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.

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

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...

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?

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.

Needle felting - a how to

I’ve always been fascinated with needle felting, but thought it was one of those crafts I would never understand – surely there’s no way you can turn loose wool into shapes simply by stabbing it with a needle... well it turns out it really is that easy. And once you’ve got your head around that, the needle felting world is your oyster!

This all began when a colleague went on a needle felting course and naturally when she came back with a gorgeous needle felted mouse we all demanded she show us how it was done.  So one night after work we all came armed with the supplies below, needle felting wool, a needle felting needle, pipe cleaners, foam block and a piece of pale pink felt.

To begin place a generous palm sized piece of felting wool on the foam and stab a few times with the needle to attach it to the foam, you’ll notice the needle has little ridges on it – it’s this that really helps felt the wool together.  Now, begin rolling the top towards the bottom creating a sausage shape.

Fold the edges in and keep stabbing until it’s a nice mouse body shape, wider at the bottom slightly thinner at the top. You can always place more wool onto the shape and stab in to add to the body.

Do the same for the head but this time, start with a smaller piece of wool and as you make the sausage shape twist the wool so that the nose appears much thinner than the back of the head.

Attach the head and body, simply place together and, again, stab with needle. This is slightly tricky and it is possible to break your needle doing this (and stab your finger- ouch!). It might help to wrap some new wool around the join and use this to attach them together.

For the arms and legs use a small amount of wool and as you make your sausage wrap the end of a pipe cleaner in the middle. Attach this as a leg or arm, make three more and one for a tail! When you’re happy cut off the excess pipe cleaners, except the tail of course.

Now you can play with the shape of your mouse, stabbing in extra bits of wool until you are happy. The finishing touches are the ears cut out of pink felt and sewn on, black beads for eyes and a tiny piece of pink wool felted into a nose.

I think the shaping comes with practise as does speed. But for a first attempt I love this little guy!