Easter Milk Chocolate Bark

Last Minute Easter Treats!

Easter Egg Meringue Nests

Edible gift bags to present your mini eggs in - I give you meringue nests.

As with my previous meringue attempts [kisses, white chocolate raspberry creams, mini kisses], the recipe is a simple 100g caster/golden sugar and 2 egg whites.  This made 4 large nests [holding 10 mini eggs] and one small [holding 3/4 mini eggs].  Whip your ingredients to soft, firm peaks either by hand or with an electric whisk:

...and transfer the lot into a piping bag.  The nozzle shape doesn't need to be worried about too much, as long as it's fairly wide [I've used a Wilton Star]:

The nests are simple to make - I've broken it down in to 3 stages for the blog, but the remainder of my nests were made by combining the three stages in one continuous motion.  Start by creating a circular base on a lined baking tray:

 ...next, pipe a line of meringue on top of the outer edge of the base:

...and continue again on top of that line to form your nest:

 The meringue will hold in place and wont collapse [if it does, the mixture was not whipped enough - do the over the head trick to make sure!].  Continue making your nests - I varied the shapes slightly, sometimes making my lines on top of the base straight, moving outwards to create open nests and also moving inwards to create slightly more closed nests:

 In an oven at the lowest setting possible [mine was around 70 degreed C] pop your 

meringues in to dry for around 2-3 hours:

...and once cool, fill with your treats: 

 You could, of course, just nip in to Sainsburys and buy some, but where's the fun in that?

If you are feeling fancy, you could add some decoration to the meringues, such as chocolate sprinkles on the top to create a next effect, or hundreds of thousands to make the whole thing a little more pretty.

See you tomorrow x

Mini Egg Macaroons

Macarons/Macaroons Take 2

Easter Chocolate

Hello - ready for a week of Easter-themed food?

{a little glimpse} Nine

Storage ideas.......

Don't forget the giveaway running this week until Sunday - enter here.

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Spring Lollipop Biscuits

Not everyone is a huge fan of Chocolate [who are these people?!], so I've made some Easter-themed shortbread biscuits on a stick to hand out as a happy swap.

Mini Spring Pastel Meringue Treats

Easy Cake Pops

Are people still making cake pops?  I am.  Especially as I am a big cheat and they are easy peasy
when you cheat.  Here's how:

A CraftCandy Giveaway: CLOSED

By the power of a random generator, I send big

CONGRATULATIONS to:

Aimee Lawson

and

Carly Attridge

Thanks so much to everyone who took part!

{a little glimpse} Eight

Have a great weekend!

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 and Twitter!

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Wooden Washi Tape Pegs

Humour me?

Clay Tile Tags

Felt Flower Hanging Heart

I made a hanging heart for Christmas using simple hand embroidered decoration and large hand stitching last year that I have adapted ever so slightly for one of my favourite people in the world, my Mum.  This will be attached to the best bunch of flowers I can find and an embroidered picture of some of her favourite things, beach huts...but more about that another time.

This heart is, of course, perfect for one of the favourites in your life as it's so easy to adapt and customise with the stitching, decoration and fabric used.  

I used very similar methods to this post, however; adapted for a slightly different size and design.  For the decoration, I settled on a simple fabric flower design, using this technique and it's something that can be hanging all year round.

My chosen material for the heart was a simple pastel purple felt and raspberry for the flower.
Cutting a circle from an outline drawn around a roll of cellotape, I cut my felt into a swirl, and then began to wind the felt from the outside in:

...to form my flower.
I then fixed to the bottom some pastel green leaves cut free-hand from patterned cotton.

For the heart, I adapted the Christmas template slightly to produce a shorter heart and I still really like the effect of seeing the stitching, so I chose a pretty pastel pink thread and used small running stitches to fix my hearts together:

 ...leaving a gap before the joining to fill with padding [you could use fabric scraps, toy stuffing or add some lavender or scent]:

...and then securing closed.  I then trimmed any excess fabric where the two pieces didn't quit match up:

...and added a loop to the back with embroidery floss:

...I then used strong craft glue to secure the flower to the front of the heart:

Ta-da.  I also made some more fabric felt flowers to use as present embellishments and for a matching card:

Perfect for Sunday, but just as perfect for a birthday gift/tag, present for yourself or present for your favourite for absolutely no reason at all.
Have a great weekend, thanks so much for stopping by this week x

{a little glimpse} Seven

Happy Friday!

[this little glimpse will be up later today!]

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 and Twitter!

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Easy Paper Flowers

Framed Chalkboard

I cannot tell you how happy I am to have this ticked off the to-do list!

I'm especially late with this one as I've been searching for the right frame.  I've bought plastic moulded ones from eBay, searched second hand shops and contemplated restoring and also thought about repainting others.  But, being lazy, I decided to keep looking until I found what I was looking for.  Most of the time, I don't really know what this is.  Finally, I found my frame in the best way, by accident and when not looking for it.  Usually, this situation also means not having budgeted or having the funds, but my perfect frame is budget friendly and this whole project cost me £22.

 I used this frame from Dunelm [£19.99], but also wanted this ... and still do.  I think I'll go and buy it after this post for the kitchen actually.  I really like the moulding effects, vintage feel and colour:

I bought this tube of chalkboard paint [£1.99] long, long ago, [so naive was I of the time
involved in finding a frame], but you can get the same here [or make your own with 2 parts tile
grout and 1 part paint]:

It says it works on almost ANY surface...let's see.

Removing the glass, and pre-cut mount I covered the inside of the backboard [which is similar to thick paper mache in texture] in 4 coats of paint
[I think 2 would have been fine, but I wanted to be doubly sure....literally]:

This is after one coat:

...and the second [applied in the opposite direction]:

...and once more in each direction:

...which I think gave it more depth and a more even finish.
Leave to dry fully [I left mine overnight] and then clip everything back in to place:

I'm really pleased with the overall effect.

I'm going to invest in a chalk pen, as this is going to be used often and little chalk sticks try my patience - I will be back with an update of how that works and how well it comes off / is reused - if you are interested in making your own chalk paint and want an effect that isn't as harsh as black, you can mix any colour of paint [one part] to two parts tile grout [from a DIY store] - I've yet to give this a go myself, so if you can recommend any good examples, let me know! [thethingsshemakes@yahoo.co.uk]