Cupcake Day

Or not as the case was here. Three dozen cupcakes baked, waiting decoration and I was told not to worry anymore, the party was being postponed. POSTPONED!!!!! 

Hmmm. Less than thrilled, I powered on anyway and am so crazy pleased with the end result that the fact that I had actually baked them for an event was kind of irrelevant. We will eat them (Although it does seem like a lot). 

The gnomey ones are a mini strawberry cupcake, covered in tinted fondant and grassy green buttercream. And some have gum paste caterpillars. The toppers were perfect for the bite sized cakes, just the right height. And if you can keep a secret...I cheated and used a packet cake mix, I knew it would make a nice, consistent domed cupcake, and really, kids aren't that fussy when it comes to sugar.

These on the other hand are the real deal. Using my favourite chocolate cake recipe, and topped with my favourite chocolate ganache.

These are a slightly larger cupcake, and very, very rich. Made for the adults, the chocolate was a 70% cocoa from Lindt. Although not intended for these cakes, I have topped them with gum paste baby roses I twirled together yesterday and sugared leaves I had leftover from a previous cake making frenzy.

These are fun to make, albeit time consuming.

These were to grace the vanilla cupcakes I had still to make, sitting above a tinted, poured fondant icing. Maybe next week.

Lantern WIP's

Tonight we are headed off to the Collingwood Children's Farm for their Winter solstice celebrations. Given that last year I came home with serious lantern envy, I figured I would give making lanterns a go. 

Basic lanterns, of the paper mache and recycled tin can variety. 

I had planned on a tutorial, but was overcome by laziness, and really, just google it and there are tons of how to's out there already.

The paper mache lanterns were the most fun to make, layers and layers of tissue paper in gorgeous shades of reds and browns. Don't believe those articles that say tissue paper is too difficult to work with, it isn't and makes for a nice, translucent orb. The lovely dome shape was achieved with the use of an inflated balloon, which was popped when the PVA glue had dried off. As I made this a couple of months back, they have had a fairly long curing time, but had the weather been warmer this period would have been much shorter, days instead of weeks. They still need final touches added, obviously a handle of some sort and I still need to glue in the tea light holders. 

Not so sure about the tin can ones. Slightly trashy looking, but similar ones caught my eye last year, so maybe when all is dark they will glow nicely, sending out little star patterns for us to enjoy. They are certainly brighter than the paper mache orbs, and won't catch alight if bumped. 

Also easy to make, just freeze a water filled can overnight or until solid. Using a nail, simply punch a design on to the surface and a couple of holes at the top for a wire handle to be inserted. I have also cut some lengths of thin dowel to add to the wire handle so little kiddy fingers don't get too close to either a heated tin can or a candle flame, but I really don't think the tea lights will send out too much heat.

If you are wondering why the can needs to be ice filled, it is too stop the can becoming dented when the nail is hammered in. Just to be safe, I placed a towel over the open top of the can to stop shards of ice shooting across the kitchen bench.

Given how cold are evenings have become, I'm off now on a serious hunt to see if I can finally locate my missing winter mittens, before I launch into locating thermos's for hot chocolate on the go.

Want one?

A veritable army of gnomes. Itsy bitsy ones. Coming in at about an inch high, and plastic coated they are completely reusable (unless of course the pick gets too manky). My new laminator and I are now firm friends and I have made far more toppers than necessary.

Soooo. While the dim indoorsy photo's do them no justice whatsoever, they really did turn out great. They look ever so sweet perched on the lurid green cupcakes that I think I might just have to share some.

Should they take your fancy, I have six to give away. Yep, all for you. Just leave a comment here in the next week and they might be winging their little way to you soon. Random child-aided selection will occur next Friday at 8am. Every player wins a prize. Thanks guys!

Anyway, on non-gnome related baking, I also made these. Choc hazelnut, using the whimsical wrappers from The Cupcake Wrapper Co. 

Then I got all silly and made some hazelnut toffees.

And even crazier, spun sugar.

Fancy, huh?

Bad Friend

We all have one. A bad friend. You know the type. The slightly lazy one who is slow to return calls, has trouble committing to dates and says maybe when they really mean no. It occurred to me today that I am that bad friend.

I am the queen of avoidance and frequently exhibit anti-social tendencies. I really do need to work on that, but man some people are just hard work. 

That is my rant for today.

 See, I even managed to blame my non-friendliness on other people's faults. Cool huh?

Me and the Gnomies

As I have been volunteered to make little person cupcakes in a few weeks time (never offer what you don't intend to do), I've been thinking along the lines of gnomes.

To be honest, I'm more than a bit over cupcakes. I can appreciate that others love them, and certainly there are some beautiful and elegant ones out there, but I always find them just a little too sickly sweet and overloaded with icing/ frosting/chocolate.

Of course mine will be no exception and obviously I don't have to actually eat them myself.

So looking at the gnome and all things gnome like, I think these will be made into a toadstool design, red with white spots. Or perhaps green tufty grass. I'm going the easy route and making toppers from a laminated gnome image, using an illustration from that beautiful book by Will Huyen and Rien Poortvliet.

Either way, I'm thinking quick and easy, but perhaps I might print off a few of these to keep them company.

Best $4 you could spend.

Little Luxuries (and big extravagances)

Do you splurge?

I try not to, and am usually fairly low maintenance. I don't buy much in the way of cosmetics, other than red lipstick, and am not big on clothes shopping. No manicured nails needing salon time (although I did recently buy a pop-art blue polish) and no expensively coloured hair. I do like nice soap, and this is usually my one little weakness.

But....boots. How can you not love them? 

After last years splurge on these beauties I swore that this year I would be more restrained. Rubber boots, lined with sheep skin, I really didn't think they could be topped.

Then I saw these and my heart literally stopped. I gasped when I saw the price, but knew there was no going back once they had been tried on. 

They fit like a glove, and are oh, so soft. I'm telling myself that they will outlast all my other shoes, and I really believe that they will. In a dark buffalo brown they look so lovely with everything. Bright tights, chunky socks, skirts, pants or dresses. I may well just not take them off until winter is over.

Just in case you are interested, these are D. CO boots, from Copenhagen, and the tall boots were every bit as nice.

Weekend Away

What a lovely weekend away! Cold, but we soon found ways to keep warm. A hike to the beach along a meandering path.

Hide and seek.

And games on the beach.

Strolls along piers

And quiet moments.

A visit to the spa this morning was the perfect way to start the week, and enjoy the stillness.

We went here, the Peninsula Hot Springs at Rye, a five minute drive from our house. While I would have loved to have had photos to show, I didn't take my camera. Needless to say we came back completely relaxed, and warmed from head to toe. 

Thoroughly spoilt rotten this weekend, it's been a great few days for all of us. Thanks Ellen for the gorgeous, gorgeous photos of my family.

Ouch

In the past month I've lost count of the times I have managed to burn myself. Despite being given some rather lovely new mitts for my birthday earlier in the year, they haven't really done the job.

A beautiful print, but poorly finished off stitching.

Really, I should have returned them, or sent off a whingey email to the manufacturer, instead I kept using them, too cranky to repair something brand new (or even wash them, fearing they would fall apart completely).

Another burn this week, from an even older pair of mitts had me concluding that the sewing machine needed to be revved up yet again.

Using some nasty stuff called insul-bright, I sandwiched this lovely paisley fabric from Jennifer Paganelli and quick - quilted the layers together. The bottom edge was then finished with a red twill tape. 

See, no hole!

These are by no means perfect, but hopefully they will keep me a little safer.

Pyramid Doorstops

Not the most detailed shot, but these are some of the lovely door stops I made a couple of years back for a school fete.

Well two years have not been kind to my door stops. My kitchen door stop was very tired looking, and had a slow leak of rice, perhaps caused by the nibbles of a geriatric old dog, perhaps because my kids also thought it was fun to use as a SOCCER BALL!!!!!

Time for an update, and the arrival of this beautiful Amy Butler fabric was all the encouragement I needed.

The original pattern I used was from Rachael over at All It Took, but sadly the link is no longer, so I would suggest visiting here for an easy guide. Mine are slightly larger, my measurents being 16 cm X 18cm, and somewhat more rigid as I use a very stiff iron on interfacing. It does make them a bit tricky to turn out the right way, but I like that they don't sag. I also fill them really full before closing the seam, and I prefer to use a short grained rice as my filler.

The fabric was Bali Gate and Sunspots, from the Love range. 

Gorgeous isn't it?

Baby Love

More bibs. Boy bibs this time, with sweet coordinating burp cloths. 

You know what I used though? For both of my kids it was a terry cloth. Child number one was a cloth nappy kid, and boy did we have a stack of them. Looking back now, it seems that I permanently had one slung over my shoulder, ready to catch whatever my babies chose to spit back up. Just about every photo from then seems to feature me wearing one. Sometimes I didn't even have a child in my arms, but a trusty cloth was always sported. Ready. 

Anyway, come child number two, cloth nappies were ousted in favour of the evil disposable nappy. While we had every intention of going the cloth nappy route again (I had a huge stack folded and waiting), the hospital had switched to disposables and there was no going back. Just easier.

Why it never occurred to me to make them nice I'll never know, but here they are. Nice burp cloths. Backed in flannel and super absorbent, washable and tumble dryer friendly. Wish someone had given me a stack.