Days of Blouses: Pussy Bow

We all know work life isn't that interesting. Make it more riveting with these perfect pussy bow blouse. 

Nothing says feminine and sophisticated like the perfect neck bow. 

Tie me up until I square blue blouse.

Sheer delight in navy blue.

Blushing pink secretary blouse.

Ruffled and tied purple with faint vertical stripe.

Grey secretary blouse with the perfectly tied bow.

All the above blouses are available on my Etsy store now. And if you just can't wait for more...

This top will be coming soon- A sparkle in the night blouse:

Isn't this the perfect top for those fancy nights out?

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Much love, Laura

Days of Fondant.

I've never tried my hand at fondant before, it always seemed extremely intimidating and complicated. 

Not to mention you seem to need these amazing baking skills.

Turns out they were all lying to me. 

You don't need fancy techniques or equipment or anything of the sort. 

I found a simple recipe and method to make delicious fondant icing. 

Recipe to follow.

Melted marshmallows - the basis for the recipe.

Once enough icing sugar is added to make a thick consistency, it can be kneaded like dough.

Me- making sure that my messy mixture doesn't stick anywhere I don't want it to.

The cake. My special helper decided to test out how well it was cooked.

Fondant mixture prepared the day before, which had been kept in the fridge over night and had now warmed to room temperature.

Kneading and rolling.

One foxy cutter.

Some cupcakes which I had made with the extra cake batter.

Finishing touches!

Recipe, adapted from All Recipes:

250g marshmallows (one bag of vanilla and raspberry flavour)*

2 tablespoons water

500g icing sugar + extra for kneading

Method:

1. Place marshmallows in a glass/microwave safe bowl with 2 tablespoons of water.

2. Heat in batches of 30seconds (depending on your microwave) until most of the marshmallows are melted.

3. Grab a spatual and start mixing the icing sugar in 1 cup at a time. 

4. Keep mixing until it has a dough-like consistency. 

5. Sprinkle some icing sugar on a clean work space. 

6. Knead the fondant until it becomes workable. Keep adding in icing sugar until it isn't so sticky. 

7. The fondant is ready when you can stretch it out and it doesn't break immediately, and doesn't keep stretching. 

8. Either put it in cling wrap (with a bit of butter so it doesn't stick) or use it right away. 

*the pink in the raspberry marshmallows gives the fondant a soft pink colour. If you want to add your own colour (like blue etc) only use the white marshmallows so you get a true colour. 

Colouring can be added into the melted marshmallows, or later like I did into the fondant when you are kneading it. Although this is a bit messier. 

Subscribe to see what else I make!

Much love, Laura

Days of DIY: For the Record

If you have a special friend, the one who is truely hipster and would rather listen to the scratchy sound of "stereophonic" records, and goes on about how it is "real" music, this is the gift for them. 

They may be shocked at the damage you have done to a beautiful record, but just tell them it is scratched and skips their favourite song.

What you'll need:

1 vinyl record. I wouldn't worry what songs are on it, look for a nice centre sticker that will go well with said hipsters deco.

Oops, look- a scratch.

Put your record on some foil, because it is now going to become your vinyl pizza.

Put it in the oven, on around about 180C, till the edges start to warp a little more than the picture above.

Have ready a bowl or jar - this is what you are going to mould the vinyl around. 

Using a bowl will give a shallower, more open bowl whilst a jar will give something with more depth.

When you shape the vinyl, it is quite hot. I used oven mitts that are more like oven fingers- making it more dextrous.

The vinyl does cool down and stay in shape quite fast, so get a wiggle on making it right!

My vinyl formed into a lovely shape. 

The best part I found about using vinyl is that if the shape isn't what you had imagined/desired at the beginning - it's ok! Just chuck it back in the oven to warm up a little bit more and then you can rework it.

Oh Julie Andrews, I do love you. 

I'm going to make the record cover into a card to go along with this gift, you can't waste a record cover like that.

Much love, Laura