Kreativlink!

I really am not doing too well about updating the blog, and my blogging has become a bit more erratic than I would like, but the beginning of summer and work have been sucking the energy out of me!


But, here I am again, with a few more blog entries all lined up for the rest of the week (hopefully) and on this hot Wednesday, I shall start by dedicating a full blog post to the talented Renate of Kreativlink!


Renate lives & creates in the lovely country of Austria (where I really really wanna go on vacation some day!). I've had her Etsy shop hearted for a long long time, and I had been wanting to get myself one of her journals for the longer time!


I first got one of her journals as a present for my friend Esther (see entry here) but after hearting items, trying to choose one from the many I liked and once I had decided, seeing that someone had snatched it before me, I decided to grab this gorgeous Ivy journal! And I was even happier after Renate told me it was the last one she had made!




Renate does create these amazing journals from scratch, hand cutting the paper for them, stain it and make it look old. Paints the designs and hand bound them, truly works of art in journal form!


My lovely Ivy journal is surely only the first one of the journals I know I will be getting from Kreativlink, at the very least I still have to grab myself the "right" Egyptian journal!


I love the way my Ivy journal came packed, with Austrian newspaper pages, that became a really nice background for the shots! And also, the certificate of authenticity and the bookmark that came with it! (And the Haribo bears that disappeared shortly after!).








Now I just need to bring myself to start using it, may it be to write, if my inspiration ever returns, or to take notes and plan blog entries and photos, and maybe even to start making lists about my photography, or about my travels or planning shoots... who knows! So many things can fill these pages!






Dinner is calling my name now, but I promise a new blog entry tomorrow, till then, have a great day!

Chocolate Cupcakes & Flying Bird Botanicals Cacaos!

Hello everyone!


Happy Friday (for those who have the weekend off)!


Yesterday I promised you a blog entry today about the chocolate cupcakes and here I am, going to fulfill the promise!


These amazing chocolate cupcakes are made with only the cupcake part of the AMAZING recipe for Mocha Cheesecake Cupcakes that the brilliant Tom from TokyoTombola sent me along with my fruit cozies! I have to say this recipe is the one that has made me fall in love with baking & cupcakes!


This recipe calls for cocoa powder, and since a while ago I got myself an amazing set for the chocolate lovers from Flying Bird Botanicals with three organic cacaos: Chokola, Cacao Especial & Lavender Mint Cacao, so I decide to go and try using the Cacao Especial, and damn, it does give it a super nice touch! I'm thinking of also using the other two, the Chokola to give it a bit of a more spicy taste, and the Lavender one, just because! Can you tell I like making these cupcakes?




Here goes the recipe!:

Tom's amazing chocolate cupcakes!

Ingredients:

- 125 g self-raising flour
- 100 g caster sugar
- 25 g demerara sugar
- 125 g butter (unsalted) room temperature
- 50 g cacao powder
- 60 ml whole milk
- 2 large eggs

Method:

- Line a 12 muffin tin with the muffin/cupcake cases.
- Put the over on 180ºC/350ºF ready to put tin on middle rack
- Cream butter and sugar
- Beat in eggs, one at a time
- Mix in cocoa powder
- Mix in flour
- Mix in milk, beat until smooth.
- Divide mixture between muffin cases.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes (mine are ready at 20 min) or until a toothpick inserted comes clean/ they spring back to the touch.






You could always frost them, but I love them as they are, and so did my sis-in-law, brother and nephews that devoured them too fast yesterday for me to take pics!




Confession: I was too busy eating with them to take the pics too! ;)

RockyTheZombie & OnCupcake Moon on Cafepress!!

Hello everyone!


How is this sunny Thursday going? I'm enjoying a day off and a cup of Chococcino before lunch is ready.


I will be going to visit my bro, sis-in-law & nephews this afternoon, and will be bringing a dozen of the awesome chocolate cupcakes I baked yesterday, so if I take some pics of my nephews wolfing on them, I'll write a blog entry about said cupcakes tomorrow!


For today, I wanna show off my purchases from Cafepress, two new mugs for all my coffee & tea needs, with the super cute art of two of my favourite talented ladies: Rhi from RockyTheZombie and Deb from OnCupcakeMoon!


Both have a Cafepress shop, and both shops are filled to the brim with all sort of goodies with their cute characters on! I've been thinking of getting a pair of new mugs, and I decided that it was the perfect occasion!


I got myself a Skull Balloons from RockyTheZombie and the Girly Skully Cupcake from OnCupcakeMoon. And though Cafepress doesn't offer tracking or update you via e-mail of when they ship for international orders, both mugs arrived in a pair of weeks and look super cute!




You may call me silly, but since they arrived I decided to only use my Skully Balloons for my teas, and my Skully Cupcake for coffees! ;)






I love both my mugs, and though both are Made in China, I love supporting my favourite Indie artists!

Shopping Handmade: Irene's b-day & goodies for Rudra!

Hello there!


Wednesday has come and I've realized that once again I've neglected the blog for quite a few long days. Work really has been sucking me dry as of late, I'd say...


But here I am! It's been a while since I've done one of my Shopping Handmade features, so here is one!


Last Saturday my friend Irene celebrated her b-day, and as usual, work made it impossible for me to attend, so we met up the previous Sunday so we could chit chat and also I could give her her birthday presents! As always, I love buying handmade, and so I got her a Dolly bag and a super cute RockyTheZombie tee! And since I didn't have a b-day card at hand, I used a super cute gift tag from OnCupcakeMoon!






She absolutely loves both, and was super excited! So, you know people... Handmade gifts are super cool! ;)


An handmade gifts are no only super cool for grown ups, but also for kiddies! I love buying handmade gifts for Gaurav's nieces and nephew, and RockerByeBaby is one of my favourite shops for doing so! Here you can see Mr Cheeky Rudra, sporting his Walk the Plank RockerByeBaby tee!




Now, since today is a cool day, I'll go bake some more cupcakes, and I'll hopefully be back tomorrow!

On Cupcake Moon obsessed!!

Hello there!


How did you Monday go? Mine went pretty well, and now that's past midnight over here in hot Spain, I spent the last hours of my Monday baking some awesome cupcakes!


I've had this Mocha Cheesecake cupcakes for quite a while, since my dear Tom from tokyotombola sent it to me, along with my brilliant fruit cozies!


This was my first time making cupcakes with frosting/icing, cause all my previous baking had been muffins and plum cakes. So, they're not perfect in their looks but by Toutatis! they do taste YUM!



So with these lovely cupcakes I wanna show off the awesome cupcake wrappers I got from the brilliant Deb of OnCupcakeMoon, along with amazing thank you cards and the cutest Snow Angel Penguin tags!






You all know I found Deb through the also brilliant Rhi of RockyTheZombie, and actually I should say both me & Deb must be two of the most loyal RTZ customers! Rhi knows that anything she makes in a medium, she should make twice, so we can both have one! ;)


Well, my first order from Deb's shop made me fall in love with her artwork and cards, so shortly after, I asked her to make me a set of thank you cards in Spanish (and another in English) with my favourite of her designs, the Skully Cupcake! There's a lot of super cute stationery out there, but all in English, and I have a bilingual life! So I need cuteness in Spanish! And Deb made me the most awesome cards ever!






And of course, as I've already mentioned, some super cute Snow Angel Penguin (I'm sure the name is self-explanatory, but it's a super cute penguin making a snow angel!).




Aaaand the cupcake wrappers! I got a set of the girlie skully wrappers, and a mixed set of boy & girl turtles! Do you love them as much as I do? Well, not only they're available at Deb's Etsy shop & website BUT you can also win some if you head over to her blog for her Cupcake Wrapper Giveaway!



I've only done one cupcake for photography purposes, but tomorrow I'll be dressing them all up for my friends dropping by for coffee & chit chat!







And this just the beginning, Deb & me have been working on some secret plans that I can't wait to show you off, in another proper blog entry once I get everything! One hint, I'm sure you all guys will love it!

WasteNotSacks

Hello there! *waves* Is there anyone still there?


Happy Friday! How's it going? I know it's been a bit quiet over here as of late, but I've had a few emotional draining weeks at work, and that has left let me a bit uninspired, so the blog has been a bit ignored. But, Friday and some cappuccino has put me in the mood to catch up on my blogging again!


It's been a while since I've decided to go for more healthy eating to keep myself in shape (now, the next step should be exercising, I'll get there, eventually...) and also for the fact that healthier eating is good in itself! It all started with TokyoTombola's fruit pouches, and it's now continuing with a few goodies from Waste Not Sacks on Etsy!




I had been eying her shop for a while, and decided that instead of using plastic cutlery at work I could really use one of her Bambutensils sets (a set of bamboo utensils in a fabric pouch), and also wanted a different option to plastic wrapper for my sandwiches and since I had seen her custom sandwich wraps, I thought that was exactly what I was looking for.


None of those were available on her shop at the time I wanted to ask for a custom order, with one of my favourite fabrics as of late: Donuts & coffee! But, as luck would have it, she was more than willing to work on my custom order of a Bambutensils set & Sandwich wrap using my favourite fabric!




When I got them I knew I had made the right choice! They're super cute and super useful!


The sandwich wrap is lined in a water & stain resistant nylon that is also food safe! Not only it keep your sandwich safe, but once you open it, it'll double as a place mat to avoid spilling crumbles and the like on yourself or your desk. And can be wiped clean and even machine washed! It closes with adjustable velcro for different sized sandwiches!








The Bambutensils set is perfect for taking to work. You have bamboo spoon, fork and knife inside a cotton fabric caddy, perfect to drop into your lunch bag so you don't have to use any more plastic cutlery when eating at work or in picnics!







If you want to be more eco-friendly and avoid creating more waste AND still be in style, you need to check her Etsy shop!