Dissertation finished...now about those exams!

So you may have noticed that its been quiet in my little corner of the internet recently. I am afraid that this is not likely to change for a few weeks. On Friday I handed in my dissertation, all 35 pages of it! 

Unfortunately, that is not the end of it...I still have two exams to sit so now my days are taken up with revision. Needless to say there is not a great deal of time for creative endeavours - much to my disappointment! Still I am comforting myself in the fact that there will be plenty of time for creativity and projects and subsequent blogging after my exams have finished. I just have to get there first!

So although I will be popping in here and there posting some things that I have ready, it won't be regular programming here on Heron's Crafts until at least mid-June. That is a time I am definitely looking forward to!

Love Rebecca

Cookbook Challenge Update - May part 1

I cooked a lot of recipes from Lorraine Pascale's cookbook whilst I was at home over Easter, so many in fact that I am splitting this post into two otherwise it will be ridiculously long. Yet again, Lorraine is hitting it out the park in nearly every recipe - I love having a cookbook that I trust so completely! Ready to see what we've been eating?...try not to get too hungry looking at these pictures (I know I will)

Speed: This took a little while but it wasn't massively labour intensive so it was okay

Taste: I liked the mushroomy-ness and of course the pastry, I am just not a massive beef fan so I didn't really enjoy the hunk of steak inside.

Repeat: Not likely

Speed: This was fairly quick and easy - I have never made soup from tomato juice and it made a nice change from tinned tomatoes

Taste: A little bit spicy for me but otherwise this was a tasty soup

Repeat: Probably

Speed: The jam took a little while but it was fairly low maintenance so I didn't mind at all, the toastie itself was very quick

Taste: Delicious! Absolutely the ultimate comfort lunch! I loved it!

Repeat? Yes!

Speed: This was a slower cook meal but it was also a put it in and leave it so very little effort involved

Taste: Absolutely delicious! I really enjoyed it - very comforting with mashed potato, a real warmer of a meal!

Repeat? Absolutely!

Speed: Fairly quick and easy to make

Taste: Absolutely gorgeous - I love cauliflower cheese so much - absolutely the best way to eat cauliflower!

Repeat: Yup!

Speed: Another slower cook meal but definitely worth it, low effort

Taste: Delicious and comforting with mashed potato and the lovely wine sauce!

Repeat? Yes!

What have you been cooking this month? Any favourite recipes?

Love Rebecca

Revision Survival Pack

THAT time of year is upon us. The time when exams are everywhere and students of many ages are working hard to consolidate all the information they should have learnt during the past year in order to succeed in their upcoming exams. And I am no different. I am less than one month away from my third year University exams and revision is in full swing (as well as continuing dissertation work). All of my friends are also hard at work and we are often together in the library. All the revising all the time can get a bit much so I decided to make little revision packs for my closest friends to help them on their way. These are a thoughtful gift for anyone currently immersed in revision and can be a sweet relief from the stress that revision can bring. So what did I include in my pack...well all the essentials of course (wink!)....

1. Stress Relief Pills (aka smarties) - find a cute little jar and fill it with smarties or m&ms or some other small candy - whatever floats your boat really - I chose pink smarties for my friend Tori due to her love of pink - this was just another way to personalise the packs

2. Stress Relief Capsules (aka Bubble wrap) - this is a bit of a joke item, guaranteed to raise a smile - bubble wrap, for popping when stress needs an outlet!

3. Emergency Chocolate - This is a revision pack must - for those moments when you don't get it, or you have just been staring at the page for so long and nothing is going in anymore! I bought some Dairy Milk bars and wrapped them up in 'emergency' wrappers - the instructions on the back advise 'For best results, eat entire bar'.

4. Countdown Calendar - this is possibly my favourite item in the pack. The calendar contains all the dates between the date of giving the pack and the first day of freedom after exams, which allows your recipient to cross off the days and see themselves getting closer to freedom!

I put it all together in a brown paper bag and added the 'Keep Calm and Carry On Revising' label to the outside.

Below is a PDF download that will allow you to create your very own Revision Survival Pack for someone you know going through exams. All you need to do is add the countdown days and print it out on white card and you are set!

Revision Survival Pack Download

Good Luck to everyone studying and working hard for exams/assignments!

Love Rebecca

 

Blog Love: Made With Hugs and Kisses

You know when you stumble across a blog and fall in love...almost instantly...well I did that and I wanted to share with you one of my favourite new blogs...Made With Hugs and Kisses.

Made With Hugs and Kisses (great name right?) is written by the lovely Hannah who is almost finished with her teaching degree. She is a self-taught dress maker and sews beautiful garments like this gorgeous dress - you should definitely hop over and check this post out - you will never believe where she sourced the fabric from!

Not only does Hannah share her creations but her series I Spy With My Sewing Eye is one of my favourite things to catch up on. She features creations from loads of great blogs and this is a great source of inspiration.

And...she has started a new series called Spring Clean Your Sewing Space - I am looking forward to reading the guest posts over the next month and pick up some handy hints!

This last month I was a blog angel for Hannah, and I must confess I struggled thinking of things to do this month without blowing the secret...I loved reading her posts so tried to comment regularly, I followed Made With Hugs and Kisses so I wouldn't miss post and I pinned some of my favourite creations she has shared. 

I really wanted to do a massive shout and point you all in the direction of this fabulous blog, so hopefully, today's post has managed to do that. Now I am off to write Hannah a lovely email, come out of the blog-angel closet and hopefully get to know her a little better!

Happy Angelling!

Love Rebecca

I Believe...

...in wishing on stars

source

...in happy endings

source

...in laughing until it hurts

source

...in making lists and more lists

source

...that hard work pays off in the end

source

...in 20 seconds of insane courage

source

...in magic

source

...that there is something about the shower that makes me think better

source

...that there is a song for every moment

source

What do you believe in?

Love Rebecca

Cupcake Wars - Tangled Cupcake Tower

So yesterday I shared with you the cupcakes that my Mum and I made in our 'war' last week. Today I am going to show you how I made the Tangled Tower Cupcake Stand, in case anyone fancies having a go themselves! I didn't take too many photos as I was making it but hopefully the ones I did take will allow you to follow how to make it! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Materials

Pringles tube (empty of course!)

Cylindrical tub

(I used an 'Oat so Simple' tub)

Wooden Skewers

Two cardboard circles 

(I used two tiers from a store bought cupcake stand)

Grey Paint

Green Tissue Paper

A4 sheet of Grey Card

1. Draw round the pringles tube in the centre of the cardboard circles, cut the circle out of the middle. You should now have a cardboard ring. Make sure it fits over the top of the tube. 

2. With a pen, mark around the tube where you would like the shelves to sit. My bottom tier was 4 cm from the base. Using a nail and a hammer, make 4 holes on each line (try to match them up so you have too pairs that are in line - think like you are marking 12, 3, 6 and 9 on a clock). 

I placed the nail in place and gently hammered it to create the hole.

3. Poke the skewers through the holes so you have 4 supports at each level. I poked one skewer in whole and had to cut the other in half poking one half through each hole - this will depend on your holes so play around until you get it to work. 

5. Now your structure is complete, it is time to decorate.

 Cover the tiers in green tissue papers strips, making sure to cover the whole surface. Paint the pringles tube and the cylinder container with grey paint. Mine took 3 coats. Using a darker grey, paint brick lines all the way up the tower, including a window in the top cylinder.

6. Insert the bottom skewers and add the bottom shelf. I sellotaped the skewers to the bottom of the shelf for extra support. Repeat with the second shelf.

7. Next assemble the tower. I used a glue gun to attach the top of the tower to the pringles tube. Cut a circle out of the grey card and cut a slit to the centre. Curve it round to form a cone and sellotape. Affix to the top of the tower.

8. Add your cupcakes!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Love Rebecca

Cupcake Wars - Home Edition

Have you ever seen 'Cupcake Wars' - it is on food network at 6am here in England and my Mum and I watch it every morning over breakfast (on the plus 1 channel - we are not up at 6am!). If you have never seen it, the basic idea is that there are four participants and three rounds. Each episode has a different event that the participants are baking cupcakes for. The first round is 'taste' where the participants are given certain ingredients to include in a cupcake, the second is taste and presentation (three cupcakes this time) and in the final round the contestants (now just two of them) must bake 1000 cupcakes complete with a display worthy of the event.

So my Mum and I decided that it would be fun to have our own, adapted, Cupcake War.

Our rules...15-20 cupcakes each, two different varieties and a stand to hold them all. We set ourselves the theme of Disney and set forth for a day of baking, laughs and yummy cupcakes! Here is the result of our baking day...

We started off with a shopping trip to get all the ingredients - I swear our table nearly buckled under the weight of all our lovely cupcake ingredients!

Then we set about baking! I really enjoyed it, our kitchen is nice and big and my Mum and I often cook in there together so we are used to each other and don't get in each others way :)

 In the spirit of the TV show, both of us will walk you through our cupcakes and displays so I am happy to welcome my lovely Mum and excellent cook Diane...

I chose the oldest and one of my all time favourite films - Snow White.
 My first cake was the apple cake. It was my plain cupcake recipe with a surprise (but not poisonous)  bramley apple filling. I decorated it with red glitter sugar.

My second cup cake was my Happy cup cake which just had to be chocolate. I used the recipe from Georgetown Cupcakes. The decoration was a bit scary but was supposed to depict a Happy face!!

I chose a green cupcake stand to represent the woodland grass and added yellow flowers to complete the look!

(Back to me) 

For my cakes, I chose Tangled, one of the most recent Disney movies - it is definitely one of my favourite Disney films - I love the songs and the characters!

For my first cupcake, I took inspiration from Pascal the chameleon who befriends Rapunzel. I made a Key Lime cupcake frosted with lime buttercream icing and topped with an icing chameleon face. The recipe I used is from Sprinkles Cupcakes. 

For my second cupcake, I decided to take another attempt at the funfetti cupcake from Sally's Baking Addiction, and although I still couldn't get sprinkles that worked, it still tasted yummy! This is my 'See the Light' cupcake, and is topped with buttercream icing, star sprinkles and an icing plait.

For my display, I decided to depict Rapunzel's tower. For a tutorial on how to make your very own Tangled Tower Cupcake Stand, check out this post.

The fruity flavours (apple and lime) were the most popular but from what I heard they all went down well at my Dad's work where we sent them the next day!

How do you think we did?

Which flavour tickles your fancy?

Love Rebecca