Thursday 13 October 2011

Baking challenge = FAIL!

I have decided to sort of stop my baking challenge, due to a couple of reasons really. Baking every other day really was too much cake for us and as I am trying to loose weight it really wasn't working!! I also didn't enjoy baking as much when I HAD to do it. I am going to carry on trying out new recepie's instead of always baking the same stuff. I know my children will be disapointed not having cake every single day, they started asking after dinner "what cake is it today mummy?"

Tuesday 4 October 2011

I am a little behind on my baking challenge due to work and running children here there and everywhere!
So today I managed to to bake the third item in the hummingbird bakery book, and that was Red velvet cupcakes.
I have made these before, I made them for valentines day.
The recipe actually says to use cream cheese frosting , but I know from making them before that that insn't very popular in my house, so I use buttercream/vanilla frosting.

I have also been busy today crocheting a pin cushion, this is my first attempt at this...
...And I am very pleased with it.

Amy

Monday 3 October 2011

Finished Blanket

I finished the baby blanket for my friend's new baby and she loved it.
 I was also very pleased with it and can't wait to make some more, I might even start one for a little boy tonight.
I kept this one simple and just had one granny row in white round the edge, I made this decision simply because I ran out of time. I did want to put a scalloped edging on it, but I'll have to save that for the next one.

 I didn't make a nappy cake in the end, I put all the bits in a purple fabric box instead, as I thought then she could re-use the box.

Amy

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Baking challenge - day 2

The next page in the hummingbird bakery book is the chocolate cupcake topped with chocolate frosting, yum! So off I went to start todays baking.
These are coming with me to a friends house tomorrow, so that I don't eat them all!

Baking challenge - day 1

Well on Monday I started my baking challenge. I started with the hummingbird bakery book, and the first item was vanilla cupcakes, with vanilla frosting. They were a bit different to my usual recipe that I use, because of the milk in them the mixture was runnier than what I am used too, which made it tricky and messy for me to get in the cases, but I got there in the end and they were yummy.
This picture is not very good as I took it on my phone.

Sunday 25 September 2011

Cookery/baking books!!

I love cookery/baking books, and have quite a few, but instead of actually using the recipes, I just gaze at the pictures.
So I have decided to set myself a little challenge of working my way in order through my baking books.
Now I was going to bake everyday like in the film Julie and Julia, but I think that if I bake everyday I will have to eat cakes everyday, and as much as I would like to do that I think I will end up the size of a house!! So I decided to bake every other day, starting Monday.
I am going to start with a favourite of mine 'the hummingbird bakery cookbook' 
These are a few of my 'baking' books.

Thursday 15 September 2011

ingredients for 'Nappy Cake'

I am making a nappy cake for my friend who had her little baby girl on Monday, and to go in the nappy cake I have made a crochet baby hat.
I followed a pattern I found on the internet, but they came up a bit small, I would say they were more for a preemie baby or perfect for a baby Annabel doll.
 I had made the white and pink one, but as always everything in this house comes in two's, so I had to make another one too.
The second one was asked to be in pink and purple though.
So know we have two baby Annabel's with nice warm heads.

 I then tweaked the pattern to make a slightly bigger hat, which is to go in the nappy cake for my friends little girl.
 I am also making a Granny stripe blanket to go in the nappy cake.
This is my third attempt at this, as I have recently been making granny triangles for bunting so kept putting chains inbetween the treble clusters and it took me a while to work out why it wasn't working, and then at last it clicked.
 I am so excited about this blanket and can't wait to see it finished. Still have a long way to go yet though!

I am using wonder soft by stylecraft yarn, which is 100% acrylic and is lovely to work with.


Amy x

Wednesday 14 September 2011

Whistable

 During the summer holidays, on a hot sunny day we went to Whitstable.
These crochet/knitted covered bikes were outside one of the shops and I thought they were fantastic.


  Whitstable has some lovely beach huts,  most of which were in use so I didn't feel comforatble taken photos of them ones.
The price to buy one of these beach huts was anything up to £100,000!!!!


 We enjoyed fish and chips, ice cream (which melted so quickly), and a paddle in the crystal clear sea.




Amy x

Monday 5 September 2011

Sneaky peek

Just something I have been crocheting for my girls bedroom.



Amy

Lego world

 Welcome to our Lego house.
We love lego as i think most people do,
(apart from when you miss a small bit and end up treading on it with bare feet!!)

You can never have too much Lego, yes it is expensive but it lasts forever, my children play with the lego that me and my brother used to play with when we were children.


 Our (lego) garden has a huge pond/lake with a bridge over to a small island, it is so peaceful.

 With flowers that never need watering and bloom all year round.

With a workshop/studio in the woods.


Amy



Monday 20 June 2011

Cakes...


June is a very busy month for us with lots of family birthdays, my brother, my sister in law, my son, my partner, my grandma and some friends all have their birthdays in June.
This makes June EXPENSIVE!!!
And lots of cake baking.

My brother turned 30.
We decided to have a family picnic, which turned out to be a picnic in the rain!
I made these cupcakes for him. 

I made a chocolate cake for my son, covered in chocolate fudge icing and then covered it in smarties, but I forgot to take a picture of it before the children got stuck in. 

I then decided to make my partner a 3 layer victoria sponge cake with strawberries in-between each layer and on top.

I have never made one like this before but will definately make one of these again, it was so yummy.


Amy x

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Finger knitting

Today myself and my 5 year old twin girls have been learning to finger knit.
I have been wanting to do it with them for a while but thought it would take a long time to teach them.
 How wrong I was!


None of us had done it before, so I searched on you tube and found a simple tutorial that even I could understand. I had the instructions in a book too, but found the tutorial easier.

 And as for my girls, well what naturals!!
I couldn't believe how quickly they picked it up and were soon telling me to go away because they could do it themselves and didn't need my help.


They really enjoyed it and didn't want to stop, only trouble was it was dinner time.
 I wasn't sure what to do with it while they ate, so I had a think and we ended up putting the knitting onto pencils.


Straight after dinner they asked to carry on, which to be honest isn't like them, they have usually forgotten by the time they have eaten dinner. 


So finger knitting definitely has the thumbs up from us.
I better get some more yarn, I think we could be doing a lot of this, and then all we have to do know is work out what to do with metres of finger knitting. 


Amy

Monday 9 May 2011

Walking through the garden...

...to find the remains of the children's play yesterday.
It did make me smile as I walked around the garden to see where they had put things and what they had made.

It made me wonder what they were playing yesterday, what they were imagining and it took me back to my childhood, which gave me a warm feeling.
It made me so happy.

The entrance to a camp/hideaway


And a barricade to the fairy garden, with 'no adults allowed' signs.




Amy 

Tuesday 29 March 2011

busy, busy, busy

Well hello there, long time no see!
Hope you are all well and have been enjoying the sunshine.

I have been very busy crafting this month and the two crafts that I have been doing are ones that take me a very long time to do.

I decided to knit my sister-in-law to be a cushion for her birthday and thought I had left myself plenty of time to do this but as I am a beginner in the knitting department it was no where near enough time.

I had to undo it twice!!

So I think it will be a christmas present instead.

I was also asked to be god mother to my friends daughter and wanted to make her something for her.

So I decided to cross stitch her name and frame it.
Now I really love cross stitch but ti just takes so looong to do, or it does me anyway.

There quite a few moments when I was cursing my friend for giving her daughter a long name and next time will be requesting her to name her children with 3 letter names.


I will be back soon with some pictures of the things I received in the heart swap, that I actually received weeks and weeks ago, but haven't had a chance to blog about yet.

See you soon

Amy

Thursday 17 February 2011

Cupcakes


We didn't really do a lot for valentines day as my partner was working during the day and I was working in the evening and as we are trying to save, decided that we didn't really need to buy anything for each other.
So we just made each other a card and I baked some Red Velvet cupcakes from a recipe out of 
'The hummingbird bakery cookbook'
 

 In the recipe though it says to make a cream cheese frosting but when I made it before we weren't that keen on it, so I decided to use vanilla frosting instead.

My son liked them so much he asked me to make some for his girlfriend for valentines day.


Tuesday 8 February 2011

You know you have girls when...

...you often go to work covered in glitter

...your lip gloss and 'clip clop shoes' go missing and you find them in your daughters room

...everyone has to have a squirt of perfume before they leave the house

...you get asked to make princess swirly dresses

...you spend a lot of time every morning making their hair has the right accessories and is just right

and I love every minute of it

Monday 31 January 2011

A monthly make

To keep my little girls ears warm.
I made a black one of these for myself a couple of months ago and after one of my girls saw mine she then wanted one too, and has been asking me to make her one continuously but with Christmas I just didn't find the time until last week anyway.




 Now I'm not quite sure exactly what these are called, we call them ear warmers, but have heard other people calling them headbands, ear huggers or as my boyfriend calls them 'plain silly'! 
He thinks I should just wear a hat. But hats actually give me a headache so these are great for me as they keep my ears warm but don't give me a headache.



So that's one happy little girl... 
but now my other little girls wants one too!





Wednesday 26 January 2011

Heart swap

With Valentines day approaching Beki over at The Ramblings of an everyday mummy is organising a heart swap.

I've never taken part in a swap before, but have always wanted to, so i'm quite excited!


Amy

Great excuse to buy more fabric!

My two little babies turned '5' at the weekend. I can't believe they are 5 and are at school full time.
After a bit of a rocky start to the whole school thing they are now enjoying it, Once they are there anyway!

After a lot of thinking, talking and sleepless nights, we decided (for various reasons) to put them into separate classes and we couldn't be happier with how quickly they settled in, they are both doing really well and love to tell each other what they have been up too during the day. They still sit with each other at lunchtime and play together at break time too.
It is such a special thing being an identical twin, something myself and lots of others will never know what that feels like.

We have always done the whole birthday party thing with them but this year I couldn't face organising a party for 60-70 children so we decided to take them out for the day and have a small family party, which I think they enjoyed just as much as they would have if they had had a large friends party.

We took them to build a bear workshop and they got to choose-stuff-clothe and register their own soft toy.
So here are our new editions to the family:

We have Rose the rabbit on the left and Violet the wolf on the right. Dressed in the exact same way their owners do.

They were both bought a sewing machine each for their birthday and they have been dying to use it all weekend but with setting up for family to come round and tidying up after, we haven't had the time.

(please excuse her nails, she is a nail biter and quite often makes them bleed!!)



So when they got home from school yesterday I said I would teach them how to use it. They had a little practice but they wanted to actually make something, so I had a little think and suggested a lavender bag, although at first they declined because they wanted to make a handbag each, but I recommended they start with something a little easier.


Here is the finished product:




I thought they were excellent for their first ever attempt at using a sewing machine! And the best bit about their new love of sewing is that it means we need to buy more fabric. Now that 3 of us are sewing we are going to go through quite a bit.

Just a couple of pictures of the birthday cakes that they choose for me to make for their birthday:
Fairy Toadstool Cake


And Chocolate cake with chocolate fudge covering with chocolate sweets, Yum yum.


Amy

Tuesday 4 January 2011

Hopes and dreams

Happy New Year to you all, hope you had a lovely Christmas.

With the new year starting I decided to write a 'hopes and dreams' list for 2011.
Now I am very good at writing lists in my pretty little notebooks but unfortunately not always great at sticking to them! So I will be trying extra hard this year to try to follow through with as many hopes and dreams as I can.

I have the usual on the list, try to loose weight, be more organised, save money etc which are on the new year resolution list nearly every year, but I have a few that have always been dreams up till now but this year I really want them to become reality. They are not huge things, I just need to get motivated and just do it rather than just thinking about it all the time.

So here's to an excellent 2011.

Amy x