Cultured Butter

I've been making my own butter for a couple of months now.  It's cheaper and I know for a fact there's not margarine or color added to it, which is a big bonus.

About a week ago I decided to try my hand at making Cultured Butter and I'm pretty sure I'll never go back. Seriously, I could get fat off of this stuff!  It's pretty easy to do, all you need is time.

I make a pretty big batch at a time, but you can definitely cut the recipe in half.

1 litre heavy cream (35% whipping cream) 

6 tbsp plain yoghurt

1 tsp salt (optional)

Pour your heavy cream into a bowl and add 6 tbsp of yogurt. Mix well.  Put a lid on it, or cover it with plastic wrap and place it in a warm spot for 12 hours.  I usually start it just before I go to bed and finish it up in the morning.

12 hours later it doesn't really look any different but it smells a lot like yoghurt!

Pour the cultured cream into a stand mixer, and mix with a beater on med-high until you get thick cream.

Once the cream is really thick, switch to your paddle attachment.

At this point it's a really good idea to wrap plastic wrap all the way around your bowl and arm of the stand mixture.  When the butter and milk start to separate it will really splash and slosh around.

I find that this whole process takes less than 5 minutes but it really varies on how fast you are beating the cream. When you notice that the milk and butter have totally separated, the milk will be slopping around and splashing a lot, then you're ready to stop the mixer and strain the butter.

milk and butter separated

Scoop out all the butter and strain it.

Now you're going to wash the butter.  Put it in a bowl and pour some cold water over it.  Drain the water and repeat until the water runs clean.

Put your butter on a non stick surface or some sort and knead it until you get all the liquid out.

Add 1 tsp of salt and knead it in until it's well combined.  You can do more or less salt, or none at all depending on your taste.

 Put your butter into a glass or plastic container and store it in the fridge, a butter crock, or freeze it.  Save the milk for baking or pancakes or whatever!  It's not true buttermilk but it works great as a substitute and because it's been cultured it actually tastes a bit similar.

And there you have it! Cultured Butter and "Buttermilk" for less than the price of just store bought butter!

New Bags

 I recently bought the Show Off Bag Pattern and selling license and once again I'm totally impressed by Rae's patterns.

The instructions were easy to follow, with lots of pictures and the best part is, when you buy her pattern you get an instant download.  I'm always impatient when it comes to buying PDF patterns, I just don't want to wait!

I have a couple of the bags listed in my shop now but it was a fun sew so I'm sure I'll add more yet.

I also finished up a new design, I haven't decided totally on a name for it but I think I might go with The Mary -Jane as one of my facebook followers suggested.

I'm in the middle of making a PDF pattern for this bag too, so stay tuned!  (and watch my facebook page, I'll be looking for pattern testers again!)

I'm also very very close to releasing my first ever sewing pattern for sale!  The pattern is out with some testers right now and I'm planning to release it in my Kids Shop next week Monday.  The pattern is for the Billy Car Roll-Up and Play Mat and includes cutting diagrams, step by step instructions, and all the pictures you need for every step of the way.

Have you been sewing anything new?

There She Goes Again

It's totally normal to have your daughter run outside after some hail fell and have her eat it.... right?  And yes, those are her big brothers boots.

A New Bow

Travis finished up a bow for his cousin a couple of weeks ago and now that she has the bow I can finally post about it!
This is a laminated hard maple, stained black with leather dye. It pulls at about 30-35lbs.

braced

   

at full draw (see photo below to see it at full draw on someone with the right arm length)

The lucky recipient was Trav's cousin in Manitoba and she looks pretty good shooting it if you ask me.

For the odd ones of you that actually only read the random archery post I do, my apologies for this, but Katrina, where did you get your boots???

Travis did make her some bamboo arrows as well which somehow never made it into the tube when He mailed the bow but we'll get them to you one day Katrina.  He also made her a leather arm guard with carved Herons on it.  You can sort of see it in the pictures.

Trav has a few more bows in the works so as those get finished I'll keep posting them. If this weather ever actually turns into Spring we'll be heading out The Range to actually shoot these things.

Seedling Status

We started planting some seedlings not quite 2 weeks ago and things are growing, fast.

Some green onions I bought at the grocery store a while back, at first I had them sitting in water but I just put them in a pot. The green onions grow up, I cut some off and they keep growing.

I don't know what I like more, having green things growing in my kitchen, or the constant reminder that it really is Spring.

Spring Days

seeding cold frames

spinach is starting to grow again

green things are springing up

roasting sausage over the fire pit in the backyard

love.

outside

Sewing for My Girl

The other day I went through my box of too big clothes that I have for Ara and realized that she has almost no clothes for this summer.  This made me think I should really try and sew all the clothes she needs.  The main reason I got into sewing was for practical reasons so here we go, I'm on a mission to sew her whole summer wardrobe!

I started out with buying a bunch of patterns from a shop on Etsy called Too Sweets.  All her stuff is adorable so I just might have bought 6 patterns...

I have this bad habit of buying patterns and then never using them so I decided this time to make one of the dresses right away. I picked the Best Bubble Dress and it was such an easy sew.

nothing like a massive peanut butter sandwich to bring out the girl in my daughter ;)

I chose the 12 months to 2T size and it was a bit small for her. She mostly still wears 18-24 months so I thought I was safe but mostly I just made the elastics too tight. That's an easy fix thanfully.

I really loved using this pattern.  All her patterns pieces are done up on the computer so no hand drawn pattern pieces. She gives step by step photo instructions which is also really nice.  I think next up I'm going to attempt the Mini Maxi Dress and then maybe the shorts pattern.

I may also shorten the Best Bubble Dress into a shirt in another fabric too.  Should be easy enough!

The Commuter Cowl

A couple of weeks back, Shannon of Luvinthemommyhood asked for pattern testers for a new sewing pattern she was working on. I've been a big fan of Shannon and her fabulous blog for a while so of course I jumped on the chance to pattern test for her.  The pattern was for The Commuter Cowl and I'm seriously in love with it.

I've now made 3 cowls, one for myself of course, and two for the shop. The pattern is easy to follow, with step by step instructions. Even someone brand new to sewing could make this pattern and it really doesn't take long to stitch up at all.

Shannon has the pattern available now in her etsy shop if you want to sew your own, or if you want to buy your own, visit my shop!

and for once you actually get to see me modeling something haha!

hubs took this one, he was totally making funny faces at me.