Tuesday 26 May 2009

Life's a Picnic

I spent this weekend down in West Sussex, where Mr Crafty hails from. The sun was out in all its glory on Sunday which was a miracle as we had scheduled in a picnic with some friends a couple of months ago and that is usually like a red rag to a bull for the gods to play havoc with the weather. Instead we got brilliant sunshine and spent the day enjoying a heady mix of orange and lavender cake, prosecco with wild strawberry liquer and rounders.

Here are the chocolate truffle torte with fresh raspberries and afore-mentioned orange and lavender cake that I baked for the occasion (please imagine for a moment that these are resplendant on pretty vintage cake stands rather than in tupperware boxes).


I was reminded that when I was growing up my Father always coveted a proper picnic hamper complete with china, cloth napkins and metal cutlery, the sort that is synonymous with Glyndebourne, punting on the Cam and Pimms i.e. quintessentially British. I have inhereted a similar longing from him but these days most picnic sets come in the form of rucksacks with non-breakable, far too sensible plastic crockery and cutlery. What I hanker after is totally a impractical willow basket lined with lovely linens and stocked with patterned china and glasses you can clink.

I was, therefore, delighted to find the hampers of my dreams at Life's A Picnic. They assemble gorgeous hampers from vintage crockery and cutlery and do all the sewing and leather work themselves. At around £180 - £260 a hamper they are not cheap but no two hampers are the same and they are the sort of investment that you could pass down through the generations:

Is it Pimms O'Clock already? Must dash. TTFN...

3 comments:

  1. So impratical, but beautiful all the same. How good are you at making cakes!!?? I'm tres jealous, i can only dream of my little disasters ever turning out like those beauties. well done you X

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  2. Oh those are lovely. I've thought about buying a picnic hamper recently as we now live near the royal gardens and a big park... Don't think the budget will stretch to one of these though. We can but dream ;)

    P.S. I sooo now fancy a glass of prosecco with wild strawberry liquer!!

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  3. Have a look on the bhs website there is a very cute picnic basket for mere £20. Bargainious!

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