April Kitchen

 It's bright and sunny again (at last) here today....after a few rather chilly days and a very damp easter, today the sky is blue and the birds are chirping outside my window again.....i made some little spring inspired cakes the other day......

 ...it was nice to do a bit of baking after mostly working intensively over the last couple of weeks....lovely to have a bit of time to do other things like baking and crafting just for fun......

 .........a while ago i did a review of tea towel designs for al at all tea towels, and when i decided to give one of them away as part of my winter giveaway, al kindly said i could pick another one too.....so i chose the one in the pictures above called a nice cup of tea.....i discovered that the artist who designed it was the same one who designed the first tea towel i picked....linda edwards, whose lovely website can be seen here......the tea towel, like all the ones stocked by al is lovely to use and i love the colours in my april kitchen.....

 ................and a very SwEeT block here along with the coloured chocolate flowers.....from fee, of course....

 .........lots of spring flowers brighten up my kitchen at the moment....some of my favourites are the natural primroses which i grew from tiny plug plants a few years ago.....i have quite a big primrose patch in the garden now, and pot up a few as presents or to enjoy indoors for a while.......

 ............some daisy cupcakes in spring green paper cases........all gone now.......we still have some chocolate flowers left though, as well as some easter eggs still to nibble..........

 ......i had a bit of time to make some more blocks for the farmer's wife quilt over the weekend break....

.........i had to include this one today because it's name is...broken dishes.....i love this block pattern, i remember first discovering it years ago and thinking how the little pieces did look like shards of broken dishes........ i have a couple more blocks to sew together, and my flower patch quilt is nearing completion now....and i've begun a new crochet blanket but will save that until next time :-)
.......thank you for calling in to see me in my little bit of blogland today.....i hope you are having a sunny week and enjoy the coming weekend too.........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sweet Valentine

 We will be having some sweet treats here this weekend.......celebrating a little, partly because it's so close to Valentine's Day..... and partly because tomorrow is the anniversary of the day that Mr P and i first met ( a gazzillion years ago) at a schoolfriend's party.................

...........so reason enough to bake and decorate some pretty cakes to share with my dearies...........

 .......and time to use this sweet cake bunting which was made by the lovely Jooles at Sew Sweet Violet here....

....i love all the things that Jooles makes, they are so perfect and pretty....romantic, stylish and contemporary...

 ......love this little sign too.....i will be using this bunting for other special occasions besides Valentine's Day...

........a new romantic chopping board...too pretty to put to use in the kitchen just yet, so i am enjoying just looking at it in my sewing room for now........the sun has been shining in through the sewing room windows this week and making all the fabrics look so bright and cheery....even though the temperatures have been very low and my clothes layering is back in full force.......

            ......i had to show you this Farmer's Wife quilt block today because it's called Bouquet.....

.......and some little valentine tags, as part of my small tag set begun in the last post........i'm looking forward to making more post mark-y things very soon.......
....thank you for dropping into my little bit of blogland today, it's a real treat to see you....I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, with sunshine and sweet things coming your way......back soon xxxxxxxxxxx

Lots of Dots

 It's a sunny, dotty week here so far.....dotty fabrics are being sewn for exciting new projects to be published in the future, and I thought I would show you this dotty pinwheel patchwork cushion today. I found the pinwheel blocks in one of my patchwork storage baskets and as I'm trying to use up everything and waste nothing this year I decided to make the blocks into a summery cushion....

...looking around me I spied lots of dots on different things, many of which I've had for years as I've always collected dotty china and have some very old pieces as well as recent finds... 

 ....a friend gave me the dotty retro doileys which I think is what really made me think about dots this week...I made the cakes in dotty cases and added dots to the icing with my Tala icing pen, then put them on a red dotty doiley...

 .... summer has returned here and it's been sunny and warm enough to take a tea tray out to the garden...

 ...to sew some work projects sitting in the dappled shade and enjoying the flowers and the buzzing of the bees... 

I hope you are having a lovely sunny week too wherever you are. Thanks for popping in to see me here, I do enjoy your visits and comments very much. Back soon xxxxx

Red, White and Blue

Hello! Just popping in with a quick patriotic post, caught up as I am in the Royal Wedding fever around here! I just had to stitch a little red, white and blue heart for the occasion...And I found a set of Waving Flags just popped themselves into my shopping trolley this week...

    I have made my set of Royal Wedding cupcakes (quite a relief to have got these done safely!) 

 This little box of paper cases, crowns and flags came from Accessorize who had some gorgeous souvenirs (I loved their beautiful silk cushion with postcardy print too)... I had to be very careful with the production of the royal cakes as they are going to be taken to a party tomorrow after the wedding....

          Here they all are, safely tucked into a tin and now in the fridge - adorned with crowns and flags!

In the garden I found we actually already had some red, white and blue flowers to make a sweet royal posy.

I'm off to hang some more bunting now! I am looking forward to the wedding very much, and I wish Prince William and Kate a wonderful day and the happiest of happy lives together. If you are watching the royal wedding tomorrow, have a lovely time and a great weekend!! Back soon xxxx

A Bit of Baking

Hello! I hope you had a lovely weekend! We enjoyed ours - gardening, shopping, seeing family and friends - and a bit of baking which I am showing you today. Nothing fancy of course, I just make simple things...

Like these little cakes. I use Delia Smith's All in One Sponge recipe for my cakes, as I have for years, as she promised in her book that it will never go wrong and she was right!

Then there is the icing...we have a choice of pink or white with sprinkles. Now we have a little boy in the family I do try to have alternatives to pink....

The little cakes have all gone now, and it's fruit and vegetables all the way until next weekend! Apart from this little cake which is always around - a crochet cake which I bought on a shopping trip in the summer.
Hope you have a great week filled with sweet things. x