Wedding cake...sort of

My sister and I attempted to create a sort-of wedding cake for our friend's hen party weekend, we started at 8 in the evening, the night before, slightly too late in my opinion, except that it was just a chocolate sponge and wound't save for much longer. Here is the final result...

don't all start queuing up to put in your orders at once! So the end result was...well you can see, but the process was fun, and for a first attempt we were unashamedly proud. Why the hey anyone pays a grand for these things is anyone's guess, with a few more practise runs, fruit cake and a few more days I reckon I could achieve some pretty cool ones for under £40!

survey

sorry I know this is pretty unrelated to my blog, but I'd still be really grateful if you could follow this link and answer these few questions. Cheers, lily xxx

www.surveymonkey.com/s/WBFRL2L

wet snail

what more needs to be said?

@ The Well is a'commin'

Know what I'm talking about? Check this out: at-the-well-blog.blogspot.com/
Don't know what I'm talking about? Go there anyway!

Ipad Drawings

Well I've been doing some doodling recently, thought I'd share...

If anyone happens to have a company called abc furniture suppliers, and wants a free logo, you are more than welcome. 

This is a picture of a fed up chap, frustrated that the film UP didn't give a true representation of balloon transportation.

This choppy is either sky diving, or has just hit a pane of glass, I like to think, from the expression on his face, that it is the latter. 

This is my most recent sketch, of a tree stump, that I used to know as a tree, which is now a nifty flower pot, at a wonderful place, called Muller house in Bristol. 

Knitting Cupcakes and Teacups

Ok well my knitting is usually quite shocking, especially if I have a break and come back to it, but a little while ago I had a go at knitting some cupcakes, as one does, they are yet unfinished, but I will share what I have, lest I suddenly loose everything in a fire/ loose my memory, records must be kept. If anyone has the inclination to finish these for me, they will be in the post this afternoon.

Colouring pencils

You know when I first started this blog during my long summer I was sorting and colour co-ordinating my colour pencils? Well, I'm not sure I ever showed you the finished result. It was so worth doing, never mind what my mother says!

Whether it will actually have been worth me bringing them to uni is another matter, I haven't used them thus far, but no doubt I will, along with the paint samples, knitting, fabric, spray paint, and wallpaper samples (to name but a few) that are lining my creative cupboard. 

The bucket says flowers, but hey it only cost me 10p from a jumble sale, so how far can you go wrong? I reduced my collection by at least 1/3, and now only have good quality colouring pencils. 

Oh and I forget to mention, for you music lovers out there who are missing my desperate attempts to plug my friends' music, this is the part for you. Check out the beautiful voice of Sally Schofield here www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAOAVNk9TQI

and comment if you love it, I do!

I just did this nice picture of the cookie monster, marvel please and my creative genius. Proof enough me thinks of my major lack of motivation to read the books I have to for next week. I also just made bread, burnt it, but hey none the less. 

My uni room

Well I'm here, maybe not entirely settled, I've managed to loose a housemate this evening, potentially having to call security. Fun times, I get the impression this with just be a day in the life. But I have managed to create some cool stuff in my room. Ok well, before I show you the photos I have to prepare you for the poor quality, I have not yet managed to buy myself a digital camera, and these photos have been taken with my computer webcam and kinda enhanced, so it's now it probably hard to tell what they look like, never before have captions been so important.

This is sort of a washing line of pictures, done with fishing wire and mini wooden pegs so it kinda looks like the pictures are floating. There all old vintage and retro pictures of family or New York city skyline, well I like them. I'll give you an example closer up,

I also brought my screen clothes hanging thing, from my room at home, all the reps laughed at me when I arrived, especially with the vast number of olden hangers that I brought (thank you aunty Juliet) but I certainly wouldn't have been able to hang all my clothes on the 2 foot of rail the wardrobe provided. Plus the wardrobe has now become my creative cupboard, so I can continue to pointlessly blog about the crafts I attempt.   

Paper roses

I saw a similar design to these online at some point, and adapted it to make my own, much improved roses. Remind me, why does anyone pay for flowers for their wedding, these you can have in any colour under the sun, and in my opinion are much more attractive, as well as being free. One page makes one rose, so work it out folks a 287 page book, gives you 285 roses, costing you a grand total of 30p if your at a jumble sale or £2.99 at a charity shop.

I used pages of Harry potter 4 as I had already read the book out of it's cover, but I've seen them made from maps, and even a good quality wrapping paper or wallpaper would do the trick (hint: wallpaper samples are free!) 

Ok, disadvantages are that it takes a great deal of time and patience, it took me about 3 hours to make twelve, but having made just one in an hour from scratch, the next 2 hours making 11 meant I was defiantly quicker, I managed to set up a little production line for myself, and I reckon a team of 5 and a sea shanty later could produce 1000 in 4 hours at a push.

 (Now I've worked out how to add videos to my blog, you may be seeing a few more of them!)

cue APP-rentice jokes!

I felt it to be an APP-ropriate time to move away from the cupcakes, vintage lace and typewriters side of me, towards my more gadgety side. I APP-arantly like setting myself seeming impossible tasks, but this was a fun one. I'm considering making these, less than 1 inch squares, into some sort of finished thing, maybe framing them in the correct positions, in a black frame or turning them into a cushion, or some cool hanging/mobile, not sure yet, you're a worldly bunch, comments APP-reciated (for anyone who remains confused at my sudden capitalisation, laugh at this video with me....

).

 I think it would make an awesome quilt if you made each square 10 inch, get onto it beavers. 

Sorry you'll have to scroll down a considerable way, so I compiled what they look like together for you.

Here they all are separately if you wish...

Fabric Cutlery

The other day I saw a whole host of fabric food and utensils, in a shop in lewes, which were just beautiful. I fancied having a go myself, and started, with what have to have been the most difficult shapes, I'm sure, knife, fork and spoon, fun though, and I'm sure if I was to make anymore, I'd be much more prepared for what was needed.  

Vintage Fair Haul

My Mum, aunt and cousin and I went round an essentially blooming expensive car boot today, but yet still managed to find ourselves some bargains, which I thought I'd share. Well you know the nice vintage typewriter that I have at the top of my blog page, and that also became my business card design, for those of you lucky enough to receive one, well I found one...and I couldn't leave it. 

Amazingly the guy said £8 (I was sold even though it doesn't work) but then he just went on going, without prompting, and gave it to me for £5. Thank you very much sir. So thanks Mr. Google for providing me the last photo, but it will shortly be replaced by my very own, watch this space. 

Oh and I leo spotted this lovely lady, the cover of some sheet music, a little fragile, but really worth a pound, or so I felt.

Started projects

During my last 4 weeks before I go off to Bristol uni, I am doing what I do best, Starting projects and not finishing them. But I thought I'd keep all you many folks up to date with these little experiments.

Firstly a couple of days ago I started an Alice in Wonderland trilogy of machine embroidered panels, I hope to frame. I've just done the "drink me" panel so far, or at least one version of it, and I am yet to decide the other two, any suggestions appreciated, I was thinking maybe playing cards, flamingos, hatters hat?? It's a start anyway, and I'm only experimenting at this time.

Then, when my mum asked me to move the make-up that I am no longer even wearing from her bedroom (fair I suppose), I decided to make a nice little case for all the brushes. It's in no way perfect, a bit of a mess actually, but at least it might keep me organised, and it is functional. I actually think the wobbliness is rather charming, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

And then my latest started project is one that I hope I can do a lot of. I planning to stock up on books from charity shops and jumble sales, classics mainly, I imagine, that I can self illustrate. I sort of had the idea of using a book as a canvas to paint on, a piece relevant to the book, but more of a piece of art than just a front cover. I worked on Harry Potter 7 today because it was one of the few books we had that remained drawing-less, and that I felt I knew well enough to be able to illustrate. So here is what I did.

For those of you who don't get the reference, shame on you! And I hope this is due to my inferior painting, rather than your lack of knowledge of the Harry Potter series. This is an illustration of the seven Potters, quality scene, quality novel.