British Cream Tea : Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Inspiration

I thought after yesterday (a long day of panicking, procrastination and a final "slap me about and call me daft" decision making) I would share my inspirations for some of my work, particularly, as it is on my mind, my upcoming gallery collection.

1. The most obvious: Food. Namely British Food. The food I grew up with, the food I see every day in bakers, supermarkets, delis and my own baking efforts. The food I read about with wonder in childhood novels where lashings was a quantity of ginger beer and sardines went wonderfully with gingerbread (no...I've never actually tested this assertion). I love food. I love baking, cooking and eating. Simple as.

2. Jane Brocket's blog and book. After a morning of procrastination, that even included cleaning out the washing machine, and the hot tears of terror at the upcoming deadline I collapsed into a hot bath with her book, read 4 pages and spotted the photograph that caused the aforementioned eureka moment. I won't share which one as it is, as yet, top secret...but suffice to say it showed me not something to copy but rather the sort of path I should have been following all along. And I realised I have been trying to make a mountain out of a molehill rather than just do what I do best.

3. Felt. The colours, fell and warmth of it as well as its incredibly strong yet immensly pliable nature that enables me to mold it into what my mind sees. And the fact that my felt is recycled means it is not costing the Earth. Little is better than a new delivery, especially when it contains sheets of my absolute favourite...polka dot felt.

4. Kitchen retro. There is a huge amount of retro inspired kitchenallia in the shops and online at the moment and a wander down the shelves in John Lewis or Lakeland,picking up molded plastic measuring cups, scales, bakeware and pinnys in cotton candy pink, lilac and baby blue just sends me down all sorts of random directions as my mind plays my own form of chinese whispers with food and I end up thinking of toad in the hole whilst holding a red, heart shaped, silicone cake tin.

5. Afternoon Tea at the Ritz. I have had afternoon tea at a few beautiful hotels...The Dorchester, The Chester Grosvener, The Savoy...but the one that sticks in mind is shockingly nonBritish: The Ritz Hotel in Paris. Sitting in The Bar Vendôme for my 30th birthday, listening to a harpist, eating tiny sandwiches and cakes from 3 tiered tea stand and drinking the most divine hot chocolate ever surely has to be a high point to be remembered.

Another Front Page

I woke up this morning to find that my little Etsy boutique had 17 new hearts..and I knew something was up...

Turns out I was on the front page last night (when I say I I mean my little polka dotted butterfly cake) and my personalised stick of rock is in The Storque...Etsy's blog.



So along with the gallery collection I am slowly sewing and silently panicking about and the picture in a magazine (next week I think) it is all good in the world of British Cream Tea.

Now if only I could find some time soon to design some new pieces for my range and the world will indeed be rosy ;)

Fish and Wine

On Monday my friends Jackie and I took our two boys to the World Museum aquarium to visit the fish, crabs, rays, starfish and other denizens of the deep. Toby loved it...I don't think he has seen live fish before and the thick glass tanks allowed him to reach out and try to touch them, laughing and making friends with this boxfish and the brightly coloured inhabitants of the next tank as he stood teetering on the ledge whilst I pressed my hand against the small of his back and ruffled his hair.

It was magical.

And afterwards, as we walked round Liverpool with the prams, the sun shone and it was warm enough, in April, for vest tops and skirts...with proper shoes...

Because, on Monday, I finally got sick of being an impostor. Another person trapped in maternity jeans, unbrushed hair and flat shoes. It has been over a year and a half since my body started to alter and I resigned myself to buying jeans for the first time in years to accommodate my bump...and I need to start clawing back some part of me.

So I dragged out what little of my former wardrobe I can fit into, put on a pair of proper shoes, painted my lashes with mascara and went out feeling a little more real.



A couple of years ago I broke my favourite glass. It jumped out of the cupboard whilst the washing machine was on a particularly vigorous rinse cycle and smashed into a million twinkling glass shards. I was heartbroken. It was the pink one.

So I bundled up the other three...aqua, blue and green...and hid them on a top shelf in the bedroom of all places.

So today I retrieved a part of me that I have stored, hidden away...my beautiful set of wine glasses. I wanted to drink kirs out of a hand painted glass with an unnervingly long slender stem instead of the chunky Ikea numbers we usually use so I cleaned, polished and placed them in the glass cupboard and filled one with creme de cassis and white wine and sat watching Hustle whilst Billy was in the other room.

Dear fragile friends...and the aqua one, which is now my favourite ;)

Number nine...

9. For the fact that after putting the sausages in the oven, throwing the potatoes in boiling water (yes..I decided to go the whole hog and have mash with my bangers), chopping the onions and mushrooms, I turned my attention to the dishwasher and the fact I knew it needed emptying before I could sit down and enjoy my dinner...

...and found it already empty. I did it this morning. I had just forgotten.

For some daft reason even I have no clue about I felt like dancing, so happy was I.

Yes...I am losing it.

Reasons to be cheerful...

 
For some undiagnosed reason I have found the last few months hard. Juggling an increasingly cuddly and hilarious 10 month old with the house and a little business that has taken off in ways I never imagined have all clashed and left me feeling splintered and fragile, sometimes leaving me staring at the wall, my head so full of what I have to do I barely know where to start.

And some things I love the most have suffered. My lovely and steadfast friends, still there even after I have ignored the world and locked myself away for far too long. My sister, nephew, mum and family who live not too far away but, until I finally learn to drive, just that little bit too far to be able to nip round for a night of wine, Love Actually and the relaxed company only those few can really give without too much planning and two trains. My beloved business, that needs more time spent on marketing and sewing those hundreds of ideas that exist only in my head in felt to list in my little shops. My 365 projects...mine is 5 days behind in editing, Toby's is almost 3 weeks behind...I have all the pictures and will find the hours to devote to editing and posting them on flickr soon...

To all, I am sorry. Normal (maybe even improved) service will be resumed shortly.

And now for those reasons as promised in the title...

1. For the approaching exhilaration (albeit spiked with lashings of terror) that is my first exhibition, opening in The Biscuit Factory in Newcastle on the 15th of May.

2. For the excitement of waiting for the release of next month's "Sew Hip" magazine...because my bourbon biscuit should be gracing its pages and I cannot wait to buy a magazine containing my work at Borders!

3. For the fact that this evening, after me getting all in a lather about him not yet holding his own bottle or having any teeth yesterday, Toby grabbed his evening milk out of my hands and proceeded to hold it between his little chubby fingers. I feel all proud yet tinged with sadness as milky time was our cuddle time. No sign of teeth yet still..but they will come ;)

4. Because my Mum is driving over tomorrow to spend the afternoon with Toby and me and is hopefully bringing the camera I left there two weeks ago complete with the photographs of Toby's first trip to a playground.

5. Because the addition to the kitchen windowsill of an incredibly fast growing pair of sunflower plants make the kitchen feel immediately more homely, especially sat next to a teeny tiny tomato plant that Hepburn has decided to try and eat given even the sliver of a chance (it is now wrapped and thriving in its own plastic bag greenhouse, safe from feline attentions). What makes these even lovelier is that they were a gift from my friend Jackie and her son Sean, who have been busy cultivating them from seed on their dining room windowsill.

5. For the lovely man today who, upon alighting the train and seeing me waiting on the platform this afternoon with the pram, waited until everyone else had got off and put down his bag before helping Toby and me onto the train, checking we were ok and then getting off again. Thank you...you made me smile ;)
 
6. For the huge parcel of recycled felt I ordered last night to finish my gallery collection...I love receiving felt in the post!

7. Because I have sausages in the fridge, potatoes waiting to be baked and copious amounts of mushrooms for gravy.

8. Because it was sunny today. And everything is better when it is sunny, warm and the sun does not set until 8pm.

Etsy Front Page

My work has been on the front page of Etsy twice in the last few hours...

...I am so proud!!
 

Chocolate Cornflake Cakes and Easter Goodies...

I love chocolate cornflake cakes, and at the tail end of Lent, when chocolate and cake cravings are driving me mad, I just had to make one.

Here, in case you don't have one, is a recipe for these British, moreish treats:

Chocolate Cornflake Cakes

50g butter
4tbsp golden syrup
100g plain chocolate
75g cornflakes (or rice crispies)

1. Gently melt the chocolate, syrup and butter in a pan
2. Stir in the cornflakes and then place large spoonfuls into paper cases in a cupcake tray and leave to set in the fridge

I also made two of my favourite Easter treats...

...don't hate me ;)