The Florist Mama

Pinteresting isn't it?

Today the sicky tummys seem to have gone *touch wood* and I bring to you, two Pinterest projects I pinned and actually got around to trying out! (Amazing isn't it? I thought this day would never come!)

So first up was the Baileys White Chocolate Fudge Recipe which I mentioned a couple weeks back on the 19th of November.......wait wait wait, I've just realised it's the 19th of December today....woahhhh where did that month go?! Blimey!

So anyway, I thought it would make a nice little gift to send along to Alia's Preschool teachers tomorrow on her last day for the year.

Soooo far so good, its setting in the fridge, but I guess the proof will be in the pudding (haha bad pun... ok, stop looking at me like that!) as to whether it has set with a nice silky texture and not a grainy one.
I have never attempted fudge before as I keep hearing there is a real knack to getting it right, so just avoided it and thought...'yeah one day'...well today is that day! Mmmmmm yes before you ask, I totally did lick out the remains in the pot!...Perhaps a tad on the sickly sweet side and would take cake batter over fudge remains any day but still nom nom nom all the same.

I didn't have the right size baking dish to set it in, so I had to use that old NZ initiative (we call it the number 8 fencing wire trick over here in Kiwi Land) and find a way around it....here's what I came up with:

....haha yup sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do!!

Stay tuned for the finished product!

Onto the second of my Pinterest projects to try out, was this ever so cute, DIY baby keepsake
(Instructions here http://pagingfunmums.com/2013/08/29/diy-baby-keepsake-using-homemade-clay/)

Thought, yep, that looks and sounds pretty straight forward and easy, will give that one a try and post them over to Nana over in England once we've framed them.

Sooo following the instructions very carefully, I got to my "thick mashed potato consistency" and quickly took the pot off the heat, spooned out onto my baking paper, covered with the damp tea towel and waited....
and waited....
and couldn't wait anymore...So in my excitement to get the project finished, I awoke my sleeping angel baby (I knoww terrible mother, should have left him to sleep! But if you knew my son, you'd know he is soooooo chilled out he really wouldnt mind...and he didn't!) to squish his feet into the gooey dough.... he obliged and was given a quick cuddle and returned to bed...and being the amazingly chilled out little dude he is, he went straight back to sleep! (I know, lucky aren't I? I call it Karma...I have put up with nearly 4 years of the most not chilled out daughter ever, so the good Karma has come around now and I have been blessed with the best behaved baby ever!)

Anyway...lets finish this little project story!

So I squished his feet in, popped it straight into the oven on the cookie cooling rack (as suggested in the website instructions) at 100 degrees C and left it to do its thing.

What I was greeted with after about an hour was NOT the smooth lovely keepsake I was hoping for...Really should have taken a photo of that disaster!

It was horrendous, cracked, funny discouloured bits, lumpy...just plain awful. And I put this disaster down to not waiting long enough for the dough to cool properly.

So I tried again, and this time waited until the dough was COMPLETELY COLD before doing anything with it. The result?
BEAUTIFUL! Finally a success story!They are by no means perfect but they are still pretty awesome and with a coat of cold spray paint over, they will look even better! Haha.

Good things come to those who wait, could not be a truer statement in this case.

Here was my (nearly) finished product... one pair of cutesey little Alexander feetsies, one hand print and one toe print from Alia...Yes a toe print...I tried to do a thumb print for a christmas tree ornament, but her thumb prints are soooo teeeny tiny that it looked ridiculous....so a toe print it was!