Start of another room

I haven't been able to devote much time to stitching lately. I can't wait until I start on the room with the fireplace. I love bricks. Sometimes I go strolling around my neighborhood just to admire the houses with beautiful brickwork.

It's such a beautiful day out. The sun is out and it's wonderful weather out to go to the beach. Can't you just imagine sinking your feet into the warm sand, sipping on a cool drink and relaxing to the sound of the waves? Sigh. But the reality of it is I am home alone waiting for someone to come home.

My yummy Heart

I baked a heart shaped pineapple cake with lemon frosting and blueberry&raspberry topping. The cake was so moist and delectable, and the frosting was refreshing, and the blueberry & raspberry topping was just enough of sweet to balance the cake.

Semi Homemade~

This time I didn't have enough time to make it from scratch so I used a pineapple flavored store bought cake mix (+ eggs, water, oil). To that I added 1/4 cup of plain low-fat yogurt so the cake would be extra moist. I baked it at 250 for 35 minutes. (My oven is extra hot! Because the body is so small, the heat is concentrated and it burns the contents if you don't pay close attention.) I split the batter and baked it in two batches. After the cakes cooled I chilled it in the refrigerator for a couple hours. For the frosting I took the juice (1/2 cup) and zest of two lemons, 3 eggs, 3 Tbs of honey. I put this mixture over a pan of simmering water and stirred the mixture for about 10 mins. Then I let it cool and stored it in the refrigerator to chill. In the meanwhile I whipped up 3/4 cups of heavy cream, incorporated the chilled lemon mixture with 3 Tbs of low fat yogurt and there you have the frosting.

For the blueberry/raspberry syrup I took 3 Tbs of berry jam, 3 Tbs of grape fruit juice, and simmered the contents over low heat.

Next, I frosted up the cakes and decorated the edges with finely chopped roasted walnuts. And lined up blueberries in a shape of a heart and filled it in with the berry reduction. Then I put some of the leftover frosting in a ziplock bag, snipped the edge and wrote a short message.

Voila~ my yummy heart! And it was a success!

A tip

When frosting the cake, you can get crumbs in the frosting. To avoid this first thinnly coat the cake with the frosting. Then wash up your tool and add a second layer of frosting, now your frosting will be crumb free.

Also an update on my Doll house:

I wasn't able to get any stitching done on it yesterday, hopefully I'll get to work on it tomorrow~

Doll House

I wasn't able to get much stitching done yesterday. But I was able to feast on a meal at Stonefire Grill so I was happy. We had so much leftover- we brought back five to-go boxes. I absolutely love their bbq chopped salad and the aloha pizza. mmm dee-lish!

This is the little progess I made on Doll House. I am loving how it's turning out despite a sour start. Everytime I watch something on the television I always make some kind of mistake, this time it was a big booboo and I ended up pulling out a good three hours worth of stitches.

I'm putting the Noah's Ark Sampler on the backburner for now. (Sorry~ I will get back to you soon!)

Doll House

I started on Brightneedle's Doll House cross stitch a couple days ago. I made some color changes and I started on the framing of the house.

I really love this charming pattern and I hope to get it finished and framed soon.

More pictures to come soon~

I tried my luck on ebay and I was able to win some patterns. They should arrive by the end of next week. :)