fly problem is more than a problem – it’s more like a plague! We hang those ugly sticky strips in the kitchen (because we absolutely have to!) and make sure that nothing edible is left out for one minute. I’ve banned the fly swatter as it makes me physically ill… Muscovy duck’s fly catching skills are legendary. You’ll know a house with ducks when you visit one – you won’t wee the fly strips or a single fly anywhere! Geese are great for weeding. They’re vegetarians and with their long necks get into the garden to eat the weeds. I don’t know exactly how they identify the weeds but they do. Their eggs are big enough to make scrambled eggs for a whole family and you can eat them too.
• A dream of mine is to have a pond for the ducks and geese, big enough to stock it with trout. I’ve done a little research and think it would be quite possible to farm fish on small scale. I decided to look into this after buying some smoked rainbow trout from woolies last Sunday (it’s one of the sponsor’s favorites) and seeing the price per kilo – R395!!! I was aghast. They’re farmed locally now which means we’re not paying for the transport from Norway (although the Norwegian Salmon is exactly the same price… huh?). It was one of those instant ill to the stomach before going on a crusade moments… Much persuading to do to get the pond though so this one will take a while!
• I really want a pig. They’re an integral part of a homestead/urban farm. They have a few functions (and if you have the muscovies already there can be no fly problem!): they are the garbage disposal units for your home. They devour all uneaten food from the kitchen as well as processing the compost bucket quicker than any other animal. They efficiently convert inputs into rich compost. They even further process chicken poop - some farmers feed their pigs exclusively on chicken by products (I don’t agree with this as I think you end up with a disease problem but on a small scale and not actually harvesting the poop you shouldn’t have an issue). Pigs are natural ploughs: they clear plots including all roots whilst adding nutrients out of their back ends as they go. Pigs eat sand – this keeps them healthy and at the same time adds biologicals to the soil increasing fertility.
• A Dexter Cow. Now this goes even beyond wanting. I need a cow. Dexters are small cows – about half the size of common dairy cows. Cows are useful too: they produce milk which is used in almost everything… think tea and coffee, yogurt for breakfast, cheese sandwiches, baking, sauces, butter, cream, etc. I’ve recently realized that most dairy in South Africa is produced on feedlot. What is this you ask? Don’t cows eat grass? That’s what I thought. Not so unfortunately. Many cows are fed on grain (which I have to add is definitely not what cows were designed to eat!!!) as it fattens them up quicker and makes them produce more milk than they would naturally… if you turn a blind eye on changing the cow’s natural diet this seems ok until you take it a step further and realize that the cows are being fed genetically modified maize which we are yet to determine the fallout from. The scientists say we’re ok but I’m not convinced yet.
• Once I have the cow my dream is to make my own butter, cheese, yogurt, etc. I can’t think of anything more delicious or wholesome…

This is my ever evolving list which is growing as we speak through trial and error it’s a way of life, not a solution!

Not so happy bouncing bunny.........

So not everything in the farmyard can run smoothly at all times... I have a sick bunny. A very sick bunny... Out comes the medic in me and after scouring the net for solutions we're on a treatment plan: rehydrate (the intravenous type), mashed carrots (cooked them...), hot water bottle and some tlc. I shan't bore you with the stinky details save to mention that the details are rather stinky... The little guy is weak and skinny and won't eat anything other htan carrot tops but he's still fighting me (especially when I try to get him to drink rehydrate - he hates being force fed...)


Will have to post an update when I see any change in his condition... in the meantime though we'll be sad for the sick bunny :-(

Strawberry Jam Recipe

It seems to be a kitchen weekend :-) Went to get braai supplies at P'nP just now and found strawberries at a price that made it reasonable enough to make some jam... and, like they say, let's make hay while the sun shines! It's one of the easiest things to make that create a real WOW factor - home-made jam on scones, fresh bread, etc just can't be beaten!

 Stawberry Jam:

1kg strawberries

1kg sugar

1 apple, grated

1/4 cup lemon juice

• Big saucepan
• Wooden spoon with a long handle (this is very important as the jam spits unbelieveably hot bubbles which stick to your skin when they come in contact... watch out for your face over the pot too!)
• Sterilised Jam jars

Clean and quarter the strawberries. Put all the ingredients in the pot over a low heat. Simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved. Bring to the boil stirring constantly. Cook the jam until it reaches wrinkle stage (put a saucer in the freezer when you start the process. When you think the jam is ready, put a little on the ice-cold saucer. if you can pull your finger through the mixture without the jam running back together, your jam is done. The surface of the jam wrinkles as you pull your finger through it.)

Bottle the jam in hot, sterilised jars. Clean the rims of the jar with a clean cloth before putting the lids on loosely whilst still very hot. Makes 6 X 230ml jars.

A couple of my favourite baking recipes

 After an early start to my Saturday morning I arrived home ready to do some baking... Not that this doesn't happen often, I just thought I'd share two of my (from two great books!) most trusted recipes. I did the quick item first: Nigella Lawson's fairy cakes. I bought How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking with a voucher someone gave me for my 21st birthday and it's one of my most prized kitchen posessions. With recipes like this one you can understand why it's got pride of place in my kitchen :-)

Fairy cakes:

125g butter

125g castor sugar

2 large eggs

125g self-raising flour

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (much, much better than vanilla essence - I've tried both)

2-3 Tbsp milk

2-bun muffin tin lined with muffin papers. Preheat oven to 180 deg C

Put all the ingredients except the milk in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the milk through the funnel, makind a soft dropping consistency - I never measure this I just add it bit by bit until I'm happy with the consistency.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases (one heaped tablespoon is all that goes into each case - yes, it looks tiny but works out perfect). Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cakes are golden. Cool on a wire rack.

I never bother to cut the tops flat to decorate them properly, I merely make a very basic icing of icing sugar and water and a little lemon juice, coloured according to the occasion. They are so popular in our house that I make a double batch and unless they're hidden away, they're all gone within hours :-)

There's another book I probably couldn't live without: Biscuits and Breads by Lynn Bedford Hall. I make the banana loaf, muffins, breads, scones, etc and they're all wondeful. Today's choice was the buttermilk rusks with are also a real hit. Rusks get dunked in coffee, tea and hot chocolate depending on the season and there are absolutely always rusks of some description in the kitchen :-)

Buttermilk Rusks 

1.5kg self raising flour

10ml salt

250ml sugar

375g butter

500ml buttermilk

3 eggs

The original recipe says combine the dry ingredients and rub in the butter. I cheat a little bit and melt the butter and then use an electric beater to turn the mixture into bread crumb consistency which you would have achieved through the rubbing. This is because the recipe takes long enough as it is and I prefer to enjoy my baking experience, not loath it because of unnecessary work!

Next, beat the eggs into the buttermilk and in turn knead this into the flour mixture. This requires a very large bowl and some proper elbow grease! The more you knead, the higher the rusks will rise. If the mixture seems too dry put a little water into the buttermilk carton and add to the dough (I have never had to do this but in the beginning it looks like you'll nneed to for sure - be patient!) Knead until the dough forms a ball and comes away from the sides of the bowl. Roll it into managable sized sausages and cut into golf-ball sized chunks. Roll into balls and pack into an oiled baking tin (I use one big one but two bread tins will work perfectly too).

Bake at 200 deg C for 30 minutes, reduce the heat to 180 deg C and bake for a further 30min. Turn out, break apart the balls and return them to the oven at 120 deg C. remove them once they're completely dried out. If your balls turned out a little big, cut them in half lenthways before drying.

Fun at School

Mom and little boet volunteer at a little school on a Friday (which means I get roped in to do cutting, designing, shopping, etc on a Thursday afternoon! and taken along whenever I'm free). It has been great fun coming up with educational art or craft projects for the kids. We're dealing with kids who come from severely disadvantaged backgrounds most of whom have alcohol foetal syndrome to contend with which makes most of the crafty stuff we've done at home way too difficult.

We've made pompoms which they loved but unfortunately there is no real use for a pompom other than the skills learned making it... The kids also get distracted really quickly which means getting them to finish anything is a real challenge!

We wracked our brains for days wondering what we could make with these precious little people that would be both beautiful and functional this is the project we came up with:

Mosaic Mirrors:


We had a piece of supawood cut into pieces 30cm X 20cm and bought ready cut mirror tiles which we stuck onto the boards using double sided tape. Next we went to Pudlo Tiles in Salt River and dug around in the scratch patch (which we've decided we'll take the kids along to do themselves as an outing). The kids were given carte blanche to choose their colours, designs and tile sizes - some of them were very systematic and others were just interested in filling the available space with little tiles :-)

We helped them stick the tiles down using a quick set tile adhesive (we finished the ones that they struggled with at home so everyone was on the same page by the next lesson...). The final touch was by far the most messy and the most fun: grouting! The pictures below are of the children's faces in their completed mirrors... Some of them have never seen themselves in a mirror before which was heart breaking. Some reacted with joy and smiles whilst others were absolutely terrified... it took much coaxing to get them to look at themselves. Some of them were brave enough to pull faces and identify their noses, teeth, etc... I think the mirrors are quite stunning! We're adding hanging paraphernalia and sending them home next week :-) We've cleaned off the excess grout so they can see their faces clearly in their pretty mirrors...

 

What happens when you leave a 25 year old unattended?

Most parents worry about leaving their kids unattended but you'd think that the house would be safe when you're leaving your 25 year old at home alone for the afternoon! I'll put money on the fact that my dad wasn't expecting me to tackle this one without him :-)

I needed to put up some hanging baskets that had already been planted with strawberries and since dad's been a little busy I tackled the project the moment he went out for lunch! He has the world's coolest garage filled with all sorts of amazing tools... Makes life much easier, especially when putting up the baskets in a hurry in the exact spot mom said not to! Lets hope they make some strawberries soon enough to make her forgive me :-)

Reducing the chicken numbers

So there's a post I've been delaying for weeks now... As you know I've got all the chickens - I ordered 20 little Rhode Island chicks, I ended up with some Rhode Island, Plymouth Rock and Australorps. Of the 20 chicks, 10 turned out to be hens (who are laying like champions I might add - please let me know if you'd like some fresh eggs, they're really yummy and with 8-10 new ones each morning I am totally unable to keep up with the consuming part!) and 10 cocks. I'm sure I have alluded to the terrible behaviour of cocks already but once they're mature it becomes impossible to keep too many together... The noise is a problem (I love hearing them but the neighbors aren't as keen on my organic journey!) but worse is the fighting. After a particularly violent day I realise that the time had come to reduce numbers...

I selected the three cocks we were to keep and separated the others out. The intention was always to slaughter some of the chickens (which is why I got 20 to start with rather than just getting 4-6 hens for laying). I researched the best way to do this and I will certainly not go into the details as I still feel completely traumatised. We set a day and fortunately I managed to arrange for someone to come and help (read: paid someone to do it for me...) as I could not manage to have anything to do with the process. My mom deserves all the credit as she was a real trooper. All in all we slaughtered and cleaned 7 rather large chickens and a few weeks down the line they're still in the freezer and we haven't had chicken in a meal since!

As for my part in the day? I cleaned and organised the kitchen, cooked dinner for the family, cleaned the kitchen again, set the table (who does that on a weekend night when it's just our family?!), sorted some old clothes out of my cupboard and felt generally miserable! I can admit that I watched the process (I felt I had to watch at least one) and the slaughtering process is quick and the chickens didn't suffer or get traumatised. 

Life in the chicken run has returned to complete normality although the 3 cocks are still making a little too much noise :-( Our vet has put me in touch with a bird specialist who is able to stop the roosters from crowing (without going to the extreme I had to with the other 7) and I will be taking them through to him next monday. This process doesn't solve the fighting problem so it doesn't mean I can keep more roosters but it'll placate the neighbour who has insomnia at night and only manages to sleep during the day...


I am glad the process  is over and hopefully some day I will manage to eat chicken again.


PS: I am sorry if this post has offended you. That was definitely not my intention and I have been struggling with writing it for a month already...

When I get really upset I................

So, at the end of a particularly challenging day, I slowed down to reflect on just how I'd dealt with the stress... I will not bore you with the details of my day as they're over dramatic and I have had enough drama for a lifetime already!

I started a little knitting project about a week ago and it's gone surprisingly fast (That's when the stress really started, you see...) I used google to find a pattern and just dived straight in. I don't have anyone in mind for my little baby blanket and it looks like I certainly won't be producing any offspring for quite a while but this seemed manageable and I didn't have to run out and buy extra yarn as I had enough at home :-) I didn't put two and two together and realise why I'd started the knitting until this afternoon when I realised that my blood pressure had returned to normal and I wasn't even thinking about the drama anymore after just 5 minutes of the needles clicking! 

 The second thing I do is to organise and clean... Again, this is not something that happens consciously, I only realise afterwards what's just happened. I guess it's some sort of spring cleaning of my life thing. Historically, these major clean-ups coincide with big changes of direction in general... I found this amazing storage/organisation system in the plastics shop today

 it came in a surprisingly small box as all the pieces  pack together flat. You click them together and the instructions say you can cut them down to the size you want with a pair of scissors. They're designed to go inside drawers but since I don't have any drawers they're going onto one of the shelves in my cupboard :-)


Another thing I am known to do is cook, clean the kitchen and bake...  So far the self-prescribed therapy has worked and I'm ready to go searching for the perfect pair of shoes now!

Chickens again

So the chickens have decided to start laying eggs. At pace! We're getting 5 eggs a day from the ten hens and I've been monitoring the sizes. We started out with pullet or peewee eggs at just 30-something grams... I had a full-on panic! We've had bantams before and their eggs are about this size and pretty useless in my baking endeavours... getting the point? We're up to 58g as the record (which is classified as 'large' at Woolies and perfect for baking cakes!) and no more under 48g...

So, with so many eggs this weekend, I made some meringues:

In short you beat egg whites until white and stiff. Then add 1/4cup of fine Castor sugar per egg white used. Beat until shiny and keeping it's shape. Spoon this super-sticky mixture either into a piping bag (I just use a freezer bag and cut a small corner off when I'm ready to go) or directly onto grease proof baking paper into the sizes you want. Bake at 120 degrees C for about an hour. Watch to see that it's not too hot (they'll go brown). After the hour, turn off the oven and allow them to cool slowly (it makes them crispy)

Next was to use up the yolks:

As I told someone yesterday, if you have not yet eaten fresh, made from scratch, egg custard, you have not lived... it's a bit fiddly but oh so wonderful when you get it right! I've simplified the recipe (for myself as I adapt it to use the available eggs anyway). Here's the ratio I tested out this weekend:

1 egg yolk
15g Castor sugar
100ml milk
1ml vanilla essence or vanilla pod

Put the egg yolks into a double boiler over heat and beat in the castor sugar. It'll go lighter in color and texture. Whilst beating warm the milk in the microwave (adding warm milk is not essential but does prevent the custard from curdling). Add warm milk and vanilla whilst stirring continuously. It takes a while to thicken and if you take a break for too long lumps form on the sides. Should your custard curdle (you'll know if it does!) mix a little corn flour (maizena) and warm milk and whisk into the custard while you're still cooking it.

It'll keep in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks but in my house it lasts only a few hours before the male species find it and then it's gone! Serve hot over stewed fruit, malva pudding, with jelly, etc. You'll be impressed, every time :-)

Something Pretty

 

Even though the weather was summery and warm, I felt the need to make something beautiful inside today... I collected a bunch of tins, found some remnants of gorgeous fabric and set about making pencil holders / desk organisers.

Simple enough - I tried double sided tape and contact adhesive to stick the fabric strips onto the tins but neither worked all that well: the double sided tape came undone within a couple of hours whilst the contact adhesive went straight through the fabric and didn't look all that great. Time to take out the big guns! Enter the amazing glue gun... I'm sure it's already saved lives! Word of caution though is that the glue is HOT, very hot and if you get it on your fingers it sticks and continues to burn... but once I got that out of the way it was great fun!

Here are the results:

The makings of a fun afternoon

I covered all of the tins in fabric first

Then added embellishments and ribbons for a little sparkle!

So chuffed with the lovely results :-)