Indy & the Ninja

This blog has moved!

2010-01-05T10:57:00.002+11:00

Please visit us at http://www.indyandtheninja.com/blog/

Work in progress

2009-12-31T08:58:00.000+11:00

Hair flowers are my absolute favourite clip to make. That's probably why I make more of them than the blossoms or rosettes (and from the sales, you guys seem to think the same).

Lots of new fabric cut and ready to sew.

Sewn flowers.

Flowers waiting to be assembled. If see you one you like and want it in a particular orientation, email me at indyandtheninja@gmail.com

Trouble with Etsy

2009-12-22T11:26:00.001+11:00

I have been having trouble logging onto Etsy the last few days but no idea why. There might be a slight delay answering convos unless you are emailing me direct. You can reach me at indyandtheninja@gmail.com

Also - Australia Post is facing a postal workers strike from Tuesday 22 December, 2009. This may cause delays in delivery.

Dances with Wolves meets ... The Smurfs!

2009-12-20T10:33:00.000+11:00

Dances with Wolves with giant athletic hippie smurfs in a world that's Jurassic Park meets Fern Gully?

Jokes aside, this was a fabulous movie. Yes, the plot is a pretty simple one - Dances with Wolves and Last Samurai - are examples of that. I am not convinced about those stupid 3D glasses though.

An Upsy Daisy Birthday

2009-12-14T12:35:00.001+11:00

My neice is a huge fan of In the Night Garden and won't sleep without her Upsy Daisy doll. This is a cake I originally wanted to make for her first birthday, but last year children's cake decorating was so new to me that I settled for a much easier bear covered in flake chocolate.

But a year later, I revisited the idea and decided it wasn't really that hard - it was just the hair I was stuck on. Cutting 7-10 banana shapes out of cake and icing them seemed to be asking for things to go wrong.

The cake itself is no star recipe. I used Nigella Lawson's Buttermilk Birthday cake - the same recipe I used last year. You could easily substitute packet cake mix. The icing is chocolate buttercream for the face (with some red and yellow food colouring added to warm up Upsy's complexion), and vanilla buttercream tinted pink (both Magnolia recipes).

What was different this year, was that I found these:

With a little microwave magic, three of these sticks form one strand of Upsy's hair. When warm, you can shape and bend them (when cold, they snap and break). I used the yellow, orange and pink for the equivalent on Upsy and red licorice for the red strands.

The eyes are white chocolate and dark chocolate melts, and the nose is a Smartie. Eyebrows are done with ready made pink writing icing from the Supermarket.

Of course, what didn't occur to me until the cake was made was that a little girl probably would not enjoy seeing her favourite character sliced and eaten. Good thing for us she was so tired, she had a nap after blowing out the candles.

Grandma goes shopping

2009-12-12T20:57:00.000+11:00

My Mum bought this blossom set from me ...

... and then gave them to my daughter. Yes, Indy. It's great that she's supporting my business! But I'm sure Indy would probably prefer a toy. Or a remote control. One step closer to porcupine!

More clips

2009-12-11T10:59:00.000+11:00

A few more new ones! I am a bit all over the place when it comes to listing new things on Etsy, so if you like one of these or others I have posted, please convo/email me!

In other news, I am so flattered to have received my first wholesale enquiry only 12 days after opening my Etsy store. Sadly, I'm just not ready for this step. At this time, most hair flowers and blossom sets you see here are OOAK (this is not the case with rosettes), so I just don't have the production capacity to be able to make multiples! But I'll get there soon!

Blog Love

2009-12-09T17:46:00.000+11:00

We just got a great write-up from Nancy at Musings of a Cosmetic Girl!

Chocolate ...

2009-12-09T07:37:00.001+11:00

I am dying to try Olive & Sinclair chocolate! Flavours like Sea Salt, Salt & Pepper and Mexican Style Cinnamon Chilli sound absolutely mouth-watering!!! I have been meaning to import some, but the hot Australian summer would probably turn them into mush before I'd have a chance to eat them.

I also really miss the Pink Pepper chocolate I had in Switzerland. One of these days, I will just have to make some!

Meanwhile, here are some hair flowers waiting to be assembled.

Some new favourites ....

2009-12-07T10:24:00.001+11:00

Sneak peak! These aren't on Etsy yet (oops ... Miss Mousey just sold!)

Cake mix in a box

2009-12-06T20:03:00.000+11:00

Today, I used cake mix from a box for the very first time. I've made lots of cakes and cookies from scratch, but this time I just needed a fool-proof recipe without time for a dry-run. So I was rather alarmed when my batter resembled scrambled eggs! Not to worry though, it did all work out - the batter smoothed out with a few more minutes of beating. These profiteroles were great!

Accuquilt Studio Fabric Cutter

2009-12-02T10:39:00.000+11:00

Yikes! Turns out I can die cut all the exact fabric sizes I need on the Accuquilt Studio Fabric Cutter . At US$595 (plus the cost of dies, not to mention the $$$ to ship to Australia), it's quite a bit more expensive than Accuquilt's GO!

Nostalgic Cooking: Hainanese Chicken Rice

2009-12-01T21:09:00.001+11:00

Hainanese chicken rice is a dish that's quite popular these days and you can get it at most Malaysian and Singaporean restaurants. It's special for me though because my Nana was from Hainan Island, in the south of China, where this dish originates (incidentally, Hainan Island is also known for coconut candy).

I regret never having learnt how to cook this from my Nan while she was still alive, and Great-Grandmother's instructions (Nan's Mum) have been sketchy at best. But using a recipe from my friend, Leana, my attempt at cooking this wasn't too bad for a first go.

To prepare the chicken
1.5 kg chicken
Salt
3 slices ginger
Spring onion
Sesame oil
Soya sauce
White pepper

Rinse the chicken both inside and outside, marinate with salt and stuff inside with ginger slices. Boil half pot of water. Put in the bottom part of a spring onion. When water is boiling, immerse chicken into the water. Ensure the chicken is covered with water. Reduce heat to low and poach for 35-40 minutes depending on the size of the chicken. Remove chicken and leave to cool. If chicken is still slightly uncooked, re-boil stock and immerse the chicken for 5 minutes. Mix some sesame oil, soya sauce and white pepper in a small bowl and drizzle over chicken.

To make the chicken rice
2 cups rice
1 clove garlic
1 slice ginger
Peanut oil
Light soya sauce

Fry the uncooked rice with some oil and light soya sauce. Transfer into a rice cooker and add 3 ½ cups of chicken stock and some salt. Add crushed peeled garlic and a piece of ginger to the pot. Cook the rice.

Soup, to serve with Chicken Rice
Cabbage (shredded)
Spring onions/coriander
Salt
Soup

Boil the chicken stock add shredded cabbage. Add salt to taste. Cut spring onion and/or coriander and garnish the soup.

Meet the Parents was right ...

2009-11-30T13:23:00.002+11:00

... apparently you can toilet train Mr Jinx!

How to Toilet-Train Your Cat

Just another ad

2009-11-27T09:24:00.000+11:00

In the magazine world, where I work, we often remark that editorial is worth three times more than advertising. People trust the opinion of other people more than that of the company who's opinion is self-serving. It's easy to rave about a $1000 jar of Creme de la Mer when you haven't paid for it. Magazines get send thousands of products every week!

So when an ordinary person loves a product so much they have to tell everyone about it on their blog, it gets people's attention. Personally, I'm glad that bloggers are coming under scrutiny for what I essentially consider "cash for comment" even if the value is in free product rather than money.

Blogging moms wooed by food firms

Purple Fever

2009-11-26T23:31:00.001+11:00

Just finished painting these displays for the clips - the right shade of purple paint turned out to be pretty hard to find! On the other hand, the right shade of purple ink (for stamping) was dead easy - I already had it from a previous project and it was still in the plastic.

Just in time for Christmas ...

2009-11-25T09:28:00.002+11:00

Indy & the Ninja wrapping paper!

I do have a lot of petals made but no felt backing circles to assemble the clips with. I have stuffed up 2 circle punches already - I know they aren't designed for fabric - but they make better circles than hand-cutting. I ordered some die-cut circles from a seller on Etsy, but will have to wait for them to arrive.

I am wondering about this GO! Fabric Cutter - it has dies that allow you to cut fabric shapes easily. But it looks like you'd have to cut the fabric to fit the plate, and that would have a lot more wastage than handcutting as I am now. Plus, they don't have a die the same size as what I am using yet.

Snip Snip!

2009-11-24T13:20:00.000+11:00

I just love these Softouch® Micro-Tip® Scissors from Fiskars. There is a lot of fabric cutting involved in making fabric flowers and these just make the experience a pleasure!

Yummy Fudge

2009-11-20T09:27:00.001+11:00

I made this easy-peasy fudge for Mother's Group yesterday.

350g dark chocolate
397g can condensed milk
30g butter
150g macadamia nuts
a pinch of salt

Put everything except the nuts into a saucepan on low heat to melt and combine. Add the nuts and pour into a lined 20cm square baking dish. Refrigerate until set. Cut into small pieces. That's it!

A busy bee

2009-11-19T13:26:00.005+11:00

Been busy making lots of hair flowers, hair rosettes and blossom snap clip sets. There is a severe lack of pink and red clips at the moment as I have only just finished sewing the flowers on those and they've yet to be assembled! With all the hair flowers, the fabric I've used for the petals is limited edition, so I'll only have a few of each. On the upside, there will be lots of variety.

Packaging

2009-11-17T13:31:00.000+11:00

My hair clip backing cards arrived today! Yay!

Out with the old ...

2009-11-16T16:29:00.000+11:00

As of today my old blog, de l'escalier (yes the one I never updated and attached to my soap shop where I never had any soap to sell), is gone. I'll blog here from now on ... well, at least, I will attempt to blog since I really wasn't good at doing it very often.

So far you might have seen my Etsy shop is still empty. There will be clips up soon! I am waiting impatiently for my backing cards which should have arrived Friday and still have not come! In the meantime though, I have listed 2 sets of 2 clips each in The Dish Forum's Dishavery to raise money for charity.

Here's one of the sets:

Kanzashi for Cuties!

2009-11-15T09:49:00.004+11:00

Indy & the Ninja hair clips are especially made for cuties! Each Indy & the Ninja hair accessory is handmade from designer fabrics sourced from around the world. Our range includes hair flowers, hair rosettes and blossom snap clip sets.

Especially this cutie here:

Indy contemplates the consequences of being named after an action hero.

Indy & the Ninja hair accessories are handmade by Samantha Cheung in Sydney, Australia.

As an only child, Samantha grew up occupying herself with all things crafty. After the birth of her daughter, Indy, Samantha has done none of the things she thought she'd have time to do in her year off. Instead, she makes hair clips.

Indy would love it if you bought some, otherwise her Mummy might make her look like a porcupine in an effort to wear all the clips that have been made.

Samantha also enjoys making soap, baking cupcakes and just being a domestic goddess generally. Indy enjoys eating her toys and sneezing food in her her Mummy's face.

Kevin is the resident Ninja. Indy calls him Daddy. Kevin enjoys photography, playing with his dog, Pepe, and waving his toy lightsaber around in the dark.