Country living ornament feature

If you remember THIS post you may have noticed that I have mentioned that I was contacted by the Country Living magazine to send the ornaments samples. I filled the credit sheet with my consent to publish them in theirs magazine etc, but i still was very reserved about if it will happen for real. Well, yesterday, after checking my e-mail and noticing some etsy sales, I also spoted a note from one customer: "I feel very lucky to be able to order your deer ornament since it is displayed so nicely in the December issue of this magazine. I was afraid you would be sold out!"



Oh well, I thought, so it the true and it was really there!!!!Of course, I have alarmed all my US friends to see if someone already has a copy, as was dying to see it printed on the page and (I will get my copy, but in a week or so) than sweet Laurie pointed me that on-line version of it (if you are browsing it, mine is lucky number 7 and finally my friend Sharon sent me the picture of it!!!



It looks a bit pale as it is transparent with white print on the white page, but it looks winterish and elegant, I think.





I have also prepared some new ornaments, in dotted version. What can be sweeter than the polka dots in red/white combo? I have painted the dots with the rubber liquid(the one used in the water coloured illustrations)to protect the white spots and than sprayed the ornaments with Ferrari red acrylic paint. Love it and I noticed that the deer has already sold out!!!!!Will try to make some more:)

I will have a giveaway post soon which will include some ornaments, but I am waiting to receive the new run I ordered from the Mill and it will include the sea horse shape and some smaller Bambi and sea horse shapes in the same doily print in the 1" size:) Can't wait to get them!!!!

Hope you are slowly getting ready for the Holidays or at least are enjoying the mood;)))

xo, Katarina

One year older

I will have to update my small "about me" page on the blogger, as from 33 I'm passing to 34, officialy from yesterday;)



For the birthdays, I'm always making my favourite chocolate cake . It is tasty, flour free, easy and fast to make and has a great presentation. You can just not fail with it!!!!And than you can make it even in different shapes, just use the imagination:)



Ingredients:

6 large eggs, separated
5 oz (150 g) caster sugar
2 oz (50 g) cocoa powder

For the filling:
8 oz (225 g) plain chocolate
2 large eggs, separated
8 fl oz (225 ml) double cream

To finish:
icing sugar
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C).

This is a cake that has no flour in it – so it's extremely light and moist. It's also a bit wicked, with its chocolate mousse and whipped cream filling! During the rolling up, the cake will crack, but this is quite normal and looks most attractive.

Method

Begin by making the chocolate filling. Break the chocolate in pieces into a basin and add 2 tablespoons of water. Now place the basin over a saucepan of barely simmering water and wait for the chocolate to melt. After that, remove from the heat and beat it with a wooden spoon until smooth. Next beat the egg yolks, first on their own, then into the warm chocolate mixture. Let it cool a bit then whisk the egg whites till stiff and fold them into the chocolate mixture. Cover the bowl and chill in the refrigerator for about an hour.
Meanwhile you can get on with the cake. First place the egg yolks in a basin and whisk until they start to thicken, then add the caster sugar and continue to whisk until the mixture thickens slightly – but be careful not to get it too thick. Now mix the cocoa powder into the egg yolk mixture, then, using a clean whisk and bowl, whisk the egg whites to the soft peak stage. Next carefully cut and fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture – gently and thoroughly – then pour the mixture into the prepared tin.
Bake the cake on the centre shelf for 20-25 minutes until springy and puffy. When the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven but leave it in the cake tin to cool (it will shrink quite a bit as it cools but don't worry, that's normal).
Then when the cake is quite cold, turn it out on to an oblong of silicone paper which has been liberally dusted with icing sugar. Peel away the cake tin lining paper from the bottom of the cake (which is now facing upwards), then spread the chocolate mousse filling over the cake. Next whip the cream softly and spread it over the chocolate filling. Finally, gently roll up the cake to make a log shape. This will serve eight people and, although it's unlikely that there will be any left, you can cover any remaining cake with an upturned basin and keep it in the refrigerator. As an alternative, an 11 oz tin of sweetened chestnut purée (crème de marrons) can replace the chocolate mousse.


Warning: you may become addicted;)

Enjoy, Katarina

Fall in the city

While it is still fall and there are still some nice "dry" days in the city, I'm posting these pics taken in the main Belgrade's street, Knez Mihailova street







Lovely colours of the fall on these yummy pumpkins in great diversity of colours shapes and structures.
Marta and I loved them:)





As well as this awesome vintage tile, ruined by some dirt and stains, but still so inspirative and fallish too:)





Hope you are having a great November, Katarina

Eros Ramazzotti concert

We had enormous pleasure to go to the Eros Ramazzotti(famous Italian musician) concert in Belgrade Arena on November 5. Unfortunately, they took off my camera at the entrance, so I couldn't take any better pics but a few bad ones taken with the phone:(. The concert lasted 2 hours and was fantastic, from the stage design to the musical virtu.



Here are some more videos of the Belgrade performance on you tube.

xoxo, Katarina

Birds invasion

The strangest thing happened the other day, just in front of our balcony, with view to the Danube river, many roofs of the houses and buildings and also, nearest building with many antennas.





Well, those antennas somehow attracted a swarm of birds. Which birds??? Still don't have the idea....but it was such a strange event, made me feel for some seconds like being captivated into the Hitchcock "birds" film . So, I just needed to take the short video, because you have to hear the sounds....so here it goes



Strange, huh????
It lasted for about 15 minutes, than they just disappeared. I first thought about some upcoming weather catastrophe or similar and it made ma feel worried, but as nothing strange regarding the weather didn't happened (it happened on Wednesday) and as I would like to take it from the positive aspect, I will think of this as the advent of some great news, message or similar - I will be thinking of birds as messengers:)








Wish you a great November,
Katarina

5

Pablo turned 5 on Sunday:)))))))I feel terrible for posting only now, but I felt exhausted the day after the party and yesterday have been all day outside the house.



It was a loooong day.....and we even earned one hour due to the winter time change.
I spent almost 8 hours in the kitchen preparing 2 cakes, pizzas and some other yummy stuff for the party.



We had a kids party in the same place as the last year and I just had to make another version of my Dinosaur volcano cake from the last year. The second cake was sort of the sea world cake. They loved it and had so much fun with decorating both cakes;)



It was a great party and I can hardly believe that my son is 5 now. Already!!!





With love, Katarina

"Romantic"

Yesterday, I was so wowed when I saw the Etsy's front page with my dress/set featured.



It was one of those treasuries created by the etsy admin, as my item was found using the search term "romantic".

It is this dress/set that made it;)



I thought that I might post an e-mail I got recently from Mary, mom of beautiful Bella, to whom this set was created. She bid(sorry not sure if this verb is regular or iregular as bidded sounds odd) on my latest costume as well, and wrote me this:

Dear Nina,

This a gorgeous set. I wouldn’t even look at it the first few days it was up- for fear of falling for it. Your work is so detailed and spunky. I know you enjoy making children’s clothing, but I’m afraid you’re never going to get as much ($) for it as the time and ($) you put into it. I mean, that last set you sold to me was so detailed, versatile, and creative, that an adult outfit of the same nature would have netted you much more, financially. Grownups are willing to pay big bucks for something they can wear over and over (children grow so quickly).

I even think, that you could be an elite costume designer for any Broadway stage set or movie. The tone of a story is so sparked by the vivid quality of apparel! I think, that when one conveys to you their ideas, you’ve an uncanny ability to capture the essence of their mood and make it concrete; you could set any tone you wanted with your enticingly flowing thematic works.

However, it does seem that you lead a wonderfully balanced life – creating art you enjoy and raising a beautiful family. Perhaps you already have it all figured out! And, I do so enjoy owning a couple of your dresses for Bella to keep and cherish, and perhaps share with her children one day. Take care. And, even if I get outbid, I hope you will always know how much your creations inspire me.

Fondly,

Mary


Thank you again ETSY and thank you Mary!!!!
Great weekend everyone:)
Katarina

Ruffles galore

For those of you following me and trying to read my blog, you may remember this post. That time, I remembered to take pics of my ruffles, before cutting them to shapes, to make lateral inserts on my popular gaucho pants.



So, this time, I did it again. I take the shoot, before it was too late, as a few hours later they become this...part of the pants;)



Park slope fabric line is sure to be one of my favourite lines by Free spirit and I was so happy to made this little whimsy set for one of my loyal customers, who became a great friend as well and you can see her lovely DD, Poppy modelling in a few of my designs in the above mentioned post;)



This set is on its way to UK, to her and I hope she will love this one as well. This time, I accompanied it with reversible apron that I firstly designed for this set



It also made me remember that in that march/april period, just before Easter this year and before we went to Bari, for a family visit I had lots of those "Ruffles galore" orders and some of them were shipped from Italy. And one of these, that I have totally forgot to upload pics before and also share some lovely pics I received afterwords from a customer is this - Mother and daughter matching set.



Beautiful Hannah, mom to small Hazel, asked me to make the set for her as well as for her beautiful daughter and I was challenged for the first time to make the adult set as well, that will be as fancy as those for the little ones, featuring all those ruffles.



I'm sorry that I don't have the picture of Hannah wearing the pants as well, made with all those whimsy fabrics, but here are the pics before the sets were shipped away.







Here is the accessories set I made for Hazel.



With love, Katarina

Fall splendour

It seems that we had time to feel fall only for a few days, as now it seems that winter is here. So cold, gloomy and not very inspiring weather outside, and I can call ourselves lucky, in confrontation with some people living in the parts of the world, being attacked with storms and weather catastrophes.



So, wanting fall back, I have uploaded some pics from my camera taken at the beginning of this month, mainly at Fruska gora, were we spend our weekends (when the time allows;)









We have enjoyed new puppies, aren't hey cute?









Some yummy fruits;)







And here are some pics of kids for the end







Wish you a wonderful week, Katarina

Mess on my table

A few days ago, after sewing and making some headbands I realized I made a huge mess all over my table and room. I was enjoying one of those "creative chaos" moments, that I talked about in the previous post/last question in the article



Gathering crochet flowers with fabric buttons, looking for the perfect match, is one of my favourite embellishment "tasks".





I just love to use the for many things, either hair accessories or garment details;)



As you can see, I have tons of these and constantly making new buttons, with new fabrics, so if you need some, don't hesitate to contact me, I would gladly list them in my IwannaBE etsy shop

xo, Katarina