Celebrate with Cake Part 2!

So it has been officially 6 months since Sew Lah Tea Dough became public!  In January this year I began working on old posts, recipes and cake decorating that I had done before 2013 began... Once I had a bank of posts and a good first one to post I thought it was about time to let the world know!  It was something I had wanted to try for a long time - I had unsuccessfully tried a Tumblr, and the website I pay for (albeit for something a little different) has still not been used.  This meant I was not sure at all how 'blogging' would go!  Only since the onset of Pinterest had I been able to find blogs that I really loved to read - family blogs, crafting blogs, foodie blogs and music education blogs in particular... this inspired me to create one for everything I loved to do as well.

And Sew Lah Tea Dough was born!  As you see in my 'About Me' section - my blog name covers all that I love to do, and believe me - 'doing' is what I love.  I hate to be bored and love to be busy, all the time!  And why Sew Lah Tea Dough?...

Sew ~ a needle pulling thread ♫ Showcasing my handmade sewing projects crafts.  I always hated sewing when I was little - my Mum definitely helped with ALL my Textile projects at school, but last year for my birthday I bought a sewing machine and since then have loved creating clothes, little crafts, and gifts, and while I am no pro I do enjoy it, and it definitely teaches me patience!

Lah ~ a note to follow sew ♫  I'm a piano teacher and musician and I love love LOVE to make my students' lessons the most fun, with games and activities that inspire them in their musical learning and hopefully will instill a life long love for music not only in their piano lessons.  I'm working on creating my own worksheets and have a few free pdf printables now up on the blog, as well as showing you my music based crafts and foods!

Tea ~ a drink with jam and bread ♫ I am English after all!  I moved to Toronto, Canada in 2009 but I'm British through and through.  I might say 'stand in line' or 'garbage' by accident sometimes but I love crumpets, tea, Coronation Street and roast dinners so there is lots of British based baking, making, and crafting here.

Dough ~ that will bring us back to dough! ♫  And for me, it always comes back to the baking :-)  Baking is my most favourite thing to do!  It always has been.  I love to decorate cakes, I love to bake and try new recipes, I love to bake at every opportunity to take a gift/platter along, I love to think of new ideas and wish that I could do it all day long!

So that is why I'm celebrating with cake!!  6 cakes for 6 months.  Last week in Celebrate with Cake Part 1 I talked about 6 cakes I have recently made for various celebrations.  Click to see what they were and how I made them :-)

Today it's a bit more writing than usual, but if we're lucky (and I can write quickly) this weekend there will be a bonus post talking about some camping food from our trip to Algonquin Park this week :-)

So, in the spirit of 6 months - here are 6 things I've learnt or been proud of in these first 6 months of blogging.

The pictures on the right show some popular ones!  My Quiet Book was the first thing to be repinned a lot more than any others!  Yey!  The DIY Herb Garden was featured not only on Pinterest but on Buzzfeed, wooooooo!  My Superbowl cake for my husband's birthday is my particular favourite cake of the year - and my most challenging to make!  And finally the DIY bow tie onesie, although just a recent post has been making my stats go crazy!  Mainly through Pinterest, but also from some awesome features on great link parties :-)  Thanks everyone!!

And now, 6 things still to come, some aims and things I still want to do with this blog - hopefully in the next 6 months.

I am so excited to be part of the blogging world, but I know there is a lot more to learn, to aim for and to keep going with!  Compared to some of the incredible bloggers I read and follow I am such a newbie to all of this and know I am still learning, and there are probably lots more things I could be doing better.

But for now I am happy with how things are and what I have achieved.  Whether I blog or not, I'll be baking, sewing, and musicking and I hope that never ends!!  

For now, it's just carry on as usual and hopefully achieve those 6 aims above in the next 6 months :-D

Stay tuned for posts on those sneak peeks I showed you in those pictures (a pretty fabric, elephant tutorial and Doctor Who themed posts coming soon!).  Can't wait to share more with you!

Next up is our camping adventures and the food we ate of course!  I do love food after all!

Have a great weekend everyone, and thanks for reading the past 6 months, so happy to have you all checking out my blog :-)