Song lyric tea cups.

Finally, Music and tea can be together! At last! It's like a match made in heaven.

I've seen this DIY around everywhere, on blogs and pinterest, and I really wanted to try it out for myself.
Plus, I'm always writing song lyrics down everywhere, so this was a good way to finally get them out of my head! (Although, every time I pick up one of these mugs, I start singing the song).

This DIY is super easy (and cheap! I got these mugs from K-Mart for $1 each. The plate is thrifted, too).
These instructions are from A Beautiful Mess. All you do is:
- write/draw whatever you want on your (clean, dry) mugs using a permanent marker.
- bake in the oven at 180C for 30 mins.
- leave to cool before using.
That's it! I did read somewhere that you should use porcelain mugs, though, not ceramic. And they're not dishwasher friendly (which is fine for me because I don't even have a dishwasher!).

I'd love to see what you make! x

Friday I'm in Love: Terrariums.

I love terrariums! They're so cute and whimsical and lovely. My friend Steph and I have recently become enamoured with the idea of terrariums and we can't wait to make our own! We spent 2 hours in the city looking for moss and small plastic deer to include in our terrariums.

I'm not sure if I could keep a real one alive, I always forget to water the plants that I have already, so I really like the idea of 'Faux' terrariums, full of fake moss and  toy animals. (Rabbits! Deer! Squirrels! All the woodland animals!).

So here's some terrarium inspiration for this cold Friday.

[Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4]

~ I'm sure you've heard of Best Coast. They're all summery and beachy (if that's a good way to describe them!). This song, Boyfriend, is from their album "Crazy For You." ~

Friday I'm In Love: Makeover.

This dress has been sitting in my wardrobe for at least 3 years. If not more.

I think I got the dress from my Aunty Catherine, and she had it as a costume for one of her many plays.

The dress has been sitting in my wardrobe waiting for me to wear it. But the right occasion never came up, and I've been meaning to fix it up to be a bit more wearable.

And I finally did. I took the (horrible) sleeves off and took the hem up to knee length, rather than ankle length.
Now I just have to take it to the dry cleaners to get it cleaned up and then I can really wear it!

I hope Aunty Catherine doesn't mind that I altered her dress. But at least this way, it'll get a lot more wear.

Friday I'm In Love: A sense of accomplishment.

I'm in holiday mode. Even though I'm not on holidays yet. Go figure. And so I've been playing around with the sewing machine. Trying to make something that looks nice but isn't too difficult. Yesterday, I think I accomplished that.

I made a dress. All by myself. (Please excuse my dumb facial expression).

I've made some clothes before, but I've always had the help of some knowledgeable parents and a pattern to work from. Not this time. This time I went out into the sewing world all by myself, without a single helping hand (I'm so grown up!).

I took a pattern off a dress that I had already. I'd like to say that I also went to the fabric shop and chose an amazing fabric that would be perfect for my first Adult Creation. But if I tell you a secret, will you promise not to laugh at me?

I cut up some old sheets to make this dress. But you promised you wouldn't laugh, so it's ok. We're all friends here. And if it makes things any better, while I was making it I totally felt like Sister Maria when she made clothes out of old curtains for the Von Trapp kids. Next thing you know, I'll be marrying my employer and running away from Nazi's.
Lets hope not.



But I did make this dress and I am so utterly proud of myself. When I went to the shops this morning wearing the dress, I had to stop myself from walking like this.

Friday I'm In Love: Crafty lady's.

It's no secret that I love everything to do with food. Not just eating, but food blogs, cookbooks, food photography... you get the idea.
But I like other things, too. I like music, reading, walking, art, and playing guitar.
You might not know this about me, but I used to do a lot of art and crafty things. I did photography and art in school and at one point, I was really into street art and I thought that that's what I wanted to do with my life.

With holidays coming up, I've gotten really into craft blogs. They've always got such good ideas that seem really easy, and get me really excited about sitting inside with a mountain of off-cut material, ribbons and a hot glue gun. My mother would be so proud!

So I'm sharing my favourite crafty blogs with you in the hope that you might also get excited and inspired. They all seem to be done by lovely lady's (aren't guys into craft?), so there are lots of girly ideas, like making cushion covers and headbands. But that's the kind of thing that makes me happy when the weather is so cold outside...

In no particular order:

Vanilla & Lace

The Long Thread

Papersnitch

Made

Living the Swell Life

Design Is Mine

Daydream Lily

Creature Comforts

A Beautiful Mess

What to do with an old potato.

Do you sometimes forget that you bought potatoes, and then they get lost at the bottom of the potato basket until you find them, months later, shrivelled and sprouting?
I do. All the time. And I never knew what to do with these shrivelled creatures, until one day I had a stroke of brilliance.



Instead of throwing them away, or trying to grow them, I've decided to turn this sad little potato into a stamp! How crafty of me.



Remember potato stamps? Yeah, I'd forgotten about them too. But they're cute and super easy. I remember doing them in primary school.
You just have to draw your design on the potato, cut it out, and stamp it on.





Wow! That WAS easy.
And now you can make cute cards for all those nice presents that you wrapped.



And you should probably listen to this song while you're carving and stamping...

Christmas is coming, part 2.

Have we already talked about how much I like Christmas? I don't know if I always liked it (I'm sure I loved it when I was a kid, too), but it took on a different meaning when I moved out of home and I could decorate the house however I wanted, going as crazy as I liked. We haven't got a tree yet, but I'm getting into the Christmas spirit with some easy crafty things (remember the advent calender I made? It was a success, by the way).

When I say easy, I mean really easy. This took me a quick half an hour before I went to work yesterday. I borrowed the fabulous idea from Creature Comforts (who makes lots of fancy diy crafts, not just for Christmas, but for all sorts of nice occasions). Her stocking garland was made out of paper, sewn onto a thick piece of coloured yarn. I decided to use material, because I had some left over from last years decorations that I made. I cut out the stocking shapes from different types of red material, and the top of the stocking from glittery white material, and then I cheated by stapling the bits together and pegging them onto some brown twine. When it finally came down to it, the material was too floppy, and didn't stay by itself, which was obvious, now that I think about it. So I cut out some cardboard shapes to match the stockings and I stapled those onto the material. Ta Da!

If you're going to make something like this, and you decide to use material instead of paper, I'd recommend ironing the material first. It's no fun having to iron the individual bits, trust me. If you wanted to go all out, and own a sewing machine, sewing the pieces together would be a much better idea than stapling the pieces together, but it'll be fine otherwise. I finished the stockings off with some leaves of holly that I picked from the neighbours driveway, to make it a bit more festive. I'm not sure how long the holly will last before it starts to die, but we'll see!

Happy crafting!
p.s. I discovered this band yesterday. This song is uh-mazing.

Christmas is coming, part 1.

I love christmas. I think it's my favourite time of year. And I know this post has nothing to do with food, but hey, I do other things than cook, and I'm sure you do too. The inspiration for this advent calender came from Oh, hello friend, you are loved. Really it's just some paper bags and some pegs, but I think it looks pretty good. I've got it strung up on the wall so that Brent can open a bag each day during December and find a present.

I haven't filled all of the bags yet, but I've got a couple of days before they're ready to be opened. I hope Brent hasn't been peeking while I've been at work! I'll let you know how it goes...