Conversation Pieces

So my first ever baby bunting…
Before some of you get too excited,
the baby in question isn’t mine!

No when your friend who you’ve known since you were 14,
who you went to uni with, who you lived with for years,
with whom there’s been many, many, many, many, many
brilliant times, drunken nights, fits of giggles, and silly adventures
that may include breaking into our own apartment in Cannes…

Well, when she has a baby…
you know, it’s sort of special really.

So as well as buying her a present,
I wanted to make something.
For her and her baby.

A ‘welcome to the world’ if you will.

That’s what I kept saying… and that’s what it became.

A teeny tiny diy for a teeny tiny person…
cut out of vintage map paper
and strung on some baker’s twine.

1. Take one old atlas…

2. Draw your letters and cut them out

3. String together on baker’s twine.
And try to make sure the cat doesn’t
sit on it while you’re not looking.

*******

And the ‘holy moley me oh my’?
Well, I was thinking of making my own version
that says “home is wherever I’m with you’.
And then the song got stuck in my head
while I was writing this!

If anyone has any requests for one,
I still have 3/4 of an atlas to go!

I’ve been having an early Spring clean.
That’s rearranging, chucking out,
re-finding things I already own…

So far this has involved:

1. Making a little wall display
with my print from The Seventy Tree,
poster card from General Pattern
and little map print by Alison Hardcastle.

2. Acquiring another sideboard.

In my defense, this is actually a drinks cabinet
so I’m not as much of a sideboard addict as I seem.
(None of you are convinced by that right?)

It needs a bit of work (its bottom glass doors are broken)
but it’s lovely and narrow… so it’s perfect for the hall.
Which is exactly where I’ve just plonked it for the moment!

3. Making a tea towel cushion

Back in the summer of 2010, I bought
a ‘owl and pussycat’ tea towl by Gabrielle Reith.
And I’ve just got round to converting it
into a cushion. Looks rather lovely
with my cuddly Custard Cream!

4. Turning Xmas decs into full-time decs

Yes the fairylights are still up!

I’ve also been trying to decide on a home
for the pom-pom wreath my little sis made me
for Christmas… it’s too pretty to put away.

I’m thinking as it’s red and pink
it could be a Valentine’s wreath too?

5. Dropping stuff off at charity shops
and coming home with some finds

Yes I’ve dropped bags of old clothes off at charity…
so it only seems to right to reward myself with
this gorgeous typewriter. Especially as she only cost £3!

We also may have picked up a what
I’m calling a boy’s polaroid too…

We bought film for both cameras – and the results have
been, um, interesting so far! Expect a post on that soon!

6. Rediscovering my SLR

In amongst all the shuffling, I dusted off my SLR
and started playing around with it.
(Yes, cats make easy subjects!)

I’ve gotten very bad at just snapping everything
on my iphone… so I’m determined to
try and get back to using the SLR.

And maybe even learn how to use it properly!

*******

So’s that’s my bits and bobs for a Monday.
Anyone else having a bit of a January
reorganisation? I think I do this every year!

For our wedding, friends and family made
all the cakes, puddings and desserts.

They were all supremely good.
And we had too much.

But two nights before the wedding
I was worried we wouldn’t have enough.
So I wanted to bake.

Someone suggested making cake pops.
One glance at the recipes revealed that
it was not something that my
pre-wedding brain
could cope with.

So I decided to make ‘not cake pops’ instead.
Otherwise known as biscuit and marshmallow pops.

I made them for the kids –
but all the adults ate them first!
Though not before they got
a starring role in our wedding…

Yup…  this is us doing our posed
‘we are signing the register’ picture…
(after having actually signed the register)
complete with biscuit and marshmallow pops!

******

I’ve made a few more batches since…
that’s how easy they are to make
and how yummy they are to eat.

Here’s how to make your own:
(I take no responsibility for
how many you might eat!)

You’ll need:

Double-stuff Oreos (has to be the double stuff ones)

Marshmallows

Long lolly sticks (you can get these from Hobbycraft)

Melting candy (any colour; again you can get this from Hobbycraft)

Decoration (we used white chocolate stars and sprinkles)

A colander and a chopstick

******

To make your Oreo biscuit pop…

1. Slowly start to melt your candy in a glass bowl inside a pot of hot water.
Keep the water below boiling point or it will burn the candy.

2. Take Oreo double stuff biscuit and insert stick carefully.
(It’s easier if you use a cocktail stick to
create a hole before inserting the stick.)
If the biscuit halves separate then simply use
some melted candy to glue them back together.

3. Place the newly ‘stuck’ Oreos into your freezer for approx 10mins.
(This is pretty important or they fall apart when you dip them in the candy!)

4. Once Oreos are chilled and the candy is nice and runny,
it’s time to dip them. The best way to coat them is to use
a ‘dip and spin’ technique – as this removes any excess candy.
Use a chopstick to smooth the candy down and clean up the edges.

5. Now you need your colander.
Turn it upside down and use the holes to put the pop’s lolly stick in.
(This way, your pop can dry without getting stuck to another pop.)

6. Before the candy dries, add your stars or decoration.

7. Try not to eat immediately. If you can.
(Of course, you do need to sample some
for quality control so that’s allowed!)

******

To make your marshmallow pop…

1. Insert the sticks into the marshmallows.

2. Dip into the candy, using the same ‘dip and spin’ technique.

3. Place in the colander and then decorate.

4. Leave to set.

5. And then eat as many as you can…
before everyone else does!

******

P.S. For a handy paper version of this ‘how to’
get yourself a copy of the Hannah Zakari zine
as they kindly featured my ‘not cake pops’ there.

P.P.S. This is my first post on grown-up wordpress.
Do let me know if anything glitchy,
I feel like a blogging newbie again!

******

Image 1: Lillian and Leonard at our wedding
Image 3: snapped by my uncle
All other images: by me.

So it’s January 2012.

Or it’s Jaguars Need You, Larry
according to my Cats Let Nothing
Darken Their Roar calendar.

(I missed out on getting one last year
so I was determined to have the 2012 one.
I’m trying to be good and not peek
at what the following months are…
we’ll see how long that lasts!)

Yup… I even put the cover in a frame.
It’s ridiculous just how much I love it.

So how’s everyone else coping with January?
I’m refusing to take down all the extra
fairy lights from around the flat…
and I’m still happily eating Xmas chocolate
which I need to stop doing soon!

Apart from that, I’m back to work,
back to yoga, back to reality…
and planning (hopefully) some rather
exciting stuff for 2012.

Yes, this cat is going to let
nothing darken her roar…
whatever that means!

Happy 2012 so far everyone xx

P.S. Thanks for all your lovely comments
and interest on the book project I was
working on (still doing a bit now actually).
I’m only part of the book, no solo project yet…
but I’ll tell you all about it as soon
as I allowed to. Promise!

Eeeek! Only 3 more sleeps to go!
How on earth did that happen?
(I still have about 10 days to open
on my Grinch advent calendar!)
The last wee while has just been work, work, work.
Some of it good, exciting stuff but still work.
So my feeling festive has kind of slipped away.
But last night I put up some of our cards
in a little tree shape… Which strangely
cheered me up no end!
And drank some mulled wine,
while playing some cool yule tunes…
thanks to some lovely twitter people.
(I’d already played She & Him to death!)

Here’s their wonderful suggestions:
Christmas with the Beach Boys (a favourite of Seeds & Stitches)
This Noel playlist by isabelleoc
An alternative Xmas mix by Last Year’s Girl
For Folk’s Sake, It’s Christmas 2011
A Charlie Brown Christmas,
Muppets Christmas Carol soundtrack,
This cool playlist by naurnie,
Sufjan Stevens, Low
and R2D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas!!

And for the Christmas holidays…
Here’s what I have planned:
That’s yummy food, presents,
taking pics with my car boot Polaroid,
roasting chestnuts on our fire
(never done this before ever!),
watching Christmas movies
and getting my skates on…

Oh yes and some sitting on the couch
doing absolutely nothing too!

(Weird fact: the penguin with the bauble?
That’s how he came out of the Christmas box,
holding that bauble… it seemed mean to take it off him!)

So I’ll see you all in 2012.
Thanks so much for dropping by this year,
leaving comments, emailing me,
even saying hi sometimes.
You guys rock, you really do.

I hope you all have some lovely, relaxing, fun plans?
But whatever you do, remember the following:
You do indeed!

Merry Christmas.
Hope you all have an amazing time.
And get super, super spoiled!
xxxxx

Image 3: Lillian & Leonard (at our wedding)
Image 5: merriweathercouncil

So Christmas has arrived…

On Friday night, we bought our tree
(and named him Bruce the Spruce)
then on Saturday we set about decorating.

A lot of last year’s decorations were looking
a little tired… so I decided to make my own,
using things that we had left over from the wedding,
like baker’s twine, paper doilies and washi tape.

Candy canes, word banners
and a stealthy deer!

I looked for pretty paper to make
my Joy word banners with…
I couldn’t find any so I made my own
using washi tape. (God I love that stuff!)

I even cheered up this mirror with a little ‘joy’ too.
(Yes, I was watching Home Alone at the time!)

If you’d like to make your own,
here’s how in this mini ‘how to’:

1.a Find yourself some pretty paper.

1.b Or fail to find to pretty paper
and decide to make some yourself.
I just took A4 sheet of paper
and stuck rows of different Japaneses
washi tape to it. And voila!

2. Draw in pencil your letter shapes
(I do it in pencil so I can rub it out!)
3. Then cut out using scissors or a scalpel.
4. Using a needle, thread some baker’s twine
through each letter twice. Then tie the ends
with a loop and a slipknot so you can adjust them.
That’s it!

******

I still had lots of paper doilies leftover
from the wedding so I turned them into…

… Xmasy doilies with typed phrases
and dotted ‘em round the flat.

There has to be a fox right?

I’m counting the elephant as festive since he’s red!
The rest we hung up, using fishing wire…
(it’s virtually invisible which is great for decorations,
not so good when you’re trying to find the end of it!)
We also made some ceramic hearts…
Strangely I didn’t take any pics of making them.
But I did take pics of our ceramic stars.
It’s the same theory, different shapes!
1. Basically you roll out some ceramic clay
(like you would with some pastry).
2. Then use a star/heart shaped cookie cutter
3. Depending on your clay, leave to dry or bake.

(I’m planning on making a little star banner,
that’s why they have holes in them.)

And to complete our ‘love xmas’ scene
I added my wee snowman, tree and pudding.
(The pudding makes me laugh so!)

****
The rest of the weekend was spent
doing secret crafty stuff.

Handmade presents mainly…
but also crafty things I’m making
for a book which I can’t tell you
more about until next year!

******
So I’m starting to feel a mite more
festive now… how about you all?

A while ago, I had the thought of using
our wooden letterpress blocks to
stamp letters into cookies.

I tried it. It wasn’t a failure.
But it wasn’t a great success either.

Then my husband tracked me down
some letterpress cookie cutters instead.

With Blook Club 3 on Sunday,
I thought it was the perfect excuse
to try them out…

So I made up a lump of gingerbread dough
based on an adaptation of this recipe …
(Lump being the technical term of course!)

140g unsalted butter
100g dark muscovado sugar
6 soup-spoons of golden syrup
350g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon powdered ginger

Heated up the sugar, butter and syrup
then mixed in the rest until there was
a lump of gingerbread ready to go!

Then it was just as simple as pressing
the letter you wanted into the dough…
firmly or they lost their shape when rising.

And then cutting them out using the cutters…
Much simpler than my original plan!

And then they went into the oven
for 10 minutes at 200C…

And the finished result…
Not bad for a first attempt!

I did consider icing the letters
but thought that might
look like they’d been iced on…
which would defeat the point!

*****

What will you be baking this Xmas?
I’ll definitely be making more of these
and some of Danae’s amazing brownies
that she brought to Blook Club too.

*****

P.S. I owe the title of this post
to this gorgeous illustration
(found via Wit + Delight‘s pinterest)
… it’s blooming freezing isn’t it!

It’s been a while since I’ve been thrifting…
(and I’ve kind of been craving it
if you can crave such a thing?)

So with Christmas on the way,
I got up early this morning to head to a few markets
with the intention of finding some presents
and potentially a cosy coat for me
since for some reason I don’t have one.

(I blame my overenthusiastic
charity clearouts in the summer!)

Here’s some snaps of what was on offer
at one of the markets… I think I snapped
much more than I bought!

A toy typewriter…
so so so tempting but I resisted!

I used to collect badges when I was little.
I had a whole pinboard of them from every
exhibit/museum/zoo I’d ever been to.
I still have a thing for them now.
Love the design of this cookbook…

Love these angry little owls
and their ‘be wise save’ message.

A beautiful opera glove holder!
Who knew such things existed…
very Downton Abbey!
A Daily Mail (!) annual for girls
on a reworked blue chair.

Was rather tempted to buy this just as it’s so random…
a book for logging who you got your Christmas cards from!
Vintage books… I should have bought
the one on coffee for my coffee-addicted husband!
No market is complete without cake!
How gorgeous are these ice-cream sundae cupcakes?!

****
So what did I pick up?
Well, I can’t show you everything as some
are presents… but here’s the things I got
as happy December gifts to me!
A cosy vintage cape… not quite a coat
but it was such a bargain from the
lovely Totty Rocks gals I couldn’t resist.
Years ago, I used to stalk these 70s German elephant
moneybanks on ebay. But they always, always
went above my price range… so happily
I found one today. In your face, 2007 ebay!
A Sergeant Major moustache…
apparently this came out of a 1950s magic box.
I can’t really think what magic tricks you’d
do with a moustache but there you go!
A pair of vintage shoe clips…
I’ve resolved not to buy any new party outfits
this year and just update my old ones instead.
Love how these clips transform a dull pair of shoes!
Oh yeah… and cake.
You didn’t think I’d leave without some of that!

Our kitchen table has a whole lot of craft clutter on it
right now (mostly from my printmaking class)
so I thought it might be easier to snap the cakes
on the floor… I thought wrong!
Yup, I got one picture before my cake
was in danger of getting licked by a cat!
So in order to save the cake, there’s no more pics!

I’ve also entirely forgotten what flavour
my cake is… so I won’t know until I have it.
Looks rather pretty and festive though.

*****
So I think that makes for a good little haul
and I got a few presents too…
tomorrow, I’m going to try and get up
for the car boot sales too.

Let’s see if I can get all my Christmas shopping
done without any high street shops!

Happy Saturday everyone xx