Cake Pops

 Hi again Everyone.  Arn't these just the cutest wee cakes you ever saw??  I have been trying to get a cake pop maker for the kids for ages.  Finally a very helpful young man at Newbold's 100% store in Upper Hutt came to the rescue and ordered me one in especially.  We were SO excited when we collected it on Wednesday morning.  Of course we had to come straight home and test it out.  We had promised to take the guys at Newbold's a cake when we had made them.  So we set to work.  What FUN!!!  Can't recommend them enough.  Easy recipe (throw everything in together and beat)  Quick - only FIVE minutes to cook a batch(? Is that what you call a collection of cake pops?  I'm sure there should be a cooler name than batch).  The gadget cooks 6 at a time so we had 24 cake pops in no time at all.  Then comes all the fun of decorating them.  We chose melted chocolate and a variety of 'sprinkles' for this little lot and as you can clearly see they turned out to be FABULOUS.  We are going to make more (of course) next week so watch this space for new creations!!!Would be just a great activity for kid's birthday parties.  Make the cake pops in advance (this would eliminate the frustrating time waiting for the cakes to cool) and thern each child can decorate his/her own cake pop as they wish.  Fun all the way.  We went back to Newbold's in the afternoon with cake pops for the guys.  Their faces were just like kids too.  Photos were taken before popping the WHOLE cake into their grinning mouths.  Right now I have to go because we are about to make Chocolate Chunk Cookies Yum.  T&T go home today but return on Monday for the second week of hols.  Have a great weekend all of you.  PS If you are looking for a good, fun movie go see Turbo!!! We all (T&T, their mum, G'ma and G'dad) went on Wednesday night.  For those of you who don't know Turbo is a garden snail who manages to get turbo-charged and enters the Indy 500.  Very clever people these CGI guys.  Go see it.  PPS Of course T&T have made their own Cane-Deer too.

Girls Treat

 Hi Everyone it's school holidays here in NZ and my two youngest Gorgeous Grandchildren are here with us.  Can't really call them my Favourite Little People anymore beacause they are almost as tall as me now and soon I will be the Little Person in the family!!!  Anyway we have been having lots of fun as usual when they are here.  Activities changing a bit now as they are 10 and almost 12, so on Tuesday Tayla snd I got our nails done.  Very swish and special as you can clearly see from the photos.  I have to praise Trent for his patience as he sat with us for an hour and a half without complaining once.  Thanks Trent.

Cane Deer

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas and that is SOOOOO scarey.  This Saturday I have an All Day Class to make an Origami Christmas decoration which involves folding SIXTY (yes SIXTY) paper squares into a cone shape before assembling them into a beautiful ball.  So to relieve to monotony of folding these said squares I found these cute wee Cane Deer (LURVE the name) as a bonus for my ladies.  I am sure they will love the short diversion AND the end product.  Aren't they just the cutest??  Susan Pincock I can see you making LOTS of these (if you haven't already done them in previous years) Just your kinda thing.  They don't cost much and they are real quick to make.  Hope you all love them too.

Look What I Found

I thought it was worth a look in the holiday photos I took and look what I found.  This was for a dear friend of ours and she loved it.  She has had it framed.

Zentangle

Hi Everyone and another frustrating morning here in NZ waiting for Our Guys to lift the America's Cup!!!  For those of you not in the know we only need ONE more race but that race is very elusive.  USA won TWO!!!!!!! races today to give them FOUR!!!!!on the trot.  How come they never have the bad luck of the race being called when they are WAYout in front????? Aaaaargh  my nerves are frazzled!!  So maybe I should sit down and do some Zentangle which is proven to be calming and very theraputic.  I discovered it a couple of years or so ago and I love it.  Trouble is I don't seem to get much time to do it what with class samples, instructions etc.  However when we went away for 8 weeks this winter I took my Zentangle stuff with me and made good progress.  I had bought a set of alphabet templates and used these to draw my letters which I then filled with different tangles.  It was a great way for me to practise lots of different tangles.  I had not thought of posting them on my blog and unfortunately, as I used friend's and family's initials, I have given them away!!  However I have just done his for our Darling Granddaughter and that was when the thought of blogging it came to me.  I only know a few of the tangles by name as yet but I DEFINITELY have my favourites.  I need to be firm with myself and make sure I try new ones and even ones I am not so fond of so that I increase my skill.  If you would like to know more then just Google Zentangle.  Rick and Maria who started it all have a fabulous website and there are many, many enthusiasts who generously share their ideas and talents.  You can go the States and take part in a residential course to become a CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher) .  NZ doesn't have any CZTs as yet.  Maybe I could become the first??  Now there's a good thought to finish on.  Have a good day.

Two More Recent Creations

So Glad It's Spring

 Hello Everyone I'm back in circulation.  I've been away overseas for a couple of months and in the month we've been back I've been trying to catch up on things which have taken priority over crafting.  However now I have found a bit of time to create these four cards and a couple of others which I will post directly afterwards.  Many thanks to Christina Griffiths for her wonderful inspiration and tuition with Spellbinders.  They are capable of SOOOOOOOOOO much more than I had been giving them credit for.  I am loving creating with them.  The butterfly cards are created from a beautiful set of papers and embellishments I bought in the UK.  Gorgeous to work with.  I have a laundry basket FULL of goodies I bought in the UK but I haven't had time to play with them yet.  I can tell you I have some treats in store.  Beautiful Spring day again today here.  I'm off to Oz on the early morning flight tomorrow to spend a few days with our Darling Granddaughter who turns 24 on Thursday.  Looking forward to a few fun filled, sun filled days in Surfers Paradise.  Talk to you when I get back.  Thanks for looking today.