I’ve been a bit busy of late, I got a wonderful marriage proposal. So I’ve had lots of madness! Now things have calmed down slightly and the weather is better, I though it was about time I listed some of my card designs on etsy. I have only posted up a few, but there are many more to come.

For anyone who might be interested follow the link in the side panel. (veryberries)

A long weekend off work and feeling a bit under the weather. I decided that we should go for a little drive, and ended up in Farnham, Surrey. A nice spot with some good charity shops and a lovely Art/Craft gallery, where I spotted these cute products being sold.

They are by a company called yoyo ceramics. All of the products are lovely, and I’ll be adding some to my Christmas & birthday lists.

I have the best recipe for rich dark chocolate cakes, I have teamed this off with bitter dark chocolate buttercream and they are yummy!!!

The Best Yummy Chocolate Cake

This is one of the best chocolate cakes I’ve tasted, moist, spongy and tasty, it possible to make with dark or milk chocolate.

You need:

1 tsp Vegetable Oil
3 tbsp Cocoa Powder (Dark if you have it.)
100ml Boiling Water
50g Dark Chocolate
½ tsp bicarbonate of Soda
100g of unsalted butter
175g Soft Muscovado Sugar
125g Milk (or condensed Milk)
1 Large Egg
150g Self Raising Flower
1tsp Baking Powder

Instructions:

• Rub the oil inside you preferred cake tin, and line with baking parchment, (Large cup cake are an option.) and preheat the oven to 180c/350F/gas 4.

• Stir 3 tablespoons of cold water into cocoa until you have a smooth paste, whisk in the boiling water. Straight away stir in the chocolate and the bicarb, and leave to melt and fizz. Add a touch of red food colouring if you’d like a nice red velvet colour.

• In another bowl, beat butter, sugar, milk and the egg until very smooth.

• Sift together flour & baking powder, beat half of this into the egg mixture, fold in the chocolate mixture, beat in the remaining flour until smooth.

• Scrap into the baking tin and cook for 40 – 45 minutes. Put a knife or skewer in to see if its cooked, take out and leave in the tin to cool. Turn out once cold.

Topping:

25g (1 oz) cocoa
About 4 tbsp boiling water
100g (4 oz) margarine
About 300g (12 oz) icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence – optional

Instructions:

• Blend cocoa with a little boiling water in a mixing bowl, then blend in the margarine.
• Sieve the icing sugar and beat it into the margarine a little at a time.

or I use warmed dark chocolate.

I am thinking of taking these lovely little cakes into work with me.  My GCSE Art pupils have finished there exam and I want to say some kind of thanks for there hard work, a little tradition I started a few years back.

Over the weekend I added to my growing collection of card designs. I had to sit with my GCSE Art class for 10 hours in silence, and believe me thats a long time. I started a new style of card, incorporating hand stitching along with vintage fabrics.

Design Style 1.

Design Style 2.

I am happy with both styles and every card is a complete one off, so that must count for something. I’m just waiting on my lovely logo stamp, then up on Etsy at long last and fingers crossed people will love them.

Now this is gardening on a new level. Its great, I spotted it browsing the web, you could have allsorts of growing posters, though it makes me wonder how long it would last in London.

Originally uploaded by Dave Gorman

At last I have finished and framed my bee piece.   I added a few sections I hadn’t planned on, clouds and a little fly.  I also used a wider variety of fabrics, some vintage and some from an old cashmere jumper.  It took a while to get a frame that wasn’t to deep. I found Atlantis Arts the best place, though they aren’t varnished or painted.

I found it tricky to attach board, and ended up attaching it to wadding then mount board. If anyone has great tips on framing embroidery I’d love to here from you.

I’ve been spending time practicing different types of stitches, I’m a bit rusty and thought I’d take some inspiration from doodle stitch. I have designed my own similar to those in the book. Quite happy with it, but there is alway room for improvement.

Its been raining today, so I got to work on this little embroidery. A small amount still to finish, the flower, grass and deciding if to back it or mount with fraying edges. thinking of completing a series of the bee and small cashmere wool flower design on purses and cards. More and more things in my to do list, not sure where I’ll get the time when I’m back at work next week.

Well,it might be spring but who knows! Only four days ago I got up to this,

Londons freak weather conditions over the past year never fail to amaze me. Who would have though snow and now the sun is out and spring might finally be here. I started in the garden today, first by making my easter present of a mini green house and second planting my first batch of seeds for the year.

I’m not planting as much as last year, as we are hoping to move house and don’t want to transport masses of vegatables along on the ride. After last years success, I’ve stuck to the sames things, outdoor cucumbers, gardeners delight tomatos, rocket, basil, courgettes and little gem lettuce. Along with these I’m going to get radishes, beans and peppers, but I’m not sure how they’ll grow in my garden as I don’t get full sun allday.

I’m starting everything off from seed, though not inside, and am worried this could hinder the growth process of my plants, I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

Other things coming up in my garden are tulips and I have found a use for my old car tyres, plant pots! Though I need to line, fill and plant on warmer weather.

Lets hope the weather continues to get better!

After many attempts to win a Worcesterware tin, I finally got one. Its lovely and I believe a rare pattern, but who knows. Just wish I’d got my arcopal cups though.