Cinnamon and Nutella cake

This has to be the easiest cake to make ever, and its very very tasty too.

The recipe basically calls for putting everything in the bowl at once (except the nutella) and mixing it all up, no creaming of butter and sugar or sifting of flour needed. I even melted the butter in the oven entirely, so it saved me a job there too.

This is a great cake to make in the evening or on a Sunday afternoon when you have little motivation to make something and all the shops are closed- but you NEED cake.

I had a bit of Hotel Chocolate Smudge in the cupboard, which I used instead, its a lot more hazlenutty which made up for the fact that I had no hazlenuts in the cupboard either.

Was gorgeous with a steaming mug of tea, just the thing for a rainy weekend!

And because I haven't blogged about jewellery for a while... these are my newest creations.
Lovely vintage pink chalcedony with tanzanite and pearls on oxidized silver.

Green fingers?

Apparently I have them this year..

Last year was a bit off, we had some potatoes, some sad looking peas and a few strawberries, but this year is looking a whole lot more promising.

Our strawberries are just starting to produce little green berries that are promising a very large Eton Mess later on in the summer..

The potatoes are standing strong and we have a whole raft of herbs!

I especially like how our chives are looking, they have beautiful purple flowers on them.
(You can also see our pea shoots in the background here)


I've been meaning to plant actual flowers, just for display but there isn't really anything that exciting about flowers to me. They look nice but I love growing food so much more, because you get to eat it afterwards!

I am also quite excited by our plum trees, the fruit was great last year and we made lovely jam. So watch this space for plum recipes - jam, crumble, pie, spicy plum sauce, everything plum!

My First Handmade Handbag

Many people know me as being a bit of a handbag fiend, at one point I had about 30 handbags in my wardrobe, in various shapes and sizes. Generally I am an accessory fiend too, so its no wonder I went into jewellery making (I’m not good enough at sewing to make handbags!).

All of the handbags I have ever bought have been mass produced high street bags, so I am very much in love with my first handmade bag as it is mine and no one else has one the same. I even got to pick how big it was and what material it was made from, and even the button on the front!
So I’d like to thank Abi Bansal Design for creating my first handmade handbag. Long may it carry lots of my junk around (and believe me its already full up).


I think I may even be able to attach a bag charm to it, I’ve been making them recently so it would be a nice way to advertise my bag chams and also Abi’s lovely bags.

Catching up..

A long overdue post, I've been neglecting my blog recently.

I've been busy updating my store, posting out orders and ordering some new supplies - I have some really lovely beads and findings coming in the post and I am really looking forward to using them.

I have recently been using bronze more, and I have some gorgeous bronze earrings in my shop made with some lovely beads that I have picked up - including gorgeous vintage lucite (above) and some emerald coloured lucite (below) I picked up in a little bead shop.

Things have also been busy in the garden, with things perking up quite a bit, although this also means the weeds have gone a bit mad too! So far we have blossoming strawberry plants, little pea shoots and our herbs are doing well too. It looks like I might not be a serial plant killer after all!

Strawberries in bloom



Pea shoots!


Hopefully we will be able to eat from our garden quite well this year!