You, Me and a Cup of Tea; Let's Get Caught Up

When I announced to my husband that I was starting a blog his response was “Yes but you need to post stuff”.

“Yeah I will” was my flippant come back. And in all honesty, hand on heart, I genuinely thought I would be oh-so-good at this blogging lark.

But here we are a week away from Kelly’s Pretty Place’s one month birthday and she has a paltry three posts to her name. Now that’s not because I’ve not got anything pretty to write about. On the contrary, I have been such a busy bee creating all sorts of lovely things. No, I simply have not had the time to post. Which, now I’m saying it out loud (yes I am speaking as well as typing), sounds like the world’s oldest and most feeble excuse. Well let’s face it, it is.

So from here on in, I vow to be a dedictaed blogger to all those millions of you who read what I have to write.

Since I last checked in I have hosted a charity day with a friend (Sarah, of the kitchen where delicious goodies are created), created delicious goodies for said charity day, and stumbled across a craft that I am quite good at.

The Charity Day; this is what happens when I don’t have a book to read on the train and I am sitting idly on my journey into London……A lot of things can get arranged and organised in the 45 minutes it takes me to get from my home station to London. From the moment I stepped onto the train to the second I alighted, a date had been set for the fund-raising event, a charity decided upon, an invite list had been drawn up, the “to-bake” list had been drafted, and the raffle prizes sorted. Needless to say my excitement levels were though the roof and I couldn’t wait to don an apron and get baking.

The charity we decided on was Breast Cancer Research, and to raise money we baked cookies in the shape of the breast cancer ribbon, covered with baby pink rolled fondant icing, and decorated with a simple, yet very effective, floral stamp at each end of the ribbon. And what cookie would be complete without a bit of edible glitter? Each and every cookie was painstakingly placed in a see-through plastic gift bag, tied with pink ribbon – curled, naturally, to really finish the look off.

We also baked delicious muffins – some chocolate, some plain, topped with chocolate buttercream and regular buttercream (respectively), and every muffin was adorned with a breast cancer ribbon made from petal paste, complete with an edible silver ball (which were so tricky to handle and which ended up rolling around the tray more often than not!).

We also made sweet trees – although to be fair Sarah made these on her own – which looked amazing. We had lollipops, marshmallows and Halloween themed ones too.

And while I was “front of shop” Sarah was upstairs in her therapy room doing mini-manicures and pedicures at the great prices of £7 each.

The raffle was just as exciting, for Sarah’s husband had made some of his famous (well famous among friends and family), not to mention, delicious shortbread, and there was also wine, beauty vouchers and some amazing canvas art (made by yours truly, of course).

All in all the day was a huge success with £365 being raised for our charity.

But if that wasn’t enough, the girl who won the lollipop tree in the raffle somehow managed to raise a further £90 for the charity by selling the lollies!!! Ann Marie you are amazing.

Sadly the day was far too hectic and frantic for me to catch any snaps on my camera but it was amazing.

My next project is a job lot of baby-themed cupcakes and cookies as a farewell to a girl at work who is going on maternity leave next week......... I'm looking forward to licking the bowl already.

xXx