Knitted owl lavender bags (and a Merry Christmas!)...

Well amazingly my house is clean and tidy (well as tidy as it ever will be), presents are wrapped and my to do list is pretty much ticked off...so I thought I'd treat myself by writing a quick blog post to share one of my recent knitting projects with you! I was sure I would have to wait until after Christmas to get this up as it feels like life has been moving at 100mph recently.

These knitted lavender bags are a Christmas gift for my Nana and the first pattern I have ever followed. They were just too sweet to not make! As the owls were coming together I kept thinking while I was knitting the stocking stitch something just wasn't quite right about it. It was only when I moved onto knitting a scarf that I realised that I had actually been knitting through the back of each stitch for the whole of this project. Oops! It would seem right now that anything I knit has at least one quirk to it but often multiple!

Knitting pattern - Owl lavender bag from Cute and Easy Knitting (there is so much I want to knit from this book!)
Yarn - Sirdar Country Style DK
New techniques tried and learnt - following a pattern, increasing and decreasing stitches, mattress stitch...and I guess knitting through the back of a stitch ;)

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year - my friends write a wonderful and inspiring blog called Saltwater and Honey. Lizzie has written a beautiful post about why Christmas was never meant to be perfect...this time of year isn't always easy and sometimes the pressure can build up around getting everything ready, anyway, I would really recommend reading it...click here.!

Merry Christmas, see you in 2015!

Last minute gift ideas - Hot Chocolate Spoons...

One of my first ever pins on Pinterest were some hot chocolate spoons, I'd never seen them before and they looked such a fun idea. Since then I've seen all sorts of varying ideas for these crop up but I've never got round to making them...until now :)

I love giving little home made presents, last year I made a selection of truffles. Chocolate is always a good option at Christmas (Andrew knows to always shower me in it!) but I wanted to make something different this year so I finally made me some hot chocolate spoons! I've never been organised enough to give wholly homemade gifts but these make a great stocking filler or little additions to gifts.

They're equally great if you're in need of a last minute gift idea as you can source all you need from the supermarket! If you can't find wooden spoons then plastic or metal ones would be equally suitable.

These weren't a last minute dash for me, I actually ordered these spoons in ages ago for a craft event at which we made these exact spoons. When they arrived I realised that the spoons were far too shallow to hold adequate chocolate for a decent hot chocolate (who wants hot milk with a dash of chocolate?)...my friend Lizzie came up with the genius solution of using plastic shot glasses.

Using shot glasses results in delicious ultra-chocolatey hot chocolate, yes I tried them out, quality control and all ;)

Simply melt your chocolate with your preferred method and spoon into a shot glass, add a spoon and decorate with chocolate drops or flakes. You can either keep them simple with one type of chocolate or mix it up by layering or marbling contrasting chocolate.

Once you've finished pop the spoons into the fridge for an hour or until set (they set really quickly).

To remove from the shot glass simply dip each spoon into a cup of hot water for a couple of seconds, this should melt the chocolate sufficiently to remove from the glass without ruining the design.

Then pop into a plastic bag and decorate with a label and instructions!

Some practical notes: I got 4-5 spoons per 200g chocolate. Also, two of my chocolates split as I pulled them out of the glass. I'm not sure why this happened but it could have been because I was a little late in adding the spoon to the melted chocolate for these ones. If this happens, don't despair! Simply heat up a metal spoon in hot water, dry and rub over the inside of the chocolate, stick back together and then run the spoon over the seam to secure it back together and leave to set.

I used a range of milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate and orange chocolate (I was thinking of a Terry's Orange in a mug, oh yum). My test spoons were made with cheap chocolate, I nearly always use Value chocolate for baking, Sainsburys and Tescos are both really great and you can hardly ever tell with cakes etc...but I would advise on good quality chocolate for these drinks as you can definitely taste the difference.

This is probably it now for me before New Year...I did have plans to post about some pretty wrapping ideas but I'm working right up to Christmas and frantically finishing wrapping the rest of the time...so I'm going to be realistic and wish you all a Merry Christmas now! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with loved ones and build some truly fun and joyful memories as this year draws to a close.

Merry Christmas!

D.I.Y. advent calendar...

Woohoo it's the first day of advent! Christmas music can legitimately be played. Christmas decorations can go up without the rolling of eyes. And...advent calendars can finally be opened!

Obviously I would not forget all about the fact that December was fast approaching, and of course I wouldn't have forgotten all about making an advent calendar until yesterday...oops. I said I'd make one this year, up until now we've always ran out to buy one last minute. I was always about chocolate calendars whilst Andrew always liked the traditional calendars. This year we decided to go with chocolates on the tree (which I'm pretty sure is just a way for Andrew to convince me to put the tree up early) and, whilst not a 'traditional' calendar, a calendar with verses leading us up to Christmas day.

I knew what I wanted to do for the calendar, I just completely forgot about the fact I had to make it! So, yesterday morning I got last years wrapping paper out and made this origami cube advent calendar. Origami cubes (or balloons) are one of the few pieces of origami I can do, I normally get completely lost when making anything to do with paper folding...so that suggests how simple these cubes are!

So, just in case there is someone out there who is also last minute in getting their advent calendar, here's how I made mine...

I used last year's wrapping paper and some gorgeous tissue paper (the red paper above) that I bought and completely forgot about last Christmas. Whilst it's totally do-able with tissue paper, they are more fragile and more difficult to inflate...I just loved the paper too much to not use it!

First up print out your verses and numbers onto plain paper. Cut out your verses, numbering them on the back. I cut the numbers out as I went so that I could easily keep track of where I was up to. I found a great list of verses over at Yahoo Voices. Here's the list if you don't want to click through.

Dec. 1 John 1: 1-5 
Dec. 2 Isaiah 9: 2-7 
Dec. 3 Isaiah 11: 1-10 
Dec. 4 Jeremiah 33: 14-16 
Dec. 5 Luke 1: 5-10 
Dec. 6 Luke 1: 11-17 
Dec. 7 Luke 1: 18-25 
Dec. 8 Luke 1: 26-38 
Dec. 9 Mathew 1:18-21 
Dec. 10 Matthew 1: 22-26 
Dec. 11 Luke 1: 39-45 
Dec. 12 Luke 1: 46-56 
Dec. 13 Luke 2: 1-5 
Dec. 14 Luke 2: 6-7 
Dec. 15 Luke 2: 8-12 
Dec. 16 Luke 2: 13-14 
Dec. 17 Luke 2: 15-18 
Dec. 18 Luke 2: 19-20 
Dec. 19 Micah 5: 2-5 
Dec. 20 Matthew 2: 1-2 
Dec. 21 Matthew 2: 3-6 
Dec. 22 Mathew 2: 7-8 
Dec. 23 Matthew 2: 9-12 
Dec. 24 John 1:14

Onto the cubes...

Cut out 24 (or 25) squares of paper 20 x 20cm.

1&2. Fold the square diagonally into a triangle and open out, repeat on the other corners. Open out. You should have two diagonal lines.

3. Fold into a rectangle.

4. Fold into a square.

5, 6 &7. Take the top left corner and pull out. It will open into a triangular pocket, fold flat. Repeat on the other side.

8. Fold up the verse (small enough that it can sit into the middle of the triangle) and place into the centre of the triangle.

9&10. Turn the triangle 180 degrees so that the open side is facing you. Take one of the outer corners on the top side and fold up to meet the apex of the triangle. Repeat with the other outer corner. Flip over and repeat on the other side so that you're left with a diamond.

11&12. Fold the right and left corners into the middle. Repeat on the other side.

13. Fold the top layers down into triangles.

14, 15&16. Open out the side pocket and fold the triangle into the pocket and push flat. Repeat for the other triangle and then flip it over and repeat on the other side.

17. Fold the top point down into the centre, open out and fold the other way. Repeat with the bottom point. This gives the cube more defined edges.

18. Open out as shown.

19. Gently blow into cube until it is inflated, pull the corners slightly to help achieve an even cube.

20. Cut out the corresponding number and stick to the cube with a little bit of washi tape.

Now just repeat that 23 times!

Now it's time to thread them onto the twine!

21&22. Thread a needle and tie the two ends of the thread into a knot to create a loop. Feed the end of the twine through the loop. Gently pull the twine through the top of each box, holding the paper taut. Once you have threaded all the boxes on (I did two rows) trim the twine, leaving plenty of length to hang them.

This took me about a morning to complete, with stops and starts whilst I got distracted with other things. Cutting out the squares was the most time consuming part but the boxes came together really quickly...just remember to put the verse in whilst it is still a triangle - I forgot a couple of times and had to unfold them!

I'm off to open up the first day of the calendar, have a great first day of Advent :)

A very merry Christmas to one and all...

I hope you all have a wonderful time with friends and family!

Peg it...

Christmas appears to be sending me into a mini blogathon but it's just as well because there will probably be a long silence after Christmas as I recover from chocolate overload see lots of lovely family. It's only 5 days away now folks!

I'm a complete sucker for anything miniature so when I saw these mini pegs I couldn't resist buying them! I originally thought about doing something similar to this but decided to save them for Christmas instead. So if you're running out of space for all those Christmas cards these are a cute way to hang them!

For the super thick glitter pegs, I painted on glue and then dipped (and re-dipped) in glitter.

For the more subtle glitter pegs I used glitter glue.

And for the stripes i just painted on glue in stripes and then dipped gently in glitter.

So easy and quick...and an excuse to get the glitter out again!

d.i.y. hanging stars...

When I first started making these I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them...maybe decorations for our Christmas tree or a window decoration. Then we put our decorations up and there was a perfect gap for these pretty little stars to fill in our lounge...so our hanging stars were born.

All these take are a little patience, time and background Christmas music. I initially started making these free hand but decided that, unless I was going for an abstract piece of art, it might be better to use a template. I found my template by just googling 'star template'.

I used 0.8mm wire, it was malleable but held it's shape well. For hanging the stars I used a large twig from a tree in our garden and thin thread.

1) Take the template and begin to shape the wire around the printed star. Use the flat-nosed pliers to bend the wire to help give defined points on the star, you can then adjust it to the right angle by hand. Any accidental bends or kinks in the wire can be easily straightened out with the pliers.

2) Continue around the whole of the star and overlap the ends by approximately 5cm. Either by hand or with the pliers, wrap the wire around the side of the star to secure. Trim any excess wire and use the flat-nosed pliers to flatten the end of the wire tightly to the star.

note: you may find this technique slightly distorts the star shape. If you experience this then you can also use the technique I used in the geometric earring tutorial (see step 3). I used both techniques while making the stars and both worked well.

Repeat until you have as many stars as you wish! I made 3 different sizes to add variety.

Now the fun begins...it's time to decorate! I would love to hear how you decide to decorate your stars. I'll share with you what I decided to do.

To make this star, simply wrap a strand of raffia around the wire template, securing with a knot.

For the woven stars, simply choose an embroidery thread, secure with a knot, and wrap repeatedly around the star, making sure the thread is kept taught. Once you've finished simply secure with another knot, and trim the excess thread.

Before I decided on using raffia and embroidery thread, I had also added glitter to some of the stars. I decided not use these in the end because they clashed with the gold of the raffia and thread. But to make glitter stars simply pour some glitter onto a plate, generously brush glue onto the star and then dip into the glitter. Leave to dry and then dip again into the glue to seal in the glitter - unless you want to wear glitter every time you touch them :)

To decorate the branch I wrapped a gold sewing thread repeatedly along the branch.

I used the same thread to hang the stars as I didn't want the threads to be obvious.

I love our new addition to our Christmas decorations!

Happy Monday :)

Make your own essential oil {the easy way}...

Now it's December the Christmas tunes are filling our home non-stop. I normally try to hold off putting up decorations until later into the month but this year I'm already itching to put our tree up. I love the smells of Christmas (is that a weird thing to say?)- mulled wine, pine, mince pies....and spiced orange. I've fancied having a go at making essential oil for a little while. Since Christmas is an event to hit every one of the senses, I thought making a spiced orange oil would be the perfect place to start.

When I looked into how to make essential oil I discovered there's a lot more to it than I thought...so I decided to just go with my instincts. This is definitely not a guide to making 'real' essential oil but it is a much easier method.

How to make Spiced Orange essential oil

What you need:

Jar

Extra virgin olive oil

2 oranges

Spices (such as cinnamon, cloves, star anise)

Small bottle or jar (I used an old food colouring bottle)

1) Fill the jar 1/3 of the way with the olive oil

2) Add 2 cinnamon sticks, 20 cloves and 3 star anise (this is what I did but obviously you can add whatever you like)

3) Peel the skin of 2 oranges and add to the jar

4) Press the orange and spices into the jar and shake well.

5) Store in a dark place for seven days, shaking the jar each day. 

6) Pour the oil through either a fine sieve or cheesecloth and transfer to your bottle.

This isn't as strong as shop bought oil but it still smells great! Have fun making your own essential oil...let me know what you decide to make!

Happy Monday :)