You may have noticed that the Morrgan's Creatures shops are now closed. It's time for me to take a break and enjoy Christmas and New Year with family. I'll be taking a break from blogging too (and the internet in general - at most I may tweet occasionally), so enjoy the holiday of your choice and see you again in January!
To get into the mood of things, I'll leave you with a selection of fine items suited for the occasion. Tired of the usual Christmas tree and other decorations? Try one made of felt (owls optional), decorate it with chain ornaments, place it next to a deer sculpture and enjoy the whole scene while writing the last few holiday cards!
Welcome to Morrgan's Creatures, a place on the net where I show off handmade creatures and creations of my own design.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Introducing Hannibal the Man-Eating Plant
Introducing Morrgan's Creatures is an ongoing project to introduce all the creatures that gave my shop its name.
Hannibal the Man-Eating Plant
Ack! It's a man-eating plant!
Don't worry though, there's no need to run just yet. This little guy called Hannibal is still a small sapling and doesn't even have real teeth yet. So he'll just look really adorable as he tries to chew on your arm.
Hannibal is quite a friendly little guy, despite the ferocious reputation of this particular species of man-eating plant. He'll do very well on ham-and-cheese sandwiches, with the occasional fly thrown in for extra protein - just look at his chubby stem.
Hannibal the Man-Eating Plant is available as a pattern via Ravelry (or click here to buy now - no Ravelry account needed) and from my Etsy shop.
Making Hannibal involves both knitting and little bit of crochet. The knitting is done both flat and in the round, with the stitches knit, purl, lifted increases, knit/purl 2 together and slip stitch over. The crochet stitches are single crochet, chain and slip stitch.
Want to see more creature introductions?
Hannibal the Man-Eating Plant
Ack! It's a man-eating plant!
Don't worry though, there's no need to run just yet. This little guy called Hannibal is still a small sapling and doesn't even have real teeth yet. So he'll just look really adorable as he tries to chew on your arm.
Hannibal is quite a friendly little guy, despite the ferocious reputation of this particular species of man-eating plant. He'll do very well on ham-and-cheese sandwiches, with the occasional fly thrown in for extra protein - just look at his chubby stem.Hannibal the Man-Eating Plant is available as a pattern via Ravelry (or click here to buy now - no Ravelry account needed) and from my Etsy shop.
Making Hannibal involves both knitting and little bit of crochet. The knitting is done both flat and in the round, with the stitches knit, purl, lifted increases, knit/purl 2 together and slip stitch over. The crochet stitches are single crochet, chain and slip stitch.
Want to see more creature introductions?
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Tuesday Finds: Winter Sky
Remember me saying how it's currently dark when I go to work and dark when I get home? Well, one nice thing about the office at work is that it has a big window, overlooking a nearby park. I don't see much from where I sit, just the tops of some trees and the sky, but in winter time it gives a chance to enjoy what little sun there is.
The best part? The sky. Now that the proper cold and snow have arrived (yay!), the sky ends up showing these beautiful pastel hues - pale blues and turquoises, occasionally a bit of yellow or purple. These colours are the inspiration for this week's Tuesday Finds.
The best part? The sky. Now that the proper cold and snow have arrived (yay!), the sky ends up showing these beautiful pastel hues - pale blues and turquoises, occasionally a bit of yellow or purple. These colours are the inspiration for this week's Tuesday Finds.
Labels:
art,
home decor,
jewelry,
other crafty things,
Tuesday Finds
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Introducing Hubert the Grumpy Unicorn
Introducing Morrgan's Creatures is an ongoing project to introduce all the creatures that gave my shop its name.
Hubert the Grumpy Unicorn
This is a grumpy little unicorn called Hubert. Why grumpy, I hear you ask? Well first of all, this particular teenage boy unicorn happens to be very pink. Just how is a poor unicorn supposed to impress that cute pegasus girl when he's as pink as can be? AND named Hubert? Seriously, what were his parents thinking?
If only he was a cool steely grey like his uncle Reginald, then things would be different. Or at least had uncle Reginald's name. Now there's a proper noble name for a mighty unicorn, sure to impress any cute pegasus. Not at all silly. Unlike Huuuubert.
But no, that wasn't to be. This little guy is pink Hubert. A very grumpy pink Hubert.
Grumpy Hubert is available as a pattern together with Tony the Lazy Pony via Ravelry (or click here to buy now - no Ravelry account needed) and from my Etsy and ArtFire shops.
Want to see more creature introductions?
Hubert the Grumpy Unicorn
This is a grumpy little unicorn called Hubert. Why grumpy, I hear you ask? Well first of all, this particular teenage boy unicorn happens to be very pink. Just how is a poor unicorn supposed to impress that cute pegasus girl when he's as pink as can be? AND named Hubert? Seriously, what were his parents thinking?
If only he was a cool steely grey like his uncle Reginald, then things would be different. Or at least had uncle Reginald's name. Now there's a proper noble name for a mighty unicorn, sure to impress any cute pegasus. Not at all silly. Unlike Huuuubert.But no, that wasn't to be. This little guy is pink Hubert. A very grumpy pink Hubert.
Grumpy Hubert is available as a pattern together with Tony the Lazy Pony via Ravelry (or click here to buy now - no Ravelry account needed) and from my Etsy and ArtFire shops.
Want to see more creature introductions?
Introducing Morrgan's Creatures - a new series of posts
Most of my creatures end up with a story or a personality. It comes naturally as a part of the process of making them - while my hands are busy there's plenty of time to just think. Often my thoughts are preoccupied with what I'm making at the time and, in the case of creatures, eventually my mind gives them a personality and sometimes a little story. Occasionally it happens that the story comes to me first and I just have to make the creature it's about. (My knitty notebook has pages full of such stories - I hope I'll have time to make all the creatures too!)
It occured to me that it'd be fun to share these stories. Starting today, I'll be presenting my creatures one at a time in the series "Introducing Morrgan's Creatures" and I aim to post a new profile every week. I hope you'll enjoy!Click here for the creature introductions.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
My Creative Space
One word to describe the current winter here: dark. Dark when I wake up and look through the window, dark when it's time to head home from the day job. There's no snow to brighten everything up yet.
This explains why the photo I took early this morning of my workspace is so dark.
One of the main joys of the new apartment is that I have a desk of my own for packing up orders. Yay! All the packing materials in order in one place, ready to go. Lately my morning routine has been to grab the obligatory big cup of coffee and sit down to check my online shops. If there are orders, I pack them up before I head off to work, having a sip of my coffee now and then, so that I can drop them off at the post office on the way home. This morning there were two orders to take care of.
(As a little related factoid, my "desk" (or actually a chiffonier according to Wikipedia) is a special piece of furniture to me, as when I turned 18 it was handmade for me by my uncle, on the request of my grandmother.)
Want to see the creative spaces of others too? Head on over to kootoyoo's blog!
This explains why the photo I took early this morning of my workspace is so dark.
One of the main joys of the new apartment is that I have a desk of my own for packing up orders. Yay! All the packing materials in order in one place, ready to go. Lately my morning routine has been to grab the obligatory big cup of coffee and sit down to check my online shops. If there are orders, I pack them up before I head off to work, having a sip of my coffee now and then, so that I can drop them off at the post office on the way home. This morning there were two orders to take care of.
(As a little related factoid, my "desk" (or actually a chiffonier according to Wikipedia) is a special piece of furniture to me, as when I turned 18 it was handmade for me by my uncle, on the request of my grandmother.)
Want to see the creative spaces of others too? Head on over to kootoyoo's blog!
Labels:
home decor,
Morrgan's creations,
My Creative Space
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Tuesday Finds: Tired
I could really use a nap right about now. *yawn*
Labels:
art,
home decor,
other crafty things,
Tuesday Finds
Friday, December 04, 2009
The only thing better than carrot muffins is carrot muffins smothered in cream cheese icing
So, I've been baking again. We got some neat silicone muffin moulds recently and I wanted to test them out. Then when grocery shopping I spotted a picture of a carrot cake with cream cheese icing on the cover of a magazine and thus it was decided what kind of muffin to bake.
This test taught me two things.
1. Silicone moulds are all kinds of cool. The muffins didn't stick and they were easy to kind of fold out of the moulds. Plus to an easily amused person, a floppy mould is way funnier than a metal tin.
2. I really dislike grating carrots. Like, seriously dislike. Broken nails, scratched fingers... Ugh. (Yeah, so it kinda sounds like I'm doing it wrong. Next time I'll delegate that task to Mr Morrgan in any case.)
Carrot Muffins Smothered in Cream Cheese Icing (makes 12)
The more carrots you put in, the juicier they are. The less you mix the batter, the better they'll be.
3 1/2 dl (~1 1/3 cup) flour
3 dl (~1 1/4 cups) sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
5 dl (~2 cups) grated carrots (or 2 1/2 HUGE carrots - more than I intended to put in at first, but the muffins came out oh so juicy!)
1 dl (~1/2 cup) vegetable cooking oil (like Canola, I believe it's called?) or melted butter
Cream Cheese Icing
100 g (3 1/2 oz) cream cheese
50 g (1 3/4 oz) butter
1-2 dl icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar
Mix the dry ingredients together. Whisk the eggs, then add grated carrots and oil or melted and somewhat cooled butter. Fold the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Divide the batter into 12 muffin cups and bake for about 25 minutes at 175°C (~350°F).
Let them cool down completely before attempting to apply icing. Whip together all the icing ingredients, then spread liberally onto the muffins. Enjoy!
This test taught me two things.
1. Silicone moulds are all kinds of cool. The muffins didn't stick and they were easy to kind of fold out of the moulds. Plus to an easily amused person, a floppy mould is way funnier than a metal tin.
2. I really dislike grating carrots. Like, seriously dislike. Broken nails, scratched fingers... Ugh. (Yeah, so it kinda sounds like I'm doing it wrong. Next time I'll delegate that task to Mr Morrgan in any case.)
Carrot Muffins Smothered in Cream Cheese Icing (makes 12)
The more carrots you put in, the juicier they are. The less you mix the batter, the better they'll be.3 1/2 dl (~1 1/3 cup) flour
3 dl (~1 1/4 cups) sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
5 dl (~2 cups) grated carrots (or 2 1/2 HUGE carrots - more than I intended to put in at first, but the muffins came out oh so juicy!)
1 dl (~1/2 cup) vegetable cooking oil (like Canola, I believe it's called?) or melted butter
Cream Cheese Icing
100 g (3 1/2 oz) cream cheese
50 g (1 3/4 oz) butter
1-2 dl icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar
Mix the dry ingredients together. Whisk the eggs, then add grated carrots and oil or melted and somewhat cooled butter. Fold the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Divide the batter into 12 muffin cups and bake for about 25 minutes at 175°C (~350°F).
Let them cool down completely before attempting to apply icing. Whip together all the icing ingredients, then spread liberally onto the muffins. Enjoy!
Labels:
recipes
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Tuesday Finds: My EST Secret Santa
The European Street Team on Etsy is playing a fun game for Christmas called Secret Santa, organized by the lovely ArtMind. Each participant is the Secret Santa for someone else and make a gift for them, and also receive a gift from their own Secret Santa. It's all very hushush and exciting. ;) I really enjoyed making a special present for someone (who it is is still a secret!) and it was fun waiting for a surprise to appear in the mail. And a few days ago, it did! And what a sweet little box it came in. :)
I was too impatient to wait for Christmas, of course (naughty, naughty me), so I opened the box and found this! A delightful ring, made with a mysterious-looking red jade. Santa sure knew what I like. ;) And who was my Secret Santa? Pinar, a.k.a. Toosis from Istanbul, Turkey! Thank you, Not-So-Secret-Anymore Santa! ;)I want to use this week's Tuesday Finds to show off some more of the beautiful jewelry Pinar makes. Take a look below for a small selection and be sure to check out her shop for more!
Labels:
jewelry,
Tuesday Finds
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