What’s a future jeweller without his/her own domain and wesite?

Thanks to Carly I’ve got my own site now.  Thank you Carly .  Visit the short and unoriginal URL http://annieli.co.uk.

Right, quick post before I got to bed.

If anyone of you decide to go to Hong Kong or any country which sells jade bangles and it’s not from an actual shop. Don’t buy it! It’s probably fake. Believe me, my skin it sensitive to fake jewellery. 

Your future is a blank canvas,
Your present is the colour,
Your past is a painting.

Your life is like a piece of art,
Each brush stroke represents a path,
Each colour represents an emotion.

The lose of inspiration is an obstacle,
A painted area is a show of fulfilment,
The empty spaces are what you dream.

A complete portrait defines an achievement,
Some portraits to be proud of,
Others which you would have wanted to do better.

A blank canvas is always waiting to be filled,
So follow your mind and heart,
To paint what could be a beautiful future.

Words by Annie Li

There is no rhyme, no rhythm, no set syllables nor structure. It’s not a limerick, lyric or a sonnet. They are just words put together in hope of being meaningful and inspiring.

They are currently my favourite band. I can’t wait until their album comes out – although I wish someone would be more specific to the release date. I’ve heard January, February and now May? Hm…people sure do like to make things confusing. Ah well, for now I’m just waiting for my “Still Figuring Out” bundle to arrive.

For those of you who have not heard of them before, Elliot Minor are a quintet rock/pop/indie/classical band from York. Shall I give them a plug? Yeah why not…you can hear they’re music via their MySpace.

Yes, I literally have nothing that interesting to blog about so here’s a little bit about me…and Elliot Minor. XD

I know shame on me for advertising but I got signed up to the street team (thanks to my friend). She knows once I’m given a task I can’t leave it, hah. News is that I get an Elliot Minor dog tag though *gleaming smile and two thumbs up*. Oh yes!

<edit 25/01 @ 11:30>Got my dog tag, a personalised letter from Alex (with an excellent drawing ) and a Still Figuring Out flier. Thank you Elliot Minor .</edit>

From memory I’ll tell you how to make profiteroles.

Ingredients
For the choux pastry:
>> 50g (2oz) cubed butter
>> 75g (3oz) strong plain flour
>> 2 medium free range eggs (lightly beaten)
>> 150ml (5fl oz) water

For the chocolate sauce:
>> 110g (4oz) cooking chocolate (broken into squares)
>> 75ml (3fl oz) whipping cream
>> 1 level tablespoon of icing sugar (sifted)
>> 2 tablespoon of warm water

For the cream filling:
>> 284ml whipped cream
>> 1 level teaspoon of icing sugar (sifted)
>> 1/2 (half) a teaspoon of vanilla extract

Making the profiteroles

These measurements will produce 24 profiteroles .

Firstly, preheat your oven at 220°C (425°F).

Choux pastry
Now,we’ll start off with the choux pastry. Put your 150ml water and 50g butter into a pan. Then leave it on a low heat on the cooker. Stir until it’s boiled.

Take the pan off the heat. Then stir 75g strong plain flour into the water/butter mixture. You should end up with a smooth ball, leaving the inside of the pan clean . Now just leave the the mixture ball to cool for 5 minutes (no less than that!).

5 minutes later…gradually add your 2 lightely beaten eggs to the ball mixture, whilst stiring. Your mixture is ready when a) you see a glossy finish and b) the mixture becomes stiff as you’re stiring.

You’ll now need to baking trays. On those baking trays you’ll need to place damp grease proof paper. Now using two teaspoons create spherical shapes. Make 24 balls altogether – 12 on each baking tray (they should hold into a ball shape fairy well). Do leave enough space between the spheres (they’ll expand in the oven).

Now they’re ready to be placed into the oven. Turn you heat down to 200°C (392°F) and leave to bake for roughly 20-25 minutes. On the half-way interval change your trays around.

When they’re done take them out of the oven (obviously ) and make small incisions on the side of each profiteroles (this’ll keep them nice and crisp). Leave the profiteroles to cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate sauce
Put the 110g cooking chocolate and 75ml whipping cream into a heatproof bowl. Boil water in a pan and put the bowl of chocolate and cream on top of the pan. Now and again, stir until the chocolate melts into the cream.

Once you get the chocolate-y coloured cream take off the pan and mix in 1 tablespoon of sifted icing sugar. Then mix in 2 tablespoon of warm water.

Cream sauce
Almost there now. All you need to do is whip 284ml cream, 1 teaspoon of sifted icing sugar and half a teaspoon vanilla extract. You can use a hand whisk or go the lazy way out – use a electric whisk. Whisk until the cream holds shape.

Profiterole
Alright now to put the whole thing together. You can either use a pipe feeder or just a spoon. Spoon the cream into the choux pastry (possibly through the side incisions). Put the profiteroles on a plate.

Finally – now you can do this in 1 of 3 ways. You can a) spoon a bit of chocolate onto each individual profiterole, b) go mental and just dump the chocolate onto the profiteroles or c) be creative and do things the unconventional way (what ever that may be).

You’re profiteroles will looks something like mine (probably better )…

Yeah, I’ll be missing a few profiteroles because they were being eaten whilst I was trying to get a decent picture my family kept nibbling at them. It does bother me how the chocolate wasn’t evenly divided between the profiteroles…but I ran out of chocolate. More chocolate is needed, methinks.

I hope this was helpful ^_^.

…really bad.  I’m lacking inspiration and imagination at the moment.  All I need is one theme that shines a light bulb above my head and then my creativity should explode.

*Stares blankly at plain mood boards*.

This is basically a reply to Carly . It’d probably be better if I blogged about what is required, now I’ve been given a project brief. This project will go until the 14th March, 2008.

Firstly, I have to create two mood boards. Both of them will have pictures from a chosen theme, mine (at the moment) being masquerade masks – I may change my mind later though. Aw, I’d love to let you help me with the mood board Carly but it has to be my own work, I wish I had your enthusiasm . Thanks for offering though . So, from those images I must create at least 5 designs, then talk about them for 15 minutes to the whole class – ah! The tutor will have her input into my designs, as well as fell students.

Oops forgot to mention the most important thing – silly me. My designs must make a cup, saucer and spoon set. The scale of the cup is espresso size, the saucer and spoon should be a reasonable size to the cup. Obviously…imagine that, an espresso cup with a humongous spoon (I found the imagery funny XD – oh dear). Knowing me though I’d probably go a little of with my measurements XD.

The set will, at first, be made out of copper. The final pieces will be made out of silver – real silver . Exciting stuff!

P.s. I’m in a design craft course.

Believe it or not, the title is related to a project I’m working on at university. I have to design a cup, saucer and teaspoon set. The cup can’t be any bigger than an espresso cup. By next Thursday (17th) I would have had to have (awkward sentence XD) chosen a theme, created two A3 mood boards and at least 5 designs. To top it off I have to talk about my designs for 15 minutes…did I mention I’m not very articulate XD. Ah well, it should go well just as long as my sentences make sense, haha.

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