Stylish Blogger Award

I got a lovely wee surprise a few days ago where Becca from Fancy Vintage awarded Cushion&Cake amongst seven others a STYLISH BLOGGER AWARD! How cool eh?

Thank you Becca, I'm very touched. It is not difficult to love Becca's blog being choc full with images of vintage goodies and stonking cakes. Go and visit her now at Fancy Vintage

So, with the award come some conditions. I must tell you 8 things about me and start my search to award 8 Stylish Blogger Awards to other bloggers. I look forward to this.

Here it goes:

1. I love animals and have two pet guinea pigs, Bosshog and Buttercup who live in my flat with me. They are my wee pals, confidants and stress busters. I love them.
2. I'm quite creative and in my life have tried a host of different things. I can play the violin, dance salsa, sew, speak French, cook and present food beautifully, put clothes and rooms together interestingly, can use Photoshop crudely, screen print, crosstitch... jack of all trades...
3. Flowers are some of my favourite things. I'd spend my last few pounds on flowers (as long as I bought the guinea pigs some of their favourite lettuce first though)
4. I practice yoga at home and weekly at a studio and love it. I'm sure it holds the key to happiness.
5. Food is a passion. If I'm not eating food, I'm cooking it, looking at pictures of it or researching it. I look a recipes every day and have quite a collection of recipe books and random scribbled notes with ingredient lists on.
6. A woman I aspire to be like is Elspeth Thompson, writer, gardener, blogger and creative extraordinaire. Sadly she passed away almost a year ago but you can read more about her here or check her books out on Amazon.
7. I have an MA Literary Studies from Glasgow University but have worked in the voluntary sector for the last few years working with vulnerable people. Only now finding my way to a creative (and caring) role by opening a tearoom.
8. I'm very lucky to have a super supportive and super creative partner, Stuart, without whom I wouldn't have found the confidence to rediscover my creativity, write a blog or own my own business. My family are also awesome and give me buckets of encouragement and nurtured creativity since childhood.

I'm off now to award fellow blogger a Stylish Blogger Award. I'll post their details here shortly.

Elspeth Thompson died on Thursday 25th March 2010 aged 48

Paper Napkins and Glasses... dull but necessary...

I've been on a mega shopping spree over the last few days and have bought LOADS of stuff for the tearoom. I was fortunate enough to get a grant from a local regeneration agency in Glasgow and must present receipts for all the things I said I'd buy within a few weeks so I've been busy doing that.
I bought a Russell Hobbs mini hob to use to melt chocolate or toast pecans for my cakes, some new teapots, 2 and 4 cup varieties and lots of baking necessities such as scales, pastry cutters and lovely storage tins. I'm still to buy a till and a printer. I'm taking a bit more time to find the best models.
I've got quite a selection of china, vintage tea cups and saucers, cake plates etc, but I think it would be foolish to try to source vintage glass for soft drinks (very breakable) so I'm looking at Ikea for glasses and other consumables.

These glasses are fine. Not terribly exciting, but you get what you pay for with glassware I suppose. I'm putting so much effort into making the place a wee bit different I don't want people to think I've been lazy by buying in bulk from Ikea. I haven't I promise! However, I also notice that they have Cushion&Cake coloured napkins!

Cushion&Cake pink

New fav Cushion&Cake colour

If anyone has any suggestions on where to buy exciting glasses and the like, do let me know :-)

Business Cards

Stuart is treating me to some business cards. My first official ones and he sent the design over to me today.

These are the designs. It goes without saying, being a big pink fan, that I love the pink business cards but I'm hugely attracted to the green coloured ones. I think I'm going to get the green ones printed first. What do you think?

Sophie Dahl Recipes

I'm loving the bbc food website at the moment, particularly the Sophie Dahl recipes. I really enjoyed watching her food television programme.

Her kitchen was a dream and the food she made fit for a princess.

She enjoys sweet treats like any girl (even though she used to be a model) and she knows how to make her sweet treats look super feminine.

I love the clothes she wears during her show, floral, vintage inspired and feminine.

I aspire to dress like that in my tearoom, in a kitchen like Sophie's creating wonderful cakes and treats like Sophie.

Still going slow!!!!!

I've been chasing my architect to get an update on where we are with the paperwork for my shop...he's in Manchester until the end this week. No movement again this week then... can you sense my frustration?
Nevertheless, I am in a good mood. I've just been shopping for the tearoom. I got some lovely pastel coloured kitchen items form Marks and Spencers and four cracking vintage style glass storage jars (like the ones below)which could hold 3 or 4 bags of flour for sure. They weren't very expensive so I am extra chuffed. They were too big to take on the bus though, so I'll go back and collect them tomorrow.

I need to get the keys to this tearoom soon. My dad's garage has about 16 chairs, 4 tables and Welsh dresser and other bits and bobs taking over, and my house has extra tables and chairs, boxes of crockery all over the place. I'm feeling pretty cramped...

I just wanna bake cakes!

Well February is marching on and I'm still waiting for paperwork form the council before I can get the keys to my tearoom. I needed a building warrant to put in an accessible toilet and some planning permission to change the tearoom from shop to tearoom. It all takes sooooo long! Months!!
I won't bore you with any more of the boring bureaucracy and instead just show you things that continue to inspire the feel of the tearoom and the things I'd like to make.

P

I'm going to make the lemon cake tomorrow. The cupcakes look awesome but perhaps beyond my capabilities at the moment!

Happy Valentines Day

I made my partner's Valentine card today by hand using some brown card and embroidery thread. I found the pattern at Stitchpoint.

It was so easy and fun to do. I completed mine in about 40 minutes. Using the pattern printout (or your own design), attach the pattern to the cardboard of paper you're going to use for the card with blu-tac or tape, but make sure it can be easily removed without marks.

Punch through the pattern and the card with a needle or a pin. I put a cushion underneath my layers to make it easier to punch. When you have all of your punched dots, you can start sewing. 

 Use a cross stitch, running or back stitch or any stitch you wish to join the dots.

 Voila!

 And finally...

Show your love to your furry ones!