Cupcake castles Weblog

I really enjoy attending the fairs gives me a chance to hear peoples comments as they can point you in the right direction and give you so many more ideas, it’s all to easy to sit in your little workshop everyday and forget where your going with your work, it’s also really fab to see what everyone else is doing as most the designers and crafters I have read about for years ( usually in country living magazine ) are at the same big shows , I usually come home with a boxload of new ornaments and jewellery!

Nearly that time again - Show time,   I am showing at two trade fairs and one big private fair with country living magazine in November . So march will be spent busily designing at least 20 new designs especially for boys - more dinosaurs and monsters , the ones I make now are very popular but I had a few comments from my last fair from mums who wanted scarier dinosaurs ! so I’ll try my best. There will be a lot more seaside mirrors and clocks but what I’m most excited about are my first attempts to make chalkboards and memoboards - I’ve got all the paints and boards ready I just need to experiment and see what works best - hopefully the first ones will be at my first trade show of the year in Harrogate in April - BCTF

Found this fairy in my garden ( with a broken arm ) anyway she volunteered to help me take some pics for my website www.cupcakecastles.com, thought this would help potential buyers to see how large each piece is as it’s hard to imagine from just my website pictures - more of these pis can be seen on my about page. Next summer I’ll catch lots of little fairies and a couple of pixies to help with with some new pics.

This is a new clock , not even on my website yet, I’m working on about twenty new designs at the moment - a lot more dinosaurs, dragons, monsters and ships, also designing a complete new range of chalkboards and jewellery boards - so watch this space - they’ll be on my blog spot before my website.

Cupcakes are just everywhere at the moment so this is one band wagon I’m definately jumping on, these are just things I make with cupcakes on , the rest can be seen at  www.cupcakecastles.com

Last October me and Ian finally married after 15 years and two children, my mum made the main cake with about six tonnes of white chocolate ( my favourite ) I also had fifty cupcakes made ( of course!)   - the kids had eaten half of them before we even got round to cutting the cake.

This is just after we’ve been married outside with all our nephews and nieces and our two boys of course. We kept it all very informal especially the photo’s, the best memories are from the more chaotic pictures - babies knocking drinks over, kids falling around. I’m still waiting for most pictures to arrive so I’ll put the more chaotic ones on when they do.

dancing fairy mirror

This is my attempt at some “country living” style photo’s in my garden, need to think of some more interesting places to take photo’s this summer for my website  www.cupcakecastles.com

cupcake fairy princes

This is my harbour mirror ( nothing to do with Balamory !) and it has been one of my most popular pieces for the last eight years, a new version is now available with sailing boats instead of a fishing boat, have had a lot of requests to change this one ie add octopus and jellyfish but the strangest request was to paint the sea hot pink, very hard for me to do but she loved it.

These are my boys  after climbing up the Hoad a famous landmark of Ulverston and can be seen miles away, it looks really high from a distance and the first time we went to climb it we pack tea and sandwiches and donned our serious hiking gear thinking it was going to take all day , it only took 20 minutes! brilliant view from the top though , you can almost Blackpool in one direction and the Lake district hills in the other direction.

This week has been so cold!, about minus 7 everyday, I just wanted to remember last summer. It’s always at this time of year that I really really want to start some gardening -I stand staring out of the french doors willing the plants to grow ( fellow gardeners will understand ). I know that sounds slightly sad but I need colour all this greyness is so mind numbingly boring. In the big world of flowers I like the tarts - the bigger and brighter  the better thats why I love dahlias and lilies. These are just a few from my garden last summer.

to prove my piont here he is again !

This is Bob ( another male ) , he follows me wherever I go and especially likes to have his picture taken, he has this uncanny knack of knowing what I’m going to take a picture of !

My very pink workshop,( even the floor gets a recoat of pink paint every year ) this is what happens when you have two boys and are surrounded by action men and tanks everyday.This is where I can escape into glittery pink world ( not for long though , they always seem to find me !) When it gets really busy the house tends to get taken over as well - never enough room!

Hi , this is me Liz Mortimer, covered in paint as always ( usually covered in a lot more paint than this!) I am the designer and maker of the glittery mirrors and clocks on cupcakecastles.com and just wanted to set up this blog site so potential buyers could see how , where and who makes them. As I like to offer a very personal service ( you can phone or email me any day of the week - I’m usually working, to chat about a one off commission or special changes you would made to any piece)it’s nice to see where they are coming from.