Last bits of holiday news...

 

Hi,

 

 

I am back from all of my holidays now, so I thought I would bring you my last few bits of news and pictures :)

 

 

First up- In the IOW there is a HUGGGGEEEEE Tesco Extra (I mean really huge! It looks like an airport hanger from the outside!). When me and my family were wandering around it I spotted some really cool biscuit spreads down the jam and spreads aisle; Bourbon biscuit, cookie, custard cream and cookies and cream :D I got sooo excited when I saw them- My parents treated me and my brother to the whole set to try (and also a pot of caramel biscuit spread which was on sale in Sainsbury's too :P). I can whole heartedly recommended all of them, they are so delicious (not very healthy though, so be warned if you do buy some- you will eat it all!). Me and my brother have been dipping everything in them :P:

 

 

Hehehe, did you spot the little bunny in the middle of all the jars? He is my latest little friend :) He is called Mr bunny and he is a hand needle felted little character made by a lady on the IOW. He was displayed in chocolate apothecary (along with some of his needle felted friends also available for sale). I have decided he is going to come with me lots of places as he can fit in my pocket and is quite an adventurous chap (as long as he gets his regular chocolate boost! :P).

 

Some other cool things I got in the Isle of Wight were these cool fashion plates- they are actually from the era so they are real fashion relics!!!:

 

They are so interesting to me- especially after completing costume history this year. They are the kind of things I see on slide shows so to own some is amazing! :) There were a pile in an antiques shop and they were only about £4 each- a really good price. I am going to frame them and hang them in my room to make it even more like a couture house :-)

 

And I also got these 3 little guys:

 

To add to my hamster collection! They were also handmade on the IOW (at the Arreton barns craft cabin)

 

My friend Eleanor recently visited the IOW as part of her holidays and she sent me lots of postcards from all the places she had visited which were lovely to receive and learn what she had been up to in the place I love :)

 

Hehehe, now I have finished being an Isle of Wight  promoter I will move on!

 

This is the last thing I have to share with all you lovely people. Not anything about holidays- I promise- because you are all probably sick of my holiday updates by now :oP As most of you will probably already know, my dad teaches maths at a primary school. He tries to make the lessons really fun and engaging and one of his aids is a little monkey toy which when it is tossed to you you answer a question :) Up until now the monkey just had a little badge on the front which said 'I LOVE MATHS' but my dad asked me if I could make him a new little shirt. I was happy to accept this fun challenge (definitely the first time I have made anything for a monkey :P)  and this is what I created for the little dude:

 

I also gave him a little pencil so he can write down all his clever maths calculations!

 

I really hope the kids like his t-shirt :-) My dad gave me a big hug- from both him and Nev (the monkeys name)

 

I better go now as Big brother is on (my guilty pleasure!) and then I have to get to bed ready to start my Wedding Dress sewing course tomorrow! Wooooooooooo! I am soo excited :D I will of course post pictures of my make :)

 

Keep an eye out as the giveaway I mentioned is coming soon also as I have collected all the bits for it now :)

 

I hope you are all well, speak to you again soon,

 

Byeeeee XxXxXxX

 

P.s. all the new makes I posted a teaser of in my last post are up in my shop now so please do check them out :)

 

Byeeee Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Fathers Day!

Hi everyone,

As the title of this post suggests, this post is mainly about Fathers day :P However I would like to begin by saying a big thanks to Steph (see her blog here!) who sent me this lovely bundle in the post:

 

 

 

They are the most awesome cross stitch charts ever and she even put in an adorable little Hamtaro charm she found for me! (for those of you that don't know I love Hamtaro and hamsters in general :-)

 

How kind and lovely Steph is, I can't wait to start on some of the charts! Thank you xxxx

 

Hehe, now onto fathers day :P

 

First up, I managed to finish the Paddington Biscornu I was making for my dad just in time:

 

My dad loves Football

 

And he does some primary school maths teaching (Just to explain why I chose those Paddingtons, in case I haven't already)

 

I stitched the words 'I love You Dad' and a little heart into the opposite corners:

And I added two little love heart charms to make it extra special:

 



 

My dad really liked it and said it would probably take him years to sew something that didn't look nearly as good, lol :P He also thought the shape was cool.

 

Making this Biscornu has reminded how much I love the shape of them too, an dhow fun they are to make. Maybe I will whip up another couple using the charts Steph sent me.... ooohh.... a Hamtaro Biscornu.... I am in heaven!!!

But before I drift off into Biscornu world, back to fathers day. As well as his other presents me, my mum and my brother all clubbed together to buy ingredients for a special Fathers day picnic. I then did some baking with it all (with a bit of help from my brother) and voila:

 

We had to have it indoors because it wasn't very sunny outdoors, but I think it still looked pretty and we still had fun. There were benefits also like not being bothered by any insects, lol!

 

The round bread loaf you can see in the picture is actually a giants sandwich (a hollowed out loaf that you fill with your sandwich filling them slice it and eat it). I filled it with green salad leaves, roasted tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, basil and some Quorn ham- we managed to finish it all, it was tasty, even if I do say so myself :P

 

In terms of baking, I made peanut butter cookies:

 

Cherry and Cinnamon cake (the recipe for which can be found here)- which went reallllyy well with custard!:

And finally some black bottom cupcakes (chocolate and a blob of cheesecake mix, with cream cheese frosting on top) from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook:

 



 

Everything went down well :) Pretty much everything I know about picnics, dinner parties, and cooking in general I have learnt from watching and helping my dad (and a little bit from GCSE food tech, lol) so it was nice to get to treat him by showing him all he has taught me, and by doing all the hard work he normally has to do to put everything together for him.

I LOVE YOU DAD! XXX

After the picnic we all watched a Paddington bear DVD (my present to my dad) and the Harry hill movie (one of my brothers presents to my dad), which was amusing- and one of the main characters was a hamster, lol!

 

I hope all of you had a good weekend/Fathers day too. I better go now though, I have got to get off to college in a moment to finish my jacket,

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye XxXxXxX

Cupcakes and a chemise :)

Hi,

I hope you all have had a good week :0) I managed to finish my 15th century ladies chemise yesterday so that made me happy, wooo! My pattern is based on THIS pattern, though I changed it up a bit for my final garment. Here it is, in all its historical linen-iness :P :

Here you can see the gussets under the arms and the gores at the bottom:

It was very voluminous, before I gathered it up I felt a bit like I was drowning in all the linen :P

Now onto lots and lots of cupcakes...... where I was drowning in frosting and sprinkles, lol!

As I mentioned on my last post my mum booked for me and her to go on a cupcake and walking tour of London last Saturday. It was absolutely fabulous!!!!!!!! I got so much more cake and macarons than I had expected and in a greater array of flavours than I could have imagined (I thought I would just get a quarter of a vanilla cake at some different places and that still would have been good!).

First we went to Lorraine Pascal's bakery- cupcake bakehouse where I had chose a mini red velvet cake which was yummy. Lorraine has tried to make her icing fluffier by changing the sugar content and it sure was nice and light :)

Then after a macaron or two at Laudree it was onto Sweet couture where I chose this oreo cupcake as my sample- sooo yummy!:

 Mm mm. .. It is making me want another one just looking at it :0P

From the Hummingbird bakery we all got a red velvet cupcake, again nice and yummy!

On the tour we also stopped off at a cool Japanese resturant and bakery called Yauatcha where they had a range of over 20 macarons yo choose from. Me and my mum tried some crazy flavours including: apple crumble, banana and cinnamon and apple crumble which were all very tasty. I wasn't keen on the lemon tea one we also tried but 3 out of 4  isn't bad!:

 After a couple more stops at fortnum and masons and patisserie Valerie the tour was sadly over :/ but that didn't stop me and my mum, we headed back to Sweet Couture and picked up 4 more cupcakes to take home and try with my dad and brother:

 Another oreo (because that was so nice), a chocolate one, a red velvet one from there and the one with the bunny on is gluten free cherry bakewell. I liked them all! Though I probably did eat a bit too much cake that evening as I had about 7 quarters worth :p

In other news I have finished the first half of my dad's Paddington bear biscornu that I am making him for fathers day:

I am pleased so far. I kind of winged the back stitching by looking at the picture on the front of the kit because it was taking forever to keep looking backwards and forwards at the chart.

I'm off to the theatre now to see 1984 with my mum and brother. I have never read the story so am quite excited as I have heard it is very good. Then it is my friends birthday party tonight, yay!

I hope you all have a great bank holiday weekend,

BYE XXX

It's my birthday!!!

Hello,

Yes, today is officially my Birthday! :D I have had a fabulous day with my lovely family :-)

 

My Dad as usual amazed me with the birthday cake he made for me- it was so lovely to look at and to eat! (though my eyes were too big for my belly and I ate a bit too much :P)

 

Here it is in all its lovely leopard print and cute little mouse/bunny glory :D:

 

 

Isn't he adorable :3

 

Also as usual I was blown away by my family's generosity and thoughtfulness in the presents they got me because having them is a gift enough- and all the lovely stuff they got me ready for uni too- I seriously thought I might wake up and have stuff taken off me instead of getting more gifts as it seems like I have had more than my lot already!

 

Here are some pictures of my wonderful gifts- Thank you to all my lovely family and friends for all of them:

 

 

I am soo excited about reading all of these books :) I have already gained inspiration for my Halloween costume from the fashion book my friend got me :P

 

Hehe, two Kawaii fuzzy Llamas and a fluffy jacket to match- what more could a girl ask for? ;)

 

My mum got me the two little craft kits and my wonderful, lovely, brilliant brother got me the Hamtaro Bijou plush (he also got me a very cool Domo poster which I will post a picture of when it is up and the words he wrote inside my card he made for me were so lovely that they made me cry! And on top of all of that he offered to buy me a film and a Mcflurry- because I love them so much!)

 

I can now top up my chocolate stash thanks to my friends and dad (my friends also got me a pretty picture frame with a picture in it of all of us at my Halloween party dressed up- haha, it is coming to uni with to make me smile each day)

 

Some lunchboxes and luxurious bath stuff courtesy of my dad, I love the cat lunchbox as it reminds me of the Lucky Chinese cats!

 

And last but by far not least some cool Dvds and Cds. I have been wanting to watch the films for ages- mainly for all the amazing costumes in them and who doesn't love a bit of Andre Rieu? :P

 

Thank you again to my family and friends as my day would not have been so  special without you to share it with xxx

 

Hahaha, I hope all of you have had a wonderful day as well, see you all soon with more Innocent hat knitting news!

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye xxx 

Fathers day bunting

 Hello,

As I am sure many of you will know this Sunday is Fathers Day :D As my dads handmade gift I wanted to make him something fun and happy. I picked up some cool ice cream/lolly fabric in Rainbows in the Isle Of Wight but I wasn't quite sure of my plan when I bought it but it made me smile. About a week ago I decided on bunting! My dad had to throw away his other bunting as it had faded because it was outside in the sun (and rain) for the last two summers. I found some more fabric and ribbon from my stash and..... here it is all finished:

 

 

I have wrapped it up ready, I hope it likes it :0) I went with Chelsea football club blue (my dads favourite colour because he loves Chelsea! :)

 

On Sunday we are all having yummy banana splits to celebrate Fathers Day too :P mmmmm.... I can't wait.

 

Hehehe, I hope you all have a lovely weekend whatever your plans are!

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye XxXxX

Cooking and crafting

Hi friends,

Since I got home I had really been craving those 'Maxibon Cookie' ice creams, I had a check in my local supermarkets but none of them sold them :/ But then I thought what do I normally do when I can't find what I would like? I try to make it :0) So that is what I did, me and my brother bought some cookies, ice cream and chocolate and attempted to re-create the deliciousness! We had to work really fast as you could feel the ice cream melting. They weren't very neat but they were tasty :P:

Another thing that was very tasty was the chocolate bunny me and my dad made together today!:

I bought my dad the mould and chocolate as a birthday gift as he really likes cooking and today we gave it a go, it was very fun. The chocolate came out very thick as I bought my dad a 1kg bar of Cadbury's and we ended up using it all :-P We didn't eat it all this evening though, promise!

In amongst all the chocolate and ice cream eating/making I have been doing some crafting though, Here is the little sign I made as a present for my mum and dad:

It is made out of scrabble tiles and I made up the little rhyme myself :o) A while ago my mum gave me a bag of scrabble tiles that she found in my brothers games cupboard, I kept thinking what to do with them and finally came up with the sign idea, my parents really liked so I was happy. I might try making a little door plaque for myself out of some of the remaining tiles.

I'm off to bed now as I am quite tired after spending the afternoon chocolate making :P Also I have got to get up my energy too as tomorrow me and my brother are making another batch of the cookie ice creams for when my nan and grandad come round in the afternoon!

See you all soon,

Byeeeeeeeee XXX

Dads Birthday and the Olympics!

Hi guys,

Today we celebrated my dads Birthday! :D It's not really his Birthday till the 26th but we are on holiday then and couldn't bring all his gifts so we celebrated it today :)

Yesterday I made him a cake ready for today, it took me about two hours, even though I was only following a kids recipe :P I was quite pleased in the end though and I finished it before I went driving with my friend :)

It is meant to be a Charlie and the chocolate factory, chocolate factory cake :0) My dad liked it and it was quite tasty (if I do say so myself :P) so I was happy!

Along with the mini knitted character I made my dad, as an extra gift I also let my dad choose a set of coasters out of all of the crochet crisp packet coasters I made recently because he always says he likes them :o) Here are the ones he chose:

Before we had the cake and gifts though we went out and saw the olympic torch come down the street near us in preparation for the 2012 London Olympics!!!! It was very fun :) Even though we did have to get up quite early (6:15am)

There were a few different advertising veichles to see and we got some free little flags to wave and stick things you bang togther from the Samsung people and a free coke from the Coca Cola people too :-) Then the Olympic Torch came by. It was larger than I thought it was, I thoughti it was just slightly larger than ice cream size, lol! :P

In the afternoon, for a birthday lunch we went to Pizza Express (Yum!) so all in all it was a good day! 

I hope all of you had a good day too :)

See you all very soon,

Bye XXX