A fortnight in photos: June 2015
A friend made this amazing meringue… to celebrate another friend’s 30th (which we photographed on her instant camera, hence the glorious 70s tinge to the second photo)…
Cake wisdom
It is a truth universally acknowledged that all discussions, whether personal or professional, online or off, and between two people or a whole roomful, every single one is improved by cake.
photo credit: thepinkpeppercorn via photopin cc
[lists] Wishlist Wednesday
There is an alarming amount of variety in my wishlist this week…
I’m lusting after a unicorn pencilcase (Pinterest will no longer let me embed pins – this is an ongoing issue since they changed their format, and it’s making me cross).
A converter for my fountain pen so I can use proper ink is on its way to me – so now I need to choose between inks. Decided on turquoise, now need to choose which one…
Also on the list – a pannier for Bluebell (both pretty and waterproof), the Dragon dictation software and a cake from Sponge.
What’s on your list?
[week in pictures] more of a month. featuring dogs, glitter and cake. and a blackbird.
A rather random selection of pictures from my May archives which made me smile…
One of my regular visitors (if I had a familiar or a daemon, it would definitely be a blackbird)
Sparkles in the air in my room, not long after moving in
Greyhound cuddles at Junk Jamboree
The ingredients for a perfect spag bol
Gran with sleepy puppies
and a glimpse into the Make Me Joyful letter writing salon.
New home tour… the details
So I’ve blogged the overview of my new home, here are some of the details. More will emerge in the coming weeks and months – as is probably obvious, I seem to have a ridiculous amount of stuff!
Kitchen and conservatory details:
Wall art and my amazing route 66 clock. The Pepsi sign is actual vintage and has the rust to prove it, the Marmite one much newer.
Fridge with my 2013 things list on it (and it’s magnetic, which for some reason is a massive novelty)
The cakes I made last night and iced this morning with my very exciting housewarming gift from my lovely family, and the mixer itself – squee!!
Discovering you can be excited for Monday morning…
As a completely fabulous, proper weekend draws to a close, I’m once again pensive. In a good way. For the first time in I genuinely can’t remember how long, I am excited for Monday. The first week of the new job mostly involved meeting people, familiarising myself with the uni’s website and eating cake. But I am looking forward to being there, to the challenge of the first tasks I have, of getting to know my (perfectly lovely!) new colleagues, of discovering the campus and the surrounding areas, of spending the evenings of this week eating good food and making stock for fairs and the fabulous Tea & Sympathy boutique.
This weekend has comprised seeing the Ruby Slippers at the V&A, eating a ridiculous amount of food, catching up with fabulous friends, catching up with fabulous family and walking around in a state of wonder that I can be this happy in normal, everyday life. Read on for more…
Make and Craft Magazine’s Book Club Book Tour: Super Pops
Welcome to the sixteenth stop on the Make and Craft Magazine Blog Tour Bus! In conjunction with Make and Craft Magazine & Search Press, I have a copy of the fabulous Super Pops by Tamsin Aston with Judith Fertig to give away!
Super Pops, by Tasmin Aston with Judith Fertig, ISBN 9781844488384, published by Search Press, £12.99.
Books? Yes please – what’s this one like inside?
It’s just as much fun as it looks, and shows you what you need, what you can create and how to create cake pops. Which have been on my must-try list for absolutely ages! Search Press says “this book will make it easy for anyone to try out a range of indulgences that are sure to impress at parties, events, or as presents” and having looked through, I’d have to agree!
My personal favourite projects were, predictably, the ducks (well, this blog is called Ducking Fabulous after all),
the horses,
and the fabulously burlesque masks!
I have been in the process of escaping the City (quitting my day job in London for one much closer to home) and rehearsing for my first ever burlesque performance in the past week and a half, so haven’t had a chance to make any of the pops in the book, but it has very clear and precise instructions, which look easy to follow and effective.
To be in with a chance of winning a copy, register as a member on Make and Craft’s website (it’s very quick and it’s free!) and then pop back here and leave a comment on this post, including your Twitter username if you have one (and your email address anyway). I will draw the winner on Sunday 14th November and announce the winner here, and contact them directly too. Good luck!
If you don’t win, Make and Craft & Search Press are offering free P&P on this book – call Search Press on 01892 510850 and quote “Make and Craft Blog Tour”.
So – you mentioned a new magazine? Tell me more!
Make and Craft is a brilliant new magazine for the crafting community, which launches TOMORROW! (12th October 2012). All kinds of craft and making are covered so there’s something for everyone, and a kids’ craft club too – with my vast number of cousins, this is extra-fab!
Their website also has a forum and a blog, so you can keep up with the latest news, and chat to other crafters. The forum has a Book Club section, for regular chatting about books. As an ex-librarian who is a craft addict, I suspect this will be the place I haunt the most 🙂
They have a brilliant launch offer running – three issues for £3, or if you go for the digital option (fab for those of you who commute), it’s just £1 for 3 issues! Subscribe here…
Excellent. And what do you do?
Teehee, hello if you’re new to my blog! I’m Carla, I’m 26 and I do… lots of things! I have just quit the City for a job closer to home which is forming the base of my portfolio career. I blog here about craft, life, inspiration, driving and thrifting. I co-own Inkdrops Boxes, the first UK stationery subscription box company, and I’m an ex-librarian with a burlesque habit. Or perhaps, after Saturday, a burlesque dancer with a book habit?
Anyway, it’s lovely to see you and there’s usually a fair bit of crafting within these pages… so dive in, say hello in a comment and let me know where you blog or tweet – I’d love to chat!
Good stuff. So remind me of all the salient details?
Of course! The book is Super Pops, and to win it you need to register at Make and Craft and then come back here and leave a comment on this post 🙂
You can follow Make and Craft via their website, www.makeandcraft.com and on Twitter @MakeAndCraft, and Pinterest (www.pinterest.com/makeandcraft). Search Press, who publish all sorts of fabulous creative books, are at www.searchpress.com.
You can follow me here (www.duckingfabulous.co.uk), on Twitter @duckingfabulous and on Pinterest www.pinterest.com/duckingfabulous. You can also find Inkdrops at www.inkdrops.co.uk and @inkdropsbox. Come and say hi!
Make and Craft Issue 1 goes on sale tomorrow – squeeee! And the day after that, the blog baton is taken up by Hannah at Spans Studio – pop over and see her and which book she’s giving away!
Many thanks to Katharine and Freya at Make and Craft for letting me join the blog tour – I’m having a fabulous time seeing everyone else’s posts and catching up in the forum!
Little things that have made me happy
I’ve had such a mad few weeks, I haven’t done a Happy Thursdays post for AGES. However I have been keeping my eyes open for small things that make me smile during the long and sometimes relentless weeks. Here are a few:
Perfect cupcakes before the Hurly Burly show, with Wendy. Gorgeous Sunday – cake, burlesque and one of my best friends, what more could a girl want?!
A truly spectacular moment on the way to the pub after rollerskating with Caroline, and planning our cabaret performances, her website, her new house and my future. It was glorious, and felt like a proper summer evening.
Lunch at the Folly with Lou. Full review coming soon (possibly on Project Pin Up) but I loved that they gave us our bill in a seed packet. It was fabulously quirky, suited us down to the ground AND there was a fashion shoot going on at the same time we were there.
Spotting an old but rather beautiful Maserati outside my parents’ new house. Sadly not theirs.
Deckchairs and screens provided in the middle of the City for workers to watch the Olympics and Paralympics on. Lovely, no? 
There are more, but I’ll leave you with those for now. I am off to get some sleep, finish recovering from this horrible virus I’ve had, and hope with all my heart that Poppy sails through her service and MOT tomorrow – it makes me unreasonably nervous!
Just checking in…
Goodness, how the weeks are racing past!
I am about to put on a headscarf, put Poppy’s roof down and race off to Helen’s Mad Hatter’s Tea Party… very excited! This morning I had breakfast out with Simple Things magazine (I love it – it could have been written for the life I am now actively working towards), then came home, spring cleaned the living room so I can actually see the floor (it has been doubling as a photo studio for some time now) and went through the catalogues and brochures we brought home from last weekend’s trade fair, for the secret project… which will be revealed very, very soon! We have some final touches and tweaks to make to the website tonight and tomorrow, and our survey and tweets will begin from Sunday/Monday 🙂
So do keep your eyes peeled – I know lots of you will love it!
Life has been very busy but rather lovely recently, not counting a day of illness. Last night I was out at Proud Cabaret with girls from work – most of them had never seen burlesque before and I’m still not sure they’re convinced, but I had a wonderful time and stole some costume ideas too 🙂
I have a whole stack of blog posts drafted, waiting to retrieve photos from various bits of technology to go with them… perhaps that should be tomorrow’s job. With a cup of tea, in the sunshine… yes, that sounds like a way to spend a morning!
Until later, lovelies – I would linger, but there is cake to be eaten and tea to be sipped!
xx
Dreams, tea, cake and fancy dress
Any of you who are regular readers, or who follow me on Twitter or Facebook, will know I rarely have a day to myself without commitments, travel and madness. Yet today was exactly that. And it was heavenly.
I spent the morning researching properties for the new incarnation of Project Pin Up – having discovered that this one, which I popped out to see and photograph briefly on Thursday evening, has been sold and had planning permission granted to turn it into houses. Clearly I don’t have the resources to buy something like this, but a lease may be possible with a proper business plan and some angel or VC investment. It’s a pipe dream, but it’s making me happy.
I had an impromptu brunch with Janine to plan her upcoming 30th birthday party, followed by taking shelter in the garden centre next door when the heavens opened (convenient, no?!) As a result I came home with these, which don’t count as 100 days lapses, because Poppy is desperate for an air freshener, and you can never have too many notelets 🙂 (please excuse shocking photo – the thing in the front is a pack of Yankee Candle car air fresheners, in Macintosh, my favourite crisp apple scent).
Came home and had a cup of Ceylon tea (I am rapidly growing very fond of it, especially taken from a teapot, with cake)
Spent the afternoon working on a couple of PDFs for PPU’s soon-to-be-launched new website and download centre, and popped to town to look at the empty, derelict and up-for-sale old Odeon. It’s 1930s Art Deco, beautiful building and so sad that it’s been empty and unloved for so long. It also has a £1.5m price tag, and is too big and the wrong shape for what I’d like to do with it. But worth looking at from the outside anyway. I hope someone converts it soon… it’s going to crumble otherwise.
May have accidentally topped up my fancy dress box in Accessorize’s ridiculous sale – each of these was £1.50…
And picked up the little bird earrings for me, and the ice skate for a dear friend of mine who I don’t see enough and who I’m almost certain doesn’t read my blog!
And now? It’s only half past seven, so I shall make dinner, work some more on the websites I’m currently building, and perhaps later curl up with a book and another cup of tea. Tomorrow I have the day to myself until 4pm, when I’m off to help Mum & Dad with some computer bits in the new flat and have dinner with them there 🙂
I hope you’ve all had equally gorgeous Saturdays – I’m resolving to have more like today!
An extraordinary ordinary day
Today was just another day at work… only it wasn’t at all, it turned out to be a glorious extravaganza of a day. The morning was quite average, apart from a delivery of a box of feather boas for burlesque class, which massively entertained my colleagues. My desk now looks like a very pink chicken has had a fight near it.
Then lunchtime approached and my two lovely friends Naomi and Wendy, who had been up to Liberty to meet the incomparable Dita Von Teese, came to have cake with me. I met them at St Pauls station and we popped across to Bea’s of Bloomsbury…
Wendy and I had red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and homemade lemonade:
Naomi had the most beautiful (and scrumptious) triple chocolate cake, with tea (of course!):
Having cooed over their Dita perfume and signed photographs and pictures with her, and had a thoroughly good gossip, we stopped to take a photo of these wonderful cake plates on the way:
and then they went off to the station and I went back to work. And shortly after that, I headed off to Bonhams to set up a work event. I was taking marketing materials with me so had a taxi drive me there, and spotted this little tailor’s shop, which I really think is straight out of Harry Potter and hopefully not visible to Muggles, halfway there…
Then on the way home from setting up I got this rather moody but lovely glimpse of the back of Harrods (which is in an area of London I usually avoid because it’s so busy!)
Finished off the day with a lovely long chat with Lou – and my first slice of bread for almost six weeks! (It was amazing – but I gave the rest of the loaf to my neighbour to avoid temptation, hehe!)
I'm Carla, a quirky thirtysomething with a penchant for unicorns and glitter. I believe in magic and make-believe, and the gorgeous rebellion of making your life absolutely your own. And I'm a proud multipod!
I am a photographer and catalyst for small business owners, and a real life mermaid. I photograph people as they truly are, help women see and step into their brightest and best selves, add a sprinkling of magic to the mundane, and am a happy ambassador for stationery and slow living.
Proud to be both girly and geeky, when I’m not writing, photographing or daydreaming, you can find me dancing burlesque, riding my bicycle Bluebell, growing herbs and collecting typewriters.