Carrot cake

I had never tried Carrot cake before, to me carrots were meant to be with meat and potatoes, not in a cake. But after a very good friend of mine brought one round and force feed it to me. WOW I have been missing out all this time, Carrot cake is now a new found fave for me now.

Made this earlier today, Carrot sponge with orange filling and topping, the carrots are sugar crafted.
I will be enjoying a slice of this tomorrow, if not before then lol.

S'omething new from me

Last Christmas I decided that I would make my own Christmas cake and make them as gifts for family members too. I've never made a Christmas cake before, and I certainly have never decorated a cake other than pouring on some icing or melted chocolate with some butter cream filling. So a little risky to say the least.

However, I found a new talent, and something I greatly enjoyed doing, and since then Ive taken off with making cakes and decorating them using various different techniques.

I started doing this just for family and friends and have since had a few orders for cakes too, so who knows where this may lead. I would love to make this a business, but that's just a pipe dream at the moment, but never say never.

I wont add lots of pictures at once, I will just add the first one I made for now, and gradually show you others.

Not bad for a first attempt hey?
Traditional Christmas cake, covered in marzipan then royal icing.
I made this for my parents for Christmas.

Ok so one more for you to see.
I think I had improved greatly by the time I did this one, everything and I mean everything on this cake is edible.

I very much enjoyed doing these, just as much as I enjoy making every other cake I have done since.
I will show you more soon of the other cakes, and I am sure you will agree that they are way better as they go along, Not that I am singing my own trumpet lol.

scrap a day - day 3

scrap a day - day 2

A scrap a day! - Day 1

Well I am going to attempt to do a digital scrapbook page a day, not sure I will manage every day, but will be nice to try anyway. Each day will be an image from that day (were possible, technology permitting).

So here is the first one.

Digital scrapbooking,

Well its been a little longer than I said till I started posting again. Been busy with decorating recently, slowly working through the whole house. Each room has had the base done at least. Just the final touches to do now. My son's room is my current project, I have to say its looking great, and its had the thumbs up approval from my son, so cant be too bad!

Heres some of my digital scrapbooking that I have done over the last year or so. Miss doing propper crafting scrapbooking but oh well its better than nothing, for now.

I will post again soon with some more of what I have been up to recently. Hopefully soon I will be as active on here as I was before, but this time with a much wider selection for crafts/hobbies that I currently do. Including some photos of my new deco in my house.

It has been wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy to long!

Well its been well over a year since I was last on here. Haven't really done too much crafting over the time. As I said in my last post there has been a lot going on around here, but it seams to all be in order now. Huge change around, I'm a single mummy and loving it, My son is well hes still my precious son, even with his ADHD to contend with. I wouldn't want it too much different. 

I have not done any paper crafting at all since god knows when, I do miss it very much so, but I simply have no space for it all to go, not where I can comfortably craft, I refuse to part with it tho, as I know I will get back into it again, maybe not in the next year or even next few years, but certainly once one of the kids have left home lol. I will be able to take back the bedroom and use it as a bedroom and a craft room. Well that will be a few years from now still.

I still do bits of painting (including decorating throughout since things had a big shake up here), and my latest hobby is cake decorating and sugar craft, something that dose not take over the place too much lol. Ive only got a large welsh dresser filled with the things I need for this hobby, not a full loft space lol. I do still dabble in a bit of jewellery making and bead making. I'm also right into revamping old things. Today for instance I bought two pieces of furniture from the local dove house furniture shop, and I'm completely altering them at the moment, to match my new decor (that is when the dogs are not walking all over the wet gloss and walking it all over the carpet, never mind I do plan on replacing the carpet in here anyway).

I will pop some pictures up over the next day or two of some of the things I have been doing lately, I hope you all are well, I have missed posting on here, and looking through other peoples blogs. I have lost my blog list of friends, but Ill go through my past comments and I'm sure I will find you all again. Looking forward to having a good catch up on what you have all been doing over the last year or more.

xx Shirley xx

Stranger

Well I cant belive its been nearly 8 months since I've posted on here and even longer since I've done any crafting. Im really shocked. I am desprate to get into my paper crafting again. And now I've looked on here and other peoples blogs at there crafts I'm even more so wanting to get back into it. Problem is, I moved it all into the loft, and I cant actualy craft up there anymore as I get so dizzy and feel so ill up there. and I simply havent the space to bring it all back down again, or even some of it. I still do the odd bit of jewellery and painting, and I have also started doing acrylic nails and nail art, but mostly only for my self, although I do do a few friends to.

Home life has been far from fine here. My son (9 years old) has sevear ADHD and it has worsened beyond control, so im constantly battling with his outbursts which is very draining, especialy as he is like it a good 22 hours out of 24. There has also been some very serious happenings going on at home, I cant actualy talk about them at the moment, but as soon as it is all sorted im free to say what I please, but there is going to be one major shake up here and one less person around, which should hopefully help with my sons ADHD in the long run too (its not my son who will be leaving).

As soon as everything is sorted out, and hopefully we move to a bigger house, I will be able to get back into my paper crafting and other crafts like I was, And I cant wait, im desprate to get playing again.

I hope everyone who passes by here is well and had a great Christmas and New Year.

.....I've decided.....

After around a year without doing any paper crafting. It's about time that I got back into it. I did originaly move all my craft stuff up into the loft to work up there, but in doing this and becomeing very anxious up there I lost all interest in paper crafting. That and due to other personal issues.

Well it is down to my sister-in-law for nagging and nagging me to start back up again as she was missing my cards and she insists she can sell some at her place of work. That I have decided to start again.

So during next week I will be going up in the loft and attempting to sort out all my craft stuff (In the dark as the electrics have gone in there, and there is no window!) There is no way that I will fit everything I've got downstairs. So I will need to filter it out into what I will use the most, and only bring down what will actualy fit. The last time I had it all down stairs, I only had about half the stuff I have now, and I had more room for it to go as didnt have a dinning table. Well im not removing the dinning table, so I some how need to work out how to fit twice as much stuff in less space than I had.... that will be fun. Saying that im sure I will have plenty of stuff that I know I wont ever use. I think that will be passed on to someone who will get use of it all.

So all been well in a week or so's time I will be adding cards and other paper crafts back on my blog. Im hoping that getting back into crafting will also help aid my recovery with mental health. I have become very agrophobic and social phobic the last year and a half, as well as other mental health issues, So it may be a good thing getting back into crafting. Will at least help me occupy my mind more.

So please do pop by soon and hopefully I will have some new stuff to show you

xx Shirley xx

New hobby, Face painting.

I got into face painting around 6 months ago now. I love doing it, especialy with my daughter as she is the perfect model.

Sorry to scare you with my ugly mug, but think it is improved with the paint lol.
Was not so easy painting myself.

My little girl, Not been very girly lol. But she is spiderman crazy.

And my son who is anything to do with the army barmy. He needed a haircut badly that day lol.