Tired and poorly Tuesday!

Afternoon!! Hope you all had a good weekend, mine was spent working my weekend job as usual, but this weekend I have the whole weekend off!! I am so excited about this I cant even tell you, we are going to spend some quality time together as a family and take ourselves off to the coast. Cant wait to share the photos with you! 

So this week I ordered a couple of crochet books, now that I'm a bit of an addict. I am loving the patterns in the Cute and Easy Crochet book, the pictures are so lovely, it's just hard deciding which one to attempt first! My biggest girl would like a case to keep her DS safe, so I think I will try a little purse for it to fit in to.

My littlest girl has been a bit poorly the last couple of days - she's currently laid on the sofa watching Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom while I potter about doing washing and the like. She had a nap earlier and I went out in to the garden and did a bit of tidying, raked some leaves and planted the rose bush we got in remembrance of my late Nan and Gramps. I wont share a photo yet as it's pretty boring at the moment. I also planted some peonys that I bought last month, and moved some daffodil bulbs (which are now looking a bit sorry for themselves - I'm sure I've tried to move some before and had the same outcome, which resulted in no daffodils in that part of the garden!) I tried to take apart the plastic playhouse which has seen better days but was unsuccessful, managing to break the roof and a swiss army knife in the process. It's currently laying on its side in the garden. Oops. We've not lived in this house for that long and so much work needs doing to it still, we made a start on the garden last year but we hope to get it finished this summer. 

I decided to have a little look through some old magazines today with my tea and toast - there's something about the crusts of a loaf of bread that I love, they are so chewy. I never cut my toast either, not sure if that makes me lazy, un-ladylike, or both, but I just like to eat round the edge saving the middle for last, and you cant really do that if you have triangles!! I was looking to find some new recipes for dinner - are you ever at that stage where you feel like you're eating the same things for dinner every single week?! So I was armed with a notebook to write down a few recipes I am going to try. 

'Til next time

Leanne

x

Some of my favourite cakey pictures!

                      Iggle Piggle with his boat

A suitcase cake for a lady who was relocating to Wales

                   An owl lovers cake!

             

                 A cupcake tower for a wedding

        Love heart inspired engagement cake

                      Cottage garden cake

           My Mummy's 50th birthday cake

                   Garden cupcakes

          Shabby chic style birthday cupcakes

                    

                          Floral tiered celebration cake

     Early in the morning, when the day is dawning....

                     
                          Orange rose wedding cake

   
                   Elephant lovers cake!

         
             Twin boys birthday and christening cake

   For a guy who had just returned from Egypt!

                          Fairy castle for twin girls

    Giant cupcake with a white chocolate shell

These are some of my favourite cakes I have made in the past year! Hope you like them :) 

Leanne

x

Absence makes the heart grow fonder - or does it?

Well I have been neglecting my measly little blog for a good few months now, but M&S kept me on and I now work every single weekend!! Feels odd to speak about Christmas but I hope everyone had a good one, I have to say it's the best Christmas I had for a long time. Lots of laughter and happiness in our little house.

So this ramblings title - I have had some time off from cakes and I hate to say I haven't really missed it! I enjoy it again once I start a cake but getting covered in icing sugar with stained red and blue hands is not as exciting for me as it once was. This makes me a little sad but I know I'm still going to enjoy making cakes for people that I love :) 

I met up with a new friend a couple of weeks ago, Justine from Emma Bear Forever and she taught me how to crochet, and I am actually addicted. I got some nice yarn (because Poundland wool will just not do!) and am happily making my first ever blanket. My hand starts to hurt after a while, dont think I have the holding part quite right but hey ho. 

So Spring seems to be springing, I have bought some 

lovely fabric (with little chicks on!) to make some Easter bunting, myself and my girlies will be doing salt dough decorations in the shape of eggs soon too. My daffodils have grown lovely in my kitchen and I have spied quite a few clusters of snowdrops about. It's also getting to 'washing on the line' weather, cant wait for a nice line dried bed!!

 

I'm hoping to get the garden sorted properly this year, we have just got a nice David Austin rose bush to plant in remembrance of my late Grandparents, just trying to work out the best spot for it!

'Til next time,

Leanne 

x

Sewing machine broken - AGAIN!

Well after only having my machine back for a couple of weeks it is not working again - dropping stitches, getting stuck and all sorts. Would love to get myself a nice new digital one!! My local repair man is having a look at it today so hopefully it will be back with me by the end of the week, so I can finish the million and one projects I start and then get bored.... they include a duvet cover for my youngest using an old duvet cover that belonged to my late Grandparents, some bunting for twin girls (these are unfinished due to the machine packing up) and a big eclectic mish mash patchwork quilt.

I started a new job this week, at M&S - just over Christmas. I am hoping that they will give me something permanent after my contract ends and then I dont have to take as many cake orders - dont get me wrong I love making cakes for people but it just got a bit too successful a bit too quick (I should be grateful I know, but everyone and everything seems to get neglected - children, housework etc) and I am only just learning to say 'no' to people, so this month I have exactly what I didn't want - every weekend in December is booked for at least 3 cakes, plus a wedding, which is extremely stressful stuff. So I have decided to cut down on them a bit, make some more stuff that is non edible (and experiment with edible stuff too!) and enjoy my children and writing my blog. Life is too short for too much stress! 

So since I last wrote it has been my birthday - we took a trip to the wonderful Emma Bridgewater factory in Stoke on Trent where we went on a factory tour, decorated our own pottery, had a lovely lunch and spent far too much money (and a little wander round Ikea on the way back with some meatballs thrown in for good measure. And yes I did buy tealights. It's the law, right?!) I treated myself to a lovely Joy bowl to display at Christmas and some dinner plates. My lovely Tom made me a cake for my birthday - bless him! It matched my favourite Emma Bridgewater mug too - so thoughtful.

My amazing cake made by my amazing hubby to be!!

I got some great books for my birthday - Lorraine Pascales new book, and Kirstie Allsopp's new craft book - cant wait to try some stuff out, the Lorraine Pascale book has some lovely looking stuff in it, I will let you know how I get on! Hoping to do a bit of a 'Come Dine With Me' evening for some friends at some point so that seems the perfect time to use the book!

 

My Birthday Haul!!

I will be doing some Christmas shopping this week (hopefully) - I'm one of those people that always says "I'm going to get it all done by November" and then never does it... Well take care folks, til next time.

Leanne

x

   

Chatter chatter chatter

Welcome to my blog..... I've only started this because I love to talk, and sometimes, what with being a stay at home mum, people to talk to all day are few and far between - there's only so many conversations about Peppa Pig you can have with a 2 year old, and only so many times you can ask "What did you do at school today" only to get "I cant remember" from your 5 year old. Don't get me wrong I love my girls and chatting with them, but I thought I would like somewhere to say what I wanted to say, not what I thought I should say or what someone else thinks I should say!

So let me tell you about me, I am in my late twenties with 2 daughters and a partner of 7 years (dont speak to me about weddings) and we live in a little village in Cambridgeshire. Last year I started up my own cake business from home, things are going good - the plan is to build up a big enough customer base so I dont have to return to full time work when daughter number 2 starts school. I also love to make things, I love sewing and have recently got my sewing machine back from being fixed so hopefully will be getting started with lots of crafty bits soon.

The next project we are taking on is to make a play kitchen out of 2 unused bedside tables.... hoping we can pull it off and give it to the girls for Christmas, much prefer handmade presents!!

I have got a wedding to prepare for this weekend, making 120 purple roses for cupcakes...... aaagghhhh!!

Please keep visiting for cakes, crafty projects and ramblings :)

Leanne x