Last days of summer

With October - and therefore Autumn - starting tomorrow, it's the end of summer for another year. However, the unpredictable qualities of British weather means that occasionally you get the joy of glorious sunshine and running about on the Bournemouth beach on the last weekend of September.

I may be back to tights and jumpers now, but, wow, it was lush to get the chance to write my name in the sand and dabble my toes in the sea for one last time this year, before the rain and the frost creeps in.

Girlcrush: Juno Temple

Remember the little girl in Atonement who helps perpetuate the lie that sets all the awful stuff in motion? (Yep, I'm desperately trying not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it)

She's Juno Temple, and she's kind of awesome. She's been making a habit of turning up in decent films (and not-so-decent films that I still really, really enjoyed like a certain Emma Roberts adventure) and is about to hit it huge, as she was one of the romantic leads in Year One (Jack Black and Michael Cera's latest).




Not only does she have a wicked name, she also has awesome hair and a really unique, old fashioned look. And, if she keeps popping up in photoshoots like this, she's not falling off my girlcrush list any time soon. Love her.

I'm so obsessive.

Right now, I am mostly obsessed with:Red Shoes



(Surely four pairs is more than anyone really needs? What's that? Yeah, you're right, it totally isn't.)Zooey Deschanel's Hair

(I can't justify another haircut for a good couple of weeks, but when that swings around, I am totally taking in the above photo.)Vera Wang's Princess

(Oh my god, it smells like luxurious, delicious talculm powder.)Florence & the Machine

(She draws on her face! Her hair is incredible! Her album is amazing! She did a song about punching people! I LOVE HER.)Fake eyelashes

(How did I get to my mid-to-late twenties without ever wearing them? They're so awesome! I'm loving Kimberley's the most for awesome naturalness, although Nicola's are hilariously overdramatic. I haven't had the guts yet... and I haven't bought the rest of the set, as those two are my favourite Girls Alouds.)Yellow Cars

(Because YELLOW CAR BANG is the best car game ever. See a car, you shout 'Yellow car bang!' Shout it first, you get a point. Shout it at a lime green or gold car, or a minivan or a lorry, you lose a point. When you have spent about 20 hours in the car over the last two weeks with colleagues, it's the little things that amuse you.)True Blood.

(Who knew sexy, sexy vampires could be so addictive? Well, Joss Whedon. But Alan Ball does it really well too! I love the opening credits the mostest.)

What's consuming you with obsession at the moment?

Adventures in fondant!

I'm sorry, blog, I've been neglecting you! I've got all these posts sitting waiting to be shared and instead I've been gallivanting off to exotic locations with work, like Hull, and Birmingham. Huge apologies, and to make it up, I will endeavour to post at least twice a week from now on. Maybe even more.

For now, we're going to travel back in time to August, and I'm going to inflict more adventures in baking on you.

It was my niece's birthday last month, and I've developed a reputation in my family as the official cake maker. Last year I made an ambitious thing that kind of worked out a little messy, and the year before that I made this awesomely wonky fairy castle, behold:



Anyway, this year I had a whole load of fondant left over from my friend's hen do (where she forced us into the slavery of making peppermint creams as her wedding favours) so I decided to see if I could make fondant fairies. I'm sort of into my fairies.

And this was the result!
Okay, even if I do say so myself, these are totally cute, right? I made three of them, and my sister made one. This one.
We decided he was probably going to eat us in our sleep. But he didn't!

Then I made a batch of Hummingbird vanilla cupcakes - 12 mini and 6 large - and decorated them appropriately.

I finally got the chance to use my edible glitter! And I experimented with strawberry food colouring! (which basically just tastes pink) And do the large cupcakes not look like toadstools? They totally do!
And then... I made all the cupcakes and fairies into an edible fairy village!
Happy birthday, niecelet! How are you already six?
(Please ignore my cleavage.)

She was super happy with it all. So happy, in fact, that she celebrated by decapitating one of the fairies. And eating the head.