Muffnuts, the latest baking sensation!

Moody Monday? Cheer yourself up baking something nice!


Last week, Deb's posted a delicious recipe on her On Cupcake Moon blog (recipe day is Monday, so it's always a good way to start the week!) that I really wanted to try, Muffnuts!


What are muffnuts, you may ask? Well, they're the love child of muffins and donuts, of course!


Deb's recipe is a version of the recipe that the amazing Lex from SmarmyClothes posted on her blog, so if you want to make it, you can choose any of either recipe, or even better, try both!:


Deb's Glazed MuffNuts!

Smarmy's Cinnamon Sugar MuffNuts!


I went for Deb's recipe, but I had to improvise a bit, cause I was all out of vanilla extract (it's with my mum, in the cottage), so I decided to add a lil bit of cinnamon, just for taste. And I decided to not glaze them, since I wasn't making them properly.




They came out pretty well, taste wise, they're REALLY yummy, but a bit more muffin than donut... I think probably cause of the lack of vanilla extract...




And looks wise... I think I poured too much batter on each, so they did poof up a bit too much, and got stuck to the baking pan on the sides... lesson learnt for next time!






All in all, they're really yummy, and I want to try to bake them again! And also, try Lex's version too!

Candied Strands!

Happy Friday everyone!


Back onto the blogging routine again, and with some nice photos taken by my personal photographer, so I'm now catching up with some entries that have been in the wait list for a while!


I met Nicole, the artist behind Candied Strands through the Attack of the Craft forums (as many others before!) and I absolutely fell in love with her submission for the CraftAnon Etsy Street Team Mythology themed monthly challenge, the Artemis necklace & earrings set!


Taking advantage of one of the TNT (Thursday Night Temptation) weekly sales I snatched it and quite quickly for flying across the pond, it got home in a week!


I love the presentation of it, jewellry always looks so nice inside nice-looking neat boxes! And the colours of the beads and the amazing lovely detail of the pentacle is absolutely great! As the bf says, it looks lovely and cute with a lil hidden darker side, just like myself!














And it has the perfect length to hide but at the same time enhance any cleavage! ;)

Wearing Handmade Wednesday!: Rocky The Zombie!

Hello everyone!


I'm back into the routine of blogging now, more or less, after G's short trip to Spain!
It was a wonderful if all too short a time, and you'll see & read more about it in future blog entries, but for now here's this week instance of Wearing Handmade Wednesday!

G happily wearing his Rocky The Zombie pirate tee!

Rocky The Zombie is the brainchild of Rhiannon (and also of her partner in crime, Hud, since they both design!) who draws and screen prints the designs in quality t-shirts! I do own many of her tees and hoodies, and I have given many as presents too! In this case, she even altered the tee to G's measurements, to ensure it'd fit him right!

Ink Me Up Designs!!

Ink Me Up Designs is the sister shop of Felt Me Up Designs, and as such is the brain (and hands) child of Melanie, the talented lady that made Mr Bempton & Mr Pond!


Ink Me Up is filled with all sorts of prints in both paper & cloth of Melanie's original art & illustrations. All her pieces are first hand drawn and then made into Gocco prints!


She has all sort of animals, mostly birds, with occasional mammal thrown in between! And she has all sort of goodies printed, from regular mini prints, to bigger prints done in recycled pages of books, from lavender bags to totes, small & medium sized notebooks... all sort of cute things


I had been looking around her trying to decide what bird design I liked best, and what would I get when she wrote a blog post about her newest design, a superbly cute kitty, and I fell in love! No more trying to decide what bird to choose, I had to get me the kitty!


No wonder I was drawn to this lovely illustration, since I'm a huge lover of cats, though quite allergic... I'm a sneezing machine when I'm in the same room with one... Which is quite ironic given that cats are very social with me, and the bf says I have very many feline traits...


I ended up going for the Gocco printed moleskin notebook! The kitty looks absolutely lovely in it, and a small notebook is a good idea to take with you, in case you decide to finally start writing down ideas that pop into your mind! That and for to do lists, and info on places you wanna visit...


Well, my package arrived, and it not only contained my lovely notebook, but also a kitty mini print and two Mini-Moo cards!




The detail in the kitty is fantastic, both in the notebook and in the print, to make the notebook even cuter, it comes with a pink ribbon!








They're so cute I'm even tempted to name the kitties! Yes, I am aware I am completely off my rocker... but at least I'm not dangerous, yet. ;)




The Mini-Moo cards are just adorable! I absolutely love the concept of the Mini-Moo cards, and I have to confess everything Moo, I'm thinking of ordering more of their postcards soon! And if I ever get business cards... I'll get Mini-Moo cards! Mel sent me one of her Wren prints Mini-Moo Ink Me Up cards, and a Tufted Titmouse Mini-Moo Felt Me Up cards. So cute!






Next, I plan to get me a Smelly Cat!

Wearing Handmade Wednesday: Vivifromage!

Welcome to my new weekly feature: Wearing Handmade Wednesday!


I got the idea of doing this feature from Barley & Birch's "Wear It! Wednesday". They are an organic clothing company, and every Wednesday they feature a photo of one of their customers. So I thought, why not do something similar?


Since I am the customer, I plan on showing photos of either myself or one of my friends & family sporting handmade goods and a tiny feature on the seller!


I'm gonna start with the very talented and my neighbour in the EU, Virginie, the talented lady behind Vivifromage, handmade with French flair clothing!

Vivifromage camo top, photo taken in the gorgeous Neemrana resort in Rajasthan!

She makes all sort of clothing from scratch, and also reconstructs any and all t-shirts into more flattering for a woman to wear, clothes! I own a ton of her clothes: dresses, tops, skirts and even a coat! If you wanna check her clothes out you can go to her website, her Etsy shop and her Dawanda shop!

Glamasaurus!!

I've already told you about the awesomeness that fills to the brim Andreanna's shop, Glamasaurus, since I won a gift certificate to her shop, but this time, I just have to share the new goodies that I got from her shop!


When I first saw the Skeletina Antique Ring & Bobby pins, I fell in love with them, but I was a bit slow on the actually deciding to grab then, so someone else got them, and I was left waiting for Andreanna to get more supplies to relist them! She was really nice and tipped me on facebook on when was gonna list them, and after the wait, I was pretty sure I wanted them, so I snatched them as soon as they were back on her Etsy shop!


Getting a Glamasaurus package in the mail is always awesome, cause it's so nicely presented that you feel like you're getting a proper gift!




This time the postal workers were a lil less careful, and my package was a lil crumpled, but since everything inside is super well protected, everything arrived in perfect condition!!




A super cute detail, along with her business cards (I like getting extra business cards, so I can give them away to people when asked about my stuff) was a scratch card! I love that idea! You give your clients discounts and something a lil special in a fun way!




I also got a few lil extras, super cute bobby pins, that I'll be gifting to G's nieces in the US, I'm sure they'll look super cute on them!




And now onto my amazing Skeletina items!






The gorgeous ring: it's quite light, which I like, and it's the right size to be noticeable, without being a "conversation piece" (translation = HUGE). And it's a sturdy & durable! I really love it, and I've never been much of a ring person, this one is actually the second ring I own! And I plan to wear it only on special occasions.




The best part, it's adjustable, so I can wear it in all fingers, except the pinky!




The bobby pins: Again, they're light but sturdy and durable, and they're perfect to adding some style to my now shorter hair, and they don't fall off the hair easily either.





As I've already said, I'm quite the happy puppy with my Glamasaurus order!

El Trastero de Lolita!!

After a rush of endorphins and happiness high, I'm back on track onto the blogging. I've decided I'm gonna use the day before G arrives to schedule a few new blog entries for next week, and one of those will be the introduction of a new regular, weekly feature! But, you'll see next week, for now back onto today's entry!


I met Africa, the owner & artist behind El Trastero de Lolita via the amazing forum for crafters & lovers of all things handmade, Attack of the Craft, and once I checked her shop, I was in love! She has all sort of super cute accessories, necklaces, hairbands, brooches...


Once she released her Wonderland Obsession collection, I knew I had to get me those amazing Teapot necklaces! And since I couldn't decide whether to get the white teapot or the black teapot... I got both!


The best thing of Africa being a Spanish crafter, aside from the cool side of supporting local handmade, it's no doubt, the super fast shipping times!






The white teapot has a silver chain, whereas the black teapot has a bronze chain, both are made of shrink plastic, that is very light but also tough, it's not gonna break easily (unless a car runs over it or something of a certain force smashes it).











I have to say I just can't pick a favourite, having both black & white means that a tea lover and Alice fan like myself can wear one with any outfit!



I have my eye on her flower headbands next...

Wordless Wednesday!: So happy I don't find the words!

I am a very happy, sleep-deprived, out-of-night shift, lil nurse today.


Finally after a few weeks of not knowing, and 3 & a half years together, G finally got himself a visa for coming to Spain!


I'll be trying to at least leave some blog entries set up for next week, but if there are no blog entries for a while, now you know why! =D

Lucky Again!: Winning Static White's Giveaway!

If there's something I have to concede, it's that I'm pretty lucky when it comes to giveaways! I've won quite a few of them!


The latest one was from the amazing Maya, the artist behind Static White Stitchery! She set up a giveaway on her blog to win a choice of either the Evil Flying Monkey or the Love Monkey ornament, and a goodie bag from Etsy Dark Side Team's sellers! And from all the entries, I was lucky enough to win it!




I chose an Evil Flying Monkey (quite fitting for my lil witchy self!) and within a week, a lovely package filled to the brim with all sort of goodies AND the super cute Flying Monkey ornament arrived!




As you can see, not only I got the Flying Monkey ornament, but also a big amount of goodies from members of the Etsy Dark Side Street Team! All sort of spooky & awesome bits & bobs!

Super cute Bat confeti

A super cute lil spider

And the Flying Monkey is pretty awesome in itself! I absolutely love it! It's so well made and look so evilly cute! I'm wondering now where to place it... maybe in the car? Or maybe in my room? Hmmm, choices, choices!












Now I know I really more of Maya's felt ornaments, probably a Maneki Neko kittie or/and a Blue Bird of Kookiness!