I've been super busy lately! What with cake orders to fulfil and home projects to complete! 

I've taken up crocheting and I am finding it so therapeutic, a release from cakes and other stresses plus it's stopping me from munching while watching the TV on an evening! I started with one of those kit magazines that came with some wool, needles and a hook. 

I initially wanted to kick start my knitting but have taught myself how to crotchet and I'm finding that much easier and enjoyable! I made four granny squares and spent the afternoon with my Grandma on Sunday which was just lovely. It reminded me of when I was younger and used to spend the weekend doing all kinds of crafty activities, and bless her, she'd organised me some wool, instruction booklets and other bits and bobs she thought I'd find useful. 

At the moment I'm making a funky baby blanket. All will be revealed......

Ooooh I've also acquired a Dutch dresser and my Annie Sloan chalk paint arrived on Thursay. I've never been so excited to start painting and at the moment I have a drawer and half of the top with a coat of paint, plus one of my dining room chairs painted cream/white! I'm hoping that by Monday, my dining furniture and dresser will be all shabby chic'd up! 

Busy Baking Bee!

First cake of 2014 done and dusted :)

I've been a busy little bee these past few days! I'm back in the baking business with my first cake of the year leaving the kitchen yesterday. I've also uploaded some pilot tutorials to my personal YouTube. 

These pilots will be remade, hopefully with a little more professionalism in terms of lighting, set up and content. But wow, was I nervous and then feel a bit silly! These pilots show how I bake, level and fill, crumb coat, finish the crumb coat and prepare the cake for covering, covering the cake and cake drum. 

If you want to have a nosey, you'll find them here

Bibbitybobbityboo........

With the Christmas decorations packed away on Sunday evening, a day yesterday spent cleaning and the boys back to school and nursery today, everything seems back to normal.

Almost every mum I've met at the school gate has said they've had a quiet, relaxed Christmas and I thought.....so have we! This year we (that really should, be 'I') have been more organised than ever before giving us more time. We've afforded to enjoy days out between Christmas and New Year which has never happened before! Yes, January and probably most of February will still be tight, but it's worth it for the Christmas break we've had.

I love school holidays and how we do what we want! The days roll into one but not at great speed. We just amble along, waking when we wake, going to bed when tired. We eat when we're hungry. It's sheer bliss for someone like me! I love being organised, but I'm a bit of a free spirit and feel tied down by routine. 

Back to school means set bed times, set alarms, regimented, well practiced routines just to get out of the door on time. I've to clock watch until collecting one of the boys. Today I missed my slot and ended up having to take a taxi! Damn my new diary and trying to be organised writing everyone's birthdays in!! 

Now I'll wait for Jake to finish school, prepare tea while listening to his days events. I love him nattering to me about what he's been up to. My Grandad, when he stayed with us, always used ask about my day and what I'd learnt. When I'd stop he'd say "go on" and I'd have to elaborate. It's probably why I chat so much and can only now understand why he used to enjoy listening to me.

Hearing what a child has learnt, possibly for the first time, their achievements and accomplishments in just one day, is like opening a time capsule. When Jake talks to me, it takes me right back to my own school days and remember how it felt. I remember how special I felt having somebody interested in me and have the time to listen. I hope that I make Jake feel equally special. 

Today I'm back to baking and hopefully will record my first video tutorial! I haven't a clue how I'm going to do this with only two pairs of hands and an iPhone as a video recorder!! I may have to make some kind of prop/tripod contraption....or just wait until I can collar a friend :) 

My cakes today!

I'm still very new in the world of cake decorating. 2012 was a very steep learning curve, 2013 saw me learn new techniques and perfect my basic skills and 2014 will see me home in on those skills and hopefully produce some high spec cakes to add to my ever expanding portfolio.

 This was my first wedding cake of 2013. In fact it was my first wedding cake and my lovely friends trusted me enough to create them something that not only looked stunning, but tasted sublime!

Jake's 7th Birthday Cake.

Jake's 8th Birthday cake.

My sons are my guinea pigs and I've made them cakes for the past two years. They show just how much I've progressed in such a short space of time. Liam's dino cake was a rushed job. With a party to organise for with lots of handmade games, goodies and decorations, the cake got less time spent on it than I'd liked. You can even see the proddy finger marks from when he first saw it and couldn't help but teach out and touch it "my dino cake!" Jake cannot wait for his birthday cakes and is already thinking of this years!

Liam's 2nd Birthday cake.

Liam's 3rd Birthday cake.

Here are just a few cakes I've created for clients over the past year and if you want to oggle more sweet treats check out my page Sugar Mummy Cupcakes on Facebook.

How I got Into cake decorating.

I've briefly mentioned my love for arts and crafts, but my most recent love affair is with cakes and cake decorating! 

In 2005 I had a go at decorating my eldest son, Jake's blessing cake. It was an absolute disaster and looked nothing like how I envisaged! I bought a baby themed patchwork cutter set from a local cake shop, didn't have a clue what to do with it and just winged it! You could tell!

My second attempt at cake decorating was a little more adventurous and was for my Jake's third birthday. He was having a pirate party and found the perfect, simple cake design. I asked my local cake shop to colour the fondant and I baked and decorated the cake. This was long before I'd learnt the art of trimming, levelling and crumb coating a cake!! It was lumpy as hell but I was so proud of that achievement! 

The design I aimed for......

The cake I made!

I waited a good few years before attempting a decorated cake but I used to 
bake buns and baked a mean chocolate cake! We ordered Jake a 6th Birthday cake as he was having a birthday party and wanted something special. We got a small two tier cake and 15 matching cupcakes for £30! An absolute bargain but the lady, a family friend at the time, wouldn't accept any more. Sadly though, the cupcakes went untouched and the cake was so dry, it went in the bin. That's when I thought that I could do something like that - I wouldn't be perfect but I'm sure with practice I could! I had the baking sorted with compliments flying left right and centre about the quality of my cakes, I just had to learn the art of decorating. 

Stumped with what to do for our Liam's first birthday just three months after Jake's party, I thought I'd have a go at baking and decorating him a number cake! I like to give myself a challenge! Numbers are a pain in the butt with the corners and sharp angles to get that icing into! I didn't have a clue how to colour fondant and had some ready made icing left in the cupboard so mixed some blue and green with lots of white to get the shades that matched Liam's party ware. The piped icing was just the above mixed fondant watered down! Again, this cake was by no means perfect (I made another for Liam's birthday camping trip!), I can see all the hand marks and lumps and bumps but I made this using very little knowledge or tools! 

I was so proud of this cake!

I began making decorated cupcakes and by Christmas 2011 had picked up a few orders seeing me take my first big cake order in January 2012. This was my proudest moment and still is. It catapulted me and my confidence. I began thinking I could do this. I am good at something other than being a mummy! Little did I know that it would launch a business and transform me and my life. I became an independent woman again.

Xmas Dino Bike #3

I found this super cute Dino head on Amazon which helped me pick out the colour scheme when choosing the paints, grips and seat cover. The blue on the head matches the seat and grips perfectly and the green of the bike is close in colour to the green on the head. 

Colours used

Love this dino head for the bike!

I was so worried about the reconstruction but I needn't have been! It was a two person and a google job, but we went from bike parts and lots of nuts and bolts, to a built up bike in about 2 hours! 

Here it is, the completed Dino bike ready for my Dino mad lad and hopefully will exceed his expectations! 

Xmas Dino Bike #2

The black and red seat was recovered with a blue leatherette fabric by carefully removing the old seat cover, taking extra care not to take off any of the seat foam which ensures a comfy ride! I used spray contact adhesive and secured the fabric underneath with upholstery staples. 

Seat fabric

When stripping down the bike, we had to cut off the handlebar grips to get the brakes off so I found some cute, blue dino grips to replace them. We also replaced the pedals and chain. We were going to replace the tyres but I scrubbed them and applied some liquid shoe polish to them and they came up like new!

Dino handlebar grips!

Xmas Dino Bike #1

This year, tippy top of Liam's Christmas wish list was a Dino bike. Not just any Dino bike but this one we'd seen on craft blog! 

Secretly I was thrilled Liam chose something that would get my creative juices flowing! I love a challenge and love trying something new! I've never spray painted before let alone stripped a bike down and rebuilt it! Please excuse the lighting and poor quality photos. Being a Christmas present, I worked on the bike on an evening when Liam was asleep so not to spoil the surprise. 

My Dad's wife managed to source a second hand bike for £10. Sadly I didn't take a picture of the actual bike before I took it apart, but I managed to find a stock photo. The bike was rusty in parts, the wheels and pedals grated when turned so everything needed stripping down, stickers peeled off, washed and all the moving parts and bearings re-greasing. The breaks were fab and the bike was in good condition for a second hand bike, it didn't have too many knocks on it!

Original Bike (stock photo!)

All stripped down, washed and ready to paint!

Once stripped and taped up, I sprayed the entire bike (including the wheel, spokes and chain guarded) a lovely green colour. Once dry, I tipped the bike upside down and sprayed a yellow on the 'underbelly' and centre of the wheels.

I hand-painted dino stripes all over the bike on a metallic blue colour which looks almost silver in some lights! I also sprayed the stabilisers to match the bike as these were initially just standard chrome and white and I wanted them to match.

First coat of colour

Yellow underbelly!

Bidding farewell to 2013!

Happy New Year!

Having just got used to writing '2013' on everything (I think I'm still living in the early 2000's!!!!) I've to try get used to 2014! We're almost two days into the New Year and I'm finding myself feeling increasingly fed up and pondering over things I wouldn't give a seconds thought to.

Why do I feel so glum? I've two beautiful, healthy, happy children. A partner who loves me and I love him. A home which is our safe haven, our fun place and our little sanctuary. 

I've recently discovered Cherry Menlove's blog and something I read today and looked into, inspired me. She's taking part in the 365 Grateful project and after reading the projects page, I feel inspired to follow suit. 

The project began in 2008 when Hailey was feeling very low and didn't know why. She was inspired by a nun to find something, everyday, she was grateful for. She quickly realised how much it benefited her life and bought enough Polaroid film to last a year so she could capture her grateful moments. This daily act changed her outlook and quality of life in more ways than she could've imagined. This alone is enough to inspire me to do the same.

So, alongside my usual blogposts, I will dedicate a page to 'My 365 Grateful' where I will capture my daily moments of gratefulness. Somedays I'm sure I will have more than one thing I'm grateful for, and I reckon that in 365 days, I'll repeat myself more than once! After all, I'm eternally grateful for the love of my family!