07 2 / 2013
A-Z of Ivy
We are passionate about home-made gifts, and what Ivy gets is no different. Last year she got a rocking horse for Christmas, this year she got her own A-Z book! Here are all the pages.
24 12 / 2012
Christmas Cakes
This year I had a go at baking my own Christmas cake. I am blessed with a mother-in-law who makes the most fantastic fruit cakes, so I have never needed to before, but as I had completed my sugarcraft course, I thought it would be fun to have something to place my creations upon! As my M-in-L and Sister-in-law have the most beautiful tradition of making the cakes together, and as Ivy and I live to far away to join in I thought it would be lovely for us to create our own ‘northern’ cake tradition. My cake turned out ok, nowhere near as good as theirs, but enough of a success that Ivy and me may try again! Plus the smell of fruit soaking in brandy is just divine!
I added a top layer of a red velvet cake to fruit cake and topped with penguins and petal paste snowflakes
With two tiers and fancy icing and petal paste I am totally counting this as my show stopper cake from the 35 things list!
The Fruit cake had a marzipan layer under the fondant. The red velvet had a cream cheese frosting underneath, and running through the middle. I originally made two red velvet cakes with the idea of stacking them up on each other with frosting between but the cakes rose so beautifully I was able to split a single cake into two layers, resulting in an extra red velvet cake.
Iced with cream cheese frosting and petal paste snowflakes this cake was a great help towards our ‘homemade’ gift tally, making a fab gift for some friends.
The snowflake cutter definitely earned its keep this year - also making the fondant toppers for some cupcakes I made for a play group party.
As a gift for my Mum I also iced her cakes for this year. She hates doing it and I was happy for the practice. Her first cake got a mixture of figures I had been making in class out of fondant.
On one side a ‘whistling’ elf - although he looks more worried!!! He is standing on the snowballs as his legs fell off!!! So he should be worried really! On the other a snowman and some trees.
To be honest the class was not great, the teacher was super critical and did nothing for my confidence, but I did pick up a few tricks. Firstly Tylo Powder - you add it to fondant to make it stiffer for moulding and makes it set hard. Second ‘spaghetti scaffolding’ Use it to hold on heads, secure models to cakes - its a wonder. I also learnt the basics of sugar flowers - and here is the second cake that I decorated using those.
So there are some of my Christmas bakes.
08 11 / 2012
Aviator hat for the gorgeous bundle of loveliness that is Ted! His mummy and pilot Dad seemed chuffed with it too! Again, had no pattern, so just made it up as I went!
26 10 / 2012
My seconded commissioned hat - Angry Birds!
Was a really fun hat to make, and its new owner seemed to love it.
04 9 / 2012
Turns out slippers are not too unlike making a hat - so here is my first pair, and first flower to boot!! Not a perfect specimen of crochet genius, but not the worst either!
03 8 / 2012
Having started it in Feb I finally finished the Delilah hat. Delilah is the mascot of Sunderland Football team. With just this photo (as I had no clue what it should look like) I enjoyed having a go!!!
06 3 / 2012
Hello Kitty! A very easy hat to make, although I had to learn a new skill to make the bow, which was highly simple.
ch5 slip stitch into end to make a circle.
Ch 5, 5 tr in ring, ch 5, slip stitch in ring, ch 5, 5tr in ring, ch5, slip stitch in ring.
rap yarn around the middle to make bow.
enjoy.
03 3 / 2012
Seuss Nursery
One of the many wonderful things about being a foster carer is being able to create special places for the children in our care. One such space, and possibly one of my favorite rooms in the house is our Seuss Nursery.
I have always loved the imagination, creativity and messages of Seuss.
and that quote kind of summed up our heart.
So with my trusty projector and paints - this is our 360!
not forgetting the ceiling
I am delighted at how it has turned out - especially as I am no painter!
01 3 / 2012
My ‘Star Wars’ hat collection is growing! Here modeled by the beautiful Evie is my ‘Princess Leah’ hat. Described by her Daddy as part hat part earmuffs, I love this fun little hat that transforms its wearer into Leah’s iconic bun hairstyle!
24 2 / 2012
A ‘Hungry Caterpillar’ hat! One of the first hats I made for one of our gorgeous boys (although modeled here by our little girl)
15 2 / 2012
Had a go at a bit of scrabble art!
This was a present for my mum for Christmas, and I am slightly chuffed how much she loved it and put it straight up in her hall. Was a fairly easy make with my trusty glue gun if you don’t included the hours it took to position the words!!!!
13 2 / 2012
My first attempt at an American football hat.
To be honest the hardest thing about it was finding the right colour wool! If I make one again I think I will make the white stripes a bit thinner - but enjoyed the challenge.
08 2 / 2012
Kate’s Baby Shower
I love planning, cooking and creating parties. This week I really enjoyed getting involved in organising a baby shower ‘tea’. Now I can not take any credit for for the bulk of the work or planning as that was my wonderful friend Sam, but I had lots of fun getting out my tea set and having some fun in the kitchen for the ‘books and bunting’ afternoon.
Along with my fellow bakers and planners I was impressed with our spread!
For an age I have been meaning to have a go at making my own tea stands and this shower gave me the kick up the butt i needed to actually do it! Inspired by something I had seen, I quite fancied using vintage teacups in between the plates for height however after searching for a few months I was struggling. Vintage tea cups it would seem are the holy grail for crafters at the mo so snapped up in a moment! So after rooting in a few flea market I hatched a new plan - sherry glasses. Sherry glasses I thought still had that vintage feel, the desired height, but just not so trendy! Here are the end products.
I was quite happy with the result. However I also stumbled across some mini vases, so had a go with them as well.
As well as making the stands I had great fun coming up with yummy food. After lots of experiments with food colouring I was delighted with the pastel meringues
and strawberry bunting cake
although it was the leek tartlets that I only made to use up the egg yolks left from the meringues that made the guest of honor cheer!!!
The bunting also let me get creative learning how to crochet triangles
and re-purpose an appalling chick lit book! (my amazing friend Sam made the mini books)
All in all a fab afternoon that has left me looking forward to the next opportunity to entertain.
14 1 / 2012
No Meer Hat!!!!!(I know, awful pun.)
When my lovely friend George (who is lovely - in fact let me tell you how lovely this man, and his amazing wife are……
When I was away in America he decorated my daughters bedroom for her - not an easy task in my tumble down, no straight wall in the place, victorian house.
When we were making ourselves scarce for the adoptive couple to get to know our foster children they gave us keys to their house and told us to ‘make ourselves at home.’
They love our children, and make an effort with them, even the difficult ones.
When we returned from being away they filled our kitchen with yummy food, and vacuumed our house!
He invited our family to his works ‘family day’ where we got to fulfil every little boys dream getting up close and sitting in aeroplanes.
When the school transport has failed to turn up he has rushed to ours on his morning off to take our lad to school.
He makes us laugh
He gives up his days off to fix his friends radiators, cars, houses…….)
asked me to make him a Meerkat hat I said - no problem!! Normally what I do is look at pics of existing hats and reverse engineer them, working out how to make them with my limited knowledge, and inability (at the time, I’m getting better!) to read a pattern. Only trouble was there were no pictures!!!! Eek. So I used the only picture I could find to get me started - a picture of a real Meerkat!! Feel free to reverse engineer it, or ask me for the pattern.
