Bear and Bug's lemon drizzle cake.

Well hello there! What have you been up to this week? Anything fun? Got any big plans for the weekend? I will be working so no super fun plans for me, although i am hoping to get some sewing done, i have many many projects that need my attention (do you do that? Start things and then start something else.......i do, all the time!).

But today i want to talk cake. It was my father-in-law's birthday a couple of days ago so i decided to make him a little present. A little lemon drizzle cake.

First i got all my utensils together, decided how big to make my cake. I went for extra big (well it was his birthday...... so actually not such a little cake after all!).

Then i mixed together (in Betty my beautiful KitchenAid) 250g butter, 250g sugar, 250g self raising flour, 4 eggs, a dash of vanilla essence and two level teaspoons of baking power. I don't bother creaming the eggs with the sugar, i just bung it all in together and give it a good mix (not too much though as you don't want to over mix it).

I then put the mixture in the lined baking tin and off it went into the oven to bake at 170C for an hour and five minutes.

While it was still warm out of the oven i then jabbed it all over with a toothpick and covered it in a mixture of lemon juice and sugar. I then left it to cool for a bit.

Time to make it even more lemony! I made up a lemon icing with lemon juice and icing sugar and drizzled that over too. This was for extra lemon-ness. To be honest it is lovely if you just leave it with the lemon and sugar but i wanted it to have a bit more razzle dazzle so i made up an icing. That way you get crunchy sugar AND soft lemon icing. Yummy!

 

 Then all i had to do was cut it into slices and put it in a fancy box ready to give (i wanted it to be transportable as my father-in-law was going out for dinner after we saw him so it wasn't gonna be eaten as soon as it was given. Plus this way it looked more like a traditional present.

So if you fancy making a fairly straightforward cake, give it a go. It really is tasty!

Fabric buying.

Good morning! Are you well? I do hope so!

As i have mentioned i haven't been able to make much recently, something that i have found really tough. But that hasn't stopped me buying all the things i will need for when i can get back on track and get crafty once again!

So the other day i went a bit mad and bought a lot of fabric. A lot. And i love it all! The general idea is to use some of it to recover a couple of chairs that we have bought for the baby's room. We are going to re-paint the chairs bright colours and then recover the fabric part with new cheery fabric. I will of course show you once i have done this (or attempted to!). I have never done anything like this before so it will be a little bit of trial and error but i have read lots of tutorials so i think it should be ok (fingers crossed!).


Firstly i went into Cath Kidston. I live near and outlet store and got this fabric and the cowboy ribbons for pennies. Hooray!

I also bought some from Etsy. It can't be beaten for beautiful fabrics. I am totally in love with these new ones.

What do you think? Do you like them? Any other fab ideas on what to do with them would be very much appreciated!

Richard Scarry finds.

Now if you read this blog sometimes (and if you do, thank you very much!) you will know that i am a big fan of Richard Scarry.

It all started with 'the big orange book' as my sister and i used to call it. This was a book we loved when we were little that had lost it's dust jacket so had nothing on it but an orange hard cover. I was to later find out that this was Richard Scarry's Best Story Book Ever.

Ever since then i have loved all things Scarry. The sad thing is thought that the old original books are hard to come by, and his vintage fabric and other bits and bobs are even harder. But i always keep an eye out.

Recently i have made two brilliant Scarry based finds. The first was some beautiful vintage fabric on Ebay. It's mint green and wonderful. It was listed in Australia but i knew i had to have it, so i bought it. I am going to make something for the baby's room, i just don't know what yet. But i will of course show you as soon as i do.

Then a couple of days later i was having a quick browse in a charity shop and was delighted when i came across a Scarry book, and mine for only 50p. Amazing.

I will keep buying Scarry whenever i find it because the illustrations and stories are fab. Are you a Scarry fan?

Some of the crafty things i have been reading.

I love a craft magazine. I really do. Here are a few of the one's i have been reading of late.

Do you read these magazines? I have been a big fan of Mollie Makes for a while, but thought i might give some others a go. Any recommendations?

I find they give me lots of ideas.....Mmmmmm now what to make next......(well i have to find crafty things to do when i go on maternity leave. Hee hee........).

I'm back!

Well hello there! Are how are you? I do hope you are well.

I am so sorry that i have been a touch quiet of late. Ok, i have been very quiet. Silent in fact.

I promise that i am now back and will be blogging up a storm! I love my blog and all the crafty things i see and make and it has been hard not having the time to do and make and write. But now that things have settled down i can get back to normal. Hooray!

I haven't been making things during this little hiatus, but i promise this is about to change! I have however been reading a lot. Blogs, crafting magazines, basically anything that would give me that creative hit while i wasn't making anything myself.

During this time one woman who caught my eye was a lady called Olek. She is a world famous Polish born artist who now resides in New York. She crochets. Not just your usual blanket or rug but massive installations and street art sculptures. Amazing.

 
She is renowned for her quirky and unexpected projects, including a once legendary take-over of Wall Street’s Raging Bull, as well as installation projects on the New York subway and on the streets of downtown Manhattan. Her most recent project is a crochet locomotive in Lodz, Poland.

But what caught my eye was the fact that in May/June this year she spent two weeks in Covent Garden crocheting a mother and baby elephant to raise money and awareness for the endangered Asian elephants charity Elephant Family.

I didn't get to see them but i really wish i had.

What do you think? Have you seen any of her work? I absolutely love them!

I've been busy!

Well hello there! Hello? Is anyone still there?

I am so sorry that i have been very very quiet of late. Silent in fact. I have been up to quite a lot and my poor dear old blog has been the first casualty of it all.

But as way of explanation here's what i have been doing:

I bought a house. I have moved out of my lovely old flat and bought a even nicer one! I haven't been able to move in yet but will hopefully be there painting walls and making new things in a few weeks.

I got married. Yup, and it was a truly wonderful day.

And finally i'm having a baby! So lots of opportunity to make new Bear and Bug things to little pip (as we have taken to calling the baby).

So as you can see it has been a very eventful few months! I will probably be a little bit quiet for a few more weeks while everything gets settled but then i promise i will be back with lots of new Bear and Bug things. Watch this space!

A day in the sunshine.

Wasn't yesterday wonderful! The first proper day of spring. I wandered about without my coat on and even had a picnic. It was brilliant!

My dad and i went up to Greenwich to visit my sister, and we couldn't have had a better day for it. We decided to have our lunch in the park and then walked up to the Observatory.

 I spotted this chap when we went and had a mooch about the shops. Gotta love a nutcracker!

We then went into the best junk shop i have even been in. Room after room of all sorts of wonderful things. I spotted these 1980s milk bottles and couldn't resist. I'm going to put flowers in them.

What have you been up to in the sunshine?