Lady bird cave man?

The strange things people get you make when they know youre crafty! Its lovely BM's stag do soon and his friends wanted to recreated a notorious ladybird outfit he used to go clubbing in in his youth so they got me to make it! 

Lovely BM wisely threw away the original outfit some years ago so i had to make my own interpretation of it and its turned out slightly more caveman than originally planned but it still makes me laugh whenever i see it in my craft room! Cant wait for the pictures of the man himself in it - although i probably wont be allowed to post them on here!

 

Wedding cake - fruit cake

The first real wedding cake, not a tester, has been made :) This is the one the guests will eat - eeek! 

The fruit cake needs to sit for a few months to develop its flavour and so we can feed it with brandy so ive made it 2 months ahead of the wedding. This is the one im not decorating myself so the caterer also wanted ti made sooner rather than later.

I made a 30cm cake mix but baked it in a 23cm tin as i wanted it tall rather than wide. Just make sure you 23cm tin has tall side or add extra lining paper above the tin height to contain the mixture while its cooking.

I used this recipe but swapped the raisins for dates and apricots as that's what my mum likes :) I also left out the treacle as i prefer a blonder fruit cake. I doesn't look like it from the picture but the middle will be fairly pale in colour for a fruit cake. Its all feeling very real now...

Blackboard Label Milk Bottles

Mini milk bottles now available with blackboard/chalkboard labels over at my ebay shop :)

Story of Us Chalkboard

I turned and old picture frames into a story of us blackboard for the wedding! Even lovely BM thought this was very cool :)
I just painted the glass off the picture frame with chalkboard paint and then got to work with a chalkboard marker-i love how it turned out.
 

Spray paint corner

 

 

I just liked the look of my spray painting corner so i decided to share it! The bottles are going to be a hoopla game for the wedding - more info to follow on that!

Hen do rom com bingo cards

I'm going for champagne sunday brunch for my hen do followed by pizza and chick flicks at home and i wanted a game for us to play, preferable not too hen do esque (ie penis free!). So when i saw these fab rom com bingo cards from eharmony i knew they were perfect. Ive also bought some of those massive bingo dabbers from the pound shop (dont you just the pound shop) to really complete the bingo theme! Im so excited about it!!

Wedding table names

 

 

Diy table name signs! I attached some tiny pegs to regular wooden food skewers with purple florist wire. I printed the table names (lovely BM wants them all named after snakes!) onto card and laminated them. Then gripped the table names in the little tiny pegs. Super easy diy table names!

Confetti match books

 

 

I love confetti! But as we really can only throw organic confetti on the lavender farm i figured that if i wanted to be showered in the stuff on my wedding day then id better provide some for my guests. In addition ive saved every rose lovely BM has ever bought me (never could bring myself to chuck them!) so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to  use them. So i put the rose petals and also some (very local!) lavender in glassine bags, then stapled them to some cute match books i printed up. Im loving making all these little finishing touches for the wedding :)

DIY wedding veil

Continuing my DIY wedding theme i'm also making my own veil. I just bought a nice lace trimmed one, no comb, from etsy and bought some lovely metal combs from ebay - total cost about £12!

First i covered my comb in ribbon. This to make it pretty and so that you have something to sew the actual veil to. The ribbon is just wrapped in between every tooth.

This is the back with the beginning end tucked in

When you come to the end sew that end in place, dont break the thread and then you can attach veil straight away

I didnt want a gathered veil, i wanted a more waterfall style one so i just gathered my veil into a point and folded over the end to make it flat.

I then just sewed it to the ribbon on the comb. Above is the back. Below is the front

And the finished product! Its exactly the effect i was looking for - a cascading waterfall kind of look :)

Wedding bouquet practise

Im making my own bouquet for my wedding so i though id have a practise! I just used cream roses and purple stocks from my local super market but it turned out great!

 

 

It was really easy to make, surprisingly easy to be honest, so im definitely going to make my own. Im going to wrap the stems in some lace from my mums wedding dress, so that'll be my something old and borrowed :)

I followed the instructions over at Blooms by the Box which were fabulous - just wished then sent their flowers to the UK!

Practise Wedding Cakes

I had a practise run for my wedding cakes!
Im making 4, the fruit cake isnt shown as someone else is decorating that

This is them with their crumb coat - they always look so cute like this i think, all new and yummy!




This is the red velvet with toasted marshmallow frosting. I stupidly forgot to take a picture of this one cut - doh! Its totally the most dramatic :(
Anyway i used this Nigella recipe for red velvet cupcakes, just made it as a cake, and this marshmallow frosting. I spread the frosting smoothly on the sides and then piped little mini meringues on the top and then toasted it all with a blow torch

The chocolate fudge cake - by far the most popular! Its a fab recipe, again by Nigella, which ive been making for years. i love it because it isnt too sweet, and it has a really fudgey texture without being heavy. This one is topped with basic chocolate butter cream piped as roses. Its really just a swirl, piped with a large star tip nozzle. Its really easy but looks like its really complicated!

Any finally this is a lemon cake with lemon swiss meringue buttercream
Yet again, a nigella recipe, i just doubled the quantities for her Lemon Drizzle cake. The topped it with this amazing swiss meringue buttercream. Ive never made it before and it does take a little while but it sreally delicious, and very stable, which i great for a summer wedding. This was supposed to be a little better finished off but i ran out of steam somewhat on the third cake! Something to consider when making the real things...



Makes me hungry just remembering them!

Trip to France

Just some snaps of our recent trip to France

Beautiful flowers in Boulogne Sur Mer

 

More flowers

 

delicious bread and butter

The reason we went! Stocking up on wine for the wedding

Fantastic Mr Fox

 

I made a fantastic mr fox outfit for a fancy dress thing at work at very short notice the other night! Whipped up some felt ears and a plaster instead of a tail (mr fox's got blown off by a farmer if you recall!). Quite pleased with the outcome considering the time and material contraints!

Toastie maker bag

 

Our toastie maker and its greasy little underbelly and feet drive me mad! Its so hard to clean and always leaves a mess on the shelf so ive made it a little storage bag! Theyre the same as the drawstring bags i made for the snakes, just a different shape