being creative in the kitchen

It's my daughter Traci's 27th birthday today, and we've both taken the day off work to spend together. But I thought I should make a special birthday cake for her this year, so I attempted to make a Red Velvet Cake.
Amongst the ingredients it has 30ml of red food colouring in it and 2 desert spoons of cocoa, and 6 eggs, and made a rather large cake! I used 3 tins and everything was going well until I tried to get them out of the 'well greased tins' and you can guess what happened next! (of course the name of my blog gives it completely away!!)
Anyway they stuck to everything including the tin, one cake broke completely in half, one cake split in half, half sticking to the tin and half coming out, and one almost came out ok, but left a chunk in the middle stuck to the tin. You can imagine by now that I'm being very good natured about all this!

But once the icing had gone on, you couldn't tell any difference. Doesn't it look gorgeous? And of course it has to have birthday bunting! lol

The best thing was that Traci loved it! And my it did taste good! The frosting in the layers and on the outside was made of cream cheese and white chocolate, mmmmmmmm!!!!

However, as nice as it tastes, I'm not sure that I will make another on any time soon!!

Gotta go, cake's waiting!

Carole x

Here is the link to the recipe I used. (for those brave women amongst you!)

don't do as I do!

Just thought I'd pop in and tell you all not to do as I do, or I should say did. I was using some white PVA glue. When I was finished I thought I'd wash my brush, so I put some water in this jar and left my brush sitting in it.
However, I forgot completely about it and in due course the water evaporated and I was left with just glue in the bottom of the jar. Now I have a totally useless brush! So don't do as I did!

What cautionary tales can you share, and do you have any helpful tips from your art room?
Look forward to hearing them.
Carole x

playing on a Sunday

It's been a bit quiet in my sewing room over the last few weeks, but today I added a couple of touches to a project to make it ready to send off in the mail. Wonder where it will pop up next?

What have you been working on over the weekend?
Carole x

If you are passing through Rotorua...

Mr M&M takes a dip in the naturally heated spa pool

There are two places you should take time to visit if you can. One is Kerosene Creek.
It's about 25km south of Rotorua and is signposted on the main highway. Turn off the highway and it's a short drive down a narrow metal road.
It is a creek in the middle of the bush, which has two pools fed by waterfalls in it, with nice hot water. It's quite popular but you need to make sure you don't leave anything of interest in your vehicle. We've been there several times and never had any problems, but there are lots of tales of cars being broken into.

The second place to visit is the Whakarewarewa forest.

Redwood Memorial Grove track

It's know for all the Redwoods growing there and there are loads of tracks of varying levels and times. Something for everyone. It's an amazing place. Most of the Redwoods were planted around 1901and stand approx. 67 metres tall.

Now that the mini-breaks are over and the book is finished it's back to stitching!
Keep warm and dry everyone, summer is on its way!
Carole x

a baby and a quilt

 I know you've been waiting patiently for this post, and I've been very quiet of late, but we've had a lovely trip to Auckland to meet our first grandchild, Neve.
And of course a new baby is a great excuse to make a new quilt!

Granddad has his first cuddle

 Neve is now 2 weeks old, and what a gorgeous wee thing. So small, so perfect and so sleepy.

I get to have a wee cuddle too

I think I could quite possibly bought her home with me!

And here is her wee cot quilt in pinks, lemons and lavender.

Have a lovely week everyone and I promise not to fill this blog with photos of Neve!

Carole x

Neve has arrived!

Neve Catherine born 2.30pm Sunday 1st July.

Mother, father and baby doing well.

Grandparents thrilled. 

I'll share a photo when I get one.

Thanks for all your good wishes.

Carole x