Wednesday Review: Christmas in the Nick of Time

See what they did there? NICK. heh. This week we're reviewing Christmas in the Nick of Time by Carol Field Dahlstrom. It boasts 750 easy-to make ideas. That sure is a lot!

What I Like:
* I love crafts (duh.) and I love baking, and I really appreciate books that have a hearty dose of both. This book has ideas on ornaments, centerpieces, gifts, cookies, candies, soups, and breads.
* Learning 101. At the end of each chapter, there are different "lessons" on a variety of subjects - like the different kinds of flatware. I like the lesson on soup garnishes.
* The set up of each chapter is pretty different from other books. It starts out with pictures of all the crafts/goods in that chapter and little descriptions. Then all of the instructions are at the end of the chapter. (with more pictures thankfully!). It also includes any patterns/templates you need right along in the instructions instead at the end like most other books.
* It includes some wonderful gift basket ideas. Have a friend who loves to gamble? or fix things? The gifts are all in fun containers and have a nice aesthetic layout.

I haven't actually made anything from this book yet, but it does all look relatively simple. I've realized that Christmas time is really one of the hardest to do crafts/baking because of all the OTHER stuff going on. (work parties, concerts, ugly sweater parties, ornament exchanges, Yule log ceremonies, etc.) I guess that's why they have Christmas in July!

Wednesday Review: The Spirit of Christmas

Time to get out the Christmas books! Today's review is of The Spirit of Christmas: Traditional Recipes, Crafts, and Carols by Catherine Atkinson, Vivienne Bolton, and Alison Jenkins.

What I Like:
* The introduction includes a timeline of activities running from October to Christmas Day. I'm a sucker for proper planning.
* History! The intro for each recipe has fun facts about the history of the dish, like how plum pudding was brought to England by Prince Albert. KNOWLEDGE. It also includes tips and variations for each recipe.
* There is a wide variety of crafts. Most of them look pretty easy too - some basic sewing skills are needed for some, but they have ideas for ornaments, napkins, tree toppers, gift bags, and more.
* There are carols, poems, and excerpts from famous Christmas stories scattered throughout the book.

What I Don't Like:
* So, this isn't really what I don't like so much as what I think other people may not like. The crafts aren't mind-blowing. Most of them are simple and cute which I think is part of their charm.

I did make mini-mince pies last Christmas from the recipe in this book and I was surprised at how much I liked them. I wanted to do something traditional and they sounded better than fruit cake! I love the traditional take on Christmas.

Wednesday Review: Martha Stewart Halloween Handbook

I have both the 2010 and 2011 Martha Stewart Halloween Handbooks. You can buy them almost anywhere that sells magazines. It is a little more pricey - but TOTALLY worth it. 

What I Like:

* EVERYTHING. She has the perfect mix of costumes, decorations, food, and templates for all of the above are of course included!

* Every year she dresses as something new and they are all awesome. I was googling past issues and she has done some creepy stuff!

* Martha really knows how to commit to a theme. Want spiders? (NO! who would EVER want those!?!?) Bats? Mice? For each she has different decorations and ideas on how to transform a whole room around the one subject. 

* There is a good mix of complicated and easy. The stuff in this magazine is not kitschy - it is done by professionals, and teaches you step by step how to do the same. However, I definitely don't have time to do all of the complicated projects. Luckily there are dozens of easy and equally cute ideas.

* All of the pumpkin carving ideas are amazing. Some include painting them, stacking them snow-man-style to create families of pumpkin people, and using Christmas lights to make them look like hedgehogs.. I mean the genius just never ends!

Seriously - if you love Halloween as much as I do - then just get one of her books - you will not regret it!

Wednesday Review: Halloween Tricks and Treats

Matthew Mead's Halloween Tricks and Treats book has some spooktacular ideas. (see what I did there?) My mom gave me this book a few years ago and I've used it a lot. Be prepared for the first Wednesday Review with pictures of things I've ACTUALLY done FROM THE BOOK!

What I Like:
* All the ideas are divided into two main sections: Treats and Tricks. (Gah I love Halloween!!) Then each is further divided into different categories. In Treats there is a chapter called "Owl-oween Party" - best ever!
* There are a lot of "easy treats" that definitely don't take skill and are fun to make/eat. I've made a festive snack mix (carmel corn, Resse's Puffs cereal, Peanut M&Ms and some other yummy stuff) and donut hole kabobs.

A lot of the ideas use store-bought cookies. You can spend all the time you save not baking from scratch to MAKE MORE THINGS! I loved these Le Petit Ecolier cookies Mead discusses in the book. Just add a pumpkin and BOOM! Festive! 

* There is an ICE CREAM section!! That's right! Ice cream sandwiches, ice cream pops, ice cream cake! mmmmm. And the best part is, like the cookies, its pretty much just decorating store-bought products - so not too difficult!
* Most of my themed/decorated foods tend to be desserts, so its nice there is a savory section included. Mead shows you how to make fun themed pizzas, a mummy meatloaf, and green soup with eyeballs in it!
* Mead makes sure you can find whatever is in his book. There is a metal wire basket tree and a few other wire products that he provides a website for.

What I Don't Like:
* The "Tricks" section is all decorating ideas - soooo not really tricksy. While a lot of these ideas are really awesome, I just don't see myself actually using many of them. Maybe they're just not my style... or not my style yet.

Over all I highly recommend this book. Almost everything is easy to make and really creative. Definitely a great starting point if you like to have Halloween parties.

Wednesday Review: Cake Pops

Cake Pops by Bakerella (a.k.a. Angie Dudley) boasts tips and tricks for more than 40 mini treats! Everything is better in miniature - plus, you can eat SO MANY MORE.

What I like:
* The book starts out with step by step instructions on how to make cake balls, cake pops, and how to make them look like miniature cupcakes. Because GUYS - who doesn't want a smaller version of an already smaller version of a cake!?! What I like about this is the accompanying pictures for each step and a whole page dedicated to troubleshooting. I've made cake balls once and had pretty much all of the things go wrong that Bakerella covers in this section.
* The pictures are great in this book. Just for supplies and materials the photographs are fun and colorful.
* THE ARE ALL SO CUTE. Seriously. I can hardly stand it. Every new pop/design makes me immediately start thinking of what themed party I need to throw to be able to make it. There's the regular holiday and wedding/baby designs - but then there's different sports, pirates, and a myriad of adorable animals. Koala's AND Pandas!?!?!?
* There are great ideas on displaying your cake pops. What's that? You want to make some cake pops and send them to Grandma across the country? No problem! There's also tips on how to ship them!

What I don't like:
* I have the same problem with all of these kinds of books - some of the designs definitely look like more trouble than they're probably worth, but until I make them, I won't know!!

This is definitely one of the best laid out crafty-baking-books I've seen. With colorful photos and great step by step instructions - I may just be making a bunch of these little fellas this fall. (Maybe I can make mini cake pops and put them on toothpicks??)

Wednesday Review: Afternoon Tea Parties

The Wednesday review this week is inspired by my future cousin-in-law's bridal shower this past weekend. She had a bridal shower tea. Of course I love any reason to wear a hat!

Afternoon Tea Parties by Susannah Blake highlights 20 different types of tea parties you can throw and appropriate sweets and savories for each.

What I like:

·         There is a wide variety of tea parties highlighted in the book. Themes from different countries -English, Japanese, and Russian teas; different occasions - Mother's day, Bridal shower, and Christmas;  even tea parties you'd never think of - sweet sixteen, and teddy bear/circus themes for little kids.

·         The book has fantastic pictures. Not only does it make all the food look scrumptious, it has great ideas on how to display the food and drinks at your tea party.

·         The book begins with a history of tea parties and for each particular theme it includes more background information and little tips specific to that tea.

·         There are fun twists on ordinary things like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. PBJs are one of my favorite sandwiches ever, but I thought them an odd choice for a tea party. However if you cut the crusts off and cut out a heart on the top slice of bread - wallah! FANCY.  

·         The book includes a list of useful websites where you can find bake/tableware, ingredients, and tea merchants.

·         Can't forget the conversion chart! American, Metric, AND Imperial!?!

I'm not going to do a "What I don't like" section for this book because I couldn't really find anything I didn't like. I really need to start having more tea parties. Time for some hat shopping!!

Wednesday Review: Cross Stitch Keepsakes

I've only done a few cross stitch projects in my time. I've always really enjoyed them. They're pretty time consuming, but there's a certain satisfaction you get when you complete a certain design or color in a project. It's really fun to watch the progress of it. A while back I thought I'd really get into cross stitching so I bought a few books and a ton of thread. Cross Stitch Keepsakes by Helen Philipps has a ton of cute ideas for gifts.

What I like:

·         The book is organized into different occasions - baby, wedding, anniversary, friends, family etc. which makes it easy to find a gift for a specific occasion.

·         It's not all samplers. There are small keepsakes such as ornaments, cards, luggage and bottle labels. A lot of things that should be quick, cute, and something I would never have thought of.

·         I feel like a lot of cross stitches are old fashioned. The kind of stuff you find in yard-sales because nobody actually wants to display it anywhere. Most of the designs in this book are display-worthy. And since a lot of the projects aren't just framed samplers, you don't have to worry about people not wanting to have a house full of cross-stitched art.

·         There is a Materials and Techniques section which  discusses fabrics that are good for cross stitching, different needles and threads to use and how to best frame or display your cross stitch

What I don't like:

·         The patterns include others not pictured. I like that there are so many options, so you can pick which works best for you, but it'd be nice to see what they all look like when completed. 

Maybe I'll try and make a few of the smaller items for wedding/baby showers coming up! 

Wednesday Review: A Knitting Wrapsody

Hahahaha. Get it?? A Knitting WRAPsody. This cleverly titled book by Kristin Omdahl has a lot of fun unique knits for scarves, wraps, shawls, and skirts.

What I Like:

·         Knitting looks like crochet! I'm not good at crocheting. I haven't put much time into it, so I really only know how to do one stitch, and I definitely don't know how to read crochet patterns. That's where this book comes in handy. You can have the crochet look by knowing how to read knitting patterns!

·         The book comes with a DVD that shows you how to do different knitting techniques. This is awesome. I think I may have mentioned in the past that I had to YouTube how to knit socks. No t that it's hard to look something up on YouTube, but here it's everything you need in one DVD.

·         Each pattern has a few different pictures to show you different angles and different ways you can wear the scarf/shawl/wrap.

·         Out of the 2 skirt patterns - one is a flamenco design (AWESOME) the other a Gypsy wrap skirt. I'm not really a fan of the gypsy skirt, but it can also be made into a wrap dress which looks pretty cool.

What I Don't Like:

·         Some of the designs are weird - maybe you'd see them in Williamsburg, NY, but that’s about the only place. Leather-laced Raglan cape?? Let's fight evil! There are a few other designs that are basically all holes. How is that supposed to keep you warm?

Wednesday Review: New England Knits

I love the fashions of coastal towns. Anything nautical - fisherman knit sweaters especially. This probably stems from my love of small towns, Avonlea, lighthouses, and Scotland.  New England Knits by Cecily Glowik MacDonald and Melissa La Barre incorporates a lot of these looks into their designs.

What I like:

·         The book is filled with great pictures. Each pattern has multiple pictures so you can see the item from many angles. The pictures are taken in fun locations - the streets of New England towns, countrysides, and of course - the beach.

·         There is a good variety of projects - sweaters, skirts, satchels, cardigans, neckerchiefs, and hats!

·         One of the patterns is specifically designed to make two matching kerchiefs so you can knit with a friend! How cool is that??

·         I'm in love with pretty much every pattern. It is all so cute! One of the hat designs has little whales - WHALES. 

·         The type A person in me as always appreciates the glossary and pictorial instructions of different knitting techniques included in the back of the book.

What I don't like:

·         Each pattern has a place in its name - The Hampton Cardigan, the Chelsea Skirt, The Portland Mittens etc. (just to be clear - I like this part). I think it'd be nice to have a little background on the places the patterns are named after. I found myself wondering why a certain sweater was named after a certain town - is that a popular fashion there? Or is it just whimsical?

It's time to get knitting, and then I'm going to sail around the sea and fish for lobsters.

Wednesday Review: Pinterest!

If you haven't heard of Pinterest, you need to come out of that cave you've been hiding in for the past year. Pinterest is the picture-based internet site where craft-lovers everywhere come to post ideas they've found on the internet in one convenient location and share it with their friends.  Notice a bunch of your friends are all making the same fun looking dessert? They saw it on Pinterest.What's that? Everyone at work is rocking a cute side braid? They learned how to do it on Pinterest. 

What I like:

·         Not limited to just crafty things - though that is what the bulk of my friends use it for. You can post videos, hair styles, clothes you like, recipes, nerdy pictures, comics… the list is endless.

·         Pictures! I'm a very visual learner. And if you couldn't tell already from past reviews, I like when things have good pictures. The fact that you can pin a picture of a project, idea, or just a funny meme make it easier to relocate when you want to pull it up again. Not to mention you can further organize by pinning pictures to different boards.

·         Celebrities! It's kind of like twitter - you can follow famous people's pins, and if you're facebook friends with some D list celebrities, they may even be following you on Pinterest (hey there Hal Sparks - I hope you liked my Huger Games Cake pin!)

What I don't like:

·         The search function isn't the best. Maybe I'm the one failing at this and not the actual site, but I only get what I'm looking for about 50% of the time. When I want specific ideas on what to do for bridal showers simply typing in "Bridal Shower ideas" doesn't always get you the best ones. Many of the pins are on there multiple times and a lot of them don't really relate to what I'm searching for.

So if in the extremely rare chance you don't already have a Pinterest account, I highly recommend creating one immediately. Then get in some comfy clothes and get a snack - because you'll be sucked in for hours. 

Wednesday Review: Fun & Original Character Cakes

Fun & Original Character Cakes by Maisie Parrish is a wonderful book! 

What I Like:

·         It's another British book! We get to read about sugarpaste, colours, and humour! While there are weird terms I don't know like "tylose powder" and "gum tragacanth" (I'm assuming they're just the British way of saying things instead of baking terms I'm not familiar with) they are fully explained in layman's terms in the book.

·         This book is a wealth of information. It tells you how to color, store, and paint fondant. It includes tips on how to store, transport, and cut your cake after it's made. It also has a section dedicated to the equipment you'll need to make the models complete with labeled pictures and explanations.

·         Recipes! You know by now that I love when books include recipes. There aren't a ton of them but there is a paragraph included with the benefits of each kind of cake (how long it lasts, easy storage etc). Of course there is a fruit cake recipe. (ahhh the English.) And because I love all things miniature, I'm excited that there is also a recipe for mini cakes (though why it’s a different recipe all together I'm not entirely sure.) There's also a recipe for pastillage - remember when I had no clue what this was? Well along with the recipe is an explanation that it is a form of sugarpaste that dries very hard. Also - edible glue recipe. Need I say more?

·         There are over 30 individual characters described in the book and they all seem relatively simple to make. As Maisie puts it: "everything starts with a ball". There is a mini tutorial on how to make a mouse, monkey, lion, elephant, rabbit, crow, and dog before you even get into the project instructions. The characters are all very cartoonish which I love.

·         The instructions are very easy to understand and really break it down into a step by step process. I also love the fun tip that dry spaghetti can be used to support the fondant models. SO COOL.

·         "A little More Fun" section at the end of each project suggests ways to decorate cupcakes and mini cakes with the same theme to compliment your cake.

·         There is a list of suppliers in the back which include both UK AND USA (as well as a few other countries) And woohoo! There's a store in Springfield! I will soon be very poor.

What I don't like:

·         I have a love hate relationship with the Brits. While some of their crazy lingo is explained for us yanks, you may still need to Google some of the words/phrases. It's also measured out with the metric system - grams pshhh. While the amount in oz is also given, there is a disclaimer that it is not precise and I'd prefer it all in cups and teaspoons anyways.

Per usual, there isn't a lot I can find that I don't like about this book. It has fantastic tips, goofy characters, great pictures, and I want to go home and start baking immediately. 

Wednesday Review: The Little Box of Knits for Baby

This book (using that term lightly) by Sandy Scoville is really fun. It has some great projects for babies 6-18 months.

What I like:

·         It's a box! That's right - the title ain't lyin'. Inside are 20 "portable project cards" that have step by step instructions on how to knit sweaters, booties, blankets, hats, & Scarves.

·         The cards are colorful, with good pictures and a glossy finish. It's nice to be able to take the card out for the specific project you're working on and not worry about it getting all crumpled up.

·         There are some really cute designs! There is an adorable cardigan for a little boy and this cute pixie dress for a little girl that I definitely want to make someday.

·         There is an extra card that has a list of abbreviations, types of yarn to use, and a yarn conversion chart (for all those metric people?)

What I don't like:

·         A few of the designs are outdated (Hello 80s!) but I think if you just change the color yarn you could easily fix that.

·         There's no difficulty scale on the cards so you'll really have to read through the instructions first to make sure you'll be able to do the project. (Not that you shouldn't do that anyways)

Wednesday Review: Sweetopia.net

Mixing it up a bit this week and reviewing another crafting blog!! Sweetopia.net is a website that features the baking creations of a woman named Marian. This woman is seriously talented - also, I'm pretty sure she's Canadian, thus furthering my love for the great country to the north.

What I like: 

·         AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME cookies. And wonderful pictures of them as well.

·         She uses a Kopykake projector to trace images onto cookies. I WANT ONE.

·         There are video tutorials and step by step instructions for many of her cookies.

·         Contests!

·         She highlights mostly cookies, but does cakes, cake pops, cupcakes, and more!

·         There are a lot of recipes included on her site - there are even gluten free options.

What I don't like:

·         Again, just from my own experience - where does one find the time/patience to do this much decorating!?!? I guess she may only do a few cookies at a time, which is a little more do-able, but still - this woman must have the patience of a saint! 

This is such a fun website to look through. Many of her cookies were featured in a book that I reviewed earlier - 1,000 Ideas for Decorating Cupcakes, Cookies & Cakes. Someday… I'll get to this level of expertise! 

Wednesday Review: The Unofficial Hunger Game Cookbook

If you haven't noticed, I've been way behind on my posts this week. I blame the Hunger Games and taxes. I've been going crazy all week preparing for my pre-midnight-showing party and work has gotten pretty busy with April 15^th just around the corner. Since I'm making a few items from this cookbook, I thought I'd do a review. It's not super crafty, but it is super themey - which I lump in with crafty.

What I Like:

·         It’s the HUNGER GAMES. What's not to like??

·         It has food broken up into fun sections like Breaking Bread, "Sink or Swim - Seafood", and "Put Some Meat on Your Bones - Beef, Lamb, and Pork"

·         Each recipe has a corresponding passage from one of the 3 books in the trilogy explaining how the recipe relates back.

·         Each recipe has a "Tips from Your Sponsor" section that has suggestions for different ways of cooking or explanations/history behind some of the ingredients. There's some pretty interesting stuff.

What I don't Like:

·         The cookbook is organized by type of food for the most part (seafood, poultry, beef etc).  When I was planning out my menu, I wanted something from the Capitol and I had to do some searching to find appropriate recipes. It'd be easier if there was just a "Capitol" section.

·         Some of the recipes aren't written that well. Granted, I've only thoroughly read through the 3 recipes I'm making for tonight's PARTAY - but for the Lamb Stew, onion is listed on the ingredients list twice. I assume it's because you use onions 2 different times - in the beginning you sauté some in a pan, then later you add more to the stew. But why not just lump it together and say how much you need to use in the instructions? I'm also making mine in the Crockpot to which the book's instructions were basically "If you want to make it in a Crockpot, just throw all ingredients in a Crockpot." I have a feeling that it's a little more complicated than that. Hopefully it turns out okay!

Jury's still out on how things will taste. Come back next week where I'm sure all of my posts will be Hunger Games themed summaries of what I made for the party tonight. 

Wednesday Review: Sweet and Simple Party Cakes

I WANT TO MAKE ALL THE CAKES. Seriously - they're all beautiful in this book. Sweet and Simple Party Cakes by May Clee-Cadman is fantastic.

What I Like:

·         It's well laid out. There's a small introduction and then it dives into recipes and techniques. It lists the equipment essentials, discusses different icings and fillings, and how to assemble your cake. The design sections are divided between pastels, whites, and brights. (I may like this because the last 2 rhyme.)

·         Mini cakes. This book has a lot of ideas on how to decorate mini cakes. You can either cut out rounds from a normal cake or use mini cake trays. MUST FIND THESE IMMEDIATELY.

·         Polka-dots. I'm a HUGE fan of polka-dots and a few of their cakes are decorated with different color polka-dots - easy and awesome. (also they're RAINBOW!!)

·         Everything looks really easy to do. I'm not sure if it actually is, but this book just makes it seem so simple. Maybe because each decorated cake doesn't have a ton of different things on it. It's the KISS principle.

·         They show you how to trace designs directly onto your cake using a pin/toothpick and tracing paper. Then you can trace icing over the indents for an easy way to get fancy uniform designs.

·         It pairs mini cakes or cupcake designs with a big cake. So you could make both to fit all into one theme, or just one of them depending on what you have time for.

·         There's a whole section on how you can use items like ribbons, silk flowers, jewels, and feathers to decorate your cakes.NEAT!

What I don't Like:

·         I don't have time to do all the baking I want.. or all the running I'd need to do if I could do all the baking I want.

This is a great book - wonderful pictures and ideas. There is really something about the simplicity of the designs that keep all the cakes looking beautiful. There's not one in here I wouldn't want to make! 

Wednesday Review: Knitting on Top of the World

Knitting on Top of the World: The Global Guide to Traditions,Techniques and Design by Nicky Epstein is a very large hardcover book with amazing designs.

What I like:

·         The book is divided into different parts of the world - Windswept Isles, Old World, Mediterranean, Far East, and the New World. Each section begins with an overview of that area, giving a short history of knitting, what influenced popular patterns, colors, and designs in that part of the world.

·         The design projects in each section tell you which country it's from and what kind of experienced knitter you need to be to complete the pattern (novice, skilled, or master).

·          Each design has great photos that look like they came out of a Vogue magazine. The patterns are pretty easy to read and the graphs are in color which is very helpful.

·         There's a good variety of projects - cardigans, shawls, mittens (one's called "Princess Bride Mittens" how can I NOT make these!?!), caps, camisoles, capes, socks, bags, and even a stuffed animal.

·         Many of the patterns have flair like pearls or metallic yarn weaved in which look pretty cool.

·         Because I'm an anglophile, of course my favorite section is the "Windswept Isles." It's full of fair Isle, aran, and argyle patterns. LOVE.

·         The last section is dedicated to abbreviations, a glossary, and techniques. Always helpful to have this in a book!

What I don't like:

·         Some of the designs are just plain weird. I don't know if it’s because the designs are foreign and I'm just not used to them, or if some of them are just too artsy-fartsy.

I would knit probably 85% of this book. Most of the designs are breathtaking. So far I've only made one thing from it, but it is by far the coolest thing I've ever knitted. Check back tomorrow to read all about it ;)

Wednesday Review: Wedding Cake Art and Design: A Professional Approach

To continue with the wedding theme this week, I am reviewing Wedding Cake Art and Design: A Professional Approach by Toba Garrett. Like the subtitle says, Garrett focuses a lot of the book's content on the professional cake designer: the steps to take when working with a client, how to write up a contract etc.

What I like:

·         Chapter 1: Designing the Cake lays a great foundation of cake knowledge. It covers color, texture, theme, shape, and décor.

·         Chapters 2-11 showcase different theme ideas like romantic, textured, seasonal, and floral designs.

·         Each chapter opens up with a hypothetical couple - a little background on who they are, what kind of cake theme and taste they're looking for and how the cake designer developed that into 2-3 sketches. Then Garrett shows you how to make each of the cakes.

·         SO MANY RECIPES. TWELVE different kinds of cake! They all sound delicious. There are also recipes for marzipan, gum paste, a ton of buttercreams, royal icing, ganache, pastillage (I don't even know what this is), curd, and jam! oh my gosh I am really hungry all of a sudden.

·         At the end of the recipe chapter it tells you the best pairings of cake, filling, icing, and fondant.

·         Also includes templates you can xerox.

What I don't like:

·         All the cakes use Fondant. Granted, it's not the only thing they use. As I said before there are about a bajillion different icing recipes in the back of the book. And frequently multiple kinds are used in the decorations, but it'd be nice to see a cake without fondant as well.

·         Chapter 12 is all about setting up a cake design business. Whether it's best to work from home or rent office space, what equipment you will need to buy, what you need to do legally to establish a business, how to network. Etc. Not very useful for me.

I think my favorite part of this book is the recipes. I need to see if I can make modified versions of the cakes because obviously I won't need a whole wedding cake (unless somebody wants me to make theirs??) I think I'll try one for a holiday or birthday coming up soon. There was a really cool fall looking one so maybe for Thanksgiving! 

Wednesday Review: 20 to Make - Sugar Animals

This week's Wednesday Review is coming to you *gasp* on Thursday. I meant to go home Tuesday night and pick a book to review but Mardi Gras celebrations got in the way.

Oops! ON TO THE REVIEW!

Search Press's 20 to Make series covers a variety of crafts including glass painted projects, jewelry making, wedding favors, and knitted items.  I own 2 in the series and they both have to do with dessert decorating (shocker!).  Frances McNaughton, the author of Sugar Animals, is a demonstrator for the British Sugarcraft Guild. HOW DO I JOIN!?!?! She's made sugarcraft props for a variety of movies as well including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Chocolat. It's always fun to read British books when they talk about "colouring" their "sugarpaste." I NEED TO MOVE TO THE UK ASAP.

What I Like:

·         Great pictures. Each animal has its own 2 page spread. One side shows the individual parts you will need to make. Each part is numbered with corresponding instructions to make assembly very easy. The other side of the spread shows the animal fully assembled in some sort of cute pose.

·         There is a tutorial section in the beginning highlighting the basic shapes you will need to master to make each animal. It also tells you the tools you will need and how to best join the shapes to create your masterpiece.

·         Some of the designs are ADORABLE! My favorites are the panda, hippo, kangaroo, tiger, koala, lion, monkey, and zebra.

What I don't like:

·         I'm not as big of a fan of the lizard, snake, camel, or seal designs.

·         There's no recipe for sugarpaste included. Not that it isn't easy enough to type into Google and find 30 different recipes, but I always appreciate when I can get all the information from one source.

This book is a great resource if you want to make decorative animals for cakes/cupcakes. You could even make them with clay for figurines or ornaments! 

Wednesday Review: More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts

Time to punch out today's Wednesday Review while I'm still on my sugar high from yesterday. (I think I ate about 239 cupcakes and other sweets and then topped it off with a giant bowl of ice cream and a cocktail...I'm going for HEALTHY here people.) More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson is the follow up to Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, which I don't own and have never seen. So while I can't compare it to the first book I can say that I really enjoy the sequel.

What I like:

·         The book is divided by the time it should take to make the gift - 2-4 hours, 4-6, 6-8 and longer.

·         When I knit I usually think clothes, but this has other fun things like hot coffee-cup sleeves, ornaments, baskets, bookmarks (not sure I'd ever make a knit bookmark - but good for a beginner)

·         Each pattern tells you the exact yarn that was used in the photographs and has a little intro paragraph that elaborates on the gift.

·         There is a section on wrapping hand knit gifts - great ideas for using yarn to embellish the wrapped present.

·         There is a glossary for techniques and abbreviations as well as a step by step tutorial (with pictures!) for a few of the techniques.  I used this to learn the Kitchener Stitch when I was making socks.

What I don't like:

·         I think the time sections are if you already know how to make the item. The socks I made using the pattern in the 2-4 hours section took me about 3 to make one sock. This is mostly due to the fact that I had to look up a lot of the stitches. Now that I know what I'm doing it'll be interesting to see how long it takes me to make a pair.

·       Like all craft books - it's rare that I like 100% of the ideas in them. This one has a few that I know I'll never make - a plush house, seat covers, and the bookmarks.

I like this book and am excited to time myself when I make something out of it. 

Wednesday Review: 1,000 Ideas For Decorating Cupcakes, Cookies & Cakes

For this week's Wednesday Review I'll be discussing 1,000 Ideas For Decorating Cupcakes, Cookies & Cakes by Sandra Salamony and Gina M. Brown. The book is a compilation of photos sent in from various bakeries and creative minds around the world.

What I like:

·         This book contains some of the most creatively decorated cakes, cupcakes, and cookies I've ever seen.  It's divided into 5 sections - Elegant Entertaining, Baby & Child, Holiday, Just for Fun, and Weddings & Engagements.

·         I really enjoy seeing how people in other countries decorate their cakes and cookies. The book includes photos submitted from Japan, Denmark, Australia, and Mexico. The international flare brings a nice diversity to the book.

·         There are a few recipes for frosting, fondant, and marzipan included at the end of the book.

·         A contributor directory provides email addresses and websites so if you're interested in seeing more or possibly buying treats, you know where to look.

What I don't like:

·         It's just pictures - there are no explanations of how to make any of it. This isn't bad in and of itself as it’s a compilation book, but I thought it'd have some instructions. This is one of the pitfalls of ordering books online, I couldn't flip through it first so I was a little misguided in what the book contained.

·         Some of the photos look like they're straight from Ace of Cakes and I'll never be able to recreate them. That being said, those particular items are still amazing to look at and maybe one day I will have that kind of skill!

This book is like Pinterest printed out and bound for your perusal. It wasn't what I expected but I still really enjoy it and can glean some great ideas from it - I'll just have to figure out how to make them on my own.