The Birthday

Alfie after the cake!


Not to sure about the candles



Showing sister Sophie his motor bike.


A quick play before opening the next present.

Here are some pictures I took on Alfie's birthday. It wasn't easy to take pictures as he was moving around busy opening his presents.
He is having another party today with some of his little friends.

Cake for Alfie

Bob the Builder
It is my grandson Alfie's second birthday tomorrow,so I thought I would attempt to make him a cake. I am not a cake maker as you can see but I do like a challenge. I made two Victoria sponges which I filled with jam and butter cream. The face is one of them. The second cake I cut each piece in half and sandwiched three of them to make the hat. The last bit was used for the ears nose and the bit on the hat. I bought ready coloured icing but there was barely enough. which made it a bit tricky. I would have liked it to have been thicker. As you will see from the picture it did pull into holes in places which I did my best to repair. I built bits of structure to the face with icing for the ears lips and cheeks. The icing is not stuck to the cake very well. I did not have any brown icing for the hair so he had to make do with black His nose is a bit mucky and his skin is a bit pale. I am satisfied that I did my best with the equipment I had and I am confident that it will taste fine. After all it is the thought that counts.



Alfie enjoying the pond and wet

Arch for Gillian

I have just completed my October arch for Gillian. She likes seahorses, leaves and anything Egyptian. I decided to do the sea horse. Although I can draw sea horses I had a stencil which had come free in a magazine years ago and have not done a lot of stencilling. I stencilled onto felt and add some puff paint to give it a bit of texture. The background is layered chiffon. The edge is painted Vilene to look like rocks(although I have added so much stuff you can hardly see them now)I stitched over the sea horse and background, then attacked it a bit with the soldering iron. I loosely added some chiffon as sea weed. I then got out the glue gun and did some foiling. Finished!

The next day as I was getting it ready to post, I decided on second thoughts it was not finished. It needed something else. It was lifeless. It was a bit flat so I tackled the for ground by adding the shells. While looking for the shells I found the leaves and then the bits of painted Tyvek. I now feel it is finished and will again get it ready to post

Arch for Hannah

I have just finished the arch for Hannah. I worked it on the embellisher using felt, wool and chiffon. It is worked from the front and the back. The candle is a print of one of my encaustic pictures. I have done some stamping and added some foil. The problem I find with the embellisher is that the work grows. I embellished it onto silk this time thinking it would hold its shape but it didn't make any difference. Originally the stone arch was bigger but it had to be trimmed down to fit the template. I enjoy using the embellisher and don't break so many needles now (since I found out how much they cost.
My work space is getting more organised and I feel much more comfortable with it. Ever since we moved in I have been moving things around to make the space more workable. I make cards and jewellery for a living and need to be able to get at all the components easily. I think I am nearly there now.

Attic finds continued