Hello Loves.....

I get asked so much about the fruit loafs that I make for Louis, so I thought I’d do a blog post and share the recipe.  

 

It all started when I found a recipe, whilst on Pinterest, but the recipe wasn’t quite right so I adapted it to suit our tastes and it’s been a hit with Louis…and Leigh for that matter, from day one, so I thought I would share it with you all too.  We went down the baby led weaning route with Louis and this was a great finger food for him, I started out making it with banana, but with Louis going off bananas every other week, he stopped eating it, so I tend to swap the banana for other fruit and it works out great….

The best part about this recipe is that there is no sugar in it other than what occurs in the fruit naturally....so its great for the babies....and us adults too!

Today, I going to share how I make it with apples as I have a lot to use up and they are one of Louis’s favourite fruits!

 So here is what ingredients you will need…..(this makes a small 1lb loaf, to make a 2lb loaf just double the ingredients up)

Ingredients

 

135 grams Self Raising Flour
 75 grams Butter
100 grams Dried Fruit (use whatever you wish)
250 grams Grated Apple (Approx 2 large apples)
½ tsp  Cinnamon

Method

Preheat oven to 180C (Fan 160c) and line your loaf tin.  

Add the cinnamon to the flour and mix together.  

Add the butter and rub into the flour mix (should look like fine bread crumbs when you have finished, see pic below). 

Beat the egg in a separate bowl and then mix into the flour mixture.  

Peel, core and grate your apples in a separate bowl.

Add the dried fruit to your grated apple and mix together.

Add the apple mixture to the flour mixture and mix together well (should be quite a stiff mixture see pic below)

Place mixture into prepared loaf tin and level the top.

Place in oven for 45mins – 1 hour.  If it starts to brown too much on top, then cover the top over.

Once cooked, remove from tin and leave to cool completely before cutting.   

When you use apples or pears, for that matter, it makes quite a dense and moist loaf compared to when you use banana….it can appear that it’s not cooked, but that is how it is supposed to be….I’ve taken a pic of the inside of both the apple and the banana loafs, so you can see what I mean. 

 

This one is the apple loaf, and as you can see its quite dense in places, but its just the apple and is fully cooked.

This was the same recipe, but using banana (I ran out of SR Flour so used plain and some baking powder, but I added a bit too much baking powder and it erupted on the top lol, hubby said it tasted OK though.lol)

....and this is what the banana loaf looks like inside.

Here's Louis tucking into the apple loaf; the apple one is definitely his favourite!

Hope that the recipe makes sense and you have fun making it! 

Any questions, just ask....please bear in mind I'm not a professional baker or anything, I'm just sharing a recipe that has worked for us and that we have enjoyed..so be gentle with me lol....

 Love Tab x

My Work and Me.....

I get asked a lot, in real life and on Instagram, about what I do for a living and so I thought I would write a blog post all about it!  

So for those that don’t know,  I run my own Crochet business called TabbyCraft Designs and have done since 2009.  I design and write my own crochet patterns, then sell the finished article. 

How did it all start, I hear you ask?....well back in 2009 I was deep into card making and the blogging world (My blog was called Tabby Craft Designs too, and I used to blog every single day)…I mainly hung out in the rubber stamp world, and I was privileged to be a part of the design teams for some of the world’s biggest stamp companies.  

Anyway, it was really fashionable to use crochet flowers on your cards, but I couldn’t crochet, so this was the perfect opportunity

I needed to learn!

Looking at this pictures it actually makes me really miss my card making days lol....these images I used here are all Magnolia stamps...and I coloured them in with Prisma Pencils. The card started out life as a blank, and then I added all the details that you see.  I used to be on the Magnolia design team, and it was the most amazing experience, and the pinnacle of my Card making career!

 I love flowers, real ones, paper ones, crochet ones....you name it!

I do have to say crochet didn’t come easy at first, I struggled terribly with getting the tension right….I found it really hard trying to copy what the books and videos clips with doing…but then I figured out that it was all to do with my little finger….yep that little bugger was what the problem was…totally unaware, but I used to leave it sticking out like I was drinking tea out of a china cup, and what I should have been doing was folding it in against the palm of my hand lol….so once that little issue was rectified…..my crocheting journey began!

For anyone wanting to have a go, try Youtube...there are some fabulous videos on there...they really helped me, much better than books.  Just watch though, as there are American and English crochet terms..I actully prefer to use American terms, as a lot of patterns you buy use them....but thats personal choice.

I started out with the flowers and before long I moved onto to baby hats, shoes, blankets and granny squares and I would sell them on Etsy…..and that’s how I started to build up my customer base. 

My best selling shoes, to date, are the pink and white Mary Jane's; I think I can crochet those with my eyes closed.


 

 Then one day I stumbled into the world of Amigurumi, which is the Japanese art of Crocheting yarn creatures! Amigurumi is usually worked in rounds like a spiral, and you can either make your creatures in one complete piece or in several and then stitch them together.  So I started buying patterns off Etsy and began making these little creatures! However, I soon got really bored of the patterns that I bought, as I could never find what I really wanted, and so started having a little play at creating my own designs!  

  With lots of trial and error, and so much unpicking of stitches, the first pattern was born and it was for my beloved Mice….and here there are...these were the first two I ever made and I still have them; they sit in my office! 
 

The little mice are what really put Tabby Craft Designs on the map….I can remember making the above top two cuties with some oddments of pink and blue yarn I had left over from another project and I posted them on my Facebook page (which is still going today, you can find me under Tabby Craft Designs) a few of my blogging and Facebook page friends shared them, and it all went from there….

They've evolved a little over time as each time I made them I would tweak them here and there...but I'm finally happy with the design now lol

Then I started to get creative with them and along came the reindeer mice....I love making them look like they are dressing up...I like to do this with lots of my other designs too. I currently have this burning desire to make a hippo in a tutu...so watch this space lol..

...and we had to have some scarf mice....these have been so popular of the years!

Once the mice proved popular, I started creating new friends to join the TDC family....

The bunnies are another of my absolute favourites too, especially this one as I used my favourite Cath Kidston fabric for the flower and ears.

 I was so amazed that people really wanted a little piece of my work in their homes, and to be honest, I still am, absolutely blows my mind! The furthest places that my work has travelled is to Australia and Hawaii....I know crazy, right? Totally overwhelms me that my work is spread all over the world!

However, it did get to the point a few years back, that I really couldn’t keep up with demand at all! I used to have to offer a select amount of order slots each month on a lottery type base, and it would cause absolute up roar every month lol (no joke, it was the craziest thing I’ve ever been a part of) I would also hold Market Nights, and again I sold out in seconds (no exaggeration, anyone from back then will tell how mad it was on Market Nights….just crazy)……it carried on like this for a few years and I felt myself drowning a bit if I’m honest!  

 Then all the new Facebook changes came in, and pages could no longer be seen unless you paid silly money for adverts, which to be honest if you did, you still weren’t seen like you used to be…..it all changed a lot, and pages stopped growing so rapidly. If you shared a page no one saw it (in the beginning a page share used to lead to hundreds of followers coming over, but once the changes came in…no one saw them) At the time it was really scary, we all thought that, that was that and I remember thinking my business was over!  But in hindsight it was a blessing in disguise, I couldn’t have carried on the way I was, I couldn’t keep up with the orders that people wanted to place…my hands and wrists were killing me from crocheting like a lunatic and I would lose my mojo as I was crocheting the same thing day in and day out; I would just burn out on the regs!  

 
 For my business to evolve I needed some time to create new designs and I never got that, so looking back now I am a firm believer in everything happens for a reason….you might not realise what the reason is at the time, but eventually it comes to light and it did work out for the better in the end for me.  I know it didn’t for a number of pages and so many closed down and disappeared for good, which was really awful.

I decided it would be a good idea to I’d find other outlets to sell from, so I decided to open my own web shop (www.tabbycraftdesigns.com) I did all the design and wording myself….and I have to say I’m really pleased with how it turned out….especially when I had little knowledge in the web design area at all! I use www.create.net and they have been amazing, their websites are really user friendly and great for people that don’t really know what they are doing lol and they aren’t expensive to run each month/year either  (not an AD just a happy customer)   

Anyway, around the same time too, I started my Instagram account too, back then my @theboythatmademe account was @tabbycraftdesigns and I would share my work plus an insight into my home life too….and for a long while it really worked well! Then when a fell pregnant with Louis, it all got a bit a confusing on there, so I thought it was a good time to move accounts around and start a business one, purely for my crochet work, and I’ve found it so much better! 

Not going to lie, growth of the new page has been slow with the new changes to Instagram, but the followers I have are all genuine followers and I do get a huge amount of business through there still, and my Facebook page where I have a much bigger following, enough to keep me busy anyway! I think sometimes it’s easy to get wrapped up with the number of followers we have or don’t have….I used to let it get to me, but now I think it’s not about  the number of followers you have, but more about the quality of the followers you have….and if they interact with you and more importantly buy what you are selling then that’s what is important.  I’m happy with my work load at the moment, I get to do what I love and still be a full time Mama to Louis…and to be honest I think that is THE most important part about what I’m doing…..it makes me happy!

One question that I do get asked a lot is, will I ever sell my patterns?...and at the moment the answer is no....I'm not ready to put them out there...I worry that people will rip them off and try to sell them on themselve (I've seen it happen a lot)....I've already had people try to recreate my work a few times, and try to sell a pattern from it...but I shut it down straight the way.  I don't tolerate copying at all, I work too hard to have someone come along and steal my patterns.  I have them all registered with ACID, Anti Copying In Design....so if I do encounter a design thief I have proof that I created them first...

Anyways, I’ve also started trying out new little ventures, the Mama bags, and they have been a huge success so far! I’ve been looking for a better supplier for the blank bags, as the other one I used kept selling out and I kept having to wait for more stock to come in….and let’s face it, that doesn’t help me when you have people wanting to order, so I decided to take a step back till I sorted out new bags etc….but those will be back soon, along with some other things too!  I create all the wording for them myself and I have really loved doing something a little different for a change….sometimes as they say, change is a as good as a rest!

 I can honestly say that I absolutely love what I do….it might not be everyone’s idea of work….believe me I’ve had some very odd responses from people about what I do…., but I don't care what others think, I'm very proud of what I have achieved so far, and can't wait to see where it takes me in the future!  I’m very passionate about what I do, and so I put my heart and soul into it and I hope that, that shows when people receive their orders!  I feel ridiculously lucky to be able to do something that I love and make a good honest living from it!  It’s taken a lot of hard work to get where I am today, and I hope that I can continue doing it for as long as people want to own a piece of my work!  I truly love being creative….it’s been in my blood since I was a little girl, and I hope I can pass my love for it onto my little Louis too, he might not want to crochet, but I know he will love being creative in other ways.....he already loves a colouring book!

oooh nearly forgot, here's my work room.... this is where all the magic happens....

If you've been thinking of start up your own business, and you are in a position to do so, then just go for it...it’s the best decision career wise that I have ever made….I love being my own boss….it means I get to carry on being a full time Mama to Louis, and that is so very very important to me! I was worried how I would manage it all after I had Louis, but I used my Maternity Leave to find my feet and I just came back slowly at first just taking on a little work here and then….now I’m running at full speed, and I make it work for us. I tend to work in the evenings, and when Louis naps in the afternoon, so I don’t like any unplanned visitors just calling, as it throws my day out lol (you've be warned lol)...and sometimes I work on a Saturday morning too, which gives Leigh time with Louis on their own to do father and son things….but once that’s done, then I don’t work for the rest of the weekend….and we have family time!  I think it’s important when you do work for yourself, to have time away from your work, and to not let it take over your whole life…it’s all about getting the right balance, and if you can get that right then you’re winning!  

What I will say is if you do go or it, don't forget to register with the Tax Office that you are now self employed...even if you are aren't earning much from it to begin with, still register....it's so easy to do and keeps everything above board.  I always thought that Tax returns were really daunting, but as long as you keep all your reciepts for anything you buy for work, and keep good records of all your sales then its so easy to do, and there is lots of help online if you get stuck.

 So to end, I just want to say a massive thank to anyone that is reading this that owns a piece of my work....you're helping to support my little business and it is very very much appreciated! 

Plus thanks to everyone for reading my rambling too, hope it gives you a little insight into my world of work! If you'd like to see more of what I do then please head on over to my  web Shop www.tabbycraftdesigns.com or to my Facebook Page Tabby Craft Designs or my instagram account again Tabby Craft Designs...all will show you a selection of my work.

Much Love

Tab x

Christmas Salt Dough Decorations

Hello my loves!

I wanted to share a little tutorial with you on how we made some Salt Dough Christmas Decorations!  these make lovely little keepsakes of your childrens hands and foot prints and they are always lovely to give as gifts too!

I orignally saw these on pinterest last year when I was looking for some inspiration to make Christmas cards for Louis's first Christmas, and I was determined this year I would make some time to have a go!  Next year I'm hoping Louis will be able to have a go at decoarting some himself; he was a little too young this year, but we had great fun actually creating the little prints in the dough!

So, here goes.......

You'll need the following ingredients/items :

1 Cup of Plain Flour

1 Cup of Table Salt

1/2 Cup of Water

  a Baking Tray and Greaseproof Paper

an Oven

a Selection of Paints

Some Ribbon or String to them with

Measuring Cups

The above was enough to make everything in the picture, I did them quite thick, so you may manage to get more out of the dough if you make them thinner.

Preheat your oven to 110c {my oven is fan assisted, so if yours isn't then I'd try 120c}

Mix all the ingredients together till you get a firm dough, the dough should look bit like a ball of pastry. Then split your dough into smaller balls for each piece you want to make.

Lightly flour your surface, so that the dough doesn't stick when you roll it out.

Roll out the dough to the size you want, make sure its bigger than the childs hand or foot print, though.

Then the fun bit, go and make the hand/foot prints.  Louis was really good and let me gently push his hand into the dough, as he wouldn't have been able to do it by himself, but if your child is older and understands then just let them get on with it!

 

As you can see, Louis really wanted to stick his fingers in the dough, so we decided to make a little finger print decoration too lol....he also decided to try and eat some, which he promptly spat out and pulled a face at....safe to say I don't think he will be doing that again lol...

Right so,  place all your decorations on a baking sheet on some greaseproof paper, if you want them to hang up then now is the time to make a little hole in them where you want  the ribbon to go.  I only made one hanging one whish was the little one at the bottom....and I forgot till they had been cooked lol, so I got hubby to drill a little hole in it afterwards.

Now I baked these for 1 hour 30 mins, but I did keep checking them throughout to make sure they didn't burn and that they were cooked all the way through....if they do start to darken in colour beofre they are cooked, then just place a piece of greaseproof paper over the top until they are cooked through. They did crack a little here and there, but that all adds to their charm, in my opinion lol

So now its time to decorate them....I've used some acrylic paints that I already had, these can be bought from any art type shops or Hobbycraft. You can use kids paints too, but I would try and get the liquid paints in a bottle rather than the paints you get in a palette as they are more pigmented and thicker, so you get a better finish.

 

You can also vanish them too, so they are more hard wearing.

 Hope you find the tutorial easy to follow, any questions just shout!

 I loved making these with Louis, it was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Much Love

Tab and Louis xx