Ta-dah! Tuesday - 8th birthday Cake

Boy1 has been into cars forever. He spent hours looking out of the window of our flat as a 18month old announcing 'car, car, car, bus, car, four-four (4x4), van, car...'. His first word was 'cah' - with pointing. He became addicted to Formula 1 at the age of three, when Lewis Hamilton won the championship. So I've been wanting to make him an F1 themed cake for a while, but it seemed a shame not to make use of a number shaped 'track'. But he finally turned eight the other week, so I got to make the cake I'd had in my head for a while. 

Ta-dah!

As you can probably tell, I'm not a professional cake maker or icing modeller - but they generally look fun and taste good, so the kids are happy with that. I just made two sponge cakes, cut a section off each and pushed them together, used roll out grey fondant for the road, coconut buttercream for the grass, and liquorice allsorts for the finishing line and road markings. A couple of cars stolen from his bedroom and two little cocktail stick flags and it was done. And it was pretty stress free for once - I usually get myself and the kitchen in a right state.

Boy2 turns five next week - just a few days before our big house move - so I'm not sure I'll be similarly zen when it comes to making the requested Angry Birds cake. I'm going to try and schedule a few posts for the next couple of weeks, but we have a ton to do and won't have broadband when we move in, so apologies if I don't get a chance to comment for a while. I will read on my phone though.

What have you achieved this week? Link up your best outfits, finds, makes and bakes below.

Lakota x

Freebie Round-up (UK)

Hiya, I said yesterday that I'd do a quick post on various freebies and offers I've come across recently - there are all sorts of websites out there which will round these up, but some are clearly just out there to harvest your details so I've only included the ones I personally think are worth it. [Apologies if you're not in the UK.].

Magazine Free Gifts

These have come a long way since my magazine buying heyday  when all that was ever given away on the front cover seemed to be some plasticy smelling perma-creased tote bag, but one would hope so, given that the average glossy mag seems to cost the best part of a fiver these days. And I do not count a John Lewis catalogue as a 'free gift' - you know who you are, certain interiors magazines! On the stands at the moment is a particularly good selection of beauty products, so worth buying even if you wouldn't normally fork out for the magazine.

Glamour - only £2, and you get a full size Percy & Reed shampoo, conditioner, volumising oil (whatever that is) or shine stuff. I got the shampoo, I like to change what I use occasionally.

Cosmopolitan - Not full size, but probably luxury sample size. Elemis is pricey, and I needed moisturiser. They have a regular one, a mattifying one or a lip treatment on offer. Cosmo costs £3.50.

Marie Claire - Full size Neal's Yard handcream worth £10. Well worth getting. Bargain.

Also offering hand cream is Good Housekeeping, this time by Balance Me and again worth £10. The magazine costs £3.90

Mollie Makes has a free 'make it yourself' cover-mount every issue, and costs £4.99. This month the gift is an oilcloth coin purse. If you like the cross-stitch I showed yesterday, that kit is still available on the current issue of Cross Stitcher, which costs £3.99.

I quite like a read of Ideal Home occasionally - especially now our move is confirmed, hurrah - so although I wouldn't buy the magazine just for the silicon spatula, it's a better read than a lot of the interiors mags so worth picking up if you need an extra dose of house porn. And those spatulas are the best at making sure all your cake mix goes into the tin. £3.50.

I also spotted this Let's Grow Veg magazine - which costs £7.99 but claims to have your 'complete start-up kit for 2013 worth £72'. I don't know about that, but it does contain 10 packets of seed, so even assuming they're as little as 99p each, you'd still get two packets free, plus the magazine. The seeds are Courgette, Beetroot, Radish, Chilli, Tomato, Salad, Rocket, Leek, Carrot and Kale.
Edit: I've just checked here and the seeds are worth £17.62. The other offers are 'free item but pay postage' where you can claim strawberry plants, potatoes, bird feeders etc.

Free Copy of InStyle Magazine

Don't want to fork out for a magazine at all? Get a free copy of InStyle by entering your details at this link. They'll ring you back to get your address, and probably offer you a further 3 issues for £1. You can take this up or not, as you prefer. I think it's usually £3.80 an issue.

Free H&M Voucher

If you fancy an high street shopping splurge, why not assuage your guilt by dropping off a carrier bag of second hand clothes at H&M? You can donate garments for adults or kids, and they don't even have to be wearable quality - ripped or stained (washed though) is fine as it will be sorted for rags. In return you get a £5 voucher off a £30 spend for each bag you donate - valid til the end of June. [Yes, these are new jeans, ahem]

Free Cat and a Cup of Tea 

OK, not really a free cat. But the furry devils cost a fortune don't they? All that feeding and de-fleaing and outrageous vet bills. Purina Go-Cat are giving away 185,000 samples of their latest Crunchy and Tender cat food if you fill in your details here. You're a blogger, you're bound to either have a cat or want a cat. If not, hand over your ipad now. On the same note, Twinings are giving away free samples of their tea - you can choose any two from a choice of eight by going to their Facebook app here and filling in your address. 

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Hope some of these are useful to you - have you got any good freebies to add? I haven't listed competitions as you are obviously not guaranteed to win those - even if they have a ton of prizes - but if you want some tips you might want to see my posts from a couple of years ago here and here.

Lakota x

Ta-dah! Tuesday - And then I played the harpsichord and ordered new ribbons for my bonnet...

Ok, I didn't really, but I have been cross-stitching, which is basically a really good way to feel like you live in a Jane Austen novel. It's also a good method of developing a squint and an arthritic claw, but don't let that put you off. For some reason I have had the fear of counted cross-stitch charts and haven't done any since the age of about 10, when I would make my Mum and other female relatives bookmarks and dressing table mats using that binca fabric designed for kids.  Anyway, aside from the distinct possibility of becoming cross-eyed, I quite enjoyed my latest foray into ladylike pursuits.

The kit came free* on the imaginatively named Cross Stitcher magazine, and everything was included, although I did change the colour of her dress from lurid turquoise - which clashed with the pink - to purple, using my own thread. It claimed stitching time was 4 hours. Ha! I reckon it must have taken me twice that, which is a sobering reminder that perhaps I'm not quite ready to attempt their larger cushion charts, for which they give times of 40 and 62 hours respectively. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice some of the projects were - there was the inevitable cupcakery nonsense, but also a Mad Men inspired retro phone design, some Scandinavian style birds and sweet designs for little girls.

Mothers' Day Card

[I'm not sure my Mum is really a pink polka dots kinda gal, any more than I am, but I didn't have any aperture cards, and this one came with it. I guess with a kokeshi doll design you need to embrace the kawaii factor anyway.]

I have some more aida, graph paper and a book of motifs and alphabets, so I quite fancy working out my own design or slogan. Did you see this on HuffPost? I thought 13,000 stitches was what was required to create Joan Rivers, but apparently you can end up with Bruce Willis too.

A Good D'aida Die Hard

[photo and work by BriocheBun]

Amazing huh?
What have you been making? Link up any makes, bakes, finds and fripperies below.

Lakota x

*Speaking of freebies, I will have a post on those tomorrow.