Fool's Macaroons

These coconut macaroons are so simple, any fool with a bowl and an oven could make them. Sweet and light, they're the perfect thing to have after a meal with a cup of tea. Or to bring to a party, or to have for breakfast....whatever you're into. I've forgotten where I found this recipe, but I've been making them for years, and thought it was one worth sharing!

                                                For about 16 macaroons you will need

                                                                   4 egg whites
                                                                200g castor sugar
                                                           320g dessicated coconut

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees (C)

Whisk or stir everything until the three ingredients come lightly together.

With wet hands, scoop up half a handful of the mixture and roll it into a ball in your two hands.

Continue making the balls, placing them on a baking tray as you go.

Bake for 15 minutes, until the macaroons are just starting to go a bit brown. If you take them out at this stage there will still be nice and soft inside.

Cool. Store. Eat. Repeat!

Tips:

These are quite sweet, but you can adjust the recipe to your own taste, i.e. using more or less coconut.

In Dublin I like to buy dessicated coconut in asian food shops, as you can usually get pretty big bags of the stuff there (500g, 1000g) for under a fiver.

Enjoy!

Joan

Knitting On Holiday

Hello readers,

Brid and I are in Cambridge visiting my parents at the moment. We're having a glorious time sitting, reading, knitting, chatting, writing letters and generally rampaging around eating everything in sight.

We've also just discovered "Vine" see below.

XX

Natalie V

1930s Travelling Trunk for Sale

Update: Now Sold.


Hi Friends!

Anyone in Dublin fancy a 1930s travelling trunk. It is absolutely gorgeous and could be used as a coffee table or at the end of a bed for clothes ect. Tin, brass and leather fittings. Genuine vintage. Travelled on the Corinthia Ship between Montreal, Liverpool and Dublin between 1956 and 1968, has the vintage travel labels still attached. good cream interior with usual ware. Am looking to shift it stat so can give you a good price, ONLY 60 QUID! HxWxD is 16x29.5x20 inches. Please send this link to anyone you think might be interested! Email me on natalievoorheis@gmail.com if interested and you can come have a look or I can send you more detailed photos.

Natalie

Pottering in the Sun Today Resulted in...

Natalie
:-)

Adventure Time Hat!

Everyone knows and loves Adventure Time. Even me although I regularly fail at popular culture... My friend Heber came to me a few Halloweens ago and told me that he wanted to dress up as Finn from Adventure Time for Halloween and was wondering if I could make the hat for his costume.

I was up for the challenge. I bought a cheap fleece hat and scarf. I used the scarf to make the ears and the chin strap. It was all very easy, I didn't use a pattern and just freestyled it. I think the best bit was that it only cost me about 3 euro to make.

Here's a photo of Heber in his full Finn regalia. Doesn't he just look fantastic? LOVELY HEBER.

Here is me wearing the hat just after I finished it! If I remember correctly, this was taken at some odd hour of the morning as I raced against the clock to get it done in time for Halloween!

If you'd like to make one yourself, here's a Youtube tutorial that'll show you how it's done:

I hope you're all having a nice weekend! I am in the library studying for my last exam. Freedom just can't come quick enough!

Bríd x

Birthday Picnic

Dear Readers,

Summer is looming in London and so Brid and I decided to have a Champagne Picnic as a joint birthday party. Unfortunately the weather decided to be sketchy on the day so we moved our picnic inside. Brid made all the triangular sandwiches and I decorated the room. We used some of my handmade bunting to cheer up the room and made little flags with vintage sweet shop jar designes on them to stick into he piles of sandwiches. I made these out of cocktail sticks and wrapping paper - easy! Brid's glorious flower crown was purchased on Etsy. Here's a link to the Etsy shop where Brid bought it. Brid did the environment a good turn and wrapped my gift in newspaper... it looks really great, I think you'll agree, might adopt this myself - war time chic! The sun did decide to come out at one stage though!

One of the sandwiches for the picnic was peanut butter and jam. I famously can't keep peanut butter in the house cause I will eat THE ENTIRE TUB. I have no self control, it's a problem. A day or two after the party Brid came round to my flat. She went to make a snack and came back into the room disgruntled. "I have a bone to pick with you Natalie!" "Oh dear, what!?" I asked. "Have you gone and THROWN OUT the peanut butter cause you can't control yourself around it!?" I had to reply sheepishly "Eh no, I WISH I had thrown it out. No, cough, eh - no I finished the tub" *squirm*. We both cracked up in hysterics and agreed that this was a moment that should be on Lena Dunham's "Girls".

Check out the photos of our day below.

Natalie Voorheis

                                          

Help a Brother Out

Hello readers,

Today I wanted to highlight a photographer who has been featured on this blog before - Heber Hanly. Heber has worked with us on lots of posts by providing a series of photos of our handmade projects. You can read some of the posts and see his photos here, here, here and here.

Below: some of Heber's beautiful shots for craftystudents

Heber has recently been shortlisted to the final 25 in the Best Jobs in the World competition in the lifestyle photographer category, which could see him jet setting off to beautiful Australia to work. We wholeheartedly believe that Heber is THE BEST MAN FOR THE JOB and have watched him for years documenting the lives of our friends and our city, Dublin. 

One of our favourite pieces that Heber has put out recently is this promo video for Junior Spesh, a Dublin club night. 

Here's Heber's recent video about why he's the man for the job. (With a bit of guest action from a certain Game of Thrones character we all love to hate!)

Also we are major fans of his showreel... (you can spot craftystudent's Brid walking away from the camera at the end!) Check it out below:

We want to help Heber get a buzz going on his stuff so please repost and share the link to this and get tweeting with links to his videos (especially this one). INCLUDE HIS TAG @HeberHanly and also @TourismAus and  #bestjobs. We'll be throwing in #heberowesmeone for good measure, ha! Enjoy!

Natalie Voorheis (London)