A WHOLE day sewing

Yesterday I had a WHOLE day, yes I mean a WHOLE day, from 7.30am until 6.00pm sewing, stopped for tea and bath time, and then did some more sewing whilst watching Star Wars, the original one (again) with Andy. Andy was in full Daddy mode and in charge of the children and I spent, the day, wrapping and packing, answering emails, hand sewing some personalised bunting and creating some new ready to ship bunting for my Etsy shop, photo's coming soon.

Not wishing to sound unsociable, but I had a blissful day. I love my family absolutely without question and I juggle being a SAHM, with my sewing, but every now and then I need some ME time AND I had lots to do. This was my first whole LITTLE KITTEN HOMEMADE day since Andy got back, it was sunny, I had the windows of my sewing room wide open, I had a few visits from the children, a friend, and my mum, but in the main it was me, my fabric and no noise. (which after a weeks half term is fab!)

Here's some completed bunting:

A gorgeous 'Amy' bunting using her duck egg, green and pink fabrics

A pretty Cath Kidston floral mixed with a delicate red and white stripe and green dot

More 'Amy' fabrics, this time in vibrant pinks and oranges

Pretty pinks, again, but with pale pink and soft green and some matching tie backs, a special commission

and last thing, Hooray, my Britannia bunting made it into a Treasury 'RULE BRITANNIA' , you can see it here

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=133961

Thank you to Cat from www.cattaylor.etsy.com for including my bunting.

Gorgeous Gifts

There are definate plus's to your parents buying and selling antiques and collectables, apart from the enjoyment it brings them, every now and then, they find treasures that the family will love and today it was my turn.

I inherited my love of sewing from my mum, so she's always got a keen eye for sewing related items, she found the following:

A gorgeous printers block chest, a set of needles and a very lovely book on embroidery stitches

The chest, with a bit of love and attention, will soon be home to my huge collection of embroidery threads

The little book is so useful, with clear and precise instructions on how to do 29 embroidery stitches



and my absolute favourite a set of gold tipped needles, all in their rightful place

How lucky am I?

Latest Projects

I've been very lucky to have had lots of orders, yay!! I hope their new owners love their bunting

Wheels Bunting

British Cream Tea, with button embellishments

A new collection, still to be listed Rainy Days , more gorgeous fabrics by Riley Blake

Oh and another, Bed of Roses, Tickings and Roses by Tanya Whelan, how could I resist these!

British Cream Tea, with my little bird applique, this time with a heart wing

Fab, bright, zingy Amy bunting

My new cupcake applique, which is also available on bunting shown on a gorgeous Happy Birthday Banner

I just love the colours and pom pom trim

Another banner, this time in red cord and Wild Thyme fabrics

The banner with its matching bespoke bunting, destined for a camping holiday in France

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Birthdays

So the weekend of the 6th Plane Birthday party arrived.

First Job, bake the cake. the cake of choice for my son is chocolate (would it be anything else!) I followed Rachel Allen's Chocolate Cake recipe from her Bake cook book.

For the cake
125g (4 ½ oz) dark chocolate
3 tbsp milk
150g (5oz) butter, softened
150g (5oz) caster sugar
3 eggs
200g (7oz) plain flour
1 tbsp good quality cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Cocoa powder or icing sugar, for dusting, optional
For the chocolate butter icing
75g (3oz) butter, softened
1 tbsp cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
175g (6oz) icing sugar
1 tbsp good quality cocoa powder

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), Gas mark 4. Butter and flour the sides of the sandwich tins (two 20cm (8in) diameter sandwich tins) and line the bases with greaseproof paper.

Place the chocolate and the milk in a bowl sitting over a saucepan of gently simmering water and heat until then chocolate has melted.

Beat the butter until very soft then add the caster sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then fold in the melted chocolate.

Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and the bicarbonate of soda, and fold in gently to mix. Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean.

Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to sit for a few minutes before turning them out of their tins and placing them on a wire rack to cool.

While the cakes are cooling, make the chocolate butter icing. Beat the butter, cream and the vanilla extract until very soft. Then gradually sift in the icing sugar and the cocoa powder, beating all the time, until it is all added. Continue to beat until very soft, then whisk the mixture until it is light and fluffy. (I normally make the chocolate butter icing in an electric food mixer, using the whisk all the way through.)

Once the cakes are cool, sandwich them together (I normally sandwich them together bottom to bottom – if you know what I mean!) with the chocolate butter icing. Place the cake on a plate or a cake stand and dust with cocoa powder or icing sugar if you wish.

Next, decorate the cake, having coloured the my three balls of icing, and then having answered the door to the postman with blue hands, thought "Why did I not wear rubber gloves", oh well.......

I made lots and lots of RAF roundels

happily, the cakes did their bit in the oven

And after the addition of some yummy butter cream turned into chocolate cake heaven!




I also baked some aeroplane personalised (of course) cookies

wrapped them up with my homemade 'chocs away' stickers

along with the cupcakes

and added them to the homemade party bags.

phew, one party taken care of, 6 months until my daughter's birthday, I'm thinking a fairy party inspired by Charlie and Lola, with lots of Amy Butler fabrics, uuummm all makes sense to me, oh and did I mention the summer garden party we're having................

The Fairies have been busy

Camilla's been a busy fairy, she's currently flying off to a new home (yey made my first sale!) and she's been in a treasury



http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4bf3ecb34d168eefe9d447ea



Thank you to http://www.joeybb.etsy.com/


Sorry again for the lack of posts this week. I've had lots and lots of orders, which is just fantastic, I'll update tomorrow with some photo's. I've also been adding new collections to my Etsy and Ebay shops.

Other exciting news, my son lost his first tooth. Apparently it came out, with lots of encouraging wiggling, whilst he was drinking a smoothie from the tuck shop at school. Luckily he didn't swallow it! He was very excited when he came out of school, gave me a HUGE smile and said "can you see anything different". After a bit of research it appears that £1 is the going rate for the tooth fairy, a lucrative busy obviously!





He understandably wasn't very keen on having one of my fairies under his pillow, so between making tea, homework and playing, I made a rather cute felt toothy monster, which has, to a very nearly 6 year old, a bit more street cred!

Yey I'm in a treasury

My brand new collection, called British Cream Tea listed on Etsy first thing this morning, (and I mean first thing, 6am, we're early risers in our house!) has been included in a treasury and what a gorgeous one it is. Thank you to

http://www.romanticvintage.etsy.com/


Here it is http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4bef9e3c4d168eefa280e3e9/romantic-dreams



please take a look!

Today I achieved....

First thing, I added Maud the Mauve Fairy to http://www.littlekittenfairies.etsy.com/

I then answered my emails and prepared some banner scheme samples

and a bunting sample

and another

I then wrapped and packed some completed orders in my lovely new blue tissue paper, with my matching new business cards and my mini moo cards which offer a 10% discount on future orders

They included a pretty personalised bunting with button embellishments

and a coastal inspired wedding bunting.


Made supper for the children, I must confess it came from the freezer, but it was a batch of homemade Pumpkin soup, always a guaranteed eat. Ran out of steam when it came to mine and opted for ready made pie, although I did cook fresh vegetables. Andy's on late shift so I tend to be not quite so organised on the food front, although I always cook, I love my food too much!

Then this evening, I've completed the hand sewing on one order and started on another (27 flags long) so far 7 flags appliqued.

I'm now off to bed with a cup of tea.

Night Night

My new venture

Say hello to Little Kitten Fairies.

Andy thinks I've spent too many nights on my own whilst he's been away. The idea actually stems from some finger puppets I made for my daughter, who is currently going through a everything fairy stage. They were, I confess, a reward for her going to bed without screaming the place down every night. Bribery always works. I then became fairy obsessed and so Willow the White Fairy, Maud the Mauve Fairy etc etc was born.

Here's my new shop banner, I just love it! Each fairy has it's own little story and is based around the seasons, flowers and everything a fairy loves to do. I'll share more over the next few days.

I'm currently listing one a day, so take a sneeky peak if you have time.

www.littlekittenfairies.etsy.com

I'm back

I've just had two weeks holiday, ten days of it spent at possibly my favourite place, the North Norfolk coast. This time we stayed in Blakeney, in the same house I've stayed in over twenty times. I've stayed there always with my parents, with my nan when she was alive, my brother, friends and now with my family. My children call it the 'big house' and are convinced that my parents own it (if only). Apparently the actual owner told us, that there are children throughout the UK who believe the same. I never tire of it and hope to go back for many years to come. Actually, I must confess we are back there, a little bit further down the coast, in August, hooray!

Coming back though is always lovely and returning to our house. I love to walk around all the rooms, looking at everything that is familiar, with the added bliss that Andy also is home. He managed to catch 7 days with us in Norfolk, hooray again!

I also returned to find that I had been nominated for a Sunshine award by Hazel, her blog http://hazelfishercreations.blogspot.com/ thank you, what an honour.

I've also got some exciting news which I will share, but just a small hint, I've been sewing whilst I'm away and I will show the results tomorrow.

Until then.........