A stringy make and also a cake

What do you do when you've recently bought a big bag of bits of alpaca wool (fur?)  Well, if you're me, you make a string bag thingie to hang on the bird table for the birds to use as nesting material.  Natch.  Not really considering how I was going to achieve this string bag thingie, I started playing around with some string.

Now, before I reveal the finished article, can I just point out that as always, I was on a time limit.  Just so you don't completely fall over laughing.

I'm counting on the birds round these parts not being too choosy where they get their nest material from.

As if that wasn't exertion enough (ho ho ho) I then decided to make some cupcakes as middle nut had a friend over for tea (nothing to do with me fancying a bit of a cakey treat, honest).  These turned out pretty well - nice and springy and just crying out for a thick layer of buttercream icing - the boys did the honours with the icing and chocolate buttons.  I think they did a pretty good job.  Baby nut definitely thought so:

Can you just see how fast her hand was moving? x

PS - I will do a recipe post soon for these beasties as they are yummy!