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!

6th day

today i have for you:

 
biscotti.

this italian delight is perfect at christmas time. wrap it up as a pressy or have it handy for coffee lovers. and even better it's pretty simple to make (just don't burn it).

this is the recipe i use:

	1/4 cup(s) caster sugar
	1 medium egg(s)
	1 cup(s) plain flour, (150g)
	1 tsp fresh lemon rind
	1/3 cup(s) pistachios, (40g)
	1/4 cup(s) milk chocolate chips, (50g)

i also add 1/4 a cup of dried cranberries (the pistachios with the cranberries looks a touch christmassy). 
there are plenty of other recipes around- have a good google!

you beat the egg and caster sugar until they are fluffy- (a good 3-5 mins with an electric mixer), then you fold in the flour. then fold in the lemon rind, pistachio, cranberry and choc chips. roll this into a log about 2cm deep, and then bake for 20mins on 180 degress C. it will be firm when it is ready- you don't want it rock solid yet. remove from the oven and let it cool. then with a serrated knife cut it into 5mm thick slices. lay these out on a baking tray and bake for about 20 mins- turning half way, until they appear crisp and golden. if you are worried about burning them remove them early and they will harden as they cool- if they don't you can always put them back in the oven to crisp them up. 

here are some wrapping ideas:

in a cup

in a jar

in a ribbon

in a basket

 

7 days until christmas

a week to go my friends.... 

how exciting?

tonight i'm going to finish wrapping all the christmas presents. and when doing this i shall attach some amazing bows! 

a bit like these d.i.y ones:

 

twiggy

velvetty bow tutorial

bows out of fabric

clothespeg

day 8 a day late

o golly i knew i would forget a day!

so the day late day 8 is all about tea light candles. 

i have lacing wire right in front of me as i had grand intentions of creating tea light holders out of jars. unfortunately the other half (or the cat?)has moved my pliers to another place that i'm unsure of. my pliers have wire cutters on them which i need to cut this lacing wire!

so the lacing wire will stay in front of me until i locate the pliers. these right here are the tea light holders i am talking about. they are gorgeous, and aren't limited to being used only for christmas.

as well as the jar tea lights i have also found some other awesome d.i.y tealight ideas. 

will be back later on for day 7! :

jar tea light holder

log holder

diy concrete holder

 

hanging jar string

knitted holders

9 days until christmas

9 days to go my friends.

today i finished decorating my tree. it has been a very long process- i keep getting distracted. 

the cat watched me finish decorating my tree. and then he thieved a decoration. (at this rate decorating the tree will be a daily event). 

so todays d.i.y. is christmas tree deocrations. 
i wanted to make these awesome clay decorations:

clay decorations

but alas i have not got around to it.
as i mentioned in an earlier post i created a tree full of decorations for a friend this year: i plan to get photos of the tree all dressed up soon and shall let you have a looksy. 

i found these awesome decorations on pinterest:

card cut out decorations

make sure you go and check out that link- very awesome.

and here we have some very cute christmas tree bunting:

christmas bunting

 some very quick and easy d.i.ys. 
hope your trees all look swell.