I'll be back online in 2 days!

I'm still in Devon but thanks to the power of technology I pre-scheduled this post for you. Here's the cute picture to make you smile! Plus a few suggestions for a happy life ^o^ Enjoy! I'll be back online in 2-3 days.

Nayu's Craft Time #236 Holiday time!

It's that time again! (Sadly not my suitcase...)

Today I'm leaving to stay with my friend in Devon for a few days! We are planning on watching a lot of DVDs so I'll be finishing this cute sewing while I'm over at hers, 

Not much left to do...

and working on some other sewing which I'll show you when I get back. I'll put a cute picture up while I'm away for you to see (not the one below) ^o^ 

The buttons add a craft theme to Pooh Bear!

Nayu's Receipes #13 Gluten free and vegan cupcakes!

I hope you're all well as we reach the middle of the week. As promised in an earlier post I'm here to show you both the gluten free and the vegan cupcakes which I baked recently! They turned out really well, even if I did put the vegan chocolate frosting on the gluten free cupcakes - thankfully it was a gluten free frosting. I simply made up a lemon frosting as I had no more vegan chocolate. You don't have to miss out on these classic treats just because you have particular dietry needs. They can also be used to bake a whole cake, the cooking time would be longer but that's all. 

Especially when it's for other people!

I decided to use 2 different cupcakes rather than make a gluten free vegan recipe because gluten free flour would be an extra element that could go a bit wild since I'm used to baking cupcakes with eggs and butter. I can link you to the vegan recipe, which isn't my own but can be found on Minimalist Baker's One Bowl Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes. I simply omitted the funfetti as I didn't have any. 

I made the gluten free cupcakes first using my own unique recipe & the advice about gluten free flour from a friend. 

Gluten free cupcakes

 

Here they are with frosting on! Super yummy

Ingredients

Weigh however many eggs you want to use in their shell. 

Using the same weight for butter (or margerine/vegan equivalent), self-raising flour (can be gluten free), and sugar of your choice. 

I did use plain flour on this occasion, adding 3 teaspoons of baking flour. Don't use that amount!!! I'll try 2 or even 1 next time (if I don't use self-raising flour which is so much simpler). The cupcakes rose and spread like crazy!!! I had to bail out the mix part way through into extra cupcake cases, as they were too big.  

Method

Mix butter and sugar together until they are combined. 

Crack eggs into the mix (pick out any shell that gets in), add the flour and mix until combined.  

Pour in cupcake cases which are on a tray. This doesn't have to be a special cupcake tray, mine wasn't. 

Cook at 180C/356F in an oven. Cook for at least 10 minutes, until a knife goes through the middle and comes away clean. Times vary depending on both ovens and how much you fill the cupcakes. 

Vegan cupcake yumminess!

I'd learned my lesson when the next day I baked the One Bowl Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes (minus the funfetti), read the recipe and at first only filled the cases 1/4 full. When double checking the recipe I saw I'd read the amount wrong, it should be 3/4. I sort of stuck to a frazzle over half as I wasn't sure the science of eggless cupcakes worked. The only 'special' ingredient you need is apple cider vinegar, which can be exchanged for lemon juice. These baked beautifully, although did take a bit longer than expected to bake. Both the mix and the finished cupcakes tasted similar to cupcakes (if you're used to food tasting different to what a 'normal' version is). 

I was very pleased with the outcome and the frostings. My ingredients weren't measured at all. 

Vegan chocolate frosting (can also be used for a dairy version)

Yummy!

Melt a few small packets of vegan chocolate buttons 

Add a bit of non-dairy milk and non-dairy butter  

Mix well before slowly adding icing sugar until you reach the consistency you like. 

Note: Make sure you put them on the correct type of cupcakes! 

Lemon frosting (naturally vegan) 

More yummy frosting!

Squeeze some lemon juice in a bowl (I used 3/4 of a lemon)

Add icing sugar and extra non-dairy milk/normal milk/water until you get the consistancy you like. 

My vegan chocolate frosting was enough for half a batch of cupcakes, and the lemon frosting made enough for a whole batch of cupcakes. Because I was giving them to 2 friends I only used half of each batch, freezing the rest for another day. I froze the leftover lemon frosting too! There was no chocolate frosting left. 

I hope you enjoyed my vegan and gluten free cupcake baking adventure - please let me know if you decide to bake these!  I'm now going to spend the rest of my day reading and gaming! Today was a blogging day (mostly on my other blog) and now I'm resting up in preparation for my trip to Devon on Saturday!

Nayu's Craft Time #235 Fleeting snow flurry

Sadly I lack Elsa's power to create snow. (Frozen)

Last week we had what could have been a snow flurry, but turned into definite rain by the end of the day. I guess the possibility for snow this season is reducing fast. Never mind! I dreamt that it snowed the other night is good enough for me. 

It's been a fairly quiet week, mostly gaming as my body didn't like the weather, but I did some craft too and I baked cupcakes! 1 lot of gluten free and another batch were vegan. Both turned out ok, I'm frosting them this afternoon so will take photos then and share in my next post. It's lunch time so I need to make this a short post (sorry) but wanted to wish you a...

Nayu's Craft Time #234 Hospital visit

Most of these are happy!

I love how today's post is in numerical order ^o^ It's the small things that make me/us smile!

Anyway...thank you for being patient in waiting for a new post. Over the weekend & really until Thursday I was recovering from my mega meds which send me to Lala Land & then some, and Thursday was another annual trip to the hospital. 

I go here! Not for homeopathic treatment, the rooms get rented out to other hospital clinics (I think)

It wasn't until the afternoon, but I like being there in plenty of time, and my family like to go shopping (I like company for travelling as I can get a little confused when tired). My original plan was to wait in the cafe for a few hours then head up to where I needed to be and start waiting for my 3.30pm appointment. However the cafe chairs were rock hard, discouraging any prolonged stay (I need quite soft chairs). So I got busy with an audiobook and did all this while I waited for lunch time! 

It's a cute cross stitch kit, nice and colourful with, as you can see, lots of pink. Sewing is calming - I find these days I can never settle with a book while waiting for medical appointments. Gaming happened later. 

Anyway, so I went up 1.15. Got called in at 2pm which was super early (yay!)...but wasn't able to think about going home from London until 4pm. I was in with the doctor for about an hour, going through various stuff. I don't see the same doctor every time, but I don't mind because in the more specialised clinics I know for certain the doctors all speak to each other, so I feel safe and confident whoever I am with. 

 There's almost always someone else sitting in on the appointment - I do always get asked permission and I never mind. UCL is a teaching hospital, and my specialist clinic is one of a kind, the more people can learn the better. Thursday's extra body was the specialist physiotherapist. We did boring neurological tests (once you do them once you know what's coming at every appointment. Then my balance got tested. 

I couldn't stand on point in ballet - standing on 1 leg is tricky let alone on the tips of my toes!

I'm not that coordinated, and my balance is a bit to be desired (it's not like I need to be able to walk in a straight line heel to toe in my everyday life...) so the physio asked if I'd like a few exercises to help with that. I said yes, so after I finished with the consultant I went with the physio. She gave me the exercises which are fun on the early level, and a bit tricky on the harder level. Yes I'm not being sarcastic when I use the word fun - they are fun! Again, it's the small things that amuse me. 

I only had a few pieces of paper to fill in, thankfully!

After the physio, I was with a researcher who wanted to do a few tests too. These were predominantly mental rather than physical. It was late afternoon, I was tired, but I still believe in helping out where I can so I said yes to them. I aced the word test of saying 2 long lists of words out loud within 2 minutes! Not sure about all the rest, but it's not a pass/fail test, more a benchmark of where my abilities are. 

After that I had to go to a different hospital for the blood test (my clinic uses the Homeopathic Hospital as their base for appointments). My family thought I'd fainted because I took so long for it to be done: I'm not an easy person to get blood from, and the first person couldn't do it so handed over to a more senior colleague. They advised eating & drinking before I have blood taken - I hadn't known beforehand that I was going to have any taken, so maybe next time I'll remember. Once that was done I was free! However...

None of this!!!!

...Costa annoying sold out of ice at Waterloo station. That made me grumpy as I rely on their chocolate milkshake to keep me going on the train home, but I had a brainwave and managed to get chocolate milk from M&S. Then home & lots of rest until today. 

It's still really cold so I've slow body, taking it easy where I can. I did a bit of crochet which I don't have a picture of, ditto a pic of a present I'm getting closer to finishing! The recipients know which is why I can show you in another post - I couldn't finish in time for the deadline. No more London appointments until May which makes me happy as 2 in under 2 weeks isn't fun, as it takes several days to recover from them. But it's over, I did it & that's it until next year (when they will probably be close together again).

I genuinely somehow thought it was Monday, so this is for tomorrow!

Nayu's Craft Time #233 Slow week

Beautiful sunny day! Picture source

Hope you're all having a good day. Got blue cloudy sky with sunshine today! I'm almost over the side effects of my mega strong meds. Probably won't blog until the weekend as I've another hospital appointment in London on Thursday, so will be resting Weds & Fri. 

I've been gaming and reading a lot (no craft yet, maybe Friday), taking it easy with my cat occasionally keeping me company. Had to game the other day as she was on my lap so I couldn't switch to dvd watching! 

I'm a bit sad as a dear friend's son (late teens) died on Friday, only learnt by email today. I used to babysit for my friend a lot when her children were younger, so have known them over 10 years. Due to life I hadn't seen my friend recently (she'd moved abroad then came back last summer). I will be reviewing the book he wrote soon, as I read it on Sunday. It's not my genre but is really good, short but makes you think a lot. If you want to check it out it's The Ladder by L Kelly. He may not get to read my thoughts about it but you all can soon. 

Having lots of rest this week - hope you get a break no matter how short! 

This sums up how I feel today

Nayu's Craft Time #232 A week of medical stuff

I'm alive!

Happy Friday! I'd hoped to blog yesterday, but this week has been crazy busy and I needed the rest. Monday was my heart check up in London which went well. So long as my 24 hour heart monitor results are ok I don't need any meds to keep my uber fast heartrate down. There was a bit of miscommunication at the hospital so I've got to get that monitor done at my local one, so not sure how soon that'll happen. 

Tuesday some stuff came up that had me busier than planned, and I popped to the doctor as I was worried about a cough I had. I'll spare you the details but it's not a chest infection (whoohoo) and needed an xray just to make sure everything was okay. 

This obviously isn't me!

Wednesday I went to get the xray done (love the speed of xray service!) then did groceries which always wear me out. Given I hadn't really fully recovered from Monday's trip, rest was what I needed yesterday. 

So yesterday I did some crochet, nothing I'm ready to show you just yet as I want to finish it first. I caught up with TV: more accurately I caught up with BBC shows. Ages ago none of my tablets liked ITV/Channel 4/Channel 5, so I simply stuck with BBC. That hasn't changed, so it's all I watch excluding dvds. I'm happy enough with it! I then spent the afternoon gaming with Hatstune Miku 

This was kind of me yesterday, only I had my cat on me rather than Pusheen the Cat.

because my cat was on my lap. She looked too cute too move! Plus gaming for a few  hours is always fun ^o^ 

Today I'm off to see some friends at lunch, which will be fun as I haven't seen them since last year. After that definitely resting some more! Tomorrow, I'm hoping to do a bit of blog work in the morning, but will see how it goes. 

Whatever your plans for the weekend I hope it's a good one!