Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas my dear readers!

Love,

Nadine

Merry Christmas Cake

This year's Christmas cake... 

Last year I used the traditional Christmas colors; red, green and white. 

This year I wanted to make a vintage, light colored cake. 
Grey and white look so lovely and calm together and with some glitters, pearls and lace added, it makes a perfect combination for Christmas. 

Have a very merry Christmas!

Love,

Nadine

Christmas greetings

This year I wanted to make homemade Christmas cards for my dearest ones in a vintage look. 

At a flea market I've bought a cutting sheet with vintage Christmas images. 
After cutting them out, I've used the Paper Distresser from Tim Holz to give the images an old edge and colored the edges with Distress Ink "Old paper". 
For the stamp I've also used "Old Paper".
At last, a doily and a tiny bow and the Christmas cards are ready to be given. 
On the back of the envelope I've put a gold seal, bought in Paris. I've always wanted my own seal and this was the perfect time to use it.  

The N of Noël (-and Nadine-) <3

Love,

Nadine

Tiny gift

I love gift wrapping and trying out different decorations. 
These tiny gift bags are so lovely and have a wonderful vintage feeling combined with some lace and stamps.. 

Have a wonderful Saturday evening and Sunday!

My first crochet plaid

A while ago I saw a few crochet plaids on other blogs and the last one I saw convinced me to make my own crochet plaid. 

My own big plaid, about 150cm by 200cm in ivory, with star granny squares.

So, I ordered a book and found out that a pattern I wanted was one of the difficult ones.. That's so typical me. 

The book was in German and that made it even harder. 

I didn't know that the directions for the pattern are abbreviated, I thought there would be step by step directions and pictures, so German wouldn't be a problem... I was shocked and tried for over two hours to figure out the meaning of the abbreviations and how to do all those different stitches.  

A few days later I decided to buy a Dutch book that explained every stitch, with helpful pictures.  

Yesterday a dear friend helped me and made the first square so I could see how every stitch is done and how the end result looks.

Doesn't it look pretty? 

I probably need about 190 squares to make a bigger plaid.. So, I have a lot to do before it's Christmas, I would like to have the plaid finished by then. 

The first square I've made on my own:

I forgot a leaf in the middle row, so the last row isn't complete in the upper left corner. But, practice is good and I'll start again tonight for the real deal. Fingers crossed! 

Ivoire et blanc

A few moths ago Tim and Marijke asked me to make their wedding cake and I was delighted. Today is their wedding day. 

Tim, a former colleaque, told me ones; if I'll ever get married, I want you to make the cake. And so I did.. 

The bride to be loved a lot of my cakes and pointed uit some favorites. I made a design and with a few adjustments, their wedding cake was ready to be made.

The cake is in traditional colors, with a hint of gold and pastel pink. On top a pastel pink gerber, as the brides bouquet has pink gerbers. 

The top cake is carrot cake with a vanilla  cream, the middle one is vanilla cake with fresh, home made strawberry jam and the bottom cake is chocolate with praline cream.

The couple picked up the cake last night and were very happy with it. And  that's still the most important and beautiful thing about cake making.. 

Have a wonderful day Tim and Marijke! Wishing you all the best! X

Je t'aime Paris

This cake I made for a 18 year old birthday girl. She's celebrating today and her mother asked me to make a cake as a surprise. Inge, her daughter, loves vintage and pastel.

So I suggested to do a cake with a charmed necklace. She loved the idea and was sure her daughter would love it as well.

I have made a few cakes with it, but I still love a pearl necklace on a cake. 

The colours of my scrapbook that I made a few weeks ago, off-white, white, vintage pink and silver, looked so pretty together and I chose to use this combination. 

The Eiffel tower mold I have had for a while and didn't find the right moment to use it. Now I did!

I painted it in a antique silver. A big challenge was to mix the colour of the ribbon. I love that colour and it would be perfect for the bows. The doilies are a big favorite and had to be on the cake as well.


The mother just picked up the cake and loved it! Happy me :) 

Have a great weekend!

Scrapbook

I've been walking around with this idea for quite some time.

For years, I've been collecting pictures of pretty ideas to decorate my future home. A scrapbook is the best way to keep them in one place. At the time I bought a Pip Studio scrapbook, in dark pink with flowers.

But it isn't white... So I decided to change it. The paper I used to cover it up, is a gorgeous, but see through gift paper from Jeanne d'Arc Living. So the book had to be covered up, so I wouldn't see the pink anymore. 

Before it's completed, I finished it off with off white lace, a pastel pink ribbon (Thanks to H&M clothing ;).), a doily, a tiny clock image with buttons and a small birdcage.   

Almost finished, but there was something missing in the middle... 

...so I glued tiny buttons on the clock.

Have a great weekend!

Birthday High Tea

Last Thursday (the 8th of March) another year was over..
I turned 27.

This time I wanted something to do else than a party in the evening. Ever since I moved in, I wanted to do a High Tea. This was the perfect occasion and I loved planning, baking and decorating the table! I also had help from my mom, who made the wraps and sandwiches with me.

My dearest girl friends were invited and we had so much fun..

It was a perfect birthday party! Here are some pictures of the "sweet high tea table".


Enjoy your weekend!!

The inspiration for my birthday cake.

  

Last, but not least. My girls and I <3

My girl friends (from de left up); Christiane, Belinda, Eva, me (from the right down); Mandy, Carmen and Anouk.

2011

Again, Christmas is almost over and it's only 6 untill 2012....
It's amazing how short a year seems to be....

I've made 32 cakes this year and I loved making them. 

Yesterday, I've made my last cake of the year and I wanted to show you my favorites cakes of 2011.


Thank you for all the visits and comments and I wish you a wonderful last week of 2011!

Strawberry & Ivory

Hi!

It's been a while since my last post. As you may know, I bought a house and I spend my summer vacation looking for furniture and other stuff.

Today I started a new project and I wanted to show you what I've been up to.
These dummy cakes are made for a interior store as a decoration on their glass cloches.
The owner gave me some decoration strawberries to be used.

I kept it simple, but they still look cute I think.

What do you think of it?



Hoi!

Het is alweer een tijdje geleden dat ik voor het laatst een taartje gepost heb. Zoals je misschien weet heb ik een huis gekocht en mijn zomervakantie besteed aan het zoeken naar meubels en dergelijke.

Vandaag ben ik een nieuw project gestart en het resultaat wilde ik graag laten zien.
Deze piepschuimen taartjes heb ik gemaakt voor een interieur winkel als decoratie onder  glazen stolpen. De eigenaresse gaf me enkele aardbeitjes om te gebruiken.

Ik heb het eenvoudig gehouden, maar vind ze wel erg schattig geworden.

Wat vinden jullie ervan?

Victorian wedding cupcakes with a vintage twist

Yesterday was a BIG BIG day, my friend Eva got married! And I had the honor to be her witness. The day started out with some clouds, we had some rain but not at the important times.

Eva was a georgous bride! I was there the whole time as the pictures were taken in the gardens of the location. It was so much fun, I even had the chance to be de photographer's assistent. My job was to make sure the train of the dress layed perfect and her hair was out of her eyes.

Can't wait to see the pictures...

Months ago she asked me to make 80 wedding cupcakes as dessert, she liked the combination of white, ivory and peach with gold details.

The cupcakes were a succes and Eva loved them.

It was such a beautiful day, I wish you guys all the luck and hapiness! XO 

Gisteren was de GROTE dag, mijn vriendin Eva ging trouwen! En ik had de eer om haar getuige te zijn. De dag begon met wolken en we hadden wat regen, maar gelukkig niet tijdens de momenten dat we buiten waren.

Eva was een prachtige bruid! Ik mocht er bij zijn toen de foto's van het bruidspaar gemaakt werden in de tuinen van Mondo Verde. Wat was dat leuk zeg! Ik mocht zelfs de fotograaf "assisteren", mijn taak was ervoor te zorgen dat sleep mooi lag en Eva's haren niet voor haar ogen hingen. Ben heel benieuwd naar de foto's!

Maanden geleden vroeg Eva mij of ik 80 cupcakes wilde maken, die na het eten geserveerd zouden worden. Ze vond de combinatie van wit, ivoor en perzik met gouden details erg leuk. De cupcakes waren gelukkig een succes en Eva was er erg blij mee.

Het was een geweldige dag en ik wens jullie alle geluk toe!! X

Vintage romance

In May I visited London with my friend Tessa. We both fell in love with this 30's style, georgous mint-green china from Royal Albert. I just had to wait a little while before I could make a cake to go with this cup, saucer and dessertplate.

The rose is a second try with petals on thread. The inside petals of the rose are glued on, the other two layers are on threa. I tried to use the same colours as the china, I just love these soft tones combined with gold.

It's a gift for my friend, she completed her study and is celebrating tonight. 

Congratulations Carmen!

******************************************************************************

Afgelopen mei hebben mijn vriendinnetje Tessa en ik London bezocht. We waren beide meteen verliefd op dit jaren '30, mint-groene servies van Royal Albert.
Moest alleen een tijdje wachten voordat ik een bijpassend taartje kon maken.

De roos is een tweede poging met blaadjes op draad. The binnenste blaadjes zijn vastgelijmd en de buitenste twee lagen op draad. Ik heb geprobeerd de kleuren van het servies na te bootsen, vind de zachte kleuren in combinatie met het goud zo mooi...

Het is een cadeautje voor een vriendin, die vanavond viert dat ze haar diploma behaald heeft.

Gefeliciteerd lieve Carmen!

Ivory, peach and gold

Every two months a small group of girlfriends and I meet and go to see a movie or have diner. Since last year on every birthday I've made a mini cake to go with our present. This time is was for Vivian.

The inspiration was a small necklace that has a tiny ivory cup with a goold border and roses in dark peach with grey-green leafs. I really wanted to make a cake using these colours. The base is white fondant with a small amount of ivory.

I just love the result! Hoping she does too.. We'll see tonight..

In Dutch:

Iedere twee maanden treffen een paar collega's/vriendinnen en ik ons om naar de film te gaan of om te gaan uit eten. Sinds vorig jaar maak ik voor ieder verjaardagsetentje een mini-taartje voor bij het cadeau. Deze keer is het Vivian's beurt.

De inspiratie was een ketting met een klein kop en schoteltje in ivoor met een gouden randje en perzikkleurige rozen met mosgroene blaadjes. Wilde al een tijdje ontzettend graag een taartje maken in deze kleuren. Bij dezen :)
De basis is witte fondant met een heel klein beetje ivoor.

Ben zelf heel erg blij met het resultaat en Vivian hopelijk ook. We zullen zien vanavond..

Button cake #3

Made for my neighbour who loved my ivory button cake that I made last year.

For a while I wanted to try out my new ivory color on a cake with white decorations. So I decided to make the base ivory and the buttons completely white, painted with pearl dust.
Finished with a ivory pearl border.

Result; simplicity with a vintage edge.

In Dutch:

Gemaakt voor mijn buurvrouw. Ze vond mijn ivoorkleurige knopentaartje van vorig jaar zo mooi en wilde graag een knopentaart voor haar verjaardag.

De combinatie van ivoor en wit wilde ik al een tijdje uitproberen. Daarom besloot ik de basis in donker ivoor te maken en de knopen in wit met een wit parelmoeren glansje. Om de bovenkant niet te leeg te laten heb ik het geheel afgemaakt met een parelrand in de kleur van de basis.

Het resultaat: simpel met een tikje vintage.