Pirates, cakes and more cakes!

It is Hastings Old Town Carnival week and I have been loving the festivities, especially pirate day. I spent the day at work dressed as a pirate, singing sea shanties and face-painting. Then we all headed into the old town for some more pirate themed fun. There were supposed to be sea shanties being performed in a little old town pub, so me and the work colleagues decided to go check it out. But to our dismay the sea shanties had been cancelled! Not that that stopped us, we started our own impromptu sea shanties singing session instead, all good fun.

But on my travels from pub to pub I spotted the window display in Interior Illusions, a shop on Hastings old town highstreet. I loved the cute floral tea cups (even though I don't drink the stuff) the cupcake fridge magnets, the chocolate scented calculator, the polka dot cupcake trinket boxes and most of all, I loved the flannels and towels that were made to look like swiss roll and cupcakes! Who knew that something as ordinary as a flannel could be made to look so appealing!?

And now, after flicking through the Tv Channels I have spotted that 'Ace Of Cakes' is on, so I'm going to settle down to watch some crazy professional cake baking and decorating in action. I would love to work there... this crayons cake is one of my faves.

bargains, soup and sunshine!

Well lovely Bloggers, it's a beautiful day! The sunshine is out and the shops are open, So I thought I would see if I could grab myself a bargain or two! I spotted a new shop in town that had only just opened, and decided to have a little peek. It is a clothes shop but to my delight they had some home bit and bobs at the back hidden away. I managed to buy this cute little mug complete with polka dot fairy cake design and the slogan, 'I love Fairy Cakes' on it, for £1! I also got two photo frames for £1 each and a lovely little floral material lined white basket, for £3... not a bad little bundle of purchases all for the princely sum of £6!

I also felt the urge to treat myself to a bit of a Marks and Spencer lunch. None of the sandwiches were really doing it for me, so i got a gorgeous slab of cheese, onion and mustard bread instead. It was delicious sliced up and dunked into my broccoli soup! yummmo!

Rice Crispie cakes, Homemade Hummous and Peanut butter cookies

Well my fellow bloggers and blog-readers! I have been baking again this week, First on the Agenda... peanut butter cookies. There is something I LOVE about the slightly salty sweetness of these crunchy-on-the-edges-and-soft-in-the-middle cookies. They also make a perfect little treat for me to have for my lunch at work this week!

These are my special rice crispie cakes.... they are divine! The rice crispie base is made with a bit of butter mixed with melted Mars Bars... heavenly! Topped with creamy milk chocolate, and left to set in the fridge.

I also made (for the first time) my own hummous from scratch. It all went according to plan, making my own tahini paste, adding, garlic, oil, lemon, chickpeas, until it came to the addition of red peppers. Unfortunately they were quite juicy and it only served to water down the hummous and make it taste a tad bland. I think perhaps next time I might make a spicy hummous, with either chilli or jalapeno's. But loathe to waste food, I teamed it with some mini toasted pitta breads and some olives and it went down a treat!

Ooh! Me and my boyfriend have been putting our green fingers to use as well. We have been growing our own pepper plant... and this is the first of our mini harvest! It's great fun growing your own food and I highly recommend it! This little Pepper certainly isn't as large or perfectly shaped as the peppers from supermarkets but it is extra special as it was grown with my own two hands! :D

The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful!

I bought two beautiful new glass cake stands in the sale, only £4 for each tier! So I thought it only right that I bake some new cupcakes to adorn my new cake stand! The first batch I made were Peanut Butter Cupcakes with peanut butter icing:


INGREDIENTS

55g butter
225g soft light brown sugar
115g crunchy peanut butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g plain white flour
2tsp baking powder
100ml milk

(frosting)

100g full-fat soft cream cheese
50g peanut butter
25g butter
225g icing sugar

I have also made some Chocolate Orange Cupcakes:

85g butter, softened
85g caster sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
85g self-raising white flour
50g chocolate chips
grated rind and juice of 1 small orange

(Topping)

1 orange
55g caster sugar
15g toasted flaked almonds

However.... something went profoundly wrong somewhere in the baking process... and they sunk... a lot! I think I was probably daydreaming whilst mixing the ingredients and didnt measure them out properly. The one good thing is that they tasted amazing, zesty and sweet, but they were very tricky to eat as they were about 0.5 millimetres thick. Hehe... I think I might have to try them out again tomorrow.

My latest Etsy Creations!

Well my lovely bloggers, I have spent my evening surrounded by canvases and up to my elbows in paint... All in the name of Etsy! I was commisioned to do a painting and I was on a bit of a roll and ended up painting for three hours straight and completing five paintings. So I thought I would share them with you.

Blue dress with buttons, bows and polka dots

Purple eyes with purple eyeliner (SOLD)

Chocolate Cupcake with blue polka dots

Cherry Cupcake with red polka dots

Multi-coloured crayons

I'm planning on getting them all up for sale in my Etsy shop (http://www.allaboutabbie.etsy.com/) as soon as possible. I also have lots more ideas, paint and canvases left, and hopefully on my next day off I will begin my next series of paintings.

Please check out my shop and the items I have for sale. Thanks, Abbie.

Handmade teaching resources

I have just found out which school I will be placed in for my third year of primary teacher training... and it has got me enthusiastic about building up a bank of ideas for lessons and teaching materials. When preparing for lessons, I find myself using the internet to search for teaching resources, but it's always difficult to find exactly what I want and need. So I have resorted to using my creative side to make my own resources a lot of the time as it saves so much time and effort (and sanity) because, quite often, it takes me less time to make something than it does trawling the web...

So I thought I would compile a few little gems I have found whilst (ironically) trawling the internet. I also thought I would showcase a few nice pieces by my fellow Etsians. This little Etsy shop sells teaching resources made from felt: Edufelt and More. I particularly like this little set to help teach "The Very Hungry Caterpiller". This lovely little felt set would be a really nice resource to help young children sequence events in a story and use as visual aids for their writing.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24489327

I also really like this very cute, sign to hang up in the classroom. Made by Bumblebina, another Etsy seller. When I do (eventually) finish my teacher training I would love one of these little signs to hang in my classroom.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6338215

Oh... and I really like this bag.

getting creative with a needle and thread!

This is the first little blog post I have done about the bits and bobs I have been making for my Etsy shop, and I think it is about time too! I have been taking a different route slightly... and have gone away from painting and drawing and have decided to have a go at creating a few bits with my trusty needle and thread. Neither of the bits are completely finished but they are my starting point. I thought I would share them with all you lovely people through my blog. Please let me know what you think, I would welcome your comments and feedback.

The polka dot, bows and buttons purse

I'm planning on recycling a few old tops and t-shirts to make a few more pieces to sell in my Etsy shop (follow the link on the right to check out some of my pieces that I'm selling). I've drawn up a few ideas and hopefully I can make a start on them tonight

flowers purse

Also, one quick thing... I really want one of these for my baking! Every good batch of cupcakes deserves to sit beautifully on a polka dot cake stand!

polka dot cake stand