Wonderful weddings

Some weeks ago I made a trip back home for my Mum's 70th birthday (the picture of the cake are here!). While I was there I took the chance to catch up with some old friends. Many, many years ago I worked with Angela, we were both newby textile designers let loose in the metropolis of Manchester. I also got to know her then partner (now husband) Jason really well. Jason is an amazing photographer, and it seemed natural when I married Mr Lemon Drizzle that Jason take our wedding photos.

We were overwhelmed with all the photos, and I still regularly look at my album. Here's a lovely picture of me and my Mum on that day (Mr Lemon Drizzle refuses to shown on my blog because of stubbornness contractual reasons!) 

It was really lovely to catch up with them both and meet their amazing kids. We also had a good old chat about the wedding industry, now that we all work in that sector. Jason & Angela have updated their site and they now offer cinematic short films. If I could turn back time I would love to have something like this from our day (we never had a video made), it is simply stunning. Please take a look at www.reportagewedding.co.uk, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter & be inspired by Angela's Pinterest ideas for your big day.

xxx

Cowgirl party invites

A few weeks ago, my littlest one turned seven (not so little any more!) As ever, her party planning began the minute last years' guests had left the house. Initially she asked for a lemur party (it's the latest obsession) but fortunately I managed to talk her out of it and into a cowgirl party..yee haw! So obviously we had to create some cowgirl themed invitations.

I thought I would share with you what we did. I haven't made a tutorial, as as they are sooo easy to make it would be insulting your intelligence; so instead of a how-to, this is more a 'how-I-did-it!'

To begin with the eldest kidlet (under strict instructions from her sister) drew a picture to go into the invitations. As you can see, the lemurs did manage to make an appearance, but I am led to believe that they are 'actually a very authentic addition to a cowgirl party!' I scanned and printed out the picture. The littlest kidlet wrote out a personal invitation to each of her friends on the back of the pictures. But as some of the writing was quite eligible I also made a printed version.

I bought neckerchiefs for each of the party guest (the colours were carefully chosen by the kidlets to suit each friend). You can find them in a myriad of colours for about £1 each on eBay. I placed the kidlet's invitation in the centre of the scarf and folded it around the paper (like an envelope.)

I then laid the printed invite on top of the scarf and wrapped it altogether with baker twine. (You can find some excellent cowgirl/boy themed fonts here which are free to download for non-commercial purposes.)

And that was it, Easy as pie campfire beans! 

I will be back soon with pictures of the actual party.

xxx

A cake for a VIP

A few weeks ago, when it was still Summer (doesn't it seem so long ago?) I made a very, very special special VIP birthday cake. It was for my Mum who turned seventy (if you could all please leave comments saying you can't believe it, and that she looks so young, you will make her giddy with happiness!). I had planned a Frida Kahlo inspired cake, but then I received directions (via my Dad) that she wanted a cake that would make reference to various times of her life. Mmm... I thought, a fussy client! 

So I decided to paint some vignettes of her garden, which has been transformed from a literal wilderness to a beautiful, peaceful haven by both my parents. 

My Mum's early career was as a jazz and blues singer, she had a couple of albums released and still loves to sing at any opportunity to this day. So I incorporated some lyrics from one of her songs, fittingly enough they are about a garden. She has since trained and worked as a fine artist, so I copied one of her paintings onto the cake.

Just as she was born a butterfly flew into the room and my Nana always called my Mum her 'butterfly', so I had to include that in the cake.

(My Mum's photos from her Facebook page that I used to create the design)

Finally, on the reverse, I created a slightly unusual family tree made made up of penguins, my Dad is a potter and these are one of his best sellers, every member of the family has received one of these beauties at some time or other. 

She was delighted with her cake, and as all three tiers were made from fruit cake my parents are still eating it!

xxx

Floral wedding cake

Last weekend was something of a blur as I was demonstrating at the Cake and Bake Show in London, I also had a dessert table on display and two wedding cakes as part of Squires Kitchen Wedding Cake of the Future exhibition. As if this wasn't enough I had a hen party to attend and a wedding cake to deliver.

This is the wedding cake, it was ordered by the very sweet groom, who I discovered pacing the hotel lobby when I delivered the cake. We had never met, discussing the design over emails and the phone. He asked for the design to match in style the bridesmaids dresses, which were made from a quite expressionistic fabric.

 I really enjoyed creating this design as it was a little bit different to what I would normally paint, it was very bright and fresh and the groom seemed thrilled.

xxx