A Snapshot of my week

I seem to have settled into a regular routine of baking and other domestic chores of late, so it was an unexpected surprise when I was asked to demo for Art Van Go at the Festival of Quilts at the last minute. Having only a couple of days to gather supplies and decide what to demonstrate certainly focuses the mind but after rearranging some other commitments I arrived at the NEC on Thursday morning raring to go!

I travelled up with Anna Pye, my friend, neighbour and talented printmaker and we both had a fabulous day. We talked to people all day long, demonstrated some of our artwork and generally had a wonderful time. This is before the doors opened to the public.

I was stitching these little brooches... if you want to give this a try yourself you can find a tutorial to buy here in my Etsy shop.

Meanwhile, there have been three birthday cakes this week... this one for a friend who is a keen blacksmith in his spare time. His reaction when he saw the cake made it so worthwhile.

A rather serious looking cake for a young lady who has political aspirations... but the serious exterior hid a frivolous cake inside. A strawberry daiquiri sponge... three layers of vanilla sponge soaked in a strawberry rum syrup and sandwiched together with a lime buttercream and rum soaked strawberries!

And finally another layered sponge cake today. I've a couple of days off before more birthday cakes next week.

There was also more farm shop baking this week and this was my table on Friday morning. The cakes and jam are selling well at last.

And today I managed a couple of hours in the garden. Since breaking my ankle I've not been able to do much gardening. Although Stewart cuts the grass he's no Monty Don... and the weeds have taken over, so much so I decided that one bed needed clearing competely. I hadn't bargained on help from my under gardener though, who proved to be very good at digging, although perhaps a little too enthusiastically!

What... me?