Lavender Filled Heart Tutorial

It felt like time for a tutorial so this week I am sharing with you instructions to make Lavender filled Hearts. You can hang them wherever you like, but perhaps with the festive season in mind they would make nice gifts.

What You'll Need

Cardboard
Fabric
Ribbon
Button

Step 1

First you need to create your pattern. Draw a heart onto the cardboard and once your happy with the shape cut it out. Take the shape and draw around it twice onto your fabric and cut out.



Step 2

You should now have two hearts cut out from your fabric. Place these right sides together and sew around the edge, remember to leave a gap about 3cm long on one of the straighter sides to allow the heart to be turned right way out.


Step 3

Turn your heart the right way out, pull it into shape and then press it with an iron. Now you need to fill the heart with dried lavender. Once full sew the open edge shut.

Step 4

Cut a suitable length of ribbon and fold in half. Sew either end of the ribbon to either side of the heart. To finish sew a pretty button onto either side of the ribbon.Then sit back and admire your creation!

Tis the season to hold a Fair!

With the festive season rapidly approaching fairs of every creative nature seem to have sprung up. Just last weekend I visited Lustre at Lakeside Arts in Nottingham. I've been for the past couple of years and it's always a wonderful mix of new and old talent. Although I think my favourite has always been Steve Handley and his wonderful cupboards and hooks. This year seemed a little overrun with jewellery designers, which I appreciate may sound a little strange coming from a jewellery business myself, it just felt a little lacking in variety in comparison to previous years.

This weekend Anne is busy working away at Banks Mill winter open studios. I would have liked to have been there too, but I'm a bit bruised after a jolt earlier in the week, so decided I was better sitting at home eating chocolate pudding (oh the hardship!)

But that's not the end of the weekends offerings. In Derby there is also the Fabulous Places Christmas Market which promises to be an amazing shopping experience in the run up to Christmas. We were truly quite gutted not to be able to attend as we were already booked at the mill.

But if you think that means a restful few weeks will follow you'd be mistaken. We are also attending the Christmas Craft fair at Kedleston Hall next weekend.

Then we have a smaller fair coming up the week after. Not exactly sure when we Santa will fit in all our his Christmas shopping in amongst all this, perhaps we can rope in a husband elf or two with a very specific list.

Crumpled Cup Review!

It's a funny title for a post I admit, but I am honestly reviewing crumpled cups and I love them! As a preferred blogger with CSN Stores I was given another opportunity to review an item and this time I picked 3 Revol Froisses Porcelain Crumpled Cups. I chose the Cappuccino size.

Delivery & Packaging

Delivery was very prompt and by UPS. Packaging was a little lacking unfortunately. The 3 cups come in a plastic tube and this was slightly squashed. However the cups were unharmed, but a squashed tube wouldn't be great if you were giving these as a gift.

Do the Cups Work?

Yes, although you may have noticed that my picture shows them full of sweets rather than coffee. This is partially because I think they look very cute used in this way and partly because, with the absence of a handle it's quite hard to hold them if they have a hot drink inside. Coffee made with a coffee machine is usually not too hot though, but water straight from a kettle would be.


Would I recommend this item?

Without a doubt. I adore quirky items in my home and these have already been quite the talking point. They do come in other colours, but I don't think you can beat the plain white for looking like an original plastic cup which has been squashed. I would dearly love to receive items like this for Christmas and I'm sure others would too. Apparently they are used in rather posh cafes in Paris and because they are available in different sizes there should be something to suit everyone.

And The Winners Are...

Our competition to win 1 of 5 copies of the Absolutely Chocolate recipe book ended last night and this morning with the help of Random.org I picked the winners. So without further ado the five winners who will each receive a copy of Absolutely Chocolate (RRP £19.99) are:

Wendy_mcd83
Shellybee
Angela
Stuart

I hope you all enjoy the book and make up some fabulous chocolate creations!!

Simple Upcycling Tutorial

It's that time of year now when we all unpack our hats and scarves. But sometimes you just don't like them as much as you did last year. Maybe you have a new coat or hairstyle, maybe you just fancy something new. Whatever the reason you shouldn't just bin last years wares, instead you should up/recycle them into something stylish and new. Here I'm bringing you one really simple and quick way to turn a plain hat and scarf into a gorgeous new item.

What You'll Need

Hat
Scarf
Buttons
Sewing Needle & Thread

 

Step 1

To be truly economical you should raid your button stash. If you don't have any buttons then take a look through your clothes, are there any you were planning to get rid of and could borrow the buttons from? How about making your own (see my previous tutorial here for instructions) or buy some.

Personally I like the buttons to be different sizes, styles and shapes. From a design point of view odd numbers always look better so keep that in mind.

Step 2

Arrange your buttons on the hat until your pleased with the effect, then sew them on. I sewed mine slightly to one side.





Step 3

Repeat the previous step on your scarf.

Step 4

Enjoy your brand new creations!! It really is as quick, simple and cheap as that!

Remember Remember...

Remember, remember the fifth of November.

Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.

I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Well alright it's the 6th of November today. But yesterday was indeed the 5th of November when we traditionally remember Guy Fawkes failed attempts and light bonfires and fireworks aplenty.

In a typically British fashion it was raining quite heavily here but that didn't thwart us, or rather it didn't thwart the husband. While the children and I all hid inside and watched through a window he let off a lovely display of fireworks which thoroughly impressed us all.

We were then treated to some huge fireworks by a local temple, as not only was it Bonfire Night, it was also Diwali yesterday as well.

CSN stores

I've had an email asking me to do another review for CSN stores, I've done a few for them before so was more than glad to take them up on the opportunity once more. The only problem I ever have is choosing what to review, they have several online stores selling everything from cookware and lighting to bedroom furniture! Decisions, decisions...

Parties That Wow! Book Review

Time for another book review. As I am sure you are all well aware the party season is well and truly upon us. But do you cower away from such social occasions or embrace, decorate and enjoy!? With this question in mind I was very grateful to receive a copy of Parties That Wow by Jonathan Fong from GMC Publications.

 

This book is filled with so many gorgeous ideas for a party theme that it is hard to choose, but being as our party was instead of a Halloween party I let the children decide and they wanted a Spy Party!

In truth our party took ideas from two themes detailed in the book, elements which we thought worked well together to create the look we wanted. The end result? 

 Our Top Secret place settings.

 Holographic gemstones, this little device is a blog post in itself, but it worked brilliantly for our Spy theme

,

 We couldn't leave James Bond out of the proceedings so he very kindly decorated our Pumpkin (big thanks to my husband and his rather excellant carving skills here).

 A UV light reveals what was hidden on the place cards (this caused a lot of fun and giggles as everyone found their places).

The completed table, with it's laser lights, coins, spooky spiders and more. There was also a map with the secret location of Spy headquarters, but naturally I couldn't reveal that :P

So.....

Would I recommend this book? Yes I would. It's a great source of ideas and inspiration for all year round events. The author Jonathan clearly goes above and beyond for his party guests and even if you can't completely replicate all his ideas they are a great starting point.

Could it be improved in anyway? Yes I think it could. Unfortunately not all the themes have the same depth of instructions or ideas, some are perfect others a little shallow I felt. I would also suggest that some of Jonathan's ideas would be hard to reproduce, so perhaps a few alternative suggestions. I also would have liked to see some ideas for themed food, although the author does admit that he is no cook. But overall I loved the book and can't wait to plan my next event!

Book Details

Title: Parties That Wow

Author: Jonathan Fong
ISBN: 9780823099788
RRP: £12.99
Publisher: Watson-Guptill
Publication Date: Autumn 2007.