Gray day (but that's ok)

We've had about one day of sunshine in the last couple of weeks. Rain, rain and more rain, torrential-like or just a drizzle, mild and damp or bonechillingly cold and wet - the lack of light being the most predominant part of the whole weather scene. Oh well, I don't mind. I get kind of drousy, but there's nothing more sweet than returning to a snug, warm house after being outside on a rainy autumn day. There'll definitely be hot chocolate with whipped cream for the kids when thay come home from school and kindergarten :3

After a pretty busy period with my sister's wedding (hooray!), Emma's fourth birthday (I think I'll make a post about this next time) and the general hazzle of everyday life being extra hazzly (yes, I know that's not a word), I finally have some time to focus on the sweetest time of year - Christmas! If you disagree that Christmas is the best time of year, well - just be glad you don't live in my home, I'd drive you absolutely crazy, I promise :D So, the present-making has started, and to inspire you with some DIY-goodness, I'll share with you some of the things I made last year (and waited until now to share, because I didn't want to reveal to many presents to the ones they were meant for before they got them). Let's start off with bottle cap-magnets - these are so much fun to make! 

I collected some more recycled bottle caps (last bottle cap project being crochet-bottle-cap-hot-pads), bought resin glue at a shop where you get paints, glues and such, collected some leftover bits of scrapbook paper and some pearls and stuff, and got started :)

Here's an amigurumi mushroom too, crocheted around a tiny jar, for storing saffron or something else small and precious :3

I glued the scrapbook paper inside the bottom of the cap after cutting it to the right size, put som cute things and a friendly message inside, and then poured the resin glue in up to about a millimetre from the top of the brim, and let it dry until hard.

Then I glued super strong magnets from Clas Ohlson to the back - and then they were ready!

Of course I had to make some Christmas-magnets too

And a few foresty ones... The paper in the bottom of the cap was painted by me and the kids - we put some paint on paper, and folded to make the "veiny" pattern (blue in this one).

Vintage-style

Ocean-magnets for my in-laws :) They're on the fridge at the cottage (which is by the sea). Fun to use real sea shells! And the veined paper, and felt tip pens for the sea creatures

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I hope you were inspired :) A snug autumn afternoon to all!

Cake-O-Rama

And I've done it yet again - I've rambled on about making more posts, as a New Year's resolution and everything. Silly me. Time to just admit I'm not the natural born blogger... It doesn't mean I don't have plenty to write about here. For example, as a result of not writing here in ages, I now have a handful of cakes to show off. And that's despite the fact that I've accepted very few baking assignments since last summer. So yes, it's been a while since I last wrote... 

As spring tries to emerge outside, interrupted by the occasional storm-like weather (ok, maybe just relatively persistent wind...), some snow (that melts by midday) and a rather scarce amount of sunny days (really, I'm wondering whether I might be suffering from vitamin D-deficiency), I'm having fun with the first cold of the year. What better to do when the brain is generally on vacation than looking at some colourful cake pictures and sharing them with you? Almost a bit psychedelic, really... Hope you like!

This was a Father's Day marzipan cake. Raspberry and whipped cream and moist sponge cake underneath the blue marzipan, and edible silver-spray pattern and silver pearls for decoration (and a small blue rose, of course...). The pattern comes from an old teapot stand we've inherited from my husbands grandparents.

Sonar-cake for my father-in-law's birthday. Hooray! We had it at the in-laws cottage, so the cake traveled quite a bit and was hidden for a while before it was revealed and enjoyed :)

I just had to add the gingerbread house I made with my kids - the generous splashes of icing courtesy of Emma :3

Look, there's our family - I'm supposedly the one with the sagging boobs and a mysterious green growth coming out of my torso...

Here's a royal chocolate cake in honour of a very loveable and beautiful princess that we care a lot about. Chocolate cakes with chocolate cream, and chocolate roll cake in the towers with ice cream cones on top.

Some glitter, sprinkles, icing...

...pearls, butterflies and buttercream, and we have a yummy and sweet princess-castle!

Butterly-cake for a sophisticated, little birthday-girl.

It took some time to make all the butterflies, with the shading and a touch of pearl spray. The clue with the royal-icing-butterly was, well... Not to brake it once dried. Brittle stuff!

Christening cake for an adorable little girl. Handmade sugar paste flowers, vanilla fondant and marzipan for the cake lids. Juicy light chocolate cake with raspberries, raspberry jam and cream inside (yes, one of my regulars) :)

It's bigger than it looks...

No comments about the teddy being cross-eyed :p

Well, that's that for now :) I really have no idea when I'll post something next, or what it'll be about - life's exciting, eh?

The world is her oyster

We've had another birthday party. A month ago, our two-year-old became our three-year-old, and it was time for her first birthday party where friends are invited. As usual I made a birthday party inspired by her wishes (two, if you count the family gathering which followed the next day). And as usual, nowadays, it's taken me a while to find time to post some inspirational photos here... But oh well, maybe I'll make it a new years resolution to post more stuff on the blog ;) 

Our sweet three-year-old is the kind of person who knows the world is her oyster. She takes what she wants, what she needs, and what her big sister has (simply because big sister has it). She snuggles up to me early in the morning, fills the toilet with all the paper on the loo-roll, smears the windows with lip-gloss and anything else she feels like doing, and there's seldom a trace of remorse to find. She says a heartfelt sorry, before she goes on to find something else to do that's not allowed. It's not mischief or ill intent that drives her, but that impressive confidence she has that she can explore anything and indulge any curiosity, and somehow everything will work out for the best... 

For her birthday, she wanted a Lillifee-theme. Then she wanted Hello Kitty. Then a cat-birthday. In the end I suggested to have a touch of farmyard-fun, and she went with it, luckily. And it really was fun!

I made a chocolate-cake with creamy chocolate cream, chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and vanilla cupcakes with green vanilla frosting. The animal heads are made of marzipan and sugar paste, the butterflies and flowers are left from the Dr. Oetker-stuff I used on the rainbow cake for the five-year-old's fifth birthday :) The writing gel had kind of separated, so not too impressed with the writing myself...

The farmyard creatures were a big hit with the kids (they were 1,5 to 5,5 years old)

The usual bounty of veggies and fruit. I completely forgot to take pictures of the pizza rolls and cheese muffins... But they sure tasted quite nice, if I may say so B-)

These cute serviettes my mother in law gave me last year, were the inspiration for asking the birthday girl if farmyard-theme was the stuff :3

Some autumnal decor...

...and some pink in honour of the birthday girl, of course...

Inspired by the pirate party, I made a cosy cavern. Of course, this one had more of the cosiness factor and less of the villainy gloom... I even scattered some dried autumn leaves on top

We put a friendly film on inside, once the kids wanted a break from the eating and playing

There's no point in planning too many activities for a three-year-old and her (mostly somewhat younger) friends, but putting the tail on the pig was just the ticket - my kids love this activity, which is why I've made several versions of it over the last year or two... I attached some cheap paper on a canvas (so I can still use the canvas later), and lined up a mommy pig and her cute piglet (and butterfly and grass...). Then I let the girls help me paint it, prior to the party - they are so proud and happy when they get to use my paint and brushes (and my stuff in general), so I let them borrow it or help me relatively often :)

I used one of the pirate-bandanas as blind fold - can you glimpse Emma's grin?

After a long and exiting day it was nice with a big hug from big sister. Check out the somewhat baggy pink dress on the birthday girl - I bought it big with the intention that the eldest would have it this year, and maybe next, but once Emma saw it, she was very eager to wear it. Big sister didn't mind. She prefers blue :)

Enjoy the rest of November :)

On a roll (Pirate Cupcakes)

Once I've done something new and fun, it might be old, but it's still fun. I tend to use a new theme, a new technique, a new idea, until I get properly fed up with it, and then it may be years until I pick it up again... Unless it's one of those timeless things one can never do enough of. 
Well, I wouldn't exactly say that the pirate-theme is something I can never get enough of, and it's not particularly original either, in itself - but: it certainly is fun. We have props and ideas for several new pirate parties, and although it will be a while until the next party that's not Christmas-related in this house, I was more than happy to make pirate cupcakes for my children's kindergarten when they decided to have a good ol' swashbuckling feast. Such cute pirates they were :3 
So now, before I move on to making crochet love-knot-hats for my kids (see, there's one of those techniques I'm going to use to death and then stay away from for eons), I'll share some pics of the pirate goodness. After all, it has been a while since I made cupcakes. Hasn't it?

It's a hard life for a ramshackled, one-eyed sugar paste man...

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate cream, decorated with handmade pirates. Their heads, that is... Mwahahaha!

Some should've had sun block on...

It's a pirate's life for him... The cupcake paper cups have proper pirate-themed motives :)

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All ready in a nice box from TheCakeDecoratingCompany

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I made three dozen, so for variety I also made vanilla cupcakes with blue vanilla buttercream, and was happy to fit in some sharks. Walk the plank, pirate scum! 

Hope you're enjoying a lovely November :)

Something for myself

For my birthday this year, I got some nice things. Among them were several balls of yarn in lovely greens and blues. Since they were a present for me, I realized I should probably use them to make something for myself. It's been ages since I have, so at first I was a bit confused. What to make? "A shawl," someone suggested. "Well, that's easy enough," I thought. So I started crocheting, using the love knots-technique (still not knitting much...), but when I came about halfway I remembered something. I never really wear shawls... Sooo, I transformed the shawl into a big hood. And the hood needed something to sit on, so then I made a vest! I bought light green/white wool to make the border, also with love knots. I've made several flowers with the blue/green yarn, and used one of them as a button on the front of the vest. It was easy and fun to make this, all though the shape isn't exactly perfect - but since this is my first attempt at making a crochet vest, and not using a pattern, I'm quite pleased :) I really got the make-something-for-myself-thing out of my system, so no I'm ready to focus on Christmas-presents :3

Biiig hood, with tassel :)

And there's the little felt bag from previous post... I decided to take pictures of bag and vest in the same go to save some time (for my volunteer photographer :)).

I like how I can hide in my big hood. The love knots make for a decorative pattern to put on top of nice tops and shirts. The one I'm wearing under the vest in these pictures wasn't the best choice, though... But never mind :3

Stay tuned for X-mas-inspiration (and no, it's not too early) ;)