Autumn Wish List
1. Topshop mustard chunky cardigan
2. Alex Monroe bicycle necklace
3. Flying A New York elephant print scarf
4. Boden breton striped t-shirt
5. Ally Capellino red satchel
6. Boutique by Jaegar spotty dress
7. Liberty Barbour jacket
8. Cath Kidston fairisle hat
9. Topshop tassel loafers
With the weather officially changing and the leaves turning rusty, I can’t help but think about all the cosy and delicious things in the shops at the moment. Every year, at the end of summer, I start to get itchy for cooler weather fashion. It’s funny because when I was putting this collage together I looked back at last year’s autumn collage and realised that my taste really hasn’t changed that much at all. I seem to have a set autumn style that I stick with, large jumpers and lots of opaque tights.
Regular readers will probably have noticed that I am a real autumn nerd, I feel complete with a coat on and have an extensive collection of berets. However, I’m fining this autumn a little more exciting than most as I’m totally in love with the whole country look, nut brown leather loafers, waxed jackets, tartan skirts and chunky knits are simply bliss to me! Now all I need is a mansion in the country to enjoy it all in.
However I don’t have a masion in the country, nor do I live in the country at all, meaning I have to take it easy and mix it up a bit. Walking around Islington dressed like the Queen at her Balmoral Estate really isn’t going to work – country wannabe isn’t a good look. I think items like the Barbour Liberty print jacket is a good compromise though, the pattern is edgy enough to wear in the city, without being too twee . Now all I need to do is find an excuse to purchase it….do walks on Hampstead Heath count?
As much as I love autumn fashion, I’m not looking forward to the nights drawing in and loosing the light. I get so sad arriving and leaving work almost completely in the dark. Although every cloud has a silver lining and that is new produce, yummy autumn foods are back on the menu! Hearty pies, pumpkin, squashes, root vegetables, stews and hot puddings – yes! What is everyone else hankering for this autumn, anyone already baking up some great seasonal recipes? Please do share.
Dinosaur Cupcakes
I’ve been on a bit of a baking spree lately and these dinosaur cupcakes are my latest creations. Inspired by all the cool retro Christmas deers that people put on cupcakes, I thought I’d give dinosaurs a go. These cakes are actually pretty special as I made them as a belated birthday cake for Miles, as we were in Italy over his birthday. The little retro dinos were from an office supplies shop in my home town (Whitstable) and I accompanied them with some pink sugar. They look quite effective, in a new-rave 1990′s kind of way.
Miles being a former huge dinosaur fan loved them, and although not edible kept the dinosaurs on them until the very end. To make the cakes I always use the Hmmingbird Bakery vanilla cupcake recipe and then combine this with the Primrose Bakery’s buttercream icing recipe, as I think it creates a nice, firm icing.
This week has been so crazy busy, I’ve barely had time to stop, however there’s always time for cupcakes – even if I have been eating them at 10pm, when I should be brushing my teeth for bed! In other news, I’m really late to the party but, I’ve just discovered the joy that is Laura Marling. I also want to buy everything in the Boden and Hobbs NW3 collection – not god! I hope everyone’s had a great weekend? x
Happy Tape Cupcake Flags DIY
Step 1
Everything you’ll need below. Try to source cocktail sticks with flat ends. I managed to find mine in a specialist cook shop, I think they are indented for displaying cheese and pineapple creations – retro.
Step 2
Depending on the length of the flag you want to create, snip off your tape and lay the cocktail stick in the middle and try to make sure the two sides of tape are roughly even.
Step 3
Bring the two sides together, making sure they are smooth.
Step 4
You can cut the end of the flag straight, or you can take the ribbon approach and snip the end into non-fray points by folding in half gently and slicing out a V shape.
Final Product (remember to bake cake)
Pop the flag carefully into the tip of the pipped icing on your cupcake. If you are making a big layer cake you could use wooden BBQ skewers (cut to lengths) to make larger, more dramatic flags with happy tape – put into the cake a different heights. More pictures of the end product here.
I hope someone finds this helpful. I know they are not the most technical things to make, but for anyone not great at icing (like myself) they do detract and hide any pipping mistakes nicely. They would be great for a baby showers and general partys - not just weddings!
I hope you all have lovely week…
Happy Tape Cupcake Flags
It’s been a while since I talked cakes here on the blog, in fact I think this was the last time – and that was quite a while a go! So, with much of my crafty attention going on thinking about the wedding, I thought it would be good to start experimenting with some wedding-related crafts and happy tape cupcake flags was something I thought might work well – whatever your colour scheme! Happy tape is everywhere lately and I’m huge a fan, it’s brilliant for everything from wrapping presents and sealing greetings cards, to putting pictures up (mark free on the wall) and making flags! The great thing is that you can quite literally get every colour and pattern, I got my pastel colours from Present and Correct a long time a go and they are still going – 2 years later!
When I dreamed up making these little toppers I was actually inspired by all the lovely ribbon ones I had seen online, but alas I didn’t have anything thin enough, I also didn’t have graphic design skills to create and print my own – so happy tape was my solution! I think it makes a pretty good flag and is really sturdy. Simple pale pink cupcakes, with pretty pastel flags, on a stunning white tired cake stand could work nicely for a wedding (or my wedding) what do you think?
(P.S Yes, I’m crazily considering a way that I can somehow make my own wedding cakes, did anyone else do this, any tips on how to juggle this time-wise? Any advice is really, really welcome.)
Venice Bienale 2011
This is my last post on Venice, I promise.
Now, I’m not going to claim to know a lot about art, however I do enjoy a little dabble now and then. So when we were in Venice I couldn’t help but feel drawn to the Bienale as it was art that was right up my street, bright colourful and largely interactive. It was really nice to see art from across the world all in one place, I loved the experience of visiting each country’s offing in their own pavilion. My stand out favourites were from Korea, France and USA (I can’t say the UK, that would just be biased). We didn’t have a great deal of time to soak up all the offerings of the Bienale as we were only in Venice for 24 hours, however I think we got a really good feel for it and I would love to come back one day to see more (maybe when it’s not so hot). The Bienale is now in it’s 54th year and this time around it was curated and directed by the art historian and critic Bice Curiger. For anyone thinking of going I would say ‘go!’ because its a lot of fun and not at all reserved for those in the know about art. I love colourful things and tied to pick out the most colourful things that caught my eye at the Beinale – I couldn’t even tell you want they all are!
Aside from art, this week I’ve been spending a lot of time ogling over all the lovely new autumn winter collections out there. I say this from my air conditioned office, however outside it’s 30 degrees today – I’m almost wishing it code again so I can wear all the yummy things I’ve seen. I’ve also been buying a lot of shoes for the new season (this is odd as I’m not a shoe person at all). Interestingly I’ve seen lots of autumn/winter catalogs and promotional shoots all shot in Venice! I’m off to the rather swanky Ledbury for dinner tonight, I’m beyond excited! I’ll let you know how it measures up – have a great day.
Inspring Finds: Joel Penkman
In the spirit of trying to blog more I thought I’d try to start a regular spot to talk about other things – not just my cakes, my travels and life. So, here goes ‘Inspiring Finds’ and the first person I wanted to mention was this great artist I stumbled across the other day, Joel Penkman. I’ve seen his work around before, but quick spy over on Oh Joy the other day jogged my memory and now I’m totally smitten and want everything. How fun are these paintings? They look so real, so vibrant and I love the fact that they celebrate some real British institutions like Fabs, stick o rock and jam tarts!
Joel Pankman is based in the UK (making it all the more exciting) and really captures our food favourites. These pictures really do take me back to my childhood birthday gatherings, with party ring biscuits and jam tarts that everyone used to scrape the jam out of and discard the pastry case! You can shop the prints on Etsy, they are so reasonably priced too. I just wish I had my own kitchen wall to hang them all on in a collage of frames!
As I write this I’m huddled in a blanket, with a hoody on, waiting for the heating to kick in – it’s late July, it should be warm! I’m also glued to the news following the latest news on Norway – my heart goes out to them at this terrible time (I’m still in sock).
Venice When it Sizzles!
Hello, again! My blogging is like busses, you wait ages for one, then 2 come along at once. I wanted to share a few more pictures of my travels and this time Venice. Whilst in Lake Garda we decided that since we were so close to Venice we’d take an unplanned trip on our way back to the airport. It was all very last minute, meaning I had no time to research anything, though it was totally worth it. Venice was, as they say, stunning and beautiful in so many ways.
Again, the weather was so super hot that it made normal tasks like getting around really hard, however I think we got to see a lot of the city in the short 24 hours that we were there for. The endless waterways, zero cars and stunning architecture really do have to be seen. I was always skeptical that Venice would be all hype, but it is very idillic and quite peaceful (despite stacks of tourists). The food was good, the cakes were yum and the gelato even better.
We stayed at an amazing hotel where the room was covered with massive Venetian mirrors, which does nothing for your self confidence, but looks so stunning! It was the Hotel Palazzina Grassi and well worth a stop if you visit Venice – amazing service and the best food! We took boats everywhere, I got bitten by 100 mosquitos and visited the Bienale (more to come on that). All in all, Venice gets the thumbs up from me and I do really want to go back, just maybe when it’s a little cooler.
In terms of general inspiration, I’ve been mostly reading Catlin Moran’s new book, listening to Melanie Laurent and eagerly waiting for Beginners to finally come out – can’t wait! What’s inspiring you lately, anyone else reading Catlin Moran, what do you think of it?
Garda >Venice >London >Palma
Hello! I think this time around I’m not going to even mention the fact that I haven’t blogged since May and that this is probably the longest I’ve ever going without updating the the blog. Why? Because it’s really boring hearing me make excuses. All I will say is that I’m looking at a few ways that I might be able to change littledollface.co.uk that would allow me to blog more regularly, without having to keep it just about my life.
So, I’ve been rather busy in my travels lately having spent the las 10 days hopping between Lake Garda, Venice, London and then on to Palma! Miles and I headed off to Lake Garda (photos above) for a good friends wedding stayed for 4-5 days and then drove to Venice and hung out there for 2 days (photos of that to come). Italy was beautifully stunning, however it was unusually hot – making everything a bit harder. In between fits of melting we managed to get out onto the lake on a speedboat, eat some good food and consume our body weight in Gelato!
We visited and stayed in a medieval town called Malcesine, right n the edge of Lake Garda. This was where our friends were getting married and boy did it have spectacular views (checkout my first shot above, taken from our hotel room balcony). I want to share with you the rest of the trip in pictures, but instead of making this one huge epic post, I’ll try to break it down into Italian instalments – Venice to follow!
Sorry no pictures of London or Palma, my 7 hourse back in London between holidays was spent slumped over my washing machine waiting for my clothes to wash and dry (sob). And Palma, well, this was my annual work holiday and it probably wouldn’t have been that safe to take a camera with me - vodka and electricals usually equals disaster! 
Weekend, Wood, Weddings, Flowers and Pink
Ok, so I’ve been away from the blog for an age. I’m not even sure why really, I don’t think I’ve really had anything to say and I haven’t really felt that inspired. You’ll have to forgive me as this is my first post in a while, it’s a bit of a mash up of photos – however they were all take this weekend. I suppose for the fist time in a long time I felt inspired this weekend, I took a trip to Columbia Road flower market, went for some long bike rides, read my new Handmade Weddings Book and tried my hand at flower arranging. Wedding plans and work have been such a time drain lately, I’m really looking forward to getting back into posting here and trying not to catch wedding fever – because it really is so easy to pick up! I’ve been keeping up reading everyone else’s blogs, now I need to make sure I get commenting again! As you can see I’m having a bit of a love affair with Ercol furniture right now. I have a grandfather chair and Miles parents bought us the nest of tables as an engagement present – plus I have a dining room table! I think I’ll stop there! I hope everyone has a great week – only 4 days! x
Holly Becker Decorate Talk at Liberty London
I’ve been an absent blogger, very absent indeed. However instead of going into the in’s and out’s to why I’ve been a bit awol I think it really is just one of things that happens sometimes when you write a personal blog. You can suddenly lose your voice or just run out things to say for a moment…..I had a case of both. I blame the wedding and planning such a big thing – it’s been a bit consuming.
Weddings and blog woes aside, I really wanted to share my pictures from a week or so a go when I went to the Decorate talk at Liberty London held by the book’s author Holly Becker. As a longstanding reader of Decor8 when I heard Holly was in town launching her book I jumped at the chance to hear her speak. Unfortunately, the fist night (the actual launch) got booked up really fast, it was such a shame to miss this as I was really excited by the possibility of meeting some of my favourite bloggers – like Yvonne, Lynne and Cherry. However, I have to say the second evening was very intimate and I got to talk and ask Holly lots of questions – which was lovely and a real treat! I have to say Holly was even more lovely and friendly in person, she was incredibly encouraging and really fun to listen to. She spoke about her book and also spoke to everyone individually about what they do etc – it was a lovely experience.
After Holly gave us some background on the book an answered all my questions (I had a lot), she signed copies of our brand new books and showed us the lovely table that she co-styled the night before. It was a stunning mash of styles, crafts and personal touches – I really loved the mixing of patterns and the flower arrangements.
Overall it was a lovely evening and a real treat to get to ask Holly so many questions and just generally have a chat. I’m currently working my way through Decorate – it’s filled with some fantastic homes! Really loving a peek into Jonathan Adler’s home and I can’t wait to have more free time to delve into it more (I’m currently on holiday from work so this week will be reading week for me). I hope everyone had a lovely bank holiday in the sun? Here’s to giving the blog more attention – I promise!!!!