Hydrangea Girl

House of the rising furniture

2012-02-23T19:44:00.002Z

This is The Rising Table and Rising Chair by Robert van Embricqs. A friend hooked me up with some linkage to this table and chair duo, and I had to share them both. Both pieces were developed through the rather simple idea of designing furniture from a flat surface, with the capability of transforming into an innovative and incredibly stylish piece of furniture.

"During the design process, I made a point of sticking as close to nature as possible. Using natural design concepts for inspiration, I studied the various in which transformations take place in nature without the cumbersome involvement of man. This inspired the incision pattern in the flat surface of the wood that resulted into the creation of the latticework of 'woven' wooden beams ..."

- Robert van Embricqs

Matroyshkas meet kitchen

2012-02-21T20:12:00.000Z

While sitting at my desk last week, I was e-mailed a press release featuring these M-cups {matroyshka measuring cups by Fred and Friends}, and I needed them. I don't impulse buy often these days, so this was a rare treat for me. See, I have a thing about all things Russian. Multi-purpose matroyshka dolls you say? A bit cheeky? And they're measuring cups? It didn't take much convincing.

I just think they're a dangerous mix of adorable and quite clever. Seriously, how cute are they? The top of the largest piece {far right} is 1 cup, followed by 3/4 of a cup on the bottom, followed by half cup etc.

Welcome to my kitchen :)

Cheeky mention - Apartment Therapy

2012-02-15T16:34:00.001Z

If I were more organized, I would have posted this yesterday since it's a Valentine's themed mention. Alas, better late than never ...

A couple of weeks ago I spotted this cheeky Valentine's Day gifts mention on Apartment Therapy of my deceptive dust covers. Now transformed to a perfect project to cover any naughty books hidden in your collection.

Anyone else out there reminded of Quills by this? ...

A spoonful of glue

2012-02-11T19:53:00.000Z

Today's blog is being posted out of sheer and utter guilt. This is the story of my hydrangea spoon rest ... Many years ago I spotted this spoon rest when we were travelling through Athens, and I had to have it {I know - it doesn't scream 'Athens' in any way}. I carefully packed it in my luggage for the rest of our journey and when we got home, I proudly displayed it in our kitchen. Until about three days later when I dropped it with my stupid hands, and it snapped in half {you can just about see the crack across the butterfly}. I was actually heartbroken. So before I smashed it into further oblivion, I stashed it away in my cupboard for safekeeping. So safely I packed it away that I forgot about it. I know. For-shame.

I found said hydrangea spoon rest just this week and so I lovingly glued it back together, and it now sits next to my cooker, all pretty and hydrangea-y. Waiting to be used. I will admit haven't actually used it as a spoon rest though. Hell no. It's too pretty to use.

Sh*t brides say

2012-02-10T12:24:00.000Z

I was creeping OMG I'm Married this morning and I came across this video. I thought I was different. Not a typical bride-to-be. But this video sure cut down that theory. The 'pinning' reference is what made me gasp-laugh and cover my mouth. I've become that kind of bride. I've been pinning the shit out of everything recently. Having said that, god bless Pinterest.

Oh himmeli

2012-02-08T16:59:00.000Z

At long last, my himmeli is complete. What is himmeli, you ask? It is a traditional Swedish Christmas decoration made from natural straw {as opposed to plastic}, and is assembled in amazing and intricate patterns. Ever since I saw a feature on Design*Sponge all about himmeli, I had to have them. I fell for their contemporary and simple look, and I fell hard.

I managed to find a massive bag of straws for €2, meaning this particular himmeli cost me around ... €0.40. They are shockingly easy to make, and once you get the hang of it, the sky -or ceiling- is your limit. Below are my seven steps to making your own himmeli. I hope you're as excited as I am ...

What you'll need : scissors, embroidery thread {since it's thicker than regular thread}, an embroidery needle, a ruler and an excessive amount of straws in any colour you like.

Step 1 : for my first himmeli, I used the top section of the straws. This saved me from having to measure each piece. ULTIMATE TIP - cut the ends of the straws at a 45 degree angle - when you assemble the himmeli, I've found the ends align in a much schnazzier way at this saucy angle. I had made some himmeli without cutting it at this angle, and the ends didn't match up as well. Step 2 : when cutting the other end at a 45 degree angle, make sure you don't twist your straw, otherwise it will be wonky. Step 3 : do this until you have 12 pieces, as a standard himmeli consists of 12 pieces.

Step 4 : thread your embroidery needle with a single piece of embroidery thread. Let the weight of the needle pass through the straw. Do this with four pieces of straw. At this point, tie a knot in the thread to close the loop, but don't cut the thread. Knot it tight enough so the straws aren't moving around on the string, but not so tight that the diamond shape doubles over. Step 5 : add two more pieces. Secure them {this can be done by simply looping the thread. No need to knot all the time} to the base, and add two more straws to the other side. Knot the thread here. Step 6 : in order to add the horizontal structure, pass the embroidery needle back down through one straw. From here, add one straw at a time, tightly looping around the vertical joints after each piece.

Step 7 : once you've added all four horizontal straws, tie off with a knot or two, trim any extra bits of embroidery thread, and there you have it! You just need a shit-ton more of these to complete a full himmeli, simply repeat the process. At this point you may feel a heaviness in your chest, but trust me, all the fiddley effort is worth it. As stupid and poetic as it sounds, seeing my full himmeli quietly turning in the corner of my living room is pretty rewarding. I just want to make more. And make them B I G G E R. And crazier.

Consider playing with different lengths of straws to give oblong shapes, also mixing brightly coloured straws {if you're not a colour-phobe like me} for cute rainbow infused mobiles. I'm hoping to tackle different shapes and styles after I get a little more practice. Now get up and make something wonderful to cheer up that dingy corner, that everyone will compliment you on! Go on. You're so crafty.

Thrifty things - Canada clock

2012-02-07T11:48:00.000Z

This is our cringey yet kitschy-fabulous Canadian clock. To call it thrifted is a bit of a stretch, but it's a second hand find none-the-less.

{Enter dream sequence...} a couple of years ago when we lived on the outskirts of Dublin, our neighbour's mom found this clock on top of their kitchen cupboard. They weren't too impressed by the overwhelming tack of it, so our neighbour's son suggested handing it over to my broseph, since we were the Canadians in town. And there it sat. In my brothers room on his couch. For ages. Until I got fed up, took it from him, cleaned it, lovingly stuffed it with batteries and fully appreciated it in all it's kitschy glory.

I'm not sure of the hands-holding-the-holy-bible and 1993 significance, but it's got just the right amount of awfully awesome so it's staying, gleefully hanging in our bedroom for the time being, reminding me of home. In a weird way.

Sneak peek - oh himmeli

2012-01-30T21:42:00.000Z

Yesterday started with the best of intentions. I got ready to go jogging, except when I opened the curtains, it was pouring outside. So I stayed in and made some himelli ornaments. Here is a sneak peek of my pre-assembled himmeli - in all honesty I thought it was going to look crap - a scrambled mess of plastic - until I hung it up, and may I say, I am ~~quite~~ very impressed. The only reason I'm not posting the full pictures today is that I want to add more to it.

I'm so entranced by it twirling lightly in the corner. Tutorial coming soon :)

Hey girl.

2012-01-27T20:24:00.001Z

Yesterday I found this site. Not many sites make me laugh out loud, but Handmade Ryan Gosling did. I would like to say that I'm more Reynolds than Gosling, but after reading a few of these babies, the scales have begun tipping. Slightly.

Below are the images that fiance and I enjoyed the most, since they rang painfully true to me. Take it away, Ryan ...

All images thanks to Handmade Ryan Gosling.

Dublin Flea Market - Sunday the 29th of January

2012-01-26T11:32:00.000Z

This months Dublin Flea Market is happening this Sunday, the 29th of January from 11:00-17:00 @ The Co-op in Newmarket, Dublin 8. I'm hoping to take a leisurely stroll over this weekend. Fingers crossed the rain stays away.

This months fab poster was designed by Rachel Corcoran.

Cheeky mention - Confetti magazine

2012-01-24T22:39:00.001Z

This is a very special and kind of silly mention for me/us. The lovely editor of Confetti magazine asked me a little while ago if we had an interesting engagement story, and would we like to share it and potentially have it feature in the magazine. I was super excited, but I immediately said "well, there are some bad words in our story" to which said editor replied "don't worry - that's what asterisks are for". So, asterisks I wrote.

A closer look ...

And that's how it happened. We took that picture mere moments after Robert proposed. You can't really tell, but the sun was setting. Very romantic. With my fat head and severe potty-mouth taking up most of the picture.

I take pride in knowing I may have been the first asterisk culprit/contributor to such a glamorous and delicate magazine. That's how I roll.

I won't want to toss it

2012-01-21T22:18:00.000Z

Anyone want to take a wild guess at what flowers I'd love my bouquet to consist of? I'm warning you now to prepare yourself for some serious hydrangea porn. This stuff is hardcore.

We have a colour scheme, but no theme per se {yet?}. Fiance is a typical Irish teaholic, and I heart tea cups, so there might be something there. We also love deep, dark colours - antiqued burgundies, deep plums and strong wines against black and white for a strong contrast.

At the moment I am completely fixated on having a bouquet with black and white striped ribbon detailing. I love the contrast, and I also think it brings a more snappy and up-to-date/current/modern feel to it.

I really like the idea of myself being in white with a dark bouquet, and have my bridesmaids wearing lovely deep hues while holding contrasting white hydrangeas. Opposites attract!

Lastly, I'm entertaining the idea of mixing hydrangeas with other flowers. I'm still a bit unsure, but combining with pussy willow in that pic - amaze-balls. If only I could have all my hydrangeas -ever- to be that deep plum colour = heaven.

Those are my only notes I've made about bouquets. I'm trying to keep things simple, that way there's less to worry about if something goes wrong. I'm into the idea of reusing bridesmaids and my bouquet as center pieces {save a bit of €?}, and that way I'll have the perfect excuse to not throw my bouquet recklessly into a crowd of drunk single women. Back off, bitches.

Image cred 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

That's just like, your opinion, man

2012-01-19T09:49:00.002Z

I'll start off by stating that we are a household of regular Dude references. When it came to making something for fiance for his birthday last week, I knew I wanted to make a pop-culture/cult reference. For fiance, that would be either Star Wars, Call of Duty/Battlefield, or The Big Lebowski.

While scrawling through Honestly WTF a couple weeks back, and saw this post about the seriously talented Mark Hall-Patch and his watercolours, where he delicately paints and draws clothing. There was one particular cardigan that immediately reminded me of the Dude's cardigan from The Big Lebowski, also known as a Pendleton Cowichan Cardigan, and I knew I had to make a Mark Hall-Patch-inspired version for fiance.

I drew up an image of the Dude's cardigan, and for the first time in eight years, I used watercolours. A little scary, but watercolours are quite safe and very forgiving, luckily for me. I'm not madly in love with the final piece {it's a little cartoony, I could have chosen better paper, and I should have spent more time on it; the ush}, but those with a keen movie interest shouldn't have too much trouble deciphering it. I hope.

Image 2 image cred!

Skull candy

2012-01-15T21:36:00.000Z

I'm such a sucker for skulls. I've recently acquired quite a lot of skull items, such as these glittery skull Christmas ornaments today that were marked down to €1.50, which I immediately had to have. I don't think they're strictly Christmassy, but that's just me. They're about to seriously jazz up some door handles around my apartment.

This skull and bone ice mold marked down to €1 which was still straggling behind after Halloween, so I had to pick it up. It was so lonely out there. Welcome to my freezer.

Teeny skull skewers. Perfect served up in a glass for finger food entertainment.

And this is something I want badly - Crystal Head Vodka by Dan Aykroyd and John Alexander. I can count the many ways in how awesome this is. Hell yes I would just buy it for the bottle. Except it's not available here in Ireland. Fuuuuuuuuu.

Sneak peek - kitty crochet

2012-01-13T10:57:00.001Z

Happy Friday the 13th everyone! To add to the traditional superstitions, I thought I'd blog about a project for my {mostly} black cat. I know, it's a stretch.

This is something I've been casually attacking during long car journeys and less than entertaining television over the past couple of months. It started off as a practice piece for a larger project, but in stead of tearing it back, I've kept going and made it a little kitty blanket. I'm almost finished crocheting and almost finished painting their basket, so I'm quite confident it will look mighty cute when I've finished tying up all the loose ends #CrochetPun.

Pictured is Toshi giving it a test run. Meaning, I put it down for three minutes, and she molded herself to it.

Mini makeover - attacked with tape

2012-01-09T12:01:00.000Z

I've been attacking things around my apartment this week, and my alternative weapon of choice was electrical tape. As crazy as it sounds, it transforms any basic shaped storage easily into a punch of stripes. And please believe me when I say the electrical tape is no way obvious. Fiance was well impressed when I showed him this mini project and couldn't believe it was thanks to tape.

Easy as one, two, three: all you need for this project is two contrasting shades of electrical tape, and a pair of scissors. It takes under five minutes, a steady hand, and a good eye for straight lines. It's so simple and can update any piece you have in stead of buying a new one.

Other items I've covered recently were empty Pringles tins {to house my knitting needles}, empty hot chocolate containers {now home to my pens and pencils}, and this large chunky ceramic red vase, whose colour did hurt my eye balls, but it was such a handy size for storage around our apartment, so I simply took a trip to our local hardware store and attacked it with tape. Reduce, reuse, recycle!

I want it now - himmeli ornaments

2012-01-05T15:23:00.000Z

I first saw it, or them, on Design*Sponge ages back for a DIY class coming up in Portland. D*S reminded me again this morning about these magical creatures, and I really think I aught to get down and make one, or seven, of them. I found a really good tutorial on Elsie Marley's site, and I'm excited to try my hand at making some himmeli. I really like the monochromatic ones, compared to the more traditional straw himmeli. I really think one would look good alongside my bookcase ...

Image source 1, 2, and 3.

Lovely mention - House and Home, part deux

2012-01-05T14:35:00.000Z

Over the Christmas holidays I saw my most recent mention, in my inbox. It was a cute surprise for me as it was an oldie tutorial, but a goodie. I had done a re-write of my Meddling with Melodi tutorial for the House and Home website, but I wasn't sure when it would be published.

There's a weird feeling that comes with realizing your tutorial has been e-mailed en masse around the country ... A good feeling - in case there was some hesitation there! You can check out my tutorial on House and Home here. Happy Thursday! :)

After and before - beef up your bookcase

2012-01-04T13:01:00.000Z

The key to a good before and after is to have a really shitty 'before' picture. This works wonders and will exponentially boost your 'after' picture. Just sayin'.

We have a large IKEA shelving unit in our living room. I really like it, but it took some time for me to get it looking just right. Up front, my key pieces of advice are - less is more and patience. I've been working on our shelves, one display idea at a time, since August. Yes, I've been whittling away for almost 5 months. But patience is a virtue.

As I've mentioned before, our living room is quite dark. When we first moved in, I had a knot in my knickers to repaint the sterile white walls a deeper color. But it wasn't long before this icky colour it was killing my eyes. So, after careful consideration, a new colour was chosen. Which makes my before and after look even better. As you can see, my shelves were previously a shower of shit; there was no order, and it drove me crazy. So over the past while, I've come up with some little display tips and ideas.

1. Pick a colour - don't be afraid to choose a colour you're into at the moment, and add little pops of it here and there. I've used hits of lavender throughout mine, alongside our mostly dark collection of stuffs.

2. Thrifty things - I love displaying cute and unusual things I've found in charity shops. This is a watercolor painting of the Kremlin I bought about a hundred years ago. I adore it.
3. Man up - I'm always conscious of displaying fiance's favorite things. I worry sometimes I'm smothering the place with my stuff. Don't be afraid to incorporate gadgets and whatnots, such as fiance's guitar pedal shown here.
4. Creature comforts - yes, I'm that kind of cat lady. I've incorporated sleeping cubbies for our kitties throughout our shelving. I was on the lookout for box cushions for this very purpose, and I luckily found some in Arnotts Bargain Basement for €10 each. And in the right color! Our girls approve of them.
5. Sneaky art - not only is this painting I did the right amount of contrast to the surrounding books, but it also has a secret; layering a painting over shelves like this is a super sneaky way to hide things behind it. See below ...

Look, a sneaky mess. Clever, huh? I keep all the books here that I have yet to re-cover. If you're curious by what I mean, you can check out my deceptive dust covers tutorial here. Also, you can check out my original drip painting here if you like.

6. Delightfully kitsch - I don't like limiting ideas to certain rooms. Here I thought, why not add little hanging teacups like you would see in cute kitchens? I hung these with extremely sturdy 1" white cups hooks, so there's no risk of them falling. You can get a bit of a better idea of the hanging cups here.
7. Balancing act - the previous users of these shelves must have had brick collection because each of these shelves were so strained in the middle. A trick I figured out to counter balance a saggy shelf is to use slightly taller {and lighter} books towards the center of the shelf. This way the sag will be nowhere near as noticeable. Trick of the eye.
8. Geek out - this is about layering up books and non-book items together. I'm a big cross stitch geek, especially when making cheeky ones. This particular piece is a cross stitch I made fiance for Christmas. You can check it out up close here if you like.
9. More creature comforts - another little nook for our kitties to snuggle in.
10. Stack em up - there was no better place to put all our super heavy books other than right on the bottom shelf. My Salvador Dali book alone is about 5lbs. I like mixing between horizontal and vertical books, but be careful not to make it too repetitive.

11. Variety is the spice of life - a little more punch of purple here. Also on this shelf are some shotgun shells; for our most recent anniversary I gave fiance a trip to a shooting gallery. It was amaze-balls. Let's just say yours truly kicked his ass at accuracy.
12. Family treasures - my parents have given us a few pieces over the years and I love displaying them. This is a serving bowl my parents used. They also gave us the teapot you can see at the beginning next to number 1, which was one of their engagement presents back in the day.
13. Bottoms up - some of my thrifted pride and joy, my delicate decanter collection alongside our pretty gold tumblers. Displaying drinks in decanters like this will never go out of fashion. And if it does, I'll take pride in being unfashionable.
14. Knowing when to fake it - it would just be wrong if there weren't any hydrangeas on these shelves. These are the ones fiance {then 'boyfriend'} got me for Valentine's day last year. You can see my post all about them here.

When I was taking these pictures the other day, Toshi and Juniper got in on the action in their cubbies. But you know what it reminded me of? This. FML.

Happy 2012 :)

2012-01-01T23:31:00.000Z

Welcome to the future! I hope you had a wonderful new years, and I also hope none of you are nursing particularly nasty hangovers today, and have recovered as gracefully as possible.

Last night I got the idea for a quirky post while looking through our cork collection - it's a bit nerdy, but what we do is keep the cork from wine or champagne from special occasions or particularly unusual moments over the years. I keep them all in a large jar in our kitchen. Here are some of my fav {not in date order}:

The first is as a thank you present from Qwerky for my first interview, next is from a wine tasting excursion on Mount Etna in Sicily in 2008, then our engagement champagne from April 2011, then our celebratory wine from moving into our first apartment in 2008, followed by our second anniversary trip to Paris later that week.

Next is a bottle of champagne we uh, borrowed from an Interior Design grand opening at the RDS in 2009, then fiance's scheming Valentine's evening where he bought me these incredibly convincing faux hydrangea's, then dining in Vienna in 2009, Valentine's Day 2010, fiance's 21st birthday champagne in 2008 {I later whisked him off on a holiday to Switzerland}, and lastly some more corkage from our trip to Sicily in 2008.

Those are our most special ones. I have more, but they have stories that are long winded. One particular story is when fiance accidentally opened the bottle of champagne meant for his niece's 21st birthday - we opened it 18 years early. Sorry, Katie. Fingers crossed you appreciate the sentimental nincompoopery of me keeping the cork.

Do any of you have odd things you keep or collect for sentimental reasons? I like to think I'm not the only one :)

In my inbox - pink skull hat

2011-12-31T13:21:00.002Z

She's done it again: Sarah Horrocks e-mailed me this morning with these pictures. She previously had knitted two skull hats using my pattern but the previous two were in boys colors, and as hinted in my previous post, Sarah was hoping to make a girl version for her daughter. Low and behold, this little gem was in my inbox this morning, and how painfully adorable is it? That hat, that little face! It's stuff like this where I think I need to become a mom soon. For the good of humanity.

See my original pattern here, and Sarah's blue and green hats here!

Mini makeover - coffee table tray

2011-12-29T17:06:00.000Z

I heart mini makeovers: taking something you already have, and giving it a face lift. I figure, why buy something new when you can revamp something you already have?

I found the previous state of wood x2 on our coffee table was a little too much. In stead of getting a new serving tray, a bit of paint was all I needed. This is a severely minor project, but it's one of those things I've been meaning to do for months. Our living room is quite dark, so it also managed to brightened it up a little. I do enjoy a good revamp.

I wonder how long it will take fiance to notice it's been painted. My guess is three days.

Release your inner geek

2011-12-28T12:45:00.000Z

For Christmas I made this old-school IT Crowd inspired cross stitch for fiance. He's in the middle of his final year studying Computing Science {aka, IT}. He's one of those guys you can tell is an IT guy - curly hair, cute glasses, pale skin - just how I like them. So in an act of hindsight for his impending career, I created this little cross stitch for him for Christmas. For anyone who may not be familiar with the phrase "have you tried turning it off and on again", please see below -

Unfortunately, anyone looking for the old computer picture frame I used won't have much luck. I bought this frame from Urban Outfitters some time ago. Sorry. I had it stashed away for just the right moment.

For this picture frame, I measured the size of the frame window at 13.5 x 11cm, or 72 x 57 stitches. From that, and through the magic of excel, I was able to draw a basic layout. And this is when I realized the typical cross stitch 'x' formation was not going to cut it for the text.

Below is my scribble process with how I came about the text format. Sometimes pen and paper just works better. I managed to find a text style much more in keeping with my old-school computer stitch.

Only taking an hour to stitch, my present was complete! Fiance loves his newest nerdy addition to our living room. Below, his new geek cross stitch in action. Look at it go.

Additional note: a good piece of advice was read out at my graduation from the CEO of Microsoft Ireland - "Always be nice to nerds because chances are, one day you'll work for one". And in some cases, marry one :)

Guest post - Bugs and Fishes

2011-12-28T12:33:00.000Z

Happy holidays everyone! I hope you're recovering gracefully from the Christmas period. I know my waste-line has suffered drastically, but it makes for an even better New Years resolution.

A week ago my seasonal switch plates featured on Laura Howard's lovely blog, Bugs and Fishes. I just haven't gotten around to posting about it since crazy Christmas festivities and gorging on everything in my path has been getting in the way.

I recently picked up Laura's completely adorable felt crafting book. It's full of the cutest felting projects that will keep you entertained all year. I would strongly suggest nabbing this little treasure.

Well, have you recovered from the piggery of Christmas?

Mull over it

2011-12-23T10:28:00.000Z

If there's one thing fiance has talked about ad nauseum it's the mulled wine reception my cousin had at her wedding three years ago. It was our first mulled experience, and from that moment forward, fiance has had his mind set on having one at our wedding.

In the spirit of Christmas, last weekend we were entertaining and I gave Jamie Oliver's mulled wine recipe a shot, and it was gorgeous. We've had pre-made mulled wine from both bottles and saches before, but once we tried this recipe, we're never going back.

I would definitely recommend making a batch or two of this stuff to kick you into the Christmas spirit. It will warm the deepest, crankiest, most Grinchiest parts of anyone. Bottoms up!

Image found via Berlin-Pedia.

Ingredients

2 clementines

Peel of one lemon

Peel of one lime

250g caster sugar

6 whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

3 fresh bay leaves

1 whole nutmeg {I used 1 teaspoon of dried nutmeg}

1 whole vanilla pod, halved {again, I used 1 tablespoon}

2 star anise

2 bottles of Chianti or other Italian red {we had just one}

Method

Peel large sections from your citrus fruits using a peeler. Put the sugar in a large pot over a medium heat, add the citrus peel and squeeze in the clementine juice. Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and 10-12 gratings of nutmeg. Add your vanilla, and add just enough wine to cover the sugar. Allow this to simmer until all the sugar has dissolved in the wine. Bring to the boil and leave there until you have a lovely thick syrup - this is a great tip Jamie gives - by making the syrup in this way and bringing to the boil before you add all the wine creates a great flavor. But if you do this with both bottles of wine in the mix, you'll cook off all the alcohol. We don't want that, do we?

When the syrup is ready add the star anise and the two bottles of wine. Gently warm the wine for around five minutes, then ladle into glasses to serve.

Thanks to Jamie for the scrumptious recipe! I think my fiance may run away with him.

Thrifty things - recently collected

2011-12-22T23:55:00.000Z

Over the past week I've collected a number of tasty little charity delights I haven't gotten around to sharing.

1. I got this cute little number last week from Enable Ireland for €0.50. I think I'm subconsciously hoarding tea cups for the wedding.

2. A super soft scarf I also got from Enable Ireland, for €1. It reminds me of really lovely, soft, red, washed dreadlocks.

3. Kinda purpley red pillow that fits right in with the colours I'm into at the moment. I'm not sure what kind of fabric it is, but it repels cat hair = win! Respect charity shop, Prussia Street, €2.

Structurally sweet treats

2011-12-19T18:03:00.000Z

Oh how I adore Christmas baking. More so when it's things you can customize and make your own, which immediately means to me - gingerbread houses. Mid summer I always get extravagant gingerbread house designs creeping into my brain and by the time it's Christmas, out come the basic shapes. But there's nothing wrong with that.

This year I made three mini gingerbread houses - one each for two of my friends, and one for a couple fiance and I go on dates with regularly. It was my alternative idea for a present. I'll be making two more bigger gingerbread houses this week for family. I'll make sure to post pictures once they're done!

I made my gingerbread houses over a number of days. I would strongly suggest this. The first step alone is like running a marathon; I don't mean to put you off, but you won't harbor an unholy amount of hatred towards your gingerbread house if you do it over three stages.

Festive note: a point I'd like to make is that this is something that can be made {dare I say} after Christmas. I hate hate hate how the moment Christmas is over, all the Christmas cheer is dead. It's called the Christmas SEASON for a reason. I like to plan things after Christmas, and especially in January after New Years since there isn't much to look forward to after all the hype of Christmas. So maybe arrange to make and decorate a gingerbread house on the 27th of December. Live a little. Colour outside the lines.

With the extra dough I was left with, I made two-bite gingerbread men. The Smarties look like they're devouring them. All the excruciating details on how to make your own sweet structures can be found after the jump. Happy holidays! :)

Ingredients

6 cups all purpose flour

4 teaspoons ground ginger

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon of all spice or ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons of butter, softened

1 1/2 cups of light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup molasses*

1 tablespoon water

*I haven't been able to find molasses here in Ireland. I'm sure it exists, but if you can't find molasses where you are, here is an easy substitute - use 1 tablespoon black treacle and up to 1 cup of golden syrup {I used Lyle's for both treacle and syrup}. For all that is holy, DO NOT USE one full cup of BLACK MOLASSES / BLACK TREACLE. I did this the first time I made a gingerbread house, and it tasted like an old pretzel found in the boot of someone's car. It was horrible. Please learn from my mistake.

Step one: making the dough

In one bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whip the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and treacle/golden syrup mixture until all is smooth and well blended. A cup at a time, add your dry ingredients and stir thoroughly before adding more flour. Keep going until all the flour is added. You will now have arms like this. You will also hate your dough at this point, and your kitchen will look like a dump {see image below}. Wrap the dough in cling-film and leave it in the fridge - overnight is the best. I broke mine into three sections as I was making three tiny gingerbread houses.

Step two: structural engineering
The next step is to cut out a template for your gingerbread house. I drew mine out on paper, cut it out, then placed it on my rolled out gingerbread. You can make yours as simple as you like. It's really not as intimidating as you'd think. Here are some templates to give you an idea of how easy it is.

First roll out your gingerbread on parchment paper. What I did was dust the rolling pin with icing sugar regularly to stop the dough from getting out of control. This is where the parchment is very helpful. Cut your templates in the dough, and then roughly cut the parchment it's on, keeping it on the paper, and place on your baking tray. This will help your blood pressure. Bake for roughly 10 minutes at 180C {350F} while keeping an eye on the dough as all ovens vary. When the dough is cooked, take out of the oven and leave to cool. Roughly an hour.

Ingredients
2 egg whites
2 1/ cups icing sugar

In a bowl whisk your egg whites while slowly adding the icing sugar. Once roughly half the icing sugar has been added, you can choose to heat your mixture, for anyone out there hesitant about using raw eggs in your icing. Since I mixed mine in pots {boo, no mixing bowls in this house} I placed mine over a low heat for 2 minutes, whisking furiously so not to cook the egg whites. Alternatively, you can place your mixture in the microwave for 40 seconds.

Step three: assembly and decorating
Using your icing, begin to assemble the gingerbread house. Once they are structurally sound and standing on their own, use more icing to fix them to your base. For the base of my houses, I wrapped a DVD case in tin foil so we could easily hand over the mini houses to our friends. Now the fun part begins - use your favorite sweets and treats of your choice to decorate your house in whatever way you'd like. I always have such high hopes for how mine will look, but they usually turn out looking like poop. The plus side - they're edible, so they won't be hanging around for long.

Many thanks to Simply Recipes who supplied the best gingerbread house recipe I could find, and gave some really good tips to save some holiday angst. Happy holidays, and happy baking!

DIY - Seasonal switch plates

2011-12-05T14:32:00.000Z

This little project has stood the test of time. So far. Knock on wood. I originally made my seasonal switch plates {or 'festive flickers' as fiance calls them - although, I think that sounds dirty} over seven years ago, and year after year, we put them up. It only took me seven years to sit down and photograph them ...

They're one of the first things I like to put up at Christmas, and we always get compliments on them. So below I've written a tutorial on how to make them, so that you too can revel in the glory of everyone saying how much a Suzie Homemaker you are.

What you'll need: a cereal box or supermarket pizza box {thin cardboard works best}, paint in a range of festive colors, PVA glue {to glue on glittery things. It also dries clear}, glittery things of your choice like snowflakes or stars, scissors, paint brush, a black pen, pencil, and a ruler.

Step 1: decide on a template for your seasonal switch plates. I designed a silhouette inspired a little by the Kremlin. I have a secret fascination with Russia. Anyways, I drew my template on a folded piece of paper - when I cut out the design and opened it, it was a perfectly symmetrical template. I also cut out a square the size of my light switches. To make sure the templates fit each switch snugly, I fitted and trimmed the inside square with a pair of scissors {scalpel or exacto knife} where necessary. Step 2: with your pencil, draw a Christmassy scene. I went with a different design for each switch plate, but there's no harm in doing the same pattern en masse. Step 3: once you're happy with your design, paint it in. I began with the gold background, which I needed to build up with two layers of paint. Once the gold was dry, I went ahead and painted the remainder of the scene.

Step 4: When your paint has dried, use a black pen {or fine marker} and draw an outline around your design to really make it pop! Step 5: attack every boring light switch in your home.

Tip: use a small amount of blue-tack on the back of each to ensure they don't fall off the wall, if they're not super snug.

I've also done monogrammed seasonal switch plates for our bedrooms {photos to be added soon! I am only minimally organized today}. They're a lot less fussy/time consuming to make, and make a classier more sophisticated impact.

Happy craft hagging :)

Got 'nog?

2011-11-29T12:36:00.001Z

This recipe brings me some serious redolent memories - pyjamas, decorating the Christmas tree with my family, and opening the fridge and helping myself to full-to-the-brim glasses of eggnog from the carton.

Eggnog is a North American phenomenon, and hasn't reached our shores in Europe - that I know of. Not here in Ireland at least. Three years ago I gave this eggnog recipe a spin with my family, and it went down a treat. I made it again this past weekend, and with the help of some old school Christmas music, fiance and I were well on our way to decorating our apartment.

This recipe however, has a rather hearty kick of rum in the mix, but it can be made without rum in order to appeal to a wider audience. Full eggnog recipe is stored away neatly below. It seriously is Christmas in a glass. Srsly.

Note: I halved this recipe for fiance and I. Half the recipe still gave us 3+ glasses each. We were well on our merry way!

Ingredients
12 egg yolks*
5 cloves {I ground them up. You can leave them whole if you like}
4 cups of milk
3 1/2 cups of cream {substitute with soya cream for less inches on your waist}
3 cups of light rum
2 cups of sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
3/4 teaspoon of nutmeg, ground

Method
In a saucepan over low heat, blend the milk, cinnamon, cloves and halfa teaspoon of the vanilla essence. Keep stirring while mixture heats,and remove from heat just before boiling point.

In a bowl, mix together the sugar with all those egg yolks. Whisk them well so that they're light and fluffy. Gently and a little at a time, pour in the milk mixture while continuing to whisk. Transfer mixture back into your saucepan over a medium heat whilecontinuing to stir. Keep stirring until your eggnog mixture gets closer toresembling custard. Never let it reach boiling point!

Pour the mixture into a jug, making sure to remove the cloves. Standjug in the fridge or leave on the stove top for an hour or two to allow it to cool. Stir in thecream, light rum, remaining vanilla and ground nutmeg. Serve in glasses all pretty with a little extra ground cinnamon sprinkled on top.

*I put the egg whites into a container and freeze them. Then there's aload of whites ready to be defrosted should you make meringue oranything needing that much egg whites. Waste not, want not!

Anewspace - graffiti pop up shop

2011-11-28T17:06:00.001Z

There's not much more I can write since the poster is pretty selfexplanatory, but I'm really hoping to attend the opening night held at Anewspace this Thursday the December 1st for their alternative and tubular launch of graffiti Christmas gifts.

Their main sites boasts ...

"plus robots, teapots, books & more"

55 South William Street @ 18:00. You had me at 'graffiti'.

M&S Christmas Press Show

2011-11-27T13:28:00.001Z

At the beginning of November I got an invite to attend the Marks & Spencer Christmas Press Show. Which I immediately replied to since I heart M&S. And Christmas. I got a couple of grainy phone pics of the spread while I was there.

The food was gorgeous and the drinks were dangerous. We didn't catch the names of the cocktails that were available, but one was cinnamon infused vodka with cranberry juice {tasted just like cinnamon hearts!} and another was whiskey, port and champagne - no mixer. They really got us in the festive spirit, whether we liked it or not.

After copious canapes, and delicious desserts, out came more waiters with a huge cheese platters. I was a little too overwhelmed to snap more pics as the night went on. Yeah, overwhelmed.

After the Christmas temptation was over, we each left with a M&S gift bag full of Christmassy delights - a tin of M&S Festive Caramels, M&S Peppermint Bark {aka, Christmas in a tin}, an adorable sparkly fluffy seal tree decoration, a Marcel Wanders pure silk scarf {in more gorgeous detail below}, and a super warm pair of argyle tights.

Phwoar. How gorgeous is my new scarf? Diamonds and acorns and bees with antlers. A turkey on top of an elephant on top of a pug who has a gold pendent on his collar. I like the way you think, Mr. Wanders.

Sneak peek - Beef up your bookcase

2011-11-23T20:18:00.001Z

I've been whittling away at my bookshelves casually for a couple of months now. I posted about my need to revamp my bookshelves (here), and I finally got my bookshelves looking just right. For me. Why, do you ask, does it matter? Because I have OCD when it comes to design and neatness and I don't feel complete until my apartment has been meddled with on a daily basis. Having unachievable goals helps a lot.

These are a couple tasters of some of my favorite parts of my shelves. Pretty prettiness. Offish pictures will be up later this week. After I actually take them ...

In my inbox - skull hats

2011-11-17T09:36:00.001Z

Yesterday morning I was completely taken off guard by this treat in my inbox - I got a sweet e-mail from Sarah Horrocks, who had seen my knitted skull hat pattern and knitted two miniature hats for her friend's twin boys, and boy, am I jealous. How obscenely adorable are these two? I really dig the skulls in black, and I like how they match, yet are still different. Sarah also hinted toward a pink version for her daughter. How kick-ass is that?

I was feeling particularly poop while checking my e-mail that morning since I had my wisdom teeth removed the day before, but Sarah managed to pull me out of my extraction-coma. I'm really flattered to know that someone out there thought one of my templates was good enough to tackle, and it didn't turn out disastrous! This makes it worth while.

UPDATE - check out Sarah's pink skull hat here!

I want it now - M&S quilted tote bag

2011-11-15T13:38:00.000Z

This morning as I was watching Ireland AM whilst putting on my face, I caught a glimpse of this Marks & Spencer Limited Collection Lock Front Quilted Tote bag part of their festive clothing and accessory line and I want it. Five minutes ago want.

I'm not a bag lady, in the way that some women have endless bag collections or a million pairs of shoes, but this bag is something I want so hard. I love the deep burgundy and black teamed with the glossy quilting. A little feast for my eyes.

In completely unrelated news, I'm getting my wisdom teeth surgically removed tomorrow and I'm kind of looking forward to some time off to sit still, catch up on my horrifying neglect towards my blogging / craft hagging, and to have a good excuse to watch hours of Murder She Wrote. Not so much looking forward to having to see a specialist and part with so much €'s, but it's for the greater good.

Do any of you have any tips on how to get over wisdom tooth surgery? I will warmly welcome any and all suggestions, especially ones that are heavy on the amount of ice cream I will need to ingest.

Curb appeal

2011-11-08T15:52:00.000Z

A little bird tweeted this picture to me a couple of weeks ago, and I had to splice it here. How gorgeous is this? And if they dry properly {as in not all stupid droopy} they will keep so beautifully. The front door on my future house better watch out. It's going to get it good.

Well I don't mind if I do. Thanks for the heads up Livlig! I took it further and googled some more hydrangea wreathes. Phwoar. Are they ever delicious.

Thrifty things - hostess tea set

2011-11-05T10:46:00.001Z

I am obsessed with old tea sets. The older, the kitschier, the daintier, the better. Whenever I step into a charity shop, it's the first section I go to - that shelf with random pieces of china waiting patiently to be added to my collection.

Quite some time ago I found this unusual shaped tea and saucer set {below right} and had to get it since it matched a set my parents have had since before I was born. The shape was so unusual, but perfect for my standard stack of cookies. Later when I was in the Arnott's home department, I saw a tea set in the same shape, called a '~~housewife~~ hostess tea set', hence where I got the name for these. I don't really know if that's what this style is called, but I could hardly call my post 'Thrifty things - tea set with a kind of charmingly wobbily abnormal shaped saucer'.

Later I found my second set {above left}. I must admit, fiance uses them much more than I do. I don't actually drink tea, which is very unusual for this part of the world. But my love of dainty tea sets outweigh my dislike for tea.

First tea set €3 at Respect charity shop on Prussia Street, and second set €3 at Mrs. Quin's Charity Shop in Rathfarnham.

Wedded note: This is actually something along the lines of what we're thinking for our big day - dark plum and burgundy tones, dainty tea sets, mulled wine, candles on anything that stands still, and a shit-ton of hydrangeas - obviously. So excited to get started!

Lovely mention - Irish House and Home

2011-11-02T16:03:00.000Z

I'm still completely bowled over to have been asked to do a write up for House and Home. And for it to appear on their site. Which is somewhere I creep regularly.

This is my first mention here in Ireland, and I'm excited to see where this ~~can~~ will take me. The publicity my blog has received to date hasn't felt 100% real, since it was mentioned in far-away lands (not that I'm not obscenely appreciative), but now there's a chance that someone I know or am related to might actually see my tutorial on an Irish site - kind of extremely surreal.

My tutorial can now be found on the Irish House and Home online How-To section. Here is a direct link to the tutorial on their site. A big thanks to Jimmy who was a pleasure to work along side, and who was painfully patient in my scrambling attempts to put together better images for the site. This pretty much made my November.

p.s. See current profile picture.

The living dead

2011-10-31T17:18:00.001Z

I had seen him before many times without it registering with me, but today I found out who Rick Genest is {aka, Zombie Boy}. I thought it quite apt it happened on Halloween morning. Additional bonus - he's Canadian.

You may recognize Rick from Lady Gaga's 'Born this Way' video, where he shot to international fame earlier this year.

Beautifully haunting images - 1, 2 and 3, 4, and 5.

Blackboard wall - Halloween

2011-10-30T16:15:00.000Z

Last weekend we got in the mood for Halloween by a festival of the Paranormal Activities trilogy. I had 30 minutes to draw something Halloweeny for our chalkboard wall beforehand, and this is what I came up with. Not ground breaking. I really wanted to draw an unholy amount of ghouls, skeletons, and zombies, but didn't have the time. So I drew some massive spider webs in stead. I've already invested some serious thought into my Christmas wall - I know, too soon.

I hope you have a happy and safe Halloween this weekend! I hope you're being something scary. I never understand when people dress as cute things {children are exempt from this statement}. It's Halloween for god sake.

My favorite picks - happy Halloween!

2011-10-28T13:49:00.000+01:00

1. Printable Russian Doll Halloween Garland from Happythought via Poppytalk. How obscenely adorable are these? Perfect for my Russian obsession. Очень симпaтичня.

2. Fiendish Fancies by Mr. Kipling. The perfect amount of sugar for this weekend. I may have had a box already.

3. Black Skull Money Bank from Urban Outfitters. Is it weird that I would keep this out all year? Well I would.

4. Candy corn pillows by Lion Brand Yarn {you must join to view the pattern}. I wanted to crochet these on a larger scale as pillows this Halloween, but (wait for it) there was no orange yarn in Dublin. Anywhere. Big fat sad face.

5. Haunted House Silhouettes by Jeffery Rudell via Poppytalk. Further proof that I need a house of my own. Such a simple and extremely effective idea.

Dublin Flea Market - Sunday the 30th of October

2011-10-26T14:51:00.004+01:00

This months Dublin Flea Market is happening on Sunday the 30th of October. You might be in a spot of luck for last minute Halloween ideas as their site hints toward some Halloween themed finds along with their typical flea market delights. 11:00 - 17:00, Newmarket, Dublin 8. This months Halloween poster is designed by Alistan Munroe.

The DFM will be the perfect wind down for me this week. Fiance and I visited a very promising wedding venue last weekend, and we'll be going back for seconds this weekend. We fell for it so hard, we provisionally booked it. Every day in October 2012 was booked up except our desired date, and it's within our budget. I still can't believe our luck. Shit just got real*.

I'm really looking forward to strolling around some second hand finds on Sunday and sleeping in on Monday - it's a bank holiday here in Ireland on Halloween. Roll on the weekend!

*I never know where to sit in regards to potty blog talk. I swear like a sailor in real life, but I can't help but cringe and tend to delete any bad words I put here on my blog ...

Monochromatic afghan

2011-10-21T16:26:00.002+01:00

At long last, my monochromatic afghan is complete! I wanted to photograph and blog it yesterday, but some unfortunate happenings came about involving homemade soup, spillage, and said afghan needed an emergency wash. But myself and blanket have made it through in one piece. Both physically, and mentally.

To date, I have to say this was the toughest thing I've had to photograph. I took over 150 photos of my blanket, and only four made the cut. I had some more than willing kitty props, except that Juniper {above} doesn't exactly look happy. I promise, she's actually a happy cat. You'll just have to trust me. And every time I positioned the blanket to take a picture, Toshi was on it like a car bonnet.

I was so surprised with how fast I was able to get crochet this blanket. I casually crocheted it for 6 weeks, doing a couple lines each evening; I sound like a hardened crack addict. I averaged at 20 minutes per row, which works out at 30 hours of continuous crocheting. Or realistically, 6 weeks.

I crocheted until I used up all the yarn. It's the perfect length for sitting on the couch watching tv. Snug as a bug. 97 x 137cm (38 x 54 inches). I tidied away all the crochet gobbledy-gook after the jump. Enjoy!

Pattern Note
The original Lion Brand Yarn Shaded Ripple Afghan uses twice the size of crochet hook (9mm), and half the chains (76ch). Since I used a 4.5mm crochet hook, I had to double the amount of chains. In the end, it makes up the same size blanket. Original pattern can be found here. Below are details on how I made my blanket.

Materials
400g skein of black yarn
400g skein of white yarn
Crochet hook size 7 / 4.50mm
Scissors

Abbreviations
ch(s) - chain(s)
dc - double crochet
rep - repeat(s)(ing)
st(s) - stitch(es)
dc3tog (dc 3 together) - yarn over, insert hook into st and draw up a loop, yarn over and draw through 2 loops. (Yarn over, insert hook into next st and draw up a loop. Yarn over, draw through 2 loops) twice, yarn over and draw through all loops on hook (4) - 2 dc decreased

Afghan
With black yarn, ch 152.
Row 1 - dc in 4th ch from hook, *dc in next 4 ch, dc3tog, dc in next 4 ch, 3 dc in next ch; rep from * 10 more times, dc in next 4 ch, dc3tog, dc in next 4 ch, 2 dc in last ch - 12 ripples.
Row 2 - ch 3, turn, dc in first dc, *dc in next 4 dh, dc3tog, dc in next 4 dh, 3 dc in next dh; rep from * 8 more times, dc in next 4 dh, dc3tog, dc in next 4 dh, 2 dc in top of turning ch. Change to white.
Rows 3-90 or until you run out of yarn - rep row 2, continuing in color sequence.

Fasten off, weave in ends, and get your snuggle on!

Oh my, pecan pie

2011-10-18T11:55:00.000+01:00

We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving a week late this year, but it was still a gastronomic success. Turkey, stuffing, sprouts, and a good dose of wine, our Thanksgiving was complete. What I brought to the table was this little dish - one that we haven't had in 7 years - pecan pie. And it was a delight, if I may say. I made a little maple leaf to match the season and occasion and placed it on top {I baked it separately on a baking tray, otherwise it would go soggy}.

This is the most straight forward recipe - hand on heart. It takes about 4 minutes to make the filling. God bless simplyrecipes.com.

If you're feeling extra cheeky, serve with whipped cream with a splash of maple syrup. In case you didn't ingest enough sugar. To die for. Recipe details after the jump.

Ingredients

1 recipe for pie crust base - I found a really good one here

1 1/4 cups pecans, roughly chopped {save some whole pecans for decoration}

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup light corn syrup (I used Lyle's brand)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp molasses {I couldn't find any, so I just used a touch more corn syrup}

2 tbsp melted butter

2 tbsp flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

Method

Blind bake your pie base for 10 minutes. Spread the chopped pecans over the base. Mix the remaining ingredients, and pour over the pecans, which will rise to the surface. Place your decorative pecans on top. Don't worry, they won't sink. Cook for 45 minutes at 180C. Keep an eye on the pastry for the final 10 - 15 minutes. If it's getting too overcooked, turn the temperature down.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before serving with or without 'sugar-induced-coma' maple whipped cream. Mmm.

Click here for a handy cooking calculator, should you prefer to measure in cups, mls, oz, etc.

I want it now - Fine bone china

2011-10-15T13:13:00.000+01:00

Yesterday morning while I was catching up on my blog feed, I came across something that caught my breath. You know, that moment you see something truly amazing, and your heart kind of stops for a second, you take a sharp intake of breath, and you freeze for a moment? Well I had that kind of a moment when I saw Melody Rose's stall at the 1st Ever Renegade Craft Fair - London post on poppytalk.

I don't want these. I need them.

I really have to refrain from including every image. They are all amazing and sum up exactly what I love - a strong contrast between old and new, delicate and hard core. I'm thinking, wedding registry? Hell yes.

Images borrowed from Melody Rose's website and Facebook fan page.

Caddy-up, partner

2011-10-14T10:55:00.000+01:00

They say the best things in life are free. During an office clear out, one of the guys I work with walked up to me and said "Hey, this looks like something you could use". Before I had a chance to reply with a smart-ass remark, it actually was something I could use ...

For the sake of my story, turn the clocks back 24 hours. I saw this post from <3elycia which showed a super cute 'yarn caddy'. I was curious as to what this magical contraption was. As many of you probably already know, it's a device used to store your ball of yarn to prevent it from bouncing all over the place. I then found a few caddy tutorials online, but I was missing the main ingredient - an appropriately large container. Turn the clocks forward one day, and co-worker hands me said necessary item. These coincidences boggle my little mind sometimes.

What you'll need : some sort of medium / large lidded container, a hammer, a nail and screwdriver bit, and a corner or a tool box {see what I mean below} ... Since this has a tin lid, I used a nail and hammer. If you're using a plastic container, you might need to drill through it.

Place the lid upside down* on the corner of an open box with enough support and space below. I did this so I didn't accidentally hammer the lid directly onto a flat surface. I started with the nail to make a guide indent for the screwdriver piece. I then used a screwdriver piece since it makes a wide enough hole to feed your yarn through the lid. You won't be hammering with excessive force, so the screwdriver piece won't be ruined in any way.

That's it really. No ground breaking DIY skills necessary. But it's been an immense help with keeping small furry paws away from my yarn stash, as well as keeping my yarn from running away under the couch.

*You'll need to make the hole from the inside out / using the lid upside down. This way, when you're using the caddy and pulling yarn out of it, it runs smoothly and doesn't snag on any imperfections.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-10-10T15:46:00.002+01:00

To all my fellow Canadians out there, I'm {jealously} wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving! Our family celebrates it here in Ireland, but it's just not the same. My mom is out of town at the moment, so we'll be celebrating it next weekend. Please enjoy something dipped in maple syrup or wrapped in bacon for me.

My only other news worthy of blogging is this past Saturday morning I woke up early and painted one of our living room walls in blackboard paint, and I've turned into an 8 year old again. My mind is doing cartwheels just thinking of decorating it for Halloween. So far, this is all I've tackled - plus the necessary test drawings one can imagine. Just to make sure it's working properly.

TIPS should you use blackboard paint yourself - it's like tar. Very thick paint, and it takes 24+ hours to dry. Try to keep your windows open as much as possible {it stinks}, wear clothes you don't mind ruining, and don't use your favorite paint brush or roller. Be prepared to throw them out if you don't have any white spirits at hand.

Salty and sweet

2011-10-10T10:30:00.002+01:00

This recipe reminds me so much of my childhood - peanut butter cookies. My mom was always steering us toward healthier food, and in a bid to take our minds off what every child really wants {chocolate chip cookies} she would make us peanut butter cookies. She also used to water down our Coca-Cola with orange juice, but that's a different story altogether.

Last week I had a hankering for peanut butter cookies, and I realized I haven't made them in about ... 10 years. Fiance then said he never had them before. So in a desperate attempt to make up for lost time, I made four batches since then.

For those of you yet to experience the yumminess that is peanut butter cookies, all the gooey details for your inner child can be found after the jump. Get your om nom on.

Ingredients
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter - if you have smooth peanut butter, add 1/4 cup of peanuts for a bit of bite
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method
Mix the butter and sugar in a bowl until creamy. Mix in the peanut butter, followed by the egg and vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients 1/2 a cup at a time, and mix until fully incorporated.

Using your hands, roll the mixture into 1 inch {2.5cm] balls, placing on your baking tray about 2cm apart. Now the part that is forever associated with peanut butter cookies - using the back of a fork, press on the dough. You can do one fork imprint, or two making a crisscross pattern. I never knew why it was done, but it's the international signage for peanut butter cookies.

Bake the cookies for 10 - 12 minutes at 180C until lightly golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. I like to chase mine with a big glass of milk.

This is my condensed version of The Joy of Baking's delicious recipe. Click here for a handy cooking calculator, should you prefer to measure in cups, mls, oz, etc.

Dear Nigel, I want your kitchen

2011-10-05T08:54:00.000+01:00

Only recently did I hear of Nigel Slater. Following Saturday Kitchen every Saturday morning, they've been showing Nigel's amazing cookery show - Simple Cooking. And I have to say, I've found his kitchen distracting me from the recipes.

This is a masculine kitchen. This is also not everyone's cup of tea. But there's something about the exaggerated windows overlooking the garden, the charcoal color palette, the open storage, and the clean uncomplicated lines that I enjoy. I think mainly because it's not a stark, clinical kitchen. It has warmth - something a kitchen should always have.

Admittedly, there would be some softer more feminine aspects I would smush in there. On the other end of the spectrum, I like cottage style kitchens. To me, they have more of a homely, crafty and loving feel. My collection of vintage cups, saucers, teapots and crockery would inevitably get in there. There is a happy medium.

Even Nigel's books are full of aesthetic win.

Dear Nigel,

I want your kitchen please. And garden. Even if they are a television set.

Thanks,

Alex

Images 1 to 4, 5, and 6.

Lovely mention - Design*Sponge

2011-10-02T09:46:00.000+01:00

This one was and still is pretty surreal. My dust covers on Design*Sponge. A big holla to Kate at Design*Sponge who was a pleasure to work with, and so down to earth.

And on a side note, I went into Easons the other day to pick up the widely raved about new Design*Sponge book, and was told it was not yet published. Insert blank crazed stare. I explained to said teller that it in fact was released, but got told it wouldn't be released until mid October ... facepalm.

Below is a cute video I found this morning staring Grace Bonney, the creator of Design*Sponge, talking about how the site and book came to be. I want this life. A girl can dream.

The importance of getting samples

2011-10-01T12:09:00.000+01:00

One of the first things seared into our brains during our first year studying Interior Design was to always get samples. And boy am I glad I did this week.

Rarely is anything as it seems. So when I was choosing a new potential color for my living room, I got a couple of samples of Crown Paint shades. I really wanted to go for a dark strong grey, in my ideal home, but realistically, my living room is north-east facing and is basically a cave.

I picked four of my favorite greyish {okay ... off white} shades from the Crown website and did a patch test on my wall. And I was surprised. My preferred shade {Gallery White} turned out blueish, but that may be because two of my other samples turned out quite yellowy, which I didn't expect.

My main dilemma was the trim and skirting in my living room. It was originally a glossy white I presume, but with time it has aged and gone ever so slightly yellow {seen kinda on the left of the image below}. For this reason, my original want of grey paint was out of the question since it looked blue next to it / was making it seem even more yellow. So no more Gallery White. It was tough for me since I really wanted a strong grey, but we decided on Swans a'swimming, and I'm really glad we chose it. It still looks grey, and doesn't make the skirting and trim look yellow. A warm grey for our cosy cave.

See the differences between what I chose online, and what they turned out in my apartment? The catkin is supposed to be more on the side of green, and I was expecting Swans a'swimming to be more blue than Gallery White. Always, always bring a sample into its destination environment before you decide on it. This goes for fabric, natural materials such as wood or marble, and paints. It saves you buying 2.5 litres of the wrong color.

A little extra - dust covers

2011-09-28T16:42:00.000+01:00

My little 'deceptive dust covers' tutorial is today being featured on Design*Sponge and I am so very excited. I had been in contact with Kate from Design* Sponge, who wanted to post more stylized interior images of my dust covers, and I was more than willing to take more pics. Here's two more pictures of my dust covers, integrated amongst my other books. Plus a painting that I love that my dad did. Squeee.

Neuter your knitwear

2011-09-27T17:50:00.000+01:00

Here in Ireland, it is autumn. The leaves have turned, out come the heavier clothes, it's noticeably darker out, and I even had to wear gloves the other day. We really needed our sweaters this past week, and it was a perfect opportunity for me to try my new gadget.

LIDL had the AquaPur lint remover in stock a couple weeks ago and I'm glad I got one. I've already tackled some of my favorite scarves and cardigans, which were looking really old since they were covered in little lint balls. I also tackled fiance's sweater which was in a really bad state all over {below}, and really does look like new.

Lint removers are great for any fabric garment {not just knitwear} which after some wear, builds up a lovely collection of those little lint balls, which usually form around cuffs, under arms and around lapels.

Dublin Flea Market - Sunday the 25th of September

2011-09-25T10:59:00.001+01:00

Where exactly has September gone? I only realized this morning today is the last Sunday of the month, which means the monthly Dublin Flea Market is today! If you're around, it's from 11am-5pm in Newmarket. I better get ready ...

This months poster designed by Emily Turner Design.

My favorite picks - Getting in gear

2011-09-25T10:52:00.000+01:00

1. All you can eat Sunday's at Yo! Sushi. Need I say more?

2. Puma BodyTrain LS. I'm getting my ass in gear since I'm painfully unfit, and these babies are doing it. I've been so good recently, walking 3.6km every morning. Plus, they're really comfortable. Now, where's my bag of Minstrels ...

3. Crivit raincoat from LIDL. That's right, a raincoat. I went in to get a bottle of wine the other day, and came out with this raincoat. But seriously, it's miles better than my previous, and I've used it every day this week.

4. House and Home September/October edition. It's been in my handbag for the past two weeks, and for good reason. I don't want to say why, because I don't want to jinx it :)

It's kind of been a very long time since I updated my favorite picks. Probably because I think it's a bit silly, but it forces me to keep track of the things I've found useful or cute over the past week or two.

Sneak peek - Monochromatic afghan

2011-09-20T11:47:00.000+01:00

I've been, to my complete surprise, a little bit obsessed with my afghan. I'm used to knitting, where the rows seem to never increase at times. So it's a bit foreign to see each row of this blanket increase so quickly. This is my first linear crochet project, and I'm impressed. Already it's about 37cm {15 inches} long and I've been working on it casually for 12 days. The pattern I used was very narrow {the width of my lap}, so I doubled the pattern so I could refer to it as a blanket, as opposed to a wash cloth.

We watched Beetlejuice last night which I thought was kind of fitting {re: his striped suit, in case it wasn't clear where I was going with that one}, so I took a couple of pics of my progress to share. First Halloween movie of the season! Yes to cuddling under crocheting.

Boy, oh boy

2011-09-17T14:20:00.000+01:00

Last night I got my long awaited PaperBoy Wallpaper sample in the post. It's kind of extremely awesome. I first stumbled upon the PaperBoy website at the beginning of this year, and just had to blog their ridiculously creative wallpaper. It was only recently I was able to order a sample, since my post code was being silly on the ordering page. But alas, persistence has paid off and I was greeted with an enormous sample when I came home. I found it difficult to get a good picture of the wallpaper myself {above}, so you can see a truly accurate image of the glossy bones below directly from their website.

Plus, how awesome is it to receive a handwritten message directly from the designer Victoria? I am definitely ordering a pillow or two of this pattern in the near future. But for now I have a little framing project on the go for my living room that part of this would work perfect in.

My original post about PaperBoy Wallpaper - "What little boys are made of".

One word - Poutine

2011-09-14T12:45:00.000+01:00

Last night I asked fiance what he wanted for dinner, and he replied with a one word answer - poutine. For those of you to yet experience the glory that is poutine, I'm letting you know now that you are missing out.

Poutine originated in the 1950's in Quebec, the french province of Canada. My best memories of this dish are from high school, where poutine was served every day in the cafeteria. I still remember - plain fries were $1.50, fries and gravy were $2, and poutine was $2.50, served in brown recycled trays which would start to get soggy if you didn't scoop up the gravy fast enough.

This is pure comfort food. Get on the couch, put a movie on and eat with a fork, spoon or your fingers, as we used to. I make it sparingly since healthy meals have been seared into my brain {thanks mom}, but every once in a while, I need this. All the gorey gorgeous details below.

Ingredients

Fries or chips - depending if you're North American or from the UK

Cheese curds or grated white cheese

Brown gravy

All of the above - as much as desired

Method

Cook fries / chips for as long as outlined on the package - roughly 20 minutes. While they're cooking, prepare your gravy. Homemade gravy is preferable and makes it even more delicious, but granulated gravy will work. If you can't find cheese curds, don't worry. I haven't come across any in my seven years here, so grated white cheese is an acceptable alternative.

Once everything's cooked and grated, add the fries / chips to your plate, layer on the cheese, and then drown it with gravy like it's a house on fire. I went a bit heavy with the gravy in this picture, but that's because I like my poutine struggling for air. A true treat that reminds me of home.

I want it now - Moody kitchen

2011-09-13T16:26:00.000+01:00

The charcoal hues, dark warm tones, lavender finery, clusters of hydrangeas, and the right amount of gold - I adore this kitchen. Kudos, Kelly Wearstler. I hope to be as fabulous as this one day. And how well does it go along with my gold tumblers post from earlier today? This and many more images I've seen today are making me want my own home so I can do what I like to it. Like, five minutes ago want.

Image thanks to Stony Run Home.

All that glitters

2011-09-13T10:02:00.001+01:00

Yesterday evening I did some long overdue home department browsing, and one of my stops was the Arnotts Homewares department. I took a long wander, and am I ever glad I did. I spotted these CORO tumblers by LSA International. I'm not mad on gold, but these were different; an alternative spin on traditional tumblers.

I immediately thought my man would love them - to go along with our ever increasing decanter collection. They're delicate and light tumbler glasses that aren't particularly lady-like, which is good since I'm always worried I'm smothering said man with feminine designs. And the best part - they were 50% off - €11 for 4 gold tumblers. Yes, yes.

Lovely mention - 'Versatile Blogger' nomination

2011-09-12T11:57:00.001+01:00

Yesterday morning started off like any normal Sunday morning - I woke up too early, mister still asleep, fed the screaming cats, logged onto the world of online, except this Sunday I found out I was nominated by Livlig for the Versatile Blogger Award. Insert silent freak fest. And I hadn't even had breakfast yet.

My mind is still being boggled. The sheer fact that I've been nominated is enough for me. Seriously. Considering who is on the list along with me, I am already ridiculously flattered. I checked out all the nominees' blogs, all of which are amazing, detailed and beautiful. So thank you Livlig for even being considered.

Practice pattern - Monochromatic afghan

2011-09-09T10:44:00.000+01:00

I've been dreaming of crocheting a blanket of my own for a ridiculous amount of time. At the moment I'm taking a fancy to ripple afghans and when I saw this pattern, I wanted it. It's an old school black and white catalog picture, so you're meant to imagine all the wild colors, but I wanted what I saw - a strong b&w pattern. So last night I tackled my first blanket practice pattern {with grey in stead of black}. It's a bit dodgy on the bottom row, but it's slowly getting better as you go up. I'm quite pleased with myself as I was able to relatively quickly pick up the pattern - although, they're meant to be quite straight forward, aren't they ...

I found a gorgeous pattern on Lion Brand Yarn for a Shaded Ripple Afghan, but since the crochet lingo was blowing my previous minimal amigurimi based mind, I went to YouTube for help. The Art of Crochet by Teresa was a phenomenal help to me. Thanks to Teresa, the Shaded Ripple Afghan pattern lingo makes complete sense to me now and I'm ready. So ready that I bought two ridiculous skeins of yarn {see regular skein pictured alongside}.

The pattern I'll be using is different to my practice piece - it doesn't have loops in the double crochet increases. Fingers crossed I also learn to tidy up the sides ...

With a strong contrast of black and white, I'm hoping this blanket will turn out to be quite the accent for my apartment. Is it weird that I'm so excited?

The feeling isn't mutual

2011-09-07T13:02:00.000+01:00

My dad just sent me a link to this video. As you'll see, Madonna is attending a press conference when a fan of hers hands her a {gorgeous} purple hydrangea. Madonna temporarily forgets the microphone in front of her, which captures her true thoughts of her gift through gritted teeth. Pure classic! All the more for me.

My inner librarian has OCD

2011-09-05T11:57:00.001+01:00

I'm working on beefing up my bookshelves at the moment. When you're like me and are graced with a touch of OCD, reorganizing things happens on a regular basis. I've been reorganizing my bookshelves a lot recently and I've also come across a lot of images which are giving me lots of inspiration.

"There are many ways you can choose to arrange your books: by size, by color, by number of pages, by subject, by your favorite titles, by publisher, by publication date, by date you received your book, or by your favorite genre and then by author {fiction} ..." - How To Organize Books

I have quite a lot of books - mostly hardback {there's something so much nicer about a hardback} so I'm looking to arrange or offset them in a way that shows off our collection.

This first image is full of what I want. A contrast between light and dark, and that dusty purple - I'm really into that shade at the moment. Coincidentally, I'm also working on a painting to hang in front of my bookshelves in a similar way to this one - aesthetically, as well as to hide some unsightly DVD's behind it. Sneaky. I do like the minimal amount of books/magazines in the background, but in reality I have a ton of them so there's no escaping for us.

I do like the chaotic side of stacking books and magazines. Again, it contrasts with the clean lines of the shelves and surrounding objects in the image on the left. Then again, on the right there's thought and order to how everything is arranged. Here the emphasis is not strictly on the books or magazines themselves. They're mixed in with other objects.

Those shelves and more importantly the arrangement. I really like how everything at first glimpse looks a bit reckless but on closer inspection is tidy and carefully thought out. Plus, that Eames chair ...

If I wasn't so blindingly afraid of using such vibrant colors in my own home, I would tackle something like this. But I think my guy would be too worried of putting a book back in the wrong place. Hell hath no fury ...

This in a way is what I have at the moment - everything organized by height. I do like this monochromatic style of organizing and the different levels of shelving. Everything has a place.

Image sources 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Thrifty things - Belgian belle

2011-09-04T12:36:00.000+01:00

I completely forgot about one of my best thrift finds until just the other day. I got this beaut in Brussels two years ago while we were InterRailing through mainland Europe. We came across a street thrift sale, and once I saw this dress I had to have it. The fabric falls very nicely and is a classic 70's fitted dress. €10, somewhere in Brussels from a nice lady.

Only within the past week have I dared to put it on. I was packing quite the spare tire which was only accentuated by this pattern. Yay to loosing weight!

Knitted skull hat

2011-09-03T15:57:00.001+01:00

At long last, my skull hat is complete! I really enjoyed this project and I'm really looking forward to my next knitted delight. I based this hat on a great template I found - Norwegian Star Earflap Hat by Tinnie, but I wasn't mad on the snowflake pattern, so I came up with my own {after much head scratching} and merged it with this surprisingly straight forward knit.

This is my second knitted achievement outside of my previous scarf safety zone. My first was a pair of striped trousers for a lovely toddler with an old school skull on the tush - you can see it here. After my excitement of making those, and after finally finishing college, this was my next project.

This particular hat is for another friend of mine back home - more specifically, for her son's head. I've yet to post it, so I don't know what his thoughts are on it just yet. Fingers crossed he likes it, 'cause I'm assuming all young boys like skulls and pirates.

Since the pattern is kind of wordy, I tidied it away below. If you'd like to tackle this knit, by all means give it a go! If you are as inexperienced as I was, don't be overwhelmed by it! Just take it one row at a time.

I knitted this to Tinnies 'adult' sized hat, and I'm glad I did. It turned out smaller than expected, since neither myself or my fiance could wear it once I finished! The details below are what I used for this particular hat for the needles I was using. For the full pattern please check it out here.

Materials:

- 2 standard balls of wool - one main color, and one contrast

- I used 4 US #5 double ended needles {aka 3.75mm or #9 imperial needles}. I ended up using 5 needles altogether since it got quite wide for comfort. It is by all means possible to do it on 4

- 1 stitch marker, or a paper clip if you don't have one

- a crochet hook for weaving in the ends

Pattern Notes:

I worked the first earﬂap back and forth on two of the double ended needles. When the ﬁrst one is done, I leave it on those needles, and worked the second earﬂap on the remaining two needled. When the second one is done, casted on stitches for the front of the hat using the backward loop method, and join up with the first earflap, then I cast on stitches for the back of the hat, and then join for knitting the hat in the round on double needles.

Abbreviations:

CO - Cast on

BO - Bind off

sts - stitches

K - Knit

P - Purl

K2Tog - Knit 2 Together

WS - Wrong side

RS - Right side

PM - Place marker

M1R - With left needle, lift loop between stitches by moving needle tip from back to front and knit into the front of loop to make a stitch that slants to the right

M1L - With left needle, lift loop between stitches by moving needle tip from front to back and knit into the back of loop to make a stitch that slants to the left

Earﬂaps:

Using US #5/3.75mm needles, CO 5 sts {use one set of needles for 1st earﬂap, use second set of needles for 2nd earﬂap}. Each row begins and ends with K2 for garter stitch edges.

Row 1: (WS) K2, P1, K2 turn = 5 sts

Row 2: (RS) K2, M1R, K1, M1L, K2 = 7 sts

Row 3: (WS) K2, P3, K2 = 7 sts

Row 4: (RS) K2, M1R, K3, M1L, K2 = 9 sts

Row 5: (WS) K2, P5, K2 = 9 sts

Row 6: (RS) K2, M1R, K5, M1L, K2 = 11 sts

Row 7: (WS) K2, P7, K2 = 11 sts

Row 8: (RS) K2, M1R, K7, M1L, K2 = 13 sts

Row 9: (WS) K2, P9, K2 = 13 sts

Row 10: (RS) K2, M1R, K9, M1L, K2 = 15 sts

Row 11: (WS) K2, P11, K2 = 15 sts

Row 12: (RS) K2, M1R, K11, M1L, K2 = 17 sts

Row 13: (WS) K2, P13, K2 = 17 sts

Row 14: (RS) K2, M1R, K13, M1L, K2 = 19 sts

Row 15: (WS) K2, P15, K2 = 19 sts

Row 16: (RS) K2, M1R, K15, M1L, K2 = 21 sts

Row 17: (WS) K2, P17, K2 = 21 sts

Row 18: (RS) Knit = 21 sts

Row 19: (WS) K2, P17, K2 = 21 sts

For first earﬂap, break yarn, set aside, leaving sts on hold on extra needles.

Row 20: (RS) K21, CO 47 sts for front using backwards loop method, K held sts from ﬁrst earﬂap, CO 23 sts for back using backwards loop method, PM, and join to work in the round. Be careful not to twist stitches. 112 sts total.

Hat:

For the edge between the earflaps, I did a pattern of K2, P2 to stop the edge from curling up. I didn't carry this pattern above the earflaps on the hat itself. I did this for 6 rows {see image below, since I'm not the best at describing}.

K7 rounds. Work 30 rounds of skull hat chart {right}. Knit one round.

Crown for adult hat:

{To decrease faster or slower, add or remove a few of the knit rounds}

Round 1: [K14, K2Tog] 7 times = 105 sts

Round 2: Knit

Round 3: [K13, K2Tog] 7 times = 98 sts

Round 4: Knit

Round 5: [K12, K2Tog] 7 times = 91 sts

Round 6: Knit

Round 7: [K11, K2Tog] 7 times = 84 sts

Round 8: Knit

Round 9: [K10, K2Tog] 7 times = 77 sts

Round 10: Knit

Round 11: [K9, K2Tog] 7 times = 70 sts

Round 12: Knit

Round 13: [K8, K2Tog] 7 times = 63 sts

Round 14: [K7, K2Tog] 7 times = 56 sts

Round 15: [K6, K2Tog] 7 times = 49 sts

Round 16: [K5, K2Tog] 7 times = 42 sts

Round 17: [K4, K2Tog] 7 times = 35 sts

Round 18: [K3, K2Tog] 7 times = 28 sts

Round 19: [K2, K2Tog] 7 times = 21 sts

Round 20: [K1, K2Tog] 7 times = 14 sts

Round 21: [K2Tog] 7 times = 7 sts

Cut a long tail, draw it through the remaining sts to close top of hat. Bring tail to WS and weave in your ends.

Pom pom, ropes and tassels:

Here is a tutorial I did a couple days ago for making pom poms. This is the one I used at the top of the hat.

I searched high and low on the internet machine for a tutorial for making the cords/rope for each earflap. And nowhere could I find one. I'm not sure if this is how they're made, but this worked a treat for me. I simple cut 9 even lengths of yarn {per earflap} and with my crochet hook, threaded 3 through at a time in 3 intervals. I simply then braided them together and finished it by tying a piece of yarn around the bottom.

Et voila! I can't wait to make one of my very own ...

Lovely mention - Good Housekeeping

2011-09-02T09:21:00.000+01:00

Last week, my little blog was mentioned as one of Good Housekeeping's Blogs We Love This Week. I only found out about this mention while I was in the middle of baking my tourtiere's, but still had time to call my parents and freak out while up to my wrists in pastry. So I'm only getting around to appreciating my mention now.

As soon as I screamed the news down the hall to my fiance, his immediate reaction was to quote the Step Brothers movie. That's why I love him.

A big shout out to Caylin Harris and Good Housekeeping for taking the time to enjoy and mention my blog. It's been epic.

Get your pom poms out

2011-09-01T19:03:00.001+01:00

Last night I finished knitting my skull hat - at long last! The most daunting part of my hat was making my mind up on the pattern, but once I finalized it, it took me two nights to finish. And now I'm working on adding the essentials - a pom pom on top, and ropes and tassels for the ear flaps.

The last time I made a pom pom I think I was about 7 years old. But I quickly remembered how cute they were to make. There are official pom pom making machine/gadgets out there, but when you could have all the necessary ingredients in your recycling bin, why bother? They're so easy to make and I can see myself attaching them to anything that will stand still.

I will post my skull hat. Once the entire ensemble is ... assembled.

What you'll need: cardboard - leftovers from your recycling bin are perfect, pencil, scissors, varrying size cirular objects to trace, and YARN - not pictured. FAIL.

Step 1: with your circular objects, trace and cut two disk shapes. These can be as large or as small as you'd like. Keep in mind the larger they are, the more yarn you'll need. Step 2: what I've done that's a different from other tutorials is place a piece of yarn {different or the same color. Teal, in this case} around the center. I add this loop at an early stage, in stead of trying to add it once I've cut around the edge (see step 7). Step 3: sandwich this piece of yarn between your two cardboard disks.

Step 4: wind your yarn around the disks. Keep your yarn lengths shortish {7-8 feet at a time} to make it easier to wind. Step 5: a fully wound pom pom. You can add more for a fuller pom pom, but I wouldn't go less than this. Step 6: carefully cut between the two cardboard disks. It looks daunting, but take your time. Keep one hand closed around the yarn, and make sure not to cut your separate piece of yarn. Step 7: tightly tie your separate piece of yarn, and voila! Remove the cardboard disks and rustle up your pom pom. I used the long piece of yarn to then weave it into the top of my hat. It's so cute! I'm already getting about a million ideas for projects ...

Lovely mention - Poppytalk

2011-08-30T20:50:00.000+01:00

Be still my beating heart.
Seriously.

I've been meaning to post my most monumental mention to date, which has caused an explosion of interest in my little blog - my lovely mention on Poppytalk. It triggered loads of deceptive dust cover mentions from Urban Threads, frohlockend, and a cluster of Pinterest pins, where there were only 3 the day before.

This all kicked off on Friday, and after hours of sitting in front of my laptop, mouth open, clicking between Blogger, Twitter, and other social outlets, I went for a very long walk. I'm only now getting my head around it, and seeing what I can make out of all of this - to work in my favor, maybe to gain some street cred toward my career.

Street meat

2011-08-30T12:05:00.003+01:00

Sundays Street Feast was a phenomenal hit. It was a great day and me and my man got to stuff our faces with delicate delights while getting to know our lovely neighbors, most of which we had never had the chance to bump into - an unfortunate occurrence in apartment blocks these days.

I woke up nice and early on Sunday morning and made enough pastry for two tourtiere's, blind baked them, made the filling for both pies, and baked them both. By the time I was finished, I was ready to eat them myself. It took a world of self control to not hack into them.

We were fortunate enough to meet two Canadians who were staying with neighbors on their holidays, and they were kindly able to accurately approve my tourtiere's.

Since I had never made a tourtiere before, I was nervous. It's been years since I had one, and I was worried I would ruin Canada's rep in our community. But when it came to the moment of truth, those who tried it were pleasantly surprised. If you'd like to try this surprisingly straightforward recipe, all the important bits are blow. Great served hot for dinner, and leftovers kept for a picnic or lunch all week.

Additional note: my recipe has been amended to reflect a 100% true Canadien tourtiere. Thanks for the tips Emilie!

Ingredients
1/2lbs beef, cubed or minced/ground
1/2lbs pork, cubed or minced/ground
bacon to taste
2 potatoes, cubed
1 onion diced
salt and pepper to taste
1 recipe for double crust pastry - I found a good one here

Added to the pie from a previous recipe before being given the heads up on a true recipe
as much or as little garlic as you want
1/4 cup water
2tsp cornflour - to thicken if it gets a touch watery
1tsp sage - chopped fresh or dried
1tsp thyme - chopped fresh or dried
1/4tsp ground cloves

Method
Blind bake your pie base for 10 minutes. While that's baking, combine all ingredients {except water and cornflour} in a pot and cook. Depending on how much fat is in the meat and how much liquids form in your filling, you may need to add the water, or add cornflour. Once the meat is cooked, serve into the semi-baked crust, place the uncooked pastry lid on top, pierce the top to let any hot air out, and cook in the oven at 180C for roughly 15-20 minutes - until the pastry on top is cooked. Cut, serve, stuff your face.

I got my first recipe here and tweaked it where necessary, but was given an old school tourtiere recipe found here.

Click here for a handy cooking calculator, should you prefer to measure in cups, mls, oz, etc.

Practice pattern - skull hat

2011-08-28T00:16:00.000+01:00

I just finalized the pattern to my knitted hat project this afternoon, and so as to not mangle my already half knitted hat - I did a practice piece. It turned out pretty cute, so I'm happy to go ahead with my pattern.

Sorry - I thought this little piece was too cute to not share.

UPDATE: see my fully completed skull hat here!

Street Feast 2011

2011-08-26T19:59:00.002+01:00

This Sunday the 28th of August is the annual Street Feast held all around Ireland. This event has been around for decades, where within any given community people get together outside to encourage openness within their neighborhood, to feel safer in your community, to reduce loneliness and isolation, to share your culinary passion {aka stuff your face}, and more importantly to get to know your neighbors - something unfortunately not a lot of us know.

I for one am hoping to make a couple of North American dishes - tourtiere, pumpkin pie or pecan pie. Robert would like us to serve the illusive and ever-tasty poutine, but since we wouldn't be able to keep it hot we thought it would be best to give it a miss.

It's not too late to organize a Street Feast of your own! Official, or unofficial, get out and get to know your neighbors. Break down those barriers and get your eat on.

After and before - Deceptive dust covers

2011-08-25T12:17:00.003+01:00

This isn't a new project to me. I first came up with this deceptive dust cover idea close to seven years ago when I lived with my folks: I had a shelf in my bedroom holding everything I held dear. I am a neat freak and color coordination is paramount, so some of those things I held dear weren't exactly, how do I say, appealing to my corneas. I created faux dust covers to cover up unsightly books and cd's that I loved.

I'd like to say I don't judge a book by its cover, but if it's too bright for my living room I will hide it behind other books. Dark moody colors appeal to me more than bright ones - to each his own. So I sat down and over the past week I made covers for the books I enjoy too much and were making me feel guilty for stuffing them at the back of my bookcase - but no longer. Below I've written a little tutorial on how to make your own dust covers should you like to revamp any books of your own.

What you'll need : enough construction paper to cover your book(s), ruler, scissors, pencil and eraser, thin gold pen, gold marker, and some form of adhesive - this is only used for adding another layer of paper to your cover - NOT to glue the dust cover to your book. We don't want that.

Step 1 : lay your book flat on the construction paper -completely flat- ensuring the spine is flat as well, otherwise you won't get a truly accurate width of your book. Align with the bottom of the construction paper, this way you don't have to cut out the entire shape of the book. Step 2 : on the construction paper, roughly mark the height of your book. Make sure to leave sufficient space on either side of the book to fold the side flaps (as seen in step 3). Step 3 : with a ruler, draw a lovely straight line for the top, and cut out. You will be left with a piece of paper the same height as your book, but wider on each side (above).

Step 4 : fold the construction paper template around the book cover. What I do next is put pressure along the edges to make sure the folds are defined, as well as use my finger nail to define the edge of the spine. Take the cover off, and you end up with this. Step 5 : using a ruler and your gold marker, draw a design down the spine of your cover. Here's where your creativity comes in. I took inspiration from some of my favorite old books, alternatively you can find images of old books. I also cut out a little label for added charm. Step 6 : with your pencil, lightly mark where you will place the text. Once you're happy with it, go over with the thin gold pen. Affix any labels if you choose, et voila, you're finished!

I've mingled these books in with my little existing collection. I have a lot of black bound books already, so I didn't make any for this project. I'm also working on revamping my book shelves. It doesn't sound exciting, but it is to me. I'm considering some interesting alternatives ... Happy crafting! :)

Blogging makes it better

2011-08-23T14:07:00.001+01:00

How yummy is this picture? It is a meal for my eyes. I took this picture two weeks ago after visiting my family. My mom kindly hacked into two of their hydrangea bushes for me and they've been holding up since.

The evenings are getting shorter, snuggles are near manditory, and my instinct to knit constantly is kicking in. Autumn is such an amazing season for me and reminds me too much of Canada.

I've been feeling kind of awful these last few days. I keep comparing myself to an ex co-worker who is in the thick of their career involved in design, and I'm trailing aimlessly behind. But I'm pulling myself out of this mood by reminding myself of my little blog, my wedding and honeymoon which I will begin planning within the next month, and all my craft hagging projects which keep me sane. Bloggin' through the pain.

I want it now - rhetorical placement

2011-08-22T12:15:00.001+01:00

Don't ask me how I found this book. I must have stumbled across it online, since I still have the link in my inbox directing me to Amazon. Every time I check my e-mail, it's there. Whimpering in my inbox. Why don't you want me? Well this is why. It's one of those Amazon fables where it says "buy used from $26.56" so I click the link like a fool, and the cheapest is $47.85. Plus shipping and handling.

Good things come to those who wait. This will fuel my already obscene level of OCD and constant and needless rearranging of items in my apartment. You will me mine soon, my precious.

Tag this

2011-08-19T22:38:00.003+01:00

I recently watched the Channel 4 documentary 'Graffiti Wars' which detailed the long graffiti battle between Banksy {no introduction necessary} and Robbo - one of London's oldest graffiti artists. The interview and facts seemed to tip in one artists' favor. This show reminded me that I've failed to splice more of my favorite graffiti I've come across from my somewhat worldly travels. So I'm sharing them and their stories ...

Be still my beating heart - my ultimate graffiti find. We were in Vienna for two days, and on our second day we were killing time wandering the residential streets before our flight home and all of a sudden, we found this. Words still escape me at our luck. I think poor Robbo is getting longevity confused with worldwide success and using graffiti to its full potential of making a point ...

R2D2 on my way to college {left}, and some thoughtful Maser behind the Bernard Shaw pub in Dublin {right}.

Kitty love found on the walk down to the city center from Sacre Couer. Paris, France.

Life size application, Dublin {left}. The weeks leading up to both the Queen and the Obama visit to Dublin, every manhole, electricity box and grate were tagged with either this yellow wrench or a blue bolt. It supposedly was to ensure no one tampered with them - ie, planted bombs in or under any access point during their visit {right}.

Poster on Bachelors Walk Quays, Dublin {left} and some stenciling at the foot of a bridge, re: Billy Goats Gruff {right}.

Dublin, 2007. I used this image as my main inspiration image for my very first project in college {left}, and some monkey business somewhere along the Luas tracks in Dublin {right}.

I enjoyed the colors, but not the atmosphere - Prague. Underground walkway to the main train station.

Funky love on a sidewalk in Niagara Falls, Canada {left}, and last but not least, a mighty tempting sticker on the outside of an electricity box in Dublin {right}. This is an album that is ever expanding, as is my love and appreciation for {GOOD} graffiti.

Vicarious shopping

2011-08-18T12:07:00.000+01:00

Today is Katie's 3rd birthday - Roberts niece. Robert gave me full permission to scour H&M for a birthday outfit for her. The words 'Hello Kitty' had barely crossed his lips, and I was already on my way out the door.

How ridiculous are these tunics I found? And those patterns! Talk about sophistication. If they had them in my size, I would have bought them. Wading through this much tiny peoples clothes is bad for the hormones.

Scrumptious scones

2011-08-15T11:53:00.001+01:00

It's been far too long since I've made scones, so we planned to have them for tea on Sunday as a nummy treat. These light and fluffy scones are the perfect weekend baking project and keep throughout the week for a grab-and-go breakfast. Special thanks to my dad for the recipe! Alternatively, you can enjoy your scones old school style - fancy tea cups, saucers, strawberry jam, and an artery clogging dollop of cream. It is the only way. One of these delights packs quite a punch, so one is all I was able to handle. Click below to see the super simple recipe. Get your om nom on.

Ingredients
1/2 lbs self raising flour
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 oz of stork or margarine
1-2 oz sugar
1/4 pint of milk
1 egg
Sultanas or raisins or both {as much or as little as you like!}

Method
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Rub margarine into the flour with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add and mix the dried fruit. Make a well in the mixture and add the egg and not quite all the milk. Mix with a wooden spoon until it resembles a soft spongy dough. Add more milk if necessary. On a floured surface, kneed dough lightly until just smooth. Divide into two. Roll out half of the dough until it's 3/4" {2cm} thick. Cut out with a cookie cutter or an upside down cup. Do the same with the other half of dough. But I wasn't that organized yesterday. What I did was simply form dollops of the dough directly onto the baking tray. They won't get as many points for aesthetics, but I find it quicker. Butter your baking tray followed by a light sprinkle of flour before you place your scones - my all time favorite trick for complete non stick. Brush the scones with a beaten egg for a glossy crust if you like.

Cook until golden brown - roughly 15 minutes at 180C. Take out and allow to cool a little bit before delving in. For real treat, cut in half and smother in about an inch of strawberry jam and cream along with a nice cup of tea {insert Homer drooling sound here}.

Click here for a handy cooking calculator, should you prefer to measure in cups, mls, oz, etc.

Skull inspiration

2011-08-12T22:25:00.000+01:00

I'm working on a lovely little knitting project for a friend of mine, and I'm a little stuck for a pattern. I'm hoping to add a simple enough skull pattern since it's a project for a boy. Boys are cool, and they tend to like skulls, pirates and transformers. Skulls are the easiest to master out of the three. These pics are giving me the most inspiration for my current knitted adventure ...

I'm just worried I'll want to keep it once it's finished ... Image 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Get your lounge on

2011-08-12T09:02:00.001+01:00

I saw these today and couldn't leave without them. A new line of pyjamas 'Love to Lounge' from Penneys {aka Primark} immediately reminded me of a cross between Northern Getaway {which I'm sad to learn they closed in 2007} and the Mariposa Market.

Yes, these are pyjamas for Christmas. Yes, I bought them in August. But when you've been away from Canada as long as I have, you don't need an excuse for buying anything that reminds you of home. They are epic, and I can't wait to get my lounge on in them. €7 each. It's on.

I want it now - edible hydrangeas

2011-08-09T10:45:00.001+01:00

Whilst surfing the internet I came across these hydrangea cupcakes. Words escape me. This really is the epitome of eye candy. I'm not a fan of cupcake wedding cakes {a touch overdone}, but with these little beauties, I could easily convert. Image 1 and 2.

Pretty shoes and tattoos

2011-08-08T19:15:00.001+01:00

After months and months of sketching and careful consideration, I got two real tattoos, compared to my previous one.

It took me months to finalize my drawings for my feet; I've always liked the idea of tattoos on feet. In my original design I had robins, poppies, knitting needles, wool, a set square, and sweet pea along with what you see above, but my drawings were way too packed. After a lot of humming and hawing I narrowed down my drawings to a skull, a hydrangea, and an anchor {my three favorite things}. I added some scrolls to add some flow, and threw in some mentions. There's no direct connection between the objects and my parents. Just some stories, and that one is more feminine than the other.

Since I wear tights 99.3% of the year, my tats will only come out on special occasions. But in the end, how many people can say they've drawn their own tattoos? Old school tattoos at that.

Tattoo done by Neil at Dragon Tattoo.

Thrifty things - soup mugs

2011-08-04T22:13:00.001+01:00

I started collecting these cute soup bowls when we were living in our first apartment. I found my first two {onion and mushroom} together in a charity shop, and ever since then, I've been finding the odd mug all over the country. I picked up my sixth mug yesterday and I now have a nice little collection. I'm particularly intrigued with the mulligatawny recipe which includes mutton, curry, parsnip, and other interesting combinations ...

Onion and mushroom soup - €2 each at Gorta on Liffey Street, scotch broth - €1 Mrs. Quin's Shop, Roscommon, oxtail and tomato soup - €1 each again at Gorta on Liffey Street, mulligatawny - €1 Vincents in Rathfarnham.

Dublin Flea Market - Sunday the 29th of July

2011-07-29T14:33:00.000+01:00

Occurring on the last Sunday of every month, this months Dublin Flea Market is taking place on the 31st of July. I've never been to it before, and I've been looking forward to getting my first Dublin flea market fix for way too long. If you're out and about in Newmarket or Dublin in general this weekend and are considering braving the weather {which doesn't look like it's going to improve}, why not stop on by for some tasty little treasures?

This months nifty poster was designed by pifanida.

You won't get board

2011-07-25T16:25:00.001+01:00

Something I really want these days is a blackboard wall. My mind goes into cartwheels with all the crafty things I could do with a chalkboard wall ...

How amazing is this visual behind that headboard? I am completely taken with the idea that with a chalkboard wall, you can change the design of your room. I am immediately flooded with ideas for Christmas, Halloween, Easter and birthdays. How cute would it be to have a personalized birthday banner that, don't get me wrong, bunting is great, but could be drawn in 10 minutes? Enchanted Christmas wallpaper. Or even better, monsters crawling up the walls for Halloween? The ideas are flooding in.

Why not paint blackboard paint directly onto furniture? Placed on kitchen cabinets in a quirky way to easily label your cabinets. No excuses now for misplaced items! Also, it's a great idea for shopping lists in the kitchen since items are constantly added and taken off and there's no better way to save some paper while you're at it too. It is also sheer coincidence both these pictures have little furry side-kicks.

Admittedly, my living room would resemble something much closer to the above should I paint the walls with chalkboard paint. Monsters, body parts, kittens and random weird stuff go down very well in my household when it comes to scribbling.

If you find the idea of painting an entire wall with blackboard a bit overwhelming, you can opt for these alternative chalkboard stickers on a much smaller scale. They still work just as well, but won't take away from your space. Either way, I'm chalking it up.

Linkage: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.

Holy guacamole

2011-07-22T15:19:00.000+01:00

A recipe my fiance has perfected is guacamole. And does he ever make a mean guacamole. Robert started making it toward the end of my college course when it was either he makes us dinner, or we starve. He's a big fan of spice, I unfortunately can't handle much of it, so I feel he dials down the spiciness for me. I find the level of chili and garlic he uses has a nice kick, but if you have a higher {or normal} spice tolerance, you'll want to add more. If you're interested in this laid back dinner alternative, all the details can be found below ...

Ingredients

Guacamole:
4 avocados

1 birds eye chili {or more if you can handle it}

3-5 cloves of garlic {as much as you want really}

juice from 1-2 limes

salt and pepper
tub of sour cream
nachos

Method

Add all the guacamole ingredients into a large bowl and roughly chop and mash mash. You can choose to skip the mashing and go straight to blending if you so wish. Use a hand blender to roughly pure the guacamole in places, and leave some parts chunky, if you like. I like a bit of bite to mine. Robert has found that the higher the ratio of ingredients to the avocado's, the nicer and a better bite the guacamole has. But that's just us. To each his own.

Serve with sour cream and nachos. Serves 2 hungry people for a relaxed dinner in front of the tv, or 4+ people for casual snacking.

Lovely mention - IKEA Hackers

2011-07-21T17:18:00.005+01:00

A long overdue post thanking IKEA Hackers for publishing my Meddling with Melodi lamp on their hackers website. If you've never been on their site, you should definitely check it out. It will take your craving of the arrowed concrete floor and florescent lighting to a whole 'nother level.

From there, I've found some further mentions of my lamp on a couple of beautiful blogs from all over the place. A special thank you to Mrs. T @ Cookie Cutter Home , Nicety, Rozhdena Vesnoy, and Meaghan O'Malley for mentioning me on their blogs, which has brought an overwhelming audience to mine, and is forcing me to up my game. Be still my beating heart.

You can see my original Meddling with Melodi post here. To see what all the faff is about.

I want it now - milk crate table

2011-07-19T10:59:00.002+01:00

Something I've wanted for a long time is milk crate storage. I really enjoy strong juxtapositions in design, and this is a perfect example. Placed against clean walls and carefully placed items, I really love seeing {what some people would consider} grungy items placed with just as much care and consideration.

Thanks to Design Sponge for this image from Shaun Moore and Todd Caldwell's home in Toronto, Canada. There are aspects of this house I wouldn't mind Ctrl+C-ing directly into my own home.

I want it now - boombox pillows

2011-07-18T10:43:00.002+01:00

I got an e-mail two weeks ago informing me that the Boombox Set by Andrew Liszewski was now available to buy again, after a long period of being out of stock. I had queried many months ago when said pillows were out of stock, and for the sake of my pocket - I was secretly hoping they wouldn't come back. But alas, they are back. And I am torn between buying groceries for the next three weeks, or getting these kick ass pillows. Decisions, decisions.

Broccoli and almonds and yogurt - oh my!

2011-07-13T15:33:00.000+01:00

Last night offered broccoli soup for dinner. It's an old sturdy favorite of mine from the Avoca Soup collection. A very yummy soup which will sneakily get greens into even the most hostile broccoli hater, and that is why I'm sharing this jem. I started making this soup when my fiance flat out refused to eat broccoli of any kind. Raw, smothered in dip, stir fry, you name it. But once I whipped up this little number, I found the loop hole. Should you like to try this simple and easy recipe, check it out below ...

Ingredients

150g slivered almonds

50g butter

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 onion, peeled and chopped

2 potatoes, chopped

1 litre light chicken stock

250g broccoli, stems and florets, diced

4 dessertspoons full-fat Greek style yogurt

Method

Before you add anything to your soup pot, dry roast the almonds in the pot on a medium heat until golden. Remove almonds from pot.

Add the olive oil and butter, as well as chopped onions. Cook until softened, and then add the chopped potato {the recipe calls for the potatoes to be peeled, but all the nutrition is found just beneath the skin of a potato so I include the entire potato. Plus I'm lazy. It'll get blitzed later so don't worry about the skin}, season with salt and pepper, then pour in your stock. I usually add the broccoli stems {not florets} at this point since they're much thicker, and need longer to cook. Simmer until the potatoes and stems are cooked. Add the florets and 3/4 of the almonds 5 minutes before it's finished cooking / ready to serve. Szuszh with a blender until smooth, and serve with a dollop of Greek style yogurt, and a sprinkle of the remaining almonds. Dive right in.

Click here for a handy cooking calculator, should you prefer to measure in cups, mls, oz etc.

Eye candy

2011-07-11T17:09:00.002+01:00

I'm in a bit of a horrid mood today, and in a subconscious attempt to cheer myself up, I found myself image searching 'hydrangeas'. I've been finding some wonderful images, mostly relating to design, and wanted to share them. I really think it's helping ... I heart hydrangeas.

Alternative ways to display your hydrangeas in and under glass c/o Interior Design Decoration, as well as inside teapots with Design, Decor.

Lovely pink hues at the center of attention thanks to George Interior Design and greige: interior design.

Overflowing hydrangeas found on House of Turquoise, and bountiful baskets thanks to Happy Interior Designs.

I had to post this second image similar to the previous image above from Happy Interior Designs - it is my ultimate eye candy today. I can't get enough of this image! If I could, and if it didn't taste awful, I think I would eat it. Coupled with subtle blues c/o looking for life, love, & laughter.

A punch of pink thanks to Parkdale Ave, and simply straight forward with turquoise from House of Turquoise.

I think hydrangeas are a perfect accompaniment to design. They are pricey {unless you 'borrow' some from an unsuspecting hydrangea bush}, but nothing beats fresh flowers. They don't last long as the design itself, but sometimes you can fake it.

Thrifty things - delicate decanters

2011-07-05T10:39:00.002+01:00

I like decanters. The older, the bigger, the more decorative, the better. I don't fully understand my fascination with them. Maybe they make me feel smarter and more sophisticated. Last Friday I added yet another to my collection, and thought why not share them all while I'm at it. Here's my collection from over the years ...

In order of ownership | 1 - Oxfam Georges Street, €8 my first and favorite decanter which I used empty as a book end many years ago. 2 - Vincent's Blanchardstown, €10 the heaviest decanter known to man. 3 - Respect Charity Shop Prussia Street, €7 not strictly speaking a decanter, whose original purpose is to hold water on your bedside table, but I prefer keeping gin in it. 4 and 5 - Mrs. Quins Charity Shop Rathfarnham, €5 each.

I want it now - mix & match wall

2011-07-04T16:51:00.003+01:00

Recently I've come across a lot of images that I can't get enough of. I want it, and I wanted it 5 minutes ago. What better way to start a new blog category than with this little piece of eye candy whose tab I simply can't bring myself to close on my internet browser. Linkage. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Rock n' Roll Bride

2011-07-01T10:14:00.006+01:00

Two days ago I came across this site {thanks to Always Andri Wedding Design Blog} and I have been oogling it ever since. Rock n' Roll Bride is full of amazing alternative wedding ideas - especially when the run-of-the-mill wedding sites make you feel abnormal should you not want to conform to every tradition. It's kind of amazing.

I've made note already for tattoo inspired signage, cross stitched displays, and DIY bouquets so far. Thank you, thank you Kat Williams.

A little less conversation, a little more grey

2011-06-30T17:21:00.001+01:00

I'm slowly easing my way back into a normal routine now that I'm officially finished college! I have my BA in Interior Design and am happy, and also a little bit proud of myself for sticking with it to the end - four years of studying at night and working full time. And sometimes no sleep in between.

For the first time in what feels like an age, I have time for myself! And my first of many projects going on at the moment - my living room. I had painted two {overdone} focal walls in true marble by Crown Paints - I adore this color, but it's a touch too dark for my east facing apartment and I'm up for a change. I'm going for a much lighter, calmer grey all over and have been searching for some inspiring images.

I also would like to point out that grey is not a depressing color. Well, as in the weather we experience here in Ireland, yes it is, but on walls, hell no! Grey makes everything else in the room POP! It's an amazing backdrop and should be experimented with. I adore seeing more and more grey walls out there.

Enough typing. Onto the images.

Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Audio influence

2011-06-29T09:27:00.002+01:00

For my final college project, I was drawn to a certain stream of music, which was not my usual taste. The Tron Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk was on constant loop on my iPod. A friend of 20+ years {the magnificent and creative William Delray} then exposed me to the world of Birdy Nam Nam - 'Parachute Ending' to be precise. I'll let the music do the talking.

As if it was meant to be, one of the follow up videos was this same song paired with the Tron Legacy teaser. It was what I needed for this project. To William, I thank you.

Fictional design - S&tC 2

2011-06-14T17:00:00.003+01:00

When it comes to crunch time in college, I usually put a movie or series on repeat to keep me company through the overwhelming hours. In the past I found comfort in watching every episode ever of the Sex & the City series since it's just long enough to watch over a couple of sleepless nights. Or weeks.

In Sex & the City 2 I couldn't help but admire Big and Carrie's new abode. It's a bit color-mashy for my personal taste, but I still think it's wonderful. I like how some aspects are crowded and over sized. It makes me look forward to having a real grown up home.

I'm in a constant struggle with how to organize my bookshelves. They change weekly. Maybe I'll tackle something like Big and Carrie's dining room, but out of all the pictures, the walk-in wardrobe is the most of what I want. Not that I own a lot of clothes or shoes, but I really like the juxtaposition between Carrie and Big's sides - how their own sides suit each other so well. And how a little of Carrie has snuck onto Big's side.

Image sources: 1, 2, 3, and 4.