The Craft FantasticThat’s right people, the next Sunday Arts Market is nearly upon us and The Craft Fanstastic team are busy busy busy crafting away to make lovely products for you lovely people to buy:
We’ll be there from 11am to 5pm, hopefully see you there!
Of course everybody knows how cute bunting is, but it does appear to have grown in popularity of late. There was a point when it seemed like it was everywhere and I actually thought I had seen enough bunting- but never fear, I have been cured of that thanks to this website. Strangely more appealing due to the word ‘kitten’, there is nothing on the Little Kitten Homemade website that isn’t 100% adorable. I officially love bunting once again. I highly recommend a visit.
Due to inclement weather, the heart bunting from the last Craft Fantastic stall got so soggy it had to be thrown away. New Bunting is needed.
Check out the following websites for some top tips on how to make your own bunting:
This weekend I will finish my new bunting for the next craft stall. Result to follow!
Back to school stationery shopping was always fun for me. There’s just something satisfying about writing in a brand new notebook with brand new pens. That feeling that perhaps this notebook will be the one that contains only good ideas and actually stays neat; no crossing out, no scribbles, no mess. Sadly that was never the case!
The Jpop range at Paperchase is just way too cute- if I was going back to school, I would want everything.
I’m sure I would have remembered things more at school if they were highlighted with these:
Homework would not be a chore if everything was in this handy planner:
I would convince my mum that if I had this, I would never want for another ring binder again:
Lunch would taste so much better from these:
I’m sure I can resist the temptation…
I’ve had it today, I really have. I’ve inexplicably enjoyed listneing to Beyoncé and The Wanted, drank more wine at lunch than is sensible and subsequently decided to organise lots of nights out in town that seemed like a good idea at the time but will probably never happen.
So here, in no particular order, is my list of top 10 reasons why Fridays are a joy:
I’ll be somewhere in Wales this weekend, possibly in some kind of big tent, possibly near some big expanse of water in which there is the possibility of swimming. Thus I won’t be doing much crafting or much baking. Have a good weekend 🙂
I was very pleased to have some time to do crafts this weekend. I made some gift tags with origami hearts and fishes on:
I also had time to do some greetings cards:
I miss having an excuse to write a proper letter to someone. Everyone loves getting post, don’t they? Being newly-weds, my husband and I are currently ploughing through the task of writing our thank you cards. Personally I have relished having to write long notes to people, having actually got something important to write about; something to say.
All this has got me thinking that I should write more letters. Everyone should write more letters. You should definitely write a letter. You can write one to me if you like.
After a bit of digging around on the internet (though I really feel I should’ve gone to my local library and sat making notes surrounded by a huge pile of old books- let’s pretend I did that) I discovered a whole heap of stuff that has inspired me to write letters even more:
The Letter-Writing Project, Boston: Writing stations, complete with stationery, where people could sit and write letters, then either leave them to be posted or leave them there to be read.
Letters To The Dead: In ancient Eygpt, there was a custom of writing letters to dead relatives; usually asking for help with problems. Well it can’t hurt to ask…
Round Robin: Yes, I have actually discovered what this means! “It’s a letter where you have a group of people and you basically write letters in a circle — Person 1 sends her letter to Person 2. That person writes a letter and then sends his letter AND Person 1’s letter to Person 3 who writes a letter and sends ALL the letters on to Person 4. The pattern continues until all the letters make it back to Person 1. She then removes her original letter and replaces it with a new one, then sends the whole batch on to Person 2 again. Ad infinitum.” Thanks to Passion For Letters for that.
Quotes on letter-writing: “Letter-writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company.” Lord Byron
“One good thing about not seeing you is that I can write you letters.” Svetlana Alliluveya
“Please write again soon. Though my own life is filled with activity, letters encourage momentary escape into others lives and I come back to my own with greater contentment.” Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey
“There must be millions of people all over the world who never get any love letters… I could be their leader.” Charlie Brown
Ta-da! I have only made this so far, but I really like the idea and enjoyed doing it, so I’m going to have a see what else I can come up with.
My brother in law’s partner is having a baby in October and so I have taken it upon myself to knit something. I am not quite sure why, as I haven’t knitted anything in my life bar those tiny hats for Innocent Smoothie bottles; still, it seemed like the thing to do. I fully intend to knit a hat, a really cute blue and white striped hat, with a pom pom on top naturally.
In the meantime, I’m practicing by knitting a… thing… I’m just knitting really. Knit two, pearl one; as the pearling is not so easy and makes me cross. It started life as a baby scarf, but when I quickly realised the proportions were all wrong, I started to pretend I never said that it was going to be a scarf at all- no, no, I’ve been knitting a ‘thing’ all along.
This Saturday was supposed to be a craft evening. Instead, we got rather caught up in making chocolate truffles and chatting. I’ve made truffles quite a bit, but wanted to try out a new mold I’ve got- a silicone one. Previously I’ve used the Wilton plastic molds, which are great, but are easy to crack if you’re not careful.
Firstly, I coated the molds with plain melted chocolate and put them in the fridge to set:
While they were setting, I made the ganache from a mixture of lovely dark 60 & 72 % cocoa solids chocolate and double cream. Mmm. Being in an experimenting mood, I split the ganache in two bowls and added Bailey’s to one. This turned out to be a very good idea. Once everthing was nice and set, I filled the molds with the ganache and once that was a bit firmer I coated the bottom with more plain melted chocolate. Then back into the fridge for much longer than you want to wait.
We got impatient and tried to take some out a bit too soon, resulting in some mushed-ness:
Happily, we didn’t ruin all of them though, and after a short spell in the freezer they turned out… better, for the most part:
