Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 has been and gone and I hope that you all had a lovely, happy, family time; full of love, laughter and precious memories.

I was lucky enough to spend the day with my husband, children, parents and one of my sisters.  Unfortunately my other sister was at home in France and my brother lives in South Wales, but they were in our thoughts and hearts that day, as every day.

My fave pressie from my hubbie and my two fantastic kids... a little kitchen indulgence no less ;-)

Sprouts (and lots of them) were being prepared - I lurves sprouts - mine and dad's fave veggies.  But oh WOW I look sleepy eyed and fat in the face in this one. Hellooooo diet in January!

My Christmas angel; oh how she's growing up too fast.  Unfortunately the teen isn't one to pose for the camera, so I can't embarrass show you just how he's growing up and becoming a handsome young man before our eyes.

However, as you can see, not everyone was impressed with their new winter coat!  Or was it that fact that the Santa hat had been placed on her head?

Letraset Aquamarkers

As many of you know, I'm lucky enough to be a freelance demonstrator for Letraset. (Lucky mare or what?! LOL).

I recently made a few cards using their Aquamarker pens and want to share the results with you here.  The stamp is from the designer John Byars for DoCrafts.  Papers  are all from my scrap paper stacks and all embellishments are from my stash.

I used different colourways for each of the little boys in my images and for the bubbles I applied some Glossy Accents to give the bubbles a bit of shine and depth.

You can click on the images to get a more detailed look at the colouring/watercolouring techniques I've used.

I've applied the base colour to these dungarees from the pen using a damp paint brush pen and then used the same colour pen directly onto the image to add a more defined, darker/shadow area, which I then blended in to prevent too much of a harsh line.

Again I've used the same technique used on this card as the one above.

I applied my colour to the dungarees on this card with a damp paint brush.  By using this method, you get a much more subtle effect.  More akin to traditionally watercolouring an image.  I then applied another layer of the same colour to darken the shadow areas.

For this next card, I applied the colour to the card and then, using the blender pen 'washed' the colour into the image.  This gives a much more intense colour.

Using the black Aquamarker which I have diluted right down, I created a shadowed area at his feet.

I hope to get a YouTube video made in the next couple of weeks to show you how to use the Letraset Aquamarkers using the techniques above.  I'll keep you posted!

Hodgson's Barn plus 4 girls

I had a wonderful long weekend away at the beginning of the month in a beautiful part of Yorkshire with 3 lovely ladies; Kirsty Wiseman, Roz Carter & Janet Bower.

Apart from chilling out BIG stylie, watching DVDs, chatting, laughing, crafting we had our very own Come Dine With Me experience.

First up was Roz with Breakfast at Tiffany's:

Bucks Fizz to start

Muffins with smoked salmon and dill.  The other girls had a wonderful poached egg and hollandaise sauce with theirs, but as I can't eat egg, this was my 2nd course & delish it was too!

Followed by waffles, served with maple syrup and creme fraiche.  With a wonderful cup of tea, served in china cups and saucers.

Kirsty wasn't hung over; she was being all Audrey Hepburn and wearing her shades indoors

This is a picture you'll never see again; me with out make up or eve lipstick (one for the diary!!!)

We wore pearls around our necks.

Oh, how very rude Mrs Wiseman!!! LOL

Janet; at least you posed for me nicely and it's a lovely pic of you too. x

I prepared a picnic for my dining experience;

Pink plates, cups and napkins.  Pink lemonade.  Little triangular cut sandwiches.  Nuts, nibbles, biscuits and crisps.

Followed by pink and white marshmallows, pink Smarties, pink butterfly candles and home made raspberry & chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting and fondant butterflies.

It's a wonderful setting for the converted barn that we hired; in the Yorkshire Moors with a gorgeous view and, as you can see, an eery full moon shining through the skeleton tree into the living room! Schpooky!

Kirsty had us go all mexican for her experience.  But first she drew us each a hat and we had to decorate them in a Mexicano theme.

Roz chose to stitch hers with dangly bits, while looking all moody and butch in her 'tash!

Janet went a little bit camp and premature with her Sombrero (look carefully for a surprise!)

Kirsty wasn't exactly butch with her colour theme either, but she did show us her amazing pair of guns! HAHA!

Me?!! OMG !!! I drew a rather large cactus but my Mexicano has a bit of a problem methinks and was rudely making suggestions to the camera :-o

Sol with lime - only for the hard amongst us!

Or those who like to lick limes...?!

ATG Guns at the ready - gonna shoot my tape all over you if you come any nearer!!!

Cheers Amigo - we scared them off with our sharp rootin' tootin' shootin'!

But when Camp Amigo makes another appearance with the pink ATG gun; the others go all butch and macho and show off their muscles!

Kirsty served us wonderful chicken fajitas, guacamole, refried beans - and a whole Mexicano kit and kaboodle of lush foodiness.

Unfortunately I can't find the pics of Janet's Dining Experience - dunno where they've gone to?!?!?!?!  Kirsty and I decorated ourselves a Fez, though I had to write on mine what it was just incase anyone was wondering what that large red squareish thing with a plume of black was on my head.

But she cooked the most amazing Lamb tagine with giant Moroccan cous cous.  Served with olives (yeuch!) flatbreads, hummus, mixed nuts, orange & lemon sliced served up with some tasty minted green tea.

Our winner by a unanimous 3 to 1 vote was...... JANETTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!  Though she is yet to share the lamb tagine recipe with us all as we ALL wanted to cook it ourselves ;-)

All in all this is what I thought of my weekend away with the girls...

Loved my relaxing few days in Yorkshire.  It's a long drive but so very worth the miles.

Missed the family and was very glad to be home safely again on Monday afternoon to pick my poppet up from school.  Now... back to my diet (I NEVER eat as much in a week as I did in those 3 days away!)

Freycob's Food - Sausage Casserole

I've just blogged a recipe for Sausage Casserole over on my food blog.

If you decide to have a go at making this yourself, please remember to let me know what you think of it.

Rosie
x

Hobbycraft show at the NEC

I've been priming my pens and getting my samples ready for my Letraset demonstration at the NEC on Saturday 5th November.

You can find me demonstrating their new Flexmarkers on the Craft At Home stand. Please pop by and say hello if you're going. I'll be wearing my name badge so you'll know it's me!

Hopefully see you there.
X

What an amazing day!

I had a truly amazing day yesterday (29th). Two reasons; it was my mum's 74th birthday and we had a family meal out, but before that I attended a course on cupcake decorating with Holly Bell (one of the finalists from the Great British Bake Off).

The theme of the day was creatures & flowers. We were welcomed by the very smily (and very genuinely warm & friendly) Holly at Bridge 67 Cookery School in Smeaton Westerby, Leics. We enjoyed a bite of breakfast over coffee, tea and juice, where we introduced ourselves and were presented with our itinerary and the most comprehensive & detailed set of instructions you could hope for.

Our day in the kitchen then began with a demonstration of Holly's recipe to make the cupcakes. Then it was our turn to make ours. 12 cupcakes made & cooling later and it was on to making the fondant decorations.

Following a demonstration and with the aid of the wonderfully detailed set of instructions, we first cut some butterflies, flowers & leaves, formed them & left the to dry. (Forgot to photograph these, sorry!)

Next came the cutest little snails. I was surprised that mine did actually look like snails and not just strange slugs, but they really did! *happy dance*

We moved on to ladybirds & rose buds, followed by tortoises and plant pots. By now we were all flying with confidence under Holly's expert guidance.

A break for lunch brought us beautifully crafted & presented sandwiches, crisps and home made biscuits to die for! There was even a glass of wine for those who wanted it!

Back into the kitchen afterwards we made buttercream that was as smooth and light you could float away as if on a cloud.

Now the assembly began! The buttercream was tinted as green as grass in the sunniest of meadows and our we 'planted' our roses and sat our ladybirds down in the sun beside them.

We rolled fondant & impressed a wood grain effect ready to place our snails; complete with a leaf or two to munch on.

Green fondant became grass on which our tortoise sat beside a pretty little plant pot of blooms.

A white full moon background became home to our owls; resting on a branch being all wise and seeing.

While others made ducks, I made robins and sat them on the sea of a swirly blue bird bath.

Holly taught us to pipe 'roses', 'swirls' and 'high hat' with buttercream on which we 'landed' our butterflies before we painted, glitzed and embellished them to shine & sparkle.

We were given lovely gold cake boxes into which we brought our creations home to share with our loved ones.

Mine came with us to the restaurant (complete with my cake stand) as a centrepiece for mum's birthday. Mum loved them & they also received admiring glances and complimentary remarks from the waiters & waitresses too.

We sadly had to leave Holly and the cookery school at 5:15pm, but not before we were each given a bag of her wonderful homemade biscuits to enjoy later with a cup of tea.

Armed with the wonderful memory of a fantastic day with a fabulous teacher in the company if some truly talented and lovely ladies, not to mention incredibly detailed notes for our future creations, we hugged and sadly said our farewells. Not goodbye but see you again in the future!

Holly, I wish you the best of everything I would hope for myself. You have a wonderful personality, a kind nature & a skill in presentation & teaching that many would envy! May your future take you to the moon & back. Your butterfly wings have grown; let them unfurl and you will fly!

Love, hugs and thanks xxx