Washi Tape

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you pretty washi tape with these gorgeous pics. I have been decorating and playing with my washi tape and love how easy it is to transform basic items. Check back soon for some more of the most inspirational photographers on Flickr.

Some beautiful shots from my Flickr favourites (clockwise from top left):

• The wonderful wrapped cookies in Untitled by Ishtar olivera ♥
  
• The lovely colour in Masking Tapes by Casa di Falcone
  
• The simple storage in Inspirational Supplies by Beauty Spot
• The pretty array of prints and colours in blog group of tape by ♥ paper pastries
  

Have a sweet day!

Pop Bakery by Clare O'Connell

This month I'm reviewing Pop Bakery by Clare O'Connell, from illustrated lifestyle publishers Ryland Peters & Small and CICO Books. Clare O'Connell, along with her daughter, Judith, is the owner of Pop Bakery in West Hampstead, London.

I chose to review this book as I love cake pops. Hailed as the new cupcake, cake pops are small moist cakes coated in candy on lollipop sticks. Claire, too, loves cake pops and wanted to create her own versions. For Claire cake pops were the ideal medium for her to share her creative flair and love of baking. After work experience in a combined bakery and confectioners for a year Claire started her business, Pop Bakery, from her family home in West Hampstead. She supplies Harvey Nichols and boutique hotels across London and was recently commissioned by Top Shop to make cake pops for their Launch Party in Bath, England.

The front cover of this hardback book says "25 recipes for delicious little cakes on sticks". I would argue that it contains one recipe of a chocolate cake pop with 25 different ways of decorating them.

Each beautifully photographed decorated cake pop has clear step by step instructions on how to create the cake pops, from moulding the cake to hand painting them. It contains some great advice on ingredients, tools, equipment and stockists. The book covers a variety of styles, from the funky on-trend leopard print ones to the cute panda & frog heads with varying levels of difficulty. Each gorgeous looking cake pop is beautifully photographed by Nicole Rees.

The only downside to this book is that it only provides one recipe for the cake pops.
At a recommended price of £9.99, I think this hardback book is a good introduction to cake pops and how to decorate them.

Some of my favourite cake pops:

Cute Panda heads

Whimsical toadstools for woodland themed parties!

Fun bright frogs

The stylish leopard print cake pops inspired by nail artists

To summarize, Cake pops is a good decorating book for cake pops with great tips and advice.

Please note that my opinions are my own and I am not paid for these reviews (apart from receiving a free book, of course!).

Have a sweet day!

Food Gawker - Macarons

I recently discovered foodgawker via the ever so popular, beautiful blog Made by Girl. Boy am I in love!

From the website:
'foodgawker is a photo gallery that allows you to visually search and discover new recipes, techniques and ingredients to inspire your culinary adventures. We publish food photography submitted by food bloggers from around the world. Our editors review hundreds of submissions daily and choose the highest quality, most appealing images to showcase.'

The photographs are beautiful and link to some brilliant bakery and foodie blogs. What's not to love? A new passion that will keep me occupied for hours - I have warned you!

They also have three sister sites, each full of beautiful photos. From great craft projects on craftgawker, inspiring interior pics on dwellinggawker and fabulous wedding ideas on weddinggawker.

Have a sweet day!

Edible sugar decorations

This week on "Wonderful World of Etsy" I bring you a selection of gorgeous edible sugar decorations from Andie's Specialty Sweets. The flowers are exquisitely detailed and come by themselves for you to decorate your sweet treats with, or crafted into a necklace: how much fun is that! I love the pretty array of colours the peppermint candy buttons come in and the strawberries are so much fun.

• Edible candy necklace
• Peppermint candy buttons
• Edible sugar strawberries, blossom and leaves
• Romantic edible sugar blooms

Have a sweet day!

An Angel at my Table

This week for my 'shops i love' page, I bring you An Angel at my Table; a store I have loved for such a long time for their beautiful birdcage mirrors. I have the birdcage noticeboard on my kitchen wall painted in a pretty duck egg blue to match the facing wall!

An Angel at my table is a family run business: six people and one dog! They started life in 1997 as a shop in Essex, England selling painted furniture and French style accessories. They then moved to the countryside to concentrate on their labour of love, sourcing and designing the most exquisite English and French furniture along with the most stylish interior accessories with a difference!

The accessories section is whimsically laid out with categories such as 'Whiter shade of pale' which has the cutest white house tea light holders, Boho crochet throws and white porcelain swallows to decorate ornate white plaster frames with. 'Exotica' is full of brightly coloured bird cushions, bird wall sconces and butterfly plates. In the furniture section there are great painted wooden dining chairs that can be custom painted in the colour of your choice. I've got my eye on the classic English fiddleback chair, which I would love in duck egg blue!

A great store with so much eye candy!

Have a sweet day!

Laundry Art

I am busily getting everything ready to decorate our new laundry- and cloak-room. Last week I showed you the candy coloured bead hangers and the pretty wrapped soaps. Today I am showing you some of my laundry art I want to put up on the walls.

I originally bought two pink baroque picture frames from Urban Outfitters; buy one get one half price! I then had to decide what to put in them. As there is going to be quite a lot of different prints in the room from, pale blue floral towels to a bird print curtain and rose printed dusters I wanted something quite graphical.

I liked the idea of them having something to do with the laundry room so went for care label meanings. I went back to Urban Outfitters and bought two more frames, one in pink and one in duck egg blue as I'd decided I wanted three of them (maybe the extra one can go in my kitchen?). I coloured the artwork in a pale blue to match the blue in my towels, soaps and prints.

Feel free to right click the below pics and print them out for yourselves.

Floral bathroom highlights

Today in my series of posts "Inspirational Pins", I bring you some pretty bathroom floral highlights. For more cute floral bathroom ideas check out my floral bathroom ideas Pinterest board.

• Pip Studio
• Welbeck Tiles
• Bathroom with vintage unit

Have a sweet day!