31/10/2013

A doe, a deer... picture postcard #9

We had the most perfect Sunday a couple of weekends ago; a very long walk, which involved hunting for conkers and watching deer, then home to cook the first roast dinner in our new flat. We walked for about two hours and my camera came in very useful when we spotted some fallow deer! It’s their rutting season so we didn’t get too close but I still took a lot of pictures. The one below is my favourite, as I’ve resolved to take my camera off auto most of them weren’t great but that’s what practise is for.


25/10/2013

Scalloped nail art

You might have noticed that there’s been a distinct lack of nail art around here recently and this is mainly because I’ve had quite a few disasters! Chevrons are apparently not my thing, and neither it would seem are coloured French tips - both look great in my head, not so much in real life. I’ve since decided that both failures had something to do with the masking tape I used to try and get clean lines. So, it was time to find something simple but without need for masking tape...

Ta-dah!


I’m really pleased with these, although they did take practically an entire Harry Potter film to create. After painting your base coat use a different colour and do three graduated brush strokes starting the first one halfway up the nail and finishing the third one in the opposite top corner. Then repeat this with another colour starting even further up the nail. I was worried the left hand would look terrible but for once they look identical!


Collection 2000 Manice in French White - Rimmel Lycra Pro in Aqua Cool - No 7 Stay Perfect in Poolside Blue



20/10/2013

DIY branch necklace organiser

I saw this idea on pinterest a while ago and immediately knew I wanted to recreate it. Then a few weeks ago on one of our walks, I FINALLY remembered to look out for the perfect necklace-organiser-making-branch and it was surprisingly easy to find once you start looking.

It’s so easy to make that I didn't take step by step pictures – plus I was a it too excited to get it finished and on the wall. First,  find a nice (dry) stick and snap to size, then take a length of parcel string tie and around each end on branch (I went for a double length to make it slitghly stronger) finally, hang on wall.

I love it! The boyfriend is not so convinced, his reaction was something along the lines of “Umm, it’s a stick”, but I think he appreciated that it was free at least.

I’ve also seen curtain poles made out of bigger branches and really want to try that too, but we should probably wait until we have our own place, not sure the landlord would be too impressed if I took down the nice conventional curtain poles we have now...




13/10/2013

Needle felting pinspiration

You might remember my needle felted mouse tutorial from a weeks ago, well I’m determined to try some more and of course pinterest is FULL of inspiration. So naturally I’ve been pinning away and thought I’d share a few of my favourites on the blog – quite a few of these would make perfect autumn decorations too!

These rainbow coloured mushrooms would brighten up even the greyest day.

Source - Pinterest

 Acorns = autumn, enough said.

Source - Pinterest

Add in a few more orange and red streaks and you’ve got perfect autumn colour leaves (that won’t dry out like real ones)!

Source - Pinterest

Little hedgehogs - needle felt a few of these before they disappear into hibernation...

Source - Pinterest

And finally one for winter... a box of penguins! Too. Cute.

Source - Pinterest

Which would you try?

04/10/2013

Filo pastry jam tarts

I am still LOVING the Great British Bake Off so when I had some leftover filo pastry (after a yummy chicken and mushroom pie) I figured a quick bake was just the thing. With limited time I thought I’d go for an oldie but goodie –jam tarts!

I didn’t bother to find a recipe and simply greased a muffin/cupcake tin with butter, cut the filo into squares just bigger than the indented circles, brushed melted butter over each sheet of filo and lightly pressed 3-4 sheets into each circle. I baked these for around five minutes then removed from the oven filled half with jam, half with nutella and replaced for another 5 minutes in oven, until the pastry turns golden brown.

The nutella ones were a bit of a last minute experiment and I’d add the nutella even later into the bake next time as it came out quite dry.  Even with the chocolaty goodness of the nutella I think the traditional jam ones were still the best.

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