It's my Birthday! :D

Hi,

Well, it was actually my birthday yesterday :P But I am bringing you my birthday post today.

First up has got to be my amazing cake, of course lovingly baked and crafted by my lovely dad. This year my cake was ice cream themed (because it is one of my fave desserts!) resembling a giant tub of ice cream and an amazing huge ice cream cone!!!!:

The ice cream cone is not even hollow! It was a moulded chocolate cone my dad made which he then added chocolate fingers to to strengthen and filled with homemade fudge sauce, cakes and biscuits before coating in white chocolate and broken wafers. Here is a cross section:

It is all soo tasty (as usual) and I am very much enjoying snapping bits off my giant ice cream cone and nibbling on them!

THANKS DAD :D 

My brother also got me some amazing gifts including a grumpy cat cuddly toy and a star wars jawa figure (an in joke with me and him :p) abd yummy american candy and spreads- my favourite! My parents got me some chocolate too:

I love grumpy cat!! (I am not sure she loves me though! :p)

I got some cool fashion books and bits which I can't wait to start reading and using!!!:

My family are always so generous to me I feel so loved and lucky to have them and love them very much. I couldn't believe how many gifts I had- I think everyone went mad because it was my 20th :p look at all these cool food makers I now have to try:

I am trying to be healthy so am starting with the ice lolly maker :-)

My love for Hamsters wasn't forgotten either!:

And look at these adorable softies.

THANK YOU TO MY FAMILY!!!

I also want to say thank you to my friends for

 Sending lots of birthday wishes and a lovely parcel of gifts from a college friend in the post and a knit your own boyfriend kit from my secondary school friend :p It is so nice to know you all and have you as my friends :)

Speak to you all again very soon I hope you are happy and well and thank you for reading my blog and being my friends too!

Bye xxx

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

Christmas catch-up!

Hello everyone,

I had quite a whirlwind of a Christmas- which, looking around here on blog land it seems everyone else did too :)

 

I had a great Christmas- it was so lovely spending the whole day with my family, eating lots of lovely food, watching telly and giving each other prezzies!

 

My family and friends were extremely generous and also thoughtful so I would like to thank them all very much and say that I am lucky and thankful to have them all around me xxx

First up on my Christmas catch up is Christmas eve :) Here is a picture of the white chocolate, vanilla and strawberry yule log (the recipe I made up through my mini knitted yule logs :P) I made for my nan to take round when me and my family went round in the evening:

 

 

Haha, I made the holly decoration from icing to make it look like an exact big version of my knitted pattern, lol :P I thought it tasted really nice, I will definitely be making another one in the new year sometime. Very sweet and tasty :)

I may even like it better than milk chocolate log.... mmmm, a hard decision..... I think I'll just stick to having both :P  My nan thought it was cool to have a different version for a change :)

 

For my aunt, whose house we went round before we went to my nans (Christmas eve was busy this year!) I made two of my little Christmas tree decorations:

 

She hung them straight on her tree :) Yay! :-)

Hehe, now on to Christmas day, and first up, these little cuties:

 

 

Aren't they sweet! They were presents from my parents, because they know how much I love hamsters :3

 

I also got Norman (hehe I named him, and also decorated him :) to help me with my life drawing:

 

And my nan got me another lalaloopsy, with beautiful red hair, to be friends with scoops my other lalaloopsy:

 

They are getting along well :)

 

My build a bear (Georgia) even got a gift this year, thanks to my (Wonderfully fabulous!) brother:

 

So adorable- her little elf boots match the ones I made for myself, that made me smile a lot!

 

I got some wonderful costume and fashion books and things too, as well as my new pride and joy- my half scale mannequin!!!!!!:

 

Which I have already started to practice my draping and patternmaking on! :D My parents were worried it was too small as they thought half scale was bigger but when I opened it I assured them that it was utterly perfect! It is really great for practicing patternmaking on as you don't use up so much fabric.

 

My Dad made a fabulous Christmas dinner as usual and we even tried some of the cranberry and orange stuffing with it that I put in the hamper I put together for my family :) And in the evening I had some quality streets and chocolate from my stocking, so overall a fantastic day!

 

I would just like to thank my wonderful family and friends again for their generosity and to say that just being able to spend time with them is honestly enough of a gift, I love them all very much xxx

 

And thank you to all readers of my blog too for popping over and saying hi to me too, I hope you are all having a lovely festive time surrounded by family and friends too :) xxx

 

Last bit on my catch up before I go, today me and my mum went to see Dirty Dancing at the Piccadilly Theatre in London, we had front row seats (surprisingly front row was cheaper!?) which meant we had an amazing view, up so close I could see all the costumes and the show was really, really, great- I recommend it highly if you can get down there to see it :)  Very fun, and lots of good dancing!

 

I will speak to you all again soon, I am off to my other Aunty's house tomorrow so that will be nice, we always go for a walk to the shops to do some sale shopping so that is fun to see what bargains we can find :P

 

Byeeeeeee XxXxXoooXoOoO 

 

A little stitched hamster :)

Hello,

 

Last week we were given a couple of extra days off college so that we could go away and do some research ready for starting our mini kimono making project this week. In between doing my research and homework and stuff I managed to finish off one of the toy kits I got for my birthday, a little hamster:

 

 

Hehehehe, I called him nibbles! Oooh I love hamsters so much, they are soo sweet! :03  It is quite detailed (many different shaped pieces and some with darts) which was good because it means if you sew it carefully you get a really good toy. The kit was by minicraft- I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner, as, as I said you do have to do careful little stitches with a small seam allowance on sometimes awkward shaped seams to get a nice finished product. But if you want more of a challenge go for it- they have tons of cute animals to choose from! :) I still have my guinea pig kit to make too :D

 

In other news I have also made progress on my random patchwork purse, it I coming along ok but I would definitely not say it was finished yet- it still doesn't look quite right to me :-/ I am going to keep experimenting until I'm happy:

 

 

 

Hmmm I will get my thinking cap on!

 

I'm off now to pack my lunch for tomorrow- hehhehe I don't normally pack it the night before but tomorrow I am going on a trip with college to see 101 Dalmatians at the New Vic Theatre in stoke- a long way away- so we have to leave early in the morning. I am going to pack myself a lovely lush lunch with extra treats- just like my dad used to do for me when I went on trips when I was little :) You need more energy when you go on a trip! :-P

 

Speak to you again soon,

 

Bye XxXxXxXxXxX

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 

Free mini Hamster cross-stitch chart! :)

Hi,

As I posted about before, I really love Hamtaro- the Japanese Hamster character (and my love has only been further enhanced by Steph sending me a lovely big cuddly hHmtaro in the post :D). I also just really like Hamsters in general too, I think they are lovely and interesting creatures. For this reason I wanted to do some hamster related crafting! I looked online for different cross stitch patterns but was surprised to find there were not that many :( The ones there were were good but not quite what I wanted so I just got out my threads box and made up this simple little design myself:

 

 

It was really fun making up the different patterns on the hamsters, I have more ideas for cute patterns and designs to try/to try them in different colours :)

 

I thought I would give the chart for the above hamsters just in case anyone wanted to stitch a few/ experiment with their own designs for the little guys :-)

 

Here it is:

You can use the picture of my finished cross stitch in the picture above for extra help/reference if needed- the diamond shapes are french knots and the dots are just normal cross stitches (use two strands of thread for all)

 

I hope you like the chart and are having a lovely weekend!

 

See you again soon,

 

Byeeeeeeeee XXxXxXxxXxxxX