Gracious Hospital-i-Tea Blog-a-thon

I am taking part in the Tea-blog-a-thon over at Gracious Hospitality, every week has a new tea theme to post about, I am a bit late in posting for week ones topic but I wanted to start at the beginning!

Teacup-a-Story
'Share a picture of your favorite teacup and saucer; describe it and tell it's history (or make up a story about it's past). Why is it meaningful to you? This would be a good place to share about the details of your teacup collection if you have one'.
King Echnaton Tea Cup - I bought this Tea cup in Luxor Egypt 2 year ago, I have been to Luxor 5 times and adore it, everytime I go I buy a cup or mug as I collect them. This is one of my favourites, outlined in gold with the face of King Echnaton, it makes a really elegent cup of tea....




When you arrive in Egypt you are greeted with a hot sweet Red Tea usually in a small glass, it is a very well know and loved tea called - Hibiscus or Karkade we loved it so much we bought a bag full! It comes as shown above, the dried petals of the Hibiscus flower, luxor souk has every spice you can think of including baskets of tea, you can also buy Tea Bags and I brought home both. In our hotel room in the evening we make ourselves a glass of tea whilst we sit on our balcony and watch Egyptian life go by, the tea is very good for a good nights sleep. We always buy our cups when we get there rather than taking the weight in the case and this was the cup I bought that year to enjoy my Egyptian red Tea.........

Below is a photo of my mum and dad drinking Hibiscus Tea with our good friend Salah (the left of the photo) on this day we had just returned from horse riding along the banks of the nile, such a beautiful day!

I hope you have been able to get a picture of our time in Luxor and how Tea is featured so strongly, we love our time there and this little tea cup is a part of the story.......

Until next time

Priscilla xx

Easter Basket Swap

Easter Basket Swap


Easter is finally here and this is the Easter basket I sent to my swap partner in Bella Enchanted's Easter Swap, my partner is Lisa over at Lisa Laughs http://laughlisalaugh.blogspot.com/ Lisa has received her parcel which she has let me know she is pleased with, I visited lisa today and saw my parcel goodies on her blog!!!! So I can not wait to receive mine, although I did not look at the photos in detail as I don't want to spoil the surprise, I am looking forward to receiving it........


Lisa is very fond of crafting so I tried to find items that I thought she would like and could use, she loves polka dots and I found dotted feathers too! ha,ha No Easter basket would be complete without candy which I found many themed on Beatrix potter which is so cute, the other items I thought suited Easter wonderfully and that lisa hopefully can enjoy. Close up of the chicks in baskets! I hope you all have a lovely Easter and don't make yourself ill eating chocolate eggs, which I guess sometimes too much chocolate in the space of 3 days is a bad thing! ha,ha

I will share my goodies from lisa when the nice post man delivers them.......so see you again very soon!

Bye for now

Priscilla xx

Getting Ready for Easter?

Easter has been on my mind the last few week, taking part in Bella Enchanted's Easter Basket Swap gave me a chance to enjoy looking around all the Easter goodies out there! Yesterday was spent gathering family's chocolate eggs and I sent off my partners swap parcel.Which I thoroughly enjoyed gathering items for! With Easter on the brain I thought I would share a recipe I found for a traditional Easter Simnel cake with a twist.

Simnel Muffins

250g mixed dried fruits
grated zest and juice 1 medium orange
175g softened butter
175g golden caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
300g self-raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice
freshly grated nutmeg
5 tbsp milk
175g marzipan
200g icing sugar
2 tbsp orange juice for mixing
or mini eggs

1. Tip the fruit into a bowl, add the zest and juice and microwave on medium for 2 minutes (or leave to soak for 1 hour). Line 12 deep muffin tins with paper muffin cases.

2. Preheat the oven to fan 180C/ 160C/gas 4. Beat together the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, spices and milk until light and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes) - use a wooden spoon or hand held mixer. Stir the fruit in well.

3. Half fill the muffin cases with the mixture. Divide the marzipan into 12 equal pieces, roll into balls, then flatten with your thumb to the size of the muffin cases. Put one into each muffin case and spoon the rest of the mixture over it. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until risen, golden and firm to the touch. Leave to cool.

4. Beat together the icing sugar and orange juice to make icing thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Drizzle over the muffins and top with a cluster of eggs. Leave to set. Best eaten within a day of making.

This week I made a birthday cake for a friend of my grandmas who turned 88 yesterday, I made this cake for her as a surprise gift. She loves to sew and embroider, I found the beautiful silhouette of a girl sewing which suited Eva nicely.....

Have a good week, I hope you enjoy the recipe,

Priscilla x

Panto and Buddies Award

Hi all, I am sorry it has been a while since I last blogged. I can not believe how quickly the time has flown. The panto went well, I have added a few pictures although I am still waiting for everyone else to share theirs! I also completed a cake whilst the panto was on for a friend who's nephew loved land rovers....... I have a few cake orders at the moment so I am a happy girl, its something I love to do.....

On my last post I was making the wanted poster for the wizard, here is how it turned out, tea stained and altered using photoshop...... 'He whose name no one can remember' I wanted to keep this poster. I thought I might make a scrapbook of the plays and props and things, I have seen so much amazing work by all you crafters you have inspired me to start a scrapbook of Theatre memories!

Panto Pictures
Here is a rather blurred photo of me in the Frog Prince costume....... don't you love the bloomers!
This is backstage at the church, I hope to show more soonFrog prince before and after! the young boys name is Leo and I am currently making a cake for him with a V-Rod Harley Davidson on it.......



Here are a few of the other cast members........
This is Angela, the 'Crone Witch' Leo is her son, it was Angela's nephew I just made a cake for. Her scenes were funny, there were three witches, maiden mother and crone.........

And this is Amelia Sweetheart, Wendy- she played my frog prince's true love........ we also sang a duet, 'Iam a believer' by the monkey's! We had a good laugh!

The next show we are hoping to do is an 'old time music hall' songs such as dont 'dilly dally' 'daisy daisy' 'roll out the barrel' and many comedy acts, should be good I'll let you know whats happening soon..........

I want to say a really big thank you to Linda from somewhere in time for awarding me this lovely award, and what a nice award it is, 'blogging buddies'. I am really honoured to be thought of for this award, it means a lot. It feels great to be connected to wonderful people through my blog, Thank you again my dear friend Linda xxx

Wishing you all a wonderful week

Priscilla x

Trouble in Panto Land......Play

Hi Everyone, I hope you are all having a good week and that spring is slowly coming to your area! This week I have been busy getting ready for the pantomime that officially starts tonight. Last night was a full costume rehearsal and tonight we have girl guides and scouts in, wed its a full open night including adults and general public and it all finishes on Saturday. The title of the panto is................'Trouble in panto land', there is a bad guy of course and a good guy, I am the goody............. I was once a frog (the Frog Prince) who gets turned back in to a prince and defeats the evil wizard! ha,ha

I have been handing out posters all week, here it is.........

Today I am making the wanted poster for the evil wizard, I have a photo of Bernard in his costume which I have played around with in Photo-Shop to make into a sepia photo. I am currently staining an A3 piece of paper with Tea, to make look like old paper, I have stuck bernards photo on the front, the poster reads.............

Wanted

He Whose Name no one can rememebr

Reward

You will NOT Die!

These are words taken fom the script, I will post a picture of the finished poster later.

Here is the photo bernard gave me of himself and the one I have turned sepia

Notice his orange face! Yes he is orange he used orange face paint, I think he looks pretty evil what do you think? ha,ha

Since I am the one holding the poster I wanted to make it myself, Its quite good in a way as I get to be a bit crafty for a good reason, and as all you crafters know, its great to find any reason! here is the sepia verson, although I chose to keep his face still quite orange, and added a bit of green to his coller.

I am in a bit of a rush this week, besides the panto and other normal day to day things I am also making another cake! One of the ladies in the panto loved bernards cake and has requested a cake with a Land Rover car on it, so I am having quite a productive week! Slightly crazy, but good.....

I hope to share photos of this panto with you, a lot of photos have been taken so I hope to get my hands on some!

I am also singing in the panto, has anyone heard Kermit the frog sing 'Its not easy being Green?' Well, thats the song I am singing, I was not sure at first but I quite like it now, we changed a few words, as I am no longer green! but it makes a sweet song........

You can hear it here if you like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbCI68eSNsA

Have a great week, see you again soon

Priscilla x

Happy Valentine's Day! Gifts and eye candy...

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope you are all enjoying today whatever you are doing..........

I thought I would share some lovely gifts that came through the post for me from my dear friend linda, I am so happy to receive these valentine gifts. Since I have no other half Valentines has been missed over the years, and it seems here in the uk we dont tend to give 'Valentines' to friends and family. I am extremely pleased to be joining you in valentines celebrations this year so I am sharing my kind gifts and showcasing some of the beautiful valentines items on the web............... enjoy the eye candy.
A week ago a parcel came for me that I had no idea was coming! A lovely surprise from my friend Linda, Inside the package this is what I found..........Valentine goodies! I was overjoyed, valentine goodies for me!!!! Look at the way it is all packaged together so pretty, I love the little hand made tag, so very sweet.......... Linda knows I love trying different candy from what I can get in the uk.
More candy! Those marshmallows are sweet, in taste and shape! My family and I shared one heart before valentines day, and we have now eaten the other treats too...... A sweet little bracelet hides in the pink bag and chocolate snickers in the other.


Linda made the 'Be Mine' banner herself! How cute, I have added this to my fireplace, I dont have many valentine decorations so it makes a nice addition,

Thanks again Linda for the thoughtful gifts!

Eye Candy.........

Valentine's is a time to indulge! I found some amazing goodies from all over the web, enjoy the eye candy!.......



Beautiful boxes of cookies...........

Nothing says Happy Valentine's Day like chocolate................

Have a wonderful day........

Wishing you all a Happy Valentines Day!

Priscilla x

Harry Potter, Wizard Cake...

The cake.......

In my last post I showed you the Wizard hat model themed on the Harry Potter 'Sorting Hat' the rest of the cake also had the 'Wizard' theme. I finished most of the decorations on Wednesday night and added all the pieces on thursday morning. Last night Thursday the 7th Feb I took the finished cake to drama rehearsal to give to Bernard for his Birthday........
As I arrived he was on stage with green lighting playing his part, with sound effects to match..... I entered with a huge box, he came off stage to take a look and was surprised at what he found! I had not given him any idea of what I was doing so I was pleased he loved it! I gave him a print out of the images I had used as inspiration like the wand, hat and some parchment from the movie.....
I took lots and lots of photos,ha,ha......lucky I did as I had to cut it 2 hour into rehearsal! Although I did look up how to cut the 8 inch cake to get the most pieces, thank goodness....... As you can see I tried to create harrys wand, all the models are edible although bernard chose to keep them,

Back of the cake, and Wizard Spells......
The writing you can see going around the cake are spells the wizard uses in the panto, a lot of them sound similar to those in Harry Potter..... I also made the letter Harry receives to go to Hogwarts..........only with a twist.
In the panto the wizard is called 'He Whose name No One Can Remember' sound familiar? yes another tribute to harry potter and voldemort, the wizards real name is ........... Susan! As you can see I used the real address of the hall which is actually on All Hallows rd, Bispham!


Wand,Potions, Parchment and Spells

I always like to add something to the cake board to finish it off, I thought of an ink well, scrolls, Pens, books, and finally chose potions and magic dust, I love going into the cake shop and buying fantastic named food colours, the gold is fine edible gold glitter dust! I got to have fun with many dusts on this cake, the wand had a few...... Isnt that spell just too funny....... Impetigo! ha,ha poor soul who got that horrid disease......

So now the panto is not long away the 20th Feb, I will post more about it when I get the posters etc, thank you for taking the time to read my posts and I thank you all for your lovely comments on the Wizard hat, I hope you enjoyed reading a bit more about the cake and our little drama group.....

Have a wonderful weekend,

Priscilla x