Cupcakey goodness in the mail!

I had a wonderful surprise when I opened our mailbox the other day. A little 'package of goodness' from Saucy.

Saucy has a blog full of fun called 'Saucy's Sprinkles', she showed some of these pretty cards on her blog and said they were available at 'Michaels'. The artwork on the cards is by Jenny and Aaron (I LOVE their work). As there is no Michaels here in NZ Saucy sent this package full of GORGEOUS surprises to me!!

We'd both given up all hope of them arriving as the package took almost 3 months to get here from Canada! (Sound familiar Debra?)

I have big plans for using some of these little pretties in the 'cupcake corner' of my kitchen.

Thank you Saucy, you made our day!

Liberty has been drawing cupcakes ever since your package arrived, this is my favourite one. There is a little beret on the left and that's a bicycle going up the side of the frosting because she saw the 'tour de France' on the news last week and of course the Eiffel tower.

Now I have to make a few dozen real cupcakes...there's a Carnival party happening here in the weekend!

Ah, yes, the world needs more cupcakes!

Mercedes

The Prettiest Easter Ever!

A couple of weeks ago Sylvia sent me a pic of some beautiful eggs she was decorating to hang in her house for Easter. I told her that here in New Zealand people don't decorate their houses for Easter. And being the lovely person that she is Sylvia said she would make some eggs for Liberty. Well, I think it was about two days later that she said she'd sent them. Talk about a fast worker! The eggs finally arrived yesterday. Sylvia was beginning to think we would have to use them as Christmas decorations because they were taking so long to get here. I'm finding the mail service is very erratic, I guess they play by their own rules.

So here are Liberty's eggs. We went to the park next to our house yesterday and found a suitable dead branch to hang them on - not easy as it's just the end of summer here and the trees still have their leaves.

No two of those eggs are the same, unbelievable, absolutely beautiful. I just can't stop looking at them. The colours are perfect. Every time Liberty took one out of the box she said, "This is my favourite".

Knowing my love for tin signs (a love we both share) Sylvia sent me this little pretty!

And as always she included the cutest mini, this time one of her hand made little buckets.

It was so wonderful to get such lovely mail yesterday when Liberty was sick, it lifted both our spirits. Liberty was all better today although she woke up way to early, 5am! Thankyou to everyone who asked after her. I have managed to get a 'little' something done today. You miniaturists may have noticed the mini Easter tree picture I put up there to tantalise you, well... (too cute bunny candle from Sylvia too!)

They had these Easter earrings at my local craft store, as soon as I saw Sylvia's eggs I wanted to make her some mini ones. So I dismantled the earrings and painted and embellished all the little eggs (the earrings were on sale so I was able to buy lots! - actually all they had!!) to make a mini Easter tree...and Sylvia, your mini eggs will be on their way in the morning...so start looking for a little tiny 'branch'.

And how cute is the card Sylvia sent Liberty.

Ah, yes, Easter has never been prettier around here!

Mercedes

Little Baby Shoes

Aren't baby shoes just the cutest things! A few weeks ago I finally framed Liberty's first walkers. I LOVE those little pink spotty shoes! And today...

I finally made them in 1:12 (well roughly)! Frame is just over 1 inch high.

And just because I'll use any excuse for a baby pic, here are the shoes in action on her first birthday!

I'd like to thank everyone for all the lovely comments you leave. I can't believe so many people thought the dollhouse bedroom was real. That has to be the ultimate achievement! Thank you all so much!

Mercedes

Rosebuds

And before all you miniaturists think this is miniature, I'd just like to say, 'I'm clever, but not THAT clever'! LOL!!

I'm posting this for my friend Saucy who has just posted an amazing tutorial on her blog about how to make frosting roses.

This is Liberty's first birthday cake. I absolutely LOVE rosebuds so I had a friend who is a cake decorator come over and he showed me how to make little rosebuds. They're not made from frosting, it was fancy cake decorator icing and I was able to make them a few days in advance.

I made some cupcakes too and I have to say I am much better at making them now but the little monkey did enjoy them!

The WISH letters are wooden and I covered them with scrapbooking paper and now they are on her bedroom wall.

Y'know sometimes I still can't quite believe I have a daughter! I found out when I was pregnant that I was having a girl but never actually believed it until she'd been born. We waited many years for her and she was definitely worth the wait!

Award Time!

Thank you Rosanna, Marlies and Every Little Thing for passing this award on to me! It means a lot to me that so many people like what I do!

As a recipient of the award I have to list just five of the many things I am addicted to:

1) Finding a bargain! It's almost become my mission in life to not pay full price for anything!

2) French things...of course nothing in the picture is really from France most of it's made in China! (Yes, everything pictured was either a bargain or given to me as a gift)

3) Scrapbook paper...too many pretty ones, just can't help myself!

4) Books. Especially childrens books and home decor books. These are (some of) Liberty's books, the ones on the top shelf I have made her myself.

5) Clocks. This gorgeous clock is from Liberty's room. I have to put it in the kitchen every night because I can hear it ticking through the bedroom wall, my hubby thinks I have supersonic hearing 'cos he can't hear it. I also have to close the kitchen and lounge doors at night because there are many more clocks out there and their ticking at night drives me nuts too!

Now to pass the award on to five other blogs. This will be tricky!

Sylvia whose minature work is outstanding, so realistic.

Lissu whose Gustavian furniture is absolutely beautiful.

Pussman who is mutli-talented and makes beautiful miniatures, super cute softie kittys and is redecorating her real house at the same time.

San who has to be the most ambitious miniaturist around building, furnishing and people-ing a Maharajah's Palace.

Shannon who appears to be 'missing in action' but is building the most beautiful dollhouse with the most exquisite furniture.

A little paint

Last summer I decided I had had enough of looking at my old dining suite (actually I really hated it!). I bought it about 18 years ago when I was single and had money and back then it was just the most beautiful thing! Here's a picture of Liberty standing beside it when she was a baby (a friend's grandma made her the funny hat and poncho).

I had been telling my husband for ages that it would look better painted white, I'm not sure he believed me. So while he was away on a business trip I painted it with undercoat. When he came back home he was very surprised at how much better it looked already and a couple of weeks later he finished painting it for me. I can't tell you how much happier I am with that old dining suite now, actually I love it!

That was a year ago and several friends asked me at the time if I was going to 'distress' the table. I never did distress it but of course the ravages of time, crafts and children are working their magic on it and it is slowly becoming 'aged' in a meaningful way!

Last year I bought a second hand dresser to go in the dining area. Here's how it looked, you may notice it has no handles, we took them off the moment we got it home because they were sooooo hideously ugly.

Of course my husband knew straight away it would have to be painted so...just after Christmas before we went on our summer holiday...out came the white paint again and three days later it was back in place completely transformed. Even I can't believe how good this turned out! And I don't think my husband will ever doubt me again when he hears me say,"Maybe WE should paint this"!

Mercedes

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope you are having a lovely day! Here's a heart mosaic I made because I had always wanted to buy one but when I found out how simple it was to make a mosaic I made my own...and yes, it was great fun smashing the plates!
And here are some mini hearts for the miniaturists out there. I was looking at Marlies Dutch website and found this tutorial on how to make a wreath - thanks Marlies! Now, I don't understand a word of Dutch but she had very helpful pictures. I used some waxed thread to make my wreaths and was easily able to shape them into hearts. And here's what Liberty found the Valentine's Day fairy had left in her room over night - a pretty little row of hearts pegged to the valance at her window. She noticed them straight away!

And lastly what's the use of having a heart shaped cake pan if you don't make a Valentine's Day cake. Liberty had the cake pan out of the cupboard at the crack of dawn, that girl lives to bake...and eat cake mixture...and icing! As soon as she saw the hearts on top (she was busy licking the icing bowl when I did them) she said,"Did you use cookie cutters to make those hearts mum?" and she was right, it worked surprisingly well. I just put the cookie cutters on while the icing was still fairly wet and sprinkled the 100's & 1000's in them and carefully pulled the cutters off. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!! (That's just a little expression we have here in NZ, not sure if it's worldwide!)

Enjoy your day!

Mercedes

Little pretties!

I'll start by clarifying this isn't a post about miniatures. My dear friend Frederica always gets confused when people switch from minatures to 'real life' LOL!!

I was in one of my favourite shops in the city the other day, it's called 'Japan - We sell everything $3' except now there's an economic decline everything is $3.40! They sell almost anything you can imagine there, it's a great place to rummage, it's so jammed packed with stuff. Anyway, I saw these gorgeous little mugs there and I commented to my friend that I was sure I had some scrapbooking paper that looked a bit like that. I bought the cups and came home to find that I had the exact same design on my scrapbook paper! How amazing is that! The scrapbook paper came in a pack of 'Dena's Closet' and I bought it in Australia about two years ago.

I used the paper for Liberty's second birthday scrapbook pages. Unfortunately I only have a little square of it left now 'cos it would have been funny to have been able to make coasters to match the cups.

And Emma I can almost hear you saying, "Only YOU could find those cups"!

Hope you've all had a great day!

Mercedes

More cupcakes!

Oh my Goodness!! Just take a look at what I got in the mail today. These gorgeous cards and ornaments are made by Jenny and Aaron at Every day is a Holiday . I ordered them on Christmas Eve when I had been in the kitchen doing my ‘last minute panic all day bake-athon’. I finally decided ‘to hell with the exchange rate, I’m gonna get myself something I’d really like’.

Jenny and Aaron are the most wonderfully kind, generous and creative people. They even sent me gifts because of the delay in posting!! And took the time to include a little hand written note. It’s actually quite surreal having these little pretties here because I’ve been following their blog for some time and I can’t quite believe I have their work in my own home now. And it's oh so much more beautiful in real life!

Liberty claimed the chocolate cupcake decoration for her room ‘because it has a cherry on top and that’s how cupcakes should look mum’! I'm thinkin' a whole row of them would look soooo darned cute.

The cards look so perfect here in my house. However, I think my little sister may be calling me when she sees I have the raven card.

If you haven’t been to the Every Day Is A Holiday blog I suggest you take a little trip to cupcakey gorgeousness there now!

Cupcakes!

I did a course in mosaics at the end of last year and this cupcake picture is the first thing I made. It's about 40cm x 27cm (16ins x 10.5ins)It was going to go outside on the playhouse but it turned out way better than I expected and is the perfect colour for the kitchen so that's where it's found a home. There's not much wall space in the kitchen but I found a perfect little spot behind the glass door.


I don't know what it is about cupcakes that makes them so universally appealing! My friend Katrina gave me this gorgeous tea towel (way too nice to be used as a tea towel) for my birthday.

The little lovlies I found at Kmart they came in a three pack but I gave one away. They were filled with lollies.

And these are the real thing...I'm slowly mastering the perfect cupcake.I've discovered it has a lot to do with how long you mix everything for, it takes a fair bit of patience, especially when your cake mixer belonged to your mother and it makes such a racket the neighbours can probaby hear it. I took some to a party before Christmas and I heard someone say as they ate one 'mmmmm, the rumours ARE true'! I'm also mastering buttercream frosting. Frosting isn't something that's used much in NZ, we just use ordinary old icing (water, flavouring, tiny bit of butter and icing sugar). That buttercream has added a whole new dimension to my cupcake making...and my waistline!