Asian wedding fair (and some delicious desserts!)

Hello,

Today I bring you pictures from my visit to this year's Asian wedding fair at the Excel centre in London. Some of you may remember my post about it last year. It is where I got my fabric that I made my Kameez with :) This year's show was just as good and the catwalk lasted a whole hour!!!! There were tons of lovely outfits to be seen down the catwalk but here are some of my faves:

I think this is the one I would most like to waer:

I love the red colour and the gold embroidery is very elaborate and luscious :-) Maybe when I get married..... :p 

And to finish a little bit of menswear:

Again- very luscious! 

After the great catwalk me and my took another walk around the show and she treated me to this fabric bundle from Fusion's stall (the sample place I got last year's fabric bundles):

Isn't it pretty? :) the ombre dyed matching scarf is really lovely- it is a great deal to get all of it for 7 pounds! I will have to start dreaming of what to make with it..... so many lovely possibilities! 

All my news from the Asian wedding fair is over now :( But I am sure I will go again next year and can bring you more amazing catwalk snapshots then!

Now, before I go it is on to food, food and a little bit more food :p I know my blog is mainly about textile related stuff but some food is so good you have to share it! plus, who doesn't like pictures of tasty food and desserts? :p

First up, on Sunday me and my family went to Planet hollywood in London. We got a deal from wowcher which included 3 courses and a drink for about half the normal price. Those deals don't come around often but when they do my mum snaps them up because planet hollywood is pretty fun :D

For starter I had vegetarian tostados:

They are soooohooohh delicious. Cheesy and gooey but then crisp from the tortilla and extra flavour from the fresh salsa and vegetables and creaminess from the sour cream. Mmmm too good! Me and my family are going to try making some at home some time- hopefully they will be just as good but I think planet hollywood has a secret something to make them taste so nice :p

For main me and my brother shared a pizza and a veggie burger. But now I must talk about dessert. Me and my brother both had their double chocolate chip brownie- which was extraordinary. First off it was huge- like a brownie brick :p and if had 2 scoops of ice cream, whipped cream and fudge sauce spread on top, look:

Not to mention it's warm! And chewy- kind of like cookie dough with big chocolate chunks in. Mmmmmm I would totally recommend this as well to anyone visiting planet hollywood- well if you love chocolate and desserts as much as I do!

I have been pretty bad this week as as well as making brownies for myself and a friend, me and the same friend (Graceypaste- her awesome blog is here: http://stitchbtch.blogspot.co.uk :)  visited pizza express during the week. It was nice to relax as everyone at college at the moment is working really hard on thier men's waistcoats. I really love it at pizza express and so do my family- it is probably our favourite resturant. 

We had 3 courses again and I had my top dessert,  chocolate glory,  as Graceypaste said - it really is the solution to all problems:

Hehe, I will leave you now but I will soon be returning with pictures of my finished waistcoat! :D I may have mentioned it before but mine is inspired by comic book and film villains and gangsters and is pretty theatrical, it will be good to show you all what I gave been working on the last few weeks. 

I hope you are all happy and well and if I have made you peckish from the food pictures, you might want to go and check out my new range of food brooches in my shop to satisfy your cravings: https://www.etsy.com/shop/StitchedbyJordan

These are just a taster. .. There are more in store including french fries and candy floss!

See you soon,

Byee xxxx

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

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

Brothers birthday + creative stitches show

Hello,

I mentioned a few posts ago that my Brothers birthday was coming up- it was this Tuesday (He loved his Domo pinata so I was pleased. It took a while to brake into so I didn't do too badly at making it! :) As usual my dad pulled an amazing cake(s!) out of the hat, this time I got to help though as I was at home and my dad said he couldn't achieve it all in the time without me :0) It was sooo fun and here are the results....

... A whole pizza dinner with drinks, sides and desserts- all made from cake!!!!

here is the mushroom (chopped dried banana  pieces) and olive (black royal icing) pizza:

The spaghetti (royal icing) and meatball (cake, chocolate and biscuit balls- I made these :P) cake:

Margherita pizza. We made the cheese look cooked by pinching the icing circles and putting little blobs of brown caramel biscuit spread on it to look liked the browned bubbles of cheese:

Onion rings (dried apple rings dipped in chocolate and biscuit crumbs), garlic bread (brioche with white chocolate on it sprinkled with grated dessicated coconut dyed green for herbs :P) and dough balls (brioche again!):

Garlic pizza bread cake:

the coke glasses were done by melting chocolate to coat the inside of the glass then filling with crumbled cake before topping with chocolate spread and inserting a stripy straw:

 

Chocolate cake chocolate gateau 1:

Chocolate cake chocolate gateau 2 (I made this one :-):

Safe to say we are still eating it all now, despite giving lots away to people! It is sooo tasty though and so cool to help make- we spent a long time thinking if what sweet items we could use to create the most realistic savoury look :P

Hahaha, In between cake eating I did manage to get to the Creative stitches and Hobbycrafts show at the Excel centre London on Thursday. It was really good and I got onto 4 workshops! (Tomorrow is the last day so get yourself down there if you can :0)

This was one of the workshops I did, ruffled ribbon petunias, so pretty :):

I got to practise my french knots for the centre which was good as now I can do them perfectly, I also learnt the little tufty  (turkey work) in the second flower which was cool as I had never done that before. Lorna Bateman was the lady who ran the workshop and she has an esty/folksy shop where she sells the kits if you like what you see above :P

This was the second workshop- making a creative textiles book cover from this material called spunbound made by Vilene. It was so cool- you put on this 3D paint through a stencil then heated it all with a heat gun and the £D paint bubbled a grew while the unpainted spunbound shrivelled and disappeared leaving holes. Then you paint it to make it look all colourful:

Then finally, I also did two embroidery workshops run by the Royal School of needlework, they were only £5 each which I think was pretty good value even though the other workshops were free (which is even more amazing value :P).

Here is my first finished piece from the Jacobean Crewelwork workshop:

Again, I learnt some new stitches and got to practice my french knots so that was all good. I will show you my silk shading sampler I started in the other workshop when I have finished it :)

Haha, after all that learning I got round to doing some shopping, well quite a bit of shopping actually.

I got these two Paddington Bear cross stitch kits, only £2.00 each! 

I am going to make something for my dad with them as he loves football, Paddington bear and he teaches maths so I thought they were perfect :P

Then I got all this:

All of the items cost me £1 or less each- what bargains :D

I better go now, got to get to bed to get my beauty sleep before my cake filled breakfast :P

See you all soon- when I may have another giveaway up my sleeve for you all.... so keep your eyes peeled :0)

Bye XxXxXxX