Excitement! And cupcakes:)

I mentioned in the etsy Dust Team forum that I was a loser with no followers in my blog except for myself... and they are such lovelies that they have all joined me!
And written comments! I am just so excited!
I love you all!:)
I don't actually have much to show anyone today... except may be... some delicious cupcakes... and they were very delicious despite being mostly full of icing:) They were delicious white chocolate mudcakes with a white chocolate ganache... I'm not good at making these ones.. they are not as foolproof as my chocolate flourless mudcakes... But this is the cupcakes story...

So I decided to impress my mum's side of the family over christmas with my baking wonder... and I thought must try something new... I took the chocolate mud cakes last year... so white chocolate mudcake yes. Sounds good. Or not.
This is what happened when I took them out of the oven to cool-


Those above one could not be saved with my ganache.. as it is super runny... but these -

I just thought I would fix them with these ganache ingredients... just really fill them up... no one would know how ugly they were under the ganache? Right.. Right?


Well you would think so... until I realised they were actually mostly hollow and the ganache got sucked into all the gaps and I could actually see the pink icing all through my delicious cupcakes, through the lovely robert gordan cupcake paper things... they look ok.. although these are the best ones... but you can also see the more manky good ones...



Manky ones -


Needless to say they didn't go to family christmas... my 50 cupcakes in various states of icedness were distributed between my sister, my mum and my fiances work mates...

Oh well.. they tasted good still... but I love icing:) If you are after this recipe and have some skills in the kitchen beyond boiling spaghetti I would be happy to share:)

Holidays are finally here!

It doesn't feel like holidays though. I am feeling very stressed. I have so many things to complete before Christmas day. I will get there though! In my mind I feel that I have one less day than I actually do.
I got the Christmas decorations up finally! And the presents that are ready are wrapped. I even created a bunny palace under the tree using the fabric and the boxes we have to use so that the presents aren't loved by Suki before we give them out!

It's Thursday night, COUNTING DOWN

So tomorrow is my last day of schol before 5 lovely weeks off. I am mega excited. Like want to cry excited. This year has been sooo difficult with stupid sickness and now it is nearly over and I can relax:) And make things. But not to many things. Because that would be counter productive with the sick thing:)
To celebrate the end of the year I am making too many things! As gifts of course! Go out with a bang:)


I am making these little lovelies from bluetricycle which you can get in her etsy store:) I must say I had to be a little creative as I bought the wrong cd cases and so now my paper is too fat for the paper space and I have to bulldog clip them on with cute mini bulldog clips... which are pink so it is ok:) These are for my friends at school, my teacher friends. Although they don't know yet so I hope they don't read this! They won't... I think I am the only one reading this...:)

I am also writing cute cards using this template from littlebrownpen which you can also get in his etsy store... I am hoping I can find my string and it will all go together nicely:)


I also joined the etsy DUST team (down under street team) because they seem super friendly, and I like new friends! YAY!

Bring on tomorrow and the egg and bacon brekkie and the christmas lunch and the going out for tea... so much for wedding body with no tuck shop arms! Hehe:)

Neeeearly there...:)

It is Tuesday night. Wednesday. Thursday. Friday. Then like 5 weeks of holidays! YAY! Paid holidays:) This is my favourite week of school usually. So chilled out... activities week and all... I am running a craft activity on Thursday. But usually we would just do our catch up work during the day and go out for lunch... but this week, no such luck because my good friend lunch buddy has been sick! I did get to go out to lunch Monday though... delicious risotto! My favourite.

I spent last week wrapping little gifts for my home group kids - I had a helper - here she is -


So helpful.... but afterwards you just need to relax. Mega relax.


These are some presents I have made for some friends. I am experimenting with frills:) They are so girly cute!

I find more of my inspiration from the materials I have around my house! Here are some of my vintage buttons. I love them:) I have to sort them into a spectrum. I can't help it. My derwents are also in perfect number/colour order. You would never guess looking at the state of my linen closet. That might be a holiday job:)

A beautiful helpful baby girl:)

I have been so busy lately coming up to christmas with my etsy store making custom laptop sleeves and other things and I have had to move back into my craft room with all my stuff because we have a couple of new housemates... it's not polite to cover the whole house with fabric, cotton bits and wool when you are sharing your house with people who don't benefit from crafting:)

So back in the craft room i go! Problem being... my desk is too covered with stuff to actually use! Luckily I have a sweet Japanese sewing machine and it has no foot pedal, just a button on and off. And a speed slider! So I am working on the floor... with my sewing machine on a cardboard box... under the desk... I actually quite enjoy it! My stuff is always just in reach, I can lay stuff out... it's all good... and Suki is LOVING IT! She thinks that I am watching out for predators so she is free to lay about and concentrate on getting the most kisses possible.

As you can see... she likes to demand attention... just sit on what ever I am using... fabrics.. yep comfy as. And as you can imagine it is difficult to use the scissors or pin as a lovely mini lop makes out with your hands. She is soo helpful:)

I love her:) We are going to go finish more etsy orders... complete with bunny love. Like actually made with bunny love... :)

Oh its reeeallly early:)

It's really early for a Saturday morning... it is ... 7.30... but in light of my recent going to bed at 7.30-8pm the last two nights I think its ok... I hate going to bed. I'm like small child. I just want to stay up and play with my toys. But recently my arms and legs pain has been forcing mw to be an adult:( But luckily my lovely fiance comes and sits on the bed and plays his laptop while I try to go to sleep:) What a lovely boy:)
So now that I am up early, I am super excited to make things! I want to make something from this book -
It is the best ever book. Well its is equally as good as the first one actually... which is just called Softies. This is the one that has the pattern for the doll my student made in the last post.

So better go make the most of this being up early business and make some things:)

Sweet Softies:)

This is a lovely softie created from a pattern by Heidi Iverson of H. Luv Fabrications. You can find the pattern "Twinkles" in the "More Softies" book from Penguin Australia.

The maker of the softie is from my Year 8 textiles class who I believe is now hooked with softie making. This was her first and she couldn't wait to start her next one which is just great to see!

How gorgeous are those lovely colours and sweet twisted legs and arms! Shanai learnt lots of new skills and has done pretty well for her first ever softie! Well done!

Weird weather!!

Oh the weather is weird today... heaps of rain, which is great because we are in a drought... but a lot of wind... and now it is sunny.... My little Japanese Maple is blowing around like there is no tomorrow.

So I am sitting inside doing all the etsy listings I need to catch up on since I started making resin again! Here is a picture of 4 of my pieces stacked together which is how I like to wear them:) I have a set with lots of different colours which means that I can wear any combination to match whatever I am wearing! Yay! I also like to highlight them with some pearlised pigmentised resin bangles:)


I love the richness of the coppery pearlised pigment... it doesn't match my pasty pale skin though:(
I took these pictures on my lovely "new" antique (although probably not super old) shelf that I got from my local antiques warehouse for just $15! I sanded in back a bit so I didn't get splinters but otherwise left it as it was. I love it:)

Long time no see!

I have finished my 16 things... weeks and weeks of 16 things...plus a few more things.
This is one of the other things. It is a custom made laptop sleeve in my favourite ever fabric. Anna Maria Horner designed it and it is called Drawing Room Pink Birds. I would have to say it is actually my favourite fabric ever. Usually not so into a pink fabric but this one is beautiful! I may even use it for my wedding in the form of table runners... very excited:)

The day after..

The day after the evening of sanding and polishing. Oh how do you feel you ask? Well I was home alone after all which is a little exciting, but due to the excessive time frame that was required to sand and polish my resin I couldn''t even eat any chocolate! Resin dust is very bad for you so you have to sand with wet and dry sand paper, and obviously water, to minimize the dust. So despite having the wrinkly pruney hands of someone who has been in the bath all day, your hands are covered in a fine film of resin dust. Which of course being really bad for you... you probably shouldn't eat.
So I now have three of the minimum of 11 bangles I need to fill my current resin order - I would like more for the exhibition so I can do some kind of "set" work with matching pieces but of course I will have to see how I go:)
I guess i'm just not as productive as I had planned. My morning was also taken up with investigating cat proof fencing... not to keep my cat in but to keep a neighbour's cat out. Don't get me wrong I love cats, I used to have one. But they love the delicious taste of my housebunny when she is free in the yard... and with the council imposed 24 hour cat curfew mu bunny should be safe! But not from this cat... it has a sneaky skill of walking so its neck bell doesn't ring.. Ohh it made me angry. And a little sad:( Will have to be more careful about letting bunny free in the backyard!

Anyway this is my resin that I spent HOURS sanding and polishing. HOURS.

Home alone!

I am home alone:) I love to be home alone:) I love my fiance to be here too obviously, but sometimes I love to be home alone:)
Although tonight is halloween and I did forget to get any halloween treats for trick or treaters. It's not a big holiday here in Australia, very few people actually do anything, but there is a new family at the end of my block and they do have kids... hmmm may be an excuse for chocolate purchasing:) Especially when I am home alone and can eat my chocolate freely without that pesky sharing!

My plans for home alone time are to...

1. Finish the pair of booties I have made and list them on etsy.
2. Tidy the kitchen.
3. Continue working on a custom make up bag that is reallly confusing me (I will do it though).
4. Watch Harry Potter, the second movie, it's on tv tonight.
5. Sand some resin while watching Harry Potter in preparation for the upcoming exhibition and to send to the store allll the way over in Palm Beach, Florida.

What I would really like to know though is how to achieve a shine like this in my resin -

This beautiful design is by jasminescott (so is the photo!), she sells these here through etsy. I love her rings, they are just beautiful and I are in awe of her ability to make them so shiney.
I have been making resin for YEARS and I have never achieved this level of shine:)
I love the colour use in this one too, Jasmine says it was inspired by nature and I really think you can tell. It reminds me of spores... like in slow motion in a nature documentary... :)

Anyway enough of my procrastinating. I need to go and try and make my resin this shiney.

The truth about my cupcakes....

At my work I am known as the maker of excellent cupcakes. I won't lie. They taste awesome. Judgements on my future as a successful wife are made on the deliciousness of these cupcakes. Apparently one day I will make a man very happy.

This is beside the point, because I already have a man and my cooking skills are NOT making him happy. Well let me clarify... he is not uphappy so much as probably a little malnourished...

The gluten-free chocolate mud cupcakes slathered with the vanilla buttercream icing are delicious, BUT IT IS NOT MY COOKING SKILLS. I have tried to burn them, I have tried to undercook them. It's hard to go wrong with a recipe that is made up of 400gms dark cooking chocolate, caster sugar, butter, almond meal, 10 eggs, vanilla extract. That's it. My big secret that I try to tell everyone.

Sometimes I wish I had never discovered this recipe... I feel so much pressure. Every time we have a staff morning tea people rock up with their packet of bickies they picked up at the servo on the way to work, I turn up trying to juggle my laptop, giant handbag and two massive tupperware containers filled with the cupcakes. As I walk through the carpark I hear the whisperings, "Is that the cupcakes?" "Better get there early for the cupcakes..." "Can you grab me one of those cupcakes at morning tea?".... And as I get into the staff room I hide them under the chairs so as not to attract attention to the gleaming icing decorations.

BUT the problem arises! 10 eggs and 400 grams of dark chocolate doesn't come cheap. And the HOURS it takes me to make the cupcakes, the dishes, the getting up an hour early in the morning to ice them, the starving fiance who is once again going without dinner, just so these cupcakes can grace the mouths of 26 lucky people. Usually not me. Sometimes I'm not even at the morning tea.

So tomorrow is the SECOND morning tea I am having to supply food for this week. And there will be NO cupcakes. I will no longer buy my ingredients only to sit on the kitchen floor crying about betty crocker being on sale! You spend 5 hours making cupcakes for an institution that can not supply a constant running water!

Anyway so I am making "Betty Crocker no cook fudge" and "gluten-free lemon slice" from a box.

Because secretly now that I made the awesome cupcakes it doesn't matter what I make because everyone thinks I can cook. I made overflowing burnt Betty Crocker muffins and people raved.

Just don't check my freezer because that is where all the frozen pizza is. That's what's for dinner.

If I was in Ontario this is what I would take to morning tea tomorrow.

These Nutty Chocolate rolls are made by the lovely Kindlytreats on etsy, this is her beautiful photo! Such definition:) I could eat it out of the screen. Her shop is here... i'm drooling just thinking about it:)

Booties:)

I love making booties, they are my best. I love to knit them because they are always so little and cute, and because they are so little and cute you don't get bored of the colours and your don't get bored of the design! These are some booties I make and sell on my etsy site and wholesale so I am ALWAYS making them:) Today I am making a pair in the lightest baby pink with a sweet white top:) They are going to be super cute! These are my most popular colours though, everyone loves the brown:) Or to be more correct and fancy - Latte:) Apparently coffee sells things:)

I wanted to put in a favourite thing that I found from etsy today!
I love this card and I really want to use it for my wedding invites!


They are made by the designers Pocketstudio, who work from "under some stairs in London", coming from a one storey house in Australia I didn't know you could have a studio under the stairs... so they get credit for that as well:) You can see their store here. You should have a look:)

Oh so long...

I have just found something that I really want to make... obviously the weekend of 16 things (16 things I have to make for etsy custom orders) has really spilled out into the three weekends of 16 things to make, it is really cutting into my making things for me time... also the whole wedding plans... and the whole full time job thing...
Wait I am just so lazy I think... although I must say I now have a work blog specifically for my fulltime job, being a teacher means I have to learn new things... and the lovely ICT lady has set up a program where I can learn to use web 2.0 in my classroom, the redback project. Yes that is a lovely aussie spider... its bitey:)
So I have another blog... 2 actually and a wiki... oh just so much excitement!

But I have been letting this one go by the wayside. So we much catch up... another time... I still have like 6 more things to make...

But this is what I want to make!

And this is the link to the instructions... here:) At Orange Flower Sketch book blog... I already love what I see on this blog - the writer uses it like her own personal sketch book, I really love that idea and may use it myself... somewhere:)

Now I am going to use it in my craft room for all those fiddly things that need a home but just never seem to go anywhere?? It is going to be super cute... with lots of them all in a row... Oh it will be so organised.... now if I could just find time to make them:)

Also...

Now I'm on the laptop.... and I have these pictures of some of the 16 things...:)



This is the same russian doll fabric but super cute in pink:)

I also wanted to show you these two:)

These were also out of fabrics from the same etsy store - from japan with love:) And the last picture is of course... my model blackberry curve and i touch... mmm high tech:)

The Weekend of 16 things...

So it is actually the day after the second weekend of the same 16 things...
these are the 16 things I am making as etsy custom orders.

2 Portable dvd bags
2 Hip pouches
2 Breast feeding coverup
2 Dresses
1 Handbag that I can start
1 Handbag that I can't start
1 Make up case
1 Fixing a dress
1 I touch cover
1 Blackberry curve pouch
1 Diaper/nappy clutch
1 Felt Brooch

Oooo may be I spread myself a little thin there with the whole writing reports and writing out a plan for my new senior classes that start next week... but is ok... here are some of the things I have finished already by the end of the second weekend of 16 things...


Don't you just love that russian doll fabric?? I bought it from this etsy store - From japan with love, they have such a great selection of all different fabrics and stickers:) And other things:) But that was what I got:)

Many more things were made... I will have to show you them soon!!

Super excited:)

I am super exxcited because yesterday i made what can only be described as.... the best ever dinosaur backpack! Well that isn't entirely true, but with my lack of excitement over finding the right wedding dress and boring work I haven't exactly beeing inspired.. but this backpack! I love it! It is going to a small boy in the USA who will be starting kinder! YAY! Exciting for him aswell!

And I got another lovely wholesale order for my booties! If only I could finish the last one to start the next one!

Last day:(

The last day of holidays... the worst day... I thought about all the things I should have done... and have not! And all the things I still want to do and once again haven't...
Too much drinking hot chocolate and shopping. When will I ever learn!

Today I tried to make better use of my time than actually getting ready for work tomorrow, I mean why would I want to be ready for the 75 students I have tomorrow? And I made these ruffle bottom pants. Girly, yet, not pink! I am not totally happy as the inside is definately not as pretty as the outside, my sewing machine just wasn't upto the task, and these simple 1.5 hours pants took me nearly ALL day! So I have investigated overlockers. I want one. I can no longer continue with out one!

I will have to watch my ebay bid... see how my purchase goes...

OH DEAR.

So I obviously haven't written in here for SUCH a long time! It is now at least 3 months later! It is the last Friday night of the school holidays and I don't want to go back to school! Obviously I have much more exciting things to do... like making things... my sister is having a baby soon, at least by next Thursday! So I would like to play with that... and find out if it is a girl or a boy! Then I could make it a colour based present... I have a particular elephant pattern in mind, I think it is called "Ellie" by "Melly and Me".



I am currently in the middle of wedding plans. Apparently it takes at least 5 months to make a wedding dress, wedding dress makers are all shut over the whole of January and then it has to be in the store for a month for fittings and you want to make sure you at least give it a month for something to go wrong... so my almost a year to find a wedding dress has turned into a month and being 6"2' does make trying on sample size wedding dresses a little interesting. Plus I need to find a photographer and a celebrant!



Oh it's all too much!



Must go to bed:)

Looking for something... to do...

I have one more day of school before the holidays.. and I have no more classes...

I really wanna make something cool. But what to make?? I have been looking on etsy's alchemy... i like the idea of helping someone to make something they want and actually having a purpose for it... but you have to wait so long to know if they are even interested!

I bidded on making 50 tiny paper cranes for $15 american... under priced... but I JUST WANT SOMETHING TO DO!

I think I will go and make some cranes now... I'm so bored! And I will try making a bunny bed for my beautiful baby girl... she needs a bed since she is going to stay over at both her grandparents houses while we are away... She will miss us.. and a new bed might be just the trick... with old smells on it of course! Also then I can send a picture of it to that girl that wants a bunny bed... she will see my wonderful creation! And LOVE IT!!! Or not... I can dream:)

First day of Blog...

So I have never had a blog before... This is really a test run... How will it go? Do I really have anything exciting to say? I don't have any funny stories about my kids... just my house bunny... and really that tends to only appeal to those who love bunnies...
I'm a teacher... but that means I can't really share funny stories from work...
And I tend to only make things on the weekends... if at all since I have been preparing for my wedding... which isn't until NEXT YEAR. A full year... just need to find a place to get married then I can relax:)
I made two awesome hoodies on the weekend though. I like the first one best... although it is less stretchy than the second one... It's kinda hard to get on... but once it is on... very lovely:) The second has bunnies on it. I love bunnies.

This picture shows one of the birds from my first hoodie, which was white with a kind of creamy yellow lining with grey dots, also used to applique a simplified tree, and vintage red kimono birds. The kimono was from Nara in Japan where I went last January for a holiday (after living there for a year!). Well that's a lie. I lived in Osaka! But my recent obsession with birds comes from getting engaged in the best hot chocolate shop in the world called "Akai Tori" which means red bird... in Osaka. SO this is a spare bird I had left over... so i used it on a baby singlet... I like it... :)

Anyway I am no longer a blog virgin. I wonder if I will ever share that I blog with my friends?? Who knows?? They already know my stories... and it is nice to remain a little anonymous with my thoughts:)