Meagan Made |MeaganMade.com

14
May
2016

Pincushion thread-catcher

Working full-time, I don’t always get to do as much craft as I’d like to, so I’ve decided that sometimes I’ll post about crafts that I’ve done over the last few years that I’ve found on Pinterest. 🙂

Last week I posted about my friend Lisa’s birthday doughnuts – Lisa has been one of my closest friends since Year 7 in high school, and we’ve shared a place for the last 5 years (and yep – we’re still friends!). Luckily we both love to craft so she puts up with my crafting goodies being everywhere! 🙂

Two years ago, I spotted this pin for a pincushion thread-catcher and thought that I could make this as something that is not only cute but practical too! Lisa loves to sew, in particular quilts. Anyone who loves to sew knows how those annoying bits of thread end up everywhere. I have a sewing machine mat that has a little pouch for sewing scraps and it’s been super helpful. I’d seen Lisa eyeing mine off, so I knew it would go down well.

Close-up of pincushion

This pattern was super helpful and easy to follow, although I decided to leave out the clothesline so that it could be stored flat! For the first time, I got to take a trip to Bunnings for something I actually wanted, crafting! It made my dad happy to be able go to the hardware store with me and not have me bored, lol! 🙂

For this you’ll be using 2 door hinges as a weight inside of the pincushion, along with toy stuffing – though I read that some people added steel wool instead which had the added benefit of sharpening the pins!

Pincushion thread-catcher

I was so happy with how it turned out, and Lisa has enjoyed using it, it’s a constant presence on our sewing/dining table – so I’ll call that a success!

Check out the tutorial and let me know how you go with the project!

Happy sewing,

Meagan x

07
May
2016

Birthday Doughnuts

categories: Cakes, Cooking

Ever since I found out I’d become lactose intolerant, I’ve been on the hunt for a lactose free doughnut recipe. It’s one of the things I really miss, and haven’t been able to buy pre-made or in a packet mix! I’ve tried cake mixes piped into doughnut tins, and while it is tasty, it still wasn’t quite “right”.

Well, I stumbled upon this recipe a few weeks ago on Pinterest, and I thought it would be perfect for my dear friend Lisa’s birthday. You see chocolate is one of her favourite food groups (along with lollies), closely followed by veggies!

Now you might be wondering what this has to do with doughnuts? Well the chocolate and lollies is easy to understand, but the vegetables? The secret ingredient is…… Kidney Beans!

Lactose free doughnuts

I know it sounds strange but trust me it works! It’s a rich dense doughnut and you can’t taste the beans at all. Now the original recipe is vegan and it can be found here on Sina’s blog, but I’ve modified it a little to use lactose free ingredients in place of some of the ingredients that I couldn’t find here. I also substituted the hazelnut topping for hundreds and thousands (or sprinkles for those of you overseas).

Sina has very generously allowed me to repost her recipe here with my few alterations and Australian conversions:

Ingredients

1 420g can red kidney beans
1 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup self-raising flour
1 150g bag of Sweet Williams chocolate chips (or your choice of vegan or lactose free chocolate)
4 tablespoons hundreds and thousands

Method

Rinse and drain the kidney beans. Place them into a blender together with the brown sugar, almond milk, and cacao and blend until the mixture is smooth.
Then transfer it to a medium bowl and stir in the flour and vanilla extract. Spray the doughnut pan with cooking spray or grease it with lactose free or vegan spread.
Either use a spoon to fill each doughnut or fill the batter into a Ziploc bag and cut off one edge.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and bake the donuts for 9-11 minutes. Allow to cool down in the pan for a couple of minutes, then move them to a cooling rack.
In the meantime, make the chocolate glaze. Melt the lactose free (or vegan) chocolate either by using a microwave or place the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and place it over a pan of barely simmering water. Once melted, cover the doughnuts with the chocolate and sprinkle with hundreds and thousands.

The birthday girl and I have enjoyed snacking on these doughnuts, the recipe made 12 doughnuts plus a few extra mini-cupcakes. Make sure you visit Sina’s page for the full and vegan version of this recipe, it’s a great site!

Happy cooking,

Meagan x

30
Apr
2016

Crochet Turtle Amigurumi

categories: Craft, Crochet

Recently it was my friend Alicia’s birthday, and she absolutely loves turtles, so I set out to hunt through Pinterest to see what sort of turtle patterns I could find.

I stumbled upon a few crocheted turtle amigurumi that were really cute, but there was one in particular that kept catching my eye. I Pinned a few, planning on revisiting them the next day, but next thing I knew, Alicia had liked them – Whoops! Turns out that I hadn’t added them to the secret board as planned, but at least I had the reassurance that she’d like it!

The image in this pin was just too cute to resist, so I clicked through and purchased the pattern from LuvlyGurumi’s Etsy shop.

I’ve been crocheting for just over a year, and this is my second amigurumi that I’ve attempted, but the pattern was very clearly written and easy to follow. It is written in US crochet terms, and I found a fantastic tutorial for Invisible Decrease in Amigurumi, a technique that I needed for this project but I’ll be using again in the future. The left-handed version can also be found on her YouTube channel.

This cute little turtle even comes out of its shell, and while I have changed up the colours a little, I am very happy with how it turned out.

Crochet Turtle Amigurumi

This turtle was very well received by the birthday girl, who luckily hadn’t paid attention to whose pin she was liking, so it was still a surprise!

Perhaps my little turtle will inspire you to make your own, I know I look forward to purchasing some more of LuvlyGurumi’s patterns!

Happy Crocheting,
Meagan x

26
Apr
2016

Welcome to Meagan Made

categories: Uncategorized

Welcome to Meagan Made, I hope that you enjoy reading about my adventures in the world of craft and cooking!

What will l be blogging about? Well, I seem to spend a lot of my time on Pinterest, either on the hunt for my next craft project (though I have enough things pinned to last the rest of my life) and for lactose free recipes! The thing is though, I’ve also seen my share of Pinterest fails… I decided to start this blog to keep track of which patterns and recipes work, and help you all out by directing you to those that do!

Photo of laptop, crochet hooks, project and yarn

In the last 9 years I’ve dabbled in a number of crafts; beading, quilting, sewing in general and most recently crocheting. I’m looking forward to sharing some of these projects with you, and hopefully you’ll enjoy either making them yourself or sharing them with friends.

When it comes to recipes, I often find that living in Australia, we don’t always have access to the same ingredients that are found in other parts of the world. On this blog I’ll be posting my ingredient substitutions for things that can be found here in Australia, as well as what I’ve done to make these recipes suitable for those of us with lactose intolerance.

I hope you enjoy reading the blog, feel free to drop me a line using the contact form or comment on any of my posts!

Thanks for reading,

Meagan x