I'M DREAMING OF A RED AND AQUA CHRISTMAS

I love this colour combination and find it particualrly Christmassy. Here is a mosaic of a few of my favourite things this Christmas.
1. First off is Tunnocks Teacakes a long standing family tradition, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Tunnocks!
2. Then a little carved wooden robin I bought with Mr Lemon Drizzle long before we had our kidlets, it has real sentimental value.
3. I finally succumbed to the pom-pom craze and used this tutorial from Martha Stewart which was soooo easy.
4. I made an advent calender for the kidlets using scraps of fabric I have accrued!  Next year I hope to add some more embelishment.
5.  My gingerbread men who have been having an adventure over at Middle of Nowhere.
6.  My gingerbread house, which has been entered into two competitions, please have a look and vote. Gingerbread Housing Crisis  Martha Stewart Gingerbread House Competition
7.  An applique I made a few years ago for Christmas cards.
8.  My Christmas Cake.
9.  More pom-poms as I love them so much!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

A very happy Christmas to you all! 

Thankyou for taking time to look at my blog, I hope that you have enjoyed it and thankyou for all your lovely comments, I really appreciate them.

I will be back soon but for now enjoy your holidays and these festive cakes I made especially for you!

FAIRY FOR NIAH

This is a fondant fairy I made for my niece who is one on Christmas Eve.  I was pleased with how she came out as I wanted a chubby fairy for a one year old rather than something more ethereal.  I look at some Cicily May Barker illustrations for inspiration.  I have some old annuals with gorgeous chubby children in.

I hand painted the sign as my piping skills are shocking!

THE OWL AND THE PUSSY CAT....

I absolutely adore this set of pictures from the fabulously talented Joey Ramone.  The boats were made by Claire of The Pin Factory and Joey made the figures. I think they are wonderfully  charming!

The Owl and The Pussy Cat was always one of my favourite poems.

Check out Joeys blog joeysdreamgarden for more of her gorgeous work.

ROCKIN ROBIN

These are some gingerbread cupcakes with lemon butter cream that I made as Christmas presents.

I use the Nigella Lawson recipe from her 'Domestic Goddess' book.  I half the recipe and that gets me twelve cupcakes.  I then use buttercream instead of the water icing she uses.  I covered these in fondant, I wanted to decorate them with something a bit fun and thought robins would be perfect!

GREAT CHRISTMAS DECORATION!

I found this fabulous tutorial for making your own deer head.  It's too late for me to make one this Christmas but maybe next year?

SERENA'S COOKIE EXCHANGE

These are my gingerbread men that I sold at the More Than A Mama Fair last night.

 I use the Peggy Porschen   recipe which is fabulously tasty.

They went down a storm and I hope that these little men will be happy in their new homes, swinging from branches!

I am entering this post for Serena's cookie exchange over at The Farm Chicks blog!

FUN FOR THE WALL!

I love, love, love these wall stickers from, Hu2.com.  They are so humourous.  I think this reminder to turn the lights off to save the hamster from exhaustion is great.

My kidlets would love these.  I am roaming round my house looking for a suitable spot.

Now all I have to do is persuade Mr Lemondrizzle.

CHRISTMAS WREATHS

1. DSCF0052, 2. my purple bunny, 3. Omedetou (Add Your Own Message) Paper Wreath, 4. button wreath!, 5. New wreath, 6. Girl's Fabric Wreath, 7. Peggy & Toms First Party, 8. holiday rag wreath (14), 9. Grinalda (Guirlanda) - wreath, 10. Valentine Ribbon Wreath by Heartfelt Handmade, 11. ribbon wreath, 12. Grinalda de menina - Little girl wreath, 13. Christmas fabric wreath 2009, 14. Felt Wreath With Vintage Embellishments, 15. Linen Christmas Wreath, 16. Another vintage ornament wreath #1

As it is the first Advent Sunday today I thought some Christmas inspiration would be appropriate. So here are some fabulous creations from the wonderful people at Flickr.

I am tempted to have a go at a ribbon wreath myself, but I know I will be pushed to find the time.  Every year I vow to start some Christmas projects early so I don't pile too much pressure on myself last minute, but I never do.  Two days ago I started an Advent calender for my kidlets, some chance of that being finished for the 1st!  In fact I should really be finishing that instead of posting blogs!

 I hope you find these beautiful wreaths as inspiring as I do.

SOMETHING FOR THE BOYS!

I did a fair last week and wanted to create some Autumny cakes for boys.  So of course I had to go with chocolate!  I covered the cakes with chocolate buttercream and then sprinkled the tops with crushed Orio cookies.  I had made some sugar paste worms, stones and Autumn leaves which I used as decoration.

Typically my first sale of these cakes was to a girl!  I maybe need to go even more gruesome for the boys.

I have just discovered the joys of picnik which is a great way to retouch and create fun images with your pictures. I actually did my degree in Graphic Design but in my first year we had to do everything by hand as Macs were only just starting to be used.  Then in my second year I specialised in illustration and then I worked for twelve years as a textile designer spending all day painting so I really feel I lost my way a bit with computors.  But there are so many great (and free) apps out there that even I find easy to use.  Let me know any of the good ones you have found.

A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE COTTAGE

Finally! I have finished my bird house.

This is gingerbread covered in fondant, it is my third, and each time I make a new one I discover new tricks to make it better.   I seem to have become obsessed with sugar and gingerbread birds, and they have become one of my recurring motives in my work.

Bumbling around flickr and other blogs looking for inspiration is so enjoyable and I can sometimes spend so much time being inspired that I don't get down to actual being creative myself!  But I hope that you will be inspired by this post to do something gingerbready.  Please leave a link if you have made a gingerbread house, I'd love to see it!

If you live in or near Hertforshire and would like to order a Christmas gingerbread house please e-mail for prices and more details.

This is a once in a lifetime offer. If you come to our Bumps, Babes and Beyond Fayre, Friday 20th November 9 -12 at Berkhamsted Town Hall you can purchase this cake and a special reduced price. 

DUSKY ROSE CUPCAKES

These were Autumn cupcakes I was inspired to make after purchasing these lovely brown spotty cases.

I love pink and brown together!

A friends' mum very kindly gave me a cupcake stand so I made these as a thankyou, it was also her birthday.

To be honest though I don't need much of an excuse to make cupcakes!

 

My true love gave to me...

I love this Christmas picture by PlanetCoco. It is so simple and easy on the eye but when you see the thought that has gone into it, it is so clever.
Each font relates in someway to the word, for example the first font is called partridge. Ten Lords a leaping is represented by 'Little Lord Fonteroy' . Have alook at her blog for a full list of fonts and more gorgeous Christmassy ideas.

MTAM GIVEAWAY!

Yes our first official giveaway!  Many thanks to the talented Marie of Heartfelthandmade for parting with one of her wonderful tooth monsters.

To be in with a chance of winning one of these cutie-pies visit the More Than a Mama blogspot.  Good Luck!

PUMPKIN CUPCAKES

This is the recipe for pumkin cupcakes that I made with my kids to get rid of our pumpkin scrappings.  They rejected the pumpkin soup as did Mr Mr Lemon Drizzle, and I didn't even dare mention a stew so I thought better go for the sweet option!
We made spiced pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

INGREDIENTS

125g butter

125g sugar

2 large eggs

grated orange peel and juice

125g self raising flour

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

200g pumpkin flesh

milk

Preheat oven to 200 or 175 for fan oven.

Line cupcake tray with inserts.

Beat together butter and sugar for about two minutes until pale and creamy.  Add eggs one at a time, add the grated orange peel.  Sift together the flour and spices and add to the mixture.  Fold gently together.  Then fold in the pumkin and orange juice.  The cake mixture should have a soft consistency and drop easily off a spoon.

Using a dessert spoon distribute the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until pale golden

 

We used the scrapings from our pumpkin heads so I used my fabulous Pampered Chef chopper to chop up the flesh.  If you are not creating a spooky masterpiece and just fancy some pumpkin cupcakes you could just grate it.

Ready to go into the oven!

And just out, filling the house with the smell of pumpkiny goodness.

FROSTING

 250g unsalted butter

250g icing sugar

100g cream cheese

1 teaspoon of lemon juice.

Beat all the ingredients together until light and fluffly.

Put a heaped teaspoon of the frosting on the top of each cake and with an

offset spatula (or back of a knife) level it off.

I decorated ours with gingerbread leaves and gold fondant leaves to make them really autumnal.

As I mentioned earlier I did make these with the kidlets.  However I have attempted to spare you the horror of all this entails in my pictures, ( half an hours making for two hours clearing up!) but I couldn't resist showing off my three year olds effort.  Not bad hey?

A WEEKEND AT THE COAST

After baking hundreds of wedding cakes I took my family and we headed North!  My parents have a lovely holiday house, a Victorian Town house in Morcambe and we had a fantastic few days break.

They have decorated it beautifully and I feel like I'm living inside Coast Magasine when I'm there.

 

 

AUTUMN WEDDING

This is my first ever wedding cake.  It was for an old family friend Tim and his lovely fiancee (now wife) Naomi.

The illustrations are based on the botanical drawings of  'An Edwardian Country Lady'.  They had seen my Spring Cake and wanted an Autumn version.

It was a 6" vanilla cutting cake with 136 cupcakes.

I was really happy with the result.

SMASHING PUMPKINS!

This is a fantastic autumn project for your little ones! A paper mache pumpkin which can also be used as a treat holder.   My own darlings are 3 and 5 and really threw themselves into it! It is really easy to make but does require some drying time.  It took us about two weeks from start to finish (but that wasn't every day, I wanted to hold their interest.)

1. Blow up a balloon, don't blow it up all the way as you want more of a round shape.  I then squished it a bit in my hands to make it even more round.  Tape down the knot.

2. Make up your paste by mixing 1 parts flour to 2 parts water.  You want a nice consistancy not too runny and well mixed so there are no lumps.

3. Then start stripping.....the newspaper!  Put the strips in the mixture and as you bring them out run your fingers down them so you get rid of any excess paste.

I found it helpful to stand the balloons up on old yogurt pots so they didn't wibble wobble everywhere.

You need at least three layers and let each layer dry completely before applying the next one.  We actually needed four and I was impressed that I only had to apply the last layer, normally I end up at the table doing craft projects while the kidlets run around screeching!

 

4. Scrunch up a few strips of newspaper and roll them in your hands until they come together in a sausage shape, then put on the top of the pumpkin to make the stalk.  Take another few strips and place them around the stalk to anchor it to the main body.

5. With a pen make a mark about one third down frm the top of the pumpkin and another mark about 2cm below that. Do the same on the other side.

6. Then with a craft knife cut around the top of the pumpkin, about two thirds up, inbetween the upper and lower marks.

 

7. Using a hole punch, put holes in the lid on either side and two holes in the main body where you made your mark.  If the paper mache is too thick to go in to the hole punch use a braddle or knitting needle.

8. Paint your pumpkin.  We used acrylic paint and I mixed burnt orange with gold to give a slight pearlescent sheen.  We painted the inside too.  I mixed a bit of the gold with the green for the stalk.  We put a couple of coats of paint on to cover the newspaper, and as excitment was mounting and patience running out I used a hairdrier to speed up the drying time. Then like everything else in our house it was given a liberal sprinkling of glitter! 
9. Finally I threaded a ribbon through the holes to make a perfect treat holder.

MY INSPIRATION

Thankyou to all my kind friends on flickr for letting me use their images.  I shall be studying this mosaic to come up with a design for this years Christmas Gingerbread house.
1. einsames Haus - lonely house, 2. Cuckoo-Clock Block, 3. Dowon At The Bird's House, 4. Untitled, 5. Flock of Spring Birdies by Heartfelt Handmade, 6. Christmas Winter Wonderland #2, 7. El hogar del búho, 8. Fabric house, 9. Lemon Lime Yarn Wreath, 10. Garland of Five Happy Houses, 11. nesting may basket class , 12. my first pattern!, 13. My Ever Changing Moods~~~, 14. Toadstool House cake, 15. Bom fim de semana!, 16. song

AND NOW THE MAKING!

This is one half of a pair of curtains I made for my daughter when she moved to her "big" room.  The Japanese Kuma Bear is sitting on a quilt made by my Mum for me when I was little, it is in need of desperate repair!

I drew a template of various sized butterflies and then 'bondawebbed' them onto the curtains.

I zigzagged stiched them on my machine to stop them falling off (or being picked off by little hands!) and also to add their antenae.

 

I limited the pallette to mostly greens and pinks, my fav colour combo.  I was very proud of my acheivement especially as I was 8 months pregnant at the time and crawling around on the floor to place the butterflies wasn't the easiest thing in the world!