Etsy Love - Poodles!

This week's Dog Etsy Love theme was suggested by one of my lovely readers, Mel. Feel free to suggest your fav breed of dog for another Dog Etsy Love post.

I know I've done a poodle themed Etsy Love post in the past, but it has been far too long and there are so many beautiful poodle products on Etsy that I figured I can justify another! Plus, poodles are my favourite breed since I'm lucky enough to have a bouncy, beautiful and downright crazy standard poodle.

1. Napkin Items / 2. didyoumakeityourself / 3. Tiny Bling / 4. JLR / 5. Miss Sarah Belle / 6. Name That Cookie / 

7. Alice's Vintage Wonder / 8. Watercolor Book / 9. Phoenix Crafts

I Heart Pyjamas!

Ok, I have a big confession to make. I'm actually a complete slob. Since I started working from home I'm almost always in tracksuit bottoms or my pjs all day. My mail man always apologises for waking me up when he delivers the mail at 11am (nope, you haven't woken me up Mr Mail man, I'm just sporting bed head and pjs as my usual work-from-home fashion statement!). I love being comfy, so I don't think this will be a habit that's changing any time soon.

I'm moving to London in a few weeks, and I'm most likely going to be living in a flat share with complete strangers. So I figured, if I'm not going to change my pj ways, I really need to spruce up my lazy lounging around wardrobe. That way I won't inflict my old placebo t-shirt and paint splattered tracksuit bottoms on my new flat mates.

I managed to find some pretty amazing pjs, I just can't decide which ones to buy! Obviously the poodle slippers are going to be bought. If I can't cuddle my crazy Effy poodle every day I'll need some poodle slippers to cheer me up.

 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 /

What I Wore #7 - Distracted by dogs

Last week Ginge from Chopstitch came round for another craft day, where we probably did much more talking and eating than crafting as usual! Here's what we wore:

What Ginge wore:

Cardigan: Next

Top: Topshop

Skirt: Primark

Shoes: Dr Marten

Tights: Tesco

What I wore:

Cardi: Ebay

Dress: Dorothy Perkins

Gingerbread scarf: (Stolen off Ginge)

Brooch: Polli

Bracelet: Juicy Couture

Hair Bow: Retro Rehab

Tights: Tesco

Shoes: Tesco

And of course, the dogs were out playing in the garden while we were taking photos, and couldn't resist getting involved too. Even Holly (the wolfy dog) joined in, she hates photos and always makes a sulky face for the camera!

Poodle Prints!

Remember Lush Prints? The lovely stamp shop who hosted a giveaway on my blog? They very kindly sent me a personalised stamp to have a play with! I was over the moon when I got this in the post, I think all of my Christmas cards this year are being signed with my new "PonyChops" stamp! Most of my regular readers will know I'm a big poodle lover, so the fact that this stamp has poodles on makes me even happier!!

I love this stamp! It's so easy to use and well made. The wooden mount makes it so easy to apply even pressure and achieve a great result. I can't wait to have a play with this on some fancy paper!

Update time

This week has been a pretty busy and emotional week.

Other than that, I've had a ton of orders! Which is very exciting. So I've been working none stop. Here are some of my works in progress:

On Friday me and Ash went to see Frisky and Mannish in Lancaster with a couple of our friends. For those of you who don't know who Frisky and mannish are, you need to find them on YouTube. They're a comedic musical duo and they're absolutely hilarious, even my boyfriend who is a comedy snob thinks they're amazing.
I didn't get any pictures but here's a picture of Frisky and Mannish looking fabulous:

Saturday and Sunday were full of tears and goodbyes as I said farewell to one of my best friends who's moving to New Zealand. And on Sunday we drove Ash's little sister down to London for her first year of Uni. Life is gonna seem so strange without seeing those girls on a regular basis!

Here's some Effy love! She's such a baby. She's spent most of the week following me around the house watching me.

I also dyed my hair purple! And realised I'm a bit of a hair dye hoarder. I can't wait for the purple to fade and go all lilacy.

 And here's some cool tops I bought that I forgot to show you:

The cat one is from ebay & the bunny one is from Asda.

Etsy Shop Feature: inameliart

While looking through inameliart, it took me back to my childhood. Her work reminds me of the Jane Hissey books I used to read as a child.

Inameliart sells the artwork of Amelia, an illustrator and graphic designer based in Poland.
If I had a nursery I would love to cover it in these beautiful paintings!

 Amelia also has a blog where you can see more of her paintings.
 

Instagram Overload

Hi guys, It's been a while since I did a proper update. Life is pretty busy at the moment. I'm preparing for an awesome photo shoot at the beginning of August, which is very exciting but I'm painting shoes & bags like crazy for it!

I've finally stopped carrying a brick around with me, got with the real world and bought a phone with internet on it & a camera, and discovered instagram.
I'm on there as ponychops, add me, and as soon as I discover how to I'll add you back :)

Here's my latest bombardment of pictures:

1 & 2. I dyed my hair turquoise, I love it when it fades all pastelly. In the second pic I'm wearing my awesome Gusosos brooch. She has so much cute stuff in her store, check it out!

3 & 4. My babies, Holly the wolfy dog and Effy the scruffy poodle. Holly always sulks when I get the camera out.

5. My boyfriends cat Mojo enjoying a cuddle, with a creepy old man ghost behind him on the telly.

6. I was getting too impatient for my own designed fabrics to arrive, so I bought some creepy teddy fabric, some cowboy fabric and some pretty floral stuff to satisfy my sewing craving.

7. My shoes all organised in clear boxes. I wonder how long my studio will stay tidy for??

8. Working on a reference sheet for the make up at the photo shoot. My inspiration was ice cream vans and marshmallows. Soft and sickly pastel colours. I've ordered some amazing pastel Lime Crime lipsticks for the shoot. Their make up is cruelty free so I love them lots :)

9, 10, 11 & 12. Work in progress on some custom orders. You can see the mint green bones shoes finished here.

Sticky Toffee Teddy Cupcakes!!!

I've wanted to make some teddy bear themed cupcakes for a while. So when I had a day off work I got baking! Here's my recipe for sticky toffee teddy cupcakes (adapted from this recipe.) These cupcakes are light, moist and mouth watering. Seriously, they are probably my favourite cakes I've ever eaten, and I've eaten A LOT!:

Ingredients (makes 12 large cupcakes or 16 smaller ones):
For the cakes:

• 3 medium carrots (peeled and finely grated, for a more airy cupcake use 4)
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 120g unsalted butter (I like to use pure soya spread instead for a lighter cupcake)
• 150g light muscovado sugar
• 180g self raising flour
• 2 medium eggs (beaten)

For the Buttercream and decorations:

• 180g sea salted butter (just normal salted will do if you can't find this)
• 200g icing sugar
• 4 tablespoons dulche-de-leche or canned caramel
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Large chocolate buttons
• Pink dotted balls/large sprinkles
• Turquoise balls for the eyes
• White chocolate
• Paint Brush

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 170 for fan ovens
• Cream together softened butter and sugar in a large bowl until thoroughly mixed.
• Sift the flour and the bicarbonate of soda in a separate bowl.
• Add the beaten eggs to the sugar/butter mixture, add a tbsp flour while mixing. Add the rest of the flour/bicarbonate mixture and the grated carrots. Mix it all thoroughly.
• Spoon into cupcake cases, bake for 15-20 mins, the cakes should spring back up when pressed with a finger when they are done.

For the butter cream:

•  Soften the salted butter, mix with dulche de leche and the salt. Gradually sift in the icing sugar while stirring. 

To decorate:

• Melt some white chocolate. Lay out the large buttons on a tray with greaseproof paper on. You will need 2 buttons for each teddy cake, 1 for the ear and 1 for the nose.
• For the noses, paint the melted white chocolate on the back of your pink sprinkle and place in the top half/centre of your button.
• For the ears, paint the melted white chocolate as a circle in the centre of the ear. Once the chocolate has set, cut the ears in half with a sharp knife.
• Frost your cupcakes, add the ears, nose and eyes (unless of course you want your teddies to be blind) then SCOFF THEM. om nom nom

My dog decided I was paying FAR too much attention to baking and not enough time paying attention to her. So she spent most of my baking session posed like this expecting tummy rubs:

Poor Effy didn't even get to sample any cupcakes! :(

Crazy about Poodles!!

There is so much fantastic dog inspired clothing on the high street lately!! I almost did a little wee when I saw a POODLE print jumper in Peacocks. I absolutely adore poodles so I figured i'd trawl through etsy for the best poodle inspired fashion, art, homewares and vintage. Here's my top 9 poodle picks:

1. Poodle Party Top from Kirsty Mckenzie

2. Poodle Photography Print from Coy Photo

3. Vintage Poodle Planter from Scentsiblescents

4. Vintage Girls Tee from Fresh and Swanky

5. Poodle Knife Rests from Antiquitaire

6. Poodle Mask Print from Matty8080

7. Vintage Poodle Note Holder from Zenzi B Studios

8. Vintage Poodle and Puppy Ornaments from Bex Vintage

9. French Poodle Print from Tascha

My fav dog inspired picks from the high street are:

£44.00 Topshop            £315 Asos             £18.00 Peacocks

£110 Topshop            £40 River Island