hello 2015

Happy new year! I hope you all had a lovely cosy Christmas break.

I had a really lovely festive time, although I have been a bit under the weather for most of it which has left me feeling a bit sorry for myself.

2014 was a grand year though! I had lots of fun, went lots of places and put some wheels in motion for the year ahead.



Ben and I picked up this decoration at Art Junky in Brighton just before Christmas.

It reminded me of the church we saw in Reykjavik when we visited early last January. One of my favourite ever holidays.



I haven't really had the brain power to think of any clear resolutions or plans for the year ahead yet but I want to set myself a few goals so I'll give it some thought and maybe start the new year a week or so late. That's ok right?

I do have one plan though: Move house!

The best plan (with the best man).

a festive wreath collection

I made some wreaths for Christmas this year.

It was a nice project for the winter evenings and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. In fact, I wish I'd made more! I'm going to give a couple away as gifts, but one is a keeper I think.

To make them I used some polystyrene rings as a firm base and then decorated them with wool and felt. I wanted to experiment a bit so they are all a bit different...


Crochet lace ring



This one is based on the simple statement wreath found on Lisa's blog, Good knits. It was so easy to make and I love the fact that you crochet straight onto the ring.

I can definitely see myself making more of these, in any number of colours. Who says you can't hang a wreath all year round.


Pompom party



I started this one by wrapping wool around the based until it was completely covered, then I glued on loads and loads of mini pompoms - I think they look like snowballs!

Thanks to Ben for helping out in my pompom factory - it was quite satisfying to spend an evening creating a big pile of woolen puffs. This is a pretty busy wreath but I think it's nice and cheerful.


Holly leaves



This one I also started by crocheting around the ring. Then I made some holly leaves and pompom berries to add as decoration. Nice and festive.


I really like how they look when they're together. All ready for Christmas.

let's make: party decorations

My good pal and housemate Mark recently hosted a little daytime folk gig at our house - it was great!

For the occasion Ben and I offered to make some decorations, so we spent a couple of hours one afternoon knocking up a few metres of colourful paper streamers. I've made something like this once before, but not in such large quantities - it's really quick and easy to make though (especially when you have a mini production line system).

I've written out the instructions below if you want to make some yourself...



You will need:

A selection of coloured paper in any colour combination of your choice (this time we went for ALL the colours!)
A giant hole punch (pictured above) - my one cuts out circles to a diameter of about 4cm but I think they come in different sizes.
A sewing machine & whatever coloured thread you fancy.

Instructions

Hole punch out as many circles as you need, in a combination of colours. We went a bit crazy and kept on punching until we ran out of most of our paper.

We kept the circles in individual piles so we could work out the colour pattern as we went, but you might just want to mix them all in together and see what sequence comes to hand as you sew.

When you have all the circles you need (or enough to start sewing if you have an assistant who can keep punching) set up your sewing machine to work in straight stitch and then simply sew away. We tried to keep an even mix of each colour in a random sequence so it wouldn't look too regular.

And then we just kept going, taking turns on each task, until we had metres of the stuff!



The only tricky bit is trying to stop the garland from getting tangled in itself. We ended up draping them in strips over furniture as we went.

Once you have used up all your circles, then all that's left to do is: DECORATE!



Oh, and have a fun party!

are you feeling festive?

I am!
I even had a mince pie for breakfast.
Naughty.

hat party / party hats

We had a hat party at our flat this weekend.
A lot of people came. And everyone wore a hat!!!

Some of the highlights were: a very glittery crown, the enormous crocodile, a customized safety helmet, a clip-on pigeon, a ninja hat, 2 birds nests, 2 mice and a very impressive cloud.

I made a giraffe hat:


I kept it on nearly all night (which was quite a challenge as it was rather tall). I also made some rosettes to award to the best hats, and we had a ballot box so people could vote for the overall winner:


Other treats included jam tarts & hat shaped cheese straws, an amazing hat cake by Rosie, many hat jokes, and plenty of austin's pimm's and lemonade.

Now I think a long sleep is in order.

3 birthdays & a thank you

LET'S CELEBRATE ! ! ! !

handmade cards • a forgotten banner • some beautiful, but very VERY sweet cupcakes

eggcellent

We had an easter party on saturday - it was pretty special indeed!

We made baked goods and hid treats around our flat inside little origami boxes. Some had chocolate eggs inside, some had jokes by me & Yumi, and some had the odd special prize (like a penny).

Here are some of the decorations we made for our house:


The bunting is mainly down to Rosie who did all of the sewing and provided most of the delightful fabric. Though I did use my newly acquired screen printing skills to add the odd chicken into the mix:


I also painted some eggs for the wall:


And found a selection of these paper lanterns in a charity shop in Kemp town which added a nice finishing touch to our lounge:


I think we are going to keep the decorations up for a while now as our house feels a lot more summery and pleasant with them! After all, how can you have a bad day when there's bunting hanging overhead.
x

a mini festival

It's been a busy weekend around these parts. We held a mini glastonbury at our house (called glastoncrescy as we live on a crescent) so those of use that weren't going this year could watch the coverage and have that summer festival experience, (without the rain, mud & portaloos of course!)

It also gave us a chance to decorate the flat, and we went all out (angela even made a wigwam in the hallway!). Here are some pictures taken before it all kicked off:


Much better than the real thing i reckon!
x

car boot / bundle of loot

on sunday i popped to the market at brighton station and would you look at what i found:


this little case is soooooo lovely and was only a couple of pounds - i think i'll use it as my school bag this week so it can be seen by many.

i also found a stall that was selling some nice old christmas decorations (which was extra nice as this week i have been feeling v.excited about the fact that christmas is on it's way). i got a whole bundle for £2:



i love the expressions on their faces and their cute hairstyles.
this bird was also in amongst them:


i can't wait until it's time to decorate the christmas tree now (i'm getting a bit ahead of myself i know).

x