Etsy Love - Red White and Blue

Happy 4th of July to my American readers! I'm from the UK so I've never celebrated Independence Day before, but this weekend I'm going to celebrate it for the first time. An American friend of mine is taking me and some friends to an Independence Day party in London! I have no idea what to expect but I hope it includes lots of music, food and alcohol!

Here is my Red, White & Blue Etsy treasury:

1. Dinga Ding Terrariums / 2. Alice Potter / 3. Chep / 4. Pelemele / 5. White Faux Taxidermy / 6. Intent London / 7. Stitches and Soles / 8. Daisy Locket / 9. MeDusaBrand

What are you doing to celebrate the 4th July?

Etsy Love - Treetrunks

Well, it's been a little while since I've been able to focus on the blog properly. Thankfully most of my deadlines are over now (except for one dreaded essay!) so I can spend some more time aimlessly searching Etsy.

Lets kick off this week with some Treetrunks love, cause this lil elephant will always have a special place in my heart. And now I'm craving apple pie!

1. Candy Ware Jewelry / 2. homeworkparty / 3. Gone Girly / 4. SHillustration / 5. Black Willow Soaps / 

6. Three White Rabbits / 7. Circle Treasures / 8. Miniature Sweet / 9. characterhats

Lola the British Bull Terrier Heels

When I was a kid, British Bull Terriers were one of my favorite breeds of dogs. I loved that they look like a proper hard mans dog, yet every one of them I've met has had the softest and most loving temperament.

Painting these shoes was so much fun! These were a Christmas order, a lovely customer purchased them for his girlfriend. He sent me pictures of her dog, Lola. In most of the pictures Lola had a huge smiley face with her tongue hanging out, so I had to include a few drawings with her tongue hanging out on the shoes!

I really hope my customers girlfriend loves them! And I hope Miss Lola approves of her portraits!

I have a load more of these style heels in a variety of sizes available. If you'd like me to customise some for you send me an email to ponychopsshop@gmail.com

Dreaming of Christmas

I never really seem to get dressed up for Christmas day. I like to be comfortable and able to pig out as much as I want! I tend to stick to leggings and a long shirt and a cardigan. While browsing Modcloth I found my dream cardigan, so I styled my own outfit around it. So far on this list I know I absolutely need the shoes and the cardi! I'm a little bit/a lot in love with the golden owl print top too.

Click here to save $15 on your first ModCloth order (over $50)

Scarf / Belt / Bag / Top / Leggings / Cardigan / Shoes

Foxy Friends

I've been painting foxes on shoes for the past few days. So I figured I'd see what etsy has to offer for fox related items.
Here's my top 9:

1. Wrapped fox sweater $58 from Dandyrions
2. Red fox painted rock $40 from Nature Trail
3. Sleepy fox brooch $12 from Hanako
4. Fox ipad sleeve $76 from BoutiqueID
5. Snowy fox brooch $10 from Little Happy Stitches
6. Plush fox pillow $20 from Gingiber
7. Fox embroidery hoop $42 from Ooooh Stitchy
8. Fox dress $82 from Qoo Qoo Fashion
9. Needle felted fox taxidermy $125 from Little Teeth Marks

Fashion Favs Friday - 18-05-12

 

1. Ketchupize - I am a big fan of this shop. All of the jewellery is so modern and unique, and so reasonably priced.
2. White Bear Accessories - Hand dyed lace jewellery, really unusual and pretty.
3. One Little Red Fox - Adorable animal wooden jewellery.
4. Sconnie and Jam - Super cute retro inspired wooden jewellery.
5. Pink Rain - Eco friendly hand painted jewellery and prints.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Honey Cake

I haven't baked for a couple of weeks, so yesterday I decided to try and make a white chocolate and raspberry cake for my drunken girly DVD night.

I was really pleased with how this came out. It's really sweet so i'd recommend using a fairly sour raspberry jam to even out the sweetness. I think it would even work really well with cream cheese frosting as a filling instead of the buttercream. If you want to make this with all sugar instead of honey use 325g sugar.

This is for a large cake. Half the ingredients for a smaller one.

Ingredients for the main cake:

• 6 eggs
• 325g self raising flour
• 325g unsalted butter
• 200g cane sugar
• 100g honey
• 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
• 75g white chocolate, finely grated
• Raspberries to decorate

Ingredients for the frosting and fillings:

• Raspberry jam (preferably a sourish jam)
• 200g white chocolate
• 225g unsalted butter
• 300g icing sugar
• 100ml double cream

Method:

1. Set the oven to 180C. Grease 3 round 8 inch cake tins.
2. Sift the baking powder and self raising flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, sugar, white chocolate and honey and mix thoroughly. Heat the butter until it's soft enough to mix in with the other ingredients and mix it in.
3. Pour the mixture into 3 greased, 8inch round cake tins.
4. Bake for 20-25 mins.
5. Once cooled, trim off the top of each cake slice to make sure it's flat.
6. Sandwich a thick layer of buttercream and a generous layer of raspberry jam in between each slice and cover all over in white chocolate frosting. Decorate the top with raspberries.

For the white chocolate frosting (for the outside of the cake): Melt 200g of white chocolate with 85g butter, sift in 120g icing sugar and add 90ml double cream. Mix until even.

For the Buttercream: Thoroughly mix 140g softened butter with 10ml double cream and 280g sifted icing sugar.