Catch-Up

Just a quick one to catch-up on the last week or so! The last few days have consisted of..

 

Spray painting furniture..

 

....Picking up bargains in the Body Shop

Moisturiser, body scrub, 2 x lip balms and shower gel for £9! 

 

...and starting my Open University Course!

 

 

Pinterest Inspired Baking

Another pinterest idea stolen!
I kept seeing 'crescent roll' ideas and thought they looked really easy so would have a go myself, I wasn't sure if I would be able to find the pre-rolled croissant pastry in England but apparently it's very common and available in all supermarkets.

I picked up a tin of Jus Rol chilled crossaint pastry from my local sainsburys, and separated out each indivial crossiant - they're perforated so you just run a knife along the line.

I did two types: Peanut Butter M&Ms (all the way from New York!) in one and slices of apple with cinammon sugar on the other.

You just place your filling on the pastry, and roll them up. Stick them in the oven for 10 minutes

and enjoy!

 

The apple and cinammon ones were lovely for dessert with custard, or as a breakfast pastry on their own!

So easy and if you take a bit of time to make them neat they look fab.

Pinterest Inspired Door Wreath

If you're anything like me you're something of a Pinterest addict. One of the things I see all the time and lust after is the beautiful seasonal wreaths.. who knew you could have a wreath without it being Christmas!

 

So I decided to give one a go for my bedrooms door.

 

 

I started with a polystrene 25cm wreath base (I think it was about £4 from hobbycraft) and a leftover ball of knitting yarn, I covered the wreath in double sided tape and set about wrapping the yarn over the base..

 

 

..I should add that it took about 3 hours to cover the wreath.. there must be a quicker way (answers on a postcard please!)

 

 

Once it was covered I got my glue gun out and plonked on some colourful paper straws (about £3 on ebay) in random places and at random lengths.

 

 

 

 

Once that was done I got some contrasting wool and covered a wooden letter J in exactly the same way.

 

 

 

I then glued the letter onto the straws/wreath and added a little felted Mickey Mouse I had made with last months Crafty Creatives kit!

 

 

 

And voila! It's a bit mental but I love it..

Has Pinterest inspired you to be crafty recently?



 

 

 

 

 

 

100th Post - Something new and exciting.

I can't believe I've made it to 100 posts!

This place is really a haven for me, blogging is a fantastic hobby and I have learnt so many new amazing skills and 'met' so many lovely people.

So if you're reading this, thank you, it means a lot to me to know that people take time out of their lives to see what I've been upto.

To mark my 100th post I thought now would be a good time to announce something new, so drum roll please....

Paper Punny.

Watch this space!

Valentines Day

The preparation continues... have taken lots of custom orders from people at work for cards and samplers... This is a personal (unfinished) favourite.


Pattern by Ruggles.

Crafty Creatives Box 7 - SPOILER ALERT!

First up - SPOILER ALERT!

 

Now that's out of the way, it's that time again, Crafty Creatives box number 7 arrived with most of us this week. Here's my little look through this months box.

 

 

After the first glimpse you know immediately it's going to be a good one! This month's is a Nature/Woodland theme and boy is that a good choice! This may well be my favourite box, the quality and quantity of the items gets better every month, this one is so packed!

 

The art card this month is so pretty, it's definitely going on my wall!

 

The first thing I pulled out was these three birch hearts. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them but I LOVE them, we had a huge silver birch tree in my garden when I was growing up and I always got told off for peeling the flaky silver paper-like bark off. These are so tactile and they look lovely, great start!

 

 

Next up, two lovely porcelain fox beads. I think these would make great earrings!

 

 

5 metal leaf charms - I'm thinking a tiered droplet necklace for these babies...

 

 

Loads! of wooden leaf buttons - I'm already planning a tree on canvas, with embroided trunk and background.

 

 

Owly fabric - this is so cute! This would make gorgeous childrens clothes, maybe bunting!

 

 

Large metal owl pendant - This would obviously make a lovely necklace, but has anyone done anything else more original?

 

Pinecone - This is definitely being spray painted!

 

Skeleton leaves - These would lovely on a notebook or against some dark fabric

 

I love these! Glass toadstool beads, so sweet, these are definitely going on a bracelet!

 

Flower soft - I'm not entirely sure what this is, but it looks fun! Time for some research....

 

 

And this month's kit is...

 

 

Needle felting! This is fab and right up my street, I can't wait to get felting, but I am a little scared about the barbed nedle!

 

 

I officially now have two favourite days - Pay day, and Crafty Creatives day!

 

Roll on the next one, maybe a valentines theme..?

Making progress..

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I....... this is getting a little tiresome but I am determined to finish!

 

 

Oops

I've inadvertently started a new project... 2 down 24 to go..

Christmas Catch-Up

It's been a while since I've sat down and done a proper post so I thought it was about time! Warning - this is going to be a long, and very photo heavy one!

So Christmas is over, just the New Year to get through and then life will go back to normal. I do love Christmas, but this is the time where I start to miss my routine, and the endless food is getting a little boring..

We spent Christmas in Venice, I've been many times before and it was as beautiful as ever - because there are no roads and you have to walk (or swim! not likely!) everywhere there is a certain peacefulness that I haven't witnessed in any other country in the world, I think that's why I love it so much. I have taken thousands of pictures of Venice but it's always the more everyday things that are so special, such as the rubbish boats, fire engine boats etc that are the most interesting.. here are a few of my favourite pictures from this time out;

Furs are obligatory in Venice - it's cold!

Look at the size of those meringues!

Christmas Eve post!

I can't resist a Disney store...

I have no shame in admitting that I had my eye on this man for quite some time...

We had Christmas Day lunch in the hotel we were staying in and this is what we had;

Peach Bellini with Canapés

Corn Millefeuille stuffed with Porcini Mushrooms over melted Asiago Cheese

Risotto with Treviso's (Treviso is an area of Venice) Chicory and Venison

Valeggio's Tortellini in Capon Consommé

Yuletide Turkey and Chesnuts with Glazed Baby Onions and Duchess Potatoes

Yule Log with Egg-Nog

Coffee and Confection

It was absolutely delicious at the time, if a little filling! But the morning after when we came down for breakfast one by one we all gradually admitted that we had been violently sick during the night - so looking at these photo's now is making my stomach turn a little! Oh well, maybe next year will be better! At least none of the calories will count!

As you may have seen in a previous post, I am taking part in the Rory Gilmore book challenge. I finished my first one (before 2013 has even started!) whilst I was in Venice. 1984 by George Orwell. It's crazy that a book that was first published in 1949 is so extremely relevant to modern life. It's a great story and really makes you think about the control of everything around us. Onto Huckleberry Finn now!

Also - my sister asked me what I was doing when I wrote my name in the book once I had finished it. I didn't have an answer! I've always done this for as long as I can remember! Do you do anything strange with your books?

How was your Christmas?

Recent Craftyness

Just thought I would share some makes I've finished recently..

 

The first is using one of the items from December's Crafty Creatives box, the Ice white fluffy wool.

I took a wooden letter J that I already had and covered it in double sided tape (that I nabbed from work..Sssh!)

 

 

Once this was done I unpeeled the white covering on the tape and wrapped the wool round and round until the whole letter was completely covered and voila!

 

 

 

I have to say it looks better in person than it does in the photo, it's so fluffy I have to stroke it everytime I walk past! It's nice and christmassy but I will keep it out all year round to add to my J collection!

 

The second make is an idea I got from Pinterest. The item I saw was a white painted pumpkin with crayons melted down the sides which looked amazing (and I'm still planning on doing this one day) but I thought the same idea would look great on a plain canvas. I started with a pack of Crayola crayons (cheaper ones don't have such nice colours and don't melt as easily) and a blank canvas.

 

 

I glued them on using fabric glue - this was all I had lying around but it worked perfectly!

 

 

Once they were all on I left it to dry for an hour then propped it up on top of a scrappy towel and using a standard hairdryer heated the crayons. Beware - it took about 2 minutes before anything happened and then they suddenly hit melting point and went crazy!

 

 

I think the end result looks quite good but I will be doing another one using mainly bright colours because the greens and browns tend to smudge together and make a horrible muddy colour!

 

 

What have you been crafting lately?