Make it: Double Sided Make-up Bag

I was watching a YouTube video from the beautiful Ingrid (Miss Glamorazzi) a few months ago and she featured a really handy double sided travel make-up bag by Anya Hindmarch, I loved it until I saw the £150 price tag, Eeek! Since then I have been on a mission to find the perfect make up bags to DIY my own version ready for my Holidays in July. Last week I found this make up bag set from Marks and Spencer and for the bargain price of £6 each. I thought I would take you through how I turned this bargain beauty essential into a summer holiday must have.

You will need: Two make-up bags that are the same size (these are the smallest from the M&S set) a needle, strong thread, ribbon, binding and a brad or button (optional)

Start by turning one of your bags inside out, then place it inside the second one, this helps to keep them in place whilst you sew them into place. Take your strong thread and a needle and stitch all the way around, as close to the bottom edge of the bags. Once you reach where you started make sure you fasten off your stitching with a secure knot.

You can now turn your bag right side out again and add your embellishments. Cut a small piece of gold binding to make a small plaque for the front of your bag.

Take the brad or button and push it through the plaque, pop a little glue on the back and push both into the bag, opening it out to keep the plaque in place.

Finally, tie some ribbon through the zip pulls to make it easier to open both the bags and your done. All that is left to do now is to fill it with all your holiday essentials.

I love how this bag turned out, so much so that I am using it on my dressing table to keep all my current favourites in already. It is great that I can keep my skin care separate to my make up and it is really easy to find what I need as it opens all the way up, no need for rummaging to the bottom to find my best black eyeliner.

Have a great weekend
Sammy xxx

As always we would love to see if you have a go at this. As with all our DIY's if you do, take a quick pic and share it with us on Twitter or Instagram don't forget the hashtag #livelovemake

How We Wear... Print Trousers

H and I have both been crushing hard on printed or patterned trousers lately, they are a great alternative to jeans if you want a relaxed day time outfit. We both love wearing ours with statement necklaces and comfy jersey tops. How do you wear yours?

H wears: Trousers by H&M, T-shirt by ASOS, Shoes £3 from Primark, Bracelets from Accessorize (Similar) and Forever 21 (Similar), Necklace by I am Acrylic.

Sammy wears: Neon kimono by BooHoo, Swing top by Asos (similar), Trousers by Yours, Sandals by Newlook (added ribbon), necklace from Forever 21.

Half Term fun at The Lightbox

Now, as you may know by now, I work in a musem for the day job and so school holidays turn a little more crazy busy than usual.

I thought I would show you what we are going to be getting up to this May Half term.

Tuesday will be the top left activity and is the Flower Power Panda Free Drop-in workshop, where we have a Panda coming from WWF (who's HQ is opposite the museum).  Every year they give out these statues for people to decorate and so we have one on Tuesday and they will have a drop-in on Thursday with an international flower theme.  Our theme is British flowers and we are also using our old what's on leaflets and any other leaflets we have, so that we are doing our bit for recycling.  When the flowers are made, they get to stick them all over the panda to decorate him.

Wednesday is a paid workshop day and we will be making lots of different patterns in paint.  We are doing wax resist, scratching into paint, using sandpaper in paint and using different paper styles.  They will then be able to cut all their papers up and put them together to make a mosaic style picture out of all their experiments.

Thursday is a another Free Drop-in day and it will be a bit of Origami with everyone being able to make frogs!  Well, we are next to Basingstoke Canal.  When you press the back of them, they jump too.  So I think we will have families of frogs jumping around the room on this day.

Friday is our Fabric Printing paid workshop and they will have the chance to print up a tote bag with a repetitive pattern using a rolling pin printer, making their own stamps out of cork or foam and all manner of other everyday items to make a print on the bag or maybe they will bring their own T-shirt too.

So, as you can see, we are up to quite a lot in the half term holiday and so if you are nearby please do pop on by and say hello.

If you get up to anything this half term, do let us know and #livelovemake on Instagram or Twitter so that we can have a look.

Off to have a rest before it all begins tomorrow!

H

Want Advertise With Us? Now You Can!

Ever wanted to advertise with us??  Well now you can as we have signed up with the team over at Passionfruit!

We have been waiting for ages to find the right way for us to support what we do here at Live it. Love it. Make it, and when we found Passionfruit it seemed like a perfect fit. They offer a great service and work with blogs big and small. If you are interested in advertising with us check out our 'Sponsor Us' page or head over to our profile page on the site and check out our availability. We are happy to take ads from other blogs as well as other businesses.

If you have a question about working with us in any other way, email us any-time at: liveit.loveit.makeit@gmail.com

H and Sammy xxx

Love it: UK Craft Blogs #1

We write a crafty blog, so it is only natural that we gravitate towards other creative folk, we have a looonnnggg blog roll on Bloglovin of blogs we love and we have shared some of our faves here before. We love bloggers and blogs from all over the world, a lot of our favourites are from across the pond in the USA, A Beautiful Mess, Sugar and Cloth, Lovely Indeed, Paper and Stitch and the list goes on, but in this series we want to give a shout out to our favourites from right here, our home, the United Kingdom!

Burkatron

Caroline is a beautiful fashion/craft blogger and self confessed nail art junkie, I always love the photography styling in her posts. Her DIY's are always pretty and super chic. Our fave recent post is this one about building your own terrarium.

Buttons and Paint

These two lovelies live just down the road from us in Reading, You may remember them from their guest post for us back in March or you may have popped over from our guest post on their blog. We love this recent DIY to make yourself a trimmings folder, a must have for any haberdashery hoarder.

Claireabelle Makes

We don't know how the lovely Claire manages to run her own (super cute) etsy shop, her blog and have a job, but she does it, and beautifully too! We are crushing hard on her Bicycle Bracelets at LiLiMi HQ.

Who are your favourites?  This is the first in a series of posts about UK based craft blogs, our favourite fellow Brits doing wonders for bringing crafts out of the dark ages. Tell us in the comments about your faves so we can include them in later posts and crush on their mad DIY skills of course.

Sammy xxx

Who's who: Hannah Bakes

This month's who's who comes via H drooling over pictures of their cakes on Instagram.  They look so good and I can only dream of making things look this good.  I am not a natural cake decorator, more a cake demolisher!  So, what better way to share the joy of what Hannah Bakes gets up to than having a little chat over staring at the cakes, rather than eating them, unfortunately.

Who are you?
We are Hannah Jacques (Chief Baker) and Callum Hawes (Chief Taster). Hannah is a sweet toothed, self taught baker and Callum is a professional eater/taster of Layer Cakes, Cupcakes and all Sweet Bakes (he also designs sweet websites too).

What do you do?
At Hannah Bakes, we create Celebration Cakes, Cupcakes and Artisan Bakes from Hannah's home kitchen in Thame, Oxfordshire. As well as delivering bespoke cake orders to local customers within Oxon, Bucks and Berks. We also love spreading the Hannah Bakes word by attending local food festivals, markets and events, armed with our favourite sweet treats.

We endeavour to be innovative, sometimes non-traditional, but always delicious. Our ‘cakethos’ is; if you’re going to spoil yourself, you may as well do it properly!

How did you start?
With a Kenwood hand mixer as old as me and a serious passion for cake, I have always enjoyed baking for friends and family but it wasn't until I met fellow cake lover Callum (and a shiny new standing mixer) that we decided to turn my hobby into Hannah Bakes.

We're still in our infancy as a company, but so far we've loved introducing our baked goods to local markets and festivals over the last few months and the reaction from our customers has been brilliant.

What's Next?
We want our cakes and bakes to reach as many of your mouths as possible over the next year. We hope increase our attendance at local events over the next 12 months. Keep at eye out for us at a market near you soon...

What advice would you give yourself if you could go back to the beginning?
Baking is so much better with a Kitchen Aid.

Just look at all that cake!  Amazing hey.  I just want to face plant that white chocolate and raspberry cake above!  wow.

I think we may have to go and seek out these guys and take a trip over to Oxfordshire just to get a taste of these beauties!  They are going to be at Wallingford Food Festival on the 17th and 18th of May.  We will meet you in the queue!

drooooooooool
H and Sammy, xxx

Please Note: All pictures are owned by the interviewee and so should not be copied without permission.

Hidden Treasures: Fashion Fabrics

Now you may have seen our Bath Adventure post a few weeks ago and so I thought I would make the shop Fashion Fabrics, we saw there one of my hidden treasures, as it really was a treasure trove of goodies.

The Fashion Fabrics shop is on Green Street, just off the old part of the main shopping street and so very close to everything else you could need from a shopping trip to the big City of Bath.

The shop itself is filled to the rafters - literally with fabric.  From cottons and linens to tweed and Jersey, just about every fabric you need for your projects.  This place has been family run since 1955 and in Bath since 1969 and so has seen plenty of changes over the years.

I definitely recommend a visit as you can find some real gems.  H found some Vintage Tweed for a winter skirt and Sammy found some bright cotton for a summer dress, amongst many other fabrics!

If you do visit, let us know in the comments below.  Any other hidden treasures out there near you?  Let us know and we can take a trip!

H

Etsy Treasury: Pineapples

Pineapples are literally flavour of the  moment, they have been making appearances all over the place from the catwalks to home interiors. Gorgeously kitsch with a seventies twist!  If it has a pineapple on it, buy it now, you wont regret it! Head over to Etsy.com to check out my newest treasury where you can find the links to all the amazing goodies pictured above.

Have a lovely weekend.
Sammy xxx

Live it: Blogtacular 2014

Last weekend, when quite frankly the UK was cold, windy and damp - there was an explosion of creativity, colour and people (mainly women) for the inaugural Blogtacular at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London.  We had never been to an event like this before so we had no idea what to expect... we were blown away! 

Both of us had been following Kat and Kat's respective blogs for a while before the conference was announced so we knew that this was going to be the most awesome blogging event of 2014 and it did not disappoint. As the speakers were announced they just got better and better, the lead up to the event was an exciting time finding out who of our blogging friends were going to be there and which of our blogging idols we were going to get a chance to meet. 

The Friday night kicked off with a goody bag of epic proportions designed and printed by the amazing Zeena  Shah including gifts from the Hambledon, Betty and Walter, Tigerlilly Quinn, Lollipop, Ladybird Likes and all the event sponsors including Mail Chimp, B&Q and the Lovely Mollie Makes followed by a drinks reception and book signing.

The opening key note was given by a blogger who has been an inspiration to us for many years, Joy Cho, a designer and mother among the long list of accomplishments this lady has under her belt.

"You are not just a blogger"

                                                                Joy Cho

Day two was an intense learning explosion, packed full of workshops and lectures. We especially loved hearing from Tilly (Tilly and the Buttons) and Vicky (editor at Kyle Books) who spoke about going from blogger to author and the secrets of just how to write that book.

"Self Promotion, not to be confused with over sharing"

                                                                                                          Anne Ditmeyer

The Editors panel including Lara ( Mollie Makes) Caroline Rowland (91 magazine) Kate Carter (Life and Style at the Guardian) and Heather Young (freelance interiors journalist for IPC magazines) was a real treat. We got to hear their tips for pitching to publications and an insight into what they look for in contributors to their magazines. 

We were hugely inspired by the fab duo behind Mini Moderns, Mark and Keith who took us through their top tips for branding and design.  Let's face it, it was nice to have a few guys around the place! Although there was a few in the audience, but we never got to meet them to find out who they were. If your reading this guys, say hello!

Even in between all the brilliant lectures and workshops there was no time for a creative lull, there were stalls and activities from sponsers Thomson Holidays and B&Q.  Blackwell's had an array of creative books to read and buy from all the speakers and more to keep those juices flowing and the B&Q team helped us avoid that 3pm slump with a little help from The Meringue Girls.

We felt that the closing keynote from Natalie Lue (Baggage Reclaim) was the perfect way to end a weekend filled with inspirational and motivational advice from the leaders in our field. She spoke so wonderfully about not comparing yourself to other people and that EVERYONE has self-doubt, but you know what you deal with it and move on!  Natalie really is a force to be reckoned with and definitely gave us some Big Lessons to learn from!  She may well have inspired H to write that book about weddings too, so watch this space!

"You will have more ideas than time, this is ok"

                                                                                             Natalie Lue

We both headed home with our heads buzzing with ideas and inspiration, as we are sure all our fellow attendees and speakers did too. It also made us have some hard but important conversations about what we both want for the future of Live it. Love it. Make it... All good, promise.

If you are now totally jealous that you couldn't make it to the best blogging event of the year, don't worry, sign up to the Blogtacular mailing list to be in with the chance to grab a virtual ticket to be able to go online and watch videos of some of the sessions. There was a rumour that the first few UK based purchasers of virtual tickets would get one of the goody bags too!

To Kat and Kat,
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for dreaming big and envisioning the absolute delight that was Blogtacular. We learnt so much and are so excited for the future of our blog thanks to your hard work and determination to make your vision becoming a reality. We have added "To speak at Blogtacular" to our list of blogging life goals.

H and Sammy

Make it: Outfit alterations

I do this thing, where I buy clothes that are not quite right from the high street, second hand shops or vintage clothes that just need a little something doing to them.  Then they languish in my wardrobe for roughly 4 months, before I get a large enough collection together, before I finally admit defeat and actually alter them to be able to wear them.

I don't know why I don't just do it a little at a time, I guess its like ironing, you wait until there is a large enough pile to warrant you getting the iron and ironing board out, so you end up doing a whole batch at a time, rather than just small bits.  But lets not get me onto ironing, because I have been known to send things to the charity shop once I have worn them once and realised they need ironing for the next wear.  My iron only comes out when I am crafting or dressmaking!

I thought I would show you a few of the items I managed to do this time and let you know what I did, so that you can perhaps get some inspiration to alter those almost perfect items into perfect pieces. 

Firstly the skirt at the top of this post, unfortunately I don't have a before shot!  I got a bit too scissor happy before I thought to photograph it!  This was once a button up dress from a charity shop that I loved, yes because its blue and spotty.  The top part didn't fit and so I lopped it off and made a hem over the elastic waistband, so that it becomes a great skirt.  Brilliant for the summer.

Next up, was this maxi dress from Primark for £13 that I loved the pattern of - it's this season and so you might still be able to find it.  The length just wasn't quite long enough for my liking, I like my maxi dresses to be right onto the floor and this was more mid calf length.  In Primark the short dresses are far too short for me and so I thought that I could just make a longer dress into my desired length instead.

All I did, was to hang it in front of a dress I already liked the length of and then go around and pin in to the desired length, making sure its nice and even all the way around, again this is made so much easier having another dress to match it up to, especially if you are a single girl, so no help hemming up from a friend!

Then it was just a case of hemming it at the right length and using pinking shears to stop it from fraying too much.  You could also roll hem or double hem if you prefer.

I bought this dress about 8 months ago (the shame) from Frock and Roll for about £12 and loved it from first sight.  As you can see it was just a little too long for me as it drowned me a little and it had no shape to it.

So with my trusty friend Sammy with me I asked her to help me create some darts in the back.  All it needed for a little shape at the top.  She grabbed about an inch section on two sides of my back and that was enough to make the darts at the back.  I then put the dress in front of another dress to do the same hemming as the other dress.

This last dress has been in my wardrobe for years and I have worn it - honest!  But everytime I put it on, it just didn't quite feel right.  I bought it years ago from Pop Boutique  for about £10 and had to re-elasticate the waist back then, but it still didn't quite fit properly and so it has been put on and taken off more times than it has actually been worn.

Again, this dress was just a little too long and so I pulled up the skirt into the waistband to shorten it, making sure it was straight all the way around.  The sleeves were a little too baggy but as the top of the sleeves has some tucks, it was the bottom part of the sleeve that got altered.  I just took a little bit off from the inside of the arm, making the curve dip into the armpit area a bit more and it has given it much more shape.

So, what do you think.  These are all really simple things to do and so I really should do it more often, rather than waiting for a pile up.  Is there any big transformations you have made or smaller alterations, just to make things fit that little bit better?  Let us know in the comments or share with us on Instagram or Twitter with #livelovemake.

Just off to find some more goodies.
H, xxx

Live it: Our Bath Adventure

You should all know by now how much H and I love an adventure and if you caught our post last year about the Bath Christmas market you will be aware of how much we wanted to take a second look at this beautiful city. A few weeks ago we got the chance to spend a weekend there and despite the April showers, we spent the whole time exploring all of Bath's best bits. Here are some of our highlights. 

Make it: Painted Gem Clutch Bag

Statement necklaces are here to stay and this season they are joined by cool statement clutch bags. I spotted this one from Accessorize - I loved it, but the colour-way wasn't really my cup of tea, so I thought I would have a go at DIY-ing my own. When I saw this necklace from Liberty the idea of spray painting the gems to get the colours I wanted was the perfect solution for what I had in mind.  I thought you guys might like to see how easy it was to make yourself a custom gem encrusted clutch bag.

Make it: Felt Cards with Blooming Felt

You may have seen some of our posts with Blooming Felt and now we have another one for you.  Making cards can be a fun and simple thing to do for birthdays and celebrations.  Especially as you can be more personal to the recipient.

Our Blogtacular Wishlist

H and I are off to Blogtacular next weekend for two days of networking, learning and blogging fun. There are loads of amazing bloggers and journalists scheduled to speak, as well as workshops and networking events so we need to be comfortable but smart enough to meet some of our blogging idols and piers. We have been trying to get ourselves ready by making lists of things we need to take with us, and more importantly what we are going wear!

Day one is about finding out where we are going to be, meeting all of our fellow attendees and some of the amazing speakers. We have both gone with neutral basics and added pops of colour, H with a bag and me with my dress.

H, Day One: Cardigan: Necklace: Boots: Bag: Dress.

Sammy, Day One: Dress: Boots: Ipad sleeve: Necklace.

Day two is about learning and more importantly comfort, so we have both gone for statement accessories to embellish our cosy outfits.

H Day Two: Jeans: Necklace: Shoes: Bag: Top.

Sammy, Day Two: Top: Bag: Necklace: Shoes: Trousers.

Are you heading to Blogtacular? What have you planned on wearing or taking with you? Let us know in the comments below. There are still tickets available if you are a blogger or want to learn more about blogging, or if you are thinking about starting a blog, head over to the event page for more details.

Now, all we need is our notebooks and we are good to go!

Sammy & H, xxx