Lazy Sunday

We should have spent Saturday night and Sunday on a very nice yacht sailing around the Solent but on Thursday George came down with the flu so we had to turn down the invitation and were confined to the flat for the weekend. Much as it was disappointing not to get to go on such a lovely boat, we did have a lovely relaxing weekend and I managed to do some of the things I've been dreaming of for the last few weeks. The first is pictured above. I've been seeing pictures of cupcakes all over the place and I've had a huge urge to get baking myself.

I made a mixture of chocolate cupcakes iced with coffee butter cream and plain vanilla cakes iced with pink vanilla butter cream. I really enjoyed playing, but having seen Cherry's Post on Friday, I'm now thinking I need an icing bag to really get creative with my cakes. We ate about half of them over the weekend but I suspect they may all be gone by the end of today as I've left George at home, still suffering and I think he may need them for flu fighting purposes!

As yesterday was such a horrid, grey and miserable day here in London we decided it was a day of PJs and not leaving the house. I spent the entire day on the sitting room floor getting on with a little project I've been wanting to do for ages.

I love my magazines, but I can't bear for them to build up too much and I like to have all the inspirational items close at hand. So I've always kept files of images, articles and ideas. But I decided I wanted to arrange them differently. At the moment they're all in pockets in clear files from Muji and that's fine when it's a whole article I've cut and where I like all the images. But I realised I had a lot of articles where there was perhaps just a number of pictures I liked.

This not only seemed like a waste of storage space, but it also didn't seem like the best way to see those pictures.

So I decided to stick those images into scap books where the inspiration can be better appreciated. At the same time, I thought it was a good opportunity to re-organise the inspiration as it was all muddled up. So now there will be four different categories ~ home and furniture, seasonal inspiration, projects and food.

Here are a couple of my pages.

Up to a couple of years ago I used to cut up every magazine I bought as I didn't really have the space to keep them. But since then I've got rather precious about my Country Living magazines. I just can't bring myself to cut them but yet I feel I don't really make the best of them while they're still whole. After all, most of what is sitting there is pages of advertising and some articles I wouldn't read again, and I don't look at them as often as I look at my inspiration files. But I think for now they're going to be staying whole as I really don't think I can bring myself to cut. Plus I think I have enough cuttings to organise without them.

Well, another week is ahead of us and it's bright and sunny here so I'm full of energy. Tomorrow I will be introducing the first of my Easter products with four more to come over the next couple of weeks. I hope you're going to like them.

I've got lots to do but I think I may need another cupcake to help me along.
See you tomorrow. x

Comments

[Barbara]

Yummy cakes and an interesting entry altogether. I love baking but have not made cup cakes for a while. Will have to make some soon.

[Cammy]

Your cupcakes look so yummy and I love the scrapbook idea. I have so many magazines that need to be organized and I just haven't been motivated, but I think you have just inspired me to get busy clipping! Cammy

[Sue]

A huge pile of magazines came with us when we moved. I started weeding through them a couple of weeks ago, but another job got in the way, so they're back in the box for a rainy day! I love the beach hut!

[niki]

Love your scrap book images. I have always meant to make one, but have not got round to it...I have copies of Country Living dating from the 90's!!

[Gemma]

Butterfly cakes! My Mum used to make those for us when we were little. And at Easter she used to put mini eggs on the buttercream so they were like little nests! Hmmmm might have to do some of those for Easter for G to take into school.

[Allie from Minneapolis]

Your cupcakes look wonderful, and your day at home in your jammies sounds really. I can also see how George may have needed cupcakes today for medicinal purposes :o)

[nel]

My mum used to bake those and we called them butterfly cakes, so yummy, they were my favourite! I know what you mean with the mags. I can't bring myself to cut some of them up and I have way too many sitting around. Love the scrapbook idea.

[Flibbertygibbet]

There is some kind of bizarre cupcake zeitgeist thing going on at the moment, I am seeing them everywhere - on blogs, websites, greeting cards, fabric. I will have to organise a tea party soon - or otherwise if I make some I'll end up eating them all myself!

[Caroline]

You are so well organised. I've got loads of images cut out from magazines but I havent done anything with them yet, they're just stuffed in plastic sleeves. Your cupcakes do look yummy.

[Yvonne]

How much fun that we both made cupcakes over the weekend ... anyway, I didn't make mine I just made them pretty LOL. Yours look yummy :o) I can part with any of my favorite magazines so I've started to file them.

[Gigibird]

I think it must just be the time of year - fairy cakes and buying scrap books - I almost bought one yesterday but ended up with a box file. I have an icing bag, nozzles etc, but it's all the washing up afterwards....... but they are fun until the novelty wears off

[Cherry Menlove]

Those scrapbooks look wonderful. I love to be able to look back over images that I may have forgotten about and get inspired all over again. Such a good idea..

Cherry xx

[Isobel]

Wow, Nonnie, your cupcake look so yummy. Do you know, I have never bakes cupcakes? I sould try one of these days. :)
And I have the same relationship with my mags. Some of them I feel so sorry to let go or cut, but as you I don't have much space to pile them.
X

[tracy x]

Yay - cupcakes xx
They look really yummy and i now feel really guilty as i have purchased my cake from the village baker this morning!
Hope George feels better soon and let him know that cake eating DOES cure all!
Tracy x

[Beachy]

I am so tight for space in my home, I HAVE to cut my magazines (besides, hubby subscribes to several mags and won't toss a single one, so someone has to do the weeding of paper)! I love your scrapbooking of ideas. Sounds like you'll need to make more fairy cakes!

[Angel Jem]

I have a thing about Christmas magazines (like, I have Ideal Homes guide to Christmas going back to 2000) but I recognize that they do take up a lot of space. Now, I didn't want to chuck the magazine, I loved pictures/ articles that were back to back and, sometimes, I just have too much to stick in a scrap book, so one day last November, I took all my magazines and did a tearing session in reverse. Instead of tearing out the bits I liked, I tore out the bits I didn't. Ta-da! I still have magazine-shaped things to flick through, but every page is a gem and there's no excess bulk. Although, I have to say, I cannot bring myself to tear up either Country Living or Country Homes. Sad, I know.

[Jane]

Aren't scrapbooks just great? - I will lend wedding books to brides but they have to come here to see the scrapbooks.
I'm afraid that I cut up Country Living just like everything else. The only magazine that escapes the cull is Gardens Illustrated.
It is such a lovely pastime arranging the pages.
J

[Nicky Fraser]

I LOVE your pictures... the cakes look great, I've just seen a gorgeous picture of easter cupcakes on the front of the Somerfield magazine which has made me want to get out the mixing bowl. Cupcakes are a regular thing in our house, my 3 year old knows all the 'ingweedients' we need already and we the other morning I came down to my 7 year old baking away merrily! Cant wait for the day when I get TEA and CAKE made for me!!
As for country living magazines, mine date back to 2002 I think, and are VERY PRECIOUS! Once my daugther took the scissors to a copy, poor love, and met my rath. Since then is very nervous of cutting anything resembling 'Mummy's Magazines'!! Country Homes I can cut, Country Living I cant. That's just the way it is. (I have, I'm ashamed to say, once bought two copies of the same month so I could cut one up, hows that for obsessive!)

[Lisa]

Ooh, those cupcakes look yummy! Gregg made me a birthday cake last week filled with butter cream, it was very good! I could really do with sorting out all my magazines too, but like everyone else I can't quite bring myself to chop up any CL mags, what are we all like?!
Hope George is feeling better and hasn't eaten all of the cakes!
L x

[carolyn]

Nothing nicer than a cupcake and a cuppa! Hope George is soon feeling better.

[Kim]

Ah yes, another cupcake will definitely help you through :)

[Jo]

I too like to keep pictures or articles from magazines, mine could do with a big sort out though as they are just stored in cardboard folders. My back issues of CL fill the bookcase in the spare room as they somehow seem impossible to take the scissors to!