Life in colour

Crochet mandala earrings

2014-06-11T00:16:00.001+03:00

I've already told you about making mandala for Yarndale 2014 festival in my previous post. Crocheting mandalas is so pleasant and inspiring, that I decided to make a few more, but in a smaller size and create an earrings. At the same time I didn't want to send an envelope with a single mandala to Lucy, I wanted to put a little handmade present for her. I have been reading Lucy's Attic24 blog for several years already and I'm so thankful that she writes it, it's so cozy, colorful and inspiring, it's like a sunshine in blogland that warms hundreds of grateful readers. Thank you Lucy for what you do!

So that's how this two pairs of crochet mandala earrings appeared. I used the pattern for cup coasters from here - it's a reworked crochet circle motif pattern from 1893 and it reminds a flower a little bit.
First pair of earrings is mono-color - in gorgeous blue.

And another one is in a combination of grey, purple, light blue and darker blue. I adore each of these colors. The colorful one of course goes to Lucy as she is the queen of colors :) and another one will stay in my crochet jewelry collection. Hope she will like it.

By the way, do try this cute easy pattern.

Crochet mandala for Yarndale 2014

2014-06-10T19:58:00.000+03:00

Are you making mandala for Yarndale 2014?

I couldn't stay away from this beautiful event. After reading Lucy's post about mandalas and her great idea of mandala wall installation I was sure I'm participating. I took the box of my yarn leftovers, picked up the colors and choose the pattern. I've looked through a lot of inspiring colorful mandala patterns on pinterest, but I decided to stop on this one - it has like a wheel motif in the center and something floral.

I have to say that crocheting mandalas is very quick, easy and so addictive.

Do try making one or more.

Exploring Barcelona p.4

2013-10-15T19:51:00.000+03:00

And here is the last part of the Barcelona story. Previous parts can be found here: part 1, part 2 and part 3 about Sagrada Familia. I won't be talking a lot, just enjoy the sea and boats view with beautiful sky above.

Pictures below were taken from the roof of the old port building were Museum of the History of Catalonia (Museu D'Història De Catalunya) is located now. There is a nice restaurant with great views on the roof, where we enjoyed our cappuccino.

This is a picture of an ordinary street in the historical center of the city.

One of the cathedral hidden in the narrow streets of Gothic Quarter.

We also visited Picasso museum. He was born and worked in Barcelona. The museum is located in the old stone building. This is the yard inside it.

That's it for Barcelona trip! Thanks for joining.
Will be back soon with new stories from Italy, as we've recently been there. Yes, I was writing about Barcelona so long, that we've managed to have another journey already.

Exploring Barcelona p.3. Sagrada Familia

2013-10-15T14:17:00.002+03:00

This is the third part of our Barcelona trip story. Previous two parts are here and here. This part is about the greatest Gaudi's creation - Sagrada Familia Cathedral. It's been building since 1882 and is expected to be completed by 2026. The reason of such a long building process is the financing - it is being built only on the anonymous donations.
We visited Basilika and the towers (entrance ticket costed us 18 euros per person). You also can buy a ticket online and avoid very long queues.
Sagrada Familia is really huge. I mean REALY big and beautiful.
This is how it looks in the panorama of the city (the picture was taken from the top of the hill in Park Güell).

The sculptures on the facade are gorgeous and very detailed.

Now let's go inside.
The ceilings are so high. People look like tiny ants here. Columns are of a different forms, textures and made of different materials. The main idea that Gaudi wanted to implement is to make them look like trees.

Just look at the ceilings, so graceful.

Now the mosaics.

They are also in progress, some windows have only simple glass. But those windows that already have the mosaics installed are stunning. The color mixture of lights creates a special atmosphere and feelings.

I felt very special inside, realizing all this huge work, that been done with stone to create such a monumental building, this is really very impressive. I would say that Sagrada Familia is the cathedral that impressed me the most among other cathedrals and churches I've seen. The project itself is very huge and complicated. Gaudi didn't like to use usual forms in his creations, no straight lines, no flat surfaces. He tried to reproduce natural shapes and forms with parabolic, hyperbolic, spiral lines and surfaces - and this is a very difficult task in construction, especially if using stone.

After our amazement calmed a little bit and we could breathe normally again, we went to the elevator that picked us to the towers of the Sagrada Familia. The towers are very tall, and those that are open to the public and finished are not the tallest. The tallest and largest tower will be in the middle and it is not done yet.

A great panoramic view of the city opens from the towers.

The construction is going all the time. The large cranes and technical buildings are installed on the roof. This looks impressive - a large crane at the large cathedral building it large and larger, higher and higher. There are a lot of workers, construction noise is heard everywhere, Sagrada Familia keeps growing.

And few more views.

Hope you enjoyed our Sagrada Familia journey. Sorry for so many photos, there were so many things I wanted to show you. This is definitely a much visit place in Barcelona.

Discovering Craftsy

2013-10-14T12:11:00.000+03:00

Have you heard about Craftsy?
I've discovered this new community some time ago. It looks very nice, with lots of craft classes, patterns and so on. And a lot of them are free. You can buy or sell patterns, attend classes, etc. I have already tried a free Bag Making class - it shows how to make a reversible tote and a zipper pouch. I liked the quality of the video, detailed explanations, bunch of features like video notes, ability to ask questions, everything is on a high level.
I was surprised to know that they have no fees for sellers - no listings fees, no selling fees, no other fees, you don't need to renew your item in the list paying the fee every half of the year. Wow, that looks attractive! As far as their main activity is selling courses, yarn, etc., they've created that selling featured to get more people to their resource. And that works. I have already added my crochet heart earrings pattern to my Craftsy store. Another advantage of thier pattern store is that they handle the download process, so there is no headaches with emails and so on. People buy and download your pattern from the website. I think that's a good alternative to Etsy and other websites.
What do you think about it? Have you tried any courses or created your store?

Crochet earrings with pom-poms

2013-09-28T08:00:00.000+03:00

This earrings are my new spontaneous creation. I was walking by the jewelry furniture store, of course I entered and bought some cute details for future creations. When I came home I've already had a clear idea of this colorful ethnic earrings in my mind. And finally I've got an opportunity to use those super cute tiny pom-poms.

The earrings turned out pretty charming, very bright and warm, reminding about summer and sun during this cold rainy days.

Do you like the colors? Hope you do :)
Such earrings are really easy and quick to make. Just 4 rows of single crochet, joining different yarn each row. After that sew the pom-poms and beads to the 4th row.

Crochet red ball earrings

2013-09-27T07:00:00.000+03:00

I started working on these earrings quite a long time ago. I've made the balls, bought the furniture and they were laying on the shelf for a while. Then one day I've come across them and decided to complete this work immediately. Here is how they turned out.

Here is the pattern for the crochet balls.
Take a bead and use it as a basis. Beads are especially good for earrings as they keep the form unlike soft fillers.

1 row: make a magic circle and 6 sc (single crochet) into it (6)
2 row: increase* in each stitch (12)
3 row: increase in each 2 stitch (18)
4 row: increase in each 3 stitch (24)
5 row: 1 sc in each stitch (24)
6 row: 1 sc in each stitch (24)
7 row: 1 sc in each stitch (24)
8 row: decrease** in each 3d stitch (18)
9 row: decrease in each 2nd stitch (12)
10 row: decrease in each stitch (6)
11 row: continue decreasing in each stitch to finish the ball without a hole. (0)

* increase means make 2 sc into one stitch
** decrease means merge 2 stitches

Enjoy making your earrings!

Crochet slavic bride and groom

2013-09-27T00:43:00.001+03:00

Here are slavic bride and groom amigurumis - my recent creation for my lovely friend's wedding. Both bride and groom have light brown hair with red tint, that's why I used orange yarn to reproduce their hair.
Sorry for not the best quality photo, unfortunately I haven't enough time to wait for the proper light. We have constant rains here lately.

The deadline for this present was really tight, so I had to significantly simplify the scheme. The initial idea was much more rich and detailed. But I think I've managed to keep the symbolism and put my soul, good energy and best wishes into it. Hope it will bring only luck and happiness to it's new owners.
I used linen fabric to make their clothes, blue and pink yarn for belts and headbands, orange yarn for the hair and some synthetic filler to fill the heads. Amigurumis are about 10 centimeters high.

Amigurumi Viking Girl

2013-09-26T22:22:00.001+03:00

Let me introduce you a little viking girl. I made this cute amigurumi for a good friend of mine, who moved to Sweden recently. She has a bright red hair with braids and a traditional viking hat with horns. She is wearing a fur coat with colorful buttons, that not only warms her, but also is her basis.

She likes looking out of the window waiting for her viking boy.

Despite braveness, courage and strength, that are usual characteristics for an average viking girl, she is also very graceful and tiny - she actually fits in my palm.

Just take a look at her gorgeous long hair.

So here she is - Viking Girl. Hope you enjoyed your acquaintance. See you later!

African flower potholder

2013-06-02T23:58:00.002+03:00

I've been in love with African flower pattern since I've first seen it. First I've tried a hexagon version of the African flower. The best step-by-step tutorial I've found was this one - it has a lot of photos and is written very well. After that I've discovered the square version of the African flower - tutorial here. I prefer the hexagon version, it looks prettier to me.

I was looking for a proper project to use this great pattern. It is to rich to be used as a motif in multi-hexagon projects, like blankets, bags, etc. It best of all plays as a main part of the item, being an accent of it, like in this project, but that's only my opinion.

So here it is - an African flower potholder. I've made it as a present for my grandmom's birthday. It can be used for holding hot things, as a cup or teapot coaster or just a table cloth to put a vase of flowers on.

The pattern is very easy. First make a six-leaved African flower using this tutorial. Then 5 rows of double crochet stitches (one dc in each stitch from the previous row on the sides of the hexagon, *1dc, sc, 1dc* in each corner of the hexagon). Last row is a shell edging - I've explained how to make it in this post.
Of course, as usual my little helper was helping me to take photos of the ready made potholder.

Hope you're doing good.

Exploring Barcelona p. 2

2013-05-29T18:30:00.000+03:00

Continuing my story about our Barcelona trip.
Next day we visited Montjuïc mountain. It can be reached by Bus Turistic (red line) or by a telerific funicular, that goes high above the sea with great views. There are a lot of interesting places on Montjuïc. We visited Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, that is housed in a beautiful Palau Nacional, that was built for the exhibition in 1929.

A great view on the Plaça d'Espanya opens from the front yard of the museum. You can see Tibidabo mountain on the horizon and the Sagrat Sor cathedral on the top of it.

And there is a gorgeous cascade fountain in front of the castle.

It was a little bit rainy that day and the clouds looks stunning.

Also we visited Poble Espanyol - an open air museum, that shows examples of buildings from different parts of Spain.

There are a lot of workshops, where people make and sell a lot of handmade things: ceramics, jewelry, masks, clothes, etc.

See what we've found right on the street - an orange tree full of ripe oranges.

In the evening we went to one of the restaurants near out hotel. We ordered grilled seafood and fish dish and a bottle of red Rioja wine. Mmm, grilled baby octopuses, shrimps, lobsters, mussels and two kinds of fish. That was the most yummy dinner. Absolutely pleasant evening!

To be continued...

Exploring Barcelona

2013-05-28T23:42:00.001+03:00

After visiting Flower Festival and bonsai exhibition in Girona we headed to Barcelona. It welcomed us with a sunny weather and a cool wind from the sea. To our surprise Barcelona was much colder at this time of the year than our native Kiev, taking into account that it is much more to the south than Kiev. Who knows, maybe that's only a current year situation. So we wore some warm jackets and started exploring the city. As we arrived almost in the evening, we decided to walk through La Ramblas and the Gothic Quarter, find a nice restaurant and enjoy our first evening in Barcelona.
La Ramblas is a famous street in Barcelona where the fortress walls stood earlier. It starts from the Columbus Column near the port and ends up at the Plaça Catalunya. Now this is a wide crowded street full of street cafes, restaurants, gift shops, living statues and tourists. La Ramblas lead us to the Plaça Catalunya, a wide square with beautiful fountains, a lot of people sitting on the benches and on the grass, feeding a number of pigeons and enjoying the warm light of the setting sun.
After Plaça we had a short walk to the new part of the city, stopped near Casa Batlo, designed by the great and very talented Catalonian architect Antoni Gaudi.

After that we went back to the old part of the town and started looking for a nice place for a dinner. Walking through the narrow medieval streets between the old stone buildings, we suddenly found an entrance to the inner courtyard with a lot of blooming flowerbeds and a nice cozy restaurant in the corner. That was exactly what we wanted. We ordered degustation menu, that included different kinds of Catalonian tapas and a bottle of sangria. Let me tell you more about tapas. The menu included about 6 of them: bloody Catalonian sausages, brave potatoes (french fried potato cubes with a hot sauce and mayo), salad made of fresh local vegetables, potato omelette, marinated anchovies, plate of local cheese, some jamon and tomato bread. Each plate included a small portion of food, but everything was so tasty and nutritious, that in fact we were gorged and satisfied. At the middle of our dinner a musician started performing Spanish guitar playing, that made a great atmosphere. We felt very happy sitting in a cozy restaurant in the heart of the old Barcelona, eating traditional food, soaking cool sangria and listening to a Spanish guitar... This was our reward for the hard work during the year and a long tiring winter. Our first evening in Barcelona was fantastic.
Next day we decided to take a two days trip on a Barcelona Bus Turistic. We've bought tickets via this website, because it had a 10% discount. The bus has three routes (Red, Blue and Green), that go through the main sightseeing and it stops near each of them, so you can hop on and off at any stop so many times, as you need. Also they give you a little book with a lot of discounts at different museums, restaurants and shops. We started our journey from the Columbus Column and decided to go to the Park Güell - another great Gaudi's creation. After a nice trip on the second floor of Bus Turistic with wind in our hair we've finally got off the bus near the famous park. By the way, visiting the park is free of charge. Two beautiful gingerbread houses met us on the entrance.

And here is a famous lizard with ceramic mosaics. The number of visitors was really big, so it was impossible to take a good photo.

The park is quite big and the far you get from the entrance, the less people you meet. Park is full of different architectural constructions, exotic trees, blooming flowers, ceramic mosaics and green kakadu parrots (actually the whole city is full of them).

There is an observation platform at the top of the hill. A great view on the city and the sea opens from it. Here is how the Sagrada Familia Cathedral looks like. It is really huge and contrasting to the other buildings, I'll show you more photos from it later.

Flowers and ceramic mosaics are everywhere and that's beautiful.

After a long time walking in the park we headed to one of the nearby cafes and had a nice lunch with lasagna, casseroles and some sweet iced tea. Then got on the Bus Turistic and got out on the next stop - a part of the city that is famous with it's best bakeries and pastry. We walked trough the narrow old streets a little and appeared at the Placa with a cute street cafe. We ordered cappuccino and some sweets. Mmm, that was yummy.

Then bus again, it drove us back to the port. We've completed the blue route this day and a half of the red one. We didn't have a goal to see all the sightseeings, so we didn't have a strict plan, we just wanted to rest and enjoy our stay in Barcelona by doing what we want at a particular moment, so after some more walking, shopping, etc., we decided to have a dinner on La Ramblas. I've read a lot of tourist's reviews and stories about visiting Barcelona, while planning our trip, and some of them were saying that street restaurants on La Ramblas are more expensive and food is less quality here. But anyway we decided to try ourselves and had a very good experience in Amaya restaurant. We ordered paella with seafood and fish, some brave potatoes and local beer. Everything was great and tasty, good service and good quality, maybe just a little bit more expensive, but that was expected.
That's how we spent our first day and a half in Barcelona.
To be continued...

Bonsai exhibition in Girona

2013-05-27T20:03:00.000+03:00

While being on a Flower Festival in Girona we've come across a beautiful bonsai exhibition held on the terrace of the local historical museum. Everything was decorated in Japanese style and all those tiny trees and small plants were absolutely gorgeous. Here is little photo mosaic to show you the ones I liked the most.

And one more portion.

Hope you enjoyed this wonderful greens. Posts about Barcelona are coming soon. See you!

Flower Festival in Girona

2013-05-26T00:13:00.003+03:00

Hello everyone! I'm back to tell you about our recent vacation in Spain, share some pictures and impressions. I like travelling in spring, especially in late spring, when the nature has already woken up after winter, flowers and trees are blooming and the grass and leaves are of that fresh bright green color that is specific for spring.
So our visit begun in a small Catalonian town of Girona, that is located not far from Barcelona (about 100 kilometers). Before the trip I was searching for any special events, that could be held here at this time of the year. And I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Girona is a place where Flower Festival is annually held since 1955.

The festival is held on the third week of May. This is a period when all the town is full of different flower expositions and crowds of tourists who want to see all this beauty. Some narrow medieval streets were really crowdy, that actually explains the busyness of the hotels at this period of time.

Overall the town is very nice with a huge gorgeous cathedrals, old stone buildings, a lot of flowers, nice street cafes and yummy Catalonian food and wine.
We had a pleasant dinner at one of the ancient squares surrounded with the old houses. We ordered traditional tapas and a bottle of Catalonian wine and had a relaxing cozy evening in the heart of Catalonia.
Next day we enjoyed a Flower Festival, walked trough the town and viewed various flower displays and exhibitions.

Some of the displays were really impressive. For example this one with burned wooden boxes that haven't yet stopped fuming and contrasting white letters and white tree on them. As far as I understood that was and appeal against smoking.

Beautiful flowers were almost everywhere. Here are a few more pictures from the Flower Festival.

We loved Girona, a nice cozy peaceful town and we'll be happy to visit it again.

After a good portion of flower art we continued our journey moving to Barcelona - the capital of Catalonia. I'm going to tell you this story in the next posts.
Have a great end of the day!

Things I enjoy this weekend

2013-03-03T11:20:00.000+02:00

... blue-blue spring sky. I feel so happy when I see such blue sky and a brightly shining sun. I missed them so much in winter. I'm so looking forward for warm spring days and green leaves and grass to appear.

... morning pancakes. I like cooking some pancakes in the morning on weekends in a slow and peaceful weekend atmosphere. And then enjoy eating them with a cup of morning tea or coffee. Just perfect beginning of the day!

... my new kitchen supplies for cake decoration. I was thinking about such tools for a while, but haven't decided to buy till I saw these two. The left one is a decoration pen and on the right side is a cake cream pastry injector. I've found them in a local supermarket, but you can find similar items on amazon, like this decoration pen and this cream injector. I haven't tried them yet, but I'm so excited to do this soon!

... banana cookies. In one of the evenings this week I suddenly felt that I need to bake something, but I had only one dark banana in my fridge. I started googling and found this lovely recipe. As it requires about 2-2,5 bananas and I had only one, I decided to substitute second banana with a few tablespoons of apple jam. I also added some chocolate pieces and chopped walnuts. The cookies were delicious with a nice banana smell and taste. I definitely recommend this cookies, especially if you like bananas.

Now I'm going to enjoy the second part of my lovely weekends.
Don't forget to enjoy yours!

Weekend pleasures

2013-02-17T17:09:00.001+02:00

The week has flown quickly and we are enjoying our weekends again. Today we were blessed to have some long-awaited warm sunshine. It is a rare event at this part of the year, that's why it is so enjoyable to walk under it and soak it's lovely energy. We decided to go for a walk to one of the Kiev's parks - the park of Partizan Glory. It is quite large and includes a part of pine forest and few lakes. They are still covered with ice allowing people to walk on them. Another lake was full of skating children.

Take a look around. I haven't been on a walk for quite a while. We had a very cold and snowy winter this year. Hope spring will come soon and we'll be able to enjoy such warm sunny walks more often.

The sky was blue and looked unusual after all the grey days we've had.

Another little pleasure was on my table today. I finally tried to make a carrot cake! I used Lucy's recipe and it came out very yummy. And I have to mention it's really very quick to make.

See that little nose trying to steal my piece of cake? Actually, that's what I always deal with while taking photos anywhere in my apartment. This little fluffy helper is following me everywhere and she doesn't like to be turned back. Taking photos becomes a real challenge, especially when it comes to crochet things, she loves them most of all.

I was also preserving some orange zest. I dry it and add to my tea to give it a nice orange aroma.

Hope you are having a pleasant weekends! See you soon.

♥Heart♥ shaped chocolate cupcakes with light frosting, chocolate shavings and mandarin zest

2013-02-14T22:18:00.000+02:00

Hope you are all having a lovely day. My day was full of good mood, nice atmosphere and little pleasant things. It's been a regular working day, but with a special feeling of happiness, that makes you smile, like in a beautiful sunny day, even with grey weather outside. This chocolate heart muffins with light frosting and some chocolate shavings and mandarin zest on top were one of those pleasant things.

I've bought this form few months ago while shopping for the new year presents. Actually I've bought two of them - one went to my grandma and another is happily used by me. And I have to say I'm pretty satisfied with it.

I used this recipe with slight modifications to make the muffin dough. I added cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate, omitted adding 1 orange juice and putted my favorite spices in there. So the overall list of ingredients is:

120 g flour
150 g sugar
10 g vanilla sugar (can be replaced by vanilla extract)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
40 g melted butter
1 egg
125 ml milk

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C (325F).
2. Mix the flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and cocoa powder together in a bowl.
3. Add the butter and mix until combined.
4. Whisk the egg and milk together in a jug.
5. Stir the egg and milk mixture into the flour mixture until just combined.
6. Spoon the mixture into the paper cups or other cupcake forms and bake for 10-15 minutes for small cupcakes and 15-20 minutes for larger ones, or until risen and golden-brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
7. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
8. Decorate with frosting, chocolate shavings and fresh mandarin/orange zest.

I made chocolate shavings and mandarin zest using zest grater like on this picture.
And I used this recipe to make frosting. I have already written about this frosting in one of my previous post saying that it is really good - very light and smooth.

Adding some banana hearts for decoration. Bananas taste absolutely great with this frosting. Probably I'll try to make such banana cream once. What can be better than a combination of chocolate, bananas and whipped or alike cream.

Looks nice, doesn't it?

I've made some bite muffins in paper cups using the dough leftovers.

So my Valentine's day was sweet and pleasant. How about yours?

♥ Happy Valentine's Day! ♥

2013-02-14T12:50:00.001+02:00

Happy Valentine's Day, my dear readers!
Wish you lots of love, happiness, pleasant moments, smiles, peace, harmony and understanding! Love and be loved!

♥ Have a pleasant and lovely day! ♥

Crochet ♥hearts♥

2013-02-12T22:26:00.002+02:00

I've found one more crochet heart pattern, that I used few years ago to make this cute hearts. Red one was a present for St. Valentine's Day. And purple and yellow one was made as a new year tree decoration.

The posts are written in Russian, so I decided to make a short translation for my English speaking readers. See the scheme for the first and second side of the heart below.

Happy crafting!

Crochet ♥ heart ♥ shaped cup coasters

2013-02-11T23:45:00.002+02:00

Here is one more gift idea for the Valentine's day - crochet heart shaped cup coasters. They are quick and easy to make, you don't need a lot of yarn, any leftovers of matching colors can be used. You can give it either to friends, relatives or to your beloved person. The cup coaster will remind them about your love and care every time they'll drink their tea or coffee or whatever.

Everything you need is crochet hook, scissors and of course some yarn.
And here is the crochet scheme.

This is a basic heart pattern. I also added some edging for my heart cup coasters. This one has two rows of single crochet stitches - white and pink one.

For the second heart I've made a shell edging. Here is a description.
5dc in 2d chain from the hook
skip 1 chain
1sc into the next chain
*
skip 1 chain
5dc in the next chain
skip 1 chain
1sc in the next chain
*
Repeat actions between * until you reach the end of your pattern.

Are you preparing some handmade presents for the upcoming Valentine's day?

♥ Happy crafting! ♥

Pork spare ribs in honey-mustard sauce

2013-02-10T18:10:00.003+02:00

When I first tried meat in honey mustard sauce (it was a gorgeous baked duck cooked by my grandma) I understood that my life wasn't full enough without this sauce. And then a period of experiments begun, I'm trying this beautiful sauce with different kinds of meat in different combinations and for various occasions. This time I'll tell you how to make fabulous pork spare ribs in honey mustard sauce.

Ingredients:

- 10 pork spare ribs (washed, dried, cut into separate pieces)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoons mustard (hot or mild - whatever you like better)
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 1 teaspoon basil (either fresh or dry)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- salt, pepper

Instructions:

1. Salt and pepper the ribs.

2. Mix honey and mustard in a bowl until smooth. This mixture smells gorgeous, isn't it?

3. Add chopped garlic.

4. Add basil, pepper.

5. Add soy sauce. Mix well. The smell is even better now.

6. Cover each spare rib piece in the prepared mixture and leave it in a cool place for about an hour. Actually you can start frying them without waiting, but the taste will be richer and deeper if you'll give the ribs some time to soak the marinade.

7. Put some olive oil into the frying pan and add the ribs. Poor the rest of the sauce, if there is any, in the pan as well.

8. Cook for about 10-15 minutes on the low heat. Turn the ribs to the other side after they'll get browned from first one.

Cook 10-15 minutes more. Put the lid on when the ribs will become brown from both sides and cook about 10-15 minutes more. At the end you'll get beautiful brown ribs in caramelized honey mustard sauce.

9. Serve with vegetables. Bon appetit!

Things I enjoy this weekend

2013-02-10T16:52:00.000+02:00

Today I'm enjoying...
... crocheting heart shaped cup coaster;

... crocheting few more squares for my blanket;

... home brewed coffee;

... tiny chocolate muffins (recipe in the previous post);

.... trying new frosting for my muffins (recipe here - everything that is written about the taste and consistency of this frosting is true - mild, smooth and light as air);

... color pencils - I feel an inexplicable need to draw some nice colorful pictures like in childhood;

... looking trough my notes regarding Valentine's day ideas;

... watching Feature playing with a little pink crochet circle I made for her, she adores such things, and I can actually continue crocheting after she gets piece of what I have - that's a kind of fee;

... weather outside my window - a lot of snow again.

Hope you are finding something enjoyable in your weekends as well!

Chocolate Baby Muffins with chocolate chips

2013-02-09T17:52:00.001+02:00

I like making muffins almost as much as eating them, especially when it comes to making tiny baby chocolate muffins in colorful paper cups.

That's so much fun and such a pleasure for eyes. It's not time consuming and easy enough to do this with kids. Afterwords it's a real chocolate heaven. So if you consider yourself as a real chocoholic you'll definitely like the result.

I used the next recipe for this little cute chocolate muffins.

Ingredients:

25 g butter
1 egg
0.5 cup milk
0.8 cup flour
0.3 cup cacao powder
0.6 cup sugar
0.5 teaspoon baking soda
0.5 teaspoon baking powder
0.25 teaspoon salt
0.5 cup milk chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat over to 180°C (400F).
2. Melt the butter in a microwave and let it cool. Just remember, that we are using eggs in this recipe and everything should be cold enough not to cook eggs.
3. Mix everything together and stir well until smooth.

4. Fill your paper cups with the prepares mixture about 2/3 full.

5. Bake about 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.

6. Take out of the oven and let the muffins cool a little bit.

You can decorate them putting some whipped or butter cream on the top and adding some chocolate sprinkles. Eat them in a peaceful cozy atmosphere in a family circle with your favorite tea or coffee.
Have a pleasant weekends!

New Year with a new Etsy shop

2013-02-03T23:40:00.001+02:00

I'm happy to introduce you my new Etsy shop. I've been wanting to start my own shop on Etsy for quite a while, thinking how to do this better, etc. And finally I've came up with the idea. I really enjoy crocheting and making different cute things, I like developing new patterns and bringing them to life from a small thought in my head to the completed item.

Today I have added the first item to my 'Life in color' shop - crochet heart earrings pattern. This is a detailed tutorial on how to make crochet heart earrings with beads and a ribbon bow. Use the code VALENTINE to receive a 50% discount. You still have enough time to make a few as presents for St. Valentine's day.

Happy crocheting!

January 2013

2013-02-03T20:32:00.001+02:00

Hello, my dear readers. I'm so happy to write here again!
Let's talk about January. The first thing that comes to my mind related to January is of course the New Year and Christmas (we - the Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January following the old calendar style). I usually celebrate these holidays with my family at home, near a decorated Christmas tree, yummy food and nice and cozy holiday atmosphere. Of course, we baked some gingerbread cookies or pepperkakers as they are called in other countries.

This already became a tradition for us and this is the third year we do this. Here are the links to 2011 and 2012 pepperkaker baking. Oh, I adore smelling all those beautiful spices. I usually put a lot of them into my cookies, such as cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, pepper and some orange zest. Just look at those yammies, mmm.... I should start making them more often, then just on Christmas, cuz that's such a pleasure.

This winter we are having a lot of snow here in Kiev and mostly a cold frosty weather. You know, I like when everything goes as it should, it's good to have snow and frost in winter and warm sunny weather in summer. Here's the view from my window in one of the snowiest and windiest days.

And look at this frosty window.

It's been a little bit warmer last few days, but it's still tons of snow around here. And sometimes it's so needed to visit a cozy warm cafe. We love visiting Lviv Handmade Chocolate place. This guys have really tasty chocolate and coffee with cinnamon, nice decor, lovely atmosphere and good old music.

I treated myself with a few colorful yarn balls for future projects lately. Feel absolutely happy with the colors I've chosen. I have already tried the pink one - it looks great - I'll show you later.

Hope you are doing fine and having a great weekends! Wish you lots of inspiration and creativity for the whole upcoming week!