Hello Kitty Hat

I'm not really much of a fan of cats (or rather they're not too fond of me!), and am definitely more of a little-dog person. Having said that, in a twist of logic, I am rather fond of Hello Kitty, and have a mini collection of things with her cute little face on.

My other half's neice is also a fan of Kitty, so when I stumbled upon a knitted Hello Kitty hat on Ravelry, I knew it would make the perfect Christmas present.

The hat itself is knitted in the round in chunky wool, making it super quick and easy to do, and I had it finished in one evening. Ears and now were done in another couple of evenings, and that just left making up. I must admit I put off making up til Christmas Eve (I started the hat in October), mainly because I was terrified I would mess up the little face and embroider an eye on wonky or something. As it turned out it wasn't as tricky as I thought, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

As is Ruby, who as you can see was delighted with her new hat! 

Kitty Hat ready for wrapping!!!

Ruby in her new hat (best photo we could get of both!).

Merry Christmas Cake!!!

I like love cake! Most of you will already know this, and many of you will also know that this year I decided to formally expand my skills by joining a Cake Decorating course at Trafford College. It was a 10 week course which gave us the basic skills needed for cake decorating including piping skills, covering a cake (properly rather than my bodge job!) and some modelling.

It was a practical hands on course, and during the ten weeks we developed the required skills to design and ice a Christmas cake. First job though - inspiration!

I had a couple of ideas, and I gathered the inspiration around my ideas on this Pinterest board. I started with the idea of recreating this year's Cath Kidston Christmas Tree and deer design, but decided the legs on the deer might mean I struggled to get the little guy to stand up. (However, since then I found the final pin on my Pinterest board which shows a lovely little model deer which I may have to try next year). 

My next idea was to keep with the theme of animals and Christmas trees, but this time maybe a rabbit. I must admit my inspiration for this one was memories of the gorgeous bunnies in "Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit" and so I pinned a couple of pictures of these to my Pinterest inspiration board. 

I also found a few cakes with ponds or ice rinks on, and as we'd done inlay work on the course (a new trend in cake decorating) I decided this would be the direction I would go in. I also decided to use this idea to demonstrate my piping skills.

I've previously blogged about making the cake so you will know it is a large cake. I thought about adding a design to the side of the cake, but in the end decided to go traditional, so I crimped the board, added holly and berries, and crimped the top edge of the cake too. Once I'd finished the design on the top, I decided it was a bit plain, so I painted the crimp red to balance the colours out.

And there we have it. My cake! I hope you like it. How on earth will I bring myself to cut it!?!?

Merry Christmas bunny!

Giving the "Dancing on Ice" celebs tips on how it's done!

Merry Christmas Everyone!