further wonky sewing, peg-bags and baby-hangers.

Today involved a growth scan for baby boy; not only is he growing as he should be but he is actually a little on the large side!  As both James and I are fairly small people this was a very exciting piece of news.  Well done baby boy.  I even got to see his little squishy face on the ultrasound.  It was pretty cute and, well, squishy looking!

After being in and out of the hospital what feels like a million times, I have been appreciating an afternoon in the house tinkering with the sewing machine.  Today's slightly wonky creations are these peg bags; I drew the pattern using instructions from Josie Crafter.  As even I managed to follow the steps error-free, I would recommend them!  Whilst not the most exciting project, it is nice to make something a little bit practical for once and it is a pretty neat way to use some of the million baby-clothes hangers I have ended up with. I really hate throwing that much plastic away.

Apologies for the horrendous quality outdoors picture - my phone was not appreciating the cloud cover.

wonky stitch lines and inventive sewing techniques.

I have been lucky enough to be given a whole pile of crumb sacks.  Literally fabric sacks that contain the crumb (like bread crumb) used for adding to the filling of ravioli to wick up the moisture and hold all the other ingredients.  My parents get through tonnes of these sacks for the pasta business but they have such a lovely print on them that no one can ever bring themselves to throw them away.

So now I have a pile of them on my desk and, aside from adding a zipper to make an instant pillow case, I have been struggling to think of ways to use them.  Plus there is no way around it; I am a horrific seamstress.  Patterns are a foreign language to me and my stitching tends to look a little drunken.  Today was particularly successful - I spent a good long time (genuinely over thirty minutes) getting very stressed (inclusive of hormonal foot stamping) at the tension dial on the sewing machine before realising I simply hadn't threaded the machine right.  Standard. 

But, several hours later and multiple consoling cups of tea - I created this!  I cannot explain how huge this is for me.  A genuine, functioning pen-roll!  Despite the wonky thread lines (and my apparent inability to trim threads before photographing), it actually works!

I sewed wadding into the pen roll to add some support but it made it a little too puffy.  Next time I think using a thicker fabric to act as support would probably work better.  If there will be a next time.  James is on nights at the moment and for the sake of him getting any sleep in the day, it might be an idea for me to abandon sewing machine plans for this week at least.

Making Christmas: the finished product.

Merry Christmas eve all.  I hope where ever in the world you may all be, you are all feeling festive and snug. 

There is not a lot to say today, I just wanted to share the finished product of my making Christmas series - I have put it after the page break in an attempt to prevent my mother from having a peak before Christmas day!  

Making Christmas #8: Chocolate Spoons.

Another last minute project for chucking into the hampers and it is so simple it almost feels like cheating!  I bought a spoon mold at a local kitchen shop but you can also buy them here on amazon.  Then to make these beauts you literally just melt the chocolate of your choice, pour it into the molds and let them harden overnight.  To make them a bit special, once they are hardened flick melted chocolate (of a different colour) over the surface, wait for them to dry and wrap them up.

I am going to wrap mine up in grease-proof paper and twine and slip them into the hampers .  (Apart from the one I currently using to stir my coffee (a proper mocha) and the one that James has stolen for eating ice-cream)!

Learning lino-printing.

So I have finally learnt to manage the whole scheduling posts in advance malarkey (hence my organisation with all my Christmas projects) however it has left me feeling like a strange automaton has taken over my small corner of the internet.  So this is my rebellion, an impromptu post as I procrastinate from writing my assignment!

Apologies for the shoddy photograph, I completely forgot to take a proper picture when I was done so I just pulled this one off of my phone.  This is my first properly finished lino-print of my mother's very handsome dog!  There are a million mistakes and imperfections and there are a lot of changes I wish I could make (the permanent nature of printing to a girl who lives with one hand on the Ctrl+z short cut and has an industrial eraser in her bag at all times takes some adapting to) but I do like it.

Have any of you guys tried lino printing?  Any advice you could impart for next time?

Making Christmas #7: Christmas Cranberry Chutney.

I think that Chutneys are some of the loveliest presents to receive for Christmas.  Initially I always overlook them in favour of more exciting gifts, but then, when boxing day arrives and you are feasting on cold leftovers, Chutneys are the make or break factor.  This recipe makes a very tart chutney, so do feel free to add a little more sugar if you feel it necessary.  I literally cannot wait to have this spread thickly in my cold turkey and stuffing sandwiches.

You will need:

     1kg Bramley apples

     500g of fresh cranberries

     450g finely chopped onions

     75g of finely chopped fresh ginger

     1 tbsp of whole black peppercorns

     500g granulated sugar

     250 ml red wine vinegar

Put all the ingredients into a heavybased saucepan and cook on a low heat for about an hour.  You want to chutney to have cooked off most of the watery liquid but for the fruit to still have some bite.  

Spoon into sterilised jars and give all (except one jar) away.

Making Christmas #6: Ombre-effect dipped candles.

As you can find instructions for making pillar candles all over the internet, I don't feel I have much to add regarding the basics.  I used this website here, but made some adaptations following much trial-and-error.

My additional hints and tips are:

- Instead of using a proper double boiler, putting the wax base (whether beeswax or paraffin beads) into a heatproof heavy-based jug into a large pan of boiling water works pretty darn well.
- It can be a nightmare to get the candle out of the mold!  The website I have linked (as with many others) suggest putting the candle in the fridge for 15 minutes - use the freezer!!  15-30 minutes in the freezer, then run the mold under the hold tap and the candle slides out peasy.
- Don't worry about a 'wick-rod', an old chopstick is a much more money efficient tool, and as for the 'sealer' just use a bit of blu-tac!

We trialed several different brands of wax-dyes and did not like any of them - the colours looked very artificial and plasticky.  Then I came across a Martha Stewart tutorial for Dip-Dyed candles which uses bog-standard wax crayons to colour the wax.
We dipped our candle according to her instructions but only for 5 seconds, then allowed the wax to harder.  Then we dipped the candle in the coloured wax again (another 5 seconds) but only half of the depth that we had previously dipped it.  Once cooled, we did this for a final time, but only dipping the bottom 1 cm of the candle into the coloured wax.  The building up of the coloured layers created a lovely ombre effect.

Making Christmas #5: Peppermint Creams.

These little packets of peppermint creams are the perfect last minute addition to any hamper or given as small treats with your Christmas cards.  They are super super simple, look pretty and taste awesome.

You will need:

     1 egg white

     60 ml double cream

     About 500g icing sugar (plus a little more)

     Peppermint essence

     A big bar of dark chocolate.

Mix the egg white and the cream into a bowl.  Sift in the icing sugar gradually and beat it in until it forms a stiff paste.  I added the peppermint cream at this point, I can't tell you how much to use because it depends how pepperminty you want them to taste.  I like them strong so added a teaspoon and then some more (and then a little more).  Just be aware that the more you add the stickier your dough will become, so the more icing sugar you will ultimately need.

Dust your work surface with icing sugar and then dollop the paste out onto it.  Knead it a little, using more icing sugar if it is too sticky.  When it is not too sticky, roll the dough out into a sausage shape and cut into slices, making disks about one centimeter thick.  Place the disks on grease-proof paper and let them dry for several hours or overnight if possible.  When they are dry enough, melt the dark chocolate in a deep bowl or mug, then dip half of each peppermint cream into the chocolate - dunk them quickly though so they don't re-melt.  If needs be you can always double dip them.  Let them harden again on the grease-proof paper then divvy them out and wrap them up.

I made pouches out of presentation paper I bought from a kitchen shop.  I picked two festive threads and hooked up the sewing machine and sewed along three edges, popped in five peppermint creams per packet and then stitched the top, adding a label and a ribbon for good measure.

Easy Peasy deliciousness.

Making Christmas #4: Limoncello recipe.

So there is just enough time to squizz this one in before Christmas - a cheats Limoncello recipe:

You will need:

4 unwaxed organic lemons

75cl bottle of vodka

550g caster sugar

525ml boiling water

Stage one, zest the lemons making sure you don't get any of the pith with it.  Drop the zest into large, sterilised jar and pour the vodka over it.  Shake vigorously for a couple minutes and then shake a couple times every day for a week.  

After 7 days stage two commences; put the sugar into a bowl and pour the freshly boiled water over the top and stir until all the sugar has dissolved.  When the sugar syrup has cooled, pour it into the jar with the vodka and lemons.  Again shake for a couple minutes and then shake a couple times everyday. 

Ideally leave it for a week, however I am fully aware that would take you past Christmas... so at the last possible moment, strain it and pour into the decorative bottles (or into mason jars as is the current trend) and give as a lovely, boozy gift with a couple of pretty glasses.

Making Christmas #3 Cranberry and Orange Vodka.

Another Christmas hamper goody (and again Mother, please avert your eyes).

This is a recipe for Cranberry and Orange Vodka.  It is sweet, rich and christmassy and the most phenomenal ruby-red colour.  It is a lovely drink on its own in the evening or, my personal favourite, it makes a slightly more decadent alternative to a Bellini - pouring a little of the spirit into the bottom of a champagne flute then filling the glass up with Prosecco (at some point in the future I will blog about this as it is, without a doubt, the worlds best cocktail).

The recipe for this is super simple.

1.  Weigh out 250g of Cranberries.  You can use fresh cranberries but you will need to prick them all over with a fork to make sure the juice can infuse into the vodka - it is much easier to use frozen cranberries (or freeze fresh ones before you use them) as the freezing process cracks the skin so you don't have to.

2.  Zest 2-3 oranges; be really careful to not put any of the pith (the white bit) in as it will make it bitter.

3.  Weigh out 175g of sugar (you can add more to taste later if you prefer it sweeter)

4.  Place all the ingredients into a sterilised, air tight jar amd pour over a litre of Vodka.

5.  Leave to infuse for two weeks, shaking it for 30 seconds every day.

6.  The fun bit, try a little bit and see if it is sweet enough for your liking, if it is then strain the vodka (a fine sieve or a muslin lined sieve will do the job) and pour into your bottles.  If not, add a touch more sugar, shake and leave for another couple days.  Repeat until perfect, then bottle.

7.  Gift or enjoy :)

Making Christmas #2: Handmade soaps.

I have a little confession to make with this one - I bought the soap base.  I really really want to make soaps from scratch but I just couldn't afford all the components (I know weight for weight it would have been cheaper in the long run, but long run shmong run).  The soap base was a nice hippy brand of unscented, uncoloured and relatively unmessed with soapiness.  With the soap base, you simply cut it up into chunks and heat it really slowly until it melts, add any extras (colours/scents/essential oils/etc) and then pour it into the molds.

We bought some colours designed for soap making from HobbyCraft first but we were really unimpressed - you can see in the top picture that the colours are really bright and a bit tacky.  But waste not want not, we couldn't simply bin the ones we didn't want, so a little glitter was added and we wrote them off as 'festive'!

The next ones were far, far more lovely!  We dried slices of orange which we then put into the mold and poured the soap base over the top.  As the soap base is relatively clear you can see the slice of orange beautifully in the soap and there is no need for nasty colours.

Drying oranges is really really simple - you just cut your orange into slices about 0.5-1cm thick, lay them out on baking paper and cook in the oven at a low temperature for several hours.  I turned them about every 30 minutes to stop them curling up at the edges and to stop them browning.  Easy peasy.

Soap molds come in lots of shapes and sizes, however there are also several cheaper alternatives that you may already own.  Silicone ice cube trays work really well especially if they are fun shapes, as do silicone muffin trays or jelly molds.  Plus they are really easy to clean.  In the end we simply used muffin cases in a muffin tray; they are pretty, simple and a good size.

And finally, scenting the soap; I love the smell of lavender so predominantly we used a lot of lavender essential oil (from a field owned by my mum's friend - I would love to own a lavender field!) but we also tried oils that are often sold for oil burners, a few drops is all you need and they come in lots of festive scents around this time of the year.

And there we have it, lovely gift-wrapped soapy presents.

Making Christmas #1: Pegs.

Firstly - Mum, if you are reading this stop now!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Is she gone?

Right.  Well, basically money is a little tight this year, perhaps the tightest it has ever been in my experience!  But that's okay - I am informed regularly that it is character building!  Plus, in addition to the huge amount of character I have developed, my creative muscles are being forcibly flexed in order to provide Christmas gifts to those I love.  Every Tuesday afternoon my friend Becky and I sit together over endless cups of tea and manufacture our gifts.

I thought it might be nice to share some of our little projects; I will happily confess that none of these are ground breaking works of art, each can be completed in an afternoon or even within a couple hours, but by the end there will (hopefully) be a glorious hamper full of little gifts!

So, starting with the easiest project of the lot; these are our festive pegs, it seems ridiculous even sharing how to make these as they are so simple!  Also, the pictures do not do these justice (blooming phone camera), these are just so lovely!

You will need:

• Wooden pegs (we bulk bought ours from eBay, I think they cost about £2 for 100)
• Modpodge glue or PVA
• Colourful ribbons or scrapbooking paper
• Magnet backing
• Superglue
• Ruler
• Scissors or a guillotine, a steady hand and a pot of tea.

1. It is easiest to cut all the scrapbooking paper to size first; measure the width of the peg and then mark out the lines on the scrapbooking paper so you can cut it all up at once.  Although not necessary, it was easier to cut the scrapbooking paper a milimeter or two narrower than the width of the peg as it made it easier to line up and avoided any overhang.  If you are using ribbons make sure they are skinner than the peg; I have found no nice way of cutting ribbons evenly.

2. Using a paint brush, put a thin layer of modpodge/PVA on the top of each peg and then carefully place the paper/ribbon on top. We used another layer of modpodge on top to seal it in; glittery modpodge looks especially festive!  

3. Drink tea and wait for the pegs to dry.

4. Cut the magnet backing to size and stick to the back of the peg.  I used magnet sheets (like this but I can't actually remember where I bought it from!) which are supposedly already sticky, but we found that lots of them came unstuck within a couple days, so consider using superglue to make sure that the magnet sticks properly.

5. Again, drink tea and wait for it to dry.

6. That's it!  You have some seriously cute magnetic pegs for sticking to your fridge to hold Christmas cards in place!

How to host your own Slaughterhouse Ball.

I know the day before Halloween might be a little late for this post but heck, at least you can prepare well in advance for next year.

Invitations

See my post here for the invitations I made for this years Halloween, alternatively Martha Stewart has some cute downloadable templates for you to use.

The walls

Firstly, any good slaughter house requires tiles, ya'know to keep the blood and gunk from staining your otherwise wholesome walls.  I bought a 'room setter' from eBay for this purpose which we put up with DIY double sided sellotape (not craft stuff but the type made for redecorating as it is made to peel off painted walls without damaging them).  EBay holds plenty of other, less gruesome room setters - I think this one is my favourite, a haunted forest party would be so much fun but the slaughterhouse demanded gruesome.

Lighting

Next you need fairy lights.  Meters and meters of fairy lights.  We had 60 meters in all, which we hung up with wire tacks - the ones you use for keeping all your cables flush with the wall.  They left barely any marks when we had to take them all down the next day.  We picked the white glow lights as it gave the room an eerie clinical feel and they were the perfect brightness for the evening.

The Floor

Cover the floor with thick painters plastic from any hardware shop, duct taped down, both to stop the floor being ruined by party visitors and to create the suspicion that you might actually be highly adept at wrapping up bodies without ruining your carpet.  Tasteful additions to this can include: covering your feet in fake blood then traipsing through the room or simply splattering it with red acrylic paint first.

Food

No party is complete without a few nibbles; I think the flayed meat face is a good starting point, then might I suggest some newt eyeballs or perhaps some severed fingers?  Then perhaps to finish with something slightly less disgusting, these webbed cupcakes look just gorgeous.

Drinks

All bottles should be re-labelled, I used these from Martha Stewart last year which went down well.  Otherwise, just ensure that tinned lychees are placed in every drink - clearly eyeball like!

Music

As the soundtrack is very important for any Slaughterhouse ball, there will be a post to come on this subject later.

Finally dig out your best frock, paint your face, enjoy and dance. 

I hope this helps!

More on the subject of Halloween.

I am all out of kilter this week.  Halloween is without a doubt my favourite time of year but I'm sure every year I get a little more carried away with the planning.  Currently attempting to  orchestrate a masquerade ball in a student house is turning out to take a little more brain power and effort than originally intended!

But, oh my gosh, I love the excuse to celebrate a day that everyone can enjoy equally.  I can't wait to carve my pumpkin whilst watching Coraline and to put lychees in every drink, maybe even my tea, and pretend that they are eyes.  I am so excited to play Halloween party games even though we are all too old and to go dancing in the garden between the grinning pumpkins. 

Sadly, what little time I am not spending getting carried away with ghastly plans, has been spent on my dissertation.  So instead of anything new to offer, I have raided my hard drive for pictures of Halloweens past, the quality might be a bit terrible but they are still something marvellous!

All the above pictures are actually cupcakes I made for a Halloween Supper in 2010.

This was The Mad Hatter's Tea Party from 2011.

And this was our Avatar Halloween.  Okay so it wasn't particularly scary but everyone wants to be painted blue and dramatic at least once in their life...right?

Further lino cutting experiments.

So this lino malarkey...I'm still loving it!  It's certainly turning out to be a slow learning curve but the satisfaction (I repeat; think bubble wrap popping meets cheese-string peeling) totally makes up for how slow I am at learning.  This was my first attempt at carving a bigger picture.  I have always loved old wood carving images; one of my favourite books growing up was 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon' by Kay Nielson and I love that lino allows me the chance to try illustrating in the same manner.  I would love to learn to create such intricate images one day.

This picture is based on the maps I used to endlessly draw as a child.  My brother and I would 'prepare' them for the adventures we were planning (usually then conducted in our garden).  

(The tree trunk was a necessary addition following my neglect of the 'mirror image' rule regarding the writing that was supposed to fill the centre).

I am off to pack now for more camping - we are rapidly running out of appropriate camping weather and I intend to use every last second we have :)

On discovering Lino Printing.

I have just discovered Lino Printing.  I am both smitten and addicted (and not only because hacking into lino is more satisfying than popping bubble wrap - seriously).  I am fully aware that these first attempts are no great works of art and I have an awful long way to go before I am producing works like this or this but I genuinely can't think of the last time I enjoyed making something this much.

As you can see I tried making a print with my freshly carved lino but apparently using a dried up and shivelly ink pad instead of the lino inks and rollers is not a successful cost cutter.  My amazon wish list is spiralling out of control!

Secretly I am quite pleased with the trees and branches image, I just wish I had spaced it out a little better - it would have been nice to print a bundle of envelopes and fill in the address between the branches.  Having recently discovered this tumblr I have an overwhelming desire to crack on with the snail mail thing.

In the mean time....

My DIY undoing.

Lately I have had time, quite a lot more time than I have been used to having.  Whilst anticipating the arrival of all this free time, I believed I could achieve so much - I am meant to have finished my dissertation, written my first novel and be well on the way to winning the Turner Prize right now.

No prizes for guessing this hasn't happened, not even close and I'm beginning to feel that part of the problem is the amount of choice I'm presented with.  Whilst I am aware that having access to the internet, the luxury of browsing Pinterest and reading the blogs of the most creative and artistic individuals is something incredible, is that a valuable way to be spending my precious hours?

It is no secret that I am a sucker for a project, through an afternoon I can decide that what I really want to do is knit a blanket or needle felt Halloween decorations, then I might progress to crocheting placemats and finally finish by cutting up bits of fabric to make a bag, all based on the 'inspiration' that I have surrounded myself with that particular day.  The more I read, the more I want to do, create and make.  I hunger to try everything all at once.  Then as the evening creeps in and food needs cooking and James requires space to study at our small table, I pack up and realise that I have achieved close to nothing.  Maybe a poorly crocheted star or flower, or a couple rows on an ongoing knitting project and probably an awful lot of scrap fabric is all I have to show for my hours of hard work and I am left feeling unproductive and flat.

My folders are filled with the hundred plus DIY projects I wish to put my hand to, my shelves look like a sample sale for Hobbycraft and yet the evidence of my work around my small flat is sadly lacking.  I think my love of a simple DIY project, a need for an immediate 'I feel creative' fix, has got in the way of using my time productively.  I could stitch a hundred more clutches or braid endless bracelets, I may feel fleetingly smug in response to the 'I can't believe you made this' comments, but deep down I feel like a fraud.  I haven't created anything, I'm following in someone else's creative wake.

So this is it, seductive DIY projects, I reject you, I'm going to figure this one out on my own!

TGIFPJ (Thank gosh its Friday Project Day).

As it is already Friday, again, I thought I'd share a brief round up of my week through the delights of InstaCam.  The highlights were:

• Attending a beautiful wedding in Cardiff Castle, filled with twinkly lights and bubbles
• The construction of 'Fort Miskin' in our living room
• A game of True American (the only way that grown ups can pretend that the floor is lava and jump on chairs whilst maintaining dignity)
• Watching the sunset over the sea.

So, as I already shared my 'how to rescue a folder' thing early (we forgot to order our Riverford Box this week and consequently I had no vegetables to share) this week is just going to be a round up of the Trial-and-Errors going on in my flat.

 

Firstly I played with watercolours.  Lesson learnt: space out your letters first....this one will be being re-done as soon as I get a chance.  Also, excuse the horrendous over-processing, I took this on my phone and played with an app...and did not save the original.

Then no Blue Peter-esque afternoon is complete without a little potato stamping.  Lesson learnt:  A kitchen knife is no substitute for a decent craft knife when it comes to accuracy.  An investment will have to be made.

Finally I braved the making of a zippy wallet thing to keep all my 'on the go' notebooks, pens, paints etc as required.  I adapted the pattern from here to make it small enough to fit inside my handbag if required.  I really want to make a larger one to use as a clutch at some point soon.  Lesson learnt: Zips aren't so bad, but they need a little more time spent on them, this one is a little wonky.