There now follows a photodump of all I've been up to 'creatively' in the last few months. I'm officially a World Cup Widow (I don't support anyone. Really. I wouldn't care if Scotland qualified, honestly!), so I may as well spam a blog nobody reads with pictures of things I made/bought/did.

I love to cook, but my real love is baking. However, in all honesty, I hate doing both in this house. I miss being able to call a kitchen 'my kitchen'. Monkey and I get one tiny shelf in a cupboard to store all our cooking utensils, baking trays, bowls, etc. The very thought of getting things out of our solitary shelf is enough to put me off. Very early on in my time living here, I decided to make Nigella Lawson's delicious chocolate pear pudding only to discover there were no mixing bowls! Does.not.compute. So, anyway, my point is, I tend to cook and bake very rarely, when the 'in laws' are not here, where I can be undisturbed (there is nothing in this world worse than a 'supervisor', particularly one that has no idea what they are talking about!) Bank Holidays are always a good time for me to bake, I find, and I coined the phrase 'Bank Holiday Bakeathon' for the two May occasions! I made some Red Velvet cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, a fantastic book which I would recommend to anyone keen on all things sweet! This particular recipe didn't impress me all that much, I didn't pay enough attention to the recipe until I was making it and only then did I really figure out that it was a not-very-chocolatey sponge coloured red with food colouring. Mine didn't even go red, despite buying the recommended food colouring! Still, they did taste good, I just don't think I would bother again.

And a gratuitous macro shot:

Around Christmas time I finally succumbed to the obsession that is all things Cath Kidston. A bit like my obsession with cows really (no, bear with me on this!), I happened to once say I liked cows and cow print and I suddenly ended up with dozens of cow everything; ornaments and cuddly toys and pens and what not. At least Cath is a little more for grown ups than cows! (I still like cows, though. Fear not my mooing friends!). Anyway at Christmas I received both the Sew and Make books and a couple of months ago I finally decided to make the bag that came with Sew! I added a sort-of lining by using the pre-cut pieces to cut out some lovely grey-blue fabric I already had and basically made the whole bag double layered. It was an easy, enjoyable project. I hate buttonholes though, with a passion! I will learn how to make my sewing machine do it for me in future. Here is the finished article:


I'm not sure when I'll find a use for it, but its pretty. The books aren't the most wonderful in the world, Make! especially, as you don't appear to 'make' anything so much as embellish and applique to items you already own or buy for the occasion. However, they are awfully pretty and give inspiration, which is good enough for me!

Monkey and I have big plans to move out and have even taken that exceptionally grown up decision to open a joint savings account to put money into for the deposit/first and last/fees/other things associated with moving. We, of course, can't actually afford anything right now. But it doesn't stop me dreaming. Nor does it stop me buying things 'for our new home'. Mostly its cheap silly things like tea towels with cupcakes on them or a bunch of mugs from the Cath Kidston January sale, other times its usually cookware or bakeware or something similar. So when in TK Maxx the other day, I couldn't help but purchase these:

I've been a fan of Richardson Sheffield knives since I bought a couple to use whilst away at university. The RRP was supposedly well over £100 for this and I think I paid about £25. I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of knife blocks as it's always been my opinion you can trap germs down the slots that you then can't clean out, but nobody's going to force me to use the block anyway.I opened the box for a quick peek (and swiftly stabbed myself in the finger with one of the knives, at least I know they're sharp!) and was really pleased with them.

Through other blogs including Domestic Sluttery I learned of Wysteria Lane a website I love for many reasons; 1)I love Desperate Housewives 2)I love homeware/kitchenware 3)They gave me a £10 off voucher for my first order 4)When my order arrived it was more like a present! (albeit a present I paid for, but aren't they the best kind?!):

Inside was a set of cakestands from Bombay Duck (another website I may grow to love with all my heart, I've asked for a catalogue and will let you know my thoughts on the whole range once I've had a drool over it!):

The stands are gorgeous and according to my Mum, my wonderful late grandmother had something very similar. Well, if it was good enough for her its definitely good enough for me! You can stack them as shown above or use them seperately for a good old fashioned sponge cake!:


After I ordered these, I thought I would continue my online homeware shopping by browsing Urban Outfitters where I purchased two mirrored signs/pictures from their sale:

I reckon they should go in the living room of our new home but Monkey reckons they'd be better in the bedroom. I'm sure I'll win him over eventually! Additionally, a few months ago when browsing in St Albans I bought this from BHS for our 'new kitchen'

Effortlessly patriotic and depicts all that is great about summer....strawberries!

This week I worked my last week at a job I've been in for 14 months, which is something of a record for me, I normally make it to 9 or 10. I'm not a commitment-phobe, I'm merely trying to pack in as much experience as I can before deciding what I really want to do with the rest of my life. I started taking baked goods into work for my colleagues last month and it went down a treat, so I thought it was only fitting to take in lots of cakes and goodies on Friday as a good way to say goodbye:

These are vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting from the above mentioned Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. My cake stand loved getting a bit of action!

These are chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting courtesey of Hummingbird, along with Nigella Lawson's girdle-busting chocolate brownies from How to be a Domestic Goddess which has long since been my go-to for all sorts of recipes and recipe ideas. I like to put pecan nuts in my brownies, just so you know. Another gratuitous picture follows (I was testing out a 'food' setting on my camera!)


The baked goods went down a real treat at work and I had an incredible last day.I'm going to miss all the wonderful people there like crazy. I now have two weeks off to sort my life out and then I start a new social care job on June 28th. I hope they like cakes there too, or I'll get terribly terribly fat eating everything I make!