Craft Blog
New cake tin
Jun 19th
I’ve been drooling over the cakes in the hummingbird bakery cook book for a while now. Last weekend was open gardens in our village to raise funds for the village hall. Twenty gardens were opened, plus there was a flower festival in the church and tea and cake served in the village hall.
There was a call for cakes so I duely obliged! I couldn’t miss this opportunity to use my new baking tin. It’s a great tin and the cakes didn’t stick at all. In the end I made a coffee ring and a blueberry ring. It was a bit of a panic on Saturday morning, trying to get them all iced (plus the 47 cupcakes). Thankfully Victoria popped round at just the right moment and finished both ring cakes. Don’t they look amazing! The servers in the hall thought the blueberry cake was too nice to cut into!
It was a great weekend especially as the weather was fantastic. Whilst the Queen was celebrating her birthday, our Saturday was given an extra edge by the red arrows who gave a little display over the village, complete with them flying over in formation and drawing hearts in the air.
Goodbye to the BBC
Jun 4th
It’s my final day at the BBC today after nearly 10 years. My colleagues were very kind and gave me a fabulous cake tin with a hole in the middle. I’ve been hankering after one for a while and was far too giddy when I opened the present! Very cool! Can’t wait to get out my cookery book and get baking!
They were very generous and I’m looking forward to spending my M&S voucher. Thanks!
Impromptu necklace!
May 27th
My friend Jo and I went for a wander round Covent Garden this afternoon and we had a lurvely time in the bead shop. Jo was really excited by the large colourful glass beads – so much so that we bought a handful and have magicked up this beautiful necklace. Fab eh?
Lemon meringue pie
Apr 29th
Oh boy this looks good! The pie looked so good in the Humming Bird bakery cookery book that I just had to make it.
It’s quite a faff, what with having to make and bake blind the pastry; then the lemon filling followed by the meringue. It went in the oven three times! It looks fabulous and judging by how yummy licking the bowl out was, it’s going to be really tasty too!
Yum Yum! The meringue was light & fluffy and Victoria said it was the best she’d ever tasted!
Feedback!
Feb 20th
Amy loves both the dresses and thankfully, she has room to grow in them! Doesn’t she look adorable!
Bunting for Max
Feb 20th
Isn’t this fun! This was originally planned for my nephew Max for Christmas, however we ditched that idea when we found something else he’d enjoy that didn’t need making!
This turned into something much more complex than I expected! I was going to keep it simple; pinking shear the edges and applique on his name. In the end I double-backed them and so they’re very neat. They should last him a good while.
My sister-in-law is expecting another baby in April and is madly nesting at home. This bunting will go very well in Max’s big boy’s bedroom!
Hummingbird Bakery
Feb 16th
I’ve been lent the Hummingbird bakery cookbook and am having fun making lots of cakes from it. The marshmellow cupcakes were the first… don’t they look fun! They’re very marshmellowy with pink melted marshmellows in the middle and a vanilla frosting mixed with mini marshmellows on the top. I’d recommend starting to melt the marshmellows early on in the process… they take a while!
In a fit of peak I decided to deviate from the tried and tested family brownie recipe and see what happens. Oh my, these brownies are amazing - they’re really gooey, chewy, dense brownies. Yum! I’ve given them to Simon to thank him for his help with moving some large rocks from Ken’s garden to ours this afternoon. 
Another dress for Amy
Feb 14th
All this time at home and waking up early has given me space to sew. So I’ve made another dress for Amy! I bought the fabric about a year ago and the inclination hit me yesterday to make it into a dress.
The feedback from the blue dress was that although it was a bit big now, she will grow into it, plus that she was better with clothes with a waist line. Bring on the summer dress pattern:
I made most of it yesterday morning and had fun learning how to make a button hole on my sewing machine this morning. I was going to hand sew the hem, but as my tendons have started hurting again, I decided that a machined hem would be fine!
It’s very pink and girly!
Blue dress in honour of Mam
Feb 8th
I made my niece this beautiful blue dress over the weekend. I found the corduroy fabric on Bewick Street and got far too excited about it! I’d been thinking about making Amy a little skirt using pink cord fabric and the shop had exactly what I wanted and it was in their sale too! I ended up buying fabric in pink, blue and green. Peter has his eye on the green and announced that he would like a jacket. I don’t have a pattern for a men’s jacket and think it is probably beyond me at present.
I lined the dress with some fabric from my grandma Mam’s scrap bag. It was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle to get all the pieces cut out, but I got there in the end. Some of them are cut slightly on the bias and there had to be a seam down the front.
The pattern had a flap at the back, with two buttons at the top. I decided that the dress would be better with a zip down the back. Hopefully Amy will still be able to run about in the dress. Altering the pattern added an interesting twist as I had to work out how to put the concealed zip in and sew the lining in too. It does look great inside out and some people have commented that it could be reversible. I’ll leave that to my sister to see what she thinks!
The best bit are the flowers on the front. I sewed on some pretty yo-yos with button centres. I’m really pleased with how these turned out. My grandma, Mam died on Thursday and somehow sewing with fabric that had been hers helped me connect with her, it was surprisingly therapeutic.
Curtains
Feb 8th
We now have beautiful handmade curtains hanging in our spare room. They’ve been WIP since October, when I went over to see Peter’s Aunty Jean who helped pin them in place and get them all ready for sewing up. She suggested I try and finish them for her visit at the beginning of December, but that didn’t happen. Making Christmas presents kind of took over!
I finally finished them at the end of January… Peter had to help me sew the header tape on as there was too much fabric to hold myself!
Here they are in situ:
