TREATS AND GOODIES.

Don't you love a giveaway?  

A few weeks ago I won a fabulous one from Torie Jayne.  She was giving away a £60 voucher for CSN stores.  I promised her I would let her know what I bought (I only went slightly over budget) . It all arrived this week and I have already made good use of some of my winnings!

As my family is getting bigger and eating more I needed a bigger pie dish so I got this lovely blue Le Creuset dish and it came just on the day I needed to make a chicken pie.

I also purchased two stacking cooling rackes which are fabulous!

I have read so much from Nigella about reusuable baking paper that I had to try some of that.

I also got two flat baking trays for my cookies.

 A tin of butterfly cookie cutters

And some square cutters which I shall be using later on today!

Anyway as a thankyou to Torie here is a pretty cake!

A good friend ordered it for a summer party and she wanted me to incorporate the bird house from a previous design.

I also used this trial which I found on Tories blog,(here), she does like a bird!

ps. Happy Birthday Mum

pps. If you live in the USA or Canada, head over to Haniela's blog for a chance to win a CSN voucher!

ABOUT BLOOMING TIME!

I have a confession.....sometimes I'm a terrible friend!

One of my good friends had a lovely little baby boy some months ago and I have just got round to getting a goodie basket together for her! (hangs head in shame) 

I actually wanted to make some her some chocolate macarons as well but I knew that I would never find the time and her little boy would be a year before I gave her her new baby package!

Here's what she could be munching on now!

And here is what she has actually received.

Photo courtesy of Heartfelthandmade
   A beautiful banner from Marie at Heartfelt Handmade 
She made me this in exchange for cake!

A lovely burping cloth and tinkle tent (just for boys can you guess what it's for?) from IslaBBaby

 And a fabric collage from me!

 I also included some homemade elderflower cordial.

I hope she enjoys!

GREAT FREEBIE!

Check out this fabulous free printable here from 'kind over matter'.  

Isn't it a lovely idea?  I'm trying to think where I could hang one.  I love to pin it up on a random tree, but it never stops raining at the moment so I'll have to find a place inside.  

Have a look at their lovely blog for some other lovely freebies and giveaways.

PARTY INVITATIONS

So we sent out the invitations this week with much excitement.  Tiny kidlet practically refused to hand them over as she insisted they were hers!

Big kidlet threw a mood and wanted to make her invites for her party in February!

I was very pleased with the finished product and proud of my paint.net skills......ok maybe Mr Lemon Drizzle did help a bit....alright he did them while I stood and watched.

Actually I added the text on Picnik, much easier than paint.net.

More party goodness to come soon.

......?(SOMETHING) PINATA!

Hi there!  I'm back again after a lovely week away at my parents house in Morcambe . 

We are very excited in the house because there is a birthday soon!  With cake and balloons and games and a pinata.

Of course we are making our pinata so I thought I'd find some inspiration.

First up are these beautiful ones from Confetti System.

 They are probaly not quite right for a kidlets party but there are other parties on my radar!

 This is also not right for a kidlets party but I think it's funny.  Found via Geekologie. 

Now these are more child friendly, how cute are they?  From Craig Adams.

And how adorable is this matryoshka doll from Birchangel Custom Pinatas?  Check out her Etsy shop it's full of gorgeous pinatas if you don't fancy making one yourself.

It's easy to get carried away with pretty things, so here is one for the boys with instructions from here.

 

And just to finish here is the pinata I made for big kidlets birthday earlier on in the year

I shall be posting a pinata tutorial at some point but school hols are really slowing me down!

ps the title of this post is a bit strange,  I was trying to think of something smart to say about pinatas begining with 'p' but couldn't come up with anything (holiday brain) have you got any ideas?