Cupcake Delights!

Thank you, readers, for the various suggestions as to how best to manage my, er, wind problem at the craft fair the other day! Sadly, perhaps my bean-induced billowings did keep people away as my wee stall didn't do quite as well as it has on other occasions! Never mind, it was a fun day, the fair as a whole was busy and there were lots of lovely crafty people there to chat to! Roll on the Christmas Fair!!

Yesterday, Himself and I were out rambling around in the countryside (as we do) and we came across a little gem of a place called the Cupcake Cafe Bar! We just had to sample the wares and we could hardly bear it when we came to the last mouthful!

On the subject of cupcakes, I couldn't not mention the delish banoffi cupcake I bought from this lady who had the stall next to mine at the fair. It was to die for and made the perfect treat to cheer me up when I got home after the event! So it's been a heavenly cupcake weekend!

Now, onto Meet Me On Monday #13 !!

This week I'll be...

Eating: Onion bhajis, vegetable pakora, samosas and naan bread left over from curry night, with lashings of mango chutney - yum!!

Drinking: Another flavoured cider by Magner's - Spiced Honey and Apple - slurp!

Buying: Ingredients to make Whoopie Pies as I really fancy trying it!

Making: Christmas tealight gift sets, once I've bought the tealights!

Listening to: For the first time, my music collection on an Ipod lent by my Dad - yes, he's embraced the technology of the 21st century quicker than I have!

Printing: New business cards and labels for Crafty Mushroom - that's the plan anyway!

Join in with MMOM here!

Bean-Induced Blushes!

Well, I've had a productive day, finishing off notepads for the craft fair I'm attending tomorrow. I made some long ones for those Christmas lists:

And you can never have too many cupcakes so here's another:

I've also made use of some pre-patterned notepads from Studio G, by adding my own embellishments:

I think I'm all set, packed up and ready to go. Only thing is, it's been a day of comfort food-eating and I'm beginning to wish I hadn't consumed so many beans (baked ones on toast for lunch and butter beans in a veggie curry for dinner!) This could have some unfortunate consequences for any potential punters visiting my stall tomorrow and also for my fellow crafters who have to share the hall with me!



PARRRRP! (oops, sorry!) :)

Shoes 'n Bags!

I had some girly birthday cards to make this week so I went with the old shoes 'n bags theme -

After all, I'm sure there aren't many girlies out there who don't like shoes or bags or both!! (I hope!)

Meet Me On Monday 12

Evening All! The nights are fair drawing in but I have my trusty hot water bottle underfoot, the blinds drawn and I'm ready to create! That's if I can get my printer to work as it's been giving me some problems lately :( Don't let me down, technology! Especially as I'm just about to make personalised Christening cards available in my shop!!

Now, without further ado, on with this week's....

Meet Me On Monday!

Over the next seven days I'm going to be -

Making: A final lot of stock for this event on Saturday! More long notepads waiting to be decorated and calendars to be bagged!

Drinking: Spiced pear and ginger cider; one of several autumnally-flavoured ciders I hope to sample on these cold, dark nights!

Watching: Tonight, a programme called Mummifying Alan. I'm a bit weird and am interested in things like this!!

Reading: The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson. I read the first book in the trilogy earlier this year and was hooked. Great bathtime reading!!

Wearing: Cosy knitwear - once I've bought some! Nothing in my wardrobe feels warm enough at the moment!

Remembering: That I've also listed some Little House gift tags in the shop - great for making New Home cards!

You can join in with MMOM here - it's great fun!!

Love It When a Plan Comes Together!

I love it when a day's productive, I really do! Once I'd got my food shopping done, I put the heater on in my craft room and there I stayed, making things.

My pig characters have been revamped:

As have my robins:

And frogs:




I've also managed to fix a problem with my printer, and I've just enjoyed a lovely, unhealthy dinner of nachos (yum!) and homemade Chocolate and Chestnut Tart.

I'm now preparing to light a scented candle and curl up on the couch to watch Kirsty's Handmade Britain!

Bye all!

Meet Me On A Monday #11

This week I will be/have been:

Wishing: It would stop raining as Mushroom Cottage is in danger of being washed away!

Eating: Mushroom Stroganoff - yum! And fajitas - double yum!

Drinking: Vanilla-flavoured coffee out of my Pip the Cat mug.

Watching: My cat playing with his toy, even though he's 14 - cute!

Making: Notepads galore!

Visiting: The National Museum of Scotland with Himself then taking a lovely walk through the Meadows in Edinburgh, with the autumn sunshine dappling through the trees and russet leaves fluttering down from their branches as we passed. Sigh. I do like autumn.

Feel free to join in with MMOAM here !

Time Is Flying

More extra days worked this week, a now-unwonky floor, and a mammoth sort-out of my book collection - it's all added up to a very fast week!! I have been making things but the pesky ever-darkening evenings aren't conducive to good photo-taking, plus most of my cards have been commissions, so there's not much I can show you.

I did put together a quick baby card using cute elements from Buzzcraft:

I just added the bow for a finishing touch.

And, once again, it is the weekend. I hope you all have a lovely one!

Not Enough Hours...

Sorry for my recent lack of blogging, folks; extra hours at work and unexpected happenings in day-to-day life (including needing to get a man in to sort out my wonky floor!) have somewhat compromised my crafting output. Even a Crafting 'n Chinese night with my ex-Paper Mill Shop colleagues didn't actually, er, involve any crafting!! Sigh. I just can't wait to get some time at my desk to create!!!

When I did allow myself 2 McSquillionths of a millisecond to put pen to paper, I worked on some designs that I hope will be suitable for Christening cards:

I've taken to using some fab watersoluble metallic pencils given to me by my Uncle for my birthday. They apparently look brilliant on dark paper but I haven't had time to try that yet!



I am trying to add more hours to my day though - I've recently reduced my TV package so I'll get less channels and can't record anything! Hopefully less choice of things to watch will mean more time spent crafting!

That's the plan anyway!!!

Cake Overload!

Brrr! What wild, wet, windy, absolutely freezing weather we're having today!! I had to dig out my gloves and scarf for the first time, but at least the sun has made some appearances! I have overdone the coffee ' n cake today, treating myself to cappucino and scone whilst out and about this morning, and this afternoon I travelled over to Fife to meet my friend Michelle, and we had more cappucino and huge slabs of Victoria sponge at Potter About in Burntisland. My waistline will remind me of that tomorrow!

We had a good natter and we swopped birthday pressies. My card to her featured my pig design as she keeps two of the critters (as well as various other farmyard species!):

There'll be no more cake for me today, instead it's a healthy stir fry for tea and fruit for dessert! To get me in the mood I've made some fruity bookmarks:

These will be listed in my shop later!

My Weekend

Helloings! I told you I'd return with a quick recap of my weekend, so here it is!

SATURDAY

morning - work

afternoon - crafting

evening - Elvis! A retirement do for a colleague, held in a local pub, with a meal (I think I may have unwittingly eaten meat, the lentil soup tasted suspiciously "hammy" - horrors!!) and much boogieing on the dance floor! (My middle-aged, male boss, bopping around to "Sex on Fire" - now, there's a sight I didn't think I'd ever see!) The Elvis tribute act was extremely good and I discovered a liking for "the King's" music that I didn't know I had! My retiring colleague had palpitations with the excitement of it all, I drank Coca Cola all night, took several drunk people home in my car and got about 4 hours sleep. Pleh.

SUNDAY

morning - Up at crack of dawn to support Himself and his siblings who were taking part in the Great Edinburgh Run. I wasn't running, no, no no; indeed, we had to run for the bus to take us there and that just about killed me! Once I'd got my breath back and stopped seeing black spots in front of my eyes, we met up with his brothers and sister, they rather fetchingly attired themselves in bin bags to keep them dry in the pouring rain until the start of the race, then they were off! I chased round half of Edinburgh to take photos and videos of them at strategic points along the route, but, alas, I didn't make it back in time to see them cross the finish line! Doh! Well done, though, guys!!

afternoon - Coffee and cake at Craigie's farm with Himself's family. We were spellbound by the cuteness of Himself's little nephew, but the proceedings were curtailed when I had to take H's sister to the airport before she missed her flight.

evening - Had a table at latest Matalan fashion show charity event. Sold quite a few notepads. Ate more cake. Came home. I was beyond tiredness at this point but still had orders to package before falling into bed!

So that's my blow-by-blow account of the weekend! Luckily, I have been taking it a little easier since and have been doing some gentle crafting. And tonight I've listed my newest creation - Christmas Owl gift tags!

Sorry about the greenish tinge to the photo - I don't know what's going on there, but it's making me rather queasy!!

Now I'm off to put my feet up!

Meet Me on a Monday 9

Hi Everyone, hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was a whirling maelstrom of activity and rushing from one thing to another (and not getting very much sleep) so I am somewhat exhausted tonight and looking forward to curling up on the sofa to watch my recordings of X-Factor. I'll give more details of my weekend happenings in another post, when I'm feeling more energetic and my brain can string a coherent thought together!

Meantime, it's:

Meet Me On A Monday!!

This week I shall be...

MAKING Lots of little paper critters, hopefully - including piggies

and angel cats:

as well as more Christmas notepads as these have proved popular.

COOKING A Quorn, coconut and chilli curry - yum!

WEARING A nice tunic dress with my leggings; I found it in a charity shop and am well-chuffed!

WATCHING The highlights of the Great Edinburgh Run - more about that next time.

MEETING Crafty friends for an evening of Chinese food and chat - yay!

If you want to join in with MMOAM, have a look here

Back soon with more Mushroomy madness!