iky sticky pudding!!

Had some friends for lunch yesterday and I made this Sticky Toffee pudding from the Jamie Oliver book- Jamie's Dinners- which is a cook book I would highly recommend as it is full of everyday recipes with a twist and you want to make every one!! The sticky toffee pudding was absolutely divine and the best one I have ever tasted - even though it is probably very very high in calories - it is full of cream,butter, dates, brown sugar etc mmmmm lovely!!! It has given me plenty of energy to do some crafting ...

Spring in the Park

Had a lovely walk in Sutton Park last week - it is the largest urban park in Europe and is a national nature reserve so we are lucky to have it right on our doorstep. It covers 2400 acres and has 7 man made pools - all very different to each other so there is always something new to see and there is lots of wildlife on the lakes. Had a lovely warm sunny week so am making the most of it!!

My family are all coming to visit for the easter weekend so I made a special cake to celebrate - it is a rich fruit cake iced with marzipan and decorated to look fresh and spring -like with a couple of odd looking chickens for fun!! had a good time making it- Happy Easter everyone!!

Easter Bunny!

I have just finished making this bunny egg cosy from a "little cotton rabbits"pattern after much gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair! It looks so easy but in fact it is quite difficult to get it to look exactly like the adorable rabbit on the photo on the front of the pattern. I made him in cotton so he is easy to wash - am now making another one to hopefully get a better finish. I did enjoy making him despite the problems - there are a few rejected heads, ears etc lying round the room now!!

custard cupcakes!

Made these delicious cupcakes today and wanted to share the recipe as they are really easy to make and also made with stuff that you usually have in the cupboard which is always a good idea. There is nothing worse than finding a recipe you like and then you do not have all the ingredients to hand! I found it in the BBC good food magazine and it is:

100g custard powder

200g butter

2 eggs

4 tablespoons milk

140g caster sugar

100g self raising

Heat oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4

Beat custard powder,butter, milk and eggs together and stir in sugar, then fold in flour. Spoon into 12 muffin cases.

Bake for 20 minutes and leave to cool

Make up some glace icing with 200g icing sugar, few drops of vanilla extract and enough water to make a thickish paste. Spread on the cupcakes and then add some sprinkles and enjoy!

"Heather Bailey" magic !

my mother's day gift from my daughter was this "Heather Bailey" pattern for "freshpicked pincushions" - a pear,apple tomato and two strawberries- it is so delicious and I can't wait to make them - I think great things are expected so I will have to take my time and do them properly!! I always get really impatient to get new projects finished so tend to rush them and then make mistakes.... need to calm down and take my time- can patience be learned?-it has never been one of my strong points. The pattern for the pear looks particularly gorgeous and might be too nice to stick pins in- perhaps it will just be a little sculpture or I might fill it with dried lavender...

The fabrics were included and they are really beautiful- they seem to "sing" together- don't you think? and are really vibrant colours...

little pink Birdie!!

This is my third attempt to make a little bird!! And he is far from perfect so will have to keep trying ... the legs are really difficult to attach but think I will try superglue next time just to stop them from twisting...