Doodle

A left handed banjo-playing piranha.

Grey crochet hat with a dark red flower on it.

Another crochet hat that I've made. I've been wearing it too.

Coconut Biscuits

I've got a real penchant for coconut at the moment, I bought some 'coconut rings' from the supermarket, but to be honest, they tasted a bit like shampoo. So I thought I'd make some coconut biscuits of my own devising.



Ingredients:
4oz butter
7oz sugar
1 egg
4oz plain flour
4oz self raising flour
3oz dessicated coconut (plus extra for sprinkling)

Method
Preheat the oven 180 degrees.
mix together the butter and sugar until thoroughly blended, then beat in the egg. Stir in the flours and coconut. Line a biscuit tin with greaseproof paper. You can roll out the dough and cut out shapes, or just make balls of dough and flatten them with a spoon. Sprinkle these with more dessicated coconut and bake for about 12 minutes. when they are just starting to turn brown, they are done.

Doodle house

Not sure if I'd feel safe living in this house. Good thing it's not real then.

Big-Flower crochet headband

Two crochet related posts in a row! It really is crochet central today.

This is the first crochet item that I've made for my etsy shop. I've made a few of these for friends already and they went down quite well.

Here it is for sale on Etsy

Crochet Swimming Hat

I made this wooly crochet hat in the style of an old fashioned rubber swimming hat.



Here it is from the front. It's the first crochet hat I've made. Didn't use any kind of guide, so it's full of errors, such as seam running up the back and plenty of gaps. I think I learnt a lot whilst making it though.



Here is the button detail. The chin strap looks a little baggy on this polystyrene head, but it fits okay on me. (I bought the head on ebay by the way, apparently its "unisex" but I don't think it could pass as a man by anyone's standards.)

Cat Doodle

Family of cats. Not sure what they're all so miserable about, or why they're just standing around like that. They're not very cat-like either. Oh shut-up.

iphone cases

One of my BFFs recently bought herself an iphone. To avoid getting it scratched she was carrying it around in a sock. Well, these iphone cases are perhaps a very small step up from a sock.



This is the substitute iphone I made to ensure the cases were the right size. It's the closest I'm going to get to owning a real one. (I wouldn't want one anyway though, yeah?)



This case was made of silk, and includes a white lining.



The second case was made using my new crochet skills. I even managed to get the letter B on there in a second colour.



Close up of the crochet case. I used a double crochet stitch (not really sure if that's what it's called, but that's what I've been calling it in my head anyway. It might actually be triple or single, but it's the one where you wrap the wool around the hock twice so I'm assuming double, right?)

Review: "Bring the Jubilee" by Ward Moore

After a long while of neglecting my challenge of reading every book in the SF masterworks series, I finally got round to visiting my local library and tracked down this book.

Number 42 in the SF masterworks list, Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore is a distopian alternative history story about a world in which the battle of Gettysburg had been won not by The Union but by The Confederate States of America. Call me a simpleminded dullard if you want, but I'm not exactly an expert on American history, so it took me a while (ie. the duration of the book) to realise that this was the case. Nevertheless, I did notice that it was an alternative history, and a particularly bleak one. The story follows Hodge Backmaker throughout his life in the poverty stricken North America. For the first two thirds, I did think to myself "never mind the jubilee, bring on the end of this bleedin' book" as It was somewhat of a drag. It did pick up towards the end, when Hodge joins a community of scholars, and witnesses the invention of a time machine. I enjoyed the ending (which I won't ruin) and felt it made up for the slow start of the novel.

As far as main characters go, Hodge Backmaker is a dull one. He seems self obsessed, whiny and uncaring towards the other characters. This book would have certainly been more enjoyable had there been more focus placed on the interesting idea of the narrative, and less on the main character himself.

I certainly wouldn't describe this book as a thrilling page turner, but if you're after a short, thought-provoking distraction it might be worth a try.

Doodle

Doodle of some girls wearing hats (not just hats obviously...well you can see it so you know that.) I've been crocheting some hats like this.

Flapjacks

Ingredients:
6oz (170g) butter or margerine
6oz (170g) brown sugar
3 tablespoons syrup
6oz (170g) porridge oats
3oz (85g) flour

Method:

Melt the butter and syrup together, either in a pan or in the microwave. Stir in the sugar, flour and porridge oats.

You can also add other ingredients at this point. Maybe some raisins, chocolate chips or chopped dried apricots. You can also add spices such as cinnamon or ginger. whatever you feel like really, but plain is always a classic.

Bake for approx 20 minutes on gas mark 4 (180 degrees). Keep an eye on them because they're not as nice if they get overcooked. When they're ready they will be golden brown around the edges. They will seem a bit too soft, but when they're cooled down they will set and become chewy.

Crochet

A couple of months ago, I learnt to crochet. I've got to say, It's actually really easy once you get started, and I'd recommend it to anyone.



This is a chain stitch. Once you learn to do that, you can do anything (sort of). I've been making all sorts of things. A lot of them are rubbish, but some of them are ok, so I'll post them soon.

In order to learn, I got some books out of the library. I won't say which ones because to be honest, they weren't very good. The best way to learn would be getting someone to show you, but watching a video is probably the best alternative. Bethintx1 has got some good instructional videos on youtube explaining all the basics of crochet (and more. But that's just one example.

Worst Doodle Ever

Lets just pretend this is interesting to look at.

Illustration Friday: Contained

Bit of an obvious idea I think. It's been a while since I took part in Illustration Friday, surely an obvious one is better than nothing right?

Many Mini Doodles in One

QWOP

QWOP is apparently the most difficult, and most irritating online game ever made.

The aim is to get a man to run 100 meters (or any amount of meters) by moving his legs using the Q, W, O and P buttons. I'm terrible at this game, and yet I'm compelled to keep trying again and again with no success.

If you want to waste time, and truly appreciate the luxury of having co-ordinated movement in real life, visit www.foddy.net/Athletics

My Cardboard Life: It's Back

My Cardboard Life is back after a Christmas break. I will be updating it every other day from now on.

Here is the latest episode, sorry if it offends anyone with the full frontal nudity!