Princess Cupcakes

These little beauties, I must attribute to Camille, as they really were her little babies!

I saw some cupcakes on the Fairy Shop website (www.thefairyshop.co.nz) which I fell in love with and really wanted. At $3 a piece, they were a bit out of our budget so thought we would have a go at making our own.

After discussion with Camille about her mixed outcomes with cupcakes in the past (haha!), she shared that a friend of hers had used good old Betty Crocker's cake mix with some success. We got a box each of chocolate fudge cake and vanilla cake. I bought some Princess cupcake patty liners and heart and star sprinkles from the Chocolate Boutique in Birkenhead. Camille piped the mixture into the liners and the result was magnificant! They were perfectly flat and ready to ice, not to mention delicious!

We made a simple butter icing and coloured it pink. Raspberry essence was also added and I think that made all the difference. They were scrummy! Camille piped the pink icing in a circular direction and they looked great. Funnily enough, the vanilla ones were more popular than the chocolate! I was surprised at that. Needless to say, it will be Betty Crocker all the way with cupcakes in the future! They may end up more than $3 a piece though if I have to fly Camille up from Gisborne to make them for me at every party! :)

Princess Cake!

I will just preface this post and say that the following gorgeous creations were not my own, but I love them too much to leave out of my blog! :)

In keeping with Rose's Princess theme party, a suitable princess cake was in order. I found a picture in the Australian Woman's Weekly Kids Party book and gave it to Karen so she could hopefully recreate something similar. I have to say, I love what she created even more! The colours were great, the skirt full, and Rose totally loved it. We borrowed the tin from Noeleen next door and boosted her up with an additional round cake on the bottom. We used white Pettinice and coloured it pale pink and dark pink. We also kept a small amount of white for decorating. There was much debate about which Barbie to use but I am glad we chose Beach Barbie in the end. We took her legs off (which I still can't find!) and she looked fab.

The cake was a really great table decoration and conversation starter! I think it was a little girl's dream cake and I don't know how we will top it in future! :) Thanks Karen. :)

My Bugaboo Bee Liner

It has been on my "To Do" list to create a new buggy liner for my Bugaboo Bee stroller. I had to import it from the Netherlands as they don't sell this model in New Zealand so unfortunately I wasn't able to see what it was like "in the flesh" before I purchased it.

When it arrived I discovered it had quite a firm seat which wouldn't really be suitable for a small baby. Luckily Harry is a lot older so it wasn't an issue but I wanted to make a liner for it that would make it stand out a bit more and give it some interest.

I picked up a couple of remnants from Spotty for $2 and this is the result. The reverse is made of black fleece and it has a thick wadding inside. I had to make up the pattern myself as the Bee is an odd shape and although it isn't perfect, I am reasonably happy with it for my first attempt. I had to do nine large buttonholes for the stroller harness straps so that was good practice for me! I like how it has added a bit of interest to an otherwise boring black stroller.

Crayon Rolls

I decided to make crayon rolls as gifts for the loot bags at Rose's upcoming 4th birthday party. Most of the guests are little girls so I made floral ones for them and star ones for the boys using left over bits of fabric I had in my scrap bag. I got the idea from a tutorial I saw on someone else's blog but I just made up the dimensions and kind of worked out the method as I went.

I had quite a few bags to make and did it in the late evening when I was tired, so the sewing isn't perfect (my rounded corners are different on each one! lol) and some of them aren't perfectly rectangular either but I'm not too worried, they function as they should so that will be fine. :)

I bought gel pens to go inside from the $2 Shop. I thought they might be nice to take to church for quiet times on Sundays.