Guess who cupcakes

My new Wilton food gels arrived and my husband was at cricket all day...

and I'd seen a really fun idea on Pinterest (of course) for people cupcakes...so here are Mr and Mrs P in cupcake form:

But then David was still at cricket...and I was still humming songs from the McBusted gig I went to a week and a half ago, so this happened:

Naomi x x x

New dresser

I love eBay, this little beauty is solid oak and weighs a ton but was a total bargain. I'd bid on so many sideboards and then been repeatedly outbid at the last minute, but this one was worth the wait...and the hour long trip to pick it up. I love wondering what its history is, how many houses it's sat in

and who its owners were...

Naomi x x x

Hallway

I think we're pretty much there with the hallway, which isn't that much of an achievement as it's the smallest space in the house but it's still exciting to be able to do our first house post.

For those interested the draws, side table and shelf are from Ikea, the bench was an eBay find, the mirror, lamp, gold frame and patterned trays are TK Maxx (I've got a whole new level of appreciation for that place now we have a house to decorate! There's something about foraging for something that makes shopping more exciting!) the rug is from a US company called 'Rugsandtiles' who sell via eBay, the cushion was Amazon, the tea light holders and throw were sainsburys and the candle sticks and chevron photo frame are from Debenhams

Chocolate labrador cake

This was my first attempt at using white chocolate ganache to get smooth edges before covering in ready rolled royal icing. I used a fantastic video tutorial from 'Inspired by Michelle' then iced on a blue pattern to look 'stitched'. The Labrador is made of dark brown royal icing from hobby craft.

Naomi x x x

Finding Nemo cake pops

Title says it all! I made about 25 in total but this little guy was my favourite, he just has a cheeky grin. Made with chocolate cake mixed with cream cheese frosting with fins made of icing, dipped in melted orange chocolate buttons and iced

Naomi x x x

A few old baking projects - baby shower

My first post is looking a bit lonely up there by itself, so I thought I'd put up a few pictures of past baking projects to brighten the page up a bit.

Here are some sugar cookies and macaroons (although they didn't have the shine I was hoping for in this particular batch) I made for a good friend's baby shower.

Naomi x x x

Blank Canvas

Hello lovely people,

Welcome to 'bakes and decorates' - this blog is mostly for us to keep track of making our stamp on our first home but it's awesome to have you stop by and see what we're up to. We bought our first home this January and we've now been in for four months. I stumbled across these pictures that we took when we'd just completed and was struck by how different it looks already! It's spurred me in to action to start keeping track of what we do to the place so we can look back over the journey.

This blog is also a fun way for me to keep track of decorating of the baked goods variety too. Baking is what I do to relax and I'm a long way from the standards of some of the bloggers on here but hopefully some day in the future I'll look back over the blog entries and see some kind of progress!

So here it is...our blank canvas home...bar the interesting wall paper in the front bedroom...let's see where we end up!

Thanks so much for reading

Naomi x x x