Sunday Afternoons

Every now and then I get to have a crafty Sunday afternoon and if I am lucky I might even have company, this Sunday was one of those Sundays. DD is a Brownie (which she loves) and we were emailed last week about the Braiswick Handicraft Show, which we are encouraged to encourage our DD's to take part in. We have been sent a list of crafts that they can attempt. Now I am being honest here, by saying that if I got to enter I think I would have an entry for everything, but DD is a little more reserved so she picked out two. Posy of three paper flowers and a necklace of handmade beads. After a trip The Range for supplies, we sat down together. DD chose to do the necklace first, we had talked through a couple of options, like paper beads, but DD chose Fimo (good choice). She picked her colours red, white & blue to go with the theme of the jubilee and got to work.

First she rolled out the Fimo.

Then she measured, marked & cut to get the beads roughly the same size.

She rolled to get the bead shape.

Then she skewered them, this puts the hole through the middle & also helps them in the oven. Mummy puts them in the oven for required time.

Once cooled, DD then threads them on some elastic in her chosen pattern.

Hey presto! We have a finished necklace, ready for the handicraft show. Next task the posy of paper flowers.

What was I doing I hear you ask, well I was making this very yummy Rhubarb Bakewell Tart, recipe courtesy of The Caked Crusader. I have never used rhubarb before in a recipe, but I will definitely be making this again, it is very yummy. So there we have it my crafty sunday afternoon, very productive I think.

It's a family affair

Last weekend was the Eclectic Keepsakes crop and this month I had company, my Sister Liz tagged along. Liz got married last year and in my excitement in the run up to the big day I found a scrapbook wedding album and kit. Liz had an amazing photographer for her big day, who took hundreds of fabulous photos and Liz wanted to finally start on her album. Liz has never scrapbooked before, so it was a learning curve for her.

As always the ladies at Eclectic Keepsakes made us feel very welcome, it was a small session this month, I think that lots of the ladies were on holiday, with this in mind Karen decided not to do the class, which worked in our favour as we got to do more work on Liz's album (she has ALOT of photos).

This is Liz working on one of her pages, together we worked on eight pages and I have instructions from Liz to carry on, it will be a work in progress over the next few months. I think that Liz enjoyed herself, she said that she would come again which is a good sign. It was just nice hanging out with my baby Sister and doing  something that I love.

So I did none of my own layouts at the weekend, but I did make cupcakes for my Dad's Birthday, I used a recipe from a blog that I found mentioned in a book. The blog title is The Caked Crusader and if you love making cakes or if you just love cake you should check it out. I made Spiced beer cupcakes with honey buttercream, I was drawn to this recipe as the caked crusader used Adnams, which my Dad loves. The recipe was a hit with my Dad :)

So last weekend was all about family which was lovely, I know that my Mum and Dad love it when we all get together, I am glad that we could make their weekend.