A Birthday Pottery Party

We were celebrating my housemate's birthday the other weekend, beginning with a visit to Crockadoodledo to paint our own crockery!  Best shop name ever.  Gets better the more you think about it.

Look at all the goodies you get to choose from!

And here are our efforts:

I've included this close-up so you can see Bev's amazing '50s pattern mug (centre right) in a bit more detail.

We have no shortage of mugs in our flat - quite the opposite, in fact - and so I promised my fella I'd paint one for him, as his flat is somewhat lacking in that department.  Here he is, back from the kiln!

Can you guess what it is yet...?

Ta-daa!!

Dachshunds are his favourite kind of dog - he had one called Tony when he was a kid - and it's top of our fantasy When-We-Grow-Up-and-Have-a-House-with-a-Garden list: a sausage dog called Mark Clark for him, and a Boston terrier called Elvis for me.

PS: I made my first ever red velvet cake for the Birthday Girl:

Pretty on the outside, but I was disappointed to discover - too late - that natural, vegetarian red food colouring (from Morrisons, anyway) is "not bake stable" - which means that it disappears when you cook it!  So, the sponge was brown instead of sexy red.  And the icing didn't set properly, so it was more like Marshmallow Fluff.  But hey, a cake's a cake, right?  It all goes down the same way!  And the guests at the post-pottery tea party did not complain one bit, polite lot that they are.

Incidentally, this little corner of the internet is also celebrating a birthday - one year of Eleni Drinks Tea!  Happy birthday to us!  How fitting that our first birthday post should be about teacups and cakes.

I love blogging, I really do.  I am so proud of my lovely followers, and all the charming passers-by.  Like a big old mother hen, I puff up my feathers and snuggle down every time one of you pops up to say hello.  I started this blog because I'd moved to a new city and I wanted my old chums in London to be able to see what I'd been up to, just like I love to have a nosy on their blogs and see what they've been up to.  I really am surprised and delighted every time somebody I don't know leaves a comment or clicks that Follow button.  I am always learning new tricks from reading blogs - recipes, making and mending, and yes, even outfits (although I doubt I'll be subjecting you all to my particular brand of bag-lady chic any time soon).  Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies?  Read it on a blog.  How to stretch leather boots?  Read it on a blog.  The need for a pair of red cowboy boots?  Saw them on a blog.  A fancy for long red hair (haven't mustered the - ahem - bottle yet but the idea is marinating)?  Blog.  So, thank you one and all.  This could have been a really rotten year for me: plenty of things didn't go according to plan, and even if they had, it's never easy being the new kid in town.  I am so, so grateful that I've had you, my inspirational internet friends, to keep me company along the way.

Come here, let me give you a big old bear hug.  That's right, all of you, at once, get in there :)