birthday cake is finished!!

I have slaved away and finally finished my daughters birthday cake - I hope she likes it. I am rather proud of myself to be honest and pleased with how its turned out! 

I now just have 24 hours to prepare food, pass the parcel and my mind for about 30 5 year olds at her party!!! 

Happy Friday people, have a fab weekend!

I've been a busy little bee this morning - I have baked the cake - well its in the oven while I'm chilling with a cheeky bacon butty and cuppa!   The rest of the characters are made  - I'm not too sure about little brown mouse, he's a bit fat.... but I'm sure she won't mind.....  

Oops.... Birthdays and Busy-ness!

Big apologies to my followers! I've not updated my blog for aaaaages!!!  It's been a busy month for me I'm sorry to say, mostly work and gerneral life!  I've not had time for crafting much lately as life has just got in the way.... don't you just hate it when that happens!?!  I've had my birthday, dads birthday and mums birthday is tomorrow. 

My daughters birthday is the next week......  I made the foolish choice of asking her what birthday cake she would like for her 5th birthday party - The look of horror on my face must have been a picture when she asked for a Gruffalo cake!  I have made the Gruffalo to sit on top, just the cake to do now for her party on Saturday.... What do you think so far!?!  He's made out of fondant icing, I was pleased with how he turned out!  Will post pics of the finished item later in the week!

Happy Mothers Day

O.K. I'm a day late posting my 'Happy Mothers Day' post! I hope all mummies reading had a wonderful day. We had a lovely day and visited Twycross Zoo. The rain held off for most of the day and we only got soaked as we were walking back to the car! The zoo has been done up and its rather nice there now. 

We saw all of the animals but my favourite was the Orangutan and her new born baby. When we arrived there were signs up saying that they were filming in the park for some TV show.  I thought no more about it and then we bumped into Peter Andre!! He was filming something for some TV show... I'm not sure what.

It must be a day for late things - I didn't manage a folksy friday this week so I'm doing it today - so now it'll be a Folksy Monday!  Having been inspired by my zoo trip I've included a selection of my favourite zoo-y stuff! It even inspired me to make this which will be available in my Folksy shop later.

So.... without further ado....here's my Folksy Monday.....

With Hugs and Kisses

Paper Kutz -Cards, Paper, Crafts and more

Silk Purse, Sow's Ear

GreenPixey

PinkyMinky

Thanks for looking! have a great Monday!!

Another busy weekend

I have had another busy weekend!  I was at a school fair yesterday selling my nappy cakes and knitted and felted items. I had a good day and although it was a little quiet.  Thanks to the ladies at Our Ladies Catholic School in Wellingborough for looking after us stall holders. They provided us with tea and coffee all day and even lunch!! I need more of that at fairs!

It has been a busy week on Folksy too.  I opened my Felted Fluffies shop on Folksy about too weeks ago and I'm pleased to say that I've already had 3 sales.  I am over the moon with that!  I'm now working on lots more stuff to stock it with including dinosaurs and fantasy creatures! I've also been commissioned to crochet a snoopy toy - I'll keep you posted on his progress so far I've done his head, an ear and most of the body! I have also been working on some things to stock my other folksy shop and am knitting the most gorgeous sparkly yarn summery scarf at the moment! Pics to come!!!

The best thing however that I have made today has been this yummy banana cake!  It doesn't look much but it is the most delicious and easy recipe I have come across.  I've been making it for a while!   If you want to make a yummy cake like this heres the recipe....

You will need 4 very ripe bananas, 11oz caster sugar, 4 eggs, 8fl oz sunflower oil, 15oz plain flour, 2tsp bicarbonate of soda, 1/2 tsp salt 2tsp cinnamon.  If I have them I also throw in a handful of currants or sultanas.

Bung them all together in a bowl and mix well. Pour into cake tin - This recipe makes the 2 cakes above and put in a preheated oven on 180 for about 1 hour if you are splitting the mixture like I have or hour and half if you are using a bigger tin.  It has always turned out perfectly for me and always delish! as hubby says nom nom and enjoy!

What a Weekend!

Well what a nice weekend, I hope you''ve all had a good weekend too!?!  On Friday night I had a stall at a local craft and gift fair. There was a nice range of stalls there but unfortunately not so many customers.  Nevermind, I had a lovely chat to lots of other stall holders and bought some yummy cake.  Plus I was next to my friend who runs a little toy shop in the town Masters and Matthews . They specialise in wooden toys, Melissa and Doug and Orchard Toys to name a few.  If you have little ones please check them out - if you are in Kettering or nearby their shop is based in Market Street.

Saturday was quite relaxed and then on Sunday, I visited the Stitch and Craft Show at Olympia in London with my lovely Nan.  There were lots of yummy craft goodies available but I was disappointed that there wasn't a huge range of knitting stuff there.  However there was lots of cross stitch and paper craft stalls. As tempting as it was I refrained from buying lots of beautiful things that I loved but would never use as I have done in the past!   Instead I bought some lovely wool and pattern from a place called Fancy Yarn.  They had some amazing wool   and it was good value too.  I also bought a few other little bits to try out - Keep your eye on my Folksy Shop shop for up and coming new bits and bobs.....

Enjoy your Monday whatever you are up to!

Craft Fair tonight and Folksy Friday

I have been busy making things for a craft and gift fair this evening at the Hunting Lodge in Cottingham, Leicestershire.  I will be there this evening selling a range of my Nappy Cakes and gifts and things from my Folksy shops and heres my felted fluffies shop.  Fingers crossed its nice and busy.

Anyway, back to Folksy Friday..... Its Friday and I've decided to showcase a few bits that I love.  I've decided that my outfits need a bit of brightening up and in need of a brooch or corsage. I've made a few of these crochet flowers lately

Heres a small selection of some of my favourite brooches and corsages from Folksy....











The first is by Leanne Woods Designs - crocheted pinwheels, I love this! Next is the cute little Russian Doll brooch from SewRealicoul.  The purple and orange crochet flower brooch is from  Purpleshed Contemporary crochet I'd never have thought of using these colours together but I think they look fab!  The funky fabric rosette brooch is available from Made with Love X and I adore the corsage/hat pin made by Tusen Takk, it's made from recycled sweet wrappers!  The last one is perfect for spring and its the lovely bird brooch from PantsandPaper.  I'm sure you'll agree these are all lovely!