Halloween Costume Swap

I was so excited the other morning when this little brown paper parcel arrived at my door. I could tell from the cute pumpkin paper that it was from Lizzette over at Creativity Lizette and that it was my gift for the Halloween costume swap. I had previously told her that my costume for halloween is going to be a vampire so I couldn't wait to see what she was going to make for it.

The handmade gift she made was a stunning necklace which she had sewn 'I bite' onto, it also has a little pendant of some teeth. I love the style of it and it will look great with my homemade red and black vampire cape. The necklace was presented inside a cardboard coffin box which was so intricate with a little rat, spider and lock with key on it.

Another gift she made was an eyeball magnet. It is so unique and such a clever idea and will look great on the fridge. The other items in the box were a coffin cookie cutter, (which we are going to use to make a big pile of cookies for the party) a pumpkin scented candle and some halloween sweets :) it is such a thoughtful gift and I cant wait to see what she thinks of the gift I sent her :)

Pictures of Pillows

I'm a really big fan of pillows, one of the mottos my mother and I live by is that "you can never have too many pillows" as this is proven in both of our living rooms..... they are everywhere. I love that they can be very personal and give a homely touch to any room as there is a little story behind each one of my cushions. I tend to spend more time in bed than your average person so I have made it a really comfy place which reminds me of my home and my family.

The one above is my favourite of my cushions and is really personal to me (also shown with my sock monkey and his little crochet scarf). I made it when I was very unwell and going through some tough stuff, the cushion helped me to deal with things as it was a fun distraction. I used to make lots of sock monkeys, when making a sock monkey, it takes a whole pair of socks apart from a few inch square of fabric, over time these squares were just thrown into the bottom of my sewing bag, when deciding that I wanted to try patchwork, they seemed like the perfect thing to use. I then added ribbons, buttons and felt shapes, to give it a unique and homemade feel. My dear mum then helped me to make the cushion cover for it to go on and we added a gorgeous ribbon on the back which we found in a charity shop. I love this cushion as I have fond memories of putting it all together and I love the look and feel of it too.

This little owl cushion is a new creation of my mum's she is very talented and came up with the idea of them. I love them, so I was soo happy when I got to be the proud owner of one :) the patterns and colours suit my room really well.







This cushion, I made for my boyfriend for his birthday last week. He absolutely adores badgers and I realised he had no cushions in his room, so I made this cute one for his bed. Here is a quick tutorial of how I created it.

1: Firstly I found an outline of a badger online and printed it out. 2: I then cut it out of black felt by pinning the paper template into place and repeated this for each section of the badger in the correct colours, 3: I then laid out each piece in place, 4: then stitched around each piece to fix them together, I also attached a pearl bead as an eye, 5: I created a cushion cover out of a tea towel, in a simple 3 piece way with poppers for closing (I will do another tutorial for this as I forgot to take photos of this stage) 6: I then cut out leaf shapes from felt and fixed them to the cushion by sewing along them to look like veins in a leaf.

To wrap his gift I used brown paper and garden string, I love the old fashioned and traditional look of it. I also wrapped a bundle of his favourite sweets and chocolate with the inside of an envelope and string to match.

Dont forget to enter my Handmade Jewellery Giveaway!!!

Icing Flowers

It's been many many years since I've played around with icing and honestly, I had completely forgotten how much fun it is. The mission was to make icing roses and leaves for my housemate's parents anniversary cake..... we definitely succeeded. However it did leave us with a yellow stained dining room table and blue stained hands, but sacrifices had to be made. We were pretty chuffed with the outcome and the method was quick and easy as we had very limited tools available.

So here is the first of many tutorials for you. I hope you enjoy it and have fun giving it a go yourself.

Icing Flower Tutorials

1: Use food colouring to dye your ready-to-roll icing to your desired colour (this is the messy bit), then separate the icing into 8 small balls all of an equal size and 1 smaller sausage shape and place into a plastic wallet which has been cut open.
2: close the wallet over the icing and use your thumb to flatten the top edge of each ball to make a petal shape, do the same with one side of the sausage.
3: peal the sausage shape off the plastic and roll up to make the centre of the rose.
4: add each petal to the centre piece overlapping over the joins, making sure the fatter edges are at the bottom.
5: once all the petals are added, cut the bottom off with scissors and smooth off the edge.
6: Optional - cut out leaf shapes from rolled out green icing and you have a finished icing flower :)

Crafts and Recycling

One of my favourite things to do with my time is arts and crafts….. I’ve tried most of them but here is a short list of crafts I really enjoy, jewellery making, making soft toys (especially sock monkeys :p), sewing, crochet, cross stitch, scrap-booking, glass painting, anything beaded, card making, flower pressing…… you get the point, I bloody love my crafts. On a real note though, I find crafts give me an escape from my CFS and keep my mind active when my body isnt J. I am also known as a bit of a hoarder who cant throw anything away so I absolutely love recycling old things to make them into new things, for example unleashing the PVA glue and sequins on an old top or destroying old jewellery to make bead hangers for my curtains. Here are a couple things I recycled or up-cycled recently when feeling too unwell to venture out.

This first one was was an old frame which my lovely nan donated to me. It was a pale wood colour which I didn’t really like so I painted it white and with the addition of the cute little fabric flower, I think it looks adorable and shows off the picture of me and the boyfriend graduating nicely J

This is a wooden ‘A’ which my mother bought me, I painted it blue and added little roses. It livens up my otherwise plain bedroom door.

I bought some jeans from a charity shop (£3... I do love a good bargain) then cut them to the desired length and slashed, stabbed, cut and grated them till they looked nice and worn. I added press-through studs to the pockets and a gorgeous scarf which was a gift, as a belt (as they are slightly too big and kept falling down)

The reason for the creation of these shorts is because........ IM GOING TO READING FESTIVAL!!!! I’m soo excited, we're driving up there tomorrow, i'm going with some of my bestest friends in the world, I get to see 2 of my friends who I miss very very much and I am looking forward to giving them the squishiest hugs ever J I cannot wait for all the amazing music, the atmosphere, the drinking (and yes I am aware of how bad alcohol is for CFS sufferers), the dancing, the people, the camping, the mad outfits and even the mud...... because then I get to get out the mad floral wellies again.

However on a slightly sadder note, I am really not looking forward to how truly awful I will inevitably feel once I return home, but I am lucky enough to have a housemate who will do all the driving so I don’t have to and a boyfriend who will bring me endless cups of tea to help me through it. I am also aware that I am not going to be able to keep up with my friends all weekend and will have to find places to sit quite frequently but I will just sit back and soak up the sights, noises and atmosphere. I shall see you on the other side and let you know how it was J

Before I go, take a look at the mad new hat/scarf combo thing (not sure what to call it) that I bought at a carboot sale the other day for Reading…… I think there is no doubt in the fact that I look bloody awesome in it :P it is going to go so well with the stripy purple and red onesie :P