Deptford Project Market

Last Saturday was my first time at the Deptford Project Markets, and it was great! Mainly because I got a free waffle, with heaps of chocolate and ice cream. But I had loads of fun there too, and even managed to make a bit of money, despite it being a fairly quiet day there.

As well as having a cafe and various stalls in the venue, the Deptford Project also featured a sandpit with summery, stripey deckchairs, buckets and spades. For all your sandcastle construction needs!

Waffle Stop - who very generously fed me with their delicious waffles.

My bored, unpaid intern.

Mama G!

The stall next to mine belonged to the awesome Mama G, who kept me entertained during the quiet parts of the day with her jokes and singing. She also makes the tastiest jams, chillies and breads, which I got to sample. The wasps were fans of her stuff too, as they kept hovering over the plates of jams and chillies she had put out for tasting. Do check her out if you can, she makes everything herself!

My display

I finally got to use the awesome old leather suitcase I found downstairs as part of my display. It's almost like Mary Poppins' magical bag because it holds so much and I keep filling it with stuff and the Mancreature's arms end up almost falling off because it's so heavy.

For those of you who are in London, I will be at the RoundLondon Gives You Spots event in the Queen of Hoxton this Saturday, with a load of pretty new aprons and headpieces. There will also be a raffle on so you'll be able to win some fantastic items. Hope to see some of you there!

I'm A Winner!

Oh yes I am! The lovely Venetia Jewellery has given me a BlogStar award! Woo! She's got a pretty awesome shop, so be sure to check it out when you need some bling. The award's meant for newish (less than 3 years old) blogs that pump out entertaining content...which is why I'm surprised I got nominated. I guess people find glow-in-the-dark cakes fairly entertaining after all.

My victory face

Right, I'm supposed to pass this award on and nominate some of my favourite blogs, but that's hard! Can I just nominate everyone on my blog list instead? I love them all. So, be good, and go read them too, and tell them how much you love them!

Weekend Cupcakes And Cakes

Haryo had a summer party at his penthouse on Saturday, and I decided to bring some goodies along. Since I'd had a pretty busy week, I didn't want to faff around with something that required too much preparation. So I decided to make the dark chocolate and cherry cupcakes I'd made for the Mancreature's birthday last month.

On a taste per effort ratio, this recipe is a clear winner. All you have to do is stir all the ingredients together before bunging them in the oven. If anything, making the chocolate icing seems to take the most time.

The recipe says it makes 12 cupcakes, but Nigella must have some seriously DD-cup patty pans. I doubled the quantities and ended up with 46 cupcakes - almost twice what I was supposed to have! And as luck would have it, I ran out of chocolate icing after covering about two-thirds of the cupcakes, so had to conjure something up to ice the rest.

This is what happens when I try to conjure up some icing - fluorescent pink icing. I added some fresh lime juice to it for taste, and some rosewater for, erm, nice smells.

I forgot to take a photo of the cupcakes with the chocolate icing, and the Mancreature tripped while carrying them up the bus anyway, which resulted in some fairly smooshed icing.

Haryo supplied the cupcake patterned tray.

Mine weren't the only baked good at the party. Haryo's friend Rika made this fantastic cake as well. I'm not sure what it's called or what else is in it except for chocolate, but dang, it was tasty!

Tasty Tardigrades

Ari just emailed these photos to me, and I just had to share the awesomeness! Lovely Ari and Greg went for dinner in a Thai restaurant, and behold, it appears they have some company.

Yes, it's a capsicum tardigrade in a plate of Thai noodles! Doesn't it look almost exactly like the little tardigrade brooches I made a while back?

It's so cute I'm almost inclined to cut all my veggies up into little tardis for my meals. We'll see how inclined I feel come dinner-time.

Monogamy

Confession time.

I've been unfaithful.

I've tried so hard to stay true to this relationship, to commit to my one and only. But maybe what they say is true, and that familiarity really does breed contempt. But you're so lovely, though, and it's not like I don't ever want to see you ever again. I just need a break, something new and exciting. Just for now. It's my fault for straying, and now there's not just one, but two others. Who knows what'll happen in the future? I may return to you, if you'll have me back...

Anyone else have this problem? You're working on something, and you promise yourself that you'll finish it this time - no interruptions, no getting bored and shoving it in a corner, no two or three other projects all competing for attention.

Then, halfway through (more or less), you pick up a different skein of yarn, or a yard of exciting new fabric, and you just have to start working with it. RIGHT. NOW.

So you drop the other project, and start fooling around with your new fling...

Then along comes another fancy-pants project that catches your eye, and suddenly, you've got two other little bits on the side that demand your time and attention.

So yes, I do have three items on the needles right now. With a fourth one that I just finished blocking. All these in the last three days. And my fingers are already itching to start making a new apron. What a slut! I should be ashamed.

Halloween

Good ole Craftcult. When I noticed that my reversible cape had seen a sudden increase in views, I wondered why, and promptly headed over to Craftcult to find out. Turns out it's been included in Etsy's Halloween gift guide. Woo!

There's the most awesomest My Little Pony tunic on the same page that I desperately want, except my birthday is long over and Christmas is still months away. I'll have to hatch an evil plan to convince someone to buy it for me. Anyone?

Fun At The Fete

Eeek! I've been horribly slow at posting lately (no thanks to visitors from overseas, and some 'top secret' work work). All I really want to do today is hide in a dark corner, but I thought I should post a quick update on how the Urban Village Fair last Saturday turned out anyway. My digital camera got commandeered by my tourists for the day, so I didn't manage to get many pictures of the other stalls at the fair.

I've got this rather pathetic photo of the other stalls beside my table, and it was taken so late in the day that about half of the others had already packed up and left. If you squint, you'll be able to see quite a few umbrellas out there. Despite the horrid weather, the day actually turned out be be a success!

The fair was my first one this year, and had heaps of fun! I made enough to cover the cost of the stall (a first! I usually do so badly that I was considering applying for non-profit charity status), met some very lovely crafters, and ate an awesome brownie!

The brownie came by way of the wonderful Cake Collective crew, who also had cute little chocolate hedgehogs, a yummy looking blueberry bundt cake, and some glittery little cupcakes. I had to limit myself to only buying one brownie so I wouldn't - quite literally - eat into my takings for the day.

Cake Collective (left) and loumms (right)

Jo from Kitschcraft also came up for a chat. She makes the sweetest little dollies, and also had lots of brooches and rings with vintage buttons. Lou and Emm from loumms had their stall directly across from mine, and they are two of the sweetest ladies I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Be sure to check out their Etsy shop for gorgeous convertible aprons and Grow Your Own Soup seed packs.