Made with love

Whilst in a bookshop recently, I found a lovely book called Homemade Gifts Vintage style, by Sarah Moore. As is explicit in the title it was full of homemade vintage crafts! There were some beautiful little things in there and one of the gifts that stood out for me where these adorable wrapped soap bars! I’ll be honest and fess that I don’t often use soap bars (and no I am not smelly because of this) I just prefer the liquid variety of soap wash :) But still… I couldnt resist having a go at making some as I think they look lovely in a bathroom. 

It took me all of 5 minutes to make these three. Its incredibly cheap and a good way of using old bits! I used an old tube map I had in a drawer, a spare bit of wrapping paper I had lying around, a bit of recycled brown package paper and a old cath kidston paper bag. For the ribbons I used a discarded piece of wool, some yarn, a bit of lovely ‘love’ ribbon and a piece of gold ribbon I had in the bottom of my sewing box. I also intend to make some in future using old music sheets and vintage Christmas paper!

Family and friends watch out… you have lots of soap coming your way :D (Hope they won’t think i’m calling them smelly!!)

Sometimes when I want to thank someone in my family I like to send them a little card as I think this means a bit more than an an e-mail or a text! I made this card the other day to thank my Auntie for giving me a lovely ‘vintage’ red dress as well as other nice wardrobe finds! I had told her I wanted to make a little button card when I last saw her and thought that it would be nice to make one for her.

I bought some plain cards from the Works as they were going cheap! But of course it would be easy to make yourself by buying some A4 card and halving it and finding an old envelope (We have many in our drawer at home)

I used glue dots which I also bought from The Works to glue on old buttons in the shape of a heart. (Many of the buttons came from old clothes and a tin of old buttons that my Nana gave to me）I then glued on an old bit of lace to the bottom. (Also from my Nana’s collecton of old sewing bits)

I wrote Nona (My auntie’s name is Fiona and I have called her Nona since I was little!) on the big middle button to add a little personal touch 

I think it is so simple but really effective and cute! I plan to make lots more!!

I made this photo line for my auntie as a present. I thought it was much more meaningful as she is creative like me and has everything already!! Haha.

My flatmate also made me one for my birthday a few years ago and I loved it!! (We have lived together for nearly 3 years now and we have had sooo many good times, in a few parts of the world so I think it warrants a good few photos!!) I added my own touch by adding some fairy lights to it. I think there is so much you can do with them and they brighten up any room/wardrobe/wall/door etc.

All you need is some cute pegs (I found mine on ebay) a long piece of yarn/ribbon and some beautiful pictures of your friends and family

xx

For Christmas last year I wanted to give my flatmates something cute, home-made, special (and yes, for relatively low money!) 

So when I was in a bead shop in Manchester (http://www.the-beadshop.co.uk/?gclid=CIKPhbyWra8CFWohtAod4B8Kow) and found these cute little animal beads I had an idea to make them little key rings! Something that they can carry around with them and think of my lovely face every time they look upon it (haha!) Luckily I saved one for myself to show the world, mine is a lucky Chinese cat!… hope you like!

What you need:

1 bell cap
1 headpin
1 keyring clasp
1 large bead
1 large seed bead
1 jump ring 
Pliers 

What you need to do:

1. Get the head pin and attach the large seed bead onto it followed by the large bead (I chose a nice silver one) then slip on the cute animal bead, the bell cap and lastly the jump ring

2. With the rest of the pin at the end, use pliers to curl it into a circle and wrap the end around the pin.

3. Attach the jump ring onto the keyring clasp and there you have it!

非常快也非常可爱！ Really simple and really cute！

Soo I said earlier I would add some necklace tutorials of some necklaces and so I have! These Necklaces look quite complicated and a lot of work but they are actually really simple! You can do them in any colour and with any shape beads but I like the delicate look of the seed beads.

What you will need:
Seed beads (6-12 different colours in preferred colour scheme) 
2 bell Cap style Findings
1 clasp
2 jump rings
2 eye pins 
Thread 
Jewellery making needle 
Pliers 

1. Pick several different colours of seed beeds. I like using different shades of one colour or complimentary colours. The amount of colours depends on how thick you want the necklace. I have used 12 different colours and have used a couple of them twice to make 14 strands in total.

2. Cut 14 strands of thread (thick) each 70cm in length. For each of the strands tie a double knot at one end, leaving about 5cm thread to use later.

3. Using a very fine needle (you can find fine needles at most jewellery-making suppliers and craft shops, they are better than normal needles as the smallest bead can fit over them) thread on the seed beads until you reach desired length (mine was 65cm including extra 5cm that was left on the end). Tie a knot on the other end so that the beads cannot escape anywhere. Again leaving some thread on the end.

4. Repeat this until all the strands are full of the different coloured beads. Once you have your strands of beads, bunch them all together so that the ends are even with each other. With the thread ends tie them into a big knot so that they are all joined together (keep the knot as close to the beads as possible). Do this with the other end aswell. - It’s ok if some are a bit longer in length than the others, this just adds a bit of variety to the necklace.

5. Once you have done this you need to get an eyepin (shown in picture below) and open up the hole and hook it around the knot. Close the eyepin hole so that it is attached to the knot.

6. Then thread on one of the bell caps so that it covers the hole, you will have some thread poking out of the bottom but that is OK as it will be cut off. 

7. With the end of the eye pin, poking out of the bell cap, using pliers bend it round to make a circle and before closing off the circle, attach one end of the claps and then close off the circle. Do this to the other end.

8. Cut off the excess thread poking out and it’s done!! 

Sorry I don’t have many pictures attached (I am a visual learner so I know how helpful they can be!)

So whilst making the lovely Beatrix Potter cupcakes, I also made some Butternut Squash and Sweetcorn soup with my mum, courtesy of Delia Smith! My beautiful friends Philly and Hayley were coming over for lunch and a catch up. It was a rainy miserable day so we thought a nice warming soup would be lovely! Hayley asked me to put up the recipie after I told her how easy it is to make… so here it is!

Ingredients:
Serves 6 

700g butternut squash or pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and chopped into small chunks
300g sweetcorn (we used frozen sweetcorn)
25g butter (or use low calorie spray to be healthier :D)
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
275ml milk
1 1/4 pints of stock (we used vegetable stock)
salt and pepper

1. Melt butter (or spray) in the saucepan and then add onions and soften for about 8 minutes.
2. Then add the chopped squash or pumpkin, along with the sweetcorn and give everything a good stir and season with salt and pepper. 
3. Put the lid on and, keeping the heat low, allow the vegetables to sweat gently and release juices, which should take about 10 mins.
4. Next pour in milk and stock and simmer for 20 mins or so. Put the lid on but leave a little gap so that it doesn’t boil over.  
5. When eveything is soft and ready, pour it into a food processor or use a hand blender and blend it into a puree and then it is ready to eat!

I’m hungry now…  

Beatrix Potter’s books were my favourite books when I was little and reminds me of all my visits to the Lake District to see my family and going on day trips to the museum in Windermere or to visit her old house, Hill Top. My Great Great Auntie Hilda used to give me a bit of money towards buying a book every time I visited her and now I have the collection of the cute pocket size books on my shelf! During my visit to the Lake District over Easter Weekend I went into Lakeland and found some cute Beatrix Potter cupcake holders and got the inspiration to make some lovely spring cupcakes! Which I made to have with lunch when my lovelies Hayley and Phillippa popped over!  

Here is the recipie:

150g butter
150g caster sugar
3 medium eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

To decorate:
Ready-to-roll icing
red colouring
cookie cutters
Icing sugar 

1. Preheat oven to 180c/Gas Mark 4 and line a 12-hole muffin/cupcake tin with paper cases (I used the lovely Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddleduck ones! But I think they would look nice with any cases!)
2. Pop the butter, sugar, beaten eggs and vanilla extract into a bowl and then sift in flour and baking powder. 
3. Give the mixture a good beat either with or without a hand blender (probs less effort with one!!) Do this for about 2 minutes until it is pale and fluffy to make it taste really light.
4. Spoon the mixture into the cases evenly and bake for around 20-25 minutes.
5. For decorating the cupcakes all you need to do is cut off a chunk of the ready-to-roll icing, spread some icing powder on to a surface and roll it out.
6. Then using a round cookie cutter cut out a circle (or just cutting a round hole using a knife if you don’t have one). Make up some icing using icing sugar and spread some on the bottom of the circles so that they will stick on the cupcake.
7. To make the flowers just cut off another chunk of ready-to-roll icing and roll it out. Drop a few drops of red colouring onto the icing and kneed it into the icing until the icing is pink. 
8. Then cut out some flowers using a flower shaped cutter (or again by using a knife) I also used a butterfly one to add some variety. Make a few of these using different shapes and spread a bit of the icing (liquid) onto the bottoms to stick onto the cupcakes.
9. I then stuck a few of the cocktail sticks with the Beatrix potter characters into the middle. 

And now (reluctantly) eat up!!

Happy Easter! I Hope everyone’s Easter has been good and everyone has been munching on lots of chocolate. I went to the lake district with my family to visit my Nana and Yima Nona as well as my cute little doggie cousins! 
We had a very action-packed few days full of drinking, baking, cheese, shopping and vintage finding! We went to Hawkshead Brewery for some tasty tapas and of course for a cheeky pint or two. Prince Charles had been there a few days before which of course had hit the local newspapers front page! 

Whilst at my Nana’s I had a little rummage around in her loft and found some lovely tea sets from the 50s as well as old buttons and ribbons from as far back as the 30s that were owned by my great great grandparents. I also found an old school photo from (we think) the 1920s of my great great auntie… it was a bit eerie looking at all the little oliver twist lookalikes! 

Most importantly we bought a cute cupcake maker which makes cupcakes in 8 minutes. AMAZING. So me and my brother decided to give them a go and he got very into decorating them in a flower pattern… he said it was out of boredom but I think he enjoyed it!! 

I also found some lovely fabric in a charity shop in the town which I shall be using to make something lovely soon!