a few of my favorite things

i rather enjoy instagram. 

it makes my pictures look pretty and also gives me a chance to show my friends that i do do things. 
my animals tend to be a large part of my instagram- but they don't mind. 

i thought i might share with you some things of my own that i find beautiful:

your shopping cart is full.

i think i have already confessed my adoration for shopping online to you all before?

well it hasn't gone anywhere. sometimes i trick myself and assure myself that really i'm saving money as i only go online to shop when i need something....ha pity i still go to town to shop too. 

there is something way too exciting about receiving a parcel in the mail. best part- i get home from the mail before man of the house gets home from work... 

if i were to navigate towards online shopping right now this is where i would head. 

http://se3.co.nz/

http://collected.co.nz/

these places are awesome. have not long received a parcel from collected and my gosh. things are far more beautiful in hand than on screen.

heres a wee peek at what you might find:

french bull tableware

hokus pokus bag

kip & co bedding

kitchen canister

oyoy mumi blanket

i shall stop here before i add the whole collections. 
do go have a geez- such awesome shops. 


now i shall go add to my shopping cart.

mothers day d.i.y

mothers are rather grand aren't they. 

mine is pretty awesome. she does all motherly things to the best standard. she also acts as google for myself when i have tricky questions like how to convert pounds to grams. 

i have been on a wee scout for you for some pretty radical ideas that take just a tiny bit of time to prepare but will look fab:

found on pinterest

this right here is an awesome idea! cutting out letters- filling them with that flower foam stuff (could call mum, she'd know what it was called). and then applying flowers. the funny thing is- if i was doing this for my mum i would actually have to go to her house to assemble all that i need here, some of you may be better equipped than me?

found on pinterest

this is an awesome idea. possibly you may want to write something other than "hello" but super simple. done with wire and wool- which i do in fact have a supply of!

found on pinterest

herbs. and in beautiful tea cups- why not? again super simple but hugely effective. 

Happy mothers day to all you mothers out there. especially mine- she's the bees knees. 

my aim.

last day before the last day of holidays. gosh. 

i rather enjoy my job(s). however these holidays have been rather luxurious and quite creative.

when i loaded all of my material and such into the car for our week away from home, i was almost left behind. however i have adored getting back into it. and this is where my "aim" comes in. 

i aim to keep you all up to date with 'somethingsomething' at least once a week. i call this an 'aim' as it has a bit of leeway compared to a promise. so bear with me. 

this right here is something/someone new that i have been working on. planned to get them finished. didn't plan on leaving polyfill at home. this is fernando(s).

fernando has come due to my obsession with felt. a very cool material. fernando is made out of a felt/acrylic blend. fingers crossed he shall be up on 'felt' (the website) very soon for all to view and potentially purchase. 

hope you are all enjoying your weekend and i shall 'aim' to keep you posted next week!
cheerio. 

concreating

i have become rather obsessed with the magazine "homestyle". while 'your home and garden' is still high on the list, homestyle has some very awesome diy creations that i am very interested in. 

this months issue has a section on diy concrete candels. and they are awesome. 

this d.i.y section has been created by the very talented gem from black bird gem.

so being the school holidays and all i decided to create my own. i had been after some candle stick holders for our lounge. i had some rad teally blue ones that enjoyed hanging out on our sideboard. unfortunately the man of the house enjoys opening the curtains with vigor and one such morning these candle stick holders became a touch broken (in half). 

all i needed was:
a bag of quick set concrete 
candles
pringles containers
a mixing stick 
bucket

first up it is suggested you rinse out remaining pringle dust from the containers. mix up your concrete following the directions on the packet (or make it completely up?- my directions were all about putting posts in the ground... not that helpful). keep in mind that quickset concrete is named this for a reason. onces that's mixed up pour or funnel into your pringles containers and tap them to remove air bubbles. then insert your candles. 

i left mine to dry overnight.

the following day i removed the pringles outer and as suggested gave my new candle stick holders i scrub down to remove any concrete dust.

the end result is so awesome. the photos truly don't do these candle stick holders justice. such an awesome result for such minimal effort.

here's hoping the vigorous curtain opening settles down a touch with the new risk of a concrete candle holder landing on feet. 

enjoy your anzac weekend all! 

two thousand and fourteen

so it turns out that two thousand and fourteen has been very unproductive craft wise. apologies.

as those of you with school aged kiddies will be well aware, it is school holidays. so these school holidays i'm getting my craft (back) on. 

school holidays for myself usually involve prep for the following term plus a cramming of craftyness. we have also been treated some noice weather this week so my abandoned garden wants some tlc too. 

to begin with i have designed myself a new logo. next on the list is to get on the sewing machine and stock up felt once again. so keep your eyeballs peeled. 

when i say i haven't been crafty this year i mean haven't been letting you all in on it. some days when i have a large pile to tend to i often ignore it and have a go at creativity. usually resulting in me tending to the mentioned pile into the late hours of the night. hence the reason blogging is abandoned. 

so one of my most recent craftings was a blackboard. both myself and the man of the house have been very busy these last few weeks and tend to forget when we have organised things more than two days in advance. so a blackboard calendar it was.

i hope you all enjoy your short week and i shall be blogging again soon! 

5,4,3,2.......1

somehow i knew this would end up in a mad rush the day before christmas. and i understand you're probably all having pre christmas times that probably doesn't involve reading a blog. but for those of you that it does... here you go:


5: stockings.

just what you need for christmas. how else is santa supposed to let you know whether you've been naughty or nice?

simple stockings

hessian stocking

4: gingerbread men.
christmas is always full of tasty food. gingerbread men are always fun to make. and there's some pretty cool cutters around now too.

ginger bread men

3: christmas bunting
bunting is always a sign of celebration. good christmas bunting can be used again and again.

christmas bunting

2: table settings
one of my favorite parts of christmas! making the table look amazing. and there are so many ways to do it.

flowers

1:christmas day cocktails
a very merry christmas to you all. and what could make it more merry than a christmas day cocktail?

cucumber-ginger cocktail

• 1 1/2 cups vodka
• 2 cucumbers; 1 peeled and coarsely chopped, 1 left whole
• 1 lime, cut into 8 wedges
• 2 bottles (750 mL each) sparkling water
• 1/2 to 1 cup ginger syrup 

Step 1

Put vodka and chopped cucumber in a nonreactive container. Refrigerate 1 hour. Strain; discard cucumber. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to use, up to 2 days.

Step 2 
Using a vegetable peeler, shave the remaining cucumber lengthwise into wide strips; discard seeds. 
Step 3 
Fill eight tumblers with ice. Add 3 cucumber strips and 3 tablespoons infused vodka to each glass. Squeeze, then drop, a lime wedge into each. Top with sparkling water; stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons syrup.

merry christmas!