Thank Goodness for the Practice Cake

In honour of my inlaws' 40th wedding anniversary (and the arrival of my Kitchenaid) I decided to bake a lemon chiffon cake.  They are my mother-in-law's favourite and it never hurts to suck up.  The good people at Kitchenaid even have a recipe for such a cake so I knew it would work out.  The day before I decided to make a practice cherry chiffon cake (substitute cherry juice for lemon flavouring and add some almond extract).  To complicate matters the practice cake had to be gluten free, sometimes gluten free things turn out funny.  Too dry, too heavy, rarely too wet.  All went well until I decided to use a bundt pan in lieu of an angel food pan.  I filled that pan right to the top without thinking that the cake would rise.

It tasted fine but the oven needed a good scraping out (and will be cleaned eventually) before I could bake the real cake.  Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

The actual lemon chiffon looked and tasted great thanks to the correct pan size and my husband who scraped the oven out!  I forgot to take a photo though.

A reasonable approximation of my cake, I did add some food colouring to the glaze.



A Good Day!

Happy Mother's Day
My husband REALLY loves me!

Today I got to use my Mother's Day Gift for the first time!  I made a cake with my toddler for my mother-in-law's birthday.  There were still a few lumps in the batter so I don't think I let the Kitchenaid do its' thing long enough.  The icing was SUPER light and fluffly though! This weekend I am going to try two chiffon cakes, one gluten free and one regular.  I have a recipe from the good people at Kitchenaid so hopefully they will both work out.

The finished product.  Note how the smarties are either pushed deep into the cake or held on with toddler spit!

I also completed Chickenbutt's Sir Topham Hatt doll.  I have to say that it looked a lot better before I sewed the applique down.  I used the (cheap) Heat N' Bond and am not very happy with the end result.  I did not find that it stuck very well and it is quite crunchy to the touch.  If I were to redo Sir Topham Hatt I would use felt.  I think it is more toddler friendly.  I also should have cut him out right side out, he is not quite even.  I would have liked more green background.   However since Chickenbutt is currently playing with a paper print out of Sir Topham Hatt I think this will be OK. 



Oh!  My little puffin has turned into a Wren, a happy little songbird!

A House Full of Chicks



In preparation for spring and Easter I mistakenly decided to make a chick craft with the Chickenbutt.  She had a great time and suddenly we needed to make at least one chick a day for at least a week.  I was pretty impressed as she was able to decide where the face parts and feet should go without my help. 

One of the first chicks and a bunny.  This is the lone bunny as chicks are way more popular around here.



 I did learn that one should be willing to spend a bit more for glue both in quality and quantity. Dollar store glue is not going to cut it for toddler crafts!







A free form chick with pink feathers.  The danger of leaving all the pompoms available for use!

 



A chick with pompom feathers and the painted plate chick.



She Hatched!!!!

Well the egg hatched and out came the Puffin.  A heavy bird with a lot of crazy hair.  She is happy and healthy and always smiling.  She hatched three days after her cousin so that was super exciting.

Here are a few of the things I managed to get done for the girls.  BAH!  Apparently I did not take any photos of the bears, dolls and elephants!

I also did not manage to get The Saggy, Baggy Elephant quilt started/done for my Puffin.  Now that she is here I am not sure if I want to make that for her or find some other puffinish fabric for her.

Here is a dinosaur I made for antoher neice.  It turned out pretty well if I do say so myself!  It was from my One-Yard Wonders: 101 Sewing Projects book by Patricia Hoskins and Rebecca Yaker.  I know that the point of the book is to use up the fabric you already have but...

It Came!

Well, my fabric came and it is so pretty!  I am super excited but have not cut anything out yet.  I think I will use the book panels to make a quilt for the egg.  I am going to wait until August and give myself all of July to finish the many, many projects I have laid out to do before the big hatching.

Of course this led to me cutting out 2 different elephant stuffies for the egg.  And an elephant theme for the nursery.  Not jungle, just elephant.   And no Dumbo! 

Prairie Lily

Pretty Fabric...

This is such beautiful fabric that I paid $11.50 for shipping!  Thank goodness it was on sale!  (I ordered it from the Fat Quarter Shop and can hardly wait.)

It is the Saggy Baggy Elephant Fat Quarter Bundle and now I have baby gifts covered for the next passel of kids!  Provided I make the little book bags and buy a whole supply of The Saggy Baggy Elephant!
 
So begins my stalking of the mailman once again!

Sew Much Trouble?

Well, I waited until my sister-in-law's birthday had passed to start the table topper I was going to make her. It should be noted that I ordered the fabric in January, well in advance of the actual date. I even went into the quilting store and had them help me design a simple pattern to showcase the fabric. Then I procrastinated. And procrastinated.


After practicing with newspaper I finally decided to forge ahead tonight.
Something has gone wrong. Although it is symmetrical, it is not quite right. Going back I cut the main fabric wrong. This was long before I cut the tape measure.

I am not sure why I thought quilting was a good hobby for me. I am not a very exacting person. I am not sure that I even know an exacting person!

Now the question becomes, should I take it in and get them to tell me how to fix it or finish it as is. The whimsy means it was homemade with love!