Christmas Blog Update

Hello All! It has been a little while in the making, buit I have returned, with a newly edited and decorated blog. There's still a few technical difficulties to overcome, but for now here's a few Christmassy pictures from my house to keep you going!

Present for Lily

Some of my lovely friends are moving this weekend so fingers crossed it all goes to plan, their new house is gorgeous. My wonderous friend Eartha also has a big work day coming up - am sure she will be wonderful so lots of love for her too xxxxxxxxx

I also spotted the most wonderful felt sewing machine on 'A Beautiul Mess' for sale for $50! Sadly with postage this is a bit much for the UK, so I figured I would recreate one, here's my effort! Will be winging it's way to my pretty niece soon so she can have fun copying her talented mummy (check out *the crazy gecko* for her makes)

That's all for today, off to eat curry! K xx

Ribbon Hair Bands

Happy Saturday! Have felt wiped out all day but did pop out to get some new buttons and ribbon for a secret project, and while I was there I picked up some extra ribbon and more buttons for these:

If you fancy making your own here are some brief instructions:

1. Measure your head, mine was 56cm.
2. Cut your ribbon, I cut 40cm, you could take away 15-18cm from your head measurement for yours, for kids perhaps 10cm.
3. Cut a piece of elastic, mine was 12cm, you could take away 4-5cm from the remaining distance around your head, 3cm for kids.
4. Stitch the elastic to the ribbon using a sewing machine, more stitches = stronger join.
5. Select some felt/some other ribbon/some buttons and hand stitch this over the join to make it neat. My decoration sits behind my ears slightly so is hidden from the front but visible from the sides.
6. There you have it, a completed headband!

Will share the rest of the buttons later! Kx

Tea & Art

Hooray it's UK Bank Holiday, does mean I have to go back to work tomorrow after an ultra long 6 weeks of nothingness, fabric and baking but I am kind of ready now! I apologise in advance for my lack of posting for a few days, we have guests and I always get a bit snowed under when going back to work.

Anyway, yesterday we took my lovely mans parents to London to have a look at the BP portrait competition in the National Portrait Gallery and for some lovely food in HIX. Both are highly recommended, will certainly be going back to HIX for some drinks soon, they have an amazing underground bar, really relaxing and serves punch! How fun :)

I really so many of the portraits, these 2 (by Tony Noble and Miriam Escofet) stood out, although I ended up voting for an amazing Oil on Wood by Raphael Rodrigeuz, if I could find a decent picture I would show you it too! Our guests are total tea addicts, so I also made them some tea flavour biscuits, they taste like you have just dunked them in tea and control their withdrawl symptoms pretty well! If you want to make them just whip up any standard shortbread recipe and add the contents of 2-3 teabags when adding the flour! Earl Grey and Chai are amazing, still need to try the rest of my tea collection!

Charity Shop Finds

Hello all, has a nice last holiday day charity shopping and baking! Black forest cupcakes and new jumpers make me very happy!






Are the stars amazing or what!

Companion Cube Tissue Box Cover

Happy Thursday everyone, I just had a cool piano lesson and cooked greek style stuffed peppers a la shutterbean (if you like to cook savory you have to read this blog it's amazing). I only have 1 more day of holiday left before we have visitors and then back to work! Summer goes so fast but I am a little stir crazy now, will be nice to be back at work.

Have a few things to share but have not taken pictures yet, although I did get round to photographing this crazy tissue box cover I made for a friend, this is serious nerdcore, if you don't get the joke then don't worry! K xxx

Thrifty Things

Happy Tuesday! I FINALLY made it to my local market today and bought lots of veg! My car is also better after it's MoT surgery so I am road tripping home tomorrow to get my driving head back on before I have to start the dreaded commute again next week at 'too early to be awake' o'clock :D

I said I would share my yesterday thrifty finds with you all, first up I found some amazing patterns, one for a basic dress and one for.... wait for it.... cullottes!!!! I am tres excited but need to buy suitable fabric first! I also found an amazing teapot, thinking of using it just for hot chocolate, and also a really pretty red throw. I also grabbed some curtain header tape and an old blouse and finally got round to making my sewing room some new curtains (from some lovely fabric my Grandma gave me) as well as another elastic waist skirt :)

My glass jar candle holders should be popping up on oneprettything soon, keep an eye out! K xxx

SPOTTED: Flag Caps

I am not ashamed to admit I LOVE flags and maps, I get so excited during any occasion where they are all on show (world cup, olympics, eurovision), so I found these bottle caps (found in an Austrian Spa Supermarket) absolutely amazing!!! I would definately end up collecting them if we could get them here! How sad, yet so pretty :)

Old Jar Candle Holders

I am not normally a horder but for some reason I keep glass jars an it's about time I found some pretty uses for them, so here's the first (of many hopefully), mini lanterns. Jars with many flat sides work best, I bought some picture wire to wrap around for the handles and used some charms from an old bracelet to make them a bit different. Glueing the candles in place also helps when you try to light them!

Jewel Colours

I normally am pretty colour phobic when it come's to nail varnish but having a slow and relaxing summer has given me some time to play! My lovely friend Stephanie over on Imperfectly Painted has given me lots of ideas, so here are some of the colours I am liking right now :) I am actually pretty unsure about the blue, is it nice, or does it just look like blue tac??



The glasses were from Woolies (I miss you), 6 colours, all jewel like - I believe Whittards do some similar :) They certainly look fun when filled with equally jewel coloured Robinsons Juice!

Oh P.S. just found that OPI has a trying on simulation thing for nails! Doubt the colours match but is pretty fun! I think I get a bit like this in B&Q with the paint swatches :D

Home

Me and my brother found this amazing photo when looking through old pictures! It's the view out of my parents house at night :)

Competition: Not Just Medical

Not Just Medical is running a competition for this fab lace dress from Rare, size 10-12! Free entry on her blog, just a leave a comment before next Wednesday - Hope I Win!!!

Edinburgh Dress

Yawn, almost bedtime :) Been having a busy making day! I also picked up this really amazing plaid fabric (was discussing with my friend and we agree Autumn is our favourite season and doesn't this fabric just seem the epitomy of Autum??). Anyways I copied a dress I own and voila, here is the Edinburgh Dress - really have to name more of my creations :D

How to Make a Skirt from an Old Tee

Evening all, just thought I would share my projects for the day, I made this jersey skirt from an old mens tee, and now you can do the same! Hope you like, send me a pic if you make it!

SPOTTED: Russian Doll Birth

Russian Doll Birth T-Shirt can be found here! Hehe

Strawberry & Cream Cupcakes

Yum!

SPOTTED: Cardboard Stampede

I have decided to add a new blog feature... "SPOTTED", every few days I will share anything cute and original I have found and love with you all. I found this completely randomly on google image search but absolutely love it! It's called 'cardboard stampede' and you can find details on Design Sponge.

K xx

Ebay Love

Have been having a lot of fun on ebay recently both buying and selling, here's a little summary of some of my favourite purchases from the last few weeks! I have been really bummed out this holiday as a recurring problem with my vision has returned but some lovely visits from my brother and seeing friends as well as my nice man being sweet, as well as my ebay fun, has made it much less frustrating! Am really loving my giant headphones and blue leather sack bag at the moment... more to share very soon

K xx

Blog Redesign

Hello all, I have been having a play with the blog header and have come up with this! Hope you like! Has been pretty wet and rainy today so finally got round to playing with this Polaroid maker! It's so annoyingly fun, and you still have to wait 2 mins for your pictures to develop!! I took a few of a few recent bits and pieces.

The new header anda few new projects were all made possible by my new toy - a super Epsom scanner/photocopier/printer! It's been working very hard over the past few days, so lots more to share soon...

9 Things About Me & New Dress Idea

Hello All

So I have been thinking I need to spend a few of my summer holiday days making a dress or two to get over my clothes making anxiety! I have been reading loads of really cool clothing blogs recently (tavi-thenewgirlintown, streetstylelondon etc) as well as frequenting burda style and although I have been looking SO HARD for a pattern I want to make I cannot see past the weird drawings on the front and work out what the dresses might look like in my fabric on my body :S

To cut a long story short it then just hit me that why bother with all the measuring and drawing, why not use something I love and that fits as a base! So here we go, I am going to turn this:

Into a new strappy sleeved slightly bigger skirted dress in a very cute tiny star very dark deminy blue dress with buttons (I have just learned to do buttonholes so am very excited - it's so easy by the way if you have not tried, but use your own manual, much easier to understand than the webvids I viewed).

I have been putting a lot of time into my other creative things recently (work, food, other hobbies) which I don't share so much here and suddenly thought, why not! I should share, so I made a grid of nine things you may not know about me! Do you have a nine things to share?

Click on the image for the bigger version:

K xxx

I Love Summer Pudding

Got it right this time! So, as well as making odd little chequebook holders I also made my favourite food ever...SUMMER PUDDING!!! It's amazing, if you have not made it look it up NOW although you will have to wait overnight before you can eat it!


Lot's of my family and friends have summer birthdays, so have had loads of fun wrapping, here's my current favourite, the prezzie is a secret though...

My garden even managed to survive our holiday unwatering (must have rained), I love my pretty herbs and my runner beans are so so tall. All for now xxxx

Been too Long

Hello Lovely People

Sorry it has been way to long, somehow the more free time you have the less you want to do anything, do you find that? Anyway have been meaning to put a few things up but my eyesight is being dodgy (getting better now though) and have been on holiday with my lovely family but now I am back and have lots to share, so here goes....

First off, I made myself a chequebook holder, not exactly that functional but very funtional :P

It has actually been so long I forgot to add the pictures first and have made this post impossible to edit, so more above xxxxx

Lovely Things

Go England!!! I <3>3 the world cup, it's a good excuse to be mildly patriotic and get together for bbqs (thankyou lovely friends from this weekend xx). Here are some pretty things I found around the house...

I made some more car pincushions, not a patch on the first but still very cute. I then went through my card collection and found these fab ones, are cards not amazing :D

(my soon to be mum and pa in law gave me the card above purely because they saw it and thought of me - how ace - I do love fuzzy felt, have ordered some on ebay so am quite excitied)

And here is my ultimate favourite car boot find, totally random and wonderfully sweet!

Deborah Bag

Do you remember ages ago waaaaay back in March I gave you a sneak preview of a project I had made? Well I can finally reveal the final photos!

I had no pattern for this, so just kinda made it up as I went along but if you want a tute please ask! It has a cool all the way through pocket on the front I was particularly proud of (go me) xxx