I have been catching up!

Hello again just another quick post, I have been catching up with my blogger friends and been nominated by Andie for two awards. Thank you so much Andie I am chuffed to bits, here they are everyone I hope I have done this right! Well i now need to nominate someone but it is so hard so I would like to nominate all my friends from blog land, I hope you accept and enjoy the awards.

Following on from yesterday

Well here we are again, I have just sat down to have a few minutes at my computer. Hubby is fed and watered and so are the two dogs. Our older one Kyrie is poorly at the moment we have been to the vets and we have to give her some tablets and I am hoping this will sort things out. Anyway I mentioned yesterday I was making another cake, I know I am posting pictures of it on my blog but the person it is for is not likely to see it, one person may and that is my friend Jenny, but I don't mind her having a sneaky peek before tomorrow. One of our works colleagues is celebrating the big 50 tomorrow and a few of us at work have been planning something special, I was asked to make her birthday cake. What do you think. I need a bit more practice on the smoothing out of the icing but I don't thinks it has worked out too bad. I can't wait to see her face tomorrow when she sees what we have all planned.

Finished model

Well here it is with roses attached, not sure if it still needs a bit more or whether the roses should be placed a bit differently. I am going to e-mail a photo to my "client" and see what he thinks. I have also been asked to do another cake for valentines day for someone else, will post some pictures of what I do when ready.

Playing with Cake decorating

What a cold and windy weekend we are having in Cheshire, it is not very pleasant out there today and our garden is getting a real battering, a lot of our plants are now damaged especially our Australis we have lost all the tops of it now and I am not sure whether it will now survive. We will have to wait and see. Anyway I have been playing in my kitchen and as mentioned in earlier posts I had bought some cake dummies which you can use to practise with. I have been asked to make a valentines cake for someone but he wants to see the design first. Here are a couple of pictures of where I am up to so far. It will be finished off with black roses, which I am in the process of making (very fiddly). I will be taking a picture of the finished example hopefully later on today. I have now started a round design and will be using my cricut cake for the shapes, will post some pictures when finished..

Fondant Roses

After my earlier post I decided I needed to get going on some practising. I have been asked to make a valentines cake, and he has been quite specific in how he wants it decorated. It is to be a heart shaped cake iced in red with black roses. I have never made roses before but have had a go them this afternoon and I don't think they have come out too bad. I have cut the petal shapes with my Cricut Cake and shaped them a little, I have then dusted them in edible glitter which I think looks quite good. I am quite pleased with my first attempt at these and will be making some in red just in case they are needed. At least I can make these in advance and they won't spoil. Here are a couple of pictures.

I won a competition

Well, I had a surprise when I got home yesterday, hubby was working, so I had a gentle browse doing the shopping, then went to our local Hobbycraft store and bought some bits, then on to a clothes store to spend some vouchers I had for Christmas. I had a wonderful morning. I had not been in long after unloading the car when hubby came home and handed me a parcel. Apparently it had been left with our neighbour when delivered by the post man. I think Kevin thought I had been spending again and I wondered what it was to. I opened it to find I had won a competition I had entered some time ago in the Cake Craft & Decoration Magazine I buy and I had won a book, here is a picture. I am quite chuffed, as I am not usually any good at competitions. There are some really gruesome ideas in it for decorating cakes but it looks fun. I am now getting ready for valentines day and am hoping I can do a few valentines cakes for people soon. I have bought some cake dummies so I can practise my cake decorating on them and then when I do the real thing I have it already planned without making a hash of the cakes when I come to decorate them. I have one order for a valentines cake and the brief is for it to be iced in red with black roses on, he was very specific so I will be trying out my hand at making fondant roses so will hopefully be putting a few pictures of my attempts on soon. Bye for now and will catch up with everyone soon.

Latest DIY

Well here we are the first week over for January, how are you all surviving, especially those who have had all the recent snow. Didn't get much here in Warrington you blinked and it was gone. Anyway, thought I would put up a few more pictures of our latest DIY, this time we have been working on the hall and I now have full banister top and bottom of the stair,carpeted tread and laminated landing. If you look on earlier posts then you would have seen some pictures of my hubby preparing the walls. I must say he has done a wonderful job, however i did have a slight accident, when taking photos of his latest handiwork I somehow lost my bearings having thought I was on the bottom step when in fact I was three steps up, consequently as I stepped out it was into fresh air and I landed quite heavily on my ankle. A big OUCH oh the pain. I am please to say that I did not break it (wouldn't that have looked good ringing in to work on the first day back from Christmas Hols to say I had had a slight accident)anyway I have hobbled around for the last week and although it is still painful today most of the swelling has gone although i have some lovely black bruised all over my foot and ankle and a few other places too. I must also point out that we have had no banisters etc top and bottom on the stairs for the last 2 to 3 years and I had not fallen down them then so had to christen them once finished what a dope I am.