Crafty | A Crafty Chai

Category: Crafty

19
May
2011

A Month of Saturdays

Do you ever get that feeling that you work too much & play too little? My Sunday night work dread has been replaced with the feeling that I haven’t done all the crafty things that I want to do. Knitting, baking, blogging, sewing, relaxing, exercising etc. I often get to tea time on Sunday with many of the nice things to do undone & rushing round the essential things that I need to do. So it got me thinking. What I need is a week of Saturdays. So what would I do with them?

Firstly I would spend hours adding beautiful pictures of very pretty things onto my Pinterest boards. If you haven’t discovered Pinterest then take a peek. You know when you’re looking at images on Etsy (like this from Lola’s Room on Etsy), Folksy or Flickr but you can’t/haven’t got time to buy it/print it etc but you want to keep the image? Well that’s what this helps you to do! Amazing! And you get to have a look at other people’s boards & remind yourself of all the beauty in the world. Lush.

Then I would have a go a making a Morsbag. No idea? Well basically it’s an idea where you you make a reusable bag by using old material that you have instead of using plastic ones & then chucking them away when your done, filling up loads of landfill space. This is such a cool idea & one day I AM going to make one!

I would also make some silver jewellery. I attend classes as part of Oxfordshire Adult Learning. I have made a few things already (more on that another time) & I am half way through a long chain necklace.

I would finish the knitting needle case I started; the secret project I am working on; sort out my cd’s & DVDs; get a hair cut; get some new glasses; go for a long walk & bike ride; have lunch in a nice country pub; reupholster two dining chairs; make some birthday cards; plant some herbs & get a manicure and get my gin on!

Oh drink some chai and do some baking!

17
May
2011

Pretty Things

categories: Crafty, Food & Drink

I love a bargain. Recently I bought an old style glass sweet jar for £6 in an antique shop in Henley. I was struggling to think about how to use it as it’s really quite big. Then I was looking at some images on Gabrielle’s (The Green Gables) pinterest board & saw the idea to store cake cases in it. Genius! I think it looks so lovely & it means that these lovely pretty cases are out on display instead of being shut away in the cupboard. The image originally came from Such Pretty Things. There are some beautiful images here so I’m sure that I’ll be able to find tons more inspiration here.

I also bought this cute little bowl & a pretty pottery cutlery drainer from a little shop in Little Haven, Pembrokeshire. The shop contains products made locally by local people. The little pink bowl is perfect for holding popcorn, olive oil & balsamic vinegar, smarties…the choices are endless! And it’s really pretty. Lush.

24
Apr
2011

Not Another Bill

categories: Crafty

I cannot remember how I found out about this delightful little idea but if you haven’t discovered NOTANOTHERBILL.com then you must have a look at the website. It is a genius & a lovely idea. I had a look at the website & thought I’d have a go. I paid £15 which is enough for a one month subscription. This meant that I would get one thing through the post that would brighten up my day & it wouldn’t be another stupid bill.

I wasn’t sure when it would arrive or what it would be but on Saturday I arrived home from the Woodstock Craft Fair to find a silver envelope on the door mat. I hadn’t told my OH who was instantly jealous that I’d got an exciting looking envelope through the post!

I received this lovely necklace from a designer called Julianna Cassandro & love it as it’s not something that I would ordinarily choose myself but I think it’s lovely. I also love the way it’s been packaged. It came wrapped around an old postcard, in some black tissue paper. I really am impressed by these little touches so will definitely be using this website again. Friends & family can also expect to receive something from here in the future too!

23
Apr
2011

Woodstock Craft Fair

categories: Crafty, Food & Drink, Reviews

I love Twitter. One of the reasons is because it enables you make contact with local people. Sometimes these people make cupcakes. For example last week @oxfordcupcakes tweeted that she was going to be at the Woodstock Craft Fair. Brilliant, I thought, a great opportunity to eat some lovely looking cakes! So before the weather got too hot my OH & I headed off to Woodstock to buy some Oxford Cupcakes. We weren’t disappointed!

After a quick mooch round the fair, we were directed indoors & there were some of these beautiful cakes. We bought a box of four at £4.50 which I think is very reasonable. We couldn’t wait until we got home so managed to get a seat at the cafe, got some drinks & enjoyed a cake each there & then. These are what are left so far though I don’t expect them to survive the afternoon! They are really delicious. The cake is moist & the decorations are brill – these are some very lovely cupcakes. If you haven’t had the pleasure I’d hop on over to www.oxfordcupcakes.co.uk to get yourself some delivered. Lush!

The other pretty thing I bought there was this incredibly cute elephant made from reused fabric. Stupidly I didn’t pick up their business card, which I always do (bit of a card addict – weird eh?!) Anyway I know they were also at Oxfork so if anyone knows the name of the company then I’d love to include it here. They had a lovely stall, full of reused fabric that had been turned into elephants, owls, cushions, aprons… I could go on! I could spend hundreds of pounds on things like this. The quality of the sewing is brilliant & while I like to think I could make something like it, my sewing skills are nowhere near this standard! A lovely little present for myself at £10 I think it’s lush. Whoever you lovely ladies are, with your pretty stall, thank you!