Grazia: have a sweet crafty Valentines!

I've had fun over the last couple of days pulling together some sweet crafty Valentines ideas for Grazia.  Hop over to read 7 ideas to turn Valentines from a mass produced corporate tack fest into something a wee bit more personal and unique. The ideas include make your own knickers, washi tape love messages, DIY love heart jumpers, scrabble messages, chocolate fudge, sugar cookies and a knit your own boyfriend kit amongst other things.  All this Valentines research might just tempt me out of my usual misery guts, bah humbug response to old St Val. We'll see!

One of my favourite ideas is to commission a custom portrait, or buy a unique print from an illustrator. Here are some of my favourites...

Custom piece by Abby Wright. Prices start from £40

Custom portrait by Gemma Milly, prices start from £50

Amazing print by Rebecca Hendin, found via Amelia's Magazine. Available from her website- but she will also do custom pieces too I think.

Spooning Squirrels print by Sandra Dieckmann, available from her Etsy shop. Gorgeous eh?

Custom piece of Florence Welch by Faye West she also does commissions. 

So- i'm sure the illustrators would love to hear from you if you want to get your love a print or custom piece (cant wait to commission something when the baby arrives!)Leave a comment below if you are an illustrator offering a similar service.

London day: Breakfast, stars, market

We set out to Greenwich park on a cold bright January morning on a date day organised by my mister (my Christmas present). Smoked Salmon and cream cheese bagels and a flask of hot coffee were consumed on a frosty bench with a bright blue sky overhead and London, looking gorgeous, spread before us. My Space obsession was fuelled with a trip to the Planetarium to learn about the constellations of the stars and planets. Sitting in reclining chairs with the night sky whooshing around our heads as we were talked through the story of the stars was wonderful; If you've never visited a planetarium, I highly recommend it. Next, a trip on the DLR (at the front, my favourite) to East London, to visit Broadway market. We queued for hot falafel wraps then ambled down the road, popping into little shops, squeezing past tightly packed food stalls, and rummaging through vintage clothes rails. We found two rare seats then holed up in a coffee shop with Chelsea buns and hot coffee to people-watch and talk shit. A pub, then dinner at the Rivington; divine creamy scollops and lamb pie.

Greenwich Park, frosty

London, gorgeous.

Hot coffee, so good on that cold cold day

New lips, courtesy of Mac (and my sister)

The Greenwich naval college, Canary Wharf in the background.

Low sun, bump

Mister, bundled up

Grass, frozen solid, before the sun had found it. 

Head in the stars, Planeterium

'Driving' the DLR. So cool....

Coffee, polkadots

Broadway market

Scollops, candles, wine; divine!

A perfect day- all the more precious as it'll be one of our last dates before we're three.

Not that we're planning on stopping date dates when the baby comes- on the contrary- we're already queueing up babysitters (seriously- planning time just for the two of us away from our baby is a priority for us) but it'll be one of the last before we have a baby at home to get back too (whoa!).  I've also been squeezing in as many dinner parties, brunches, after work drinks and movie nights as possible (mostly sans camera, unfortunately), in an effort to see friends and eat new food and see new things before we effectively become hermits for a few months. Suffice to say its been lots of fun and a lovely excuse to do fun London stuff and demand time from my friends. 

Anyway- hope you're all very well, and that any Londoners out there arent too chilly in this cold snap (brrrr!)

The third trimester

Winter bump.

So. 7 and a half months pregs. Golly. 

I can safely say that I love being pregnant. Like, love it. Which sort of surprises me. In fact most things about being pregnant have surprised me, mostly (but not entirely) for the better. I'm much more relaxed about everything than I thought I'd be. It's not without its ache's and pains and complications but growing a baby is pretty, well, brilliant. 

What else?

• I am no longer aware of the outer limits of my body. Hence the accidental throwing of hairbrushes, the bumping into door frames, tripping over pavement slabs,  dropping of plates, food, glasses...
• When the wind is whipping my hair around my face, and the rain is soaking my shoes, I love thinking about the bubs, cocooned inside the warmth of my body.
• I'm having to sleep propped up like an old lady.
• It still feels like magic. I'm making a cup of tea, but at the same time  there's a baby in my belly! Applying deodorant, yes, but I'm also growing a human being! Nope, I'm not just walking, I'm also growing another persons ORGANS. 
• Current favourite pregnancy hobby: saying 'Badoing' whilst popping my belly out of my t shirt. Only at home. Ahem...
• The baby is about 42cm long. Which is, quite frankly, unfathomable. 
• I miss running but my achey body seems to love walking, so we've been doing lots of it. Back and forth to our antenatal classes and doctors appointments, to work and back again, around our local park. Time to chew the fat to the rhythm of our feet.  
• I love what this pregnancy has done to our mariage. I cant quite put it in to words, and though it's been tough at times, we've never felt closer, or more like us. 
• If you've ever wondered what pregnancy feels like, its like this......

 

                          ...in your belly. All. The. Time.

P.S My summer bump is here, Autumn bump here (quite a difference between Autumn and winter!)

The blanket. Ongoing.

So, life.

A 50th birthday and my Grandad's funeral in one weekend;  leaving me reeling with mixed emotions. Flying high in the whoosh of a ceilidh, hysterically laughing, blinking away tears during honest, heart wrenching speeches. Feeling full of love for my lovely auntie.

My auntie; the Birthday girl. Rocking 50. 

Me, ceilidhing, unimpressed, apparently!

Then the funeral. Hearing the stories of my Pompa's life; his determination to woo my nanna, and build his business from scratch, in having five children when they really couldn't afford it (!) How he wove music into the very fabric of my family. Old ladies with purple hair, long hugs, old wrinkly hands squeezing mine. Hearing his best friend's respect for him and his heart- breaking grief. Story after story, open mic style, of his life from so many people that loved him.

Leaving me feeling sad and happy and incredibly grateful all at once.

A couple of my Grandad's favourite pieces of  music, played at his funeral. Pretty beautiful.

Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Giuseppe Verdi's "Nabucco."

Sung by the Westminster Choir directed by John Finlay with the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Recorded for January 31, 1943 NBC Radio broadcast.

1950 recording of The Pearl Fishers Duet sung by Jussi Björling and Robert Merrill. Conducted by Renato Cellini leading the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra.

Lionheart Magazine

I've been a little tardy with this post, but before Christmas my copy of Lionheart, the brain child of Hels Martin, arrived on my doorstep. I contributed a couple of pieces back in the summer, one is a quilt tutorial and one is piece on cake bunting. 

The theme of the first issue is bravery, and its full of inspirational writing, illustrations and images. One of my favourite features is a piece on Freya Hardy called '7 steps to utter fearlessness' which lists 7 things which really scare her and the ways she beat those challenges. I also really like Fritha's piece on being pregnant, and Jessica's piece about leaving Norway (I always love Jessica's writing)

So, of course I'm going to say the magazine is wonderful; i'm in it. ahem. You'll just have to buy yourself a copy to see if I'm right...

P.s apologies for the short blogging absence, my Grandad died last week so I've been having a bit of unplanned down time from the internet. Normal service will resume soon.

Merry and Bright: Home made Christmas

December bustled by in a flurry of crafting, baking and Christmas cooking. Evenings were spent making batches of biscotti, stamping labels, crocheting and making big batches of mincemeat. Instead of rushing our cooking, as we usually do, we spent time over it; planning meals, testing recipe's, taking time to enjoy the process, to allow flavours to properly mingle,  to taste as we go (lots), to experiment. Weekends were spent holed up in our flat with the sewing machine a-whirring and the oven a-pinging and lots of plan hatching over countless cups of tea. Some of the results of our crafting and baking below...

Corsages, which I learnt to make at a Craft class at Liberty for a Grazia article

Turban headbands (I combined a few different tutorials to make these, I can show you how if you like)

Friendship bracelets, thanks to this very useful tutorial

Button Necklace using this Martha tutorial

Leather iPhone cases made by my mister thanks to this Instructables tutorial .Made from the leather of a favourite pair of boots that salvaged before I had to throw them away! They were also stamped with the recipients names too, using the letters from my type writer. 

Home made mince Pies

Home made chocolates (recipe coming up)

Bags of biscotti

A hamper we gave to Ray and Phil to thank them for hosting Christmas (containing home made breadsticks, cinder toffee, biscotti, chocolates, and real hot chocolate etc)

A kitchen garland- part of the hamper

And our wrapping. This year I went with a 'Merry and Bright' theme. I used recycled tissue paper potato stamped with colourful tree shapes. I then used washi tape and ribbon to prettify the packages, and hand stamped some matching tags. I spent far too long on my wrapping but I happen to find these things thoroughly enjoyable, much to my families bemusement!

Busy? definitely, but very satisfying, and most importantly budget friendly too (big tick).   Between us, my mister and I can be pretty handy which I am very grateful for.  Presents were made using items I already had in the house (the benefits of being a hoarder) which was great for the pennies, and we love making stuff so really enjoyed it too. I find the more I bake, cook and craft the more confident in my skills I become and the more I am likely to experiment. My mister always says that creativity is like a muscle; the more you use it the stronger it becomes. So true.

Ok, that's it with the Christmas posts now! Hello 2012...

P.S This song was my Christmas crafting theme tune. "Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue, pretty pencils to write I love you..." Roy Orbison is a legend, no?!

Recipe's: Home made cleaning supplies

My kit* 

One of the things we manged to tick off our list during those inbetweeny days after Christmas and before New Year was to make up large batches of our cleaning supplies. We've been making our own for a couple of years now and couldn't be happier with the results. We save a lot (seriously loads) of money, we eliminate harmful chemicals in our home, we're sure of what exactly we're sloshing around, and we get to pretend we're scientists mixing up potions.... ahem.  

I've honed my recipe's over the last couple of years and here's a few of my current favourites.


Washing powder
This is my recipe, which began with Soule Mama's but has been refined for my hard water, budget and scent preference.
2 1/2 bars of pure olive oil soap (much cheaper than Dr Bronners)
1 1/4 cups borax
1 1/4 cups washing soda
2 1/4 cups of bicarbonate of soda
30 drops of lemon essential oil which has antibacterial properties and smells lovely (just drop it on the surface of the powder and mix it in) I've also used tea tree, peppermint and grapefruit oil with great results.

We add a small capful (see image above) which is about a table spoon,to each wash. This will last ages- approx 30 washes.


Fabric conditioner
Vinegar with 30 drops of lemon oil. 

I add a small capful (see image above) to each wash. This will also last ages approx 15-20 washes.


Dishwasher rinse aid
Vinegar with 30 drops of lemon oil
(we haven't yet cracked a dishwasher powder recipe so for now we use Ecover tablets)


Floor cleaner concentrate
I put the following In a 1 litre bottle:
1/2 cup borax
2 cups vinegar
1/2 cup of Dr Bronners liquid castille soap (I'm currently looking for a cheaper liquid castille soap, do you know of one?)
Essential oil of choice
Then I top it up with warm water to help it dissolve. A kebab skewer can be useful to mix it if the powder has settled to the bottom. I glug approx half a cup in the bottom of a bucket then fill with very hot water.


Surface spray:
1/2 a cup water
1/2 cup Vodka (bought as cheaply as possible from the local off-license)
1/4 cup  Vinegar
1/4 cup  Dr Bronners liquid soap
15ish drops Teatree oil (has antiseptic qualities)


I buy all of my home made cleaning supplies from the wonderful Summer Naturals web shop, which sells bulk quantities of essential oil, vinegar, borax, bicarb and lots more besides, at very reasonable prices.  

 For the rest, we use BioD toilet cleaner which is reassuringly nostril stinging (with natural chemicals) Wheelers beeswax furniture spray,  and Earth Friendly cream cleaner.   By the way I receive no sponsorship or any other incentive for recommending these products! One day we'll see if we can make our own versions of these but for now we really love these products and have them in bulk (Oh how I love bulk buying...)


If you've been thinking about  making your own but haven't yet, I strongly encourage you to give it a try (a good new years resolution?), and if you already do I'd love to hear your experiences below; what are your favourite recipe's? Have you cracked a good dishwasher powder? Know of a cheaper liquid castille soaps? Any disasters?!


*My kit, clockwise from left: A range of essential oils, Dr Bronners liquid castille soap, a grater for the soap bars, cheap vodka (a great antiseptic for surface sprays), Borax in a jar as it goes hard otherwise, White vinegar, Soda crystals, Bicarbonate of soda in a jar, recycled Ecover containers for our washing powder and fabric conditioner, a glass bottle for our floor cleaner, a spray bottle for our surface cleaner, a large bowl for mixing powders, a spoon, a plastic funnel, bars of olive oil soap, cup measures and a steel kebab skewer (for helping to get powder lumps through the funnel, and for stirring up powders that have settled at the bottom of their jars!)