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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Make it: Ginger Biscuits

Last week I became a bit obsessed about making Ginger Biscuits!  I wanted to make something for a volunteer afternoon at work and so I decided on biscuits rather than cake and of course I had to have a dry run earlier in the week and so my colleagues got a very biscuit friendly week!

This was the recipe that Jane Horrocks recently used for The Great Sport Relief Bake Off and aparently Paul Hollywood's mum uses the same recipe, so it must be good!  I found the recipe on another blog: http://busybutterfingers.blogspot.co.uk/

They are so simple to make and you are most likely to have most of the ingredients already which is always a good start.  They do go hard really quickly, which I like, but you do have to have strong teeth or a good cuppa to dip them in!  I also added stem ginger to mine to make them extra Gingery, but you can leave out if you prefer.

Recipe

110g unsalted butter

110g brown sugar

110g golden syrup

225g self-raising flour

2 tsp ground ginger
50g Stem Ginger

Instructions

1.  Preheat oven to 180*C and grease baking sheets.

2.  Melt butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan gently until all melted together.

3.  Remove from the heat and add the dry ingredients to make a dough.

4.  Make into balls about a 50p size – do not flatten.

5.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

6.  Allow to cool and try not to eat them all!

If you try them out, let me know.  I also made some chocolate chip versions with a smaller amount of golden syrup and they seemed to stay softer for longer.  So do play around with the recipe and let me know what you get up to!

H