Monday 31 December 2012

Popular posts of 2012

2012 has been a crazy busy year,lots of DIY and gardening and not nearly as much crafting as I would have liked, hopefully next year will be less house renovation and more crafty fun!

Here is a roundup of my 10 most popular posts of 2012...

1.  DIY Dip Dyed / Ombre Skirt

 2. DIY Swarovski Earrings


3. DIY Swarovski Bracelet


4. Woodland Wonderland Tree Stump Wedding Cake


5. Wooden Bead Necklace


6. Star Wars ATAT Cake


7. Skirt from Scraps



 8. DIY: old jeans to new skirt


9. Pintrest Inspired Foot Art


 10. Rapunzel/Tangled Dress Up Costume

 

Looks like jewelery and refashioning posts are most popular, more of that next year then!




Sunday 30 December 2012

Christmas Sewing

Along with the Christmas Crochet I also managed to get some Christmas sewing done between attending nativity plays, running the kids to various parties etc!

I made a make up / toiletries bag for my cousin, which I filled with a crocheted headband and some hair slides,



and a dancing shoes bag for my mother in law who loves going ballroom dancing.


Both were made using modified patterns form the Cath Kidston Sew book, a great book with very detailed instructions and one of my most used sewing books. The fabric for the toilet bag is an Ikea pillow case lined with an old shower curtain and the shoe bag is made for fairtrade organic cotton from here ( a fantastic shop).

I also russled up two covered notebook's using this fantastic tutorial.
 
This one is for my oldest friend who has just got engaged so embroidered 'I do' on the front


 and this one for my sister who is pregnant with my first niece or nephew,


I think I may be more excited than her at the moment, roll on July and teeny baby cuddles!!


Friday 28 December 2012

Christmas Crochet

In the week before Christmas I realised I was significantly less organised with pressies for people than I thought so ended up making quite a few gifts in some rare quiet moments!

Here are the crocheted ones...

First was an earwarmer using this pattern but I forgot to take a photo of it...

Then a knotted earwarmer


using this pattern. It was so quick to do, only look about an hour.


Finally neckwarmer which I can't find the pattern for, I will add the link when I have found it again! It was great to make, you make 4 strips then plait (braid) them and crochet the ends together, a bit fiddly at the end but pretty easy!

I have the crochet bug again so am about to embark on my first jumper, wish me luck!!






Wednesday 26 December 2012

Merry Christmas and a Thank You!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you had a great day yesterday, we had a lovely time with my parents and grandparents and my house now looks like a lego shop!

Now for the huge thank you...

Amanda from City Girl Gone Costal had a giveaway a while ago and I was one of the winners:) She sent the most beautiful package of goodies.


Some wee Christmas shapes,


  two gorgeous Christmas hearts,



and some beautiful Christmas bunting!

Thank you so much Amanda!

I will be back soon to show you some of the handmade gifts I made for Christmas.






Thursday 13 December 2012

A busy month!

Wow, it is a month since  I last posted and what a month it has been! We now have a new (almost finished) kitchen and new living room!

Here are a few photos of the evolution of the living room of the last year...







Photos of the kitchen will follow once we have done the final tiling!


Tuesday 13 November 2012

DIY Swarovski Sparkle!

I have been having some fun making sparkly Swarovski earrings again, I think these might feature heavily in my Christmas giving!

They are so simple to make, using the headpin bending technique brilliantly shown at My Girlish Whims, then attaching the crystals to jump rings, other crystals etc depending on the look you want!







These are all watermarked Coo Creations because I have started a facebook page to try and sell some of the crafty things I love making. So, if you are looking for some small Christmas gifts have a look!

Right, no more time wasting, time to empty the kitchen in prep for the new flooring coming on Friday!!




Monday 5 November 2012

Sugar Overload!

Is it possible to have a sugar hangover? If so I think I have one:)

We had family round on Sunday for a bonfire and fireworks (the 5th November is Guy Fawkes night in this part of the world so we were a day early).
It started as a 'pirate ship'...

and ended up a blazing inferno!

I made toffee apples and treacle toffee and my Uncle brought more toffee apples so there was no shortage of sugar in our house!



I made the treacle toffee by dissolving 450g of demerara sugar in 150ml of water over a low heat then adding 100g of golden syrup, 100g treacle, 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar and 85g of butter and letting it boil until it reached 270F. I then poured it in to a grease proofed and buttered tin and waited until it had set.

The toffee apples were made in the same way but I used 200g of syrup and 100g of butter. When it had reached 270F I dipped the apples in and put them on a nonstick tray to set.

The recipes are based on those in James Martin's Great British Winter Cookbook which is brilliant!

A warning though, toffee is not good for conversation or those with wobbly or false teeth:)







Linking up to some of these fab linky parties!

Wednesday 31 October 2012

Halloween

We dooked



 and carved (a terrified pumpkin!)


and carved some more (well my Mum did..)

A traditional turnip lantern
and ate some mummies!

Inspired by pintrest

Hope you have all had a great!


Sunday 28 October 2012

DIY Scented Owl's aka Stinky Owls!

 While I was sorting out my huge fabric stash I came across two half cut up felted jumpers so decided some little owls (and some other things that will be blogged about soon) should be made!

I made these two a few years ago

A well loved Owl, looking really tatty!
so used the same template I had drawn then and made these little owls.

He looks evil doesn't he...... this one is hidden in the bedroom out of view:)
Since radiator season is in full blast here I  made them into smelly radiator hangers so when the radiator heats up these little owls start to smell. I stuffed one with lavender and the other with stuffing and added a sachet of cloves and a cinnamon stick. I sewed ribbons in the top seam and now they proudly hang from my radiators.


Totally coincidentally they go very well with the decor in my living room:)




Linking to some of these fab parties!