I needed a bit of cheering up today and ended up buying this beautiful red malabrigo yarn. A cheerful cardigan for myself is in order!

Another month of photo challenge, why not?! I enjoyed January and remembered every day (I’m still surprised!) so I’ll keep going through February.

Will you join me? Send me a comment here or on Instagram (@scatterpig) to let me know you’re joining so I can check out your photos.

I made my first ever gluten free pancakes for our breakfast over the weekend. They’re irregularly shaped and you can see that I had the heat up too high for a while, but I’m calling them a success!

I used a coconut flour recipe because I generally feel that coconut flour is a miracle :) it makes such perfect cakes and cupcakes that people don’t even realise that they are anything but their average white wheat flour dessert. That didn’t really hold true for pancakes though so these were a little heavy for me, but I think my expectation was a pancake as I remembered them so next time I’ll fluff up the batter a bit more and lower the heat. I’ll try a different recipe, even with only one tablespoon of maple syrup in them they were very sweet, but I’ll give the coconut flour another chance. I’ll also use some cow milk, and cook them in butter over coconut oil – John doesn’t handle dairy very well but for something like this he may be alright.

I would encourage anyone, gluten free, paleo (as in our case) or not, to experiment with coconut flour. We buy our flour, coconut oil and sugar from Niulife, their products are great and shipping is reliable and fast.

Of course coconut flour isn’t the only one I’ll bake with but I’ll save the others for another day.

Recipe I used this time (from multiple sources including Nourishing Days)

Ingredients

• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch sea salt
• coconut oil for frying

Heat the coconut oil (or try butter or ghee if you eat diary, I think that would give them a nice flavour) in your pan, keep the temperature nice and low.

Mix the wet ingredients together, and into a larger bowl sift together the dry.
I think it’s good practice to always sift coconut flour, it’s so fibrous that it can become clumpy, sifting it always helps.

Mix the wet into the dry, whisking until completely incorporated and let stand for about 5 minutes.
Coconut flour will absorb so much liquid that letting it stand to thicken for a while is best for a recipe like this, it can also help with cakes but I generally only bother if I’m using my leaky springform pan :)

Using a 1/4 measuring cup pour and cook your pancakes, they’ll bubble nicely to let you know when to flip.

If you keep in mind that coconut flour needs at least 3 eggs per 1/2 cup to help it bind and a good rule is to have double the liquid to dry in a recipe, it can be easier to judge recipes found on the internet before you try them.

This didn’t help me when I made gluten free hot cross buns last week using coconut flour… everything seemed fine with the recipe but of course the batter needed to be much thicker to form a workable dough! They just melted together and made a thin slice…

Damn Fine Day / 14×11 screenprint | theSIBLINGshop

I need this on my wall, just as a reminder.

I had a shock the afternoon before yesterday when I was made redundant from my job. The shock really was the timing, which happens to be most unfortunate for me – I can share more details later – and the fact that this has been in the works for a few months and I’ve only been told now. Extra notice and transparency in these situations can always help people.

This year was already going to be one of huge changes, exciting, but I wouldn’t have added this into the mix if given a choice. I have three weeks notice, helpful, but that also means that uncomfortable of feeling where you go in to work every day to people who feel bad for you but are so happy it’s not them.

Today will be a damn fine day!

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

This timelapse video of Yosemite National Park is so beautiful and relaxing to watch.

As you can see it’s not very heavy at the moment, but it is a huge rain system and it’s been hanging around for days. There has been flash flooding already in places and people are becoming very concerned about a repeat of our huge floods last year. This is not possible as far as I know due to measures in place since then, but as I finish this post from my phone and look out of the train window I can see creeks that have broken their banks already and low lying areas just full of water.

We’re living north of the city and are quite safe from any flooding but the areas I travel through to get home are not, so I’ll be keeping a sharp eye on the progression of things today just in case.

Wherever you are I hope you’re safe and well.

I have discovered my absolute dream wall decorations!

If you follow me on pinterest you’ll know that one of my largest walls is Decorated Walls – I’m finding almost daily decorations that I’d more than happily hang or attach on my walls, but this modular hanging system from ixxi seriously takes the cake, so many exciting possibilities.

Found via Design Milk

I have no idea if this is genuine but it’s worth a watch!

Via Mashable.

On the needles at the moment – Girasole by Jared Flood (ravelry) and the lovely Soay Cardigan by Gudrun Johnston (ravelry).

I’m planning modifying Soay, it’s a cropped cardigan and just thinking ahead to cooler months I’m going to extend the body a bit and possibly the sleeves. I think I have the yarn for it and I seem to get more wear out of full or longer sleeved cardigans than their 1/2 sleeve length friends.

It’s rainy days here at the moment, perfect for staying in and starting new projects… I have itchy fingers for crocheted blankets and striped jumpers!

January is proving to be a busy month and February is shaping up to be more so, why does this happen during times when you’d be happier staying in at home and not having to organize your time? I shouldn’t complain, it’s going to be an exciting next few months :)

I am making an effort to participate in a daily instagram in January, the first time I’ve actually followed through with this sort of photo challenge – it’s just so easy, phone camera & instagram with the daily topic set. I know there’s quite a few January and 365 instagram challenges floating around but the one I’m following is by Fat Mum Slim.

I’ll find a photo challenge for March maybe that I’ll use my real camera for. I didn’t make any new year resolutions but if I had they would certainly include enjoying my camera more daily.

I hope 2012 is treating you all well so far!