Teddies

I made a teddy for a pregnant lady at work (It was quite a while ago now...) and loved him so much I had to make another before I could give one away...!
The pattern was found here on Cut Out and Keep and was posted by Pauline M :)

Lemon Suprise Cupcakes

I modified this recipe from various cupcake recipes on the web and a Deliah recipe for lemon curd. I thought I was being terribly original with the curd suprise idea, but then found it in a relatively recent baking book so I guess not!


Ingredients: (Makes 12 cupcakes at approx 300 cals each!)

160g Caster Sugar
175g Icing Sugar
150g Plain Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
Butter 225g
3 Eggs
Lemon
Orange

Preheat oven to 180*C
Cream together 125g caster sugar and 125g butter. Add zest of half a lemon and 2 eggs. Add 150g sifted plain flour and 1/2 tsp baking powder. Divide into 12 cupcake cases and bake 7-10 mins til just golden.

For orange curd: whisk juice of 1/2 orange with 1 egg and pour over 35g sifted caster sugar and the zest of 1/2 orange. Place in a bain marie and add 25g butter in chunks. Stir til curd thickens (about 20 mins) then allow to cool.
When cupcakes have cooled, slice the top off, scoop a small amount of sponge out and replace with a dollop of orange curd. Replace the lid and allow to set slightly before icing.

For the icing:
cream 75g of butter and add 175g sifted icing sugar and 1/2 a lemons zest. Add as much lemon juice as it takes to mix the icing to a good spreading consistency.
Spread icing on each cupcake and decorate as required.

Making a Dress on a Dressform Videos (Two Parts)

Art Journal Page

YAY

It came! Along with multiples of junk mail address to people on several different streets, my Hooked on Exchanging (Because it's Pink) package came through!!

My partner was Carol S and she stitched me Rosebuds and Pearls Fob by the Drawn Thread. She also sent scissors, lip glosses, some great charms, a bookmark, variegated pink embroidery floss and some lovely pink linens to stitch on in the future :)

The fob is now sitting with my other prides of joy on the windowsill :)

Thank you Carol!!

Sweetie Petite Blog Win

A while ago I left a comment on Lisa of theredthreads blog where she was doing a blog giveaway... and I was one of the lucky winners!!! Theres been a postal strike here in the UK and I received the package a few days ago (but I think it had been in the backlog judging by the postal date) so I hope Lisa hasn't been thinking I've been ignoring the package!

'Ginger' and her little bluebird friend were so quick and easy to make and I loved the whole set. I made a video so others thinking of buying their own sweetie petite could see the ease of the project and a the quality of the package and fabric (lovely)! Also those little notecards are so cute but I'll probably end up framing them as a set rather than using them as notes!

Binding a Quilt with Mitred Corners

I posted this video a while ago and it had a huge number of views early on - turns out someone posted it on a sewing forum where several people have it as a 'favourite' but no-one told me!!!!