Filling A Cake Shaped Hole

 

 

Filling A Cake Shaped Hole

I have decided to go on a voyage of cake baking discovery, largely due to the fact that I recently got addicted to watching the Great British Bake Off and it has left a sizable cake shaped hole in my life but also because I'm just pretty passionate about baking.I can whip up a mean brownie but I'm in need of a new challenge and so have decided to do this properly and have joined my local cake club my cakey user name is Cherry Bakewell one of my tea time favourites.The club is called the Clandestine Cake Club and they are springing up all over the UK as well as overseas so watch out for one in your local area.

 

 

The idea is pretty simple, the Clandestine Cake Club release a cake theme every month, Decembers is pantomime cakes, you can't bake any small cakes, so cupcakes are forbidden, but you have complete creativity to create a cake of your choosing based on the theme, no more than fifteen people get to bake and bring a cake to the chosen venue to share and you don't get to know the location till the day of the event.

 

 Let Them Eat Cake

 Then you eat lots of cake, so how hard can it be I can already bake and eating it is clearly not a problem, well I can make great tasting cake but other than a couple of smarty cakes I have knocked out in the past I'm less confident about the decoration of large cakes, so I'm hoping to maybe pick up some cake decorating tips and learn how to make my cakes look more stylish and appealing. Any favourite easy cake decorating tweaks or cheats for an icing beginner like me or suggestions for a pantomime theme welcome.   

 

 

Top Ten Best Wet Weather Buys

Zalando

It's been a little while since I have written a style advice post, but since there is no escaping the rain in the UK and my time has been pretty much been consumed with coming up with more stylish ways to dress on a wet and windy day's I thought I might as well share my top ten stylish wet weather buys, not flimsy pac mac's and light weight brollie's that see you struggling to shield yourself from everything our weather can chuck at you,but waterproof clothing that is made for the job and pretty stylish too. I was surprised at some of the places I unearthed my waterproof top ten,

Happy Birthday Media Marmalade!

 

 A big Happy first Birthday to Media Marmalade. I first found her on twitter recently and if your not familar with her fashion blog this is a fashion blog with a twist, this gal knows all about advertising! In fact she is a director of advertising in London no less. I love it when you happen across a savy and stylish blogger on twitter, being a bit of a low tec gal myself,it's great to have tecy gals to learn the ways of selling your buisness. I guess nobodys going to do it for us, so it's good to have bloggers to inspire us and encourage us to continue to strive for our dreams. Also you might be interested to know you can win a £50.00 voucher for Krisp Clothing to celebrate (if you follow the link here ) I love the name of this clothing label, it sounds well sharp!  

DIY | Cats Whiskers | Halloween Brooch

 

If like me you have not had time to whip up an outfit for your Halloween party tonight why not take the express route and make my easy kitch diy cat brooch and my glam treat pouch for all those bon bons you will collect on route to your friends party.

 

For The Cats Whiskers Brooch - You Will Need

 

1. An old gauze jewelry pouch in black.

 

2.An old pair of black knickers.

 

3.A vintage pair of earrings, mine were a kindly gifted to me by Jon Richard and are part of the Butterfly collection by Matthew Williamson.   

 

4. A giant safety pin.

 

To Make - 

 

1. First turn the gauze bag inside out and push your choice of earring through the fabric about half way up the bag using the backs to fasten them to the fabric, then turn the back right side round so the earring are on the outside.

 

2.Next roll up your pants and pop inside, fasten the bag with the draw strings, the corners of the bag become the cats ears, you can add a mouth, nose and whiskers if you wish, but I prefer my brooch slightly naive looking with a touch a humour. 

 

3.Attach your giant pin and your good to go!

 

Just in case the lovely people at Jon Richard decide this is a good way to market their earrings sets this Christmas, you saw it here first! If you want to use this brooch diy as a Christmas gift idea also and you have a few more black gauze bags lurking amongst your jewellery. You could always pop a black velvet alice band in the bag as the stuffing for your brooch which would make a nice little set with the earrings for a friend.   

 

 

For The Treat Pouch-

 

Use a glamours small bag with a rope chain handle, tuck the handle inside the bag and fasten the flap over a nice thin bright belt then fasten over your coat and start collecting treats! I used a rose gold square bag and a purple velvet vintage inspired belt for my treat pouch.

 

 

 

Costume Drama I love!

 

I have just been watching Strictly Come Dancing the results show and getting my weekly dose of glamour, Paloma Faith performed her heart out and looked incredible in her Mexican inspired costume, complete with a head dress of giant brightly coloured flowers and a huge black feather skirt the girl done good!Are you a fan of the show? What's the most glamorous item in your wardrobe? Here are a few of my favourite pieces, if you like these you can find more on my pinterest boards here.  

 

 

 

 

 

Essential Accessories For Well Heeled Gothic Ladies

 

 

gold Prada sunglasses titanium frames -round black lenses

gun metal Prada sunglasses titanium frames -green lenses

As the dark nights start to draw in, I have been contemplating adding Gothic heroine to my costume/wardrobe wish list. I thought I might try and strip the look back, to just the key essentials  I need to pull this look together in a wearable way and leave myself with individual pieces that I can actually conceive myself wearing in the near future.

 The Goth catwalk this A/W12 was all about gaunt pale mask like make-up with a crimson mouth and no eye make-up what so ever, great for those with chiselled jaw lines, but not for me that relies heavily on the use of blusher and eye make up to define my bone structure, I thought the next best thing was enlisting the help of some oh so fabulous Prada sunglasses. Round frames have long been a favoured look amongst those recreating the Gothic look but these designer sunglasses have a touch of Steam Punk about them which I ADORE and at the same time have a regal feel that Prada is known for.The obvious choice is black, but I think by opting for gunmetal or gold my favourite coloured frames, I will add some necessary opulence to this look, also gold frames will help warm up my naturally pasty skin once winter kicks in and will work with the fresh pinks around next spring. 

The other key element to recreating this look convincingly is statement texture. So I'm going to make it a bit of a mission to find a fine black wool cape with plenty of embroidery, I may add a little further embellishment into my cape mix with the addition of some dark purple silk tassels from my local haberdashery store, I'm still thinking about that one, a black pleated skirt would work well also. I might be brave and add in some deep red long leather gloves. I have been promising myself a neat little Doctor bag for a while now and could kick myself for not picking up an authentic one I recently spotted at a charity shop but quite honestly I was scared it might fall to bits on me! I'm loving these Victorian style booties, with  flutterbyes running up the sides, both the cape and the boots would also do for the folklore look which I tend to put a spin on every year and particularly in winter. I love the idea of a black top hat, but I think it might detract from my Prada sunglasses and cost a pretty penny too, so instead I'm thinking of working a broad black velvet alice band and a large low bun in black spotted net.       

 

ornate black cape -shop bop

 

 

leather pleat skirt John Lewis

Gothic butterfly boot 

*Please note this post was kindly sponsored by Smart Buy Glasses but the words and ideas are my own, images sourced from Smart Buy Glasses, pinterest and the above named outlets.   

Help Save Our #Bees Ban Pesticides





Honeycomb sponge Hokey Pokey- Lone Baker

We all love honey, honeycomb and the sound of bees lazily buzzing in our garden as they do their work during the summer months, only as you might already be aware we have not experienced as much buzzing or honey as we are generally used to, as a very wet UK summer and a unhealthy amounts of UK pesticides saw whole colonies of our bees wiped out this 2012 and beekeepers forced to drip feed starving bees sugar to keep them alive. The knock on effect on our food chain and our beautiful wildlife is already being felt, if you care about the beautiful country in which we live and our little friends the bees please read more here about the effects and or sign this petition to force our government to invest more in this crucial area of wildlife. If you want to help even more great! Share this post in a link with your readers or write your own,help spread the petition and save our bees!Were you aware of this issue what are your thoughts?  



 

Shoes Of Prey | Sweep Me Of My Feet!

My finished shoe design!

 

I was in need of a little pick me up recently, what could be better than a pair of glamorous shoes to do the job, sadly scrolling through row after row of designer shoes left me feeling a little worse for wear. I'm not great with really high heels, I tend to walk like I'm wearing stilts I blame my very flat feet, something I have shared here before and all the lower heeled options just don't seem to have the same glam factor. So unless I was to relent and use my newly purchased high heels purely as shoe art in my home and enjoy them from afar or only ever use them for my outfit blog posts on My Passport To Style, it was time to come up with another viable solution.So I was pretty thrilled when I happened upon Australian on line company Shoes of Prey a shoe mecca that embraces all types of shoe wearer from frustrated shoe designers to 5 inch heel phobics like me.

Miss Smarty Pants | Get Your #Bow On

 

 

Tis nearly the time for Christmas party season, I love any excuse to crack open my favourite coloured eye glitter, dust off my disco ball and crank up the music ready to practise my best dance moves. Usually when I'm in the kitchen cooking dinner for some reason! Have wok can dance should be my mantra.

 

Ever since I watched Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady I have always lusted after excessive plumage in my wardrobe,with giant bows of all kinds being top of my wish list.There is something feminine yet at the same time oh so slick about wearing a bow and as a fan of this classic accessory I could not resist devising my own Smarty Pants scale, to pin point the varying levels of cool sophistication that can be achieved depending on where or how a bow is positioned by the wearer. So here it is - 

 

 

 

  Smarty Pants Bow Guide

 

At number 1 is the mistress of the double bow, she is fearless in her pursuit of accessory bow perfection and no shrinking violet when it comes to wearing the bow, see the huge dramatic hair bow adorning her beehive and her tangerine shirt with a bow at the neck.In her eyes more is more! Her idol? The decadent Marie Antoinette.

 

At number 2 is the slinky subtle bow wearer, shrouded in a certain air of mystery this giant bow wearer, rather like the masked highway women that used to hold up the carriages of noble men and women in ye old times, likes to be exude a little chic, tempered by the trappings of being a free spirit. In this case the item is a soft grey wool rucksack tied with an airy black chiffon bow with tails that fly in the wind as the wearer zips through waiting traffic to her next party.   

 

At number 3 a little miss obvious, but who can resist the thrill of the gasp factor, this gals me to a T, the bigger and the plusher the bow the better, full of extravagant gestures from the colours she chooses to max her bow cred to how she walks when she wears it, halfway between a wiggle and a flutter, hey with a bow this big your halfway to being a butterfly it's pretty inevitable it will effect your swagger.Dita would be proud.

 

At number 4, our fourth bow wearer, likes getting her bow on slightly off centre on her best black party frock, very classy but understated, this bow wearer is a quiet intellectual with a fun sense of humour, great company at long boring dinner parties where you have to sit through five courses and using fingers is strictly forbidden. 

  

Will you be getting your bow on this Christmas and did you recognise which type of bow wearer you are in my Smart Pants Bow Guide?

 

 

  * images courtesy of pinterest

#Uniqlo A/W12 Campaign

illustrated by -Michel Simeon

illustrated by Michel Simeon

I have a soft spot for children's films and animations, my favourites have to be the Roald Dahl books, full of magic, fun, food humour and larger than life characters. It is interesting to see how major fashion brands such as Mulberry are increasingly using children's fiction as a point of reference in their fashion campaigns, so I was really excited when I came across this fashion campaign by Uniqlo I could be wrong, but I think James And The Giant peach may have inspired this shoot, I particularly love the clever use of colour, the gothic undertones and the nonchalant pose of dad holding the giant moths hand whilst looking at his son.