The adventurous life of Mini Blythe

Last Sunday I received a mail from Frankie of Dolls From Planet Mu (check out her blog, she does very interesting and accurate reviews of dolls and toys!), noticing me that I had won her  Blythe Littlest Pet Shop giveaway! I was very happy because it was a while that I wanted to buy one, but usually when I'm in a toy shop my attention is more focused on the Monster High shelf, so this is my very first Blythe!
I was prepared to wait about 10/12 days for the package to arrive (that's what it usually takes for packages from the U.K.) but surprisingly on Friday morning the package was already here (thank you Frankie for the fast shipping, I hope you didn't spent too much for it ^_^).
And here begin the adventure of Mini Blythe vs Giant Dog and the Postman!
Usually when there's a package or registered mail to deliver, the postman rings the bell and deliver them in person, but this time he had the brilliant idea of just leave it unguarded on our gate, without ringing the bell (me and my boyfriend were at home, so I'm sure he didn't ring :-/).
 As you may know, I have a dog, Leila, who is good and loving, but still behaves as a puppy, in fact her philosophy about new things is something like: " Gnaw it, eat it, and see what happens". Could she resist a mysterious package left justin front of her nose? Obviously not, so she started fighting with the external packaging.
Luckily, at this point Dani accidentally  looked out to search forthe dog, and saw her gnaw something colourful, surrounded by pieces of bubble wrap and paper.
He immediately remembered of my package and ran to save it. Luckily again, Leila only destroyed the packaging and the cardboard box, while the doll and her accessories were saved by the rigid plastic casing inside.
Despite this small accident, the doll is safe (only her hair were a bit messy, but it's easy to fix) and incredibly cute!

I had already seen Blythe LPS sets in stores, but out of the box they look a lot more beautiful, what I like the most of her are the eyes: I wasn't expecting them to be inlaid, (from the shadow of the box they looked just painted on) and they also have long lashes.
The outfit is cute too, her tartan dress make her look like a mini human version of Frankie Stein (I put her near Frankie and Rochelle on my shelf), and she also has removable shoes and some accessories, my favourite is the flower headband.
I'm very happy of this prize (and I will probaby buy more Blythe in the future ;-)),thank you Frankie!

Momijigari cake (with plums and cinnamon)

Don't be tricked by the name, it's not a japanese recipe but just a cinnamon plum cake, I decided to call it like this because the finished cake reminds me of autumn leaves ("momijigari" is the Japanese tradition of going to visit scenic areas where leaves have turned red in the autumn). 

detail of the decoration

This recipe is very easy and quick to prepare (aside from the baking part, it took me about a quarter of an hour to make), hope you like it!

Ingredients:

6/8 plums
200 g of flour
200 g of sugar
50 g of butter
2 eggs
1 bag of vanillin
2 teaspoons of baking powder
3 teaspoons of cinnamon

Preparation:
Wash the plums and cut them into thin slices. In a bowl mix eggs and sugar, add vanilla, melted butter, flour, baking powder and cinnamon, then mix well. Add the plums to the mixture (save some slices for decorating), pour everything into a pan of 24 cm, previously greased and floured, then decorate the top with the remaining slices. Oven bake for approximately one hour at 160 °. Let it cool (but not too much, a little warm exalts the flavour!) and serve!

do you want a slice? ;)

Piña Colada Cheesecake

A few days ago it was my friend Valentina's birthday, so I made a cake to celebrate together with all our friends :)

I really like baking sweets, so I decided to start posting here my culinary experiments!

Today's recipe is perfect for summer, I called it "Piña Colada Cheesecake"! (though there is no alchool in it...)

Ingredients for the base:

200 gr of cookies similar to Digestive or Graham's crackers (I used Gran Cereale for a more crispy taste);

100 gr of butter or margarine.

Ingredients for filling:

200 gr of soft cheese like Philadelphia;

400 gr of  fresh cream;

50 gr of sugar;

100 gr of shredded coconut;

3 sheets of isinglass or gelatin;

a jar of canned pineapple with its juice.

Optional:

1 or 2 spoonful of flour;

some coconut milk.

Preparation:

Crush the cookies in the mixer and put them in a bowl with the melted butter.

Mix well, then spread the mixture of cookies in a cake pan covered with baking paper (instead of paper,you can use some oil or butter to grease the pan), press the  mixture with a spoon to make it solid and uniform, then put it in the fridge  for at leasthalf and hour.

Put the isinglass sheets in a bowl with hot water to let them soften. Put cheese, cream (save a little cream, about 100gr, for melting the isinglass), sugar, shredded coconut (if you want the coconut flavour to be stronger, add also some coconut milk), some tiny pineapple bits (very tiny, or they will get tangled in the whisk) and the syrup (I suggest using only half of the juice contained in the can, or else your filling mixture will end up too liquid: in this case you can add 1 or 2 spoonful of flour to fix it) in a bowl and mix them with the electric whisk until mixture is thick and smooth. Take out the isinglass  from water, squeeze it and let it melt at low heat in a small pan with the remaining cream, then add it to the filling and mix again to make it uniform.

Remove the base from the fridge, put some half ananas slices along the border (they make a nice decorative motif and help keeping the filling in place), pour the filling into the cake pan, level it with a spoon and decorate the cake with the remaining pineapple slices and some more shredded coconut.

Put everything in the fridge for at least 4 hours, then place the cake on a plate and remove the cake pan.

Here are some pictures of the finished cake, it was very fresh and delicious!

I hope the instructions are clear enough, this is my first time translating a recipe ^_^ anyway if you have any question or doubt, feel free to ask!

Scary couture

Recently I found myself with some spare time (I finished my exams for this session, see you in September university!) and a lot of fabric scraps (due to a big closet cleaning and renewal), so I decided to create some new clothes for my Monster High dolls.
Considering  that the last time I sewed doll clothes I was 8 and I didn't used patterns (in fact the designs are very simple), I'm quite satisfied of how they came out :)
This is my very favourite: a two-pieces set for Operetta, made with some black and white satin ribbon scraps.

A simple black dress with green and gold trimmings for Cleo, the necklace is also handmade (using a piece of a broken bracelet)

A casual minidress for Spectra, who's reading about the latest gossip and trends on the latest issue of CosmoGhouls ( I had a lot of fun taking these pictures :D)

This one is my latest creation, a two-pieces set for Lagoona, with glass beads fringes and a sea-themed belt
(the top is a bit too large, but it is not very visible when worn ^^)

Right now I'm looking for new fabrics and trimmings for my experiments, see you soon with the next batch of clothes!

Rainy days crafts: Perfume Bottle Necklace

It rained a lot in the past days (well, actually it's still raining...), so I had a lot of spare time while forced at home by the weather, and I used it to finish some craft projects I was working on, here I will show my favourite: a perfume bottle necklace to match my Metamorphose Perfume Bottle skirt!

A while ago I purchased this skirt, which was one of my dream prints ever since I discovered lolita, and suddenly started to hunt for matching items: I already had a blouse, tights and shoes and I easily found a cute pink cardigan and some pink and gold hair accessories, but what I wanted the  most was  a perfume bottle necklace, similar to the one Metamorphose released with the print series (sorry for the bad picture, but this was the best stock image I could find...)

I found the original one on EGL sales a couple of times, and it wasn't incredibly costly,but I arrived too late and it was already sold :(

But then I remebered that years ago my grandmother gave me some mignon perfume bottles to play with that were just the right size for a necklace!

Luckily I still had some of the tiny bottles at my parent's, so this weekend I put myself to work and created my personal version of the necklace:

I'm very satisfied of how it came out: the bottle is not too big and it matches the skirt perfectly! For the chain   I used some simple white plastic pearls and some small pink hearts

Here's a picture of the necklace on a clear background (my pillow ^^), so you can see it better :)

I can't wait to wear it in a coordinate!