Our Favourite Fabric Shops

This post has been a long time coming! This month was the month that I finally sat down and compiled our list of places we buy the thing we love more than anything else...fabric. You know that H and I both have a love for fabric, print and colour so it is only fair that we share our favourite places to go, to top up our stashes. We would love to know your favourites too, leave them in the comments below...

Make it: Conker Pumpkins

Who can not notice that it is Halloween this week and that Autumn is definitely here!  So for Half term week, I thought I would show you a Children or Adult friendly simple craft.  Who doesn't love a bit of Pinterest for some Pumpkin inspiration and these Conker Pumpkins just fit the bill today.

Let's Meet: Fall for DIY & We Make Collective

This month we thought we would have something a little different.  A fellow blogger and company owner, but I will let her explain all!

Food round-up: Comfort food

 It's November so of course the Food session this month had to include some comfort food.  I love food and when the weather is changing and cold I like to make some good old comfort food to keep me going.  I can only wish I was one of those people who could live off vegetables, but at least these all have fruit and veg in them!

First up, is my new obsession, Pitta Pizzas!  As I can't have cows milk, pizzas are a bit harder to find without cheese and any dairy.  So using Pitta breads as the base and making my own is the only way to go.  I use spinach as a base on top of sweet chilli sauce and tomato paste.  Then a mix of red onion and different coloured peppers that have been already cooked to add on top with goats cheese and pop under the grill.  Yummy.

Next up is another obsession of Jamie's Superfood series and this Chicken & squash cacciatore which just looks delicious!   I so want to eat this right now!  Looks like a great food to have around with lots of friends popping over.

Bottom right is another great Quinoa recipe, as I have said I am sure before, sometimes you just need a great way to have quinoa as it can be a bit well, just bland.  This recipe for Miso, Carrot and Quinoa One pot from Madeleine Shaw looks super good and as its from Madeleine Shaw you know its going to be so good for you!  She is a superwoman of healthy food and knowing what would be great for your body.

Lastly, well there just had to be a pudding on here somewhere and what better comfort food for this time of year than a crumble!  This one is dairy free too and so I can have it guilt free. Crumble was always my favourite thing to make at home and I was chief crumble maker.  This apple crumble recipe just uses Pure Soya instead of butter for the crumble mix and so so simple to replace.  yey.

Well, that's just made me all kinds of hungry!  My lunchtime salad is not going to cut it is it!  I think I am going to have to start making a big pot of some of these tonight for my lunches!

Which comfort food recipe is your favourite to have?  One of these take your eye, or your favourite own recipe?  Let us know in the comments and we can take a look.

H,xxx

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Make it: Zipped Burger Pouch

I have been wanting to make a cylindrical zipped pouch for a while, but couldn't decide how to make it unique, when H and I were having a blog meeting recently she mentioned wanting to work in a fast food themed DIY...  the burger pouch was born! This fun sewn zipped pouch is a good sized container for pens, cables or small gadgets, you could even use it as a make up bag. A great gift idea for teens and suitable for those 'tricky to buy for' boys.

Simple Styling: Dining Room with Parrot Uncle

This month's Simple Styling post is Sponsored by Parrot Uncle, who are a lighting company based in the US, but they ship to the UK, so it's all ok people, we are not sending you somewhere you can't get something for yourself.

They asked us to take a look at some of their products and see what we thought.  As you already know by now, H is organising her place, so some new Interior ideas can never go unnoticed.

As you may already know by now Sammy and I met at Art College and we were part of a course which had Interior Design as a big part of it and so laying out ideas and planning what we could do, was the really fun part of it.

So, I thought a little room set-up would be good for this post, as my dining area is also my desk and so you have seen my set-up.  But if I had an area to myself, then this is what I would do with it.

The Geometric shaped Light is from the Parrot Uncle selection of discount wooden light fixtures and there are so many fun designs to choose from, I went with this Converse Diamond Design, as I think it goes with my favourite style of Interiors.  It's Modern but has that Retro edge to it.  I also really love the industrial look and so the Cement Shades are great too.

As for all the rest of the room: Print from HAM, Dining Table and Chair from Made.com, Crockery from Anthropologie.  Also did you know you can get anything matched by the guys at Valspar for your paint colour at B&Q, this is my new favourite thing to play with!

Which light would you pick from Parrot Uncle?

H, xxx

Please note: This post was sponsored by Parrot Uncle, but they did not ask us to review any particular product.  We have not bought anything from this company and so are unable to give any recommendations.



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Autumn DIY Bucket List

I love a good Autumn bucket list as you know but I wanted to give this years version a little DIY twist. These are all the things I want to have a go at making before winter arrives, what would be on your list?....

Live it: Packhouse

A couple of weeks back, I took a trip to Packhouse near Farnham, Surrey, to look at all the pretty.  It is a treasure trove of indoor and outdoor home items that are old or new, but all have that country cottage/shabby chic look.  I so wish I had a garden for that Flamingo!  Although probably for the best I don't as I can easily spend enough on the inside of my flat.

You can go from a nook of food items such as local honey and fudge, to a crannie with tables and sideboards.  It is a huge 3 floors of small rooms and large rooms in this 400 year old building.  I definitely had to restrain myself from buying ceramic vases, lamps, and storage boxes, so many storage boxes!

The farmhouse is the perfect place for all the stuff, I can imagine it must be a nightmare to know everything there is though!  Handily on site there is Cafe Fig, with some lovely food, just so that you can take a break in between shopping!  There is also a kitchen and dining company and workshops space in separate units on the same site. So plenty of choice.

Some of it was a bit above my price and space range, I only have a flat after all.  But a great place to look around and find something lovely for people as presents.  I managed to come away with only one thing, an old cutlery tray, that I am going to use for some of my printing equipment - not for cutlery obviously!

Have you been to Packhouse?  It would take you a little time to go around, but well worth a visit.  It reminded me of our trip to Homebarn in Marlow, way back in 2013!

H, xxx


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Creativity at Work

We interrupt the usual order of things to bring you a little look at what I have been making at work.  You must know by now that my day job means that I get to create at The Lightbox, but I thought I would share with you something that I am really, really proud of recently.

I made this Enormous Crocodile character hat for an upcoming workshop in Half term - my job means that I work with school visits, adults and all the holiday activities and so there are so many things to make!  Ace!

We have a Quentin Blake exhibition coming up - which I am super excited about as he is one of my all time favourite illustrators!  This means that during the holidays we try to tailor some of the workshops to the current exhibition - cue my excitement to get creative with his Roald Dahl characters. One day I want to own a Quentin Blake print, I just need the cash and to decide which one of course!

Now, I have made UFO costumes, 3D jigsaw heads and many a diorama, but I still get really happy when something just works how I want it to and everyone else likes it!  There is nothing like the added pressure of making sure that your colleagues and all the people who are due to use or make something similar, like what you have made too.

The workshop is for children to make their own character costume for some of Roald Dahl's much loved characters, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Witches, BFG and of course The Enormous Crocodile.  So this means samples of all of these things so that the children and their adults will have an idea of how to make their costume.  It will by no means be the whole thing and so a few little elements have been made so that the idea is there.

This of course will be The Enormous Crocodile and I love it!  Made from card, tissue paper, green paper and paint, I think he looks pretty cool.  I know what I am going to be for Halloween now!  ha, ha.

Which Roald Dahl character is your favourite?  I love the way Quentin Blake draws and gets the personality of the characters just right.  Dahl and Blake had a great relationship and it just worked.

Right, off to do my next thing, printing samples for a school visit this week, busy busy.
H, xxx


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Make it: Faux Marble Cushions on Oh No Rachio

We are guest posting on the Lovely Rachel's blog today with a tutorial to make these lush marble effect cushions. Head over to Oh No Rachio to see how we made these beauties. Rachel is away on the trip of a lifetime in Japan and has a batch of awesome bloggers filling in for her whilst she is away so keep your eyes peeled for some great guest posts over there over the next week or so.

If you are ever interested in having us guest post on your blog get in touch at liveit.loveit.makeit@gmail.com

Have a lovely weekend.
Sammy xxx


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