Tomorrow is baking day!

Mums annual cancer charity do is this weekend and Ive volunteered to man the cake stall! 

Ok so man the cake stall means im baking them too! lol

70+ cupcakes
50 cakepops
30 pushpop cakepops

Did i tell you this is all to be prepped tomorrow (well all except the frosting which will be added on Friday night)!! 

Best go get some sleep!

Winners!!

Congratulations to Helena Daniels who is the winner of the I *hear* Macaroons book!!

Congratulations to Ziggy2407 who is the winner of the Olympics book!

Well done both of you and if you could email me your addresses i will arrange for the books to be sent straight away :)

The Works - Book Giveaway!

I was contacted by the lovely people at The Works to host a giveaway for a kiddies book :)

What with the Olympics around the corner this ties in perfectly as the book up for offer is the Story of the Olympics

Records and reputations, cheats and champs, victors and venues - here's the lowdown on the modern Olympic games, published in advance of London 2012, from the one and only Richard Brassey.

All you need to do is leave a little comment below and your name will be entered into the draw. 

To get a SECOND entry into the competition sign up for The Works mailing list via this email link HERE and pop back here to leave an additional comment to let me know!

A winner will be drawn on Monday :)

Good luck!

Plotting and Prepping!

As you know I have a Peter Rabbit themed baby shower coming up that I am planning and I have been picking up  bits here and there. 

The most recent pieces I  have managed to pick up include a HUGE cream birdcage which will hold the centre piece cake (blue and white layer cake with compete white outside layer of frosting to hide the surprise colour inside)

I will be using the large drinks dispenser to hold juice so have found a gorgeous kiddy book full of beautiful drawings from the Beatrix Potter stories.  These will be cut out and used in frames and on signs etc.

The wood....ah the wood!  I am so excited about this bit! 

Because the theme is Peter Rabbit I am going to create a little garden section with carrot cupcakes topped with crushed oreo cookies to resemble the soil, teeny fondant and marzipan vegetables etc and a stack of fruit crates (made from the wood!) to house the platter of said cupcakes!

We are going to have a seperate section where all the girls can sit and make little origami boats filled with sentiments, memories and words of wisdom for Laura to mull over on those sleepless nights to come.  (The nursery is sailing boats in red and navy)

I managed to nab some of the baking goodies from TKMaxx the other day - we seem to hit lucky often with ours as they seem to get most of the good stuff in regularly!  The food pens were only £3.49 for a pack of 2, edible pearlescent paint £2.99 (i think its £5.99 in specialist shops!) - well worth a look if youre passing!

Before then though I have the Cancer Research charity do to bake for as this year we are having a cake stall - im thinking cake pops, cupcakes, muffins, push pop cupcakes and possibly even gourmet toffee apples!  We shall see concidering its next weekend, I must get a shimmy on!! 

What do you struggle with?? (+ giveaway!)

I am a firm believer that anything is possible!

I also believe that hobbies should be fun!

Which is why I wouldnt let macarons ruin my life!  Little b*ggers!

I wanted to include them in my book and I sure as heck wasnt going to be beaten by them!

Lots of blue air and coloured hands, lots of patience and sitting in front of the oven to make sure they didnt catch, lots of them ending up in the bin on the first few attempts.....but......I got there in the end and just like the pastry issue of old (yes pastry was my nemesis!!) I can now whip out a batch that actually look very pretty!  Wohoo!!!

I am giving away one of the I *heart* macarons books so if you would like to give it a go just pop your name in the comment section below and tell me what you struggle with (doesnt have to be baking!)

Winner will be announced on Sunday :)

Showers of a different kind!

Nope, not the rain but the baby ones this time!  No not mine either before anyone starts the jungle drums!! lol

I am styling a Peter Rabbit dessert table and baby shower in August but wanted to make the invitations stand out.  Anyone can print an invite so i thought they should be a little something special.

Thats when 'Laura is about to POP!' was born!  

I toyed with the idea of getting balloons printed with the same title but knew a pregnant woman trying to manhandle 30 helium filled ballooms wouldnt be a pretty sight! lol

I bought glassine bags to hold popcorn, used a decorative punch to edge the bags.  Then using a standard paper hole punch, punched two holes in the top to thread through the ribbon, the invitation was rolled up like a scroll and fastened to the ribbon with a little blue acrylic dummy (yes shes having a boy!)

 I made 30 altogether and the smell was divine!! 

I think they turned out pretty cute and set the perfect base for how fabulous the actual shower is going to be!

Cupcakes and Crafting - oh my!!

What happened there??

Cupcakes and layouts!!

 

Jeez anyone would think I had nothing to do - good thing theres no limit on how many hobbies you can have! lol

Rain rain go away!!

Just when I thought summer had arrived...the rain takes over!

At least its given me the chance to stay indoors and get things done.

I have found my long lost love of scrapbooking... (no pics to share, as any scrapbooker knows it takes a good while of shuffling paper before you start!)

I have found a new love for jewellery making...

 A love of making all things sweet...

I have found a love of searching for a bigger home! lol 

I am going tomorrow with my little sis to pick up her new motorhome - shes off on a huge journey and its so exciting!