Striped Cake

You may remember me from previous cakes such as the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake last year. This year I didn't really have the time to go all out so made a rich chocolate sponge which I sandwiched and covered with buttercream (no-where near enough of it according to the Mr) and then covered in stripes of fondant.

Sewing Club: Bunting

A while ago my daughter gave me a bag of clothes which she wanted to sell in order to buy some bunting. There wasn't much in the bag that a second-hand shop or eBay could take, certainly not enough for her to afford bunting!

Thursday Sewing Club: Bandana Bibs

I've never been a big fan of the traditional bib so I was really excited when I discovered Skibz. Unfortunately, for me, the price tag is just too high. So today I had a go at making my own bandana style bib.

The first thing I did was to make a paper template. The triangle should be at least 14 inches along the top, but you will need to go much bigger if you want the bib to fit bigger babies and toddlers. I used this template to cut out the backing material - I used an old fleece blanket which had a stain in one corner.

Linky Saturday: Petite Cake Balls

I had a beautiful tower of cupcakes at my wedding, but then, these days, who doesn't? I'll tell you who, anyone who's seen these! Petite Cake Balls make beautiful little golf-ball-sized cakes and decorate them however you like. They're great for weddings, baby showers, corporate events... anything! Very different and very cool. Browse their website to see some amazing designs. I love the Elmo & Angry Birds ones particularly.

Tasty Friday: Banana Oat Muffins

I wanted a special breakfast to make the mornings easier to bear so thought I'd try making some banana oat muffins.

Kid Stuff: BeWILDerwood

Another link today, this time another guest post over at Love Norfolk about the fantastic BeWILDerwood. read and enjoy!

Tuesday Review: Lily Lolo Cosmetics

You'll have seen that I decided to go cruelty free with my beauty regimen, I've also decided to go natural. This means no harsh chemicals or synthetic fragrances, only nature's own wonders. With skin-care that seems pretty easy, there's loads of home-made recipes and tonnes of companies selling natural products.

Make-up is a whole different kettle of fish though and I struggled to find anything natural which didn't cost a fortune. I was really excited when @BEskincareful tweeted me to recommend Lily Lolo mineral cosmetics and eagerly browsed their beautiful site for products.

My first surprise was the really reasonable prices. As far as I can tell about half the price of other mineral make-up brands. The great thing is that you can get the foundations in little tester pots if you're not sure about what colour to get so you don't fork out for a full size which makes you look like an Oompa-Loompa.

I've only ever used cream based foundations before but there's a great video on the website which teaches you how to apply Lily Lolo so even I ended up looking pretty flawless on my first attempt. I used the Warm Peach foundation over most of my face and the slightly pinker Candy Cane on my cheeks. I also used the Translucent Silk finishing powder too but still my skin looked really natural. It really doesn't look like make-up,  you just look like you have naturally flawless skin. (OK, so I'm sounding a bit like an infomercial, but it really is good!)

I also got a couple of eyeshadows - Bronze Sparkle and Moonlight - which blend together beautifully and the Bitten PInk lip gloss (which is almost identical to my natural lip colour but gives a lovely subtle sheen!). On top of that I got a super smudgey black eye-liner and they chucked in a blue one for free!

All the make-up has amazing coverage, even the tester pots should last a while. I am a total convert to mineral make-up and the Lily Lolo range is beautifully packaged, beautifully made in the UK, natural and  also cruelty free. I'll definitely be buying more and I really wish they did a mascara too!

Cruel Cosmetics

I recently made the decision to go cruelty free with my cosmetics. This is everything I own and below is a breakdown of what I will be keeping and what I will be throwing away.

Linky Saturday: Feeling Stylish

Another great blog for you today, Feeling Stylish guides those of us with no taste through the treacherous world of fashion, beauty and style.

Tasty Friday: Celeriac Soup

In an effort to be healthy and save money I've been taking soup to work in my flask every day, but I realised that tinned soups are just horrible. We got a celeriac recently in our Riverford veg box and after seeing a recipe for celeriac soup on the River Cottage site I thought I'd give my own version a go!