Cherry & Coconut Cupcakes

I hope everyone had a wonderful christmas :D mine was very quiet & peaceful, which was perfect for me.
I also received funds from Milkwood Gallery from my sales, just intime for christmas! I sold two pairs of earrings and a charm bracelet, a total of £21.00, very exciting stuff :D

Anywho, in a previous entry, I mentioned that I was making some delightful cherry & coconut cupcakes.

This recipe is taken from the book "1001 Cupcakes, Cookies & Other Tempting Treats" by Suzanna Tee. I bought mine from Asda when it was £5 :O but you can get it from a seller on Amazon here.

INGREDIENTS
115g butter
115g caster sugar
2 tablespoons of milk
2 eggs
85g self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
85g desiccated coconut
115g glace cherries, quartered

TOPPING
225g butter
1 tablespoon of milk or cream
350g icing sugar
12 whole glace cherries for decorating

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/ Gas Mark 4. Prepare bun tin with 12 paper cases.

Beat butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light & fluffy.

Stir in the milk.
Gradually beat in the eggs.

Sift in the flour & baking powder.
Fold in the coconut.
Fold in most of the quartered cherries.

This looks a bit weird to me but still very tasty!

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and scatter remaining quartered cherries on top (I missed this bit, silly me)
Bake in the preheated oven for 20/25 mins.
Leave to cool

For the topping, put the buttercream into a piping bag with a large star nozzle and pipe on top of the cupcake
Add a cherry to each one to finish.

Now for whatever reason they didn't turn out so great for me. The sponge was perfect, very sweet and moist, would make an amazing loaf-type cake. But the buttercream frosting didn't pipe at all and it ran off the cakes. I think I might've used a bit too much milk, eek.

But I'd definitely recommend them, the sponge was delicious :D

***
In other news, we have 10 followers, which means it's time for a giveaway :D yay!
I'll be organising it within the next few days, so keep your eyes peeled for a post detailing more info about it! :)

Love,
Fiona x

Merry Christmas!

Just a very quick post to say....

Merry Christmas! :D

I've sadly been very busy and then very ill with some kind of flu bug, so I haven't been around for a while.

But I will return very soon :D

Love,
Fiona x

Outfit Of The Day + Good News

I'd wear this outfit today, if only I could ;)

Tie Front Shirred Dress - New Look

£24.99

Click to view.

Flock Spot Cardigan - New Look

£22.99

Click to view.

Fleece Lined Legging - New Look

£10.99

Click to view.

Not sure how these would work with this outfit physically but they're so cute!

Grey Minnie High Heel Shoes - Debenhams

£75.00

Click to view.

Then the fun bit, accessorising! :D

Victorian Romance glass drop earrings - Sparklerose Designs

£4.00

Click to view.

Sweet Romance sparklebead bracelet - Sparklerose Designs

£5.00

Click to view.

And something sweet for my hair :D

Luxe Butterfly Pair - Crown & Glory

£8.00

Click to view.

I had the wonderful news last week that Milkwood Gallery have sold some of my jewellery items :D it's very exciting stuff for me. We're in the process of organising a cheque or me popping down to collect monies. It's amazing to know that there's people out there wearing my designs, it's an awesome feeling :)

I'm off work today and tomorrow, so I've hopefully got some free time to get making some more :D I want to start my new year collections v.soon. I also need to work out what supplies I need and find some interesting bits for said collections ;)

I'm also planning on making some cherry coconut cupcakes later on this afternoon, so I'll have to show you how they turn out. I've even picked up a cheap piping bag to make fancy icing :D I'm so used to blobbing it on with a spoon and it looking pants, haha.

I'm still plotting my giveaway when we reach 10 followers :D

I'm thinking of making a goodie box, filled with little things including, of course, some of my handmade jewellery :)

Hope everyone's feeling mighty festive!

Love,

Fiona x

Long Time

Christmas is most definitely on its way, and it's made me busier than ever! Sparklerose is getting terribly neglected, I haven't made a thing in ages now.

The past couple of weeks have been spent doing extra shifts in work, and popping off shopping on my very few days off. One such trip was to London, which was pretty exciting for me, I hadn't been there since I was 18.

I decided to go to The Hummingbird Bakery, once we managed to find it in Portobello Road. And I also went to Laduree, and tried my (first ever) french macaroons :D

The cream cheese frosting is amazing, and perhaps a little too indulging ;)

My fave = chocolate :D

We had an amazing day, filled with tube rides and shopping :D

I popped to Accessorize while I was there, it was much bigger than the one in Lincoln. I got myself a gorgeous bronze toned floral ring, with a rose necklace and a long necklace with charms & roses, very cute.

***

I'm still hoping to hold a little competition, sometime before christmas, although time is running out for posting, so it may be just after christmas. But we're waiting for 10 or more followers, so get following to join in :D It'll be a chance for you to win some of the jewellery from Sparklerose Designs, my handmade jewellery collection.

Anyway, time for housework (hurray!). Hope you're all enjoying the festive season :)

Love,

Fiona x

Christmas Time :D

As you can probably tell, I'm still very busy. I'll be able to slow down a bit in January though :)

Yesterday I ventured to Meadowhall and bought a lovely lace dress in Debenhams, from the Henry Holland range. I'm hoping it's ideal for a christmas meal I'm going to in a few weeks. I just need some nice silver shoes and a silver bag :D

I haven't been online much looking at things but I'm going to share something super cute. It's called Sweet & Co.

They sell the cutest sweetest jewellery in different categories ranging from desserts to cupcakes. They're based overseas but they do ship to the UK :)

Here are some of my festive faves.

Bowtie Penguin & Candy Stick Lovely Swarovski Bracelet

This is super cute and christmassy, yet not typically christmas-based. I'd wear this all around the winter season due to the icy white colour scheme.

Click to view.

Sweet Glitter Mirror Cupcake Stud Earrings

These are not so festive, but they're adorable. They also come in a variety of colours, including red. However, I am a big fan of the blue ones :)

Click to view.

Glitter Present Dangle Earrings

Ah, I love these. Again, they make them in different colours. The pink is especially girly.

Click to view.

As mentioned in the previous entry, I'm planning a bit of a competition, yay! :D

I'm waiting to have 10 or more followers to start the fun. It'll involve 2 prizes, 2 winners.

So get inviting your friends/following this blog to be able to enter :)

Love,

Fiona x

Busy Busy..

Wow, time flew since I last wrote!

Before I write this entry, I'd just like to thank my followers and readers :D It means alot to me that people out there share my interests and support my jewellery making. I'm planning on creating a giveaway involving some jewellery goodies v.soon :D

***********
I had a wonderful trip to Cardiff, it's a shame it wasn't a longer one, but I did get to see family etc. After I got back I had a load of extra shifts in work, and it's only now that I've had a bit of time to relax. With christmas around the corner, I think Sparklerose Designs is getting a little lonely. I haven't made a bit of jewellery in a while now, eek.

I've nipped into town today AND yesterday, I must be crazy. I did get a load of christmas pressies though, I'll be organising/wrapping later on ;)

Have you all finished your christmas shopping yet?
Here are a few items from my folksy store that might be the perfect gift for that certain someone :)

For the older & posher lady ;)

Jardin du Libellule glass drop earrings

£4.00

For the fun and funky one :)

Sweet Rainbow sparklebead bracelet

£5.00

For the floral/vintage lover :)

Navy Blue Sparkle Rose Earrings

£2.00

I also have the red sparkle rose earrings available (I have tons to add to Folksy, I'm just so busy, grr).

Before I finish this entry, if anyone is due to go shopping, Debenhams is having a massssive sale :D Alot of items are 20% off or half price. I was expecting a much larger bill when I was at the checkout, I was very pleasantly surprised indeed :)

Love,

Fiona x

Polyvore Fun

I do love Polyvore, surprisingly I haven't used it in forever though!

I logged on and found some of my old things, I forgot how much I liked these goodies.

Click on picture to view details.

I adore mint and pink colours, and that skirt is gorgeous :D
I made it a while ago, so I'm not actually sure what's still available! I'll have to make some more sets soon :)

I'm officially back in Cardiff for a few days. I'm hoping to pop to Milkwood Gallery and see my items being displayed :D I'm hoping to take some photos and do a blog post about it. Milkwood is really cool, I'm keen to go to one of their exhibitions when I get the chance.

Love,
Fiona x

Tuesday's Trinkets

Time for Tuesday's Trinkets (and I've remembered this week, hurray!)

This week's picks are from Folksy.

Key Charm Necklace by Alison Julie Designs

This is so adorable and affordable, I love the vintage style to it, yet it has a festive element with the lovely red bow.

Click to view.

Vintage Yellow Rose Stud Earrings by Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes

Can you tell I just love rose stud earrings? I think they're so cute and delicate. These in particular remind me of autumn with the deep green & mustard colouring.

Click to view.

Love is the Key to my Heart Bracelet by The Vintage Jewellery Box

I'm not usually a fan of this much gold in a jewellery piece, but I really do love this, it's also themed around 'secret love' which makes it rather special.

Click to view.

If you'd like to be featured here next week please drop me a line at sparklerosedesigns@live.co.uk (or find me on Facebook/comment here) giving me a link to your product :) Product needs to be a 'trinket', which can be any form of accessory really :)

I'm due to make a trip to Cardiff on wednesday which should be fun. It's my Dad's birthday so I'm hoping we can do something like a family meal while I'm there. It's likely I'll go shopping :D Cardiff is so much bigger than Lincoln and there's so many shops to choose from. I love hunting around in Primark for the fun of it, you never know what you'll find, and the Primark in Cardiff is very big.

Time for coffee :D

Love,

Fiona x

New Pretties

I've had a truly amazing few days indeed, and I've had so much inspiration to get crafting.

Here are the new arrivals :)

Candysweet Rose Earrings

Vibrant blue roses mounted onto a filigree base, completed with candy pink bows and Swarovski AB hearts.

£7.00

Charming Paris Eiffel Tower Earrings

Green gingham bows and AB Swarovski crystals attached to a cute eiffel tower charm.

£4.00

The Sweet Wrapper Glass Beaded Earrings

Inspired by a Cadbury Roses tin, these earrings provide an unstereotypical hint of the festive season. Made with glass rondelles, Swarovski bicones and a touch of lustre glass, finished with bows and crystals.

£4.00

Golden Toffee Glass Beaded Earrings

Deep purple glass rondelles, complimented by lilac and pink beads, including glass pearls, Swarovski cones and Czech glass.

Finished with a golden bow.

£4.00

Sweet Princess Pale Blue Sparkledrop Earrings

Super cute combination including white crystalled bows and pearls, highlighting beautiful AB crystal drop beads.

£3.00

Sweet Princess Pale Pink Sparkledrop Earrings

Super cute combination including white crystalled bows and pearls, highlighting beautiful AB crystal drop beads.

£3.00

My personal fave are the Eiffel Tower ones, I think they're just so cute and versatile. I'd love to make them with different coloured gingham bows to suit every outfit I've got :D

All these beauties will be on my Folksy shop in the next few days.

I've also introduced a beautiful red ribbon rose into my collection, right in time for Christmas & Valentines next year. Will be taking pictures soon :)

Anyway, time for lunch :D

Love,

Fiona x 

A Few Of My Faves

We're officially on Facebook, hurray! The next step is to get the website all up and running properly. One step at a time.. ;)

If I had the money, I'd buy this little outfit.

Uttam Grey Pretty Floral Dress - £35.00

From Dorothy Perkins

Brogue Ankle Boots - £68.00

From Topshop

Also, I found this lovely site, hannahzakari.co.uk. It sells handmade goods, including jewellery, accessories and stationery. Alot of the pieces are all unique in their own way, and there's a modern touch along with some vintage-esque pieces. They supply different crafter's pieces, so there's a wide range of variety too :)

I <3 these stud earrings from there.

Vintage Bouquet Earrings - £10.00

Click here to view.

Floral Bouquet Earrings - £7.00

Click here to view.

***

On a personal note, It's been a weird 24 hours for me and the boy. Our phone line died for no apparent reason, then the tail light on our car went out, so I went on a wild goose chase this morning trying to find a bulb that someone would fit, in an area I'm still learning. How fun :P I did manage to find somewhere, and the guy fit it, so it's all sorted. And I have this giant pile of ironing to do this afternoon...

Has anyone come across any gorgeous pendant clock necklaces lately? I've been looking out for a few more to add to my collection :D

Love,
Fiona x

Fredflare & Pretty Jewellery

I'm listening to fredflare's boombox (awesome little tool for listening to music) and browsing their pretties. I found this nailpolish and got all excited :D

Happy Birthday Nail Polish - $18

Shiney :D

I used to heart fredflare just for browsing, and then I found out that they didn't ship internationally :( but now, they do :D yays.

They've got the quirkiest jewellery pieces, here are some of my faves.

Hot Shot! Camera Ring - $10

This is so cute, I barely own any rings like this though, I worry about spiking people with them :D

Ladybird Watch Locket Necklace - $22

I love watch pendants lately, I bought a lovely one from River Island a little while ago. I love the detailing on this one though.

Black & Gold Bow Earrings - $4.99

These beauties are sold out, they're verrrry cute :P

Sadly I haven't been much of a busy jewellery-making bee, and I haven't been blogging either :O

To be honest, life is just flying by.

I'm due to hear from Milkwood Gallery at some point about the pieces I've sent them, I think they're due to send a sale or return contract to me before they get displayed. It'll be pretty exciting :) they generally seemed happy with my pieces, yay.

My next focus is getting the Folksy shop a bit fuller (haha) and finishing up the website.

This weekend my Dad is coming up to stay, I'm hoping to take him out for lunch somewhere nice tomorrow, and there's a big family meal planned on sunday evening. Should be goooood.. :)

Love,

Fiona x

Long Time No Post

Time flew, eek! Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been juggling a load of things lately.

Anyway, here are some new pieces :D

Mauve Elegance flower filigree drop earrings

Pretty mauve coloured clay roses mounted onto an antiqued filigree base, finished with AB Czech glass hanging beads and glass pearls.

£4.50

Hearts & Hummingbirds charm earrings

Antiqued bronze hummingbird charms, complete with Swarovski AB hearts.

£3.50

Sweet Trinkets eclectic long necklace
Antiqued bronze long necklace dotted with pretty beads and key charms.
£9.50

The long necklace was the first one I've ever made, I wanted something scattered and random, but sweet and girly.

The items shown in my last post have been sent to Milkwood, I'm just waiting for a sale or return contract to come through now. It's all so exciting!

If you're interested in any of the items above, please feel free to send me an email at sparklerosedesigns@live.co.uk

They'll be available from my Folksy store soon :D

Love,

Fiona x



New Pieces

I've been slowly listing items on Folksy, I've been working on the new website, and I've been making lots of new items :D yay! Needless to say, I've been rather busy.

Here's a snippet of the new stock that's being sent off to a shop v.soon.

It's a really awful picture, I just needed something to show what I'd made in an email. These pieces are all heading off to Milkwood Gallery in Cardiff, which is a lovely crafts shop that sells all kinds of goodies. It also holds lots of exhibition events. When I'm next in Cardiff I'm hoping to attend some :)

The new pieces were made using new supplies, which included some gorgeous polymer clay flowers, some adorable lampwork cupcake beads, and beautiful antiqued bronze charms. My favourite piece is the charm bracelet at the top :)

Anyway, time for a nice coffee and a curl up on the sofa :)

Love,

Fiona x

Tuesday's Trinkets

Well hello there! :D

I had a wonderful week away, got tons of jewellery making supplies, and since I wrote I've made loads more pieces, some of which I've fallen in love with ;)

I haven't done any decent shots of the pieces yet, but when I do I will post them here :)

Anyway, as it's tuesday, here are a few of my favourite things this week. These are all from Etsy :)

Chocolate Cupcake Bracelet by MMAGDA

This is so adorable, I love cupcakes so this bracelet instantly caught my eye.

Click to view

Tutti Fruity Cupcake Earrings by Bead Passion

These polymer clay cupcake earrings are so effective, and must've taken ages to make!

Click to view

Cherry Blossom Cupcake Necklace by MaruMaru

This adorable fabric button is so cute and girly :D

Click to view

Anyway, haven't got too much time today, time seems to be flying by and I'm due in work in a few hours, argh!

Love,
Fiona x

Tiny Hiatus

I'm just going away for a very short while. I've been super busy since I got to Cardiff so I haven't got the time to write.

I'll be back next week with lots of new developments to talk about :D

Love,
Fiona x

Halloweeeeeeen!

Today was mine and the man's day off together, so we decided to nip to a craft fair this morning followed by a trip to Daisy Made for an ice-cream. It's slightly out of the nearby area for us but it's such gorgeous ice-cream. I had a coconut cone and he had a raspberry pavlova tub :)

The craft fair was rather disappointing. I was hoping to get enough stock sorted to go there on a regular basis to sell, but it was a small room of about 4 tables with just us two walking around browsing. There was a jewellery stall, and as a customer I was very attracted to the corkboard of £1 earrings, so much colour it was eyecatching. It's inspired me to make plenty of £1 goodies, especially ready for markets and jewellery parties (I'm planning on hosting a few jewellery parties in our flat in the future ;P).

While we were out I started thinking of Halloween, and I came up with my general design :D I got some gorgeous lace black ribbon which was the basis of my inspiration, and complimented the rest of the look with plenty of black, red and orange :) I've decided to go for two basic pairs of earrings and a charm bracelet (one pair of earrings match the bracelet nicely). I made them this afternoon.

Halloween Drop Earrings (1)

Simple glass beaded earrings on silver-plated findings

£1.00

Halloween Drop Earrings (2)

Simple glass beaded earrings on silver-plated findings

£1.00

(matching bracelet below)

Halloween In Elegance Charm Bracelet

Lace entwined silver-plated toggle bracelet filled with glass Halloween-themed beads. The heart bead sparkles in the light

£5.00

If you would like more information or these pieces/are interested in purchasing ready for the season, please email me at sparklerosedesigns@live.co.uk

Love,

Fiona x



Off Topic - Pretty Clothes :D

This is totally off-topic, but I'll probably have a few entries on here that aren't totally based on jewellery/craft.
If I had the money, I'd own these beauties :)

Nude Double Platform Shoes - Dorothy Perkins

£40.00

Horse Embroidered Tee - Dorothy Perkins

£12.00

Charcoal Sateen Combat Jeans - Dorothy Perkins

£35.00

I'm getting excited about my trip to Cardiff next week. I haven't packed anything yet though, I'm generally so disorganised lately! I'm still working on my Halloween-themed ideas, so I'm being a bit slow in that area.

My plan is to get them made next week while I'm away, I'll be making a small kit of supplies to take with me :)

Love,

Fiona x