Where did September go?!

Happy Sunday! I can't believe that it is the 1st October tomorrow- where did September go? It's a truly autumnal day here which I love. I am getting the icing sugar out to do some baking (and then I will be getting the hoover out!). On the blog this week were homemade herb scrubs, pouches made from recycled sugar bags, a giant dollhouse, vintage dolls and amazing papercuts! Below are some great links from around the web this week- fancy tights and tiny crochet animals included.

This is some amazing hosiery! I don't think that word is used enough.

These delicate stars look absolutely delicious.

Tiny crochet animals!

Do you think that I could make an adult sized version of these cardboard houses?

The art of scissors and paper on the NYC subway.

Making umbrellas look fun!

It's Cat-urday!

Image from Amy Borrell 

 

It's Saturday (or should that be Caturday?)! My favourite day of the week. I love getting up early before anyone else on a Saturday, drinking coffee and making plans for the weekend. I also love this cat print from Amy Borrell. Colourful cats can only brighten up your weekend- have a good one!

Doll-a-rama

Images from Fausta Facciponte

Yes! Friday. Although this week has gone super fast for me, how about everyone else? And as a double bonus it's payday- always a good day! After my post earlier in the week on this giant dollhouse, I couldn't resist posting about this series of photographs from Fausta Facciponte. The series began by collecting discarded vintage dolls in thrift shops. I think there is something really hauntingly beautiful about them, although I do think they fit in very well with my slight fear of dolls (it's the eyes!).

DIY Sugar Bag Pouches

If you do as much baking as we do in our household, you will have a lot of empty bags of sugar and flour! Instead of throwing them out, I wanted to come up with a way to use them somehow- they have great design and colour schemes! So, I came up with some little sewn pouches- perfect for sweet treats!

First of all, take the empty bag, gently unfold it and then iron under a slightly damp cloth to get it as flat it possible. I love the blue and white of this sugar bag!

 Fold the bag into quarters and then cut the bag into the quarters. Place two of the pieces on top of each other, face out.

 

Get the sewing machine out and sew along three sides of the pieces, forming a pouch. Tidy up the pouches by cutting off loose threads and even up the margins surrounding the sewing.

 

Then fill with various sugary treats and give away. These would be fun for Trick or Treating! They would also be great gift bags for other little items, I just like to go with a sugar theme. Another amazing thing about this post is that I only ate one of these sweets, saving them for the gift purpose! Amazing (chewy sweet addict).

Papercuts

Images from Lou Taylor

I really want to go to Brighton. If it wasn't a 4 hour single journey away I would be there in a heartbeat! I was searching online for various Brighton related things this week and I came across the super work of Brighton based artist Lou Taylor and her fabulous papercuts. I love all of the colour. I can't ever imagine being that precise with a scalpel!

DIY Fresh Herb Scrubs

As I mentioned in my lavender lemonade post, I love herbs. My parents have an amazing herb garden and I love stealing stuff from them to use in cooking, baths and various other things. The only reason I want some outside space is to start growing herbs of my own! I thought it would be fun to show you a couple of ways to use my two favourite herbs- lavender and rosemary in some great body and hand scrubs. They're easy, fresh, super cheap and super effective, and really fun to make too. Homemade beauty products rock!

Scrub 1: Lavender and Almond Body Scrub

This is a scrub I use in the shower- perfect for super soft skin all over. The mixture of oils makes it very moisturising and I like to use half salt too for extra texture (just be careful of any shaving nicks!). To make it I use:

 

1/4 of a cup of almond oil, 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 cup of fresh lavender flowers, 1/4 cup of salt and 1/3 cup of sugar.

 

Scrub 2: Rosemary and Thyme Hand Rescue

This is another great scrub packed with fresh herbs. I keep a pot of it by the sink and then use it to exfoliate and moisturise my hands after washing up. It is a really great pick-me-up for your hands!

 

For this scrub the ingredients are:

 

1/4 cup salt, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 1/3 cup of finely shopped fresh rosemary (there are two kinds in this one!). I also added about a tbsp of chopped fresh thyme too.

As above, mix together and that's it! I just used olive oil in this one as the stronger fragrance was matched to the rosemary. Also, this mix is slightly runnier than the lavender scrub, just to make it more moisturising.

Do you like making any of your own beauty products? What are your favourite ingredients to use?

Giant Dollhouse

Images from Heather Benning

Ugh, a rainy, gloomy Monday! Where did the weekend go? Hope you had a good one! Last week, I was taking a walk around our neighbourhood with my friend. It was dark and so we were drawn to a lit-up little gift shop that we had never been in before. When we got closer we started to notice that it was full of old, vintage dolls. These sort of dolls really freak me out. It's their eyes! And hands. And hair. The thought of sleeping in a room full of these dolls is just too much!

So when I saw this amazing giant dollhouse from Heather Benning I instantly thought of these dolls. But how amazing is this giant dollhouse? I love it. As long as there are no vintage dolls there, I would happily move in!

Happy Sunday

It's Sunday! It seems very autumnal here today- drizzly, cool weather. I love this time of year! Time for a lie in, strong coffee and something nice for breakfast! And weekly links of course to enjoy over that strong coffee.

The street installations from Slinkachu are fantastic

I would love to receive this letter writing kit!

I love this DIY for a quilt. I really might give this a go.

Let's get the needles out- handmade ceramic buttons!

A clutch bag make from rulers!

This fashion dictionary is very handy!

A perfect autumnal photograph.

This Pin celebrating waffles has me craving a waffle maker!

London Vs Paris

Images from London Vs Paris

 

It's Friday, hooray. Autumn has finally set in this week, so I am looking forward to going for a nice walk in the countryside this weekend. I might finally actually do one of the Shropshire walks that are in a book that I have had for years! What are your plans for the weekend?

 

For photography this week, I have found an impossible choice! London Vs Paris is a 'photographic treasure hunt' that aims to find the special little things in London and Paris and compare them. It leads me to think which city would I choose. I LOVE them both so it would be really, really hard. A red telephone box vs window shutters? Bunting vs a carousel? It's all too difficult and I really don't think I could choose, don't make me!

 

Which city do you (or do you think you would) prefer over London or Paris?

DIY Children's Book to Envelopes

I have an addiction to books and stationery. I have so many books and when I was a teenager I actually collected stationery. I was just waiting each day for the perfect letter writing opportunity! It's obviously a paper thing. I also love children's books, and I collect a children's guide book to each city I visit. It's the illustration (and the way they break down the interesting info, not going to lie!). The other day I went into the library and they were selling old, tattered and worn children's books for 20p each. I couldn't resist, especially as they had super cool illustrations like this panda.

How could you resist this lovely panda, casually discarded?! I couldn't do it to him again! So I bought 3 books and then when I got home, wondered what I was going to do with them. I mean, I am 28 years old with no children, what need to I have for tattered children's books? So I decided to salvage the worn story pages and turn them into envelopes.

 First of all, cut the pages out of the book. You want to chose the most colourful and the most interesting pages. Ones with birds, pandas and robots are all excellent choices. Then, take an old envelope whose shape and design you admire (!), open it up and create a template.

 

Draw around the template and then glue into place, making sure that you're precise with the glue so that it doesn't stick to the other side.

I love the fact that this sort of thing is hidden inside each little envelope!

 

And there you have it! You have made some old, discarded characters happy AND you have a lovely selection of envelopes, perfect for a little gift. I also saved a book about robots- I couldn't resist him either! I have to admit though, I couldn't cut up that perfect panda page, so he is currently waiting for another project to show his true potential.

Affirmation!

Images from Secret Holiday & Co

No, these aren't based on the Savage Garden hit (remember them? They were my first concert at the age of 15! Ha). These affirmation banners from Secret Holiday & Co are great! I love how simple but effective they are and I espeically love the fact that they are handmade to order- so personal. So Yes, It's OK. Don't you think that the answer is often more 'yes' than 'no'? (Like, shall I go and dig out that Savage Garden album?)

Zest! Lemon Butter Biscuits

 

I love the word zest! And I love lemons, so I decided to whip up a batch of lemon butter biscuits. They have a really zimple ingredients list and come together very quickly (my kind of baking).

1/2 cup of butter, 1 cup of sugar, 1 1/2 cups of plain flour, 1 tbsp lemon zest, 1tbsp fresh lemon juice, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp bicarb of soda, a pinch of salt, icing sugar for rolling, grated lemon zest for spinkling on baked biscuits.

Then, bake them in the oven for about 15 minutes or until they are no longer shiny and just browning.

 

 Then eat! These are light, lemony and delicious- perfect for an afternoon snack!