Our Favourite Posts 2014

2014 is almost over and what a year we have had here on Live it. Love it. Make it. We have more of you reading our blog than ever before and it makes us feel truly humbled that so many of you are enjoying what we share here. We would not get the opportunities that we have had this year if it wasn't for all your support.  Before 2015 gets into full swing we wanted to go back and remember some of our personal favourite posts from the year.

Jan - Understanding a Dress Pattern 
The Series of posts I (Sammy) wrote about how to navigate your way through a paper pattern has been one of our most viewed series this year and one of my favourite to write. Are there any other things like this that you struggle with? Let us know and we might be able to turn it into a post for you.

Feb - Make it: Ginger Biscuits
These biscuits are AMAZING and so simple to make, they had to make it into a top list somewhere. They would make a great Christmas Party something to take too, although be warned, they are rock hard after a day due to the golden syrup in them.  Bake them in the morning and they will be great for that evening.

March - Our Liberty Adventure
In March we got to visit Liberty thanks to the lovely girls of the New Craft Society to hear about Liberty fabrics and have afternoon tea. It was a lovely experience and one we will never forget.

April - Our Tea and Crafting Adventure
We loved going to see the Tea and Crafting workshop space for the first time and have been again since.  In April it was to learn machine embroidery though and it was great fun, we instantly became hooked!

May - Blogtacular
We headed to London for our first blog convention.  We had such an amazing time, got to meet some of our blogging idols and made some lovely new friends.  Despite H and I both being rather poorly all weekend.

June - Our 500th post and OMG we are in Mollie Makes
Well, we couldn't do this without mentioning one of our biggest moments this year.  We got a project featured in Mollie Makes! And an interview too, it's still exciting and we loved being part of it, fingers crossed we can do it again soon.

July - Brush Up Those Blogging Skills
For Me (Sammy) July was all about learning, I shared my favourite Blogging e-courses that I have taken in the past and learnt some new crafts on my road trip to Austria.

August - How we Wear New Look Special
We loved working with New Look and this is one of my (H) favourite How we Wear posts of the year, we look so glam!  Plus we got to work with one of our favourite brands - what's not to like!

September - Make it: Cable Cosy
By far our most popular tutorial of this year and my (Sammy) favourite has to be the cable cosy we made in Makers month. With the help of Dashwood Studio's gorgeous fabric and a need to store all my cables in one place this cosy is my favourite post of the year.

October - Make it: Spooky Spiders and Vampire Bats
Who doesn't love some spiders and bats for Halloween! Such a simple make to decorate the place or just be a fun make with the kids for the time of year.

November - Sew Crafty Online is Now Open
On a personal note (Sammy) opening my shop to a whole new customer base made my November, heck it made my year!  After working on it for so long it was such a relief to have the site go live. We have had such a lovely response and lots of lovely sales.

December - Gift Wrapped
The best part of Christmas for us is the giving of presents and what better way for us to enjoy it, than some amazing gift wrapping.  The gift is just part of it!

Wow! what a year it has been! What have been your highlights from 2014? and what are you looking forward to next year?

H and Sammy xxx


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Love it: Autumn

Autumn is by far my favourite time of year. I am a person who loves being cosy, and snuggling up at home with my hubby and our cats is my favourite thing to do in the whole world. It is a time of year when for me work gets hectic so my home is the calm, soft, warm place I can retreat to when it all gets a bit crazy. It is a time I usually get to reflect on the year that, like so many before it, has gone by way too fast and dream of the plans I can make for the last few months of the year.

Make it: Dairy Free Cookies

It's just about typical for me that I have developed a Dairy intolerance, to be fair, it has been around for a while, but I actually just went and got myself tested and found out what it was all about.  So, I have been trying some good old recipes using dairy free spread to see whether I can still eat the things I already love!

I thought I would have a go at Chocolate and Oat cookies as you can have 50% and above dark chocolate if you are going dairy free and just replace the butter with dairy free spread.

They tasted pretty damn good too, the only difference I could tell is that they spread a little more in the oven.

You will need: 113g dairy free spread ( I use Vitalite or Pure Soya), 110g brown sugar, 100g caster sugar, 128g plain flour, 106g oats, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 100g dark chocolate (50% and above) and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

This recipe is relatively easy, put all the ingredients together in a bowl and mix well, then add a desert spoon sized dollop onto baking sheets and put in the oven at 180 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

That is literally all you need to do.  This recipe makes about 15 cookies, I doubled up my batch to make loads for a friends birthday and they seemed to go down very well.  I don't think they even knew!

What's your favourite recipe, whether dairy free or not, let me know in the comments below.  If you do have any great recipes for dairy free though, I would love to hear about them as I am trying to find more all the time.

It does make me very hungry doing these posts, but as they are so quick I could probably just make up a a batch after work, right? 

H

Food for the January Blues

Now, we all know that January can leave people feeling all kinds of glum, its the come-down from Christmas and the depressing weather no doubt.  This January has felt particularly bad with all the wet weather and floods the UK has been having, its been difficult to keep ourselves upbeat.  Every week, each Monday seems to have been given the Blue Monday tag, probably meaning people feel sad just thinking about it.

However, the best way to keep yourself chirpy, is with some serious comfort food, nothing better than a bit of stodgy food and cake to banish those blues!  And you know what, sometimes only some beans on toast or grilled cheese will do, but for those times when you just want a little something extra, we bring you some tasty recipes to try.  Your welcome!

We all know that Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and so why not start with pushing those blues away at breakfast time!  These Overnight Oat recipes from A Beautiful Mess are on the wish list of things to make.  They will give you a great boost first thing to help you deal with your day and so its the perfect thing to try.

Next up is some tasty treats to help you get through the day.  These Toffee Ginger cupcakes look amazing and they are Gluten Free!  The girls over at Domestic Sluttery do some great Gluten free recipes and so there are no excuses to get that cake fix, sorry.

Or, if you are a biscuit fan rather than a cake fan, these Raspberry and White Chocolate cookies from the Turquoise Lemons blog are making us drool as we type!  We are partial to this particular pairing of ingredients and what's not to love about a cookie with a cup of tea?  After all, tea solves everything, right? 

Over to some serious savoury dishes for dinner.  You can't beat a big dollop of Shepherds Pie to warm up your cockles on a dark and dreary day.  This recipe from Rosalilium just makes you want to dive right on in there.

For the veggies, or just don't fancy the meat tonight, there is always Mac and Cheese!  This used to be one of H's old housemates fail-safe dishes for making her feel better and we can see why.  Pasta, cheese and more cheese, yummy.  This one is from the Eating well website and so it is a little better for you than the usual.  Guilt free comfort food, even better.

And, last but not least is your dessert to round off with.  This Toffee Apple Crumble is going to happen, alot!  It comes from the BBC Good Food website and does not disappoint.  H love's to make a crumble and has never had any complaints, but this little beauty looks like it will surpass her other versions.  The only last decision to make is whether it should be covered with cream or custard!

Well, that's the round up of some favourite recipes to banish those blues.  Do you have any recipes you like to use on those glum days?  Let us know in the comments below and we can have a go.

Remember that Food feeds the soul, and so it would be rude not to feed it right?!

H & Sammy