Robot Story
Seeing as I am about to turn 25 in just a few days time I thought I would put a little childish post up, while I still can get away with it. The light in the living room was great yesterday, the sun was shining and the whole room was flooded with bright light. There’s something about bright light that makes everything look fresh and inspiring and this made me reach for the camera and snap everything around me. As you can probably tell from my last few months worth of posts, I’m a little bit in love with blue of late and when I saw Miles’ pale blue robot staring out of the cabinet at me yesterday I really wanted to capture the colour.
I think when it came to capturing the colour the child came out in me and I grabbed my new Dala horse and put the two together, just like a child would. The juxtaposition between the soft decorative swirls on the horse contrasts strongly against the right angles and straight lines on the robot, it’s almost a bit surreal. It’s sort of like the robot is the cowboy and the Dala is his trusted horse – ha,ha! You can tell I’ve not been out much this weekend! It’s still snowy, dark and freezing here in London and although we go on about the weather a lot here in the UK at the moment it’s mostly because January is a bit of a depressing month. Lack of money to do things, lack of day light hours to do them in and lack of motivation to commit to those new year resolutions. Pah!
So, this is the end of my childish robot story I think they ride off into the sunset, get the girl and save the day! Well, you need a little optimism on a dark day like today. I think for now I am going to focus on the exciting week ahead, my Birthday, my family, my friends and most of all Miles. I’ll get to spend 2 full days with Miles, uninterrupted and doing fun things – Yay! Also, if anyone is interested in design, Miles’ is taking part in Design 365 where he creates something each day for a whole year! You can check out his latest designs here.
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.
Fluffy Cupcake Tower
Enough scary zombies and back to my nephews birthday bake-off. This was the fluffy cupcake tower I made for him and everyone to devour. I know, I know, it’s pink! I can’t get my hands on any masculine food colouring around here. I need to get some of the colouring jelly/pastes that pro’s use, but I must find the best store to get it from first. So long as it’s sweet, edible and colourful kids love it no matter what. I made a giant pint Martha Stewart pom pom the other night and it keeps creeping into the background of photos, so everything feels more pink than it is.
I got a chance to use my new piping skill that I learnt at The Make Lounge, it uses so much less icing than the swirl and is a little less sickly – result! Speaking of more blue cupcakes and The Make Lounge, the yummy cupcakes I decorated there have been featured over on Denise’s adorable blog, The Swelle Life. I am really flattered to have my cakes featured on her very cool ‘Cupcake Monday’ section, her love for blue cakes is on par with my love for pink ones! Cakes and fashion fans check out Swelle Life it’s a visual treat!
Halloween Zombies
Look away now if you don’t like gore! Sorry if you were expecting cakes and flowers, not a trip to the dark side. Miles and I dressed up as zombies for Halloween this year and managed to scare quite a few people when we headed out for drinks and dancing. However, it’s kind of funny as I am the least dark side person there ever was, my fave colour is white and pale blue and I love cakes and Cath Kidston! We went a bit to town with the make-up and I ended up looking like Helena Bo Carter mixed with the guy from The Horrors. Anyway, it was a good fun night and no necks were really hurt when making Miles’ costume. Normal posts will resume now!
Flooded Birthday Cookies
I know this is another baking post but I couldn’t resist as the other day it was my nephew’s 11th Birthday, 11 years old! This seems so surreal because I’m only 24. Time flies so fast, as I remember the very day he was born, all those moons ago. Now he’s choosing a secondary school and walking him self to class everyday, I really can’t keep up.
Anyway, as we were having a family party I decided to bake for the occasion – lots of colourful things that kids like. These orange and lemon flooded cookies were just some of the baked good I rustled up for the occasion, believe me I was baking all day long. It was worth it as they all went down a treat and I got to try out lots of techniques that I hadn’t had time to previously, like flooding cookies.
My attempt, by no means is perfect, my yellows don’t quite match and my shaky hand lets my down, but it was a fun first attempt and spurned me no to try more. Christmas biscuits would be the dream, however piping santa and co could more a lot more tricky than a huge chunky flower. I picked up this technique over on the very helpful, Cake Journal – really this site is a wonder – I love it!
