weather permitting...

Was i wishing for snow in my last post?!! Ha!! Well we have some, and also a whole lot of wind! Here in the Great Glen i think the wind decided it was a handy corridor for ripping right on through! The Postie told me today how he saw water from the loch whooshing high up into the air, and after a few branches and then a fallen tree threatened his route he turned back down the road for home! A wise man indeed. Today has been the complete opposite to the windy one, a beautiful day, very still, just one for tidying up and, errrr replacing some roof tiles and returning to my neighbour, the various pieces of her former greenhouse.....

So, Power has been off in Caketopland for 32 hours, but now we are reconnected! Yay! Well done engineers! If you are awaiting a reply to any email or word about your current order, i shall hopefully catch up with you over the weekend. Any queries at all, just get in touch!

Now, before the storm arrived and interupted my 'schedule', i was preparing my mini Christmas cake for my decorating evening with the local Women's Rural Institute. It's not finished yet, i am still to add a decoration for the top. This will be the forth year that i show the ladies of Glengarry how to make some fun cake decorations for Christmas. We always have a good laugh and the ladies do enjoy friendly competition as to who can do what best! The mini cake when it is finished will be my 'and here's one i made earlier' sort of thing, and a raffle prize for the night. So, no more power cuts please, SWRI night is next Tuesday.... weather permitting!!

UPDATE!!! The night went well, here's a pic of the finished cake, and also on facebook i've just added a step by step how to make a mini cake and robin!!

Snow is falling!

Yes indeed, only a few days ago i was wondering when the snow would come, but finally it is here! Time to feel festive and throw snowballs!! If you are planning a winter wedding perhaps you are looking forward to some lovely snowy scences to set off your day. If so you may well be dressing in something glamourous but cosy... mmmmm not a wooly hat on this occasion perhaps, but a nice cosy stole!!

This winter wedding couple i made for The Little Venice Cake Company, the bride is very chic in her stole and some lovely red flowers add a nice festive touch! The figures are made completely from polymer clay, so have a look as if made from sugar, but will be able to be kept long after this winter as a nice memento!

Don't forget My Holday Dates, 20th December 2011 - 24th January 2012. Get in touch if you have a query or would like to make an order for February time.

where's the snow?

Happy December everyone!! The countdown to Christmas has begun!! No snow here yet... well there is a sprinkling on the tops of the mountains, but down here at house level it's just a bit wet and chilly! Not at all like where this caketop couple are!!

Yes, it's pretty snowy where they are, and they need their wellies on!! Plus, best to watch out for flying snowballs when this couple are about!!

I hope you are all enjoying the run up to Christmas and Hogmany- i do hope you have some nice plans afoot. Now if some of your plans involve a wedding there is still time to order your cake top. However please note that here in caketopland everything is shutting down for a month!! Holiday dates this year will be 20th December until 24th January 2012. Hooray!! Lots of time for being snowed in and eating all the christmas chocolate.... So if you would like to make an order for January time or early February please get in touch asap so i can make and have it posted off to you before Christmas.

The New Year also proves a busy time for emails, and i will try to stay on top of them during holiday time, but if there is any delay in getting a reply don't worry, but do give me a ring after 24th January if you have an urgent query that hasn't been answered.

Don't forget to keep in touch via my facebook page too, and visit my etsy shoppe if you so fancy- still some brooches to be had in time for Crimbo!!

Now it's novem-brrrrr!

Oooh!! A frosty start to the morning today. In the great glen the cold air finds itself quite at home!! Does make for some very frosty winter days tho, and i am looking forward to the icicles! Oooh and another thing that is good about this time of year here in the glen, are the sunsets...the days may get shorter but the sunsets get better!! Long winter evenings are good for pottering about too, i must try and take up my knitting again.

Last year lovely Jenny fom Invergarry Lodge gave me needles and wool and an excellent book, i made a scarf. (Well technically you could say my Mum- an excellent knitter- made half of my scarf) so this year i am going for leg warmers!! Ha! I figure those are just two short scarves stiched togeher...

Winter weddings are happening of course and i have started to make a few snowy caketops! If you are thinking of ordering a cake top for before or just after New Year, get in touch now as there will be holidays for me over the festive time, so we best get organised now!!

And of course i have been busy making a few wee brooches and pendants for my wintertime etsy shop. Its been good fun and they have taken over my facebook page! I've had a few requests for personalised pins. No problem, since caketop making is all about personalisation, so why should a brooch be any different?! The girls faces are proving popular for grown up girls and little girls too, and what about the coos? Everyone loves a highland coo... So for you lovely blog readers, here's a code so you can get free postage on anything in my etsy shoppe if you live in the UK, NOVBG11SP just type it in when prompted...

Here's a few snaps of what you may find there....

too many toms

I do enjoy getting in the garden when i can, altough i am pretty hit and miss when it comes to harvest time... i'm pretty good at cultivating slugs!!!

However, my two Uncles are very keen gardeners, and this year my Dad joined the club by getting himself a lovely new greenhouse. Tomatoes, that's the thing you see.... i did hear on a gardening radio programme during the summer, a question about tomatoes, to which the comment 'you either have tomatoes or you have a life' made me laugh! Well, my Uncles and my Dad do take very devoted care of thier tomato plants it has to be said, so much so in fact that they all end up with millions of tomatoes each! Tomatoes for breakfast lunch and dinner, and then some!

You can freeze tomatoes of course but they are a bit mushy.... i prefer chutney making. So the other week when my Dad visitied, he proudly brought me a bag full of his own home grown tomatoes! (Hey hey! The Uncles better watch out!)

This batch was from the end of the season, so quite a few green ones. Perfect for chutney tho, and my horticultural contribution was some fine apples from my garden ( the apple tree is slug proof and does it's thing with zero imput from me). So Green Tomato and Chilli Chutney was cooked up and we have to wait a few weeks for it to mature, but then i think- i hope- it will be good, and presants (not phesants) all round for Dad and Uncles!

There are lots of chutney recipes on the internet, so if you fancy having a go yourself you will have no trouble finding some tips. It is so easy tho, you can't go wrong. I put lots of apples in mine, onions and some spices and mustard seeds, along with vinegar and sugar. Next batch of chutney will be apple cider chutney i think... unless i use up the rest of the apples on crumble and pie...

I made little polymer clay chillis and tomatoes to decorate my jars with, so they are fun to make from start to finish. And with a fabric cover made from some material scraps and a ribbon bow and a bit of string for a rustic twist- it's definitely autumn!! 

Love through a lens!

It's always lovely to hear back from a Bride and Groom after the Big Day, and hear how it all went. It's great to hear how the cake top played it's part on all manner of wonderful cakes.

Cutting the cake is of course one of those wedding moments that everyone likes to have a picture of! Sonja and Shane, along with their photographer Gemma Williams, were kind enough to share lots of wonderful wedding photos with me... and with you!! Gemma really has captured the magic of the day, and all those lovely little touches that the bride and groom put into thier 'apple -country' wedding. (Handmade signs and moustaches being my favourites!!) It really is beautiful, and i am so pleased that i was able to contribute a tiny wee part of it, by making thier caketop.

The happy couple are booksellers, antique books that is, so there is a pile of leatherbound books sitting on the cake top... and their wee boy is cheerily waving thier country flags on there too! It was a great fun caketop to make, and a real treat to have an 'invite' to the day, by being able to view all the photos on Gemma's blog, it really does tell the story of the day!

CONGRATULATIONS Sonja and Shane!!!

http://www.gemmawilliamsphotography.co.uk/        http://www.tarringtonbooks.co.uk/

Hallow-weenies!

October time!! Pumpkin!! Hats!!! Monstas!!! yes.... still caketopping as well, never you fear, spookiness has only arrived for one day....

Yes, so a wee etsy shop has opened for the season. First in the shop are a handfull of halloween goodies. Little pin brooches made with polymer clay, and providing a bit of an autumnal smile i hope. As wintertime can be a bit quieter in the way of weddings, i am planning on fitting in a few festive brooches and random things as time allows, during the next few weeks, which i'll put on etsy. Also i will list one or two BARGAIN caketops for you. Oh yes! I have a couple of 'ex display' caketops i've used for a bit of experimental photo taking, and if i manage to i will make up one or two more for you too... so look out you may be able to grab yourself a cake top bargain on etsy. Will keep you posted. Regular personalised caketop orders still very welcome as usual of course!! Just get in touch direct for those. Orders are being taken for 2012, and my diary is now open!

In the meantime, back to spooky!!!!