Dont Tell the Bride!

Two sets of my wonderful friends is getting married in March this year and I'm Bridesmaid at both weddings!

The first to Tie the Knot are my friends Kirsty & Gareth, and to celebrate the Hen night we are going away to Centre Parks! I wanted to make something that could be kept as a reminder of the weekend and have been secretly crafting for the past 6 months.

So, inspired by some of the lacy and romantic wedding/party photos shoots in Mollie Makesmagazine, I designed rosettes for each of the wedding party!

Bride to Be

Mum of the Bride

Bridesmaids

The lace and fancy bits are a combination of vintage scraps I had lying around, bargain bin offcuts from Leeds markets and repeated trips to Samuel Taylors! The Bride to be is a big lover of all things pink, hence the colour scheme. I wanted to avoid the traditional Hen Night neon and make something a bit classier.

I also wanted the other hens to have something in the same theme as the wedding party, but as ever was rapidly running out of time (where does it go?!?). I decided to make a smaller, simpler rosette to make sure that they were done in time! Each one is slightly different, and has a unique sequinned or embroidered embellishment to the centre.

These were put into 'party bags' which were personalised by the fabulous folksy seller Shinta Shop and filled with sweeties.

Belated Christmas Round Up!

As promised, its time for a slightly belated crafty christmas round up!

Several months before Christmas, my mum asked me to make her a set of Christmas bunting to hang in her front room to replace the non-festive bunting she has there all year round. We managed to find a cute robin print fabric in cream and green which was perfect for the christmas theme, and added a plain red to break up the quite busy patterns. I added this to some cream bunting cord and ta-da!

To finish off the ends I added some little holly leaves, complete with mini berries, to make it even more christmassy!

As for presents, my artsy craftsy ways meant I got a lot of making gifts! From my brother I got cookie mix in a jar - all I need to add is eggs! Holding off on making these until my waistline has got over Christmas itself, but they look yummy. And these a wooden snowflake ornament for the tree - ace!

We also received a slow cooker (and recipe book), Tatty Devine's How to Make Jewellerybook,Steampunk Softies (the follow up to my Zombie Felties book!) and an awesome skeleton gingerbread cutter!

Herman

After Christmas, I was given a 'friendship' sour dough cake by my mum called 'Herman'. The cake is bubbling and 'alive', the idea being that you look after the cake for a week, feeding it sugar and flour before splitting into portions and distributing to your friends. The last portion you get to keep and make into a cake yourself. Being a sucker for inanimate objects that claim to be alive (I once bought a half dead chive plant from a tesco reduced to clear bin because it had an 'I'm Alive' sticker on the side) I was happy to take Herman home with me.

I wasnt sure what to make of the cake at first. It smells almost beery (that'll be the yeast) and is really bubbly.

I ended up cobbling Herman a little bit, as when it came to feed him I ran out of plain flour and had to use self raising. This resulted in Herman bubbling up and out of the mixing bowl I'd put him in! As it was the biggest bowl I had he had to be moved to a cake tin for the rest of his growing time! Luckily he turned out ok!

The cake was surprisingly nice (mine had raisins, but the apple one is equally as nice!), although you really do need a cup of tea to go with him! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to pass on all of his 'children' - you don't realise how hard it is to get rid of bubbling cake mixture until you try it!