the gingerbread house

May 15, 2012

Giveaway: Chocoholic Mum giftbag from Cocoon Collection

I have a lovely giveaway for any mums in need of a treat from Cocoon Collection. Cocoon Collection provides a great range of present ideas, giving a very special gift solution for all occasions and recipients of all ages. The gift bags, boxes, sets and tins aim to provide a wow factor throughout the whole experience, from the curious parcel arriving, opening the exquisite packaging and then using and enjoying the quality contents.

Their present collections are carefully put together for any special occasion and there’s a great choice, especially for babies and mums. Cocoon Collection have kindly offered one of my readers the chance to win a yummy Chocoholic Mum giftbag.

The Chocoholic gift bag contains the following:

Champagne & Strawberry Truffles – a box of the finest hand-made English truffles
Eton Mess Chocolate Bar – a classic Great British Pudding with a twist in a smart limited edition chocolate bar
Giant Double Choc Muffin – a delicious chocolate muffin filled with chunky choc chips
Tiffin bar – biscuit, honeycomb, chocolate and sultana sensations!
A 200ml bottle of fruity Sparkling Rosé Wine
Little Pink Book, Keep Calm for Mums – a hard backed book of the best tongue in cheek advice!

Giveaway

I have one Chocoholic giftbag to offer a reader of the gingerbread house.

To enter simply tell me your favourite brand of chocolate

For an extra entry tell others about the competition using the Retweet button below.

For an extra entry follow me via Networked Blogs or subscribe to my blog via email. I have lots of exciting competitions coming up and I would hate for you to miss out!

The Rules: the competition closes at midnight on May 24th and is open to UK residents who are over the age of 18 as the gift bag contains a mini bottle of wine. The winner will be selected at random and contacted using the email address or twitter name supplied. If the winner does not reply within 3 days the competition will be redrawn. Good luck! The winners name will be announced on this blog post.

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May 13, 2012

How to make a simple crawling blanket

You may remember last year I attended the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally where I picked up some lovely fabric to make a crawling blanket for my second child. I didn’t know if the bump would be a boy or girl so I tried to pick neutral fabrics.

I couldn’t resist london scene by etsuko furuya which literally leaped at me as I passed a stand selling fabric. As well as the main fabric I bought a lime fabric to back the blanket and purple to bind it together.

The fabric is gorgeous! It features well-known London landmarks such as Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, a London bus, Tower Bridge and London taxis.

The crawling blanket was a really simple project to put together. I cut the front and back fabric to the same size and pinned them either side of some light weight batting from John Lewis. I then basted them together to make sure they didn’t slip when I machine sewed them. I then sewed through the three layers around each length, about 0.5 cm from the edge.

I then made my own binding and sewed it on by hand. To make sure the three layer stayed together I did a simple running stitch using green embroidery thread through the patches of green dots on the fabric.

I’m really surprised how much we use this blanket. It lives in the lounge and at first I just liked looking at it (it’s not often I buy supplies and finish a project!). However we use it every day, we sit on it on the floor, play lego on it, snuggle under it when we watch a dvd and Little Sis spends a lot of time snoozing on it – but she’s allowed as I made it just for her. I hope she loves it and keeps it for a long time.

Linking up with craft schooling sunday and handmade monday

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May 9, 2012

The Diamond Jubilee Victoria sponge

This overcast weather is no good for my mood so I thought I would share some good news I recently received. Last week I found I was chosen from 130 applicants to be one of 25 Morphy Richards Innovator for the next 12 months! To be chosen I wrote a very silly post on my top tips for housework which they obviously enjoyed reading.

Being a Morphy Richards Innovator means I will be reviewing some of their great products and giving feedback which will help them to develop and improve the products in their range to make running a household that little bit easier. I have a shiny new badge over there too <on the right>

This news really cheered me up but I’m very glad it wasn’t based on my baking abilities. I thought I would try making a Diamond Jubilee Victoria sponge, making each half of the sponge red and blue, with white buttercream in the middle. I thought this would be fun for our Jubilee tea party – but it didn’t work out very well!

First of all the cake just didn’t rise. Secondly, the food dye I use didn’t turn out as expected – the red turned out pink and the blue looked more green than blue. It tasted fine so I just need to perfect my Victoria sponge and food dye before the big day.

I leave you with a picture of the cake disaster -