I thought I would fill you in on all the stationery that has come out of the studio so far this week…
So far we have completed a great big batch of place settings, dont they look lovely!
And a big pile of some gorgeous, custom Save the Date cards…the colour and font combination has worked beautifully! We’ve also been busy producing samples! The colour of the week seems to be golds & neutrals!
And now for your treat of the week….are you ready for the grand unveiling of the latest design to be added to the collection? Isn’t it lovely? Its got a scrummy ‘Christmassy’ feel, without being all singing, all dancing, bauble wearing reindeers! Not quite had the chance to add it to the gallery yet, but if you can’t wait to get your hands on it, just get in touch!
Last weekend we spent a fab couple of days in Newcastle at the wedding of Andrews lovely friends Simon and Georgi! I thought we would share some of the gorgeous photos from the day with you! And I’ll include a couple of the invitations which we made a few months ago too! 
Aren’t they pretty? And they followed the theme of the invitations right the way through the day, from the Orders of Service, to the menu and place settings!
Georgi looked absolutley glowing! The dress was gorgeous! And they were whisked away from the church to the venue in a scrummy camper van! Soooo cute!
As soon as we got to the venue, (The Sage), we were treated to loads of lovely little touches, like the gorgeous paper lanterns, which were strung from the ceiling above the top table! The flowers were gorgeous, which was thanks to Simons mum, who owns Bluebell Florist in Whitley Bay, Newcastle. Each table had a different bunch…ours were lovely peonies, which are my absolute favorites!
The day was full of other little touches, like his and hers place settings…pink for the girls and grey for the boys! Little touches like this help to make the day all the more memorable! We had a fantastic day! Congratulations to the new Mr & Mrs Rennison-Rae!
We have had a really busy spell in the studio over the last few weeks, so we were really ready for my anniversary treat of a week in the sun! So bright and early on a Tuesday morning a couple of weeks ago, we headed to Heathrow, ready to flop for a week!
We toddled off to Santorini, Greece, and we weren’t disappointed…we were greeted with beautiful sunshine, a lovely hotel, and beautiful scenery…I thought I would share some of our lovely pics with you!
I’m afraid to say we were probably a little lazier than we should have been, in that we didn’t explore the island half as much as we could have done! But when you have a pool as lovely as we did, and the beach literally seconds from the hotel, its very hard to drag yourself away!
On our little bit of venturing away from the poolside, we found a shop that became our favorite place for a bite of lunch! So much so Andrew took a few days to get over the withdrawal symptoms! They do these AMAZING Gyros…which are basically scrummy flatbreads that are then crammed with salad, chicken or pork, a delicious Tzatziki, (which is nothing like the stuff you can buy here!) and topped off with a couple of chips & some paprika! Honestly, they are yummy…we have been looking for flatbreads that are similar here, so we can try and recreate them. So far we haven’t managed to find any, but fear not…Andrew has found a recipe for them, so we will let you know if they’re successful! Yum!
Now, I hate to give the wrong impression of us, but we do like a cocktail every now and then…surprising I know! So we thought we would do abit of a cocktail diary from our holiday…I think the ultimate had to have been the Vanilla-tini, which was made with Vanilla Vodka, Lemonade, and my absolute favorite…Frangelico! Honestly it was scrummy! And the bar where we had this particular cocktail was gorgeous…more pics of that to follow!
After all that sunbathing, swimming, eating, (and drinking!) all we need now is another holiday to recover!
Now, im sure you’re aware just how much we adore Charlotte the letterpress. But after playing with her for a while, we realised that as adorable as she is, she just isnt practical for the majority of the work we do. So Andrew got on the hunt for something a little more…well, shall we say industrial? (By that, I mean big!) And a few weeks ago, we took delivery of (as we like to call him,) ‘the German beast!’ Well, I say we took delivery, but thats abit of a fib…in actual fact, we roped in Andrews poor dad, David, who drove the lorry all the way to Sheffield for us, loaded on the beast, and then drove the 1.25 tonnes (1250 kilos) of metal all the way home! It really wasn’t an easy journey, baring in mind that this huge hunk of metal was attached to a tiny little palette! Andrews dad told us once we had made it back he was holding his breath most of the way, thinking of what could happen if the beast had started to rock…lets face it, a few rope lashings isnt going to do much to hold that weight in place! Anyway, he did fabulously getting it here, and we are so so grateful for his help! We promise we wont ask you to do anything similar, for, well, at least a few months!
He really is a beast, but makes an amazing noise when he’s working…we will do our best to try and get a little vidoe on here so you can see, (and hear!) him in action! He needed abit of TCL when he got here, so Andrew has been spending some time cleaning, & getting to know him! Honestly, he’s like a little kid…his eyes light up everytime he talks about the blooming thing! I took this photo a couple of days after we got him…it makes me laugh when I see it…it reminds me of Christmas morning with my sisters, all sat around the tree with our presents in front of us!
So, now you have met Hendrick! Keep checking back to see our gorgeous new letterpress collection, which will be launching soon!
We don’t like to give ourselves too much time to kick back and relax…so this weekend, in between helping Kathryn & Scott move out of their house, and producing what felt like a million samples for all of you lovely people, we did a spot of baking, and made a really scrummy Lemon & Poppyseed Cake! After all our hard work, we felt it needed abit of a kick, so added a dribble of Limoncello to the whipped cream filling! It really was delicious!
My Nans Lemon Drizzle Cake (from Jamie Oliver, Cook with Jamie)
• 115g unsalted butter, softened
• 115g caster sugar
• 4 large free-range or organic eggs
• 180g ground almonds
• 30g poppy seeds
• zest and juice of 2 lemons
• 125g self-raising flour, sifted
• 115g caster sugar
• 4 large free-range or organic eggs
• 180g ground almonds
• 30g poppy seeds
• zest and juice of 2 lemons
• 125g self-raising flour, sifted
for the lemon syrup
• 100g caster sugar
• 90g lemon juice
for the lemon icing
• 225g icing sugar
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
Using an electric whisk, beat the butter with the caster sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one by one, beating each in well. Fold in your ground almonds, poppy seeds, the lemon zest and juice and the sifted flour. Spoon the mix into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until lightly golden. You can check to see if the cake is cooked by poking a cocktail stick right into the sponge. Remove it after 5 seconds and if it comes out clean the cake is cooked; if slightly sticky it needs a little longer, so put it back in the oven. Allow the cake to cool on a rack.
Make your lemon syrup by heating the sugar and lemon juice in a pan until the sugar has dissolved. While your cake is still warm, make lots of little holes in the top with a cocktail stick and pour your syrup over.
To make your icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon zest and juice, stirring until smooth. When your cake is almost cool, put it on a serving plate and pour the icing carefully over the top. If you pour it on to the middle of the cake, then let gravity disperse the icing down the sides, you get the ‘drizzle’ effect! Give it a helping hand with a spoon if you want.
