Conversation Pieces

On Saturday, Edinburgh was seriously foggy.
And cold. And damp. And very not picnic-y.

Sunday’s sunshine caught me by surprise.
(Plus I slept in as I wasn’t feeling well. Yup, fail!)

So today I’m dreaming about being outside
in the sunshine, stretched out
on a picnic blanket.

Ideally on this gorgeous diy chevron one
(by Kathleen from Twig & Thistle).

Sipping a Strawberry Limeade…
maybe with a little gin in it?

Oh yes and I may have invited some
friends with these free printable invites…

******

In reality, my picnics look nothing like this.
I usually have an Ikea fleece, stolen back from a cat
so it’s got extra fluff on it. And a carrier bag
of stuff from our local food place.

But a gal can dream right?
(Especially when she’s stuck at her desk
on a lovely bright sunshiney day!)

So who’s joining me for this
imaginary picnic?

It’s been a bit of a Manic Monday…
so I thought it was time to go all 80s on you!

Of all the thrifty finds I have acquired over the years,
the most surprising is my collection of 80s record singles.

After my parents split up, I became the ‘trustee’ of this vinyl.

Which essentially meant I put it in a box
and then put that box in the hall cupboard.

Then when we moved to our current home,
someone gave us an old record player…
and so a little 80s music discovery began.

What we found was around 100 record singles…

Mostly what was in the charts at the time. (I think.)

We are both children of the 80s
but some songs we knew,
and some we really didn’t.

Like, who the heck are Five Star?

My other half promises me that they were huge
and the UK equivalent of the Jacksons.

Still nothing…

Other ones… I’ve looked at blankly,
could have sworn that I’d never heard
of the song before… and then the minute
it’s on the turntable… instant recognition!

Yup, I would have said I didn’t know
I Want Your Love by Transvision Vamp
but I appear to know all the words!

{Check out those a-ha cheekbones!}

One of the surprises is how involved it is
to play some record singles…

You have to pull a record from its sleeve,
place it carefully onto the turntable,
gently put the needle at the start…
(and try not to just pull it across the record!)

The strange scratchy hissy nothingness noise
before the song starts is really rather enchanting…
so different from how my Spotify playlist sounds!

So how you all? How’s your 80s tune trivia?
(I think I’d be good for a pub quiz now!)
Anyone know all the songs pictured?

Maybe I should make a Spotify list
of all these songs to share?

********

{Update:} Ok, so here it is…
Zoë’s 80s awesome-tastic playlist.
It’s got all of the record collection I could find.
(Strangely Kylie’s Locomotion isn’t there!)
** Enjoy 80s fans! **

This… yes, this is pretty much my motto right now.
(Except I actually say ‘I don’t know what
I’m doing but I’m doing it anyway’.)

I do like a good motto.
So much so that my friend once made
me a print of a saying I said a lot.

I think it’s my way of explaining why I do things.
Or me trying to talk myself into doing things!

Anyway, I thought it was time I had some new ones.
Some ‘let’s do this thing’ 2012 sayings…

Here’s my new favourites:

This is… well, I want to say perfect…

But, yes times a million.

Done… and beautifully imperfect, this sounds good to me!

You can’t really argue with this can you?!

If anyone knows how to do this, please let me know!

This…

And this…

And this… just because I love it.

And if none of that works, what you really
need is this – a fox riding a rocket!

********

So what’s your motto?
(If it’s good, can I steal it for me too?)

********

P.S. Yup, I had a little blog redesign.
Hope you like it? It’s a bit of a work in progress.
(Yes, I don’t know what I’m doing
but I’m doing it anyway!)

1. making stuff and doing things 2.dorothyjeannegoods
3.LisaBarbero 4.kickcanandconkers 5.  designfuersheim
5. imeus design 6. hammer press (via littlegreenshed)
7.hellojenuine 8. corduroy

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!

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!