Make it: Christmas Baking gifts

Just thought I would share with you some pics of the Christmas baking I have been doing to give as gifts this year. Here is a photo of the Coconut Macaroons I made for my Dad, they were Yummy! I will totally be making them again although he might not see any next time....

 

These are the Gingerbread hearts I made for G'pa. this was the 5th batch I made of these, they mysteriously kept going missing. I used this recipe from BBC Food and it worked really well.

 

I was not the only one with the idea of gifting food, this was the divine home made fudge and chocolate covered marshmallows  given to me by the Gorgeous Kelly as my Christmas present!

Love it! Christmas Baking!!

Sammy xxx

Sunday seashell Make it

 Good evening, thought you might like to see what I made earlier today.

Let me fill you in a little, Last year at my Mum's Girls dinner, they had a dish which came in these little shells, some kind of crab meat puree thing I think, and Mum being Mum thought she could make use of the shells, Honestly my Mum is worse than me for wanting to re-purpose things. 

So last week she bought them in to the shop and we set about coming up with something to do with them in time for her Girls 2011 Christmas gathering. 

we liked with the idea of necklaces and wine glass Id tags, but the winner was place settings. 

I said that she should leave it with me and that night I set to it. The shells were in a pretty raw state, so I started with a coat of Mod Podge to seal them and then painted the inside with a white pearlised acrylic paint and set them to dry. 

Today I knew I had to finish them as her dinner is tomorrow, I got out my fave air drying clay, Apoxi sculpt, Love the stuff, and mixed up six small pebbles, then set them one in to each shell. Then came the fun part, I got out my alphabet stamps and stamped each guests name in to each pebble. Whilst the clay was setting I rummaged around and managed to find, in my old craft supplies some 'mermaid bubbles' that I had bought from ebay a few years back for customising dolls, Perfect.

I drizzled some pva around each of the pebbles and poured on the bead bubbles, just like glitter. Once the clay had set and the glue had dried I tipped off the excess bubbles, took some more pearl paint and covered the pebbles, making sure I was careful not to flood the letter indentations. When that layer was dry I added some black paint to a little of the pearl paint and went back over each of the names to make them stand out. 

I took a quick pic on my phone to show you.

I think you will agree they look fabulous! 

I was so happy with how they turned out, I hope My Mum and her friends will agree.

Love it: Secret Santa

Picture courtesy of Amazon.co.uk

Last night H had a night out with some friends and they had a little Secret Santa too.

I found a very nice restaurant in Farringdon, London and kept it all secret from the girls as to where we were going!  Meeting them in a pub for some pre-dinner drinks and keeping them in the dark, until it was time to go.

We ended up in Little Bay, which is a lovely little restaurant, so I can thoroughly recommend it!  A selection of starters, main courses and puddings later, we were all stuffed and even with a cocktail it was under £20 each! Bargain.

Anyway, onto more important things, we had the great Secret Santa swap and due to all being around the dinner table, it turned into the not so secret Santa swap, but hey, it was nice all the same.

There was a mini anglepoise lamp for Julie, a make-up bag with her initial on for Claire and a bag holder and a knitted Bando (a headband to you and me) for Maria, and for me a book on making vintage gifts!!  They know me so well! I am looking forward to making more than a few gifts from this lovely book!

Are you and your friends doing Secret Santa this year? what gift have you bought?

Love it

H

Make it: Pillowcase Dresses at Drink Shop Do

So tonight, I went to Drink, shop & do to go support a friend of mine for her Pillowcase Dress Challenge. I got there just after 6 and the place was already busy with post work chin-waggers and some early bird decorators.

Alison from Peggy's Pickles and friends had been busy making the dresses over the past few months and now it was time for a little helping hand from the Drink, shop & do crowd to decorate and embellish the dresses, so that they can go to little girls in Africa.

Now it may not be how everyone wants to give to charity, but I think that every little girl wherever they may be, would love to have a dress and something which has been handmade makes it that little bit more special.

Now, unfortunately I forgot to photos of my endeavours, but trust me that in a few hours I had decorated 3 dresses!  A rosette for one, a decorated pocket for another and daisy decorations for the third.  Go have a look at Alison's blog in the next few days and I am sure she will have many a photo up on there, even perhaps with my concentration face on!

Promise to take photos next time!

H

Love it: Lego Christmas tree

If you go down to the station today, your sure of a big surprise!  Kings cross St Pancras has put up a Lego tree with Lego baubles and everything! There is even a treasure hunt for the kids! Next time you find yourself near, you should go check it out!

Live it: Anniversary weekend in Brighton

So here it is, a bit later than planned, my mammoth Brighton post. My hubby and I had such a lovely weekend away for our anniversary, wish we could be there every weekend. Anyway I will let the pictures do the talking.... Enjoy!

We arrived mid afternoon and headed straight out for late lunch at Rock and Roller.

 Rock and Roller

When Steve popped back to the hotel for a nap, I headed straight to the south Lanes to pick up some cakes from my fave bakery... on my way I got sucked in to a gorgeous shop 'Pretty Eccentric' and of course made a purchase... a divine crystal skull ring.

 Pretty Eccentric

I managed to drag my self away from the pretty shop interior and pop over to Angel food Bakery, where I picked up four beautiful cupcakes for Steve and I to have for tea later on. I also picked up workshop leaflet for their new 'Angel food kitchen' located a stones throw from their shop in the lanes. I think we are going to do a class for my birthday weekend, Yay!

 Angel food bakery

For Dinner we headed out to KOBA, totally would recommend, Chocolate brownie was to die for!

The next day we walked through the Lanes, on our way to the Pier, and stopped by a few of my faves and in to the lanes Armoury for Steve.

The Lanes Armoury  

                          

Fizziwigg's sweet shop 

DOLLYDAGGER

 Me and Hubby on the Pier

So by lunch time we were Starving and just round the corner from Steve's reason for coming to Brighton, JB's Diner.

 JB's American Diner

 Dark Rum and Brownie Milkshake.... outstandingly yummy!

 Foot long hot dog with Chili

On our way back we stumbled upon  Hardy's sweetshop, there are a few around the country, we have one in Windsor apparently, which I will be visiting now I know. An old fashioned sweet shop with all the trimmings. the also sell the holy grail for Steve and I .... American candy! so we stocked up on some of our faves and some new goodies, including Peanut butter Twix and coconut M&M's.

We also swung by on of My Brighton Highlights, Choccywoccydoodah, Yes that is it's name isn't it epic, makers of Cake and Chocolaty goodies of amazing proportions. Their window display was as usual teaming with people wanting to look in at the amazing chocolate creations.

Later on we wondered in to the North Lanes, I had a fabric shop to visit and Steve wanted a mask for a Party the following weekend.

We strolled through the streets and I stopped for a quick look in Alice Dreams, which had moved since I was here last, not a surprise to me, as it is a shop full of gorgeous goodies!

Steve managed to find the mask he was after.... I didn't like it

And I got to Ditto Fabrics, and managed to find some lovely goodies to bring home too! they have a great web site, but I do love buying fabrics when I can feel what they are like. The Elephant fabric is my new fave.

So that was our weekend, we had a lovely Anniversary, I am A lucky Girl.

Where are your favourite places in Brighton? Let us know in the comments below so we can visit next time.

Live it.
Sammy xxx

Love it: Google homepage illustrations

You have to check out Google's home page today! it is interactive! I love that the logo changes everyday and that they all have a special meaning or reason behind them.

I tried it at lunch time and its the best yet, well that's what I say anyway! There is an article about it for the geek in us all...

Have a great day
H

Love it: Hammersmith Vintage Fair

Today I decided to hot foot it down to Hammersmith Town Hall for the regular Vintage Fashion and antiques fair that turns up once a month.  Now as I used to work here you would think I have been many times before, but this was the first official visit!

What I found was a hall stacked full of fashion, accessories and textiles, which was my paradise!  I even managed to keep finding stalls in smaller rooms, it just kept coming!  To look for future dates and places check out P and A Fairs Website

I found myself wandering around and wanting so much!  which is always a problem.  But many stallholders had a bug bear of mine, no prices!  I know its nice to haggle, but I really do like to have a bit of a ball park figure when looking at stuff!  Anyway, I did come away with a few items and chatted with some stall holders.  My favourite thing was seeing a couple in complete 1940's outfits wandering around.  It made my jeans and jumper look very very boring!

Have a little look at what I bought.............

A Wool Purse!  My favourite thing, Love it!!!!

A new Pendant, I think I will wear it for my first day at a new job tomorrow!

And some new buttons for my collection!!

Loving It!!!

H

Love it: the curiosity project

I was over on Mollie Makes blog and was reading about this lovely project. You sign up and you get given a recipient to send a box of goodies to, and then you get sent a box of goodies from someone else in return! I love making and buying presents and who doesn't love receiving them, get over to the blog and sign yourselves up pronto ♥ you never know you might get a box from me or H.

The Curiosity Project
thecuriositybox.blogspot.com

Sammy xxx

Love it: Halloween 2011

I am a big fan of dressing up, so as you can imagine I love Halloween, just thought you might like to see my costume from this year, a kind of Harlequin Goth hybrid. Hubby and I had a great night at our friends party, suffering for it today, well worth the hangover!

Love it

Sammy xxx

Make it: Silver Clay Jewellery Workshop

A bird and anchor Charm with Beads on a Pendant

As part of my (H's) Internship with the Make lounge I managed to squeeze in a workshop last week, which was the Silver Charm Bracelet and Pendant. We used Precious Metal Clay to make our own charms to use on our bracelet and pendant and here is how we did it!

You have to keep the precious metal clay wet as it is very much like normal clay up until the firing stage and so it is can become very brittle, otherwise it will dry out and become unusable.  So you should make sure you keep it wrapped up in cling film within a bag, and even perhaps another bag, just to make sure!

We then made our shapes for our charms using mini cutters or designing our own using a scalpel to make the shape.  Making sure to make the hole for the charm to be hung at this stage, otherwise you will not be able to later.  We formed the shape on an old tile so that it was easy for the clay to be moulded.

A Button, Man, Star, Bird and flower charm on a bracelet.

Then when you are ready you have to dry out the shapes, we used hair-dryers, for ease in the workshop space, but you can put them in the oven at home for about 10 minutes.  They have to be dry all the way through and so the shapes have to be quite thin (about 2-3mm thick) as otherwise when you go to the firing process they may break.  They are still really brittle at this stage and so be very careful when you smooth down the edges with a wet wipe.

Then off to the firing it is!  This invloves just a gas hob and you put the charms on a bit of gause on top of the flames and wait until the charms go white and put them in a bowl of water to cool.  The charms are now hard as nails and you sand then down with wire wool and metal sandpaper to smooth and the silver appears!  This stuff is magic and its one of the best things I have seen in a while.

A Teardrop charm and Beads on a pendant.

Unfortunately the last workshop of this kind is on Saturday and it is fully booked, but I would recommend keeping an eye out for workshops like this in your area as it was a really fun technique to learn.

Make it!
H