oh gosh

31 things

2012-01-20T10:08:00.000Z

If you read my last post you'll know that for the last few years I have done 'things to do before' lists on my birthdays. If you didn't see my last post, last years' updated list here, and as its my birthday on Saturday, {but I am away} my new list for this year is below.

Most of these are new, a couple are carried over bc I enjoyed them this year and a couple are carried over bc I didn’t do them and kind of want to;

I know it might seem silly as last years list is languishing half completed, and this honestly doesn't bother me as it's more of a guide of things I might like to do than a rigid MUST DO list, but as we are going onwards and upwards to a new list I shall forget last year's failures and concentrate on these new challenges.

30 Things

2012-01-16T19:47:00.000Z

For the last few years I have created myself a list of things to do before my next birthday, and as my birthday is this week I thought it might be time to update last years list and share my new list. In the past I have done them on a separate blog, but I have found myself not updating it so I am scrapping that idea and I'll be doing the update of last years list and sharing my new list here it here from now on.

Now I realise this looks a little pathetic with it's half finished-ness, but I see it a guide, rather than a 'my life will end if I don't finish it' kind of list, so here goes. {The ones in bold have been completed - or completed enough for me to think I have done them, and there is a little description in red!}

Make macaroons. They scare me with their complicated-ness! But one day.
Makenew cushions for the flat. Something that says 'me' in the room – there isn’tmuch around the flat that is me or mine. It's very much my housemates space.And I have seen some gorgeous Orla Keirly-esque fabric too! Done. And they're still in use at my new house.
Run 5k. Not necessarily in arace, but all at once. Preferably without my lungs collapsing. I have nearly done this. 4.8Km - that almost counts right?
Becomemore self reliant. I have let myself rely on people this year and it's onlylead to me being let down. If I rely on myself more I’ll only have myselfto blame when I’m let down, right…… The last few times the boy's been to India I have found myself in a position where it is just me and even though I was let down by people cancelling and backing out of stuff, the last time he went, I have learnt from it and I am ok with this next trip - I have figured out who to rely on!
Makean item of clothing from a pattern, from scratch. {Clearly, I won’t be makingthe fabric, but you get the idea right?} So, I haven't blogged it, mostly as I couldn't get a decent picture, but I have done this - I made this style top but in a big print fabric and I love it. I have plans for more.
Read a book a month andand document it here. It might work out that I have read one a month, but have I blogged it? Have I balls!
Take a TTV picture or two. This wason the list last year but I failed. I have the camera now, thanks to Lizzy, butI need to mod it and make it work for ttv. Nope - but the camera looks very pretty. I will do it, it's just a case of when!
Makinga Blurb book out of my 2010 Shuttercal. Done and blogged.
And whilst I am at it - carrying onmy Shuttercal 365 for 2011. I like having a documentation of the year. This fell by the wayside about March.
Learn one new recipe a month. Beit soup, cake, a proper dinner or a snacky snack. And this fell by the wayside about May when I moved and stopped entering IronCupcake as much!
Take a class. I fancy letterpressing. Or a language. Or maybe the silk scarf class @vogue_ismybible saw and thinks we should attend. I went to a pottery painting class with Lianne at Mellorware and I started my Crafternoon's. They aren't a class, but we teach ourselves.
Go to more gigs. I went to Glasto ;) but no more gigs.
Vent less - I read a quote a whileago, that I can't quite remember totally, but it said something like '50% ofpeople don’t care about your problems and the other 50% only care because itmakes them feel better about their problems'. It made me think - they’re myissues. I should keep them that way. Especially around the people I have afeeling fall into that later 50%. Nope, I still moan as much. But ah, everyone does it!
Sortout my finances. I am half there - and with my finances I'd say that counts but I doubt the boy would.
Get a tattoo – this was on last year’slist, but since it took me a whole 27 years to decide my first one, a year todecide the next one might be a bit much. {this might be on lists for awhile……..} Erm, still thinking. Maybe next year?
Hosta dinner party {and not serve Fajita’s or soup!} I said host, not cook. The boy and I, since getting the table have defo done this. He cooked for us all, I got drunk.
Takepart in some Blogger events - I've really enjoyed the ones I did in2010 - Pin it Forwards, the Souvenir FotoSchool classes and the August Break. So, I have done Pay it Forwards, August Break, Lovely Package Exchange & loved them all.
Sendlittle surprises to friends in the mail. Last year I made a start on this. Thisyear I shall continue. Who doesn’t love surprises? Done.
Go to the bit of the A625 that has collapsed. No idea why but I have a feeling it’ll be alittle ‘end of the world’ like. Nope. Although I have thought about it.
Get my knees on the way to being sorted. I saw a specialist. I have been doing exercises. I ought to go back and see a physio again.
Swim. I love swimming and I don’t doit enough. Nope, I haven't even seen a pool!
To get back to the weight I got topre-glasto. Before I gave up on the health kick and put the weight back on. Grrrrrrrr.I think I’d quite like to lose a stone, maybe one and a half of them. Two wouldbe a dream. If anything I have put on weight. Oooops. This year will be the year.
Make frozen yogurt. I love ‘fro-yo’but Leeds seems to be all out of good places to buy it. I clearly wrote this full of hope as I added some things I'd need to my Amazon wish list. But that was the last I thought of it.
Crochet something other than abeanie. Not that beanies aren’t useful, but I’d like to expand my skills. I'll be honest, I don't think I even picked up my needles this year!
Go tothe theatre. Only the once, but we went to see Othello at the Crucible. It was pretty amazing.
Getone of my photo’s printed onto canvas. It was one of the boys pics, but I picked it, got it done and hung it so I think I can count it {plus he needs some imagery input in the house!}
Makemyself attend a Buns and Roses event. {well, hopefully more than just theone!} Edit - this'll have to be a Seven Hills eventnow I am in Sheffield! I have joined Seven Hills. Yes I am a WI member.
Learnmore about photoshop. Enough to that I can 'create' rather than just get by. It's all been self taught or from Pugly Pixel tutorials but I think I am getting better!
Picnic in the summer. We majorly failed on this one. We barely even BBQ'd let alone picnic'd. Although we did have a sports day, kind of picnic for my friend's birthday.
Take at least 6 roles of Holga film{and develop them} I've taken 3 rolls this year, but they are still sat, un-developed, in my room.

My Big Fat Gypsy Rave

2012-01-05T17:43:00.000Z

Random hardcore lasers, Slammin Vinyl, Bowlers, Manchester. Shot by the boyf on his phone.

I thought you might like to see how I spent my NYE.

Basically I spent the night feeling really old, slightly scared and a little bewildered. Not at the music you understand - I have never quite got hardcore so I was prepared for that confusion {we went for the drum and bass mostly}, but more at the outfits people thought were appropriate to leave the house in! I don't know if you've been to a rave recently but seriously, eh?

Some people rocked up in shorts and a tshirt - scruffy ones at that {It's new years people, make a little bit of an effort please!}

And then others, well, they'd definitely made an effort, but they'd just forgotten 90% of their outfit {see, I told you I was getting old}. There was a LOT of neon lycra {a little like the reception at one of the Big Fat Gypsy Weddings}. But there just wasn't a lot of it on one person. Pants and bikini tops with fluffy boots seemed to be the norm for women who frequented the room with the lasers. Unfortunately this seemed to be the case whether they were stick thin or looked like a badly stuffed sausage falling out of their laced up tops........You just have to wonder where their friends were when they asked if they looked good in it!

Holiday Crafting 2011 - Bath Bars

2012-01-02T12:00:00.000Z

I found this one on Pinterest and added it to the Christmas DIY list - Moisturising Bath Butter Bars. {I thought a none foodie option might be a nice little addition}
I followed the 'recipe' I found pretty much exactly and it was super easy to do, so here goes with the instructions as found

You will need;

8oz Shea Butter
8oz Coconut oil
8oz Beeswax
Large empty old jars
Large saucepan
Skewer
Silicone Moulds

I bought my shea butter and coconut oil from a beauty seller on Ebay. The Beeswax came from the nice people at Sheffield Honey who had just filtered some beauty grade wax.

I half filled a large saucepan with water and brought it to the boil. I then put the shea butter and coconut oil in an old large jar that I'd washed out and left them to melt. The wax came in blocks so I chopped it as small as I could and put them in another jar to melt, stirring with skewers every so often.

Once both the jars were filled with melted goo poured them both into the larger of the jars to mix.

The mixed liquids were then poured into the silicone moulds and left in the fridge to harden. Once they were hardened they just popped out of the moulds to be packaged.

I then made some little paper bags like this and popped a couple of bath bars in it and sewed up the top with a little label on it. The red and blue labels were made using these labels as a base from Eat Drink Chic.

Holiday Crafting 2011 - Christmas Cookies

2012-01-01T12:00:00.001Z

Again, a little deviation on one of last years gifts, the 'Cookie's in a Jar' - this time I packaged up a simple sugar cookie mix into little food bags, with a 1/2 teaspoon pipette of my handmade vanilla essence and popped them into some soup takeaway containers I have. I did some of these for my friends baby shower and they seemed to go down well, so I figured they couldn't hurt for Christmas too!

The Instructions were printed onto the back and I tied the pots up with some ribbon - organza, gingham and a solid red were the choices and they looked fab all together, but I did realise that was just pleasing to me!

To top off the cookies I tied a cookie cutter to the top and added a little gift card. The cutters were a little touch I added after I'd done the packaging as they sell sets of 6 Christmas cutters at Ikea for about £2.50 - which was just too good to pass up!

{All the red and blue labels were made using these labels as a base from Eat Drink Chic}

And tomorrow I'll be showing you how to make Lush style bath bars!

Holiday Crafting 2011 - Hot Chocolate on a Stick

2011-12-31T12:00:00.000Z

I made hot chocolates last year for Christmas and they seemed to go down pretty well, so I thought I'd give them another go and up the game on them a little.

What you will need to make about 10 chocolates;

20grams chocolate - some milk and some a very rich dark chocolate. Broken into small pieces to melt.
60 grs icing sugar
30 grs cocoa powder

The broken chocolate was added to a bowl for melting. In hind sight I probably should have done it in smaller batches than halving it, and maybe should have used a glass bowl! The bowl was put over boiling water until the chocolate looked like this;

Once the chocolate was melted and looked very swirly, I added the cocoa powder and icing sugar and mixed until it was all fully absorbed. Once it was mixed in I carefully spooned the mixture into silicone moulds. Once the chocolate started to harden I popped a spoon into each block as they wouldn't stand upright until then.

At this point it was time to embellish - 1/4 of the spoons then got covered in mini marshmallows and another 1/4 had a little pipette of Baileys added to it. (I bought pipettes from ebay in 2 sizes as they were super cheap and they've come in super useful.) I filled them as full as I could with Baileys, chopped off the excess tubing and sealed the end of it by melting it on the hob and clamping it shut. The pipettes were then pushed into the hardening chocolate.

The chocolate spoons were popped in the fridge to harden fully. Once they were they just popped out of the moulds to be packaged.

{All the red and blue labels were made using these labels as a base from Eat Drink Chic

Tomorrow I'll be showing you my cookie pots!

A little giveaway

2011-12-30T14:30:00.000Z

Edit: We have a winner

Rosie @ A Rosie Outlook - Congrats Rosie. I'll get a package out to you soon!

I know Christmas has been and gone, but I may have gone a little overboard in my estimation on what I needed to make {You never know who might pop a little gift round when you just hadn't expected it} Plus, actually measuring and working the exact quantities was never my strong point {of course I meant to make 100 hot chocolates when I only needed 88!}

So rather than these treats go to waste, I thought I'd run my first little giveaway. One lucky winner will get sent a box of belated Christmas cheer containing;

Homemade Bath Bars
50ml Homemade Vanilla
A Christmas Cookie pot
Some hot chocolates on spoons
A Mulled wine sachet.

All you need to do is leave me a comment below and tell me what your favourite bit about Christmas 2011 was and on the twelfth night {i.e the 6th Jan} I'll pick a winner and send you all the above.

{All the red and blue labels were made using these labels as a base from Eat Drink Chic}

Holiday Crafting 2011 - Vanilla Essence

2011-12-30T10:30:00.000Z

As soon as I found out you could make your own vanilla essence it changed my life. Well, maybe thats not quite the truth, but it has saved me a fortune! I keep a bottle of the stuff in my cupboard and regularly top it up as it runs low.

And it is the simplest recipe ever. Literally. You just need to be patient. I buy my vanilla pods in bulk from t'ebay because the supermarkets are uber expensive for them. This time I bought 100 from here as I needed them for the gift bottles too.

What you will need

750ml vodka.
10-15 vanilla pods.
A couple of months to steep.

Tip a little bit of vodka in to a cup and add some mixer of your choice - you need to make room for the vanilla pods after all.

Cut the vanilla pods length ways in half and scrape out the seeds with a sharp knife. Add the seeds and the vodka, and then put the cut pods into the bottle.

Once all of your vanilla pods are in the bottle, replace the cap and shake vigorously. Then leave the bottle in a dark place for about 3 months. You can use it sooner, but it won't be as vanilla-y as it could be.

I bottled it in to 50ml bottles with a vanilla pod halved and seeded in each bottle so the flavour kept on intensifying. The labels were printed onto the same Avery labels with the writing in clear again, so that the instructions for topping up become clearer as the vanilla gets used.

Pop back later for a little giveaway, or tomorrow for my hot chocolates on a stick!

Holiday Crafting 2011 - Limoncello

2011-12-29T12:00:00.000Z

Limoncello reminds me of ski holidays to Livigno in Italy when I was younger. On the mountain the adults would have one with lunch, and they would always be brought out for us all after dinner in restaurants. I know everyone says to serve it ice ice cold, but I am almost certain it would be served warm to us on the mountain side too.

And I decided last Christmas I wanted to make Limoncello for my friends, but unfortunately I decided this in the middle of December of last year and pretty much every recipe I looked at called for a months steeping, so I pushed the idea to the back of my mind and really did forget about it until this summer. But luckily I did remember in the summer - early enough to get on with it.
The recipe is in two halves. The first that needs to be done at least a month before you intend to drink the liquor and the second can be done as late as the day before you want to drink it.

Stage 1
You will need;

750ml vodka
10-ish lemons
Sharp knife
1 ltr container

Open the vodka and pour it into the larger container. If, like me, you're doing this in the morning, before breakfast, do not lick your fingers - not nice!

Wash your lemons. Take the sharp knife and start to peel the lemons. Each recipe I read suggested getting as little of the white pith on the peel, and I did try, but it was uber hard to not get any on so some went in with pith, some without. Apparently the pith makes it bitter-er.

Place the lemon rinds into the large container with the vodka. Seal and put in a dark place. After a few days you'll notice that the liquid is taking on a yellow-y tint so you know it's working. Leave for a month at least {I left mine for 3 because I could, but a month would be fine!} Shake every once in a while just to keep things moving.

Stage 2

You will need;

750 ml water
700 grams caster sugar
A large saucepan or two.
bottles to decant in to.

Place the water in your large saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the caster sugar. I know it seems like a lot, but you don't want it to be too tart! Once the sugar has dissolved, take the pan off the heat and let it cool down. I did read that whether your Limoncello comes out cloudy or clear depends on the temperature of the water when you add the vodka - cold and it'll be clear, warm and it'll be cloudy!

Strain the lemon vodka in to the sugar water, making sure none of the lemon rind gets in your pan.

Stir the mixture and then decant for drinking yourself or giving!

Labels - I printed these labels onto Avery clear labels, with the background grey and the writing in white so that it wouldn't be printed and would show up clear.

Check back tomorrow for my vanilla essence instructions.

Holiday Crafting 2011.

2011-12-28T17:39:00.001Z

I wanted to show you what I made for my friends for christmas - I've been making these gifts, on and off, for such a long time I feel like I ouught to have mentioned it, but the problem with having your 3d friends reading your blog is that you really can't blog about any of your Christmas crafting, or they'll know exactly what they're getting. Maybe I could find out their IP addresses and block them for a few months before Christmas and their birthdays? That seems a little extreme to me though, so I'll have to make do with not blogging about my gifts until after Christmas.

But to cut the rambling short, this year I couldn't decide on one gift, so I made a little collection of gifts for my friends. A smorgasbord of DIY's if you will, including;

Limoncello
Vanilla Essence
Mulled Wine Kits
Lush style moistursing bath bars
Hot chocolates on spoons
Christmas cookie boxes

And even though it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too late to be used for your 2011 crafting, I thought I'd take the next few days to show you what I made and how I did it. {Unfortunately, like a dunce, I didn't take photo's of the stages, but everything was uber simple so I am sure I'll be able to explain it.}

I made two different sets of gifts - one came in the little gabled box you see above and the other was a duo of a DIY cookie box and the Hot Chocolates on spoons in a little printed bag.

I'll start with the packaging and let you know that I fully 'cheated'. What with all the other stuff I had going on over the last few months, my somewhat lacking photoshop skills and my deep rooted love of the design I decided to use these Holiday Mail Stripe tags, by one of my favourite crafty bloggers Eat Drink Chic, as my starting point and work everything around them. I la-la-love the little reindeer stamp, and the colour scheme.
So I printed a bunch of the tags for general use, and then set about mixing up the design a little where needed in photoshop.
For the majority of the labels, I just wrote the text straight on to them, using Scribble Box as my main font and Pea Jenny Script as my secondary font. Once I was happy with the text it was just a case of printing them, cutting them out and rounding the corners - mostly to hide my uneven cutting skills but also because I just think it looks more finished.
For the larger labels on the cookie box and the gabled kraft box, I had to do a little cutting and shutting as when I stretched the label, it understandable looked odd, so it was a case of piecing together the reds and blues until they were even.
The gift bags were printed from here. No modification, no nothing. Just a little bad gluing!
So there you have it - my packaging!
Tomorrow, I'll go through my Limoncello recipe and bottling!

Another Lovely Package

2011-12-14T17:38:00.000Z

So, following on from my post detailing what I received forthe A Lovely Package swap, I thought I would show you what I sent.

First off, I ought to mention that we did get a wholehost of likes and hobbies about each person, and I feel kind of bad as I totallyignored the list and put together this package, but in my defence, I thought itwas a good idea!

So I started with an idea – Annabel is at uni in Lancashire,I live in Yorkshire. All I saw was a regional divide. For those of you notfamiliar with this divide, it stretches back to, I imagine, Robin Hood’s era and the War of the Roses.Yorkshire has a white rose and Lancashire has a red one. People fought for their colours. That sort of stuff. More recently it ismostly football based. So any how, this was where my brain went. A war of theroses themed box. But then after a chat with one of my friends, I changed it upa little and focused on Sheffield.

So my box was a collage {I believe the cool term is decoupage now after Kirstie’s shows} of pages torn from Sheffield magazines and spray mounted onto the box. There was, in a stroke of luck, a map on one of the pages, so that clearly was destined for the top.

Inside, above the tissue paper, we have a small white paper rose {for those of you who don’t understand. Re-read paragraph 2.} and a little note, explaining my decision.

And then, on to the goodies – I searched far and wide* forsome of the best Sheffield stuff so we have;

Hendersons Relish – this is my new favourite food stuff. I hadalways poopoo’d it as it says the word ‘spicy’ on the front. But this is notspicy at all. It is just tangy goodness that ought to be enjoyed on most foods!I also included some recipe suggestions which are tied to the bottle – that’s whatthe twine is.

Pale Rider – from the award winning Kelham Island brewery. Iwork just round the corn from the brewery, so this was an absolute no-brainer.

Sheffield Honey – these guys are at the local farmersmarket, and have been super helpful in helping me get one of the ingredientsfor my handmade Christmas gifts too. Plus the honey tastes amazing.

Chocolates from Cocoa – this is pretty much the cutest shopon the planet. They have a candy striped awning that shelters just the mostamazing shop. Hand made chocolates were a must!

Sheffield Brew – not being a tea drinker, I have no idea whatthis will be like, but I have heard very good things about it. So Annabel youwill have to let me know.

Pete McKee Card & Jonathan Wilkinson postcards – both ofthese guys are iconic Sheffield artists. Pete for his depictions of the peoplein the town, and Jonathan for his ‘cityscapes’. If I am honest, I think I preferJonathans style. The cooling towers shot is just Sheffield!

A guide to the local area. If you know Sheffield at all youwill know that Eccy Rd and Sharowvale are laden with cool, quirky and funplaces to shop, eat and drink, so I thought I would finish the box off with alittle map showing Annabel, should she ever visit Sheffield, where she ought tovisit!

Not a massive amount of making or crafting I know, but I was pretty pleased with my 'taste of Sheffield' box - I just hope Annabel isn't too disappointed that I veered slightly away from her likes and dislikes.

*took a walk round my local shops - bc they sell everything that I needed.

A Lovely Package

2011-12-14T11:37:00.000Z

My A Lovely Package surprise arrived yesterday – and I feelawful as I haven’t even posted mine yet {today – I promise!}. But you have tosee the amazing the little collection of gifts I received from Annabel at Fragmented Splendour -

She sent me a beautiful little turquoise and gold necklace from her jewellery making – I have it on right now and love it!

A uber cute little boat brooch – these old fashioned sailing boats are my favourite type to see out on the water.

Some crocheted snowflakes – how on earth she knew I’d been lusting after crochet snowflakes since Lizzy bought be a book on them {I know I should have made them myself by now, but they look uber complicated. I started one but it confused me!}

And some pom pom bunting. I think the lacey one might be my favourite. These will definitely be up in the house!

I feel a little self-conscious about the package I have sent her now as it is no where near as cute - in fact it is far from 'cute' but I was really happy with it {And I just hope it arrives in one piece. I did use bubble wrap but after wrapping I could hear some clinking – I am not sure writing fragile on things works does it?}

You would also not believe the strange looks people at work give you when you tell them you’ve done a blog gift swap.

Crafter-evening {That's not quite got the same ring to it as Crafternoon, has it.....}

2011-12-08T14:25:00.001Z

Last week I held the second of the crafting groups with my friends - we attempted a little wreath making {but this time for various reasons, I was about a thousand times less organised and took no pictures. For one we had it on a Thursday evening, so there was no time for me to prep really. It was all a bit of a rush. Two, evening lighting is bad. And three, it really didn't look as pretty - there was stuff everywhere}

There were two types of wreaths available - vine wreaths and foam ones. The foams ones - wrapped in wool proved the most popular, but there were still a few takers for the vine ones. We had a table full of holly, expertly half-inched from the bush in my parents garden, some evergreen tree, ribbons, pinecones, felt, wool, glitter, buttons and bells - not to mention the food.

Having looked at Pinterest I knew I wanted to do a grey wreath, but i envisaged it with a whole heap of balls of wool and pinwheels and things on it - in reality it's grey, with a few glittery balls, a pinwheel and a woollen ball! I may add to it yet, but it's not a quick process wrapping that wool round foam. And it appears to have a bit of a kink in it where I might not have taped the foam tight enough, but what do you think?

And here is a little glimpse of the type of wreath the people who did the vine wreaths created.

Happy December

2011-12-01T09:04:00.000Z

December 1st - 'Woman' by Wolfmother from lewisnluke on Vimeo.

This might be the best advent calendar ever.

Best laid plans and all.

2011-11-29T15:48:00.001Z

About 3 months ago, after a particularly vigorous pinning session, I started my handmade Christmas present planning. I figured it all out, on a spread sheet and everything {Lizzy,you would be proud!}, what needed to be done when, when I wanted things completed by, which month I would pay forthings, and how they’d be packaged. I even started on a couple of the projectsthat needed a while to, hmmmm, cure.
But that is pretty much where I stopped. Theplan was to create about 8 different things and package them all up prettily andhave all, bar one, done by the start of December so I didn't have the stressand rush that the old housemate and I had last year when we decided to hand make a load of gifts and didn't really give ourselves enough time.
Well, as it stands I have two gifts finished, andanother is half made, but nowhere near ‘done’, the craft room/dressing room/junk room is a mess of bits of twine and scraps of fabric and I am fast running out of timeto get them completed by ‘fake christmas’ at the boy’s family in a few weeks.
Plus Istill have a crafting afternoon to host, a baby gift to make for my friend Sammy, and the Pretty packageexchange to do. What with a few weekends away planned in and my evenings quicklyfilling up, I think it might be time to re-evaluate the plans I had and scaleback slightly.

And I haven’t even started thinking about bought Christmas gifts, decorating atree, or the boys birthday at the start of January! Yikes.

Just the two of us {almost, nearly}

2011-11-25T12:00:00.000Z

From www.houseofturquoise.com

The housemate gave us some fantastic news last week. He is moving out. And of his own accord {well almost, he may have had some subtle hints from our friends, but shhhhhhhh}. He moves out at the end of December, but I wont go into where he is moving to too much as I think it might be a crack den,and it scares me.

And not only does it mean that the boy and I get to live together, just us, but it means we get more space in the kitchen cupboards {say hello, baking cupboard}, we I get one less person to nag into cleaning, all of his habits will leave with him and, most most most importantly, we get a spare room, which means we can have more friends to stay and they won't have to sleep in the living room!
A, quirky, attic spare room. But a room that I get to decorate, 'how ever I want' I am told. Can you see where I may be going with it by that image above? Think white and turquoise and wood. I can't wait to get started up there, and it'll give me a project whilst the boy is away in India again in February and March. All I have been told is that it needs to house a desk for his computer!

I've only been up there once, but if I recall the {steeeeeeeeep} stairs come up in the middle of one wall, the bed fits against the one opposite, it's got a little alcove where the window is, which I am hoping will fit a desk perfectly, and on the other side of the room there are a couple of odd cupboardy, wardrobey things with a cubby behind them, which would be great for storing all our big things that probably shouldn't be in the cellar - I bet it would look fab with a pretty curtain in front of it. It needs a new floor {one day} and maybe a carpet - although some white painted floorboards would do me fine. And definitely a lick of paint. And the thing it'll need more than anything else, especially as I am guessing it hasn't been cleaned in about 3 years, is a very good disinfecting and airing!

The Lovely Package Exchange

2011-11-23T12:00:00.000Z

The other week, in asurprisingly on-the-ball moment, I managed to make the sign-up list for the Oh, Hello Friend Lovely Package Exchange.

The plan is to swapsomething wonderfully wrapped and bundled up with another blogger, whothemselves likes pretty packages. The swaps are happening country by country tohelp with postage, which I guess means you can be even more creative with bothwhat and how you send your gift. I'm super excited as I am pretty sure that packaging your gift is almost as important as the gift itself. {Granted sometimes I will be at the last minute and I am sorry if you've received one of those gifts, but on the whole, pretty wins every time.}

The swapee’s were announcedon Monday and I thought I would introduce you to mine - Annabel at Fragmented Splendour. We all filled in a little questionnaire and from hers I know that these are her likes and hobbies;
5 favorite things: I adore cats, sweet vintage items, Anything purple or mustard, lace and crochet items and anything at all that is hand made! :)

5 words to describe you or your style: Quirky, unique, colourful, lovely, avid book&blog reader.

Anything else you'd like to mention: I LOVE packaging & getting post, I make jewellery, I'm a student, I study Fine art & my favourite piece of clothing is a dress covered in cats!

So I will try and weave those likes into my gift collating/making {I just have to be honest though, I don't really 'do' cats, so it might not contain them!} and now I have a couple ofweeks to get my ass in gear and send her something that not only is fun butlooks pretty when she receives it.

I have about 5 different theme ideas racing aroundmy head so I guess the best bet would be to pop them all in a hat and stick toone, or it’ll be a whole mish-mash of ideas and probably turn out horribly.

But it is fab to know I amgoing to not only be making something pretty but receiving something nice too!

A little baby shower

2011-11-21T13:30:00.000Z

I just wanted to share a little peek at the baby shower Jess of Mama Doreen's and I hosted for our friend Sammy. It was held at Jess's beautiful home {just look at that those chairs and the colour of that wall. Swoon, swoon, swoon.}
Jess and her mum made the cakes, and jess did a huge array of yummy food - loaded potatoes, chilli, toasted panini's followed by cake pops, an amazing sticky toffee cake and a chocolate cake that was to die for.
And I made some decorations - tissue pompoms and a cupcake liner pompom {that involved me busting out the glue gun!} did the favours - a little 'cute as a button' cookie set, made 'wishes for baby' cards for us to all fill in and put together a little afternoon crafting activity, where by we all sewed a little ornament for a mobile.

how cute?

cake pops

little girls love cake

bunting

cake. mmmm. cake.

Jess, not posing at all.

time for gifts

wishes for baby

cute as a button

Knowingly Undersold?

2011-11-17T15:25:00.001Z

Forgive me - this is a massive rant! But if you follow me on Twitter you might have seen my debarkle,what, maybe 4 weeks ago, with John Lewis and their shocking customer service asI ordered my dining table. Well, I have the table, but it's taken me 4 weeks to get an apology {of sorts} for the way their staff spoke to me and I just seem to havebeen passed around different people, so I am putting it in writing and on theinternet to see if anyone else has managed to be ‘undersold’ by John Lewis.

So, the story is, I found the table of my dreams in the JL in Sheffield, the sales assistants told me it was always in stock and the best thing to do would be to order the week before I wanted it and so leftthe dream table in the store until I had decorated. Later, when my dining room wasalmost done I went back to order it with my mum. Unfortunately the table wasout of stock, as were the chairs, so we had to order them. Having a little eventplanned on the 30^th I told the nice, but slightly useless, SalesAssistant that I needed the table for then, and she told me no problem, everything would be back in stock the following Monday, the 24th.

Fast forward 4 days and I get an email from the online sideof the business telling me that the chairs were back in stock, so as instructedI gave them a little call. This is where the problems start – I got put throughto the furniture dept. in the Sheffield store to enquire about getting thechairs delivered {I was told they’d be delivered separately} but unfortunatelythe woman I ended up speaking to must have been having the worst day ever. Eitherthat or she is just uber grumpy all the time. But in the snottiest I-am-better-than-youtone she proceeded to tell me that yes my order had come in, but not to be sostupid as why would they deliver them without the table {erm, because you saidyou would, duh!} and she also told methat ‘even if my table did arrive the following week, I definitely wouldn’thave it for the weekend. I explained I’d been told it would be with me forthen, as I had an event I need the table for but she went on to tell me that I shouldhave ordered it sooner, my event was no concern of hers and she didn’t reallycare what I did but my table wouldn’t be with me. then asked me if I wanted tocancel my order. At that point I was mighty close, but having spent 4 months lookingat tables and knowing this was the one I wanted, I didn’t. I know after that Ishould have. I mean, I worked in retail for a long time and I know sometimes itgets you down – I really understand that- but if I’d have spoken to a customer,especially one actually spending a decent amount of cash with them, like that I’dhave expected to at least get some sort of comeuppance.

So I turned to twitter and told them about how horrible theservice had been and @JLcustserv suggested that I email them, so I did and got a littlemessage back to say someone would be back in touch in 24 hours.

So here the customer service journey goes 2 ways – one waywhere my table comes in stock, and when I phone to chase the delivery {I know,surely I shouldn’t be chasing it!} I get told that I have to go and collect itfrom their depot, and then it changes to no, it won’t be with me on time on anumber of occasions until I spoke to a lovely guy called Chris in their Manchestercall centre. He did some magic and got me a Saturday delivery slot so the table arrived just in time.

But then there is the other side – 5 days go past and I stillhaven’t heard anything after this promise of contact in 24hrs, which has kindof pissed me off more - at least do what you say you will, so I called them,and got told it’d be another 24hrs before someone called me. Guess what, 7 dayslater and nothing. So I called again andthis time I hit the escalated complaints department and the lady there assuresme I will get a call, and gives me her number in case I hear nothing. And yes,you’ve guessed it – they didn’t make any contact. So now it’s taken anothercall and another email – at their request - to get some acknowledgement fromthe Sheffield store. The woman who called me was lovely, but it has to be saidher apology was a bit wishy washy. First off she said she thought someone had emailed me back already, or they should have a month ago {yes, yes they should have, or maybe 2 weeks ago when I chased them}, that I shouldn't have been spoken to like that {you think?} and 'we'll look into it' {it was a month ago. If you thought I had been replied to and you were actually going to look into it, maybe you should have done that when you first got the email?} and her offer to send me a voucher for a freecoffee next time I am in store is, well, slight annoying as I don’t even drink coffee and maybe a little offensive!

When I sent my first email all I wanted was I was my tableon time like I was promised, and maybe a sorry. But now, as they have made mework for it, have consistently let me down and have made me chase them for somecontact I thought I’d let the world {well, my few readers} know. And it’s mademe feel a little less mad about the whole affair by getting it out in the open.

Gifted

2011-11-14T12:13:00.000Z

You have no idea how happy it made me this weekend when I saw that Creature Comforts had brought out a Gifted 2011 magazine. And even though half the stuff isn't available in the UK, oh, the ideas, oh, the ideas. My brain is overflowing.

Open publication - Free publishing - More christmas

Bring on the plethora of Christmas magazines to make me question all the lifts I am making and make me even more chubs with all their delicious recipes.

Gifts to myself

2011-11-10T13:00:00.000Z

You know I posted about the Besotted Brand shop I mentioneda few weeks ago? Well, you should know that when payday arrived the first thingthat I did was place an order {in fact I placed the order the night BEFOREpayday because Paypal always take their sweet time to get the money}. And 9days later, which from the US of A is pretty fast I think, my little present tomyself arrived. And don't presents to yourself feel much more like pressies when they are wrapped up like them?

Of course I got the anchor. And the 'hello' and 'handmade' also made their way into my basket. I mean if I am already paying the postage, I might as well make use of it right? And they will be super useful, what with all the gifts I am making.

And Miss B threw in some other unexpected goodies - i beautiful stamped gift tag, craft heart stickers, 2 more little stamps {'thank you' and a 'just a little note'} and importantly, some ink so I could play right away.

People in my life, you ought to expect pretty much everything you receive from now on to have the shit stamped out of it. So what if I have made you nothing. So what if you hate the ocean and anchors {more fool you btw}. EVERYTHING will be stamped. Get used to it!

*Please forgive the images, there appears to be no natural light during my at home hours any more, so they are all orange and yellow.

What would you do?

2011-11-07T15:30:00.000Z

This sodding quote keepstaunting almost every time I hit the 'everything' button on Pinterest. Its a stupid,simple question, but somehow it has got in my brain and planted somecrazy seed which makes me wonder what would I do? Or, maybe, what would I do iffailure didn't mean there would be something bad waiting for me atthe other side, like massive debts and not being able to pay the bills. It almost makes me mad to see people doing the things they loveand managing to make a life doing it {for instance, my brother and his bar -he's doing what he's always wanted to do, and doing it well apparently. I am very proud ofhim and his fiancée, but also a little pissed off that he's the 'sorted' onenow!}

Honestly, if I didn't havemoney to worry about - paying debts and bills and the likes - what I would loveto do is Events. Smaller ones, like parties and weddings, where the attentionto detail is the thing that makes it work, where we could talk about thatperfect shade of blue and arrange a colour scheme around it and in this dreamjob I’d definitely be working for people who would notice when I used a certainfont. I just don’t think Sheffield is calling out for me to do this. My bankbalance certainly isn’t. And do nice fonts make other people smile, or it itjust me?

I usedto think I would like a boutique-y/crafty shop with a little cafe on the side -my friend and I discussed it at length during our time together at Quiksilver,we would have sold women's clothes in the brands we love but struggle to gethold of and she would have had an uber cool cafe that opened late and had bandsplaying. We'd sell artwork from the walls and hold exhibitions. We even knewhow it would look and once upon a time costed up the gear, but it was just alittle too far away from our grasp.

Or Iwould quit it all and go do another snow season, but at 30, I think I am tooold. I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the kids and their partying and Icouldn’t snowboard every day anymore, what with my cheese knees – but would it matter if I wasliving in the mountains? And if I took the boy, we could chalet host. He couldcook and I could clean and bake. Doesn’t it sound great. If only. And if Icouldn’t fail, I’d give a massive kicker a go again, and a kinked rail. If Icouldn’t fail on the mountain I would be the snowboarder I always wanted to be– I would be badass! Trust me, even Jake Burton would be knocking on my door.And then I would give surfing a go.

Or maybeI would push the boy to look into an opportunity a little more. Take a leap. Maybe I will anyway.

What, if you couldn't fail,would you do?

DIY Glitter Shoes

2011-11-02T12:30:00.000Z

This weekend we have a friends 30th birthday to attend. The dresscode is 'Black, Bling and Ting'. The black I can do, no probs, and the bling - well, I had a little Pinned project I wanted to try. Glitter Pumps {actually, I really wanted to give these sequinned numbers or these diamond encrusted platforms a go, but I don't have the patience for that amount of sticking and sewing and we all know I could never walk in a pair of those heels!}

I had a pair of H&M shoes I bought ages ago because the heel is little, but have never worn as they seem a little mum-sy in their height {go figure - low enough for me & my heel phobia to wear, but too mumsy in height to wear!} so they seemed perfect to glitter in case it all went wrong.

This meant I just needed Glitter. The tutorial over at Pixie in Pumps says use super fine glitter, but the stuff in pots in Hobbycraft didn't look that fine, so I bought their pre-mixed glitter glue - in silver and also in a black with reds and blues in it to give the colour of the shoes a little pop.

The tutorial calls for sanding your shoes down. All I could find was some medium weight sandpaper, but I think it might have been a little rough as it made bits stick up - so maybe a fine sandpaper would work better. I did get some odd looks from my housemate whilst I was sanding my shoes down - he definitely does not get craft/DIY-ing!

The shoes half way though - after one coat.

Once I had mixed the two glitters I set about painting my shoes. I think in hindsight the glitter mix could have done with being more glittery as there was a lot of shoe showing though after the first coat. But I left the shoes over night to dry and did another coat the next day and they have a much better coverage of glitter now. I was undecided whether to do another coat but I think it might get too thick and crack, plus they are just for a party so I think I might leave it.

This is the coverage after two coats and a little touching up around the edges. What do you think? I think I might like them and you can just about make out the reds and blues in the sparkles too. The colours work quite well with the silver lining H&M had so kindly provided too don't they, it's almost as if they knew how they'd end up!

I am not sure how well they'll hold up to a night of partying but there doesn't appear to be any glitter coming off them when I rubbed my hands on them. And I have loads of the glitter mix left so I might throw it over some old irregular choice pumps I have that are looking pretty worse for wear now!

what I used;

Old pair of shoes
Sandpaper - a fine one.
Hobbycraft pre-mixed glitter glue. 120ml bottle would be plenty. {or use PVA glue and glitter.}
A small-ish paint brush
A little bowl for mixing in
Tin foil to cover everything in.

Crafternoon

2011-10-31T12:30:00.000Z

I have been planning to host a little crafting event for a while, but the house needed some serious decorating beforehand as we'd need a table to craft on. Finally with an end in sight, I arranged a little craft afternoon, or 'crafternoon'. For a while it looked like it might not happen as the table needed for it was on order without a delivery date, but on Saturday morning John Lewis finally delivered me one, meaning we could get our craft on on Sunday.
So here is my little take on a crafting afternoon with some teacup candle making;

We had tea cups, mostly collected by my mum when she found them in the boxes she buys from auctions and the likes. A big bowl of wax pellets, wicks and wick holders.

I also made sure we had some things to pretty up the end results - little bags, ribbons, washi tape and tags.

Each candle was made with a cup and a half of wax, melted and poured into the cup. After a candle making attempt before and having ruined a few bowls then, I had a brain wave and we decanted the wax into old glass jars which we placed into saucepans of boiling water. {It was a much better plan as i just threw out most of the jars after we'd done - I have kept one for a christmas craft that involves wax!}

And here is the finished article. We all left with pretty teacups, now holding a candle. Tarted up in little bags with ribbons and twine.

And for treats I made some pumpkin whoopie pies, caramel buttons* and spiced cider;

The whoopie pie recipe can be found here. I have never baked with pumpkin before and to be honest, they taste more of the cinnamon and spices than they do of the pumpkin, which is fine by me! But they went down well, and either got eaten or taken home.

And I made little individual banana breads as take home treats - because nothing says autumn to me like banana bread. It's my 'go to' recipe from Orangette and one of my favourite things to bake as it always comes out well.

{totally forgot to take a picture of the cider until if was dark - but check my new drinks dispenser!}

Hot Spiced Cider - I have also never tried this before {but I've drank a lot of it at Glastonbury} and I don't quite know where I found this recipe, but I've had it written down for a while. It did call for All Spice but we don't have any so I didn't use it and I don't think it missed it. The housemate said it needed brandy, but he like a drink and plus we didn't have any brandy, so I ignored him. It'll definitely be something I'll make again.

4ltrs apple cider
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 oranges (quartered)
3-4 cinnamon sticks
1tsp cloves
{1tsp of all spice - but I didn't}

Pop all the ingredients in a pan and stir until the sugar has dissolved {it will fizz when you add the sugar!} once the sugar is dissolved, turn the heat down and let simmer for 2-3 hrs. Serve warm.

*not awfully sure about these - they stuck together, were super hard and didn't really get eaten {or photographed} but they tasted pretty good!

Oh, and just in case you were wondering - all the printed collateral has been adapted from this free printable by Creature Comforts and the font is Peach Sundress.
The bunting is from here. Printed onto nice paper and cut out with pinking shears.

Trying my hand at quilting

2011-10-26T12:30:00.000+01:00

Last month was my bestie, Lizzy's, baby boy, B's 1st birthday. I am not sure what to get for small people for their birthday's. Liz is really the first of my friends with one. And I have this theory that at one they don't fully know what they are getting, probably have far too many toys, so something pretty for child, but really for Mum might be better.

When I saw this quilt on Pinterest {of course} I had it straight in my head as a gift for B! Knowing the nursery colours, I chose base fabric in these, then I asked Liz B's favourite colours and picked cottons in those for the stitching.

I made it an age ago, but since I had the pleasure of seeing Lizzy and family on Monday, I can blog about it now.

Now I am not quilter. In fact this is my fist attempt. And in a lot of ways it went well - I mean there is a finished article! But in so many more it went really wrong. You can see on the picture below where the fabric has puckered and the lines are so very very wonky. And in the tutorial has way way more lines {but I am not patient enough to do more} Oh and the bias tape might be a little shoddy. I may or may not have had to re-stitch parts of it. But I did add a little loop so that it could be used as part of a fort in the future - always thinking!

But over-all I am pretty impressed, so here are some shot-at-the-last-minute-before-I-wrapped-it pictures.

My new favourite thing

2011-10-19T13:30:00.000+01:00

It's been a few months since i discovered the 'Birthday Party in a Box' and I have to say it might be one of my new favourite things for my friends birthdays. It is super customisable, and never fails to make people happy. And as it happens, it was my friend Jen's birthday this weekend, so I knew what I'd be giving her.

But since I would be popping round to see Jen, rather than posting her gift, I could shake it up a little (the boxes that are going through the post have contained a bake it yourself cake mix you see) so, here goes, her birthday party consisted of;

2 Fancie cupcakes one vanilla with a flake, one chocolate, maybe both for her, maybe one for her fancie?
2 candles - one for each cake, not one for each year ;) they are ombre 'd pink and uber tall and elegant.
little start confetti table sprinkles
bunting made from some cute wrapping paper
a little bottle of pink sparkling wine and 2 straws {she is that classy}
some pretty pink, silver, white and black balloons.

And as I couldn't find a box on my travels down Eccy road, I packaged it all up in a little red polka dot reusable zippered bag that I thought Jen would be able to find a use for again.
Minutes after my arrival there was bunting strung on the bookcase, balloons and confetti everywhere, - including all over the game of Risk that was just being set up. And as she had been keeping this birthday a little quiet, I think she was pretty happy with it all.

I think I need to step up my Party in a Box game though - what would you like to see in a birthday party box?

{On a side note, her boyfriend had bought them a barrel of Jaipur from the Thornbridge Brewery. Never had it before, but mmmmmmmm, it was nice.}

Things I have learnt this week;

2011-10-17T16:35:00.000+01:00

Painting a room, from plastering, takes way longer than you think it will.
A radiator may work when your dad re-attaches it, but it probably won’twhen you need it.
People can say they'll be there for you, but the words mean nothingunless they're there when you need them.
You never learn that the bottom step of the step-ladder is missing {Ihave many, many scrapes on my legs to prove it}
I don't sleep well alone. Despite having lived alone for a fewyears, 6 months sleeping with the boy next to me has screwed up my sleep alonehabits.
A new cream carpet and a cut on your thumb that won't stopbleeding shouldn’t be mixed.
A Polo is like a tardis – an ebay boughtsideboard is no match for the car of dreams!
Nail varnish removes paint from allsorts of places it shouldn’t be. Like fireplaces.
Little gifts to unsuspecting friendscan brighten even a rubbish day.

{can you tell I spent my week in DIY hell?}

Besotted

2011-10-15T10:00:00.000+01:00

Have you seen the Besotted Brand Shop that just opened?
It is run by one of my all time favourite bloggers, Miss B, who I've been reading since I discovered the Souvenir Foto School's a few years ago. And well, she has launched a shop full of super cute stamps and papers. And to top it all off
I kind of have my eye on a few of the little stamps - namely the 'hello' one and the 'handmade' one, but what I really, really want is the super duper box set that I've pictured above, and more than a little bit because I want to see that ace box that it comes in.

If you haven't seen the shop, then you need to head over, because, in her own words, her unborn children wont be going to college unless she sells some of the beautiful paper she bought.

How to fill a month alone.......

2011-10-05T21:01:00.002+01:00

The boy leaves for India on Monday, for a month. Needless to say, I am not looking forwards to it. I am still unsure where I fit here so having him gone wont be easy.

But the plan is to keep myself busy - I have a bit of a house project on my hands - at the moment, we have a living room that has a layer of watered down paint on it, no carpets, no blinds - no nothing.
The paint for the walls has been bought, the blinds are sitting in their boxes in the room and the carpet is ordered. I just have to do the work - which kind of sucks, as I'll be doing it alone. But I guess, at least I get to do it how I want it. And once that room is decorated, there is just the little matter of moving all the furniture in and furnishing the dining room with the beautiful table I have seen. The advantage of the boy being away might be the purchase of a chandelier {every time I mention it the boy says no. But if he isn't here, what can he do......} I can do all of that with just one free weekend right?

And I have a weekend away to see my prego friend, Sammy, to help with her nursery along with her baby shower to plan, a day booked off work to see Lizzy, her Lion and baby B which I can not wait for and a craft club to organise.
That's right I am planning a little crafting club for my friends once the table arrives. I mean, what is the point of a massive table if I can't utilise it? I just need to send out some invites and hope to god the room is done in time.

If anyone wants to come and help me throw paint around - just holla. I'll provide the paint and rollers, and maybe a glass of wine or two. There is some purple paint involved if that helps you decide?

Big Stitch

2011-09-23T12:29:00.000+01:00

Ages ago I signed up to the Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap by Beth at Do What You Love. My swap partner was in America, so even though I made this in August, I wanted to wait until I knew she'd received it until I posted about it.

The theme for this swap was 'Bloom' and after much thinking, I decided on my creation - I was going to take it super literally and make something that would actually 'bloom'.

One thought led me to another and then I found out about seed paper. I thought it would be simple to buy, but it turns out you have to buy it in packs and I really don't need 10 sheets, so this little voice in my head started saying 'why not try and make my own'. I mean, what could be hard about that?

So, I did a little Google, found this article, I bought some wildflower seeds, ripped up an old Lush newspaper and set about blending it. I then popped in some pink food colouring {because, in hindsight, already recycled, newspaper style paper wasn't the best to use. It went grey} and thought I was well on my way. Unfortunately, without a paper maker {whatever one is} the paper I made, despite being bright pink, wasn't exactly how I'd hoped it would have been. It was super thick and fell apart really easily.
But after a LOT of re-wetting, re-rolling and re-trying to flatten it out, I almost managed to make some paper. Yes, I know it looks REALLY bitty {it is} And yes, I know it looks really crinkled {it was} but I made it! And then I popped this little quote I had seen on Pinterest on the front of it, and the instructions on how to plant the paper on the back - I had planned to write in a pretty silver pen, but since the paper was sooooooo rubbish, marker pen was all that worked.

So, after I made the 'paper', I grabbed a Cath Kidston sample, folded it in half, and sewed the halves together. This made the base for my amazing paper, which was horribly stitched on to it with some pink cotton. Sewing through very thick, crumbly paper isn't to be advised!

And just as a little nicety as the paper looked so rubbish, I made a little broach from more Cath Kidston scraps, some felt and a safety pin. It might look familiar to one friend in particular, as we spent a day making them at her house out of felt.......But in short, I cut out the flower shape in felt and flowery material and sewed them together, I then made smaller 'flowers' and circles from co-ordinating material and sewed a button threw them all and round the safety pin on the bottom to hold it all together. I am quite happy with the results though.

So there you go, a very long winded post on how I made a blooming postcard - I just hope it actually grows now!

I Heart Home

2011-09-17T15:30:00.000+01:00

If you hadn't cottoned on by now, I love a good e-magazine. I really do. I love the foodie one, erm, hello, new edition of Sweet Paul. And I really love the interiors one {see, there were some good things I took from my relationship with an interior designer} I love them so much that I do sometimes suggest them to my clients, just for my benefit!

It is rare however to find them UK based, so when I stumbled across I Heart Home on Fabric of my Life I was smitten. Such cute home-grown styling, it's a little southern-centric, but hey, I can live with that.
And the best part, loads of British companies featured so the postage for all those things I don't need but have to buy is way cheaper!

Middle Class Dilemmas

2011-09-16T17:37:00.000+01:00

I have a massive dilemma - i am in la-la-love with this beautiful table from John Lewis - but the boy doesn't like it.

Why he doesn't like it is beyond me. It is tres pretty. I mean, it has dovetailed corners. It seats 6 comfortably, and then has a leaf so we could have a banquet! It was spotted in May and maybe, just maybe, it never left a little space in my brain.

But the boy, he likes the handmade farmhouse one at a shop round the corner. Which don't get me wrong, I thought I loved, until I popped back to JL last weekend and spotted this again. I think this table might be my new boyfriend.

So, what do i do? do i just order the table i like to arrive whilst he is in India? I mean, if he will leave me for a whole month, alone in the house with the annoying house-mate, am I really responsible for my actions during this time? I think not.

If you need any more help, helping me decide, here are those dovetails;

Styled Magazine

2011-09-08T18:30:00.000+01:00

I know it is every where right now but just in case you missed it, I wanted to tell you how much I have enjoyed reading Styled magazine today {got to love a online publication}. In particular I am wondering if I made these they would look anything like they are supposed to;

{also, do you think we can use the rank, flat, cider we picked up on the side of the road on the way to Glasto in the making of spiced cider}

Basically, go read it. Then tell me how to make spiced cider.

Boozed up

2011-09-03T23:20:00.000+01:00

{Click the image to go through to the site, and roll your mouse over the video to see how the sober world sees it!}

I am sure there is a message about not drinking too much in here, but it mostly has me laughing.

A little lost

2011-09-03T03:30:00.000+01:00

A while ago I mentioned this whole different city/house/jobthing and how it was taking some adjusting to. Even though I used to live justoutside of Sheffield, and yes, I know people here, it hasn’t, and maybe stillisn’t easy to move cities. I apologise if this is a winging winey post, but I amhoping if I get it out of my system, it’ll help.

For one - I am not loving living with the boy’s housemate. Hehas a very childlike mentality and you cant ask him to do anything, or heactively won’t do it {i.e clean} And if you ask him to not do something, hewill purposely do it {i.e annoying noises}. As you can imagine this is uberannoying. He hasn’t really had a relationship before and I do think maybe hisskills in human communications aren’t what they should be. {Also, having beenberated for discussing this before, I am biting my tongue here}

And two – the boy and I have very different views on what isclean and tidy and what lives where. Football socks/shin pads/boots do not have a place in a living room. Ever. And beds should be made and curtains opened. Nuffsaid.

Three – Football. All the time. Not a fan.

Four – I feel lost. I don’t really have a place here. I cantfind it. I am hoping Karey at Mackin Ink is wrong when she says it takes twoand a half years tofind yourself again. In Leeds I had a place. I knew what to do and where togo. I knew who to call for a post work drink.

Five – making friends at this age is tough. That sounds sochildish doesn’t it. And don’t get me wrong I have a lot of friends, but fewfriends here – they seem to be all over the place now. My neighbour, Lizzie, islovely and always about, and I hope I haven’t offended her when I have saidthis, but I cant rely on one person. There are a few people I know from before,but we all have lives and well, you know, just making friends when you’re olderis tough. Maybe I need to take up a sport? Maybe this no friends is why I feel lost.

Six – Work. I am not sure what is expected of me sometimes. Weekendsand evenings seem fair game and I am not used to that. What I am doing isinteresting, and challenging, but it is a very different environment to my last job. There was alot of banter. Lots of social occasions and I knew what was expected of me.

But I love living with the boy. {Even if he is messy} I justwish it was just us. And maybe that I had a little bit more of a social life. Andmaybe that work was more straight forwards.

Has anyone else found that moving has been hard. Even if you’veonly moved a cities? Or am I being all melodramatic and should I just put mybig girl pants on and deal with it?

Day Twenty thru Twentyfour

2011-08-24T12:14:00.000+01:00

I miss the sea when I am not there.

After a LONG train ride to Plymouth we sailed the 9hrs to Mylor, then to the Helford River, then Falmouth and then Mylor again. We ate at yacht clubs, and Rick Steins, and in the restaurant at the marina. I got to eat a lot of moules. I learnt that the fishermen get paid 30p a scallop, but the restaurants sell them at about £2 each. We didn't see much in the way of wildlife this time, but we did meet some people who were studying the bottom of marina's to see what the effect of them is on the coast line. Doesn't it look like something they'd have used on Seaquest DSV {god, I loved that show. Do not judge me!}.

Day nineteen

2011-08-18T21:12:00.000+01:00

The train trip from Sheffield to Plymouth. About Dawlish.

{The Kooks - Watching the ships roll in}

Seventeen

2011-08-17T10:40:00.000+01:00

stripping paint.

Sixteen

2011-08-16T23:12:00.000+01:00

My nan's garden is overrun with blackberries, and as she didn't even touch the ones I picked last time, this time they are coming home with me!

Fifteen

2011-08-15T22:06:00.002+01:00

Last month in a fit of thinking I had more money than I did I did something I haven't done in a while and bought books. A pile of them. And on a random evening with a couple of hours to myself whilst the boy runs about at football I am reading. And oh, my, this isn't the ending I expected.

IronCupcake:Leeds - Cocktails

2011-08-15T13:22:00.012+01:00

Ooooops, note to self, clean cake board before taking pictures.

Last night was the IronCupcake:Leeds and the theme, just in case the title doesn't give it away, was cocktails. I made a mojito cupcake. I've made them before, but i never remember to write down the recipe so, this time I am.

I kind of made this one up from a concentrate that I made for a cheesecake. I liked it and thought it might be a good addition to the cakes - so thats the base for cake and frosting.
I wouldn't suggest you make these with a hangover because you WILL want to try the mixture and rum at 10am with a bad wine/vodka head isn't nice.
I do love a little IronCupcaking - everyone is always super friendly - but that little bit competitive, and tonight, although I didn't place again I think I might have made my best entry yet!

Recipe {of sorts}

Forthe Mojito concentrate.

4limes
100glight muscovado sugar
4tbsp rum
Large handful of fresh mint leaves

Heat the sugar and 5tablespoons of water in a small saucepan, stirring until dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes without stirring. Finelygrate the zest and squeeze the juice from 3 limes. Remove from the heat and stir in the lime juiceand zest, rum and mint and set aside to cool.

You’llhave quite a bit left at the end of the cake making, {unless you dont have a hangover and aren't baking way too early to start drinking without feeling bad about it - in that case you might not} so mine is in the fridgefor some mojito sorbet to be made!

Forthe cakes

1cup softened butter
1cup brown sugar
2cups self rising flour
¼ tspbaking powder
4eggs
2-3shot glasses of the Mojito concentrate.

In a large bowl mix all of thecake ingredients well. Add the Mojito mix bit by bit. I kept trying the cakemix until it tasted Mojito-y. Yes. That was my excuse and I am sticking to it. Pop the mixture in cupcakecases {you can see I went classy here and chose a zebra print!} and bake for about 20 mins at 180.

For the frosting.

Icing Sugar (about 3 cups)
Soft Butter (about 150 grams)
Mojito Concentrate.

I have to say this was kind ofguess work. I mixed the butter and half the icing sugar together then addedmojito mix and more sugar until it became the right consistency. I also threw alittle green food colouring in for good measure {Use paste not liquid. Just do. Please.}

Garnish with a sprig of mint and atriangle of lime. There you go, boozy, limey, rummy, minty cakes.

Fourteen

2011-08-14T21:21:00.001+01:00

IronCupcake:Leeds- Cocktail edition. Mmmmmmmmmmm
{more images here}

Thirteen

2011-08-13T21:05:00.000+01:00

Trying to figure out sewing jersey material and failing.

But on a brighter note, I did find my perfect dining table!

Twelve

2011-08-12T23:12:00.002+01:00

Abandoned buildings near work. There are a lot of broken windows.

Eleven

2011-08-11T15:20:00.001+01:00

I spent my lunch break* in the haberdashery dept. of Cole Bro's {or John Lewis, if you're new school} looking for the perfect fabric for some birthday present projects - It's not the cheapest but I came away with some lovely stuff.

*yes, thats right, i had a lunch break. a full hour too.

Ten

2011-08-10T22:42:00.001+01:00

I had a meeting today in Harrogate and this is the view from the carpark. Not a bad sight to greet you when you get to work, hey?

Nine

2011-08-09T21:07:00.005+01:00

A sneak peak of my Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap postcard.

A little bit of crafting after a hectic day at work to calm me down.

Eight

2011-08-08T21:51:00.001+01:00

My nan is a little obsessed with buying on QVC. She loves it. And when I get beauties like these new Birkinstocks, so do I!

Seven

2011-08-07T22:30:00.003+01:00

It was time to harvest some beans. Clearly not these littlies,

but some whoppers that I gave to my nan. These ones are just cuter.

Six

2011-08-06T22:08:00.000+01:00

After a day of working, on a Saturday, this is what I'm dreaming of. And maybe a Elderflower and Lime Kobbarburg.

Five

2011-08-05T22:37:00.000+01:00

Pink wine and friends.

Four

2011-08-04T23:09:00.001+01:00

Hipstamatic train shot travelling to london.

Didn't get to do anything in London, just train, tube, 4hr meeting, tube, train, home.

Wish I'd had chance for an Anthro visit.

Three

2011-08-03T23:18:00.000+01:00

Hoping they go red.

Two

2011-08-02T20:49:00.003+01:00

Lunchtime walks.

One

2011-08-01T23:21:00.002+01:00

Global Gathering. Katie. Fake Blood. Smoke machine. Silly Glasses.

The August Break

2011-08-01T09:29:00.003+01:00

Since life appears to be getting massively in the way of,well, everything , including blogging at the moment, the August Breakcouldn’t have come at a better time. The August Break if you’re not aware of itis a bit of a blogging break created by Susannah at Susannah Conway

“Okay,here’s the plan for theAugust Break: you simply share onephoto (or more!) per day on your blog – Monday to Friday, or every day. Orwhenever you feel moved to share. Using any camera – DSLR, compact, Polaroid,Holga, iPhone (my choice), Instax, film or digital – with or without words –anything goes! – for thewhole of August. Nopressure – just looking at August through your camera lens as a way to be morepresent this summer. And to have a little break from the pressures andexpectations of regular blogging.”

I am going to try my hardest to post pictures every day forthe month. I am hoping it’ll kick start me taking photo’s again and help me getout of this funk where by work seems to be encompassing everything and all I wantto do {but strangely don’t seem to} is sleep. I might write a few words. I mightwrite a lot. And I will try not to post any images of my lunch at my desk,promise.

The Button Tin

2011-07-20T12:46:00.000+01:00

One of the girls at work, Steph, mentioned this place to me last week, The Button Tin. They do workshops on things like bunting making, book covering and vintage jewellery making. Seriously, how cute does it look?

Now for the surprising bit - its in Rotherham. {I know, Lizzie, I was shocked too!} For those of you not know in the know, Rotherham ain't the most glamorous or cool of places {trust me - I grew up there - and I mean it's home to the chuckle brothers!} so it's a little bit of a surprise that this would be somewhere like Rotherham. Leeds I could definitely understand, Sheffield maybe, but Rotherham. WTF?
It might even be worth negotiating the charity shops for a trip.

Committing to

2011-07-18T17:26:00.001+01:00

Cowboy Cupcake from here

I had a lot I ought to have photographed this weekend but it didn't happen so the image above is the inspiration for the cupcakes I made {although mine had bbq pringles, marshmallows and strawberry laces on them - taste sensation right there!} Theywere made for the wild west party I attended. Neither of which werephotographed at all. Nor the bucking bronco. Nor the hog roast. Nor the bouncycastle. Not a stitch of it.

But I had fun. And I had a massive hangover on Sunday, but Igot to spend some time with my brothers fiancé discussing their wedding plans. Itsounds amazing and they only got engaged 2 weeks ago. Probably a good job I won’tbe getting married. For one, I saw theprices some of these places charge. Ouch. {I imagine my mountain top, white une-piecedexcuse for a new board, jaeger bombed affair would not be cheap either!}

For this week’s commitments I have decided I am;

Going to spend an evening reading. I miss curling up with abook and just sitting alone. Plus I think a little alone time is a house with inhabitantsthat are always there might be needed. I will leave the laptop downstairs sopinterest can not distract me.
Planning on sending a letter or postcard to two. I mean whynot.
Starting a diet plan to match the exercise plan Lizzie and Iare starting {after tonights trip to Pho 68 though} I weighed myself thisweekend and it wasn’t pretty. I am a lot above my goal weight {admittedly thatgoal weight is the weight I was at uni, but I can dream right?}
Remembering to pick my strawberries as they ripen. Just becausethe plan looks cuter with them on doesn't mean they should go to waste.

There you go. This week’s commitments.

{The commitments series is inspired by Pink o'clock - you can see hers here}

IronCupcake:Leeds - Very Berry

2011-07-14T14:00:00.003+01:00

Tasted good, but looked a little flat!

I keep saying to myself this IronCupcake will be my last, and I said it this time - I even said I was just going to take the photo's, but then Zoe goes and announces the next months theme and I know if I can I'll be there.

This month it was 'Very Berry' and you can see all the details of the competiton at the beautifully newly designed site - http://ironcupcakeleeds.co.uk/ and more of my images here.

I toyed with the idea of a summer berry black forest gateaux, but after discussions with my nannan on one of my visits we decided something lighter might be better, so I went with a berry and lemon cake.About a day after that decision someone posted this recipe on twitter {I would love to credit them but I opened it, saved it and forgot - slapped wrist!}

Its from Edible magazine, which after a bit of Googling I discovered is a foodie mag in Brighton. I followed the recipe to the T and I was super impressed. Really lemony flavoured sponge {before and after baking - whaaaaaaaat? of course I licked the bowl afterwards, and the whisks and the spoon!} and it was really quite light too.

For the frosting I kind of winged it and that might be why the frosting you see in the image above is a little, well, meh.

Firstly I blended a frozen box of Morribobs mixed summer berries {I've still got quite a lot left to make sorbet with}. Probably I should have waited until they defrosted, but hey. I didn't.
I then mixed a cup of blended berries with half-ish of a block of butter. Again, should maybe have not added half frozen fruit to butter, but what the......It took a LOT of mixing by the boy. And warming up too. At this stage it kind of looked curdled.
Next I poured about 5 cups of icing sugar into the butter/berries combo. This made the whole thing a little better and more like a frosting. But not perfect. So I kept adding icing sugar. I have no idea quite how much. I would rather not think about it.
It still didn't fully harden, so it got refrigerated for a LONG time.

If I were you, and making a berry frosting, I would follow a recipe. Who knew icing sugar, butter and berries could go wrong? Hmmmmmm. Not me.

Once I was bored of waiting, and the frosting seemed thicker and more set, I iced the cakes. They didn't look too bad. Until I got in the car with them. Hot car + dubious frosting = splurge.

Once again I didn't place {totally NOT bitter. At all} But my friend said they tasted good, and one particularly classy friend did spoon up the mixture off the platter at the end of the competition, but she's a bit like that.

So there are my Lemon - Berry cupcakes. The verdict = tasted lovely/looked manky.

{P.s. Next month is cocktails. The theme I have been waiting for. Unfortunately the boy is plannign things for us so we might not be here!}

Committing to

2011-07-11T21:03:00.001+01:00

Our dog-sitting wards

This last week was half spent at my brothers house dogsitting, which was lovely as their house is beautiful. And massive. It needs tobe massive though to house the huge dogs they have. They are the most stupiddogs though, they bark at anything and nothing and wind each other up so muchthat they just end up randomly barking at each other. It did make us both decidewe defo want a dog.

And my brother got engaged whist he was away. The ring isbeautiful. They seem stupidly happy. Apparently he picked the ring. I smell arat. My brother has never had that good taste!

I also entered this month’s Ironcupcake:Leeds with a Lemonsponge and Berry frosting cake. The theme was ‘very berry’. I didn’t place – I thinkdue to a frosting malfunction - but I was the photographer and I had a loveytime – I was a little disappointed at the numbers of eaters though as therewere no cakes left over for me to try – I only got to sample one cake. Next monththe theme is cocktails and I have one ‘go-to’ recipe but I might try anotherrecipe for a whole different cocktail and see if I like it more.

This week my commitments are;

Start some exercising – my neighbour, lizzie, text me totell me she wants to start exercising when they get back from their hols this week, and can I help her. TBH my lardy assneeds to get off the sofa so I am copying her a version of the ‘30 day shred’on to a memory stick and I have found us a couch to 5k plan and I am hopingthat a little peer pressure might keep me motivated. Although the belly I amcultivating ought to be enough.
I have some cowgirl cupcakes to bake for the wild west partyon Saturday. Oh, and an outfit to find! {Obviously baking will help with the lardy ass thing!}
I also have to contain me jealously at the boy going to seeSnoop on Friday. Gutted. But it's a boy thing. All I can say is he best be fit for the party on Saturday too!

Cowgirl Style

2011-07-07T13:02:00.019+01:00

{click the image to see my cowgirl pins in more detail}

When we arrived at my brothers house last night for our dog sitting duties there was an invite to his ~~girlfriend~~ fiancée's 30th birthday party, next weekend. Its a wild west / cowboy themed do.

I need an outfit. Quick smart. But I would kind of like it to look classy you know. What do classy cowgirls wear? And come to think of it - what can i dress the boy in? {He wont wear checked shirts!}

{Also, my friend Jen is helping to organise a Cowgirl Hen-do in August for her soon to be sister-in-law {Jen is so not a tacky kind of gal either} so any help you give me will be passed on immediately to her. She has more of a job than me. I just need an outfit - she needs a whole party!}

Sometimes

2011-07-06T17:16:00.002+01:00

Make Everything Ok

This button would be ace to have. ;)
Sending it out to friends right now.

{Via lots of people, inc. @PG_Martin, on Twitter}

Committing to

2011-07-04T17:02:00.002+01:00

Lanterns in the Park @ Glasto

I wanted to get back to this. I felt like I needed to get back to some regular blogging. It’s all been a bit haphazard since I moved.

This weekend we went to Manchester for a chocolate making class with the boy’s mum. It was fun, messy and very calorific. More to come on this later. We also had a BBQ at his Mum's - There is nothing better than a cold cider and a BBQ on a sunny evening.
There was also a trip to Ikea for some curtains, bye-bye 4am and your sunshine. And not only do the new additions block the light out, BUT they match the room which means the bedroom is pretty much done. Maybe I’ll show you some pictures soon.

This week we’re heading to my brother and his girlf’s house to dog-sit whilst they are away for her birthday. We will be in charge of 2 massive Labradors and whatever type of dog Molly is. Their house is huge, the kitchen is so much bigger than ours, so I imagine the boy will be having a dream time in there, plus he can’t wait to spend some time with the dogs. It’ll be like practise for when we get one {did I mention we might have changed our minds to a Puggle?}

Right, without further ado this weeks commitments are;

Find some plants to fill the spaces made by the neighbours gardening spree whilst we were at Glasto - is there anything better than your neighbours weeding for you? I think not. I want pretty, low maintenance and if possible nice smelling. Any ideas?
Try to stop getting so annoyed at living with boys - living with one messy boyf and one boy who is about as far removed from someone I would choose to live with doesn't go down well sometimes. At least I can nag the boy to be tidier. The other housemate however can't be asked to do anything and doesn't appear to contribute to the house, which makes it difficult.
Try and use this time with the dogs for some long walks to kick start a bit of exercise. I have done none for such a long time and I am becoming a bit of a chubba. Who knows, I might even think about running again. One day.
Have at least 2 early, in-bed-pre-10.30pm, nights. I am so sleepy at the moment.

So, there we go. Maybe, just maybe, I will get back to some regular posting now.

A little Glasto round-up

2011-06-30T17:28:00.000+01:00

First things first - the weather - we had rain and wet mud and sticky mud and wind and cold and blazing heat. But there were nights in the Stonebridge Bar, Campfires, we had Wu Tang, B.B King, Carl Cox and Fat Boy Slim and Primal Scream in the torrential rain, the Gaslight Anthem, HipHop Karaoke, a little Jimmy Eat World, an amazing Pulp set and the Chemical Brothers in the mud followed by a night listening to Toddla and then a lazy day of eating and wandering and Everything Everything {who defo were not who I thought they were} some random bands, Paul Simon and Beyonce in the sunshine, followed by a night at the Park, then a sunrise trip to the Stone Circle.
I ate mezze {a lot} and mexican and greek and hot dogs and a too many rice crispie squares to name a few. I drank way too much Gin and Juice. I didn't wear enough suncream on sunday. I didn't see half the people I wanted to. I didn't eat at half the places I wanted to, we didn't make it to the Rabbit Hole or the silent disco {even though we had great carrot facts} - but it was amazing. The real world seems a little more boring now......

All the 'can be shown to the rest of the world' images can be found here {but trust me there are quite a few that shall remain in my computer for the rest of time!}

Just a pair of shoes

2011-06-22T11:44:00.002+01:00

I did have a blog post lined up to tell you how hard I have found this transition into a new city, with a new job, and a whole new living situation with 2 guys who are cleaning-phobic and sky sports news mad, but I have been recently reprimanded for venting about my living situation.

So you have been saved that winey post, it has been deleted, instead I am now on my way to glastonbury and going to show you one of the pairs of indian shoes the boy brought me back from his recent-ish work trip.

Aren't they pretty.

The Papered Parlour

2011-06-14T21:26:00.002+01:00

Reading around the other day I came across The Papered Parlour on Her Little Place and instantly fell in love.

There are a LOT of reasons that I would never want to live in London {its way too busy and big, people are in general angry, I am lazy.......} but occasionally there are things that make me think it might not be as bad as all that {friends, GREAT shopping and cool workshops like this!}

Just check out some of the ace workshops you can do there, in what looks like the cutest studio space;

If I had the money then I'd book myself, and probably Lizzy {as I know she loves a good crafting session} on to the Ring making class, followed by the screen printing and then some sewing machine using classes.

Glasto 2011 - Your Help Is Required

2011-06-06T14:58:00.003+01:00

This year’s Glasto line up

I have worked out that I have 11 working days {Woooohoooo} left until I shall be heading down to Glastonbury. But that’s only 15 full days. 15 days! Which right now does not seem like enough time to get myself sorted. At all.

And whilst my wardrobe choices might be taking precedence {can the weather please just let me know what it'll be doing so I know if I should be taking things that go with my wellies or my pumps please - on that note - fashionistas - would a little black sequin skirt go with navy blue wellies? just in case like.} I have been taking a little time to think about who and what to see, and where to go. Last year I think I saw almost all the people I wanted to, ate some amazing food, watched more football than I have in a long time {1 1/2 games!} drank a LOT of Gin and Juice and walked what felt like a thousand miles. But we barely made it to the late night areas {what with constantly having to stop to find people who were too spannered to follow us properly} and there was soooooooo much of the festival we just didn’t cover in the day time, so I am trying to plan {?} who to see, what to do and where to go.

Obviously I have my Clashfinder on the go – http://clashfinder.com/s/g2011/user=004m7q.t5 {my choices at the moment should be highlighted} but who in your opinion do I just-have-to-no-bones-about-it go and see? And who do you think will be a bit meh? {just so you know I shall be avoiding U2, Coldplay, Kaisers and Pendulum – you may like ‘em, but they REALLY aren’t my kind of thing} oh, and would you go and see Beyonce or QOTSA on the Sunday night? I am totally torn – little bit of cheesy pop, or something a little harder?

And what about the rest of the festival – where are your favourite places to eat? Is there an area that you think I need to get my ass to? what are your must visit locations? Is there something I should try and experience? I am going to be making notes of these Glasto must do/eats from Jilly’s blog - http://jillyloves.blogspot.com/2011/03/hidden-glastonbury.html but any of your suggestions will be gladly received.

House Tour - Part One {for Lizzy}

2011-05-30T11:35:00.001+01:00

I promised Lizzy I would keep her updated on my house progress so why not update this space too?

And I think I'll start with my dressing-definitely-not-a-craft-room first, as, well, this is the room that I did first.

We decided early on in my moving in process that with the massive Ikea bed the boy had and the not so massiveness of the room we were moving in to, that having a wardrobe in the bedroom wasn't an option, so we took over the box room that was being used as a spare room.
In the interests of a speedy move the room has stayed the same white is was painted.

So now the room houses a wardrobe, which is just about big enough for all of our 'needs hanging' clothes {I have the big side - as if there would be any question on that matter}, next to it is a little make-up/hair-straightening area for me to make myself pretty along with this {very dirty - oooops} mirror and some storage. Those boxes on the top, right now, are full of either my fabric and random craft supplies, or all that random crap that you have to keep but just don't quite know where it goes.

Make up, hair stuff, glasto hat, cath kisdton crockery that I am too scared to get out whilst the boys housemate is still here....

I have a feeling that when the boy returns from India this corner of this room will be a godsend for us both, especially as he just rolls out of bed 10 minutes before he need to leave and it takes me, hmmmmmmmm, a good 3 weeks to get ready every day! Now I have somewhere to do it that won't disturb him!

The other side of this little room was expertly put together by my dad. On the day he came to Leeds with the van to move me we went to IKEA for the shelves {an experience I imagine he wont be repeating again soon, not after all the 'is it not the end of the shop YET?'s I heard - and we took the short cuts!}. I've had these Lack shelves before and like the way they looked in my old old house, so I went with them. I had planned to have a desk in the room, but after a bit of measuring {the room really isn't very wide} I abandoned the idea of a desk, bought some £3 desk legs and, well, daddy drilled them in to the bottom of the shelf and it's now a narrow desk. Just wide enough for a laptop, my sewing machine and my most importantly - my crafting stuff.

sewing machine, magazine stacks, crafting supplies and pretty much everything else that I brought to the house and I think is beautiful.

At the moment the shelves house more nic-nacs than I would like, as there aren't the places around the house for them yet, but I hope that over time the pretty things will disappear from these shelves to the rest of the house and be replaced by stacks of fabric, essential crafting supplies and books! I could also do with a proper chair, but my little stool will do for now, so I can't complain. And, yes I will need some new curtains, but since these work for now, they can stay. Oh, and I am thinking - just thinking - of painting the wall behind the shelves a bright turquoise. But that is just a thought right now..... So what do you think?

And this is just so you can see how boxy the box room is. Not a lot of space at all!

2011-05-25T14:29:00.005+01:00

His perfect pup from Evan Agee on Twitter

The boy keeps pining about getting a dog. He used to have one a few years back, and really really wants another. Now he is obsessed with the idea of us getting a Pug after seeing a friends the other week.

The house isn't massive so we'd need a little pup {the other dog he wants is a Rottweiller but thankfully {as they look super scary} they are massive so he's put that plan on ice!} and I'd I would love a little dog, but a Pug? I am just not sure - I think they are kind of ugly, cute but pretty buggly and aren't they riddle with illness? There is one in the hairdressers near my brothers bar and the owner has spent £5,000+ getting illnesses fixed! Yes it was tiny and cute but she has to watch it all the time in case it tried to jump off the sofa as it might break its legs! That can't be fun can it?

I just wonder if I should indulge his wants or steer him towards something else?
Any ideas of small but cute dogs?

JR's

2011-05-23T12:44:00.001+01:00

I dont know if you know this but my brother and his lovely girlfriend own a bar in the village/area {?} that they live in. They took it over in late February and it seems to be going really well.
This weekend I was tasked with photographing some of their food for the website {a website I am creating - but being no technical wizz it's going to be super simple - I am using Moonfruit at the moment, but does anyone know of anything else I should use?}.

It was a tough job. Not least because most of the food was whipped away so the staff could eat it. I did manage to get a fork and eat the amazing coconut and lemon cake before it was taken away from me - my mum makes it for the bar so I think I was entitled to a slice!

Here is a sneak peak of what I'll be putting on the site;

The pictures still need a little work yet - these are the SOOC ones - as I dont have Photoshop at the moment, I am using Picnic through Flickr to edit them, which isn't the quickest process. But I don't think they turned out that badly did they?

You can see the full set here if you're at all interested.

Out of my comfort zone.

2011-05-20T13:46:00.019+01:00

You know when you arrange something with someone and you almost have a feeling they'll bail on you, mostly because they have done before for your last few outings, so you aren't surprised when they text to let you down. Well that happened last night.

I'd planned to go to a Seven Hills WI meeting with a friend of mine {one of my 30 things was to go to a Buns & Roses meeting but not being in Leeds anymore, Seven Hills is taking over} but as you can tell, she text to let me know she had to work late and couldn't make it {which is fair enough - but it was just because I had that feeling}.

In hindsight, maybe this was a good thing. It put me in a uncomfortable place where I went to something on my own. As me. Not as part of 2 friends, who can sit together and just chat with one another rather than everyone else. Going alone made me chat with people. It made me walk up to an almost full table and ask if I could sit with them. They turned out to be lovely women who I probably wouldn't have spoken to had I not been on my own.

But I did still have that horrible moment of walking into a room alone, when everyone seems to know each other, and you don't know a person. And in my head I think I had made it worse as I kept thinking - 'what if they just want to chat about knitting - I don't know the first thing about knitting'.

This ‘going alone to an event’ thing came at an coincidental time. I read this post by Elizabeth on her fear of networking, just yesterday morning and I wondered which one of me would turn up if I was in that situation. I could see myself one second being the person who walks into the room of people she doesn’t know and chats to everyone, and the next time I’m that person who sits back and doesn’t speak to anyone because, well, they all know each other and you hate being the new girl.

But I've done it now. I went. I chatted. I ate a delicious scone. I gave my email address to be invited next time too. And next time is wine tasting so I am not likely to pass that one up am I?

{oh, and just in case you wondered, no-one mentioned knitting to me - but a lady at the back did sit their click-click-clicking her needles}

Holga Love

2011-05-15T09:39:00.000+01:00

At some point last summer my trusty Holga started to die. It might have had something with the fact I decided to Plastikote it bright blue, it might have been years of being thrown in to handbags/rattling round cars/festivals or trips sailing. What ever it was, first off the flash died {which considering it was the CFN, the one with the colour flash, was annoying} and then after an incident with some beer it stopped winding on very well and that really hindered it's performance - although i did get some decent double and triple exposures! But all of this told me it was time for a new one.

And isn't he beautiful.

I went with the 120CFN again, because I love the coloured flash on a night shot, and I sampled a 35mm one, but I just LOVE the big, square negs and prints {although I do still have my 35mm adaptor, somewhere!} If you can't tell I got it from Holgarama {I thought they might appreciate my little bit of branding I did with the sticker they sent me}. Seriously - if you want a Holga, they're the place to go. The new site has a buyers guide which is something I wish I'd had when I first bought, and they're based in the UK so you're supporting a local business, and there is no hefty VAT charge when your camera finally arrives from China {yes, I did get stung, but it was 2007, so I'm over it now. Promise.}

Now, I just have to resist the urge to get the spray paint out on this one again!

IronCupcake:Leeds - Fizzy Drinks

2011-05-14T07:38:00.000+01:00

This weekend was the IronCupcake:Leeds with the theme Fizzy Drinks.

In an attempt to stray away from things like Coke, I consulted twitter and a shortlist of Cherryade, Ginger Beer or Cherry Coke was formed. After a little bit more deliberating with friends, we decided on a Ginger Beer flavoured cake. I thought it might not be obvious enough so that there would be a few of them.

Some searching on the internet pointed me to this recipe by raspberri cupcakes, who used not only Ginger Beer in her recipe, but also a Ginger beer cordial. Having never heard of or seen it, I thought I might have to use even more ginger beer instead of it as Raspberri Cupcakes is based in Australia, but since I now live near a Waitrose it seemed like, and turned out to be, the perfect place to buy such a thing. {Now I love ginger beer, really, I do. Especially with some rum in it, but this cordial is AWFUL. Truly awful. Its just SO spicy. But it did it's job and flavoured the cupcakes perfectly so I'll let it off, and maybe if we get desperate and have run out of normal ginger beer we'll turn to it, but I can see the bottle sitting in the fridge for a while.}

And after a little bit more consultation with my friends, we decided on a lime frosting, as everyone knows that lime is the best accompaniment to ginger beer.

I wont post the recipe as you can find it on Raspberri Cupcakes blog with photos to boot, and the frosting was a basic buttercream with a the zest and juice of two limes in the place of the milk, and then topped up with milk when needed.

I was pretty pleased though as I placed 3rd this month - although it might have something to do with the fact there were way less entries than there have been before {which I think was down to the sunshine}

Here is a sneaky peak at the entries,

But you'll be able to see details of them all at the IronCupcake:Leeds page, or on my flickr page here.

Roll on next months 'Perfect Pairs' theme.

Birthday Crafting

2011-05-09T17:45:00.000+01:00

Last week was one of my bestest friends 30th birthdays. It happens to the best of us this getting old thing. As she lives in London I don't see her much, but we had a lovely, wine filled, night together at my brothers bar with her fiancée and the Boy over the bank holidays period where she seemed elated at being the last of us in our 20's and then she brought her beautiful baby boy round to see my mum, which gave me a chance to give her her gifts to take home.

I have known for a LONG time what I was making her for her birthday. In fact I had a number of ideas, but after mulling them over, one is much better as a wedding gift {its not for a long while, so maybe it'll get given to her earlier} and the others might not have worked very well yet - my sewing skills aren't quite where they need to be........

But for starters, I made her a 'Party in a box' – the idea came from this guest post by You Are My Fav.
The box included;

A mini bottle of champers and a glass.
Cake mix with icing frosting rather then buttercream {lizzie isn’t a frosting fan} and a recipe card and cake cases.
Candles.
Balloons.
Some birthday confetti – erm, sorry about that – I bet its not easy to clean up.
A garland made from cut out paint chips.
And the must have 30 badge!

Then I turned to my sewing machine, printed out the very easy to follow pattern from U-handbag and made this 'For Pleats Sake' handbag.

Actually that makes it sound like I whipped it up in an hour. Unfortunately it took a little longer than that and involved a bit of swearing, a lot of needles being stuck in my fingers and some confusion - but the tutorial has some easy to follow pictures that accompany pretty much every stage of the bag making and in the end I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

What do you think?

{I bought the Cath Kidston fabric in a particular moment when i was misguidedly feeling flush with cash, and being the sewing novice I am, I bought WAY too much of it, but I am excited that there is enough to make at least another bag out of it. If not something else fun. The lining is a solid pink that co-ordinates with the pink in the flowers and the handles aren't the ones the tutorial as they had sold out, but they were easy enough to find on Ebay. }

MIA

2011-05-04T16:44:00.000+01:00

Will be back with news on the new house, new job and the 'holiday' in between when painting and decorating and getting everything moved in my our bedroom have been accomplished. Later!

Ah, Leeds, Goodbye

2011-04-28T13:34:00.001+01:00

I gave you my 20’s. And you know what, I gave you them good. So today will be a sad day as I finally leave you.

No matter when I have left before there was always something, like a course, or a boy or a job to anchor me here, but not this time.

You had my university days, living with my friends, thinking we were invincible, the parties in Bainbrigge that might have never finished if we’d had our way, the all-nighters over essays, the many many friends and the dreams of travels.

And you had my mid 20’s in the beautiful flat, with the ex, those crazy drunken Leeds Guide days with some of the best people I’ll ever have the pleasure to know, the free festivals, the arguments, the highs and lows of a failing relationship, the growing up and the losing of myself.

And then you had my late 20’s made of that excruciating heartache, the commuting, the job hunting, the strange housemates, the new love and the fantastic, now old, job. But I think we both knew by this time my heart wasn’t quite in the city didn’t we?

I am sure I’ll be back. Not for good you understand, but you’re not that far away and I have nights out to come back for, and maybe next time I’ll reminisce and see you through the rose tinted glasses you get when you leave a place.

But, you know what, Leeds, we had a time, right?

Over-stretched?

2011-04-27T12:16:00.004+01:00

Last week was a mess of baking and packing and goodbye drinks and crafting friends birthday gifts.

I really shouldn’t have stretched myself quite so much in a week I knew would be stressful but who can say no to goodbye drinks with friends and old housemates?

And I promised, myself more than anyone else, that I would take a cake to work for my leaving and I also promised a cake to my friends who were turning 30 as my gift to them.

And I also had to pack up my life, again, which is something I don’t think you can do too far in the future – I mean, who knows what I might need out of that bag of clothes I haven’t worn for a year?

And I left some of the birthday crafts I had planned WAY too late and had to fit them in this week {more on the after their birthdays or they’ll know what their gifts are!}.

Anything to make life easy right?

But, if you're wondering - The cakes turned out well. I made a giant cupcake for work – a huge vanilla cake filled with strawberry icing and covered in sprinkles. And I made a special cake for my friends 30th. But I am not sure you can see that one.

And i finished my crafting - just about - its not perfect, but that's the joy of home made right? {if you're reading this Lizzy, remember that!}

And my packing. Well, that's almost all done. I have some foodie bits I haven't yet packed and my TV {but that's mostly because I can't untangle the wires} but on Thursday, when my dad arrives to help me move, I am hoping he can figure it out.

All that is left to do now is have lunch with some friends, have one last wander rounds Leeds, clean manically and wait for my dad and his very over the top van. Eeeeeek.

Pay-back

2011-04-25T21:30:00.000+01:00

I love coming home to post.
Check out this amazing package that arrived from Helen. She signed up to my Pay it Forwards earlier this year, and as she sent her gifts out she was lovely enough to send me one too.
Check it out - super cute right?

Packing light?

2011-04-14T09:43:00.000+01:00

£7.64 & 3euro cents

I started with my packing this week. For the last couple of weeks I have been ebaying and charity shopping and throwing out, but still by the housemates standards I have a lot of stuff. Stuff for hobbies, stuff that has memories, stuff I can't really get rid of yet. And books. Books are important.
Its not really an issue for me. If I like something why not keep it? It seems though that there is a growing movement of people who NEED to not own anything. I figure if I can move it {and I can, I have my car} why not have it.
I just need to convince the boy that it is all completely necessary. Because you know, it all is.
{The £7.64 and 3euro cents were drained from my coppers piggy bank in the interest of travelling light. Coins weigh a lot more than they are worth.}

The best laid plans

2011-04-08T10:59:00.004+01:00

This week I had ideas of blog posts planned in my head, and a lot of exercise to do, and cakes to trial and new company meetings to attend and some birthday gift crafting to get sorted and a boyfriend who is snowboarding to ignore.

Unfortunately my body had other plans and I got sick and had to sleep most of the free time I had - it wasn't nice or fun. I am not a great patient. Especially when I am trying to look after myself. There was a small plus side to the whole affair, having not eaten for 2 days my tum has shrunk massively and my skinnies fit way better! I know the minute I start back eating at a normal rate it'll all change but lets look on the bright side shall we!

I made it to the meeting, but the rest of it fell way and truly by the wayside

But this weekend I have to start packing up my room for the move, that present crafting to begin thinking about, plus I have a uni friend visiting and we have a lot of gossiping to do, a lot of pink wine, prawns and sweet chilli dipping sauce to consume. And I suppose at some point I ought to see the boy and hear about how amazing his holiday {I promise you I am not bitter. Honest!}.

Committing to

2011-04-04T17:42:00.005+01:00

The boy is on holiday snowboarding, with a few of the boys I used to snowboard with {I am not bitter or anything, honest} so I had the weekend to myself, which meant haircuts with my wonderful hairdresser, before a)I move and b)she has her bambino and It meant a night of trying and failing at sewing projects and movies.
I also visited my mum for Mothers day, with a little project I'd made for. We'd planned lunch at my brothers place but it was too busy so we had to go to the hotel my nan loves. I am not really a sunday lunch kind of gal, but once every so often I'll tolerate it. If just for the desserts, mmmmmmm, puddings.

But right, this week here are my commitments;

I started level 2 of the 30 day shred at the start of last week and that's as far as I got. I did 2 days of it and haven't really done it since. 5x's this week is the aim.
I have been working my through the 'Do What You Love' course. I think I need to be more present on the site though and interact more.
I have some work to do for the new agency on a project I'll hopefully be working on for them.
April is Green month for French Fries and Pancakes photo colour month thingy - so TAKE GREEN PHOTO'S!
And its the Iron Cupcake on Sunday - The theme is seeds and nuts, and I have a couple of ideas - but I am a little strapped for cash this month, what with the move and the likes, so I might not be able to make my creations :(

All Change

2011-04-01T15:15:00.001+01:00

So, I have some more news.
Again, it's big news. Well, for me it is.

I have a new job. In Sheffield.
Yep, not only will I be living there, but I'll be working there too.
I have a job at a fab creative agency who not only have some great clients but all seem super nice too. I'll be starting at the beginning of May just after I move {and a week before the boy heads to India for a month - good timing hey?} I think the worst part about the whole scenario was having to tell the guys at the agency I am at now, it was horrible, but I felt that once my team knew, I could be a bit more open with it.

As scary as it might be - changing my whole life it one foul swoop - I am really looking forwards to it.

New {ish} house. New Job. New life.

Sampling

2011-03-26T09:45:00.001Z

The lovely people at The Box Bakery brought in some free cakes for my team to taste last week after I wrote about their site the other week. There are a lot of the team partaking in some giving up of treats for lent, but it was deemed rude to overlook FREE cake. {So easily swayed!}

Can we just take a minute to look at how amazing those cake look. The camera can't begin to do them justice. We didn't even start eating them until we'd looked at them for a good 10minutes.

So left the right we had;

Mrs Mocha - MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE FILLED WITH DARK CHOCOLATE CHIPS TOPPED WITH A CREAM AND COFFEE BUTTERCREAM, CHOCOLATE WAFER STICK AND DUSTED IN COFFEE.
The Limelight - TASTY KEY LIME CAKE TOPPED WITH TANGY LIME CURD AND TOPPED WITH A SWEET CITRUS MERINGUE
OMG - DELICIOUS & MOIST VANILLA CAKE TOPPED WITH A STRAWBERRY AND PINEAPPLE BUTTERCREAM WITH A SPRINKLE OF POPPING CANDY...ITS CRAZY!

In the interests of making sure this was a fair tasting we cut the cakes into quarters and sampled a little bit of each of the cakes.

The OMG's were the first stop, and I wish I had snapped a picture of the inside of them- there was an amazing swirl of purple, but they were eaten way before I thought to take a picture. The popping candy is a super fun touch too.

I have to say 'The Limelight's were my overall favourite. Not only were they an ace luminous colour {just look at this-and it was just a iphone pic} but I love the taste of lime and they were super tangy.

The boys in the office seemed to like the Ms. Mocha's the best though. Maybe that's because the girls swooped in and they didn't get much of a choice in their tasting, or maybe because they're a bit more conservative in their eating tastes and the fun colours scared them.

So, the conclusion - super tasty, fantastically coloured and beautifully presented. I think if you're ordering cupcake in Leeds, the The Box Bakery ought to be near the top of your list - if just for the wow factor of the way they look.

2011-03-25T17:09:00.002Z

You know when things are playing on your mind and it makes everything confused.
Well, that's my mind right now.
I cant seem to string the right words together.

There are good developments to tell you about, but then other things are taking over. I can't even write a post about free cupcakes right now, that's how my jumbled brain feels!

Fingers crossed the weekend will sort me out.

Committing to

2011-03-22T17:54:00.001Z

{Erm, it would appear my scheduling didn't quite work - so here are this weeks commitments that were meant to make an appearance yesterday.}

I started Beth's Do What You Love e-course last week. It's not something I think I'll be posting about en-masse but it is making me think about the world around me which, as it's changing so much in the next few months, can only be a good thing can't it? I have a daily task to complete, but with work and life it can be hard to make the time for it. Especially as I feel guilty if I don't spend time with the housemate in the evenings. I get the feeling she needs interaction at the moment. But i am trying to make time to at least THINK about the questions posed, even if I have to come back to them another day.

But as a commitment this week I want to;

continue to make the time to at least think about the lessons.
chill the fuck out about the moving I am about to do. Yes, it wont be a nice place to be for the first few months. But I am going to have deal with that if I want to live with the boy. done.
do the 30 day shred at least 5 times this week.
have another wardrobe clearout. I must have more stuff that doesn't need to be there and I can charity shop/ebay.

There we go.

Building a new life

2011-03-17T17:05:00.005Z

With the move to Sheffield looming ever closer, and becoming more real as we discuss the logistics of living together, the furniture we need and the changes that we'll need to make, I am starting to realise that I really am picking up and moving my life. I know it's not far, but its going to be a big change for me.

And something that is becoming increasingly important for me is that I want to be able to build myself a friendship group outside of the 'SVC' {the pet name for little group we have at the moment}. The boy has a pretty full life with his football/tennis/playing fifa{?} and so I dont want to just be sat at home with his housemate whilst he is doing these things.
And yes, I have friends in Sheffield, but they have lives themselves so I don't want to be reliant on those people to build my life. I always think it's harder to make friends as you get older though, so I know it won't be as easy as it used to be.

There are things I want to start/carry-on doing. There are things I want to learn about. And I have a feeling that by joining groups and getting out it'll be my best bet to meeting people.
So if you are in or around Sheffield {I know from my stats that I have some readers in Shef} and might be able to point me in the right direction then please shout up;

I want to find;

A yoga studio. I want to get back into yoga. I used to love the feeling of lightness after a class - so any good places for classes in S7 or nearby, please let me know.
A buns and roses style group. I know of the Seven Hills group but it appears they are super full. I have emailed to ask about them, and they take guests, but not many.
Somewhere I can learn to use my sewing machine and follow patterns. Any clues?

And does anyone know where there are haberdasheries in Sheffield? Obviously Coles have their bit, and Ish on Sharrowvale have amazing fabrics, but there must be some others!

I would quite like to get involved in some 'geek girl' activity too. I will definitely need to keep up with this stuff for work, and I find it interesting too. Googling has not thrown much up, besides a website that's not been updated since last year. So, whats the crack? Someone must know about it.

And whilst I am at it, I need to find a good hair dressers in Sheffield. This has nothing to do with the move - I would quite happily travel the length of the country to go to my regular hairdressers - but inconsiderately Beccy is pregnant and I am not sure she'd be too happy about cutting my hair on her maternity leave......

So, can anyone help?

I want a bike

2011-03-16T12:45:00.002Z

Bike Pinboard

Forever I have wanted a bike. {I think you might get the idea what sort of bike I want.}
The boy has said that I should get one when I move. I am not sure if he quite understands the type of bike that will eventually be sat outside his house, but he's agreed to it now. hehe.

I have blogged before about this bike from Electra - and after much pinning I am pretty sure that it's the one of my dreams. Now just to find a spare £500. {oh why oh why do I have such expensive tastes?}

Committing to

2011-03-14T17:36:00.003Z

My DWYL Notepad

A few weeks ago I signed up for Beth’s Do What You Love course. It seemed like right now, with the move approaching it might be helpful to think about this. It’s a 6 week course and I know to get the most out of it I ought to be following it through every day. I have the note book, the camera and bits that I have been told I need and I have some willing to try and figure out what it is I love.

And then this weekend the boy and I did our first day on level 1 of the ’30 Day Shred’. In his front room we donned some shorts and t’s and jumped about and did some exercise. I have never done a exercise video before, they have always seemed to me to be ex celebs showing you how they supposedly lost their weight - but in the absence of being allowed to do the exercise I want to do I felt I should give it a go. It was way harder than I expected it to be and this morning I woke up to aching legs and a weird feeling in my back – not akin to the feeling of a muscle group I didn’t know existed being worked. Only 9 more days at level 1…….

This weeks, well, the foreseeable futures commitment are about following through things I have signed up to;

Make notes, be honest, partake in the DWYL course with as much of me as I can. If there are days I can’t get through the course, then, I’ll need to catch up the next day and do the work then.
Try and do the 30 day shred work out EVERYDAY. I am very aware that there might be days I just can’t do it as I might not be home, but I am pretty sure that I’ll be able to do at least 5 days a week of it.

IronCupcake:Leeds - Chocolate Bars

2011-03-14T09:23:00.038Z

Bounty cakes

This weekend was the IronCupcake:Leeds. The theme was chocolate bars. Which you
I decided on a Bounty flavoured cake. The boy thought it would be a great cake to make. We also ummmed and ahhhhhed about cream eggs and kinder flavoured cakes. But the bounty seemed like a good idea. In the end I went with this cake from Sweet Paul, and this frosting {although I couldn't taste the coconut milk in it so it was kind of an expensive addition}.

It was absolutely heaving this month - LOADS of bakers and even more eaters. I was in charge of photographing the cakes and they just kept appearing. Again I didn't place but hey, it was a fun night out. The housemate joined me this time as an eater, I think she didn't really bank on there being so many cakes to eat, as she stocked up on chocolate in the day too. But she has resolved to bake for the next one too.

The winner with her cream egg cakes (Image 3) was stickypinny. I did look at making cream eggs and so I loved the way she had made it look like the cream egg was spilling out onto the cake.
On the housemates suggestions I tried bits of the toffee crisp, cream egg, double decker and crunchie. I think maybe the double decker was my favourite.

Here are all the cakes and some shots from the night - you can see the entire set here if you want a closer view.

1. toffee crisp, 2. bounty, 3. cream egg, 4. malteaser, 5. caramel, 6. Untitled, 7. galaxy, 8. fruit and nut?, 9. fruit and nut, 10. Untitled, 11. kitkat, 12. bounty, 13. Untitled, 14. wonka bar, 15. snickers, 16. chocolate orange, 17. snickers?, 18. double decker, 19. crunchie, 20. Untitled, 21. cream eggs, 22. Untitled, 23. Untitled, 24. Untitled, 25. Untitled, 26. Untitled, 27. Untitled, 28. Untitled, 29. Upstairs at the adelphi, 30. Untitled, 31. Untitled, 32. Untitled, 33. Untitled, 34. Untitled, 35. Untitled, 36. Ironcupcake:Leeds

2011-03-13T12:15:00.000Z

Click on the image to enlarge

I came across this image on Pinterest this week and I just love it.
The boy is definitely, no question about it the Left hand side of the brain. He is numbers and spreadsheets and those things excite him.
I would love to be fully on the Right hand side, mostly as I love the explosion of colour over there, but I think the geek in me pulls me to the left sometimes, as does my need to clean up.
Which side are you?

Pay It Forwards

2011-03-11T17:30:00.001Z

At the beginning of the year I decided to take part in the Pay It Forwards my friend Lizzie put on her FB status and I had replies from Helen, Helen and Rach on the blog and Sam and Lisa on twitter. Sam moved into a new house in January and I made her a little something then and its been a long time coming but I finally got my act together and got the rest of my Pay It Forwards gifts in the post this week. Hopefully they should have arrived with their recipients by now {if not then it might not be a surprise any more, oooops}. I also popped a package over to Lizzie last weekend, just because I thought she might like it too.

I decided that I was going to put a little package together of some things I thought might be fun to receive rather than sending just one thing. Plus, this way it gave me an excuse to try out some bits I had seen and couldn’t see a reason to make otherwise.

So this is what each recipient got;

*I saw some super cute doorstops in a shop in Bath and though – Hmmmmm, with this new sewing machine of mine I can easily make those. So I did. Not quite as professionally as the shop. But I bought some grosgrain and some stick on Velcro, and using some samples and ends of material I had I crafted some doorstops.

I made them by turning the fabric right side in, and sewed a band at the top, wider than the Velcro is. I then sewed the edges of the bag together. Then to make them stand up I created a flat bottom. I am not sure what that is called but you can see what to do here. I then sewed on the grosgrain as a little handle and covered where this was with the stick on Velcro. Voila. Done.

They have been delivered flat, but once filled with some rice or gravel they work a treat. As they were made from samples and ends, the one above is just one of the designs I made.

* I also made some cute little button earrings from some pairs of matching buttons I had. Again, all the gifts are different as I didn’t have more than one set of matching button. I finished them off by packaging them up on one of my classic moo cards.

*Next I bottled some ‘homemade vanilla into some 100ml plastic bottles. I made some rum vanilla extract earlier in the year, but it hasn’t been quite the vanilla success I had hoped so I’ll be keeping it for me. So I had to make some afresh with a vodka batch for the Pay It Forwards. It wasn’t started quite early enough for the recipients {I didn’t check the rum one early enough} to be able to use right away, but in a couple of months it’ll be perfect. And as the vanilla matures and gets used, it can be topped up with more vodka and vanilla and left to infuse again.

*And I also added a recipe card with a recipe for my favourite banana bread recipe on it. The recipe cards are postcards I had printed from moo. As one side is a shiny postcard I had to buy a new super fine marker to write on them.

Everything was then packaged up in some tissue, tied with bakers twine and then tagged with, you guessed it, more cards from Moo, this time some ‘Handmade with Love’ cards that are made from their free business cards offer {Google it if you fancy some}, with the bit that tells you it’s a free card craft knifed off and the corners rounded {and because I cut the free bits off, I have a stack of 15% off at Moo.com codes – if you want one, leave me a message and I’ll send you a code}.

Each package is a bit of a lottery as all the bags and earrings are different and I wrapped them, sealed the envelopes and then stuck on the address labels, so I am not sure who received what but I hope they like the package they get.

Colour Stories

2011-03-08T16:16:00.004Z

I am a little late to the party, but I have decided to take up Pancakes and French Fries 2011 Colour Stories idea.
I thought it might lace a little bit of the theme through my 365. So the plan is to take the month's colour on board and see if I can snap as many {interesting} shots of said colour for my daily shot. Obviously it might be a bit of overkill if EVERY image in a month was the same colour, and a little bit forced I think, so I am going for bursts of the same colour in a month.
But if you too want to join the party late, here are the colours for 2011;

2011 Color Stories
January | Wool
The grays and creams of the first month of the year. The weather is making this one easy, as you can see.
February | Scarlet
Reds of all sorts seemed like a good fit for a month most often associated with romance.
March | Daffodil
The first flower of the year usually pokes its yellow head out of the ground this month, although I can’t imagine anything yellow with all this cold we are having.
April | Grass
Surely it will be warm by April. I hope to see plenty of greenery and at least one picnic. Also, if green would like to appear in the shape of money, I would have no objections.
May | Jacaranda
California’s famous(ish) Jacaranda season is starting up. I expect purples, lavenders, and everything in between.
June | Peacock
Pretty blues to mark the beginning of summer.
July | Silver
Ray Bans, men’s watches, and casual jewelry against a California tan.
August | Cotton
School starts again. Pressed oxford shirts, fresh paper, and the bright white of new shoelaces.
September | Russet
Here come the orangey reds of fall…but not in California. This is our hottest month of the year. The only thing orangey-red around here will be the sun, which will feel like it’s suspended 3 inches from our noses.
October | Cauldron
Halloween! Ghouls, ghosts, and the beginning of early nights lend to a month shrouded in black.
November | Cider
Topaz, caramel, and the brown of loamy earth. Maybe? Here’s hoping. It’s California, after all.
December | Gold
Our church uses gold and green Christmas decorations. It is always so beautiful, and this year only compounded my obsession for brass and gold

This month is Yellow, which as easter approaches and daffodils appear is a super easy colour to find, but I have noticed that the more I have looked for it, the more I see that colour, from a man on a bright yellow bike yesterday to the lipbalm I have had for months and not taken notice of.