Best Blanket

For my Birthday I receive a very special present that I have been waiting to share, however the light has been far too poor to photograph it nicely. My lovely Mum crotched me this stunning, lovely, beautiful blanket and I am totally smitten with it. It’s become the main focus in my living room, the colours are so perfect and the fact that it was hand made with love makes it so special – needless to say I don’t let many people sit on the sofa with it on (no way). I am totally in awe of my Mum’s talents, I can’t knit, let alone crotchet something so pretty.

It’s placed on the second sofa in our front room, this retro leather couch belongs to our land-lady and I am rather fond of it. It’s beautifully worn, smells ever-so-slightly of smoke and I just know it’s had an interesting life. This all sounds a little odd I know, but I find strange little things like this interesting and comforting sometimes. Plus, I’ve polished it so many times you can barely smell the smoke anymore (which is good). For anyone who knows me,  you will understand just how much I love blankets,  I seriously adore a warm, beautiful blanket to snuggle up with at all times of year. So, when I received this stunner it was love. Unique and lovely – I love it. I know, I am being irrationally mushy about a blanket, but somethings are worth gushing over. The end.

Have  a great week everyone!

Helen and Miles Home

After spending some time browsing the very talented Interior styling Flickr pool/group set up by Holly Becker, it reminded me that I rarely take that many pictures of my flat (well, ones that actually let you see what’s going on). This isn’t deliberate, ever since I moved in and got settled it’s always so blooming dark, my flat is lower ground as well. So, on an unusually sunny day last weekend I managed to grab these shots of my re-arranged living room.

We have re-positioned our recycled cardboard H and M to near the window, just so everyone gets a good ideas who lives here he,he! We turned our bookcase on it’s side and filled it with all my favourite decorative, white and glass items. I am so mad about white and glass at the moment, it’s great to have somewhere dedicated just for this. It sounds silly but even just re-ordering the living room furniture has given the room and me a new burst of energy – especially when the sun finally shines!

The the pink and peach roses were my Valetine’s present from Miles, they lasted so long – I was very impressed. I think they liked the sunshine too! Other than basking in the sunshine last weekend, I’ve been mostly feeling poorly and under the weather (again). However, when I am not feeling the winter illness blues I’ve been enjoying the new edition of Lula, listening to Emiliana Torrini, Local Natives and Elie Goulding. Bliss.

Pink Corners

After my blue post I felt the need to share a little pink. I have a few places in the flat that I still indulge in a little pink. It seems to creep into the corners, little collections of things that seem to accumulate in pretty formations. Things I haven’t get put away from Christmas, New Year and things I use every day. This collection of girl treats, sits messy, yet pretty on my desk – you can tell I don’t use this desk much to work from. I received the Marc Jacobs, Lola perfume for Christmas and I totally love the bottle – it’s a blooming work of art! The Luella bag, well that held a special Christmas treat from the lovely Holly – sob, sob I will miss Luella creations.

Above is another little pink indulgence, my bedside table where the blue bird and fawn keep watch over everything. I love my Roberts radio, it’s just so damn lovely. I also have a test sheet of photos Miles took of my two beautiful nephews there, I love the action shots and black and white rawness to these little images, really captures there lively spirit. Then last on the bedside table is my collection of eye/sleep masks – I can’t sleep without one. I know, it’s terrible to think you can’t sleep without something but I recently got a  silkskin eye mask and it really is amazing, it has lavender in it and is dreamy.  Anyway, that was a little look at my pink corners. I hope everyone has survived Monday and is keeping warm? It’s certainly wool socks and jumbo knitted scarf weather – sunshine I do miss you!

Vintage Tea Cup Candles

For Christmas gifts this year I decided to make everyone a vintage tea cup candle. I had a stack of tea cups in storage and really needed a new craft project – plus I really wanted to make everyone something homemade as part of their overall Christmas presents. I have to say that candle making (like this) was really fun and simple. It’s not without it’s problems, the wax cracking, not using enough dye and under-filling the cups, but this aside I think even the most non-crafty person could give this a go.

These vintage cup are all Queen Anne bone china and Colclough bone china, some are passed down from my Grandma, others are sourced by my Mum from charity shops in Whitstable and the rest were cups I had in storage. I wanted the candles I made to leave minimal damage on the tea cups so I opted for soya wax from candles4u. The soya wax is so soft that you can literally wash any residue out once the candle is finished, meaning you can again use the cup for tea or grab a wax refill.

Here’s a sample of the finished product. I boxed them all up with lovely brown recycled card boxes, Petra Boase happy tape, some second hand coral string and a homemade label. I wish I had a picture of them boxed but I was rushing around so much at Christmas it just never happened. I still have a stack of candles left, I think these will work well as reserve pressies for Birthdays, Anniversaries and everything else. I know everyone has probably had a go at making these, I am a little late to the party, but what the hell I thought I’d share mine anyway. Happy Saturday everyone, I’m off to watch Gigantic (hope those bad reviews I read were bogus).

Goodbye Christmas, Hello 2010!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great time and welcomed 2010 in style. I went to a very cool 1920’s prohibition evening in London, it was charming and so different. However, too many Gatsby cocktails and Champagne meant I am a little vague on the details – ouch! I am determined now to see the new year in fully, happy, healthy and without a hangover or sleep deprivation. These last few post will wrap up Christmas and move on to fresher things. This is was my touch of pink this Christmas, a white frosted twig adorned with all my pink glass ornaments. My main colour-way was blue a silver, so I decided to keep all the pink guys together on their own twig.

These are vintage inspired glass ornaments and glass fish ornaments from Russia – all fashioned in an Ikea flower pot. Please forgive the crumpled table cloth, (slipping standards I know) ironing really is not my thing. In other news I do have lots of resolutions this year, many more than usual and I think someone that really summed up how I felt was this post here on The Red Thread. I won’t bore you with the details of my personal resolutions, but I really hope that 2010 is the year for change – my fingers are tightly crossed that I can pull this one off. I turn 25 in 10 days time – a grown-up age requires a few grown-up decisions. Wishing everyone the best of luck with the resolutions and new year plans – here’s to a great 2010!

Dala Delightful

I am just a little bit excited about showing off my first ever Dala horse. Here in the UK they are pretty much impossible to locate, I’ve only ever seen the traditional red/orange ones in one shop, once. So when I received this blue and white beauty for Christmas, from Miles I was more than a little over the moon. She made a long journey all the way from Sweden and safety arrived in one piece yesterday – eeek!

I think I let out a little squeal when Miles gave me it, I had no idea that he had remembered I wanted one, or even knew where to get hold of one. I was a very lucky girl this Christmas, my friends, family and Miles all put so much thought into the gifts they gave me it was really lovely. I love Christmas and as I grow older it becomes less about the gifts I receive, I get so much pleasure finding the perfect things for everyone and then watching their faces light up when they open them. It’s also such a great time of the year, breaking from work for a whole 2 weeks and spending much needed time with the loved ones – what a treat!

Christmas Paper Wreath

Happy Christmas to everyone! So sorry I haven’t blogged sooner, December has been insanely busy, there are just not enough hours in the day! I really hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and is still enjoying the festive season? I have a lot to catch up on and I fear I am going to have to my Christmas posts after Christmas! Topsy-turvy I know, but I still want to share some of the things that inspired me throughout December. As I may have mentioned (once or twice) before I was really aiming for a more handmade Christmas this year and here is a picture of the wreath I made from paper.

I can’t take any credit for the idea behind this one, I spotted the tutorial over on The Red Thread (thanks for the inspiration). I used paper bought at Paperchase and it’s simply a case of stapling each and every leaf into place, one-by-one! It’s a slow but rewarding process. I would really love a natural wreath, but I know I would be shocking at making it myself and I am sure it would wilt or be stolen from my from door in minutes. So for safety reasons this now adorns my living room door, safe from  thieves, rain and snow! This is so quick and simple to make, I think it could double up as a really effective table centre piece with a fat pillar candle in the middle – I must try that next year.

Happy Tapes ‘n’ Luggage Labels

Well, it’s been a funny few days, that’s for sure. Lets just say my normal routine was a bit disturbed but all is better now. Despite the topsy turvy weekend I did manage to make a few things to cheers me up. These early Christmas/any occasion labels were one of them. I used all my lovely new supplies that I had been storing – it made me pretty happy – the simple things really. It really is, I am busy, stressed and rush around all week long it’s so nice to sit, relax, stay in and make stuff at the weekend. Even if you don’t really need anything – just making something creative helps.

These are just plain old luggage labels from Paperchase jazzed up with a little happy tape and Petra Boase sticky tape. I got the coloured masking tapes from Present and Correct – their stock is all so kitsh and cool I could spend a fortune. The large pink and turquoise tapes are the Petra Boase, I picked them up at the Country Living Fair for the bargain price of 2 for £5!

Anyway, I hope this inspires someone out there to do a little bit of crafting – it is really is good for the soul, and, as I have proved you don’t have to be wonderfully talented to get involved. It’s not hard sticking tape onto labels at all, but it is really good for your well-being. I’d love to know what other people think….. I am not really sure if there is anyone out there lately, possibly some blog readers, but no commenters. It’s getting a little lonely

Festive DIY Garland

Christmas seems so near, yet so far when it come to decorating the house. I admit I get  tad over excited and tend to want to put everything up at the beginning of November, having realised that this isn’t that socially acceptable I am finding new ways to creep Christmas in without going full haul. I started with this festive DIY garland and who knows where it will end.

So some people may recognise this garland, I took inspiration and followed the tutorial for the valentines love garland over on Style Me Pretty (man I love that site). I wanted to keep mine a little more muted and opted for some Edwardian shades of blue and biscuit to keep in style with our flat. I really went to town with this one and even splashed out on a Martha Stewart paper punch to replicate the look just right – I love an excuse to have to buy more crafting bits and bobs. I used East of India ribbon and ran out half way through, so my unexpected trip to the Country Living Craft Fair turned out really useful.

Here is my whole fireplace, I recently acquired the white planter set in the middle from a cute local shop called Gathering Moss, it was originally teal blue so I decided to tone it down a little and paint it my favourite colour – white. I also managed to squeeze even more festiveness in with the addition of some yummy pine cones, generously donated by colleague at work! I am much happier now there is a little hit of Christmas in the flat, I know, it’s nuts, but December is so short that I feel I need to stretch the magic a little further.

In other news, I’ve also joined bloglovin so you can now follow my blog with bloglovin.

Feeling Blue?

This very pale, icy duck egg blue is my latest obsession. I really can’t get enough, I’ve packed all my pink away, banished to the bedroom because I am in love with blue. I think it happened when I moved into my new flat, as a victorian period property pale blue seemed so much more fitting and refreshing. This is a little snap shot of my crafting basket – I am eagerly preparing for Christmas and decorating the flat for autumn.

I am currently making some festive wool pom poms with the wool I got from the very lovely and super unique, Loop on Cross Street, Islington. I am not too sure what to do with them yet, I have a few ideas but I think I’ll squirrel them away until something is finished.

I am also acquiring an healthy obsession with these gorgeous East of India ribbons, Not on The High Street have the most wonderful selection of lovely stuff and I am slowly becoming bankrupt buying everything up. I am in a bit of a creative frenzy at the moment I just want to make everything, spend all day crafting but I have to work. I enjoy what I do but I long to take some time off and just make things, feel inspired and re-connect a little. So feeling blue? A little. I am sure the prospect of Christmas decorations, pumpkin carving and Present and Correct will keep me chipper until the Christmas break.