Rainbow Cake!

A few weeks ago, LJ asked me if I would lend a hand in making a cake for a colleague's baby shower. She wanted an interesting cake but nothing too fancy, a nice simple design for the outside, but when it came to deciding on the filling I remembered a cake that I'd seen months ago here - the Super Epic Rainbow Cake.



Image sourced from http://illusion.scene360.com/food-drinks/5998/super-epic-rainbow-cake/

What makes this cake so cool is that it's creamy white exterior gives no hint to the total madness going on inside, which made it perfect for the baby shower cake - nice, plain and elegant on the outside, but crazytown when it's cut into.

So the plans were planned, the ingredients were bought and the aprons were...left in the cupboard (although in hindsight they would have been a really good idea)



Coloured cake batter waiting for baking



We only had one pan so each layer had to be baked, cooled slightly and turned out before the pan was cleaned and prepped for the next layer

 Being the intelligent people that we are we didn't start baking till about 9:30 at night. Consequently, we were up till about 11:30 waiting for the final layer to come out of the oven. As a result of the late night and subsequent sleep deprivation, no more photos were taken until we made it to the next night - icing night.

And the stacking began

Another layer

And another



And another



Until they're all stacked up

Ta-da!

Another layer of icing for smoothness

And the final layer of rolled fondant - note the ridiculous quantities of icing sugar

A bit of smoothy smoothy action

A quick finish with a black ribbon and an expertly cut out stork sillouhette and we're ready for a baby shower

The cake was very well received by the mum to be and the rest of the party and only a small slice survived the journey home for the rest of us to try.

Post demolition

Yum! Tastes like rainbows!

Commissions Galore!

These last few weeks have been quite exciting on the knitting front (that's not something you'd hear everyday I'll bet). I received my first two commissions. Yup, people want me to make them things.

The first wasn't really a new commission, it was more of one that I'd agreed to prior the shop and my dreams of handicraft domination began being realised. I believe the deal was struck at the local pub one Friday afternoon during after-work drinks. But, regardless of the circumstances, the deal was struck and once I was reminded of it... I got to work making it happen.

And the results:



Charming Eyelet Handwarmers

Aren't they sweet? I'm quite proud of this pair - I had the idea of using rows of eyelets to jazz up an otherwise plain stitch and as I knitted along I decided on the wrist level row. You can't see the eyelets too well in these photos as my model has teeny tiny hands and they were knitted for a lady with more medium size hands, but you get the idea.

This soft snuggly little pair made up my second sale. Thanks Zelucie!

The second commission came from a friend of mine who is heading to Europe in a few months' time. Bec, who authors pour ameliorer (a blog for all things renovation) asked me to create some warm things to keep her from turning into an iceblock on Anzac Day in Gallipoli. We talked about what she wanted and came up with two items.

A cloche hat similar to:

Courtesy of craft-recipes.com

and a scarf based on this pattern,

but using kid mohair wool:

Courtesy of angelyarns.com

it's like wearing a cloud.
I promise.

Try it.

Ask me to make you one.

New Stock

After I made my first sale a few days ago I noticed that 25% of all my stock had suddenly gone and there was rather a hole in my little shop window. Thankfully I had a few items waiting in the wings - all I needed was a model. Enter......the beautiful LJ!

You'd think she was really working on that computer



Look at that talent!

These beautifully manicured nails are showcasing my navy blue double moss stitch handwarmers and my black lace handwarmers. Both are hand knitted in beautifully soft, machine-washable acrylic yarn. Check out my Etsy link for further details.

Also - if anyone is interested in placing a special order please let me know - you can contact my via this blog or via Etsy.

My First Sale

I made a sale!

Bye bye black handwarmers :) I'll work on replacing you soon.

Happy happiness of happinesses!

That is all.

Knitting Fail. Gardening Win

Last weekend I made the decision that if the 'Salad Bowl' of Australia had been all but wiped out due to flooding then in order to avoid getting punched in the wallet by the supposedly rising prices of salad ingredients, I'd better start on the road towards self sufficiency. Buoyed by visions of harvesting baskets full of fresh produce I bounced happily off to the Rocklea markets to purchase a punnet of baby tomato plants (from my favourite seedling man) and a little lettuce plant.


Grow me some tomatoes!



My babies

Lil lettuce

Unfortunately that's where the wins ended. I experienced my first knitting disaster/epic fail a few days earlier. I suppose I can't really expect any less when I make up so many patterns as I go. I had these grand plans for a wrist warmer (no thumb-hole) that had a long ribbed bottom, a knitted portion around the palm and then a different coloured crocheted shell design around the top. Grand plans indeed.

All I can say is fail. Super fail. Too tight, wouldn't have fit a 10 year old's hand. After I had finished off the knitted portion and sewn it up I could see that (a) I'd committed a cardinal knitting sin by casting off on the wrong side and (b) had cast off way too tightly so the finished product was all the wrong shape.

But easy come easy go, it didn't take long and now I've got my eye on a few balls of varigated yarn purchased recently from Spotlight. I'm interested to see how it works up.