Craftathon

I've been very busy lately with all of my crafting projects. I think of this as a blessing as it manages to distract me from the more negative things that have been going on lately. You'd be surprised at how calming it can be to simply sit down and write all of your ideas for future projects out for an hour or two!

The most recent thing I've been up to is baking - something that I'm particularly close to because I just have a natural given talent for it. I think that everybody is born with a talent whether they like it or not and sometimes it just takes people a bit longer to figure out what theirs is.

I used my new stand mixer over the weekend to bake up two cakes for a birthday get together. The first was a chocolate chip cookie dough cake (I used the recipe from one of my favourite baking bloggers and it was a roaring success! How could a 3 layer devils food cake, vanilla cheesecake and cookie dough cake NOT be a success! The second cake was a much more simple two layered pineapple upside down cake.

Besides the baking I've been busy making notes and plans for new soap creations. I've decided on an apple and mint creation and a citrus themed one. I'm definitely curious to try out some marbling techniques this time around! I also purchased the most adorable baby soap mould which I'm planning on using for a in the future babyshower that is still to be planned. I think the idea of receiving a newborn babyshaped, baby scented soap would be lovely.

I've put a lot of knitting projects on hold because I simply haven't had the time to really sit down and get to it properly. I currently have about 3 different projects on the go: a cabled sweater, a baby kimono jacket and a super cute pink baby dress. Let's not even mention the fact that I had a grand idea to knit hats for a charity project in Africa! I fear I'll never get around to finding the time to do that.

I have a lot of fabric printing to do too! Mostly baby related, but I'm also planning a surprise thank you gift for a friend which I think they'll really like. 

Stay tuned to find out more :)

What kind of natural given talents do you all have? And who do you think you inherited them from?

It's hard to find things better in life than a really good cup of tea

Today I wanted to write a small blog post about one of my favourite brands of tea. If you know me at all, you'll know that one of things I value most highly in life is a good cup of tea.

All my life I've drunk tea the 'British way' (with milk) because hey, that's how we drink it in South Africa too. Ever since I've been spending more time in mainland Europe however I started to expand from just your average black tea into a whole world of flavours and spices and blends...all without milk! European tea and coffee houses are really the best! It did take a lot of convincing, however...I will always remember the running joke of the family of my ex-boyfriend about how I used to drink 'baby tea' because it had milk in it.

In Austria and Germany they have a brand of tea called Teekanne. Teekane specialise in herbal and fruit teas, and I think you can even get them in America now. I think they have the most delightful names...take a look at these:

"French Kiss" (a strawberry and cherry flavoured tea) 

"Heisse Liebe" ("Hot Love".A raspberry and vanilla flavoured tea...my personal favourite! I have boxes of it!)

"Kleine Suende" (This is hard to translate. I think it almost means something like "Little Sinner". It's a blueberry and vanilla flavoured tea)

Aren't those tea names all just adorable? And they taste great too! Check out the other flavours over here 

All pictures sourced from: www.austria-onlineshop.com, www.teekanne.at and www.emmas-enkel.de