Cupcake Time

I would not say I am the queen of cupcakes, but I do go a little overboard when it comes to decorating them. Although, if I do remember correctly these had a cheese cake filling that I put in before they were baked, giving the centre a super moist sweet surprise when they were bitten into.

I think these look far superior to a cupcake that just has a dollop of icing circled onto the top, and with the shimmer they just have an extra touch of elegance.

 Now, don't get me wrong a dollop of icing works if you need to decorate hundreds upon hundreds of cupcakes in a day, but really once you get the hang of a rose they really do not take that much longer....

Recreating this rose look isn't as hard as you would suspect, grab a piping bag and a tear drop tip that is curved. The curve faces inwards, and the largest part of the drop faces down. Then make a pyramid in the middle of the cake and work out from there creating each individual petal.

 The cupcake below, is one of the first I ever decorated as a flower, and it is more of a daisy, carnation-esque type flower and you can probably tell from the plate it was on that it was Christmas time.

GIANT CUPCAKE TIN!
Note to self, always make enough icing the first time so that you can decorate the whole cake.

Now go and decorate a cupcake :)

Caviar Nails

Yes, that is right. So I tried these when they first came out, and never really thought about them that much until now. So, they are a good idea in theory. In practice not so much. I had little tiny beads rolling around my desk for the next 24 hours, stuck in the key board, and although not a nail bitter occasionally when I am nervous or need something to do with my hands I will have a bit of a gnaw, if you will excuse the expression, this leads to then wondering why in the world you have some crunchy in your mouth.

Don't get me wrong, really cool as an optional idea, or a night out at the Eddies or something fantastic, red carpet perhaps.

But if you do sensible things with your hands for a living, AKA lifting boxes, typing on your computer, shuffling paper etc, just back away slowly and get some sand polish instead. Fairly similar effect, but not quite so raised off the nail so you get a longer lasting result.

Peace Kids.

AJ

Begonia Swirl

On March 28 of 2014 I started the Beognia Swirl (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/begonia-swirl) this lovely shawl was started for a friend of mine to be used as a nursing shawl, is she actually using it or is it just to pretty to use, I am not sure but it turned out beautifully.
I finished, after a few bad words and a few adjustments to have an amazing shawl that I think anyone would be proud to own. The yarn that I used was Bernat Boutique Unforgettable, in Dragonfly, about 6 skeins was needed by the time I cast off.
Now by adjustments I do not mean anything about the actual pattern itself, I just mean about the length. The repeat itself was 40 by the time you got to the last stages of the pattern and are working on the beautiful edging. But since mine needed to cover up a mother and child I went from 40 to 60, and this increase did greatly increase the knitting time. Was it worth it in hindsight? Yes, yes it was.

 

Finished! June 11 2014

Enjoy, and keep knitting.

Facelift

Not my own face you understand, my Blog's face. Just changing it up.

I have a few posts written nothing riveting, but as soon as I get some pictures going in you will know about it.

AJ