Making Sleepy Cats from Lone Survivor

I have some exciting news!

I have been commissioned by Curve Studios  to make 10 Yellow Cats from Jasper Byrne's indie game, Lone Survivor.

I had made several prototypes before the design was approved and was given the go ahead. Some may say they were CATastrophic!

 Here is one of the versions of the plush cat and an image of Jasper's design.

The trickiest part has been figuring out the best way to do the body - to have fake paws or actual front paws.The final decision was to go with the front paws and to have the tail coming from behind.

Sleepy Cat Plush

Now my challenge is to make 10 purrfect Sleepy Cats!

I am waiting for more yellow fabric to arrive from Amsterdam! A couple of months ago I was in Amsterdam for a wedding and stopped by my favourite fabric store and bought lots of different fabric. This is where I got this lovely soft yellow fabric, with plans to use it for making flowers. It was quickly used use with all my prototypes. A very sweet friend of mine bought me whatever they had left in the store and shipped it to me, so now I am waiting anxiously for it to arrive so I can continue making the bodies.

In the mean time, I had enough fabric to make a head start with 9 heads.

If it turns out to be different shade of yellow, I will cry - A LOT!
I think the fabric will arrive tomorrow, so I will find out then.
Eeeek!

It's time for another give away!

The SukiSuki Facebook fan page reached 2000 fans!

To celebrate I am doing two give aways. A Suki Ladybug and a Suki Cookie.

You can enter by going to the following facebook links.

Take me to the Ladybug give away

Take me to the Cookie give away


Two winners will be chosen at random and announced on Sunday 17th March.

Happy New Year!

Today was my first day back at work at Supermassive Games, after the Christmas break. And after two weeks of holiday, it was a shock to the system! I wanted to go back to Italy!!!

So I have accepted another 6 month contract, freelancing at Supermassive. SukiSuki will still continue, but this just means less suki time for just another half a year. But in the mean time I am making exciting plans!

For the second year running, DESIGN WEBSITE is in my New Years Resolution List. I will design my website this year!!!

Also another item in my very long list of new year resolutions, which failed last year,  is to start food blogging again. As soon as we returned from Italy, I started!  It is called Stuff Me Silly.

I am a little obsessed with taking photos of food, so this is a good outlet for me! :)

Last year, while working at Supermassive, the commute was exhausting. I would return home to tired to cook. I started feeling like I was loosing the love for cooking. Over the Christmas break I began cooking and taking photos again.

Even though I was very tired tonight I cooked. You can see here on the Stuff Me Silly Facebook page.  :)

Christmas in Italy

 2012 ended quite frantically for me! I was rushing to get orders finished after my sewing machine had to be sent for repairs, I had no idea when it would return and whether the Christmas orders would be sent out on time.

The white sheep are one of my favourite sukis so far...

I made one for my sister, for Christmas, and she loves her. Naomi got to unwrap her on Christmas Day, in Italy, just after midnight.

Naomi and black and white sheep

Christmas day in Italy

Squeezing into all kinds of places

Wandering what Francesco is doing

New Lupi pillows made for Francesco's Parents

This was my second Chirstmas in Italy. Once again it was all about eating and seeing friends and family.

Supermassive Games Bake Off

Chocolate Bunny Donut in cake form

 

Chocolate Bunny Donut Plush

I could not resist making one of my characters for the bake off at Supermassive Games, my office job. My baking is often a little unpredictable as I struggle following recipes and measurements. I was a little nervous about baking as I had not baked anything since last year!

Naomi, my sister suggested I make a chocolate bunny donut cake and instantly agreed! I wanted to keep it simple but also wanted to make something nice. I selected the chocolate brownie cake from The Humminghird Bakery Cook Book. It was the first time I cooked form it and I have to say I think it went quite well.  Will definitely be trying out a few more soon.The chocolate bottom and red velvet cupcakes are my favourites from the bakery!!!

The baking station all ready to go

 The recipe was easy to follow. But I did panic over whether my eggs and sugar were light and fluffy enough. :)

 It was very exciting when the mixture started to look cake mixture, all thick and smooth. Tasted great too.

 I managed not see chocolate in the list of ingredients in the recipe! So I was frantically searching for dark chocolate in the cupboards. The only suitable chocolate for dark gianduja with hazelnuts from Italy. At first I tried removing the whole hazel nuts but then decided to just include it in the mix as well.

 In the book the baking tray suggested is a different size and thickness to the tin I chose, so I had to guess the cooking time. This part was the most difficult part of all! I didnt want it to be undercooked or overcooked. The total time was about 50 minutes I htink and ended taking the cake in and out of the oven loads!

The next step was the make the chocolate frosting. For the white icing I went for the cream cheese frosting. Frostings for me usually end up being a disaster but this time they turned out really well!

I was scared the frosting would be too runny but it was all fine. I did put the cake in the fridge overnight just in case the frosting did not stay like that and the cake was still soft and moist the next day.

The mini marshmallows were originally for the teeth but they were too small! I used them to decorate the ears instead and managed to find larger marshmallows during lunch time, just before the competition.

I wish I had taken a photo of the mess I made at the office, assembling my cake! I had to attach the ears and tail on the board. I had only minutes before the bake off started and I was getting chocolate everywhere! I made it just in time! :)

Here are the other cakes that were entered. 

My chocolate brownie bunny donut cake came third for Best Tasting!
I do wish I had practiced just once before so I knew how long to cook the cake for. But overall it was very successful! :)


Frosted Brownie and cream frosting recipe taken from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.

Happy 5 Year Anniversary to SukiSuki!!!

I almost forgot to post this giveaway up here on the blog!

SukiSuki started 5 years ago back in 2007. During the last 5 years there have been many new arrivals and the Suki collection is still growing! 


To celebrate SukiSuki's 5 year anniversary I am giving away a suki flower. The winner may choose from any of these flowers. (Pot not included )

The giveaway ends on the 25th of November, which is tomorrow! There is still time to enter! :)

So if you fancy winning one of these little happy flowers, just pop over to my facebook page.
Click HERE to enter the giveaway.