Friday, September 26

Spoilt Rotten

So I did a little swap with the gorgeous Megsie designer of Pint - her blog is here I sent down 3 t-shirts for my big kids and a dress front cut out for the littliest cherub.

And this is what returned.




A gorgeous Babuska for Sarah.
Fairy on a mushroom for 'Tinkerbelle' Amy.
Pirate for William and a
gorgeous Fairy with a rose for Baby Katherine.

They are divine, and suit my children perfectly - down to the pigtails for Katherine.
Now I'm hoping my DH can take some better photos, cause Miss K thought that swinging from the jungle rope was more fun that having photos taken.

And then of course the little dare devil herself decided to show off - swinging from the swings in a beautiful Lottie Lulu Smurf t-shirt - and Ingrid kindly included a nappy cut to match, and I made a nappy for Katherine to match. I'm slack and hadn't posted a photo - so here it is. Again hoping to get some better shots next week.


Monday, September 22

Monday

Finished off the custom for the September Slot winner. It consists of 2 Auriels - 1 Munch Crunch - I thought I was out of the fruit print, but I found this piece lurking in the bottom of a huge pile of fabric lol!! Also a fleece Auriel, I really like this print as well, worked really well with the mauve fleece, and then a HoneyBoy! Mumford fleece it feels like velvet and the gorgeous Jungle Baby print on the tabs and a sage velour inner, just scrummy!



And then onto a wee embroidered cover for as it happens a little girl that has arrived today - it was the last on the list of items I had to complete for the cherub, so it's perfect timing, it should arrive at it's destination, just in time for when Mum and Bub come home from the hospital. It's carnation fleece, with hand embroidered roses, flowers and butterflies. It turned out divinely if I do say so myself.



The Pirate Party

Well William had a few little friends over on the weekend for his pirate party - lots of fun was had by all. The cake was a huge hit with littlies and biggies. Devil's food cake made to look like a Treasure Map cake from the Debbie Brown's 50 easy party cake book. And it was easy - though little fingers were helping - brown sugar sand, covered up a multitude of sins lol!!



The uncut cake



The Birthday Boy with the first slice of cake.



The cut cake



Some little pirate boys - there was also a pirate girl and a princess, but I couldn't post photos without showing their faces, and I need to run that by their mums first :)

Sunday, September 21

A backlog

Well the little Miss is finally happy again and Shane is off for a couple of days, so I'm trying to catch up with the backlog of custom logs, swaps and just trying to get some instocks done. I've actually been ill myself and it's going to take some time for me to be back to full strength, so stockings and the like will be totally random depending on how I'm travelling.

Anyways here is one of the last of the gorgeous 'Munch Crunch' sets from OZeBaby - I love how they turned out especially the lollipop - I think it's my favourite applique of the range to date - tempted to make a little dress with some trim and the applique for the little Miss.



The new owner has been very patient with me - which I appreciate immensely and I hope she enjoys her new goodies. A size 2 t-shirt with lollipop in divine bamboo french terry - this is the fabric dreams are made of, soft and squishy and just a beautiful fabric to work with. It's teamed with a Auriel in 'red velvet' windpro, feature panel and a cheeky caterpillar. Then a size 1 top with watermelon applique and a matching Auriel in lime Minky and feature panel with the watermelon applique on the back as well.




Thursday, September 18

My baby girl

is sick :( So no stocking until she's over the worst of it. Will keep you all updated here, but at this stage, it should be early next week.

Tuesday, September 16

Happy 5th Birthday William

It's my little man's 5th birthday today - Daddy left at 6.30 for work, so we haven't done proper Happy Birthday yet, but I couldn't let him not open anything. So we have a lovely present from our friend K. William adores the band aids - they have pirates, and has already read the book.



We also baked cupcakes for Kindy - I was helped with the sprinkles by both Katherine and William and the 36 cupcakes became 35 when Katherine decided to lick one. So at 8.30 in the morning Katherine got to eat a cupcake. I cannot however rave enough about my new toy - The Cupcake Courier - it's fantastic, held all the cupcakes, it rode in the car to kindy - no smushed cupcakes, no icing everywhere and no dropped cake tins and it holds heaps - there are 24 children in William's class plus teachers and other staff, and finding away to transport this many cakes in the past has been a pain. So if you want to purchase one - toddle off and you can get one here The Cupcake Courier they have also started to sell single cupcake sized ones, but I haven't gotten any of those just yet.



Back later with more photos.

Sunday, September 14

Choc Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Inspired by this blog post I decided to give these awhirl for a morning tea I'm attending.

So my cupcake recipe is

2 cups SR flour
150g softened butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup or a bit more of milk (depends on the weather)
3/4 cup caster sugar - mine is vanilla infused yummo!
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean scraped and popped in with everything else.
couple of teaspoons of lemon juice

That's it - just pop everything into a mixer whizz it all together for about 1 or 2 minutes and you are done. Bake for 15 - 18 minutes at 180 deg C for muffin sized cupcakes.

And now the choc chip recipe.

I make a double batch always so

250g softened butter, together with 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup caster sugar. Beat till fluffy. Beat in 2 eggs, one at a time, till combined and fluffier. Add in 250 choc bits - I actually use choc melts chopped, because I refuse to purchase Nestle choc bits. Stir till combined and then mix in 3 1/2 cups of self raising flour. I use a small ice cream scoop to scoop up my dough, then I put it on a lined tray - I don't bother flattening them, they do that themselves. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes until firm and slightly brown. Best eaten warm !!!

So I made the dough up and rolled some into little balls and popped them into the freezer.



Placed some cupcake batter in the bottom of the tin, added the choc chip balls, then some more batter. Baked and then

hey presto!



Topped with vanilla and chocolate buttercream and a quarter of a choc chip cookie.

I also made a gluten and dairy free cashew nut cake - I'd made it prior to today dairy free, but I have a friend who has quite a few intolerences and I've promised her baking for so long, but been scared out how it would turn out. But it turned out great - well at least I think so - nearly all the cake was gobbled up. Will be back tomorrow, to post the recipe and pics.

Saturday, September 13

The pirate sandpit

Well it's not quite finished. But this is what Shane and his Dad managed to knock up today. It's got 2 cubic metres of sands, which translates to more than 40 barrow loads of sand to shift from the front lawn to the back. It still needs it's mast and a cover for summer, but that will probably get done next weekend.








Wednesday, September 10

Roses for a little girl

Let's hope her Mummy isn't peeking at my blog, but I couldn't resist putting the pictures up - the outfit turned out darling and whilst not fairies, I think it looks gorgeous.





Saturday, September 6

Stockings

Hi ladies,

Well as you know the Great Down Under Nappy Hunt keeps Shane and I hopping that's for sure. But anyways, I've snuck a couple of items up on the www.cherubskiss.com store, and you can see what's coming for tomorrow. I can't give you a time, but it's something I haven't made for quite awhile.

Will continue to randomly stock throughout the hunt, around the custom orders etc, that I have already in the queue.

Sigh I added this to the wrong blog earlier, sorry about that :(

6th September



Cupcakes I made yesterday for a get together - vanilla, vanilla - I used vanilla beans that I got from ebay - as I'm going to try and make vanilla extract from scratch, the vanilla beans were a lot less expensive on ebay than from the supermarket and they smell divine. I think I've found a way of making the cupcakes lighter and moister as well. I've always used softened butter, but now I melt some of the butter slightly, maybe 1/4 of it and they are turning out better than ever. I of course used the vanilla bean in the frosting, which was creamy smooth and silky - I used the Coles Brand unsalted butter, in my quest for a whiter frosting.

The chocolate ones are the same recipe - less the vanilla bean - used vanilla extract instead, still pretty good. But I am partial to vanilla myself.

Found a new blog that has inspired me to make some other cupcakes too.

The divine plate was a birthday present from my friend Karen who lives just around the corner, but couldn't make it cause she and her family are all sick - be better soon :)

Today is my brother's birthday, I miss him terribly and it's been nearly 19 years since he went to live with the angels. I love you Noel and I hope that you are having cake in the heavens.

Monday, September 1

August Slot Winners

Randomly drawn.

21
1

Timestamp: 2008-08-31 20:41:00 UTC

Contacting the winners now.