Gaby's Baking Blog

Gaby's has finally finished her baking project, YAY!

 Here she is at the open evening showing off her cakes.

You can look at her project over at her blog -

http://gabrielles-recipes.blogspot.co.uk/

Gaby's Baking Blog

Gaby is doing this year's school extended study project based around a very old handwritten recipe book of our Great Grandmother.  She is trying out some of those recipes and in addition, collecting recipes from other family members to make her own collection of family baking.  She is compiling the recipes in a scrapbook and in a new blog, 'Gabrielle's Family Recipes' which you can find at

http://gabrielle-recipes.blogspot.co.uk/?m=0
Enjoy!

A Little Different ~ Sophie

 

I'm knitting and reading things that are not my usual choices this week.

 

The knitting is a mesh triangular scarf which I'm doing with a yarn which my mum bought back from one of her crafty outings.  The colours in it range from browns, yellows and greens into turquoise and lavender.  I like it but I would have never picked it up myself as it's not a combination I would usually be drawn to.  This is excellent as my collection of greeny/purple scarfs is probably in danger of getting out of hand!  When I am knitting it up against my turquoise cardigan it looks great. 

 

I am also reading books which are a little away from my usual choices.  I tried a Terry Pratchett book years ago and couldn't get into it.  Someone recently suggested I try, 'The Wee Free Men' so after having it sitting around for ages, I'm giving it a go.  I'm still not sure to be honest!

 

The audio book I have on the go is called 'The Garden of Evening Mists' by Tan Twan Eng.  I am very excited to say that I chose this from my library's free audio book service which has been going for a while but I have been unable to access.  They have updated their system and it's now easy to use.  I am really enjoying this so far, it is incredibly atmospheric.

 

I also just finished listening to 'The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year' by Sue Townsend.  'Nuff said!!

 

Gaby and I started listening to this at the weekend......

 

 

 

.....I love Jacqueline Wilson's books.  We found this and more whist having a mooch around the charity shops the other day.

 

 

I was really pleased with myself until I got home and realised that I got rid of the cassette player in the kitchen!  We do have one in the house, just not where I'm usually listening to books, but they were a bargain!

 

I'm linking this post to Ginny's Yarn Along

 

Back Again! ~ Sophie

Half term finished,  poorly children all back to school, new laptop purchased.  Finally a bit of time and decent equipment to actually post on our blog :)

 

So a few little random things we've been up to....

 

Going to see Gaby's favourite author, Darren Shan, talking and signing his new book, 'Zom-B' at our local Waterstones....

 

 

Using up my mum's blackberries.  I made jam and blackberry vinegar this year (and crumbles of course)!

 

 

 

I have got into the Lifebook course I started at the beginning of the year again and have also joined another Art Journal/Mixed Media Group, Wild Soul Arts.  I don't know why as I'm really behind with Lifebook, but it seems like my sort of place!  Here's a few random pages I've done this year. 

 

 

 

 

 This is the first 'art' I've done since leaving school so my confidence is not great but I feel like I've learnt a lot already.  I'm definitely going to sign up for next year's course and maybe some other online courses too.  I'm enjoying it a lot.

 

We have started having whole days respite for the boys so in half term we went to see 'Skyfall'.  I think this is the first time I have seen a James Bond film at the cinema since I saw 'The Living Daylights' with my Granny when I was about Gaby's age.  We all enjoyed it and it's nice to have a longer day to do things. 

As usual, I also have several different knitting, crochet and patchwork projects on the go as well as reading 5 different books at once.  Hopefully this laptop will last and I will be able share them soon and keep things here more up to date :)

School projects ~ Gaby

Long time no see! I have had hardly any time to write a post in ages because of a school project I have been doing recently. My topic, dyeing materials. I wrote and tried different techniques with the help of my granny and created a project with instructions and details of what I did. I also included different products I made with the textiles that I dyed. After this we had a celebration evening where we presented our projects to our parents. A couple of weeks after this we had a celebration day at Kilve Court. It was really fun and I can't wait till next year!

Here's some pictures of my project.....

Strawberries and Cream Cake ~ Gaby

Today I have made a really delicious strawberry and cream cake that was simple to make. Here's how I made ours: 

1. Make a plain sponge cake with a 6636 recipe (6oz butter,6oz sugar,3 eggs and 6oz self raising flour). 

2. Whip cream and half strawberries. 

3. When the cake is cooked and cooled, put the strawberries on first, then the cream. 

4. Decorate with strawberries and a dusting of icing sugar.

5. Enjoy your scrummy cake!!!!?

Decorative Name Board ~ Gaby

 As part of my New Years Resolution, I said to myself that I would decorate my room again for more of an 'older girl' look. My first idea was to use the letters in my name (G, A, B and Y) and make a decorative pattern on them. Lucky for me at a craft centre I found some 3D letters which Mum later bought for me.

To make the board I used,

• Wooden board
• Paint
• Gel medium (Cool craft glue)
• Card letters
• Tissue paper

  First I painted the board a nude, salmon colour and let it dry. Then I stuck the tissue paper to the letters with the gel medium. After everything is dried stick the letters onto the card et voila!

A Catch Up of Cake

We are having laptop issues at the moment, so here is a catch up of some cakes Gaby has been making...

A Mother's Day cake for me!

Some Easter cupcakes.

...and Gaby made this cake for her brothers' birthday. 

She's getting really good, they were all delicious!

My Birthday ~ Gaby

  Recently it was my birthday! We had loads of fun at Pizza express for my birthday party. Pizza, Chocolate sundaes and Twilight birthday cake, YUM!!!

  On my actual birthday my granny came round for tea and we had another twilight cake! (Next year I think we might change the themes...)

 I got loads of awesome prezzies, including LUSH  bath goodies, a bowl hand painted by mum, books, make up, vouchers and a notebook. Wow I was spoilt this year! Not that I never am or anything....

  Overall I had a good birthday and whenever your birthday is Happy Birthday!!!!

Strawberry Love Cakes ~ Gaby

 Hello and welcome to our blog, Arty Crafty Cakey Bakey!

 For our first post I decided to blog about some cupcakes I made yesterday. I added strawberry flavouring and red food colouring to our cake mixture to make them even more delicious than they were! I then poured the mixture into a heart shaped cupcake mould and cooked them (Obviously!) After they had cooled down I decorated them with white ready-to-roll icing and sugar flowers. They tasted amazing!