A big post- with lots of cakes :oP

Hiiii,

Today, as mentioned in the title I bring you a rather large post!

 

The first thing I have to tell you about is my visit to the Fashion and textile museum in London :) I went there for a day course on couture sewing techniques, the price for which included a ticket to their current exhibition of Mexican Rebozos (Mexican rectangular shawl like garments).

 

The sewing room the course took place in was really nice, and I learnt a lot of cool tricks and tips too:



 

Then at the end of the day I had a wander around the exhibition, here is a really cool Rebozo knitted by Kaffe Fassett:

 

 

Here is a suit made from Rebozos- the cut is really sharp:

 

This dress is also made from a Rebozo- it is so wacky! :P:

 

Haha. This little dude was appliqued onto one of the shawls- I love him because he is wacky too!:

 

This painting is the last picture I have to show you from the exhibition, it was so cool, the canvas is cut away at the loom part so there is a real loom stocking out of the painting, it makes it 3D and makes the painting really come to life:

 

I really must learn more about weaving- the loom fascinated me, trying to work out how all the patterns in the cloth were being created :)

 

Now I am finished telling you about the Mexican shawls I shall move onto another culture- African culture, with a quick picture of the African dress I was helping Stephanie put little bits together of when I went to my Work experience on Monday:

 

The mannequin is slightly to small for this dress really so it doesn't quite show it off to it's full potential but it still does give you some idea of Stephanie's flair for design (and making!). The dress is so vibrant, I love helping Stephanie with her dresses as I love learning more about more traditional/popular African styles, they are so different to what I normally see/wear so they are really inspiring to me :-) My fascination with different cultures styles is also why I visit the Asian wedding fair as well as the UK wedding fair- that way I can see the different aspects specific to different cultures but also how on many levels they intertwine and mix and influence each other. I need there to be an African wedding fair too!

 

You are probably all thinking by now 'where's the cakes? the tile says there is lots of cake!', well don't fret as it is on it's way now :P

 

First up are these double chocolate chip peanut butter cookie cupcakes, I made them as dessert (as part of the American themed dinner party I cooked) for when my nan came round on Friday:

 



 

They were peanut butter choc chip sponge with cookie dough frosting and chocolate chips and a cookie to decorate :) They went down really well, my dad liked them especially!

 

After I made those and they went down so well I kind of had the cupcake bug (I've had it for a while now- after doing the TWO cupcake tours :-P). I decided to make some more today, these ones were even more decadent:

 

Peanut butter, choc chip cookie dough AND caramel cupcakes!: Peanut butter chocolate chip sponge and cookie dough frosting again but this time with a cookie baked at the bottom and a caramel filling too. I reallly liked these ones (though they are super sweet).

 

And because one variety is never enough is it? :P I also made these bounty ones:

 

Desiccated coconut and milk choc chip sponge, with half a bounty bar baked in the middle. Then coconut milk frosting, half a bounty and a sprinkling of desiccated coconut to top! I haven't tried one of these yet, that is on the menu for tomorrow. My mum said they were good though and my brothers eyes lit up when he was eating it so I should like them :0)

 

I may make making cup cakes my new hobby on the side as I enjoy it and people have expressed to me it is not healthy to think about/read about/practise/learn about sewing, costuming, pattern making etc... 24/7, lol. That will still of course take up most of my time as I couldn't bear to let it not!

 

For example, today I continued working on the dress I am making myself from the HUGE mens shirt I got from the costume store sale (remember? :). I unpicked it so I could basically just use it as fabric then drew up a pattern for a 60's inspired a line dress, here it is so far:

 

It is going to have some decorative pocket flaps and a collar in a matching colour scheme tartan style fabric from a skirt I got in the Costume sale- I will probably get those on it tomorrow- then It will be done. I did the bias binding on the armholes in the sink stitching method I got extra tips on at my couture course on Saturday :o) I have always found it tricky but now I have got techniques to make it not so hard and with practise I will get really neat at it! I want to have it done for Sunday when we are having family friends over for dinner.

 

Work has also started on my mums dress:

 

Quite a bit more hand sewing to go but I am getting there slowly. You have to do it a bit at a time though as I find I have to have the dress hung up as shown whilst sewing to check nothing pulls and that the edges of the panel are going on straight, but it makes your arm ache :0P

 

Phew, that was a long post! But hopefully an interesting one, or possibly just to much of me waffling :P

 

I will let you go now, but not before telling you to have a look at all the new headbands in my shop:  (with more coming soon!), for example, ice creamssss!!!:

 

 

They are inspired by my work experience at Queenie and Teds, the whole Idea of collage like, fun, applique/decoration :)

 

Hehe, now I will officially let you go!

 

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

 

Bye XxXxXxX

 

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

Macaron madness! (and other stuff)

Hiiii!

 

I hope you have all been having a lovely week and it's Friday tomorrow so the weekend is not far away either :)

 

As I mentioned in my last post, the Saturday just gone I took my mum for a cream tea at Hush Brassieres in London- it was very nice and they had mini macarons. I wasn't sure if I even liked macarons (I didn't think I did) but after one bite I was hooked- they were soo tasty and fun!

 

When I went out with my family on Sunday my dad treated me to a box of mini macarons (just like the ones from the cream tea) from Marks and Spencers. I have been very much enjoying working my way through them:

 

Mmmm yummy!

 

I have officially been bitten by the macaron bug as on Tuesday this week after I finished early at college I tried making some of my own raspberry ones. I wasn't sure how they would come out as I had never made them before and had heard that they are notoriously difficult. I did some searching on the internet and found this youtube video: click here! I followed all her tips to the letter and left them with their filling inside in the fridge overnight (to moisten slightly) and they were almost perfect, apart from they weren't the pinky colour they were supposed to be as I couldn't get any food colouring :P:

 

 

 

I was so proud! I still have to hone my skills as I think I may have got a bit lucky how they came out with their feet and everything first time. I shared them with the girls at college who said they were really tasty so I was happy- I thought they did have the right macaron texture and flavour :)

 

And Just in case I hadn't made enough macarons already I ended up creating a pattern for a crocheted macaroon that evening! lol:

 

I think it is quite kawaii- now all that is left to do is make up lots in different colours (or flavours :P).

 

Hehehe, in other non-macaron related news yesterday after college one of the 3rd years ran a mini recycling project thing (as part of his final year project) which was really fun. We got to work with wrappers which was cool as I like to use these in crafty ways too. We made oyster card holders by fusing plastics together with the heat from irons and then sewing the plastics together. Here are mine:

 

One skips one...

 

And one Cadburys marvellous creations on (I love this chocolate!!!)...

 

I will definitely be using the heat technique to maker more wrapper stuff in the future!

The last instalment in this rather long post is a couple of pictures of the tasty food I ate at Giraffe - a really fun restaurant I went with my family on Sunday and a picture of my Ice cream from the Harvester which I went to with a friend from college today :) It was all so good, I had to share it with you guys!

 

This is the Farmers market burrito from Giraffe, sorry the picture is a bit blurry I was excited to get eating it :P:



 

and here is my brownie and ice cream dessert from Giraffe:

 

Warm, gooey and sweet- delicious!

 

I will definitely be going back to Giraffe as the food was really good and tasted really fresh :)

Hehe, and last but not least my minty aero Harvester sundae:

 



 

Again, very good, but safe to say I didn't need any dinner today and am also a bit worried about possibly having to do a corset fitting tomorrow, lol :P I actually went with the girl who I am making a corset for but luckily I did her fitting this morning, before we went and ate tons of salad bar and ice cream!

Sorry- I am done now! You can go and rest your eyes now :-P

Speak to you all again very soon,

Byeeeeeeeee xxxxx

An update :)

Hi,

I hope you are all well and have a good weekend planned :) I am excited as next week I have a reading week so get to spend lots of lovely time with my family! (though, I mustn't forget I do have a bit of work to do in-between :P)

This week I have managed to get a lot further on the kindle case I am making for my mum, I just have the ribbing left to do, and then just sewing it up:

 

I also managed to Finish the little cross stitch I wanted to sew onto the front for decoration:

 

I should be able to give it to my mum this weekend as I reckon I will get it finished tomorrow, my aim was to get it to her before my family go on holiday to the IOW the week after next (my holiday is out of sync with my family this time) so I am well within schedule :P

 

I have actually got a lot done this week, now I am more used to doing all my washing etc... and I don't faff so much I can do more stuff! I baked some flapjacks for all the girls on my costume course. They were chocolate, date, raisin and sticky toffee:

 

 

I doubled up on the recipe so everyone got a nice big one :) They really enjoyed them so I was very pleased, I thought they were tasty too! We were thoroughly spoilt today though as it is one of the girls Birthdays coming up and a couple of the other girls made her a really tasty gluten free lemon cake and brought it in. It was very moist and delicious :-P

 

Today we also started making corsets!!! This is our next project, I am very excited about it. We get to be models for each others so I am making one for someone and they are making one for me :-) Today we started the master patterns which tomorrow we are changing to fit our person:

 

They are taken from historical corsets (I chose the 17th century one) so at the moment the patterns are very tiny, people were so much smaller- my wrist just about goes through the armhole! :P

 

In about two weeks we should get our Kimono stuff back (it is being marked :) and then I can show you all pictures of my kimono- which was my first project as I mentioned.

 

Hehe, that is about it for my update, but just before I go I remembered the other day that I hadn't put up the picture of what was inside this years mini parcels Christmas giveaway, silly me! So here it is- just in case you were curious :o):

 

 

See you soon,

 

Bye xxx

IOW holiday pictures and the paralympics

Hi,

 

As promised I have complied some of my best pics I took while on holiday :) Hehehe, I hope you enjoy them. I love to share my holiday with you all! :0)

 

Here are some of the beautiful koi in the ponds at Butterfly world, I really enjoyed seeing them all, so many pretty colours and patterns:

 

 

Hehehe, a monkey having his lunch at monkey world- such a cute little guy!:

 

As I mentioned me and my brother made dinner for my parents a couple of evenings, but as I also mentioned I forgot to take a picture of the first meal before we ate it all, lol! I did remember for the second meal though so here are the dough balls and pasta bake we made :)

 

Everyone enjoyed it so I was happy :D

 

We stayed at Sandown this time. It has a really nice old fashioned sea side feel there. Here is a sunny view of the beach!:

 

 

There is always good stuff to buy in the IOW that is one of the reasons I love there so much. These are the beautiful masquerade style masks my mum treated me to:

 

 

and here are the cross stitch kits too...

 

 

.... I am very lucky! :-)

 

 

This is the little seaside bear stitch kit I finished, very appropriate seeing as I was staying at the seaside, lol!

 

That is all my holiday snaps..... for now, hehehe :P I will post a picture of my vintage dresses nearer my birthday and a picture of the monster high doll dress when it is finished :)

 

In other news- yesterday I went to the see some of the Paralympics, we had a day pass so I got to see two events in the end. I saw wheelchair basketball and goal ball, I hadn't ever seen either of them before (like when I saw handball at the Olympics- I hadn't seen that before either) so it was very interesting. They were both enjoyable to watch and it was fun to see different stadiums/arenas too :0)

 

See you all very soon,

 

Bye :0)