Conversation Pieces

I have a new hobby. One I’m not exactly great at
(which is a bit of an understatement) but one
which I love all the same… printmaking.

This studio is currently one of my favourite places.
A little haven of niceness.

I may have a creative job
(I’m an advertising copywriter by day)
but it’s to looming and multiple deadlines…
so it comes with a fair amount of stress.

{Ok, so it’s not like being a doctor
or running a nuclear facility…
but the way my stomach gets tied
in knots sometimes you’d think it was!}

So this place… and doing something where it’s ok to fail…
well, that’s pretty relaxing to me.

See that horses sign?
It’s for clothes horses from when
it was a public wash house…
not actual horses as I first thought!

The very first print I made was a collagraph –
basically a collage you then put ink on to.

It has to be said I enjoyed making my little collage
and then didn’t really like the resultant print!

Therapeutic all the same!

I also tried wood cutting… which is bloody hard!
{And even harder if you insanely decide you
want to carve circles into a piece of wood!!}

I did a little homage to my Polaroid 1000…
which came out not too bad I think.

The thing I liked best of all (weirdly) was dry point…
where you etch into metal the design you want to print.

Above is my first attempt…
a sort of 60s-esque New York-ish skyline.

I’m planning to do a much better version of this now
that my teacher has revealed I don’t have to do it all free hand…
but then I kind of like that I did it all that way.

 And next? Well, I think I’ll do a proper screen printing course…
and maybe finally make my ‘create no nuisance’ print.

******

So what about you all? Is there something you love to do
that you’re not great at?  I think the nice thing about
having a hobby you’re bad at is that, well,
maybe one day you’ll be good at it.

Or that’s what I tell myself!

Back in January, the lovely Claire from Miso Funky
told me about the best ever charity shop. “You’ll love it.”

And boy was she right… it’s a cute wee place in Govan,
with gorgeous finds at old school charity shop prices.

My favourite find was the 50s coffee pot above.
Which I can’t decide whether to use for coffee
or turn into a pretty little vase for flowers.

Next up… this gorgeous little 50s gravy boat.
I’m thinking I might plant something in it.
An orangey flower perhaps?

{That said, it looks pretty cute just sitting
next to my new Hello Jenuine postcard.}

Since July last year when I found my first Meakin teapot,
we’ve become a bit obsessed with the 60s make.

And here in this charity shop was another little set.
Complete with a milk jug and bowl.

I was torn between this set and a pretty pinky gold set
I’d spotted. “I’ll get this then” said the other half.

{Yes, he’s a definite keeper than one.}

Does this remind anyone else of an owl?
I keep seeing this pic as two eyes looking at me!

New Meakin meets old Meakin.
Or boy’s Meakin meets girl’s Meakin!

And a lemon squeezer… which is hopefully
going to assist me on my soon-to-start health-kick.

This is the china that caught my eye.

It’s been a while since I saw anything so pretty
or so affordable in a charity shop it has to be said.

Gin in a tea cup anyone?

Last April I blogged about my vintage china obsession.

It made some sense when I was collecting more for our wedding.
And after our wedding, a couple of people borrowed
my china for their own wedding… which was pretty cool.

So I’ve been thinking if anyone has a wedding or event
they’d like to borrow some for… then drop me a line.

Instead of payment, I was thinking it would be
good to donate to my Nana’s charity, Marie Curie.
Since she’s the one who inspired my love of tea.

Oh yes, and the set also came with another milk jug…
which I can add to my little growing collection.

{I have no idea why I’m so fond of milk jugs but I am!}

After leaving the lovely charity shop laid down
with all these things, we headed to the West End.

Where I picked up this cute coral cardi…
which I have now washed twice and
still haven’t got rid of the ‘vintage smell’.

Any tips on how to do that?

*******

And the one that got away?

Behold the Holiday Flask in the Holiday picnic hamper.

I found this in a junk shop… and instantly
fell deeply in love with that Holiday logo.

But my wallet was pretty empty by this point.
And the price was far too high anyway.

So I let it go.

(Well, sort of… it’s going on my
things to stalk on ebay list!)

*********

So do you know of still fab charity shop?
Or how to get rid of that vintage aroma?!
Do share if you do.

And if you’re interested in borrowing my china
(and donating to Marie Curie) just drop me an email.

Happy Monday everyone xx

It’s nearly Valentine’s…
so that seems like the perfect
time to talk heart cake…

I came across this idea by I Am Baker
before our wedding and thought
‘oooh that looks like nice’.

I did not read the bit that said “this was not easy”.

I think my brain was not paying attention
to minor details like that at the time!

So I asked our baker, who was making the only
cake not made by family and friends,
just to make us something simple…
like, um, this heart cake.

And make he did. I believe he actually made
about 4 versions… which makes me cringe a little!

We still have this much cake left
but it’s in the freezer to be saved for…
whenever you’re meant to save things for!

But I was thinking that maybe, just maybe
it would good to make a version myself.

Maybe just a small one?
Looking at the tutorial, it doesn’t
look that hard does it?
{Gulp.}

If anyone has seen an easier
way to do it, do let me know!

Oh but the heart bunting… well that’s at least simple!

Oh yes, I’m sneaking another washi tape DIY in on you!

You just need heart straws, red washi tape,
baker’s twine and a heart hole punch.

Snip into your straws (so you put the twine through them)
and then you fold over little bits on tape onto your twine…

Then use your punch to make the hearts…
Now I’m not going to pretend punching hearts out
of sticking tape isn’t fiddly but it works!

******

If anyone has heart cake suggestions,
or has made one, do let me know…

Maybe I could cheat by cutting a cake
in half and use a heart cookie cutter
to fill the middle bit?

(This is why someone else made the cake!)

*****

Heart cake pics from I Am Baker
Wedding cake pics by Lillian and Leonard

A friend has a theory that Tuesdays are worse than Mondays.
Mondays you expect to be kind of Monday-ish.
But then Tuesdays just sort of sneak up on you!

With that in mind, I thought today would be a good day
to do a little giveaway with the lovely people at YOKE.

 I first spied their work at the DCA in Dundee and have been
coveting their We Can Move Mountains print ever since.

Their work start life as beautiful papercuts
before being turned into gorgeous screen prints.

So for the giveaway, they’re offering you
a screen print of your choice.
{How cool is that? Rather I say!}

All you have to do is:
leave a comment here with your best joke
(and say what your fav YOKE print is).

******

To start us off, here’s my favourite ever joke:

I went to a zoo the other day.
There was only a dog there…

It was a shitzu.

(Boom, boom!)

Ahem… hopefully you’ve not all died of laughter!
You have a whole week to enter then Mark & Zoe
of YOKE will pick who makes the comment
that makes them smile the most.

Let us know if you tweet/blog about the giveaway too.
Not that the judges could be swayed of course!

Good luck! And happy Tuesday!

So… back in October (eeek, where did time go?)
I blogged about the run-up to our wedding.

As a recap, the three days before the big day:
there’d been a funeral, a minor freakout,
a frenzied bakeathon and full-on packing.

And then here we were. The day before the wedding.

All our helpers made it to our venue first.
They put out the benches and put up my trees
so when we arrived this is pretty much what we saw above.

It was a definite moment stepping into our tipis.
The moment I realised that it might just be all ok.
I think I shivered. And maybe giggled.
I would have hugged all our helpers
but for fear of getting weepy!

Then it was down to business…
arranging the tables and chairs,
putting up all the bunting,
hanging our gorgeous ‘do I love you’ sign
that my uncle made for us…

And oh yes, the scary bit…

Yup, the flowers.

One thing everyone said to me
was ‘do not do your own flowers’.

But circumstances (including being screwed
over by our not so lovely bank) meant that
well, doing our own flowers was exactly
what we were going to do.

So I bought some Craspedias… or yellow balls
as I think kept calling them.

And pink and darker pink gerberas…

And eh… broccoli.

Ok, they’re Chrysanthemums.

But my now mother-in-law’s first reaction
was ‘oh, that looks like broccoli’.

Cue some extremely nervous giggling from me.

Then onto the bouquets…

My little sis was a godsend here.

If you follow the pictures above, you’ll see
I’m back to giggling by one point
and she’s just continuing regardless.

Yes, midnight making of bouquets
is not really something I’d recommend.
It can be done. And some of it was fun.
But it was rather intense!

Here’s how we made them:
selected flowers, bunched them together,
trimmed, tied with florist wire near the top
and then wrapped some washi tape
round the middle. (Yes, I’m obsessed!)

Along with the flowers, we made the boys’ buttonholes.
Fox masks for our ‘no photo booth’ photo booth.
And some more bunting. (Because we needed that.)

Our friends headed to bed around 1am.
At 2am, me and my now husband were still
trying to work out the table plans
when we got a text from my sis
saying ‘get to bed… now.’

So a night of sleep for him
and a night of no sleep for me later
and it was the morning…

And my… if our flowers didn’t look
too bad in the morning light!

We rushed around that morning (though kept separate by our friends)
still setting up things… like the chalkboard table plan!

And then we reached this point…

And all that was left was for us to get ready…
because, heck, there was going to be a wedding!

So that was the set-up. An insane, crazy effort
that we couldn’t have achieved without
my sister, my maid of honour, the best man,
his wife (the best lady), my now parents-in-law
and my Dad and his girlfriend.

Thank you all so very, very much.
You really are the best-est friends
and family a guy and a gal
could hope to have!

********

P.S. If you have any wedding questions,
feel free to ask… I probably could
have made this post ten times longer!

********

Pics from day before: from our best lady.
Pics from the morning: Lillian and Leonard.

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

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!