My Swap Parcel

I got my swap package the other day and I must say WOW what a wonderful package! Here are some photos of what was inside the HUGE parcel.

As you can see I got spoilt by Pammy Sue! The beautiful pineapple shawl in the background is just perfect to snuggle up with.

Here are some cute cowboy inspired Christmas ornaments, already hanging on our tree I must say!

And last but not least two wonderfully festive pot holders. I just love the sparklly yarn.

Thank you sooooo much Pammy Sue. It's been wonderful having you as a swap partner and learning all about you. I hope we can keep in touch over the years to come.

Another Cupcake post... why not?!

Ok made some more cupcakes recently and tried some different colours, recipe and icing designs. What do you think?

I really need to get on with things and stop fussing about the cupcakes... although eating them has been fun!

Daydream among the flowers

A few flower ideas I like for myself and the bridesmaids. I must say though I am being very indecisive when it comes to the flowers. Nothing has really captured my heart yet. The only thing I've been able to decide on is that I want lots of different flowers in my bouquet and feathers. I can't even decide on whether I want red or white flowers.

Ring Bearer pillows and favours

Just thought I'd post a few photos of the ring bearer pillow I made and the favors we've decided on for the wedding. I did try several other things for the pillow like a crochet pillow and then I even tried a quilt block pillow from left over material from the bridesmaid dresses but both of these just failed so I went for the simple ribbon/bow pillow made from some lovely duchess satin which I scored for $1.00 a meter! it was on the clearance rack for $8.00 a meter and I just wanted 20cm so the woman said here have a meter for a dollar. The brooch you can see on it was some old costume jewelery I bought at a clearance sale years ago. I was going though my jewelery box looking for a ring and saw it and bob's your uncle it was the perfect finishing touch. The ribbon was left overs from decorating the unity candles and the stuffing was left overs from another craft adventure so all up I think this pillow cost me $5.00 not bad considering the ones in the magazines are around $30.00 to $50.00.

The favors will hopefully add some color to the tables and be a yummy treat for our guests. 2 chocolate hearts and the traditional 5 sugar almonds. I almost bought the ribbon from a fabric store for something like 80c a meter but then found the perfect stuff at the Reject shop $3.50 for 91 meters of curling ribbon and $2.00 for 45 meters of the red ribbon. Thank God I didn't pay the full price from the fabric store. I mean people are just going to untie it and throw it away.

If you want chocolate hearts don't go to candy stores they charge like 50c each. We have a local wholesaler and its like $22.00 per kilo and you get around 160 pieces and the chocolate quality is very good!

And the Cupcake drama continues

Ok I have a confession to make, making your own cupcake wedding cake is just a good excuse for trialing cup cake recipes. We have been at it again this time trying the most awesome berries and white chocolate mudcake cupcakes. The recipe worked wonders and the cakes were to die for BUT bad news was they were too hard after being put in the fridge and the cost got a bit much with all the chocolate and berries. But still an awesome recipe to make for other occassions that dont require 130 cupcakes.

We tried out the beautiful blue foil patties which I paid good money for and while the blue shine is divine the size of the cupcakes are HUGE and look rediculous. The red cherry-on-top look was also not so great for a wedding, more comical and suited to a birthday so we ditched that idea too.

Finally we got the look right with blue frosting and silver candy balls and cheap silver pattie pans. If only I'd known I would never have spent so much cash on the blue metalic ones. Oh well.
We kept this batch in the fridge for 2 days, overnight, like we would have to when it came to the wedding. We also made them using a simple vanilla recipe and added some berry mix so that they didnt set solid when kept refrigerated. Taste testing them on the second day I was suprised and relieved to find that they still tasted fresh and soft.

All we have to do now it figure out how to transport 130ish cupcakes to the reception centre without them melting in the car or getting squished. Any ideas?????????

Mini Me Cake Topper

I have been at it again, making stuff for our wedding. This time I've been making our cake toppers. We wanted these cute birds from Etsy but we can't afford the $150.00 although I do think they are worth it. So instead I'm making another set of little people like I made for my sister's wedding.

Here is a photo of my mini me. I like the end product but she is a bit broken. Her head is lose and luckly there is a toothpick holding it on. She's also been glued back together having fallen and broken in two from the waist. You can see the crack around her middle if you look at her from the back but since that won't really be visible I'm not going to worry about it. All I need to do now is to make her a REALLY long veil which I'll make out of touli. Best part about her is that she has little red shoes like I'll be wearing!!!!!

Top of the Cake

Just a bit more progress on the cupcake stand this weekend. Just need to figure out how to incorporate some red into the cake. Red flowers on top?, red flowers scattered in between cupcake or glazed cherries on top of every large cupcake. (only top layer will have mini cupcakes)

Also bought the maid of honour's dress but need to return it as I noticed this morning that there were some pulled threads in the skirt. Will post a photo of that when I swap it.