Baking cupcakes... this time with doves!

Just when I thought my cupcake baking days were over...

On Friday afternoon, after work, I baked cupcakes for a friend of the family who was celebrating her daughter's engagement party. I got a pretty open brief: silver cases, pale purple and doves (if possible).

This is what I came up with. Seven boxes containing 60+ cupcakes with two shades of purple flowers and some snuggling doves.

I've never done doves before, but I lucky to be able to find a special embossing cutter to make these. I tried a bunch of different poses for the wings... IMHO they all looked weird, but the 'customer' really liked them. I also brushed them with white pearl shimmer dust. I got an email this morning to say they were a great success, and lots of ladies took the doves home instead of eating them because they thought they were cute.

I had a heap of royal icing left over (the icing used to create the dots at the center of the flowers) so on Saturday afternoon I used it up by decorating some cookies which were then sold at the soccer canteen I co-manage on Sundays.

Rainbow Inspiration

Remember the rainbow from a few weeks back? I guess that image has stuck with me because I am working a new Renzoku in rainbow colours. We have been puzzling out some photos supplied my Joan at Temari Challenge. The sample ball had a light and dark tone in 3 colour-ways but I decided that I'd make mine with 7 colours in the sequence as they appear on a rainbow on a bright bluish coloured base.

It is really chaotic (maybe a little psychotic) but quite fun. For the Obi  I wrapped two rows of each colour so there actually is a real rainbow at the middle. I probably should have made the obi first but I didn't know how long my legs would be so I completed one side first and then stitched to match on the other.

I feel happy looking at this one, how could anyone be misreable looking at all that crazy colour.

Working on a stitch along...

or should I say stitch behind! Over at TC the group has been exploring Renzoku design with the guidance of Joan Z. Last month they did S12 design and this month (read this week) I started it.

I just used a ball that I had wrapped and ready to mark, it was roughly the right size but I would preferred to have stitched this design on any other colour had I had the option available. Let's face it, had I needed to actually wrap a ball... this stitch along would still be in the to do list. It didn't turn out too bad, the purplish blue works in OK and I used some blue goldfingering thread I had in the back of my thread draw. As far a variegated threads go, I don't seem to have much luck getting nice ones here in Perth but I think the green I used isn't too bad. I will definitely stitch this one again. Everyone did their own thing to decorate their equator area and I also offset the colour. I did 1/2 star-bursts in green and then filled the remaining space with blue in the other halves at the equator so that's something a little different with star-bursts inside my diamond shaped negative spaces.

The rest of the group moved on to puzzle out another similar design. I will get to that soon-ish but for now I am happy to have been able to complete this one. The positioning of the thread in relation to the needle needed to be over or under based on where the stitch was taken... this gave me curry until I finally figured it out, but there were still a few rip-outs and restitches going on after I though I had it mastered.

Girls day out

On the 23rd we had a girls day out for my actual birthday with C, L, and S. I forgot to take photos so I've added links to most of the places if you want to see where we went.

We started out in Whatley Crescent in Maylands where we had a fossick in a second hand store that is closing down called Ivy Forado. They had lots of interesting old artefacts there, I almost purchased an old Japanese tea set, but resisted the temptation when I remembered I had no where to store it in my house. C purchased an Italian dinner set and S got a bundle of silver Apostle spoons for $1 each.

Next we visited a store called Chapels on Whately. We had a lovely morning tea there and I purchased the most amazingly gorgeous Tibetan woven blanket there with birthday money from C and S. It is about a metre wide and at least 2 metres long so I can recline on the sofa with it wrapped around my shoulder and still have it cover my toes.

I wish my camera would pick up the real life beauty of the colours

We wandered down the street after morning tea and popped in and out of all the little stores among them Smoult's Continental Deli which had a rather nice array of gourmet treats, a retro pop up shop (where I got a deck of mini Uno cards for Mr W and a small gift store that carried some really unique product lines... I just wish I could remember it's name. 
Next we visited Guildford where we popped into the Dutch Shop. We got lots of treats there including a bag of mini stroopie for Mr W and cookie mould for making speculaas cookies for me and some droste cocoa. I will definitely go back there for another visit. We also went into a gallery store called Stories on the Wall and met an artist there called Bonnie Atlan, she is about to have an exhibition at the store and invited us to come. When she handed us an invitation card we all immediately were drawn to the same image. No wonder we are all good friends. 

Can you pick which image we all loved? Click the image to make it larger.

After this we went across the train tracks to look at another really lovely store called Panache Living. They carry an eclectic mix of many gift-ware and clothing. I decided I needed hand cream (because my skin is so dry from all this cold weather) so I treated myself to a purse size tube of Mor Blood Orange. It is so lovely to use in winter because of its fresh citrus fragrance... I also purchased a tube of Marshmallow for C, Lychee Flower for L and Cassis Noir for S. The ladies at the store even took off the price labels and popped each tube into it's very own silver gift bag so they looked really special for the girls. Then we were starving so we drove around to Woodbridge house to have lunch by the river. It was a really lovely leisurely lunch. It was really hard to choose what to eat because everything on the menu sounded so tasty.

Mini Stroopie, AC Vinegar with Honey and Blanket

After that we got into the car again to check out the nougat factory in middle swan and then we stopped at the House of Honey where I picked up some creamed honey for my honey and some honey and apple cider vinegar. I got to taste test it and could feel its healthiness. Last stop for the day was the Margaret River Chocolate Factory . Just after we arrived a big tour coach came in and I needed to get out of there quick, there were lots of chocolate things to buy there (of course) but I had got enough treats for myself and my boys so we headed home.

When I got home I unloaded and distributed all the booty before getting back into the car to go to my Mum's for birthday dinner. Last year I didn't get a birthday cake for my birthday and while I haven't harped on about it... my Mum did tell me that me saying that everyone deserves a birthday cake stuck with her. So this year everyone made one. Miho and her kids made carrot and walnut cupcakes, DH and Mr W not only purchased a strawberry and cream gateaux but also made Banana and Vanilla cupcakes (yes two batches) and Mum baked a raspberry and almond flan.

I quite honestly say that we could not have fitted any more fun stuff into that day. The weather was cool but sunny almost all day (with not even a drop of rain - and we Winter babies appreciate a rain free birthday). Thankfully DH drove home and I was soon snoring my head off in bed.

When you get your camera back

A few weeks ago I was with my Mum, Miho and her 3 kids. I took out my camera to show them something and Miss D insisted she take the camera to personally examine the images more closely.

I have no problem with that, although she is only 4 she is fairly careful and knows how to treat other people's things with respect. We (adults) kept talking and I forgot that Miss D had my camera until it was time to leave and we needed to put it back in the case. 

Tonight as I was going through the memory card looking for some photos I found these random shots. Miss D had taken a few images while she had the camera. I remember Mr W used to do the same thing when he was about the same age. Thank goodness for digital cameras hey? I would have been shot had I 'wasted' the film in the camera when I was a kid.

Here is a selection of Miss D's pics.