Hi everyone! I’m as surprised as you are that it is already April – less surprised by my constant inability to update my blog though! You would think that in the current climate, with the UK having a lockdown that I would have oodles of time to update and write, but it’s been quite the opposite. I work for the NHS, but am lucky enough that I can work from home at the moment, so home is where I have been for the last 5 weeks. It was a real struggle at first going from working with a lot of people, to sitting on my own all day (with the occasional appearance from my hubby for food and coffee!) but I feel like I’m getting into the swing of it now. I really hope you’re all keeping safe, wherever you are and whatever you do for a living. We will get through it.
On a positive point, due to the lockdown I have had a chance to catch up with some other friends from the crafting community, watch some live feeds and that kind of thing. I have really enjoyed tuning in to watch Biscuits By Sarah B, who does a Facebook Live at 10:30 (GMT), Monday to Friday and is quite often joined by her little girl Charlotte. They have the best time decorating biscuits and it’s a real mood lifter to watch. Sarah has just started posting out DIY Cookie Kits (she usually hosts decorating parties and other events, which at the moment cannot go ahead) and of course I had to join in!
The theme for week 1 was Frozen, and contained snowflakes, snowmen, crowns and dresses (and some birthday cakes for me, as my birthday was on Friday!) all baked to perfection by Sarah. These come with four colours of royal icing, in bags and ready to pipe, and a little pot of sprinkles!
Once you’ve massaged your little bags of icing for a couple of minutes, you can crack straight on! Sarah has created a little group on her Facebook page for those participating to share pictures of their creations, as well as for her to post pictures of design ideas to try out. I opted to go for snowflakes first!
I was actually quite proud of my outlining on that one, considering I haven’t done this since my MIND Crafternoon last summer!
These are my three finished snowflakes! I really love the first one! Next up, I went for the crowns…
I got extra fancy with my blue crown – I had some leftover yellow sugar from another baking project so decided to try and do a jewel by dipping it. I think it worked out quite well!
I did my princess dresses and my birthday cakes next. It’s funny – with the dresses, I thought mine looked rubbish until I added that final layer of detail onto them. I really didn’t like them until the end! What a difference a couple of little squiggles and some sprinkles make! My birthday cakes turned out well – I was pleased with my dripping icing effect.
Last up were my snowmen. Now, as it was a Frozen themed kit, Sarah had posted up some pictures of a little Olaf design to try. Now…I really did try…haha! I think mine are truly quite scary. I’m more pleased with my more traditional looking snowman!
Overall, I had the best time! This took me about 3 hours yesterday afternoon (some of that time was for layers to dry off before I could continue), and now we have all the yummy biscuits to enjoy eating this week. It was really nice to do something different, that I would never usually try, and it felt fantastic sitting in the kitchen with no television, no music, and just really focus on some quiet time to myself. I’m already super excited for next week’s kit!