Stay Home Card and Lemon Cupcakes

Gaby and her colleagues are missing each other  very much and came up with a cute idea - to cook together virtually. They even made an amusing video of the making of a lemon cake. And this is the card Gaby made for the initiative - the baking of the lemon cake.

My humble contribution to the card - I sewed the curtain :)

And here's the recipe for the lemon cake, which she baked into cupcakes:

• 120 g flour
• 150 g sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 100 g yogurt
• 3 tbsp sunflower oil
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Glaze:

• 150 g powdered sugar
• 5 tbsp lemon juice

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for about 30 min. Let to cool, glaze and enjoy.

Cross Stitch Greeting Cards

The three cross stitch greeting cards I managed to finish this season. The one with the two bells turned to be too big and complicated for a card, now I know that I should stick to simpler patterns and fewer colors when choosing a greeting card.

WIP - December 2014

Just a few words on what I've been working on:
My long-term project - a self-drafted cardigan for my husband. So far - pretty pleased with how this is coming, I'm keeping notes and if things turn out as nicely as planned I'll write down the pattern. I only wish I had more spare time for knitting, can't wait to see it finished. I had planned it as a Christmas present, but now I'm beginning to doubt I'll be ready in time for Christmas:

And another small Christmas project I try to stitch in the few spare minutes I can find during the light part of the day. This is going to be a Christmas card, but with the speed I'm stitching it ... probably for next Christmas :)))

Two Birthday Cards

When my major hobbies - knitting and cross stitching, are at a standstill, I seem to turn to miniatures - small crochet projects, beading and as of this year - cross stitch greeting cards. The stitching of a card usually takes two to three days, which in terms of time-consuming cross stitching translates into instant gratification. I think I'm hooked and all of my relatives and friends are "doomed" to receive a cross stitch greeting card from me :)))

Canvass: Aida 14
Floss: a mix of DMC, Ariadna and Rosace
Aperture cards: 8888bg.com

Handmade Greeting Card

Last week Gaby made this greeting card for her friend, who has a birthday tomorrow. They are both now in Austria at a German language school camp in the Austrian Alps, immensely enjoying themselves, as we were let to know :)))
I was impressed by the techniques she used in creating the card - all learned from the Internet in the course of the day, so I took a few pictures of the card before she packed it for the camp. I'm pretty sure they are far too busy to be reading my blog there and I'm not ruining the surprise, publishing the card a day before it is gifted :)