Service temporarily suspended....

I'm having a little break so no blogging for me for a little while, normal service will resume sometime next month :)

Necklace organisation using straws!

I saw this amazing idea for storing necklaces in straws on Pinterest and im amazed i never thought of it before! I'm terrible at storing my jewellery, it all gets chucked in one box and invariably ends up so knotted and tangled than i never bother wearing any. So i though i would try this for storing my necklaces instead, so simple and so effective - my favourite kind of tip :)

Knitted Snowmen

Have you seen the amazing adventures the MochiMochi folks get up to! Ive been in love with the MochiMochi knitting patterns for ages and finally got round to knitting a little set of snowmen, i just L-O-V-E them!



I gave them away as a present which was a bit heart wrenching but its a good excuse to make some more!

Baby Boom Blanket - Lucy Eleanor Whitehead

The baby boom continues!
Lucy Eleanor Whitehead arrived on 27th December, a beautiful little girl for Rach and Tom, and this is her blanket :)

Dog treats

Yummy homemade dog treats for the four legged creatures in your life!
I dont have a dog but my aunt and my sister in laws parents do so these were in included in their holiday gift package along with the caramels, reindeers and the candied and spiced nuts!
I used this recipe from DogAware.com

Punch Wall

I finally got to make a punch wall!! I originally posted about them back in April and mine isnt as pretty as the one from celebrate the big and small but i still love it! And it was great fun to use :)



 

The bags contained forfeits and cracker-esque prizes!

Sequin Snake Jumper

We had a Christmas jumper themed party to go to over Christmas and because lovely BM doesnt really like Christmas but does like snakes then i thought i could combine the two!
So i made him this...

He looked so funny in it!
I made the snake with stringed sequins, inspired by this jumper at Honestly WTF

Glueing the sequins on was much harder than i thought, and i got glue everywhere! If i ever make one again i think i might glue the sequins onto some kind of iron on paper and then iron that to the jumper...

Individual strawberry cheesecakes

We had some friends round for New years Eve and i cooked loads of food! The best thing was these little tiny individual strawberry cheesecakes

I found the idea by The Pilot's Daughter via Pinterest
(There were only a few left before i realised i hadnt photographed them, hence the minimal looking photo!)
My filling was made of mascapone cheese, cream cheese and a little bit of sugar to taste - delicious! Just wish id made some more...

Mr and Mrs/Them or Me game

We played a version of Mr and Mrs at my friends Christmas party last month. Its based on the part of the Mr and Mrs game show where the Mr and the Mrs have to pick one of them as the answer to a question eg who is the best looking? But without looking at the other's answer. If you both choose the same you get a point - simple really! As not everyone at the party was a couple we made the questions more generic and made the paddles Christmassy coloured! (theyre just ping pong bats cover in glittery card!)



Also as there was alcohol involved i had to label the paddles to avoid any confusion!

These are some of the questions we used

Who is

The best singer         

The best cook

Most likely to fall over tonight   

Takes longer to get ready

Most vain           

Most likely to be on a reality show

It went down really well and was quite revealing in some instances!!

Another Teacup Birdfeeder

I decided to make lovely BM's mum a teacup birdfeeder for her Christmas present. I found this beautiful yellow and gold set at a local vintage fair.

 

So i glued everything together, added bails to the bottom saucer, threaded the chain through the bails and joined the chain at the top with an 8mm split ring.

I used o-rings to link the chain to the bails last time and some of them didnt hold so i just removed them this time and threaded the chain through the bails instead - much sturdier

(Sorry for the dark pictures, i had to take them inside as i dont actually have any trees in my back garden to hang them from!)

Baby boom blanket - Jasper Julian Samuel Hunter

My cousin's little boy was born last month and this is his blanket :)

The baby boom is still going strong with Henry, Millie, Roisin, Sebastian, Frederick and Lucy born in October, November and December - that's in addtion to Marsya, Samuel and Jasper who got their own blogs as they got special blankets!

More zips! Leather this time

Yet more zips! Yes i know its becoming a problem... but these are leather! Well two of them are, the other is my favourite day of the dead skulls fabric

I went on a Leather purse workshop at The Make Lounge earlier in the year and finally made a trip to a leather supplier in London and got this gorgeous camel napa leather. Combine that with my recent zip obsession and obviously i was going to make little purses with it!

Napa leather is the thinnest kind and you can easily sew it on a regular sewing making. I love how they turned out, some will soon be gifted away i imagine!

Sheep and Lamb Screen Print

I decided to have a go at doing the pva (modge podge) screen printing again. My image this time was a big sheep with a little sheep inside! With all the pregnant women in my life it seemed apt! I didnt reaslise how hard it would be to do such fine detail in pva glue on stretchy fabric, which is why my little sheep is a bit odd looking... if i did it again id try a much larger scale image.

The PVA painted screen (still drying in places!)




The finished item - the little sheep is a bit wonky but its still cute though :)

Loofah Soap

I made some cute little loofah soaps for Christmas presents this year. Theyre inspired by these ones by Martha Stewart. Theyre made using simple melt and pour soap base, nothing complicated. I used a muffin tin as the mold, cut the loofah to fit the tins and poured the melted soap over them - easy peasy!

I wrapped them in waxed paper and stuck a cute oval kraft label on them, nice and simple looking

These are the soap i used inside my reindeer!

Drawstring bag (for baby snakes!)

The daughter of a friend of mine is hopefully going to get one of our baby corn snakes as her belated Christmas present. So i thought id made a mini version of my drawstring bags for the baby corn, for the junior herpatologist to take him home in!

Isnt it just adorable!!

One Year Anniversary!

Its one year since my first ever blog post :)
I think i fulfilled my resolution to keep a record of the things i make and want to make, and i still think if anyone else likes what i post then thats just a bonus!
Having the blog has definitely inspired me to create more, make different things and has made me look at crafting and making as a potential business, but im a long way from that yet!
I plan to continue the same way in 2013, i still feel the blog is more for me to record what ive done rather than to share it with the world but maybe that outlook will change this year. But my main resolution is to take better photos, might even invest in a proper camera and stop using my iphone!!

My top 5 makes of 2012

5. Cami Bands - consistently most viewed pages!


4.  Doilie Wrapped Flowers - a beautiful simple idea


3. Leather and Tube Bead Bangles - i wear these all the time!


2. Needlepoint clutch - such a labour of love!


1. Basketweave blanket - i really love this blanket as does the cat!

Giraffe washbag

I made a cute little washbag for lovely BM's sister for Christmas and filled it with beauty essentials, nail files, lip balm, tweezers etc. I followed the same pattern from before - still loving the zips!

Candied and Spiced Nuts

These make great emergency presents, for when people turn up with a gift for you and you realise you havent bought them anything!

I used this recipe for the candied pecans and this one for the spiced nuts, both are delicious

Christmas cake

I knows its nowhere near Christmas anymore but i love making Christmas cake so i wanted to make sure it got a mention on here :)



I dont really follow a recipe, i just make a brown sugar sponge and add whatever fruit i fancy that year. The little clay people are form Lakeland about 10 years ago, they've survived very well!

Happy New Year!