BB's cake and a pretty box...

Good morning!  It's Sunday morning here in Greece and my husband has just gone off to the Irish pub with BB's husband to watch the World Cup Rugby Final (NZ vs France).  My husband is wearing his All Black's shirt and has taken the NZ flag with him.  I hope NZ wins!

I'm about to sit down with my crafting gear and have some 'me' time.

I thought I would just pop a picture in here of BB's birthday cake... sadly it is all gone now, but the memory lives on : )

Yum!  Mum's choklit cake recipe with a kind of chocolate buttercream filling (I say kind of because it is something I tend to make up as I go along and is never the same twice) and a chocolate ganache icing...  I'm glad it's all gone now... it was dangerous!

I made a wee box for BB's birthday present that I thought I would share here because I used a fantastic tutorial that I found on the web... You can see the tutorial here.  The box was super easy to make and has quite a professional feeling finish and the making of it is actually a bit therapeutic.  I have found myself since then just randomly making boxes when my mojo is low on batteries.

Here's the box I made:

It all folds in so there are no raw edges and the base and top are made in the same way.  The sides are all double thickness so it is quite sturdy and can be made with paper rather than card if you prefer.  Since I made the first box I have found that I prefer to make the size difference between the top and bottom 0.2 or 0.3cm difference rather than the recommended 0.5cm.  

I was inspired to make a box after reading this post by Rimna.  I really love her work... it has such a beautiful feel about it.

I hope you are having a lovely relaxing Sunday wherever you are!

Arabella Chickie in Glyfada, Greece

Our youngest grandie turns 1 today!

Technically, this post should have been titled 'Attitude of Gratitude'... because we are so very grateful to be able to celebrate this day with NMC and her family.

NMC has been busy baking up a storm and I'll post some photos for you next week.  She used to have a collection of beautifully delicate fabric butterflies that adorned most of the birthday cakes she made for us as she got older (we always get a home made cake), but they became quite old and discoloured over the years so they got dumped.  

Guess what's going to be decorating chickadee's cake today?  No prizes!!!  Butterflies (and a few dragonflies)!  We eventually found some more. NMC found some really delicate and rather beautiful ones in Tasmania last weekend and I found a few in the $2 shop down the road. 

NMC was two months old when a huge and very beautiful butterfly flew down and sat on her face for so long that we all had a chance to wonder at it... 

We all love butterflies and I once made NMC Roman blinds for her bedroom with beautiful lace butterflies appliqued all over them (I cut out the fabric behind them so the light could shine through).  


Okay, so time to go.  It's going to get to 36degs today (at least) and I'm sitting here with the fan blowing a gale.  The best we can hope for is an early southerly wind... thank goodness NMC has brilliant airconditioning.  This house is shortly going to be as hot as an oven (again).


April Blackbird


 

Happy Easter everyone and a very big Happy Birthday to Arabella Chickie.

Arabella, you are truly a talented Chickie.  Those drawings are fantastic and would look absolutely fabulous on the walls of a few little chickadees I know of.

Love the upside down balloon in particular!  Can you buy removable, stickers to draw on?  The kind you can stick onto a childs' wall and then remove when they outgrow the subject?

So, this is your first official order.  We'll chat about the subject matter and prices while you're here next week (yayyy!).

For those of you who haven't heard, Arabella Chickie and her Rooster (my son) are going to be visiting our side of the world as of Wednesday next week.  The entire family is excited at the prospect of spending time together again. We've got all sorts of things planned...

In the meantime, I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing Arabella Chickie a very Happy Birthday for Saturday. We'll be with you in spirit as you celebrate your special day.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE... what is life without an excuse to celebrate it at every possible opportunity? 

April Blackbird

Turkeys and chocolates and champagne...

Sing along now... These are a few of my favourite things...

I picked up a small, fresh, free-range turkey to-day.  It's Grandad Chickies 60th birthday and I wanted to make him something special for dinner so I ordered this small turkey last week.

Trouble is, it's not small.  Well, I don't think 4kgs is small.  Butcher reckons it's going to take 3 hours to cook.  We'll be eating turkey for the rest of the week!

As it's quite cool to-day, I've decided to give my dear man a rest and cook the turkey in the oven instead of getting him to put it on the Weber.  I've bought a box of large oven bags, but somehow don't think this 'small' turkey will fit into it.  We shall see. 

Preggy-chick is making Grandad chick her famous chocolate cake for pudding.  I've bought some vanilla ice-cream and some fresh cherries.  Roast veg and some cranberry jelly... wish you were all here!!!

Oh, and there's champagne... or sparkling wine as we're not supposed to call it champagne unless it's French. It isn't.  It is a gold medal winning sparkling wine from Brown Brothers.  Will let you know what it's like.

April Blackbird