A knitted hat love affair

Winter is fast approaching and with that comes the cleaning, sorting and washing of all our knitted items. One of our favourite knitted hats that we love and wear to pieces is The Olena Hat. It's easy to make, knits up well and looks amazing. What more can you ask of in a knitted hat? We like to make ours in super soft wool, like Cascades merino, or alpaca. Nothing itchy or scratchy for our sensitive scalps. There's nothing like a soft, warm woolly hat on a cold day. It's also a great bad hair day cover up : )






























We love the slouchy look of the Olena Hat, and how it looks great with your hair up or your hair down.
One Christmas Leah, Charlotte and our Mama surprised us all with Olena Hats in different colours! Charlotte spun the blue wool in Renee's hat and Leah knit it up. They make amazing gifts and were very well loved. Time for new ones Mama and Leah? wink wink

The Olena hat pattern can be found here
and you might just recognize the styling model!






























Do you have a favourite knitted hat pattern? Share with us! 

The Cutest Gingerbread Reindeer

This weekend our papa and brother John spent most of Saturday putting up the outdoor Christmas lights. The result: our A-frame red roofed house is decked out in LED glory. In honour of the debut of the Christmas lights, Charlotte and I decided to make our favourite gingerbread cookies. They are made with Spelt and of course are dairy free. The spin on these cookies is that they aren't just your plain old gingerbread: they are reindeer gingerbread!

All you have to do is take a regular gingerbread cookie cutter and flip it upside down! They are just the cutest and of course taste delicious. 

Timfam's Favourite Gingerbread: 

(adapted from Mrs. Field's Cookie Book) 

Ingredients 

4 1/2 cups of spelt flour 

1/2 tsp of baking soda 

1/4 tsp of salt 

1 tsp of ground cinnamon 

2 tsp of ground ginger 

1/4 tsp of ground cloves 

1 cup of margarine 

3/4 cup of dark brown sugar 

1 large egg 

1/2 cup of dark molasses 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 ' F

Step 1: Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in a medium sized bowl 

Step 2: Using your electric mixer, blend margarine and brown sugar. Add egg and molasses and beat until smooth. 

Step 3: Scrape the bowl and add the flour mixture, blend on low until just combined. 

Step 4: Separate dough into 2 balls and flatten into disks. Wrap each tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or until firm. 

Step 5: On a floured surface with a floured rolling pin, roll dough out until 1/4 inch thick. With floured cookie cutters cut into gingerbread. Gather, scrape and re-roll dough until all is used. 

Step 6: Bake 9-11 minutes being careful not to brown. Let cookies cool before icing. 

Royal Icing: 

Ingredients 

3 tbsp of meringue powder

4 cups of icing sugar

3 tbsp of warm water. 

Mix all together until smooth. If icing is too thick, add more warm water. 

To make brown icing: Use red, yellow, blue and a bit of green food dye. 

Flip the gingerbread man so he's upside down. Using a spoon and brown icing, ice the head and ears. Use a toothpick to drag out the ears a tiny bit. Pipe the antlers, nose and eyes. 

Have fun! 

A Friday Ritual

One photo without explanation. A moment captured- a time to be still, to breathe and remember.

Happy Friday!

Tired of plain old braids?

We love braids in all shapes and forms, but sometimes we just need a little pizzazz, a hairstyle that's new and different. Last night we turned to our studying- hairstylist Leah, and asked if she had learned anything new and exciting. Thank the Lord she did and in a matter of minutes whipped up a fabulous and easy updo. It's perfect for the end of the week, a weekend out, or just because. : ) This updo doesn't have any braids, instead involves knotting your hair.

Give it a shot and let us know how it goes!

Leah's Knotted Updo

Step 1: Part your hair into two sections.


Step 2: Take one of the sections of hair and separate into two. Tie the hair into lose a knot, as if it were ribbon.


Step 3: Keep tying knots until you get to the end of the hair.





























Step 4: Repeat with the other section of hair (It will look messy).


Step 5: Cross one section over top of the other and pin in place. Cross over the other knotted braid and bobby pin in place. Tuck any stray or loose ends in with bobby pins.
































Voila! Finished!

A Christmas gift for a little person? (or little person at heart?)

Miss Charlotte just received great news! It's so very wonderful, we just had to share! In the summer Charlotte sent away a box of her Truly Charlotte softie friends on a journey all the way to the sunny land of California. The destination was Stuffed magazine, a twice a year publication devoted entirely to softies and the artists that create them. After months of waiting an exciting email was opened  and Charlotte told us:

 

Her cutie pie Viking softie shown here and his lady friend  here are going to be featured in the upcoming Stuffed magazine!!!!!!! : )  : ) We are so very proud!! Happy Dance Time!

Stuffed magazine features fiber artists all across North America. It is a great magazine to look at for ideas, inspiration and gives you info on how and where to find the artists. We will keep you posted when it is published in case you feel like checking it out at Chapters. 

 

In the meantime, are you looking to get a few items off your Christmas list? Need to find something for that special little one? Check out Charlotte's shop on Etsy and today here is a sneak peek of a few friends, if you are interested in one of these adorable friends, send her a message on Etsy.

 

Way to go Charstar! 

Beautiful Words

It's a cold, dreary day and it's November. It's not yet Advent, not yet Christmas and we find it so easy to just want to go to bed early and sleep. Instead we have to work, go to school, make dinner, do chores and so how to cope? As you know we love our quotes and they are a huge inspiration to get us through dreary moments. So today we look to words of beauty to guide us through these dark November days.

A few of our favourites..

"Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house"
Henry Ward Beecher


"Faith fills a man with love for the beauty of its truth, with faith in the truth of its beauty" St Francis de Sales


"Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same" Helen Keller

“I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” Anne Frank  


“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.” Louisa May Alcott  


"There is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness of proportion." Edgar Allan Poe


"Makeup can only make you look pretty on the outside, but it doesn't help if you are ugly on the inside. Unless you eat the makeup" Audrey Hepburn :) haha


"I always find beauty in things that are odd and imperfect, they are much more interesting." Marc Jacobs


“She walks in beauty, like the night/ Of cloudless climes and starry skies/ And all that's best of dark and bright /Meet in her aspect and her eyes...” Lord Byron  

The BEST Quinoa Gluten Free Chocolate Cake!

When we first heard about using quinoa for baking, we were grossed out. Yuck! Quinoa is like rice right? How can that possibly work in a dessert? We kind of stayed away from the whole baking with quinoa thing, and it wasn't until Charlotte's friend that we decided to try it. Her art school buddy convinced Charlotte that quinoa makes a DELICIOUS dessert without using any flour, and it is oh so moist! Miss Charlotte was tempted, and so the other night whipped up this recipe. She didn't tell the rest of us what was in the cupcakes, but made us sample and guess. Of course we couldn't tell, and were shocked when she said it was quinoa. Turns out all those other food bloggers were right, baking with quinoa is the best ever and we plan on trying a whole new bunch of recipes!

Benefits of baking with quinoa:
It's a protein, so better for you
It's gluten free
It makes your baking very very very moist!

Give it a shot, you will love it, we promise! : )
Have you tried baking with quinoa? Share with us!






























Charlotte scoured the web and found the recipe here: The Best Chocolate Gluten Free Cake