Wedding: First photos

The first of many wedding posts. Thought I'd share a couple of photos taken by friends at the wedding.

 It was such a fabulous day, surrounded by our dearest family and friends. And it was so satisfying to see all the planning and projects come together to create a truly unique and personal day.

And a sneak peak of the finished heirloom Bouquet on the way down the Aisle with my Dad.

Farewell Ladybugs :: Ladybird Cupcakes

Today was the last day of our playgroup, and I was sad to see it close. But we went out on a high with a teddy bears picnic (indoors due to this damp 'British Summer').

We've barely unpacked from the wedding, but somehow I found an hour yesterday to make this appropriately themed cupcakes.  

The base is my basic sponge recipe, with strawberry icing (adapted from Claire Ptak's perfect strawberry cupcake recipe) and these cute sugar paste ladybirds.

Here comes the Bride Biscuits!!

As I can't actually share any of the wedding prep with you for fear of spoiling the surprise for all our guests, I'm quite pleased to able to share these biscuits - A little favour I've made for my pre-wedding family dinner tonight.

Originally I quite fancied the idea of using biscuits as place names, but with 80 guests I didn't think I've have the time or the patience.

I used my basic 'cookie cutter' biscuit recipe:

250g plain flour

125g caster sugar

125g unsalted butter

1 medium egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Cream together the butter and sugar.

2. Add the egg and vanilla little by little.

3. Sift in half the flour, mix, and then add the rest.

4. Knead the dough until smooth.

5. Wrap the bowl in clingfilm and refrigerate for an hour.

6. Pre heat oven to 180ºC/350ºF/4 (170ºC fan).

7. Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, to about a 5mm thickness.

8. Use your cutters to cut out shapes (intricate shapes may transport better if you lift the cookie with the cutter on your pallet knife).

9. Put your shapes on trays lined with baking parchment.

10. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

11. Leave to cool on the trays.

12. Ice Once cooled.

I opted for a few different icing styles (the pink are my first attempts at drop-in icing), but for the majority I used my cutter to cut white regal icing to the exact shape, which I attached with royal icing, I then made flower impressions on top using my daisy cutters, and brushed some regal icing on the tips of the petals for detail.

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They aren't perfect, but they were cathartic to make and look lovely now I've bagged and ribboned them.

Happy Birthday Alex : An Eric Carle inspired card

Yesterday was my friend's little boy's birthday. He just turned 1 and has a smile that could light up a room :)

He (and his Mummy) love The Very Hungry Caterpillar books so I created this Eric Carle Inspired card just for him. It has raised dots on top of the dotty background and I even punched a hole out of the corner where the caterpillar might have taken a bite.

I loved making this card, not made any for a while with the wedding preparations ... and on that subject, I can't believe I'M GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW!!!

Wedding craft: Lace tea light holders

The problem with finishing all of your wedding crafts early, is you start looking for new ones...

Mr S sensibly suggested we finished all the wedding projects before my hen-do (which was last weekend), so my heirloom bouquet, stationary, and several other little surpizes for the guests have all been finished  ... but now I'm seriously twiddling my thumbs with 10 days to go.

After 2 years of planning the only thing I felt we were seriosuly lacking were table centers for the evening do, as our day reception centers are too big for the evening tables. Mr S wasn't convinced we needed any, but it's been playing on my mind a lot lately and was thinking maybe a simple tea light. A while ago I saw THIS cool jam-jar idea by annaboo's house, loved it and filed it away on pinterest for another day. Fast forward to today, searching bargin basement shops for candle holders, and instead I found packs of four glasses or 99p and decided to get creative.

This is such a simple craft I did it in one afternoon (including time to go and get the lace). It doesn't really need instructions, but here is my technique:

All you need is:

Glass jars, cups or vases

 A selection of lace

PVA glue

A paint brush

Tea lights

1. Simply lay out your lace on your glass to work out position and spacings, cut your lace to size (allow a little overlap).

2. Paint the outside of the glass where you want the lace to go.

3. Wrap the lace around, patting it down as you go.

4. Trim away lace if there is a large overlap.

5. Dap more PVA between and ontop of any overlaping lace.

6. Finish your pattern and leave to dry.

7. Put a tea light inside, light and enjoy.

 Above are mine, drying on the windowsil. I've not told Mr S about them yet, verdict when he gets home from work, but hopefully the fact that it only cost £7 for all 12 will win him over ;)

Obviously I can't post many of my finished wedding projects, without spoiling our guests reaction, and I've been dieing to share, but this quick project was soo simple and effective I just had to post!

Jubilee Birthday Party!

Little lady turned 2 at the start of the month and despite having originally planned a Minnie Mouse Party I couldn't resist changing the 'family' leg of her celebrations into a Jubilee/Britannia party, fitting for the patriotic climate of the weekend.

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"So, the Minnie Mouse Party idea went out of the window?" I hear you ask. No, of course not. We ended up hold the jubilee party on the Saturday, having visitors over Sunday, Zoo on Monday and then a Minnie Mouse Party for her friends on Wednesday.

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OK, so I admit, with a month to the wedding, twelve cards to do and two kids to run after, I probably didn't need to make more work for myself - but sleep is for the weak ... idle hands ... and all that!

An easy idea we've used for a few kids parties are these simple iced sugar cookies. Basically: simple round biscuits, topped with white sugar paste, and finished off with sugar paper 'cake' toppers. You can buy sheets of them in all sorts of themes very cheaply from places like eBay or you can print your own using edible inks.

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I decided attempt a seemly fitting 'Crown' cake for the occasion. I was inspired by an article from Daily Mail on line. But adapted it to fit our red, white & blue theme, and added more children's party friendly confectionery decorations.

Considering the reduced time frame I don't think it came out too badly. Lots of compliments on the taste too (just a basic 5 egg recipe, filled with buttercream and jam).

As well as the cookies and cake, I made red-velvet cupcakes (topped with candy striped red/white/blue icing and sugar paste cameos), sausage rolls, and my Mum made scones. To finish the look we hung store-bought bunting all over the ceiling and along the sides, union jack paper plate, napkins, even red white and blue straws.

Considering the late notice of the theme change I don't think we did too bad. Given more time and supplies I would have liked to have made paper pomanders, made our own bunting, made solider cookies (or at least got them into the theme somewhere).

Happy Birthday to both our Mum's

Both our Mum's celebrate their Birthdays at the end of May. And although it would be rather simplier to produce two identical 'Mum' cards I think it would be a little lazy and inpersonal, so here is the two contrasting cards:

My Mum's card, using giftwrap of a print she likes, with a stamped tree on the front embelished with punched out flowers.

Mr S's Mum's card was a little more country kitchen, using Laura Ashley paper and aging effects.